Spacial Awareness Within Spaceships

[MisterMajestic]

Not sure if this should go under "Spaceship Designs", putting here for general discussion.
My apologies if this is a duplicate post, haven't delved too deep into the forum.

S P A C I A L
A W A R E N E S S​

Alright, so, I'm pretty sure it's been confirmed that there is no 3rd person camera mode for spaceships, and no camera viewing or camera-to-display casting support (yet?).
That being said, it is important to maintain spacial awareness in space. Approaching vessels pose an obvious threat, and having a fixed forward-facing window reduces the pilot's POV to a cone facing in the forward direction.
Constantly spinning to cover all angles and building a ship out of 90% glass panels aren't very effective options for countering this problem, obviously.

So, how would we maintain spacial awareness in space?

I know there is a range-finder device planned? It could be possible to rig up a bunch of these and YOLOL the crap out of them to form a sort of sensory-network around the ship feeding data to a slew of display terminals in your face, but that's naturally an absurd way of going about it.
The simple go-to solution for this would be a radar system. At this point in time I'm unsure if there is a planned radar system for the game or not.
Nevertheless, let us discuss.

How would radars work? Would they be a omni-directional sphere propagated outwards from the radar sensory device on the ship, providing constant feedback on nearby objects, or would there be a rotating radar dish that constantly pings around the ship like in submersibles.
On top of that, would radars be able to detect players? Would there be a way to slip past radars with pseudo stealth-modules or perhaps putting ships in a dark-mode?
Could radars be placed inside ships, and if so would it have a detrimental effect on the radar's range/accuracy?

I am interested in hearing thoughts/theories.

 

[[QS] Combustible]

I think they have a 3rd person mode implemented for spaceships. Don’t quote me though.

 

[MisterMajestic]

I think they have a 3rd person mode implemented for spaceships. Don’t quote me though.

Gonna quote you anyway, fam.
They do? I've heard otherwise, but then again I could be mistaken.
Even so I actually think it'd be better without the 3rd person camera. Adds to immersion, and realism.

 

[[QS] Combustible]

Gonna quote you anyway, fam.
They do? I've heard otherwise, but then again I could be mistaken.
Even so I actually think it'd be better without the 3rd person camera. Adds to immersion, and realism.

Checked the collected FAQ, only 3rd person for running around but there’s been talks about external ship cameras and things. Sorry.

 

[CalenLoki]

AFAIK cams are on hold for now. Both because of performance (in case of displaying onin game screens) and to force people to build external cockpits.

Regarding limited field of view: single cockpit can have potentially 90+% of the sphere in view. Just place it on mast, gimballed and with large window. Or get one more friend and second outlook window.

Regarding radars, there's already discussion in game suggestions.
I agree that early warning would be nice, as starring into the void is hardly fun activity. But IMO IR is more fun than radars, because it gives more choice for the one sneaking - both in terms of engineering and tactics.

 

[MisterMajestic]

AFAIK cams are on hold for now. Both because of performance (in case of displaying onin game screens) and to force people to build external cockpits.

Regarding limited field of view: single cockpit can have potentially 90+% of the sphere in view. Just place it on mast, gimballed and with large window. Or get one more friend and second outlook window.

Regarding radars, there's already discussion in game suggestions.
I agree that early warning would be nice, as starring into the void is hardly fun activity. But IMO IR is more fun than radars, because it gives more choice for the one sneaking - both in terms of engineering and tactics.

Having a more exposed cockpit for increased view would come with risks of its own, such as placing the pilot in greater peril. Yet, having a sort of rotating armoured cockpit could be pretty dope.
I agree that naturally the most effective solution, especially in the early days of the game, would be to have a crew on the sip manning turrets or simply observation posts that would allow you to cover all angles. But there will still be many players without the manpower/resources to pull that off.

With regards to "sneaky beaky" tactics, I definitely hope that if a radar system or something similar ever gets properly implemented there will be workarounds to make stealth boarding possible. Not easy, just possible.
Because that would be ridiculously fun.

 

[Killer_Rabbit]

AFAIK cams are on hold for now. Both because of performance (in case of displaying onin game screens) and to force people to build external cockpits.

Regarding limited field of view: single cockpit can have potentially 90+% of the sphere in view. Just place it on mast, gimballed and with large window. Or get one more friend and second outlook window.

Regarding radars, there's already discussion in game suggestions.
I agree that early warning would be nice, as starring into the void is hardly fun activity. But IMO IR is more fun than radars, because it gives more choice for the one sneaking - both in terms of engineering and tactics.

trouble with IR since the ships have drag the engines need to be on all the time

 

[Cyber Cheese]

I think having exterior cameras as an option is a must, for immersion if nothing else. How in the world could we have autonomous robots and spaceships, but no webcams?

From a gameplay perspective, having no cameras will cause every ship to have a very big weakpoint--an exposed cockpit. While there should be weaknesses in every design choice, that sets the bar too low, in my opinion. Without cameras or some ability to navigate internally (like OP's suggested radar) there will be diminishing returns on any design because every battle will just be decided by whoever takes out all of the cockpits first.

To avoid making it too easy to defend the cockpit, I think the cameras can and should be more cumbersome to use than a glass cockpit. Rather than just turning your head, you may have to switch your camera (or look at a different monitor if they allow view screens). So a fighter would be much more responsive with an exposed cockpit/bridge, and harder to disorient, compared to a more conservative ship relying on cameras, particularly if you are fighting a fast ship. And, of course, cameras can be destroyed too, so there would still be external weak points--you would just end up with ships using redundant cameras as opposed to redundant cockpits, and avoid the issue of having to respawn your endo or run to a new cockpit in the midst of a fight.

 

[Talla]

We need reversing cameras!
How else will I park my ginormous ship in a tiny, crowded space station without filing 10+ insurance claims?

 

[MisterMajestic]

I am 100% on board with camera-to-monitor casting. Ever played Objects in Space? It's the game that I feel most accurately depicts what space-faring would be like if it ever became a thing. Basically, there are no windows. Only monitors displaying information.

 

[kevinTOC]

We need reversing cameras!
How else will I park my ginormous ship in a tiny, crowded space station without filing 10+ insurance claims?

Parking sensors!

"Beep...beep...beep...BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP*CRASH*"

 

[Azelous]

When it comes to spatial awareness, a three dimensional radar similar to that used in Elite Dangerous would go a long way in assisting spatial awareness and orientation, whether the device used to implement this is either native or constructed using YOLOL.

 

[Eranok]

We already have cameras : crewmembers

I think some kind of primitive radar will happen once we have more sensor options, like a range finder with mutable direction, or a rail that can orient the range finder to the same effect. We ll then code something that look like the CRT screen electron cannon movement to "scan" in a direction ?

 

[kevinTOC]

We already have cameras : crewmembers

Actually, spotters on ships is not a bad idea. Just make sure that they can do it right.

 

[Zijkhal]

code something that look like the CRT screen electron cannon movement to "scan" in a direction ?

the problem with that is that yolol is 0.2 seconds per line, so you pretty much can only do 5 pixels per second, unless you have a massive array of rangefinders.

 

[Eranok]

a radar is an extremely powerful tool, having advanced tech / logistic requirements and a lot of unreliability seems balanced to me personally