Ship Navigation Icon Changes

[0Samuel0]

With the current system, boarding stealthily is almost impossible, because the pilot can see where you are, and, knowing his ship better than you do, come and kill you. However, being able to find a player in space is also necessary, so just removing astronaut player icons is not really an option. This way, a boarder on a ship will not be seen by the defender, except for the torch notification. This will motivate boarders to find ways to enter ships while minimizing torch usage, and make it harder for defenders to know where to go to kill them.

On the other side of things, it is too easy for boarders to make a beeline to the core. So perhaps it makes sense to move the navigation icon for the ship to the center of mass. So we have defenders who do not know where boarders are without looking, and boarders who have to make a search for the core, making them more likely to stumble across defenses.

This would also encourage the use of in-ship cameras, allowing the defender to still have the advantage... if they design their ship well.

Finally, it is annoying for moving parts on a ship, detachable containers, drones, etc. to make a ship have lots of navigation icons for one ship. There is no real benefit to these excess icons except for when one needs to get out of the ship to modify turrets, and that shouldn't really be a thing anyway.

 

[I_is_Tinsy]

Well you can set the navigation filter to not show docked things and turrets, but the rest of it I agree with. Also maybe the damage indicator for the torch shouldn't be able to be seen from across the ship.

 

[SomethingSlimy]

Are you suggesting that boarders don't get the astronaut icon? Or that astronauts in ships shouldn't get icons? You aren't really being clear.

Perhaps there could be some kind of handheld scanner that detects the ship's core. if you're close enough, or tapping into another computer on the ship. Because although you would immediately know where the core is, you still don't know the layout of the ship.

I'd rather have a new type of camera for shipboard security, that can detect astronauts and warn you automatically and be cycled through separately. Because otherwise there would be too many viewpoints to sift through when I'm just trying to fly a ship.

 

[iceman6491]

I think Astronauts should be able to choose to broadcast their location. I think that would be a fair way to get around both issues. That or suit upgrades that hide you.

 

[0Samuel0]

Are you suggesting that boarders don't get the astronaut icon? Or that astronauts in ships shouldn't get icons?

Yes, and yes. It amounts to the same thing, really. If in astronaut is aligned to a ship he doesn't get an icon

 

[I_is_Tinsy]

I think Astronauts should be able to choose to broadcast their location. I think that would be a fair way to get around both issues.

I think this is the best way to do it, there could even be a setting to broadcast to only faction members.