I really like the design of GalNet and also like to keep up to date with current events in the galaxy via its news feed, but it's a major downside that you have to leave your cockpit view and enter the PowerPlay menu to read them. Being totally cut off from your surroundings and losing awareness of what happens around your ship might be justified when operating the system and galaxy maps, because of their sheer size and complexity, but the GalNet feed is a much simpler structure, one I'd really like to keep open more permanently than those maps.
Therefore I propose to relocate it to the lower hud panel that pops up when you look down. You could read those articles on you way to a far away destination in a system while still keeping taps on your current location and potential threads. It would be like reading a newpaper with one eye while driving a truck on the highway. Perhaps not the safest thing to do, but better then having both eyes on the newspaper and none on the street.
And while you are at it: keep the Galnet feed active during hyperjumps. They are - mostly - system independent and wouldn't need to be updated when you perform your jumps. It's a major hassle to constantly close the news just because you have to travel through many systems, especially for deep space explorers!
I do understand this probably means a little more communication with the server is necessary, since the news feed would have to be loaded every time you enter your ship, and not just when you enter the PowerPlay menu, but I think this would a be few very well invested additional kilobyte!
Therefore I propose to relocate it to the lower hud panel that pops up when you look down. You could read those articles on you way to a far away destination in a system while still keeping taps on your current location and potential threads. It would be like reading a newpaper with one eye while driving a truck on the highway. Perhaps not the safest thing to do, but better then having both eyes on the newspaper and none on the street.
And while you are at it: keep the Galnet feed active during hyperjumps. They are - mostly - system independent and wouldn't need to be updated when you perform your jumps. It's a major hassle to constantly close the news just because you have to travel through many systems, especially for deep space explorers!
I do understand this probably means a little more communication with the server is necessary, since the news feed would have to be loaded every time you enter your ship, and not just when you enter the PowerPlay menu, but I think this would a be few very well invested additional kilobyte!
