Hello and a few suggestions for EM

Gagzila · Post by **Gagzila** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 4:34 pm

Hi All,

New to the forum and EM after only downloading it a couple of days ago. I bought it on Steam and have watched quite a few youtube videos before hand and completely admire what this game is doing and trying to continue to do better!

I am currently in the process of trying to get FaceTrackNOIR working and installing a few mods mainly to improve some of the bland textures and barren planets. The simple fact though that you can enter planet atmospheres and land on them is simply awesome anyway! But I always grow used to new stuff quick and want to improve it to be even more immersive and awesome!

I have probably played for around 6-7 hours total so far and had a couple of suggestions I would be interested to see if the developer thinks they are worth adding into the game (if he's still updating / adding to the game that is?):

1. A disable targeting system button
Often when looking for lost equipment, ships coming and going all the time and flying through my FOV can get really distracting. I would love to be able to manually turn of the targeting system which for this scenario and quite a few others would be a nice feature as well as adding to the already nice range of manual controls available.

2. The ability to target space stations, planet stations, other non spacecraft entities, etc.
Simply for information gathering, navigation waypointing, it would be nice

At times I can see something way of in the distance, cannot target it and so spend some considerable time traveling there to investigate only to find it is just the sectors space station...these known stations just by themselves would be nice to be able to be targeted for simple identification purposes.

3. The ability to accept more than one contract at a time and have a contract log
If you could accept multiple contacts (maybe 3-4 max?) then you can setup more diverse trade routes. It would also be nice to have a contract log / journal to review previous contracts you have completed / failed, who for and for how much, etc. as well as just being able to review what your current one is as a couple of times I have forgotten the specifics and can't get the message window to come back up manually. The ability to recreate the contract NAV point would be nice as well as sometimes I side track a little to check something out or want to jump to a different location which as soon as I create the NAV, the contract one is lost...or maybe I'm just to noob yet to know how to do all this?

What do others think of these ideas? Anyway, really enjoying the game and want to get into some MP as soon as I can...might as well since it's completely interchangable with the single player universe

Cheers,

Gagzila

EN4CER · Post by **EN4CER** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 5:23 pm

1. Does this not happen when you deactivate your hud? I think the default is H key. It cycles through hud modes so hit it until all of your screens go dark. If not then it's highly likely this can be easily modded by having one of the hud cycles show empty targeting reticle.

2. I believe this was an intentional design choice in order to keep targeting simple and effective. I do agree that targeting stations would be nice for atmosphere there's not much purpose it serves. The expansion makes it look like there will be several bays to enter and exit per station. If that's the case then it would be cool to be able to target bays with subsystem targeting.

3. Agreed! It does complicate things a great deal though since contracts are shared between players in multiplayer. My assumption is that he would have to rewrite the multiplayer contract system in order to implement multiple contracts per pilot.

Post by **Marvin** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 5:28 pm

From post: 145730, Topic: tid=9836, author=Gagzila wrote:1. A disable targeting system button

Press H. If you want to see your console monitors, mod the HUD in its second view (there are three) by changing the PNG files, as outlined in the Customizing kit.

2. The ability to target space stations, planet stations, other non spacecraft entities, etc.

Stations are bracketed in blue when seen through the HUD ... look closely. Also, all charted items show up on the Nav map.

3. The ability to accept more than one contract at a time and have a contract log

The contract log will very likely be part of the expansion.

Post by **Vice** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 6:00 pm

To expand on #2, here are some more details:

There are two targeting systems you manage simultaneously, ship targeting and object/navigation targeting. You don't have to give up tracking one for the other and each system provides you with the information needed for each type of object (including range and bearing for objects like stations and planets).

Here are some points discussed in the past on the forum to consider regarding using a ship targeting system for generic 'objects':

- Targeting objects with the ship system forces you to give up tracking the ship for a stationary object. You can't trade with such objects using the trade console, they don't move, they don't change their orientation, you can't harm them, and they don't shoot you. The only real information you need for them is their location and distance, which is already provided for you by the navigation tracking system. And if you want more specific location information you can right click on their icon to lock on to them with a navigation waypoint.

