[request] Target distance measurement between 1 and 10 km improvement - Improvement coming!

[jhaand]

It's very hard to guess the distance to target during fights and approaches when you get close with the current implementation.
Is it possible to add a significant number to the distance measurement below 10 km?

The difference between 1, 2 and 3 kilometers doesn't say that much when working precisely.
But when the target is within 1 km. I can see to the meter accurate what the distance is. This is frustrating when working at a distance between 1 km and 7 km. Which you need to do a lot with this game.

That way the distance to target measurement would show "2.4 km instead of 2 km". It's really difficult to guess where my target is going during a fight. Until it has left firing range just above 3 km.

I think that adding 2 digits would make the interface too busy. But adding one digit would help tremendously.

[Kritikal]

It's very hard to guess the distance to target during fights and approaches when you get close with the current implementation.
Is it possible to add a significant number to the distance measurement below 10 km?

The difference between 1, 2 and 3 kilometers doesn't say that much when working precisely.
But when the target is within 1 km. I can see to the meter accurate what the distance is. This is frustrating when working at a distance between 1 km and 7 km. Which you need to do a lot with this game.

That way the distance to target measurement would show "2.4 km instead of 2 km". It's really difficult to guess where my target is going during a fight. Until it has left firing range just above 3 km.

I think that adding 2 digits would make the interface too busy. But adding one digit would help tremendously.

+1

[GCU Grey Area]

Agree with jhaand - distance measurements at close range in km increments only are too crude.

However, would also like to add a request for encyclopedia entries for weapon ranges to also be similarly improved. I suspect the ranges quoted are rounding down but difficult to determine by how much - e.g. is the quoted 4km range of the M2 Bolt Repeater accurate, or is it actually closer to 5km?

Would also be good if projectile lifetime could be added to encyclopedia entries. I'm quite fond of purple weapon mods which improve projectile speed & lifetime, so would be very handy to have data on both so I can calculate the modified range of my guns.

[linolafett]

Sounds like a reasonable request, put on my "nice to have" list.

[Imperial Good]

Ships move so fast and have such long range that such precision is really not too useful. For example my Nemesis flys at over 600m/s and a single light tap of boost gets it 5km odd in a second or so. with ~6km weapon range on its Pulse Lasers one just needs to remember to shoot when the target is around 6-5km away or less.

Like wise my Odysseus Vanguard flys at 300m/s so every 3 or so seconds is a km travelled. Its main batteries have a range of ~10km.

When one gets to travel speed, 10km is less than a second of travel anyway so knowing if you are 9.8km or 9km makes no difference at all since by the time you see the number and react you will likely already be at 6 km distance or less away and then even if you did break you will overshoot by 3+km.

I guess this would be kind of useful for S ships since their weapons have very short range compared with M and L ships. That said you are usually so close to the target anyway that you can use visuals to more accurately gauge distance as ship sizes and shapes are fixed.

[Falcrack]

Ships move so fast and have such long range that such precision is really not too useful. For example my Nemesis flys at over 600m/s and a single light tap of boost gets it 5km odd in a second or so. with ~6km weapon range on its Pulse Lasers one just needs to remember to shoot when the target is around 6-5km away or less.

Like wise my Odysseus Vanguard flys at 300m/s so every 3 or so seconds is a km travelled. Its main batteries have a range of ~10km.

When one gets to travel speed, 10km is less than a second of travel anyway so knowing if you are 9.8km or 9km makes no difference at all since by the time you see the number and react you will likely already be at 6 km distance or less away and then even if you did break you will overshoot by 3+km.

I guess this would be kind of useful for S ships since their weapons have very short range compared with M and L ships. That said you are usually so close to the target anyway that you can use visuals to more accurately gauge distance as ship sizes and shapes are fixed.

Oh you, always coming up with a contrarian point of view!

+1 to the OP request

[Rei Ayanami]

+1 To the request.
Adding a decimal point for distances >1km and <10km sounds like a good idea.

When one gets to travel speed, 10km is less than a second of travel anyway so knowing if you are 9.8km or 9km makes no difference at all since by the time you see the number and react you will likely already be at 6 km distance or less away and then even if you did break you will overshoot by 3+km.

