Internal Ship Systems
Expect this area to grow...
- Istvan I want a laser rangefinder as part of a basic navigation suite (which itself presumably can be damaged). When any nearby object is targetted, assuming it's not masked (stealth composites), its range to surface is reported and updated on whatever little "holo" graphic we use to show targetted objects. I flew through a small moon last night in E&B, but what annoyed me is I thought I was going around it - but the view showed me at zero distance still apparently rather far away from the thing. When trying to go around, my ship's graphic then intersected the moon (and kept on going, no collisions yet apparently in the stress test). A decent rangefinder (and control interface, but that's E&B's issue, not ours) would prevent that kind of surprise.
- quiet chimes and voice/text proximity warnings. Optimistically, a quiet collision warning would also be nice, even if processing power dictates we only warn when it's too late, rather than predictively. Sometimes hitting a rock while mining in JG was a surprise: blooey, out of nowhere. "BONG. Collision Alert" blooey is slightly more helpful. And kind of funny if you're in the right mood.
Communications Interface and Functions
Most often this will be accessed from shipboard (might be the only option, depending how other things fall out).
- A related idea to restricted information is the modelling of comms encryption and code-breaking. If comms code-breaking is an aspect of the game, players could easily use out-of-game channels to avoid vulnerability. What about automatically relayed data, e.g. detailed situational info relayed between allied ships? Using it could be so attractive that it's worth the risk; data from friendly players could be incorporated in HUDs and be available to assistant AIs (e.g. autopilot). But there can be countermeasures available for cracking such data streams, so there's a risk. Perhaps jamming devices to interrupt it, too.
Istvan: I suggest not only a real-time "chat-like" system, be it text or voice or both, but also the equivalent of a simple internal email that would work as a "message drop" for people not necessarily online at the time. The message drop system could reasonably be accessed from shipboard or from station interfaces.