Subtargets HUD favorite selection

[MAUXUS]

I feel that it's too cumbersome to select sub-targets from the current menu. Additionally, it gets really annoying to do over and over again when the engaged enemy ship disappears from radar. In addition to the current menu, It would be great to have somewhere on the HUD a mini-menu with your favorite selection of sub-targets (i.e. Power Plant, Thrusters, FSD, Life Support). The mini-menu would only come up when first targeting a ship, giving you the option to select one of those 4 favorite sub-targets. If you don't pick one within 5 seconds of targeting, for example, the mini-menu would disappear and in that case you would just be targeting the hull (just like it already happens now when you don't select a sub-target). It'd be great if we could decide which sub-targets to place in that mini-menu and also have the ability to switch their position around as needed.

 

[Lee Wheeler]

Already asked for this last month

My Car has automatic lights, wipers, heater, seat positioning and steering wheel positioning depending on if me or the misses sits in the seat, oh and also a rear facing parking camera.

Why can't ED remember some settings for us as I Hate having to scroll through the subsystems in VR, only to lose the lock and have to reacquire the Power Plant again.
Would love to lock on and have it know what my subsystem preferences are, so that I can just shot the crap out of them until they explode.
All it would need is a menu item in the settings tab, select x subsystem.

Also I would dearly like that when I lock on to a ship that I could auto start the kill warrant and cargo scanners if fitted, instead of holding the button down again and again and again, the Warthog has some hard springs that kill your fingers.

It's little things like the above that make the game less enjoyable, fingers crossed that one of the Devs will say hey lets do this.

 

[Morbad]

Also I would dearly like that when I lock on to a ship that I could auto start the kill warrant and cargo scanners if fitted

This is not particularly practical as it will look hostile to other CMDRs, and should look hostile to NPCs.

 

[Drelthar]

If you have a control to cycle through sub targets, this is less bothersome, still somewhat bothersome, but really, I think having a process to do things isn't all that bad sometimes, for instance, because if this set up, people have escaped, or at least, gotten closer to escaping my piracy attempts as I scramble to re-lock their thrusters after they scramble my targetting, went cold, or otherwise forced me to lose target lock.

I think it's a positive that this exists.

 

[badibeat]

I'd much appreciate to be able to set a keybind for one or two sub targets, against NPCs I always sub target the Frame Shift Drive first.
There's maybe another useful way: Allow us to set the order.
I have the previous and next sub targets on the scroll wheel on the left of my throttle, this helps a lot.

 

[MAUXUS]

Lots of good suggestions here. Any of those, if implemented, would probably make it easier to deal with subtargets. I find myself just shooting the hull more often than not, just because the extra steps needed to select a subtarget are not worth to me (against NPCs). And in rare occasions when I'm in 1-vs-1 in open, i don't even bother thinking about it (too busy, work overload).

 

[Tiili]

If you have a control to cycle through sub targets, this is less bothersome, still somewhat bothersome, but really, I think having a process to do things isn't all that bad sometimes, for instance, because if this set up, people have escaped, or at least, gotten closer to escaping my piracy attempts as I scramble to re-lock their thrusters after they scramble my targetting, went cold, or otherwise forced me to lose target lock.

I think it's a positive that this exists.

I agree, having a key to target FSD or thrusters would definitely make disabling other ships a lot easier and not as interesting.

 

[MAUXUS]

agreed, simply because some kind of uniformity of choice is needed to avoid presetting one or two modules as the most important ones - it would be a step towards futher imbalance of the game instead of towards much needed balance. It's part of the skill to select them on the fly.

Editied since I misunderstood the original context so corrected myself quickly.

Creating game play out of making simple things harder to perform (i.e. in this case making it harder to target sub-systems) makes for bad game play.
Making hard things simpler to perform instead, makes for good game play (and it hooks you up; and it'll make you want to use that feature more often, which in turn might make you want to play for longer).

Then again,

The game overall has been balanced in such a way that all the nuanced, tactical core it started with means next to nothing...snip

 

[Tiili]

You gotta understand that it's clunky by design. Just like synthesis and module screen.


They are meant to distract you from piloting and pip management mid combat.

 

[MAUXUS]

You gotta understand that it's clunky by design. Just like synthesis and module screen.


They are meant to distract you from piloting and pip management mid combat.

I addressed this one post above. When we'll stop excusing deficiencies as a feature, or a skill, eventually ED's UI in cockpit will begin improving.

 

[Tiili]

But then you have to consider having weapon synths bound to hotkeys, and other improvements like that.

Like sure, they are a nice quality of life fix for the player and require less situational awareness than the current system, but imagine facing these in PVP and they don't sound like improvements for the actual gameplay anymore.