It can make a difference when you want to maximize missile or weapoon range against slow moving objects/stationary objects.

[Imperial Good]

It can make a difference when you want to maximize missile or weapoon range against slow moving objects/stationary objects.

Weapon and missile range depend on your speed. For example firing M Plasma Mk2 guns when flying at 500+ m/s causes them to travel over 10km from point of launch easily. Same applies to missiles but they might be subject to deceleration as they fly (not sure).

[Horux]

Ships move so fast and have such long range that such precision is really not too useful. For example my Nemesis flys at over 600m/s and a single light tap of boost gets it 5km odd in a second or so. with ~6km weapon range on its Pulse Lasers one just needs to remember to shoot when the target is around 6-5km away or less.

Like wise my Odysseus Vanguard flys at 300m/s so every 3 or so seconds is a km travelled. Its main batteries have a range of ~10km.

When one gets to travel speed, 10km is less than a second of travel anyway so knowing if you are 9.8km or 9km makes no difference at all since by the time you see the number and react you will likely already be at 6 km distance or less away and then even if you did break you will overshoot by 3+km.

I guess this would be kind of useful for S ships since their weapons have very short range compared with M and L ships. That said you are usually so close to the target anyway that you can use visuals to more accurately gauge distance as ship sizes and shapes are fixed.

Normal fight speed is neither cruise speed nor 600 m/s. Especially, if NPC ships do not fly this fast during fights. So if you are not approaching with fast speed you normally in the same speed as the target. And depending, on what you want to archive it is nice to see the distance between you and the target more precicly. And even if you and the target are flying with ~600 m/s the speed different is then the interesting speed, and then you will not approach in 1s 600m.

[Imperial Good]

Normal fight speed is neither cruise speed nor 600 m/s. Especially, if NPC ships do not fly this fast during fights. So if you are not approaching with fast speed you normally in the same speed as the target. And depending, on what you want to archive it is nice to see the distance between you and the target more precicly. And even if you and the target are flying with ~600 m/s the speed different is then the interesting speed, and then you will not approach in 1s 600m.

If you want to close distance you tap boost. Unless you are flying an L or XL ship (boost just does not work for them...) even a brief tap of boost will move you many km very fast, accelerate you to top flight speed which should be anywhere from 300 to 700 meters per second depending on ship, and all for the cost of an insignificant amount of shield that regens near instantly if an M ship. Assuming one is using exceptional mods on your ship with Paranid combat engines of the highest tier but then again one should be for combat ships which one personally flies, in my opinion at least.

I do admit there are some use cases for this. Specifically with S craft which have to operate within the ~3km range while avoiding being hit. However they are very few and far between since at such short distances one quickly learns to eye ball when needed.

With M+ ships your travel drive break distance is already in the 10km+ range (20km for fully modded Nemesis Vanguard) and weapons already in the 5-6km range so knowing to the nearest 100 meters is less important. In worst case you will be ~20% distance out but in reality you can guess much closer to that depending on your relative speed.

Then there is the down side to such a change. You get another digit which rapidly changes in an unreadable nonsense way very fast when you are in travel mode and pass or approach an object. Likely the reason why the current implementation works like it does.

Maybe the best solution would be to allow the user to customize how distance is displayed? If one is dog fighting a lot in S ships and wants precise measurements then one can enable extra precision in the required ranges. However if one is flying around at 20km/second or using a ship with 10km range guns then one can keep the current precision to avoid excess clutter.

[Alan Phipps]

Heh, don't let CBJ hear you want a new in-game option toggle. He loves those ideas!

[linolafett]

If this is not already in the 2.60 patch, it will be a fetaure for the 3.0 patch.
We added a decimal behind the km. So it will now say 3.2km instead of 3km.

[Alan Phipps]

It's not in 2.60 so it must be coming in 3.00.

[linolafett]

Ok, thanks for confirming the status for 2.60 Its then coming in 3.0

[jhaand]

It is in the 3.00 beta. It works great.