Simple two-stage Scanner Room HUD display

JackeJacke Calgary Join Date: 2017-03-20 Member: 229061Members
When I've got a Scanner Room set to a common resource, like Limestone Outcroppings, it can be hard to make out which is close and which is far. Moving sideways reveals the close ones by them moving more across the field of view, but I'd like something more.

I suggest adding a two-stage range variation. When beyond a set range, the HUD orange circles would be small and a bit dimmer. When inside a set range, they would appear as they are now. With the appropriate set range (set by the devs, not the player), this would ease finding resources and make the HUD display better.

Comments

  • Hotaru_ZokuHotaru_Zoku A world of 75% water. Join Date: 2017-12-07 Member: 234304Members
    OH yes. Anything that improves the ease of using the Scanner Room (#myfavoritepartofthegame) sounds great to me.
  • MaalterommMaalteromm Brasil Join Date: 2017-09-22 Member: 233183Members
    Jacke wrote: »
    When I've got a Scanner Room set to a common resource, like Limestone Outcroppings, it can be hard to make out which is close and which is far. Moving sideways reveals the close ones by them moving more across the field of view, but I'd like something more.

    I suggest adding a two-stage range variation. When beyond a set range, the HUD orange circles would be small and a bit dimmer. When inside a set range, they would appear as they are now. With the appropriate set range (set by the devs, not the player), this would ease finding resources and make the HUD display better.

    Long time ago there was a popular suggestion much like your own that the HUD markers size and transparency should be proportional to their distance. Not only to help identify what are the nearest resources, but also to avoid having your screen completely cluttered with resource markers (very common in the original game), to the point of hindering your perception of the nearby environment.

    I believe there was a mod that scaled it with distance.
  • Hotaru_ZokuHotaru_Zoku A world of 75% water. Join Date: 2017-12-07 Member: 234304Members
    There already was a suggestion like that?

    Damn. Should have made it into the game. It's a great one that doesn't even strike me as that hard to implement from current software.

    Huh. Wonder why it wasn't....
  • silk186silk186 Join Date: 2019-07-28 Member: 253984Members
    It would be nice if the colour was related to depth and the intensity to distance.
  • MaalterommMaalteromm Brasil Join Date: 2017-09-22 Member: 233183Members
    There already was a suggestion like that?

    Damn. Should have made it into the game. It's a great one that doesn't even strike me as that hard to implement from current software.

    Huh. Wonder why it wasn't....

    There were many sensible suggestions during the original game development, not all of them made into the game.
  • Hotaru_ZokuHotaru_Zoku A world of 75% water. Join Date: 2017-12-07 Member: 234304Members
    Maalteromm wrote: »
    There already was a suggestion like that?

    Damn. Should have made it into the game. It's a great one that doesn't even strike me as that hard to implement from current software.

    Huh. Wonder why it wasn't....

    There were many sensible suggestions during the original game development, not all of them made into the game.

    This bird is on to something here.


    I'm sure there were many that didn't make it into the game, just odd that something so simple wouldn't.
  • MaalterommMaalteromm Brasil Join Date: 2017-09-22 Member: 233183Members
    I'm sure there were many that didn't make it into the game, just odd that something so simple wouldn't.

    I think it had to do with priorities. The HUD beacons were working OK (save a bug that haunts me to this day, in both games) and there were other things that needed finishing and bugs that needed squashing.

    I have no experience in the field, but I think that most creative jobs started tackling the expansion and the rest soon followed. With both titles similar enough that whatever bugs or performance issues they fix for the expansion should see its way into the original game.
    I might be wrong here though.
Sign In or Register to comment.