The positioning of elements of the HUD, namely the radar display and current target info, has been bothering me a little bit.
I wonder if it would be possible to move said elements closer to the center of the screen, so the player can check their target’s ship type, energy etc without having to take their eyes “off the road” so to speak. I realize the targeting reticule does include a shield/hull readout, but this only persists while the target is in the player’s field of view. I can’t count how many times I’ve banked hard right to stay on a target, glanced up to the top left corner to see if they’re repping shields, and lose them again when I try to reacquire their pointer.
Incidentally, I think the “current target offscreen” pointer could stand to be a little larger, to better stand out.
Anyway, could the target info box be integrated into the center HUD somehow?
Ideally, the hud should be customizable. I always loved how in FreeSpace you could change the colours of every HUD element… that might be a bit much but it shouldn’t be too much to add a few hud layouts to choose from
The UI is functionaly complete as it is, it’s not perfect for everyone but more than gets the job done. multiple/custom UIs are icing. Factions have different ships which add different challenges/balancing etc. That’s cake.
Still, it’s low-hanging fruit. Plus, this is the suggestion forum, not the “this needs to be implemented right now” forum. I posted this thread on the assumption that the/a dev(s) would read it and keep it in mind when they do another pass at the UI, whenever that may be.