 

[[PS4] Filthymick420]

This is not particularly practical as it will look hostile to other CMDRs, and should look hostile to NPCs.

no different than police scanning your license plate just because they're behind you. realistically I consider that to be an act of aggression on the part of the police but that's not how society is supposed to take it.

 

[Morbad]

no different than police scanning your license plate just because they're behind you. realistically I consider that to be an act of aggression on the part of the police but that's not how society is supposed to take it.

Its annoying enough when police do it, but CMDRs and non-authority NPCs usually aren't police and a KWS/cargo scan is often prelude to an attack.

 

[[PS4] Filthymick420]

Fair enough.

 

[avow555]

Console designed gui basically sucked all ergonomics out of the pilots environment,
In short it's useless.

 

[[PS4] Filthymick420]

Not with a hotas and/or mapped buttons

 

[MAUXUS]

But then you have to consider having weapon synths bound to hotkeys, and other improvements like that.

Let's not bundle my original request with other suggestions and negate a potential improvement by association. This is just a suggestion about making it easier to switch from the main hull to a sub-target (re-read my first post to refresh memory about how I proposed to achieve that).

Like sure, they are a nice quality of life fix for the player and require less situational awareness than the current system, but imagine facing these in PVP and they don't sound like improvements for the actual gameplay anymore.

We would all have the new capability anyway. It's not like I'm only asking it for myself?

 

[Tiili]

Yes, and it would make for a worse game when we all would have the ability to keep blasting a module by pressing 2 keys when the opponent has managed to break targeting. You've also said that you don't even bother to sub target anything right now because it's hard, so you might not understand what your suggestion would actually do for people who only target modules.

That moment when you have to either scroll through the modules or select it from the target panel gives your opponent TIME which is the most valuable commodity in any sort of combat, virtual or otherwise.

It also rewards training your muscle memory so you can do these actions with as little lost piloting time as possible, which makes player skill matter more in a PVP encounter.

Ever wondered why our ships don't hail stations as soon as we are in range automatically and request docking? FD wants us to turn our head away from the windshield and navigate the contacts panel for a reason.

 

[[PS4] Filthymick420]

I always target power plant. Always. Everytime. Its already super easy for people who are used to targeting modules. You would probably quickly regret this if it was implemented. Or maybe we would be close to equal. Or maybe you already fly better than me, who knows for real?

 

[MAUXUS]

Yes, and it would make for a worse game when we all would have the ability to keep blasting a module by pressing 2 keys when the opponent has managed to break targeting. You've also said that you don't even bother to sub target anything right now because it's hard, so you might not understand what your suggestion would actually do for people who only target modules.

That moment when you have to either scroll through the modules or select it from the target panel gives your opponent TIME which is the most valuable commodity in any sort of combat, virtual or otherwise.

It also rewards training your muscle memory so you can do these actions with as little lost piloting time as possible, which makes player skill matter more in a PVP encounter.

Ever wondered why our ships don't hail stations as soon as we are in range automatically and request docking? FD wants us to turn our head away from the windshield and navigate the contacts panel for a reason.

And I'm saying that there is a case for making the UI for things related to combat (in this case, what I mention in my OP) easier to access. Combat is already hard, especially PVP. Hence my suggestion to review the additional steps of having to turn your head to look at a bunch of text, then having to scroll through a bunch of text (all same color and font) to find the sub-target you want, then having to select it. Repeat process every time you lose lock. This would never work in real life, yet in the future we have managed to dumb down UI on combat vessels. The current selection method is not "hard". It's just of bunch of arbitrary steps (too many) they force you to take, to make your perception of the process "hard". The right approach would be to make the systems more complex but with an easier UI. Think of combat flight simulators that simulate an F22, for example. Interacting with those systems is hard, because they are complex. Having to turn your head (then tab to the right, then scroll text, then select sub-target) while you are are already in a high-stress situation, fighting an opponent, doesn't make sense in combat ship's UI; it's not hard...it's just bad UI design. The number one rule in Dog Fights is to never lose sight of your opponent. When you do, good luck.

What I'm suggesting is not 2 keys to reacquire target:

• You first press the key on the joystick to select your target
• A mini window pops up next to your target, (in your field of view, as an extension of the target, so you can keep an eye on it) that displays 4 choices (can be less, ofc)
• You have 5 seconds (can be a different value) to pick a choice by selecting it with your Hat Switch (right or left movements)
• You select it with your fire button
• This process should take you about 5 seconds and if you don't select a target, or manually cancel the selection, the opponent's hull would be selected automatically (instead of a sub-target)
• It could be implemented in a way that you won't be able to fire until the process is complete, giving your opponent TIME.

"Ever wondered why our ships don't hail stations as soon as we are in range automatically and request docking?"

Perhaps a subject for another post.