Assembly Hall

I will create mock ups after I get off from work in roughly 5 hours. I'll also perform some testing and collate data concerning dscan adjustment time per, say, minute or 10 minutes vs having this proposal implemented.

Concept UI Design for the Directional Scanner

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tl;dr
Directional Scanner could have preset buttons allowing someone to set up a close range 360 degree scan, focused maximum range scan (30 degrees, if desired) or any other dscan configuration they desire, and quickly switch between them clicking the preset buttons.
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Roaming in FW space I often switch between two different modes in dscanner, something that a LOT of people tend to do. I'm either doing maximum range 360 degree sweeps, short range (100,000 - 1,000,000 km range, depending) 360 degree sweeps, or focused maximum range scans to help locate possible targets. While it only takes a second or two to input the necessary changes to my dscan parameters, those changes happen several several times a minute when I'm actively hunting or being hunted.

By having three preset buttons on the dscan window next to our existing controls, or shifting our existing controls to compensate and allow for three preset buttons, we can quick switch between different dscan parameter configurations. This would eliminate the need to manually reconfigure dscan every time we enter a new situational awareness need. We could spend more time tracking, evading, or whatever it is we are doing as opposed to reconfiguring dscan, making us more efficient regardless of our present activity.

Moreover, we shouldn't be limited by just three presets. We could have the menu botton (3 lines on top of each other, don't know if it has an official name or anything) with more presets that we can assign to those buttons in whatever fashion. Granted there are only so many configurations you can have with dscan, it would be viable to store those configurations as necessary.

I will create mock ups after I get off from work in roughly 5 hours. I'll also perform some testing and collate data concerning dscan adjustment time per, say, minute or 10 minutes vs having this proposal implemented.

Concept UI Design for the Directional Scanner

Updated the OP with a link to a mock up of what I'm talking about. It has an expanded bar for angles as well as the preset buttons.

That could all happen in the same window, too, color coded or something. Orange is for the first setting, blue for the second, green for the third, or however you configured it. It almost got me thinking about the new system-wide scanner they're launching and how it could all be tied to that. Kind of like a real AN/APG-68 -- We could have Track While Scan mode where it sweeps in a given area and updates direction as it sees the object in question, Range While Scan where it is pointed in a small area with varying range settings to try to determine an objects range, etc. All this could happen automatically, too, as long as you're running the scanner.

It could appear that this would give an unfair advantage to pilots, but keep in mind that the scanner has a handicap -- It has a timer on it that prevents it from rescanning for a short amount of time. While that time is very small, it's enough to render it useless for actual 'real time' usage. This would just serve the purpose of automating the scanner.

Either idea would be wonderful, to be completely honest. I think this one would be more realistic, but either way works.