Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Issue:
- Flying nano requires awareness of your enemies vector to/away from you, to match his movements with manual 'fly by wire' double-clicking in space
- Currently a nano pilot constantly zooms-in and out repeatedly to watch his targets movements in relation to him, or make assumptions based on the radial velocity column. Use of the new 'tracking camera' is not viable, when the fly-by-wire pilot needs a constant view angle on their main display.
- This issue may not be limited to nano pilots. Many pilots want quick visual indication or a 'zoomed in view' of their target, while not taking over their main window 'tactical' view. Watching radial velocity numbers tick positive or negative don't give angle-of-attack visually like a PiP window does
- As EvE moves towards competing with up-coming games like Elite:Dangerous and Star Citizen which are very fly-by-wire, any small change to attain closer parity to fly-by-wire will aid competitiveness.

Proposed:
- Have the option to have the 'look at' button open a small picture-in-picture window of the target, which a nano-pilot would have in a 'zoomed in' mode, while the main view window remains in a 'zoomed out' mode that still allows easy double-clicking in space to pilot from.

Result & Implications:
- Nano pilots would rejoice
- Anticipated dev effort of said window is assumed to not be high, but the benefits large.
- All pilots wishing to shed 'Orbit' and 'Keep at range' button addiction would be enabled to put down the crack pipe.
- EvE would better support 'fly by wire' piloting, and have less perceived flight differences to upcoming competitors
- Unicorns would appear on field, with streams of skittles shooting out of their arses. Surely.

F

The link was too long, what is a nano pilot?

One could say flying nano is more accurately about kiting and managing range (where you can hit your target but he can't hit you), with speed as the way to accomplish that.

A nano pilot thus needs a good way to easily see the aspect of his target he is trying to kite, is he flying at him, at 90 degrees, or away from him...to immediately adjust his own path and maintain optimal kite range...

Doing this by constantly zooming in/out on the main camera view, or by using radial velocity just doesn't cut it. A picture-in-picture window of currently selected target would make Nano piloting infinately better, for those not just hitting 'orbit' or 'keep at' buttons.

Exactly that. :)

Basically something like this. Your main view remains normal, but in the top left your selected or 'look at' target is shown in a small window, showing you his flight path in relation to you.

F

Indeed. This piece of info is crucial in two ways...

1) It allows a nano-pilot to better twitch fly against an opponent. Real pilots do not use 'orbit' or 'keep at range' buttons.

2) It can allow for parallel evaluation of an opponents weapon systems, while doing 'other stuff'. Right now, one has to do a 'look at, and then zoom in on a target to see what weapon systems he actually has fitted. Does he have rails or blasters fitted? Important info for someone looking to sig tank in a frigate for example.... Key here is you aren't blind to everything else around you while doing this with a PiP window, like you are with todays look-at and zoom mechanic.

I am actually pretty surprised this hasn't been suggested before.

F

+2 (obligatory +1 for my being an underling and another for actually liking the idea.)

+1 from me.

Would help me keep a close eye on those sneaky rocks .

You could investigate the advanced camera commands. Activate the option in the options, and play with the 'set as parent' and 'set as interest' commands in the right click menu.