Hard to get the bearings after some manouvering.

[Yakito]

Could you please add a compass and an indicator where "up/down" is?

 

I can't believe that it's not implemented.

I can somehow understand that in space there's no up or down, but even Eve has it, even if it's kinda informal.

 

We're in a ship, and anything that moves in 3 dimensions needs something to tell you which way you are going.

Am I currently upside down? Hell knows, I have to look at the satellites to figure it out.

[Grayseven]

Since being "upside down" isn't detrimental, I rarely orient myself unless I am capturing/protecting an objective. I often find it beneficial to not be oriented on the "galactic plane" simply because other people are and it can be difficult for them to break out of that planar mindset.

 

Embrace your odd orientation, it may save your life.

[Yakito]

Since being "upside down" isn't detrimental, I rarely orient myself unless I am capturing/protecting an objective. I often find it beneficial to not be oriented on the "galactic plane" simply because other people are and it can be difficult for them to break out of that planar mindset.

 

Embrace your odd orientation, it may save your life.

 

But it does not save my life.

Especially during the battle on the planet. Sometimes when I go to point B and capture it, I want to go to another point, but there aren't many ways of getting out of that "pit" and I usually go above the rock formations.

The bad thing is that when I do that, I sometimes go into the wrong "sky", since the bottom is also kinda blu-ish and I sometimes rush towards it just to get damaged/destroyed because the proper sky was on the other side.

[Grayseven]

I see fog at the bottom of Kuat Mesa while above I do not. The "bottoms" of the rock formations are lost in the fog, while the open tops are clearly visible.

 

I'm not against a roll indicator, mind you. I think it would be a helpful addition. The problem lay in the fact that you'd have to determine "up / down" in all environments which could include some open space type situations like the Lost Shipyards map.

[SoulSardonic]

Probably a trivial thing for them to add, so why not. I would just ignore it, however. IMO it's better to learn to navigate by your surroundings and by feel rather than having to rely on instrumentation.

[Ridickilis]

Yeah, there is a fog at the bottom on kuat mesa.

 

I'm a subscriber of 'there is no up or down", it does make life easier.

 

If you really need to know, or just to get your bearings, use the environment. All the satellite fins point "down", like a roof or canopy on a house. So if they're pointing "up" you're upside down.

 

Oh and use the doorways in the rock when at point B. Barrel roll through them if you're feeling leet. Took me about 10 self destructs before I got the timing down, now it's kinda fun to do.

Edited December 16, 2013 by Ridickilis

[Zoom_VI]

If your attempting to orient to a global "up-down" your doing it wrong, and are fresh meat for those of us who don't give a crap for which way we are rolled.

 

I always orient to the nearest flat surface - for instance if I am underneath a satellite the underside of the satellite becomes the "ground" and the space below that satellite becomes "up." If I am zipping around the side of the asteroid the asteroid becomes the "ground."

[Yakito]

See, because the satellites are pointing into a specific direction then I assume that Bioware already assumed where up and down is.

I just think that the interface is a bit dumb and very lazy, with not much thought put into it.

 

Even when we look at the directional shield - it's not very user friendly and you have to swap between different settings instead of choosing one immediately.

 

Not to mention the fact that the ships do such slow barrel rolls. But that's another story.

 

I would really like some indication of where up and down is.

Yes, I can do it myself, but it's a waste of precious time.

[Zoom_VI]

The barrel rolls and turns are not slow at all. But remember you're moving at 1 km/s the high speed flattens the maneuvers.

 

And really enforcing a up/down just stupefies space dogfighting, orientation is the biggest skill hurtle, and those of us that have master it have no difficulty flying as such and would be seriously pissed if we had a up/down forced upon a space game.

[Umbrex]

You should read (Note: Not watch) Ender's Game.

 

Orienting yourself in zero gravity is largely a disadvantage. You can't treat this like Battlefield.

 

But for a useful tip, A/B/C points have a light ray that points in a direction. Its fairly universal and you can use that to orient yourself.

[Yakito]

Sigh.

I want to orient myself to the satellites.

Satellites do have up and down, and I want to know which way I am going when I am turning.

 

Sure, it's ok and it's managable, but why the hell are you dismissing a simple bearing UI? Why?

Why on earth would you say it wouldn't be helpful?

 

It's bad enough that the camera is so bad that you can't really properly look around you when you're manouvering and if you take a fast turn after somebody you can end up smashing into a rock. Of course - that's easy to avoid, but we're playing in a world that has all the advanced technology, and we can't even find out where the up and down is while we're flying on a planet?

 

Space, I can understand, but planets do have poles, and they do have gravity. I'd like to know where the gravity is pulling me.

[tharbison]

...it's better to learn to navigate by your surroundings and by feel rather than having to rely on instrumentation.

 

The force is strong in this one...

[Soul_of_Flames]

There is no up and down in space. I do admit that I often lost my direction after some maneuvering, but a compass of some sort would not fix this.

 

They just need to change the indicator icons for A, B and C to be more visible and easier to pick out at a glance.

 

Too often to I have to study my indicators for a good few seconds to finally pinpoint where the one I want is... in which time I can easily be sniped or missile locked.

Edited December 16, 2013 by Soul_of_Flames

[Yakito]

There is no up and down in space. I do admit that I often lost my direction after some maneuvering, but a compass of some sort would not fix this.

 

They just need to change the indicator icons for A, B and C to be more visible and easier to pick out at a glance.

 

Too often to I have to study my indicators for a good few seconds to finally pinpoint where the one I want is... in which time I can easily be sniped or missile locked.