- None of the added information provided by ship tracking would be of much use. If you can track both simultaneously, you can keep track of a ship that may be a threat or cause interference while also tracking an object you want to dock with, such as a station or carrier.

- It is pretty common in other games where you must sacrifice ship tracking in order to track non-ship objects. This game simply lets you keep track of both kinds of objects simultaneously with two separate targeting systems.

Gagzila · Post by **Gagzila** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 3:33 am

Thank you Vice and everyone else for your thorough replies. I didn't realise my topic had appeared yet as was keeping an eye out in the EM forum after creating it there (obviously got moved here). In general response to them:

1. I realise you can cycle the HUD modes but I believe even with the HUD turned off, the new target notification blip still sounds after auto targeting a newly jumped in ship and I would still like to be able to view all the other subsystem info and flight speed, altitude, etc. while just specifically disabling the auto targeting system. I do like having the targeting in both active HUD modes and don't really want to sacrifice one for this function. Maybe ALT+Y could be set to turn of targeting as I don't believe this binding is used yet?

2. Thanks for explaining the two tracking systems, I still think a specific manual target of the stations with accompanying HUD icon would be nice as the blue bracketing is only just visible when quite close and when getting to a planet, it would be very handy for locating the station on it before entering the atmosphere so that you can exceed 1200-1400 velocity in space and then enter much closer to the station. I am currently using the navigation log recording to save coordinates about 200k directly above the station to get around this. It could be also that I am just used to other games serving up a ton of information without having to do anything where EM makes you explore and find things which is cool...but sometimes also a bit tedious.

I think I may be expecting the game to play a bit differently than envisioned by yourself Vice, where technology doesn't do everything for you and hold your hand...which if that's the case, that's awesome and I'm still just getting used to it

3. That's great if it's coming in the expansion

, does anyone have a link to the EM Expansion thread? I've been trying to find it & tried using search but can't turn up anything. Also what did people think about a feature to recreate a contract's nav point? Or maybe separating them from your own manually placed navs? Just last night I was trying to fulfil a locate and make visual inspection contract but in my noobness accidentally navpointed a space station and lost my contract nav...my contract was still active but had to dock and cancel it because I had no idea where to search in the sector.

Anyway, got FaceTrackNoIR working after some fiddling and swapping in a DLL from v150 (using v160 for Win7x64). After some slight adjusting, I was grinning from ear to ear as I navigated space and looked around my 5760x1080 tripple monitor cockpit like I was actually there!

Looking forward to clocking up much more flight time in the next few days, what are peoples recommendations for playing MP and joining clans?

Cheers,

Gagzila

Post by **Vice** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 3:57 am

For #1, could you elaborate on why you would want to just have a blank MFD screen rather than just tracking any nearby ship? The ship targeting system is pretty much designed from the ground up to target a ship, it exists to target a ship, it must target a ship If HUD distractions are the only/primary issue, one possible option might be to import custom, more subtle target indicators. Disabling ship targeting entirely with the HUD active could impact other systems with interlinked dependencies, so it might carry with it some unforseen bug risks that would need to be carefully evaluated/considered.

Yes, while there is some hand holding in certain gameplay elements, a lot of the game involves learning unique systems (both combat and non-combat) and procedures as part of building a skill toolset to master it. As for the contract waypoint, if the contract is still active, you should still see the waypoint on the nav map as a blue box. The nav icon might move, but the box will continue to highlight the waypoint to help guide you back.

Stay tuned on the expansion, the original announcement thread was removed as planned and things are gearing up for some final testing and preliminary information posting with more finalized content/feature details.

Gagzila · Post by **Gagzila** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 5:38 am

From post: 145754, Topic: tid=9836, author=Vice wrote:For #1, could you elaborate on why you would want to just have a blank MFD screen rather than just tracking any nearby ship? The ship targeting system is pretty much designed from the ground up to target a ship, it exists to target a ship, it must target a ship If HUD distractions are the only/primary issue, one possible option might be to import custom, more subtle target indicators. Disabling ship targeting entirely with the HUD active could impact other systems with interlinked dependencies, so it might carry with it some unforseen bug risks that would need to be carefully evaluated/considered.

