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[Gothars]

The little symbols at the screen edge which show targets and their distance could use a bit polish. Some ideas:

- Symbols get a clear outline. Currently they have a bright spot in the middle and get darker on the edges, which makes it hard to distinguish the shape.   vs

- Numbers should not cover symbols. They do that on the left and right edges of the screen:

- Friendlies signal if they are in trouble, maybe by flashing red. An audio cue would also be helpful. Trouble could mean heavy hull damage, overload or just being outnumbered. This means the player does not have to switch to the command UI as often.

- New contacts are indicated as such for a few seconds, maybe by flashing or a fading outline or something.

- Symbols scale better with ship size. An Capital ship is not much bigger than a frigate , it just doesn't seem threatening enough to catch the players attention (which it should). It could definitely be bigger (the objective symbols are), but a color code (brighter=bigger) or something would be OK, too.

Feel free to add your own ideas

[Sandremo]

How about just 4-5 universal logos? 1 for each class or type? IE Frigate, cruiser, destroyer, capital ship ect... You wouldnt know exactly what it is from the radar but you would know is it big and mean and possible pose a threat to your AI controlled ships. Dont think you need to make this too difficult. Something simple would be the best solution on this IMO. And simple colors. Keeping it the way it is currently i can only notice the diffirence between ships and missiles. So i know it's either a ship or a missile but nothing else. :/

Edit: The logos or icons or whatever you want to call them would have to be clearly diffirent so you wouldnt mistake a frigate for a cruiser for example.
I dont know much about modding but just an idea. ^^"

Edit2: Oh and this would be a must have anyway for starsector... i dont pay attention to the radar much because i dont know how to read it. o_o I just know that something is there and that's it. So instead i end up going to the map view too much. or "command view" w/e

Cheers!

-Sandremo

[Alex]

Hmm. I'm actually considering of changing the ribbon back to a very basic radar at some point. Small, with just various-sized pips. The ribbon has some issues, as you point out... not 100% set on this, though.

[Gothars]

Hmm. I'm actually considering of changing the ribbon back to a very basic radar at some point. Small, with just various-sized pips. The ribbon has some issues, as you point out... not 100% set on this, though.

Actually I’m glad you bring that up. The ribbon…it is nice in theory, but I never found it particularly useful. Just too much information that takes too long to take in. A dedicated radar has some serious drawbacks too, though. A complex one others than a simple one, but neither is perfect. I dislike especially how they pull player attention away from what is happening on the actual combat screen.
So, maybe it would be a possibility to have the best of both worlds? An idea for a combined approach:

Simple Radar : allows tactical overview
Shows
- spatial position of forces
- relative movements

Ribbon: directs player attention
Shows

- Nearby missiles (ideally only those which target the player)
- Capital ships (possibly cruiser if you are in a frigate)
- Distress calls from allies (like in OP)
- The currently selected target (if out of sight range)
- The next unclaimed/enemy objective

Here's a very rough mockup:

Spoiler

The width of the green lines indicates object distance.

[close]

A separate idea: It gives a ping or flashing if you hit [something + a group key / F-keys 1-5] to show positions of ships of that group

[sdmike1]

I quite like how it gives you the range in a numeric objective format which helps me to tell 2 important things, the exact-ish distance from my foes and how quickly they are coming at me i.e. if that cap ship is burn driving at you

EDIT:
Overall i agree that the ribbon needs some updates but i would not advocate removing it entirely