 

So you agree.

And once again, one battle happens on a planet, which has poles, up and down, and it would be nice to know where we are.

I'd love to know whether the satellite is above me, below me, on the right of left side. It sometimes takes too long to go to the right one.

 

The NPC ships, as well as satellites have already got an assumed bearing. When you start the battle the support ship is facing an informal "up", which is the same as the satellites.

So the developers do have an up and down, but they just didn't put it in the interface because of lack of competence and lack of motivation.

Edited December 17, 2013 by Yakito

[Sangrar]

Could you please add a compass and an indicator where "up/down" is?

 

I can't believe that it's not implemented.

I can somehow understand that in space there's no up or down, but even Eve has it, even if it's kinda informal.

 

We're in a ship, and anything that moves in 3 dimensions needs something to tell you which way you are going.

Am I currently upside down? Hell knows, I have to look at the satellites to figure it out.

 

to know if you are upside down try turning and look on the map, if you turn left but the map shows you turning right, you are upside down, and if it looks like you are not turning at all, you are sideways, doing this helps me a lot.

Edited December 17, 2013 by Sangrar

[Soul_of_Flames]

The NPC ships, as well as satellites have already got an assumed bearing. When you start the battle the support ship is facing an informal "up", which is the same as the satellites.

So the developers do have an up and down, but they just didn't put it in the interface because of lack of competence and lack of motivation.

They have assumed bearings not because up is up and down is down but because those are the most optimal orientations. If they were rotated 90º with respect to the enemy ship, then they would be blind to one of their own flanks.

 

There is no up and down in space. You have to realize that your perception is solely from you referencing your own ship. Just because something is above your ship doesn't mean they are "up." Your "up" can mean everyone else's "down" depending on your rotation.

 

The reason why there isn't any tools to measure this orientation isn't due to laziness but because they are trying to encourage disproportionate orientations. It's the main difference between aerial dogfights and space dogfights. With regular aerial dogfights, enemies can can only combat you a few ways due to gravity and the way planes work. But in space, where orientation doesn't matter, enemies can come from where ever they want. It makes space combat much more intense. They would only be dumbing it down if they added a compass or rotation monitor.

[Hitomo_x]

watch the arrow that Displays your ship on the minimap

 

if you turn right but the arrow turns left on the minimap, you are flying on your head

 

maximize the minimap with the Interface.Editor

[Armonddd]

You should read (Note: Not watch) Ender's Game.

 

I came here specifically to say "The enemy's gate is down."

 

Sigh.

I want to orient myself to the satellites.

Satellites do have up and down, and I want to know which way I am going when I am turning.

 

That's not entirely true. Satellites take up a certain lump of space, with lots of (mostly) empty space between them. The satellites sure look like they have an up and a down, but in reality, not much would change if they were all rotated randomly at the start of each match. (Actually, that would be a neat option.)

 

I agree that the minimap becomes unintuitive when you're upside-down relative to the capital ships (which, by lore if not mechanics, have vulnerabilities and artificial gravity that give them an "up" and "down"), but I don't really think there's an intuitive way to fix that.

 

The number one best way to tell where a satellite is relative to you is to use the HUD. There's all sorts of red arrows around your targeting circles representing enemy ships, and the letters A, B, and C are circled and color-coded by status. It's probably going to take some habit-breaking and -forming to start looking at the HUD instead of the minimap, but it's so much more convenient and useful.

[Uber_the_Goober]

Could you please add a compass and an indicator where "up/down" is?

 

I can't believe that it's not implemented.

I can somehow understand that in space there's no up or down, but even Eve has it, even if it's kinda informal.

 

We're in a ship, and anything that moves in 3 dimensions needs something to tell you which way you are going.

Am I currently upside down? Hell knows, I have to look at the satellites to figure it out.

 

Isn't there a keybind to automatically roll you back to "straight"? Or am I making that up?

[Rabenschwinge]

Most ships pitch faster than they yaw. So I always turn my ship that my current target is up, in narrow dogfights around satellites I sometimes roll to not crash into obstacles while passing them narrow. I never felt any relevance of a particular up and down in space...

 

I am not entirly sure whether in this game it's beneficial to approach the target diagonally so that you yaw and pitch. It was that way in "Jump to Lightspeed", but that was a joystick game where you could control pitch, yaw and roll directly, as opposed to a game where you simply move the mouse cursor where you want to go...

Edited December 17, 2013 by Rabenschwinge

[Arkerus]

I have no up. I just fly.

[Gonzohh]

An artificial horizon would be nice. Also I'd love to be able to rearrange the UI elements, I'm getting cross-eyed.

[mydogclimbstree]

Up is towards whatever node I am guarding. Down is where all the bad guys are. Helps me a lot in terms of maneuvering.

 

You can change the UI in the normal UI editor, just click the drop down menu to select the Starfighter UI.

[Necriol]

Since 'up' and 'down' are relative positions, there's never any 'up' or 'down', not even on earth, unless you're specifying what the 'up' and 'down' are in relation to. Further confusing matters, what we typically describe as 'up' and 'down' when we talk about atmospheric flight is really closer/further from a planet's center of gravity or surface (aka altitude). For instance, 2 planes on opposite sides of a planet can go in opposite directions but still be going 'up' and gaining altitude.

 

With the semantics out of the way, I encourage you to define an 'up' and 'down' in relation to some object(s), and use those to stay oriented whenever you can. This will go a long way towards being able to quickly ascertain your position and where your next maneuver will take you.

[TheJacobin]

I always rotate my current target to the top of the aiming circle.