Yes, while there is some hand holding in certain gameplay elements, a lot of the game involves learning unique systems (both combat and non-combat) and procedures as part of building a skill toolset to master it. As for the contract waypoint, if the contract is still active, you should still see the waypoint on the nav map as a blue box. The nav icon might move, but the box will continue to highlight the waypoint to help guide you back.

Stay tuned on the expansion, the original announcement thread was removed as planned and things are gearing up for some final testing and preliminary information posting with more finalized content/feature details.

Hi Vice,

I don't mind having the MFD (multi function display?) displaying ships the auto targeting system picks up, just the HUD icons surrounding the ships as they fly into view can be a bit distracting and HUD real estate intensive when there are a lot of them or sometimes even just a couple when I am completely not interested in seeing them in such an instance as the example I provided before. I don't necessarily want to turn of the complete system, just disable them from displaying on the HUD but thought rather than just modifying HUD viewable features it could be cool to actual have manual control over enabling / disabling the targeting system. Being a simulator, I am all for more control...I also play rFactor (car racing sim) and I love the simple fact that I can turn off a cars ignition, turn it back on and then still have to start the car, that I can turn my head lights and wipers on/off at will, adjust my seats, adjust the mirrors, brake bias, etc.

Similarly any extra control over the ship's subsystems is a plus in my view, it would be cool to be able to power the ship down to hide from radar in an asteroid field (maybe you could have cool down time to balance people just sitting there all day in ambush or just switching off with high inertia to escape radar instantly and an oxygen count down while in this mode seeing that nothing would be powered up to supply / filter air to the cabin - just an idea

)

So while I initially came up with the idea of a disable / enable targeting system button because of an issue I was experiencing, I later thought it could be an actual addition to gameplay control depth. As you said, actually disabling the code behind the system could have flow on effects, but maybe all it would take is to turn off visibility of the visual indicators and the audio cues to simulate this effect with a short power up animation or something? I'm not a coder / developer but I understand if it's way more trouble that it is worth then you wouldn't want to bother with it, I am mainly suggesting such changes because this is the type of space sim I've always wanted to play and think such an addition only compliments the diversity and immersion this awesome game offers.

Regarding the contract waypoint, I did notice that blue box at another stage but didn't realise what it was. Thanks for clearing that up for me

Can't wait to see what you have coming in the expansion

Cheers,

Gagzila

[Edited on 10-2-2012 by Gagzila]

[Edited on 10-2-2012 by Gagzila]

hank · Post by **hank** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 11:34 pm

AT this point my only suggestion would be to display planet information and station info when I mouse over an image in the nav view zoomed out view.

that's it

hank · Post by **hank** » Wed Oct 10, 2012 5:04 pm

Regarding the selling and buying at stations and planets. It would be a little more realistic if the prices stations sell their raw materials, equipment and weapons was marked up 5% (give or take) higher than what a pilot sells his goods. Most merchants need markup on the products they buy to make a profit when they sell.

I would like to see the navigation window (F1) be moveable. On the wider screen monitors if I could move it to the right more, the center of the screen would be clear. When travelling long distances I keep my nav window up zoomed out 8x so I can see anything that may pop up on the map after a jump.

The nav map graphics could use some cleanup. Specifically, The green base box on planets is practically invisible when it falls inside the planet outline. Can that be brightened?

All very minor things but wanted to throw these on the pile of "wants". I looked to see if any of these were customizable but couldn't find anything.

have a nice day

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 1:47 pm

From post: 146182, Topic: tid=9836, author=hank wrote:Regarding the selling and buying at stations and planets. It would be a little more realistic if the prices stations sell their raw materials, equipment and weapons was marked up 5% (give or take) higher than what a pilot sells his goods. Most merchants need markup on the products they buy to make a profit when they sell.

I agree, but the mark up should only be reflected once you left the Station and dock again with same Station.
When you are still docked the equipment or materials you sell will be in the hangar bay or docking bay and you can change your mind to buy it back or reinstall the equipment at no extra cost if you have a full crew. This would really make things complicated though!.....

:P