Assembly Hall

I'm sorry that this is somewhat of a duplicate post (in another forum), but someone really should sticky a post indicating the areas that each CSM member is more focused on. I didn't know which CSM member to send this to. Feel free to redirect this thread as needed.

Let's face it, the game mechanics for weapon accuracy and damage are not obvious for new players, and even many that are not so old. And even if you understand those mechanics, it is still difficult to know whether your weapons are doing maximum damage while in the heat of battle because there are too many factors for which to account.

Projectile Weapons:
Range - Optimal, Falloff and out of range
Tracking Speed (radians per second) versus Transversal Speed of target

Missile Weapons:
Flight Range versus Range/Vector of target
Explosion Radius versus Signature Radius of target
Explosion Velocity versus Velocity of target of target

(That is a lot of information for a person to memorize, recall, and estimate while doing everything else.)

In the end, it always comes down to comparing predetermined sets of data. Is the target too far, too fast, or too small?
That's basically all that the player needs to worry about. (Yes, I know can be a bit more complex than that, but it is close enough.)

My idea is that there should be an optional visual aid added around weapon module icons in the HUD. Here is a hasty example:

Weapon Effectiveness Indicators

If something like that (but less ugly) were used, it would drastically reduce the amount of confusion that new players experience while in combat. All they would have to do is look at the module to understand how effective the weapon will be against the target.