Please add the ability to click on enemy ships

Gratuitous Forum Gratuitous Space Battles
1

When I am watching a battle, it is frustrating to not be able to click on enemy ships. I am not looking for the ability to view modules, which would give us too much information. Specifically, I would like to see the shields and armor on an enemy ship.

Lets say I have a bunch of lasers, and I am shooting a shielded ship. I see the beams bounce off. Does that mean they are doing no damage? They can sit there blasting forever, so I assume that it is doing no damage.
On the other hand, I have a bunch of ion cannons shooting at another ship. They slaughter the shield in seconds, and start making red blotches on the armor. Does that mean it is doing nothing to armor? Not necessarily: After about 30 seconds of the splotches, the ship suddenly bursts in to flames.

A real time feedback system like this would be much more useful than the post-battle screen, which is frankly too intimidating for me to use.

2

It seems to be hiding a ship’s design and abilities is a big part of this game, but some information would be handy, but perhaps it shouldn’t just come freely…

Perhaps a ‘scanner’ module could be developed? Allows display of shield/armor/hull strength on enemy ships within range.

3

That would be a cool, and gratuitous module for the information mad!

At least something to be able to see enemy shield/armor status would be great. As for the Red flashes on armor it means it’s being absorbed and taking damage, but depending on its strength and if there’s an armor repair system at work you may never crack it. Similer to the shield where ‘reflected’ beams could either be absorbed and do no damage or drain shield energy, It depends on the shield strength/reflectivity.

4

A scanner module might be a good idea so you can set up an AWAC’s like support ship or something.

Similarly a jammer module which stops such information being read within a set radius of the ship too.

That way it ends up balanced otherwise people might end up getting an easier ride with scanner modules.

5

I’d quite like to see the hull class under the ship name when you hover over an enemy ship and get a tooltip. For someone playing the first mission for the first time it can be slightly confusing which of the hostile ships are cruisers and which are frigates.

6

I will agree with this. For the first mission, I have a hard time telling which of the ships are cruisers and which are frigates. That one ship in the middle is so large it dwarfs all the cruisers.

As for the shield health, this is not to gain a tactical advantage. This is a UI thing. If I cant tell that my ships are doing anything, I am going to feel frustrated that the game is not giving me any feedback.

7

I agree that more feedback on the current state of a target’s shield and armour would be useful. Even if it doesn’t give exact readouts, being able to mouse-over for Full / Lightly Damaged / Moderately Damaged / Heavily Damaged / Destroyed would be great. Making the no damage and some damage weapon effects more different would also help, I think.