EL 1.2078: Compass is broken planetside

[Raven0]

@Vice: How hard would it be to add a second compass when switching to planetary avionics mode? I like the idea of GPS satellites to aid in exploration. Maybe a new deployable item?

[haloterm]

I've read the other post and now understand the original poster's point. Although I still find my GPS idea nice

@Vice: How hard would it be to add a second compass when switching to planetary avionics mode? I like the idea of GPS satellites to aid in exploration. Maybe a new deployable item?

A switchable compass with two modes would be the best solution, I guess. On a planet, people intuitively start to think in planetary categories, with compass directions and lat/lon coordinates.

Mode switching could be done by clicking the compass, or with a keystroke, or optionally automatically when the avionics switch to planetary mode. Now I think it won't be a real compass with deviation and variation, because that would be strange in a modern spacecraft, so I guess it would be more a horizontal situation indicator (HSI) which corrects deviation, variation and precession automatically. And could be linked to GPS data, if there are any.


Actually I never thought about this topic in Legends or Mercenary, but I can see its relevance in Legacy, because of the bigger planet sizes.

[DeathTech]

Is it weird that I can honestly happily say I have never even needed the compass on planet.
I just plot a waypoint to where I want to go and refresh every so often to stay near the object.

[DaveK]

Is it weird that I can honestly happily say I have never even needed the compass on planet.
I just plot a waypoint to where I want to go and refresh every so often to stay near the object.

After the first flurry of posts back in EM days when I bleated that the compass was wonky and Vice explained why it wasn't, I'm totally with you ...

Perhaps an addition to the Legacy Guide that explains the difference might eliminate the confusion - I will be happy to incorporate it into the techy guide as well since I've re-jigged it a lot; there's now a section on 'Your Ship' bringing together ship specific stuff (great teaser section heading I thought! )

It's interesting that pilots who can navigate the Evoverse, fight capital ships and the Vonari and generally survive in the hostile environment of a demi-millenium bitter civil war, get totally thrown by trying to fly to fly to a relatively nearby planetary container!

I guess it's what happens when we trade of common sense for a trust in automatic systems.

[Marvin]

I don't see how a compass would be necessary when looking for contracted containers on a planet. You follow the waypoint and, if you're late, the container will have rotated beyond the waypoint ... in the direction of the planet's rotation. You have a drift meter on your HUD for that. To find a city, you have the approach boxes. To find your cloaked ship, you have its blip on radar. To find anything else, you can deploy a sensor station. A land-based compass might be cool in a quest (as a different method of directing the player) ... but I think it would garner more complaints than kudos.

[matchbox2022]

I always thought the compass was more of a gyro, set up with the galaxy to keep everything in sync.

If you wanna throw in that much realism and have magnetic fields be the way it really works.....maybe the sun should throw it off too....

Personally find it works well enough for me. but any change is likely for the better.

[Vice]

How hard would it be to add a second compass when switching to planetary avionics mode? I like the idea of GPS satellites to aid in exploration. Maybe a new deployable item?

It would be a pretty easy thing to incorporate. But the problem remains, as mentioned earlier, is what actual functional operation/benefit it would provide. If the compass points to a pole north, it would then no longer be useful for nav map and radar sphere navigation... the very systems that are linked to waypoints and nav points. Global heading generally tends to still be an important option, even when near planets or other objects in space.

[XenonSurf]

(...)You follow the waypoint and, if you're late, the container will have rotated beyond the waypoint ... in the direction of the planet's rotation. ...

For that to work the item must be within 10K of the waypoint at the start. If not, it gets very complicated. But as you say, with a sensor station you get it 100%.
I didn't know that deploying the ss in orbit will also yield objects on the planet surface. I just discovered it by doing some out-of-system exploration folling the data an NPC has given to me.

XenonS

[Marvin]

I'm pretty sure that, if the pod didn't spawn at the waypoint, then that would be a bug. A hard one to track down ... but a bug, nonetheless.

[haloterm]

If the compass points to a pole north, it would then no longer be useful for nav map and radar sphere navigation... the very systems that are linked to waypoints and nav points. Global heading generally tends to still be an important option, even when near planets or other objects in space.

That's why such a pure-planetary compass should be switchable. In planetary mode, it is just a simple compass. Once you press a button (maybe the compass itself), you can switch to the interplanetary mode. Of course there should be some icon to show the current mode.

The actual use might be limited at the moment, but why not offer quests or situations in which the fancy waypoint system does not work? Where one actually has to navigate on its own, maybe because the global heading does not work (due to ship damage, interferences, whatever)? Or where it is simply unknown where the point of interest is?

Like:

"The head of Sapphire XYZ corporation yesterday went on a trip to the southern shores of ABC ocean. It was his first vacation since two years. But he never arrived and we lost contact to his ship shortly after takeoff. When he left the city, he was flying heading 134°, but that's all we have. Find and rescue him, if possible."

And then there could actually be some kind of crash site, maybe with a humanoid 3D model, waving towards the player who rescues him.

[Edited on 14-4-16 by haloterm]

[XenonSurf]

GPS:
In fact, as a matter of fan-fiction, I do consider the Sensor Station as an advanced futuristic GPS system rather than a radar which consumes sensibly more energy. If we ever get expensive materials transported in space containers when we succeed in some future day to do extensive space travels, then it's very reasonable that such containers would be equiped with a box emitting signals to allow easy re-location if they get lost, especially because they will not stand still, but moving like every space object (meteors etc...).

So, we actually *have* a GPS system in Evochron, IMO.

Magnetic Pole Compass:
If this one is introduced in EL, as a separate device which doesn't clash with the space NAV system, then it would be necessary to introduce fixed waypoints on planets, such as signal buoys that have been dropped by a first recon space ship. In fact it would be a 'modified cargo container', this should be easy.
Then, the 'find item' missions would have to get more difficult to compensate, which means the item needs to be in a much wider range away from that waypoint (signal buoy).
A new compass without fixed surface waypoints doesn't make much sense, because there is no interesting usage for it, the missions would generally need to get more tricky and difficult.
For example, I imagine that these signal buoys are not always visible on your radar or on sight because of atmospheric and weather interferences, the item, for example a group of persons, could be moving having found a boat or something, there are plenty of interesting possibilities, but, I realize that for the game, it's a big deal of work...

XenonS


[Edited on 4-14-2016 by XenonSurf]