The game is very beautiful, and I'm not an artist. That said, one thing that has always bugged me is the HUD display of player stations and ships.
I'd imagine improving the HUD is already on the "list" of items to further develop, but thought I'd throw a few features ideas out anyway.
Here's an example image below. There's a lot of text, that takes up a lot of screen real estate, and it's not all useful information.
Here's the same view without the text. Much prettier, but I now have no idea where I'm going. On the plus side, the HUD text is no longer obscuring approaching asteroids. It is also not hiding ships that are travelling without their transponder on.
How about a system that represents the stations and ships similar to a HUD in a military fighter. See my terrible mockup below. The same view with just HUD icons rather than full names and distances. The origin stations are represented by stars, and other stations by brackets that are coloured differently depending on their status. I've also added an example of what a ship HUD icon might look like.
Bonus points if you can:
* Right-click on a particular station or ship icon to hide it permanently, customise its colour, customise its visibility, customise its icon, and toggle whether it's distance information/name is shown.
* Example: I might want my personal station to always show name & distance, and have a custom icon with a custom colour.
* When you're in "free mouse" mode (tab by default), allow you to mouseover each icon to show distance.
* Have icons flash / make a sound when they first appear on the HUD. e.g. when a new ship comes into range.
* Have icons flash / make a sound / change their status when they get within a certain distance.
If you can also get it to look like something out of Elite Dangerous rather than the terrible mock-up I've produced that would be good as well.
I'd imagine improving the HUD is already on the "list" of items to further develop, but thought I'd throw a few features ideas out anyway.
Here's an example image below. There's a lot of text, that takes up a lot of screen real estate, and it's not all useful information.
Here's the same view without the text. Much prettier, but I now have no idea where I'm going. On the plus side, the HUD text is no longer obscuring approaching asteroids. It is also not hiding ships that are travelling without their transponder on.
How about a system that represents the stations and ships similar to a HUD in a military fighter. See my terrible mockup below. The same view with just HUD icons rather than full names and distances. The origin stations are represented by stars, and other stations by brackets that are coloured differently depending on their status. I've also added an example of what a ship HUD icon might look like.
Bonus points if you can:
* Right-click on a particular station or ship icon to hide it permanently, customise its colour, customise its visibility, customise its icon, and toggle whether it's distance information/name is shown.
* Example: I might want my personal station to always show name & distance, and have a custom icon with a custom colour.
* When you're in "free mouse" mode (tab by default), allow you to mouseover each icon to show distance.
* Have icons flash / make a sound when they first appear on the HUD. e.g. when a new ship comes into range.
* Have icons flash / make a sound / change their status when they get within a certain distance.
If you can also get it to look like something out of Elite Dangerous rather than the terrible mock-up I've produced that would be good as well.
