Change the Rangefinder to Multi-scope

[Richard LeMoon]

Change the name of the Rangefinder to Multi-scope or something and give it more uses, such as seeing how much armor or component health is left on a ship.

[Deltajugg]

Make it so, after spotting with spyglass, it would mark enemy ship, so every team member can see the range the ship is at as long as it's spotted.

[GeoRmr]

And remove those spinning flashing circles that show you where to shoot if you want to miss the enemy ships.

[Captain Smollett]

Make it so, after spotting with spyglass, it would mark enemy ship, so every team member can see the range the ship is at as long as it's spotted.

This would make it much better and more team orientated.

[Crafeksterty]

Once when i made a thread for a scope that can see armor of ships, people disagreed.

That was before the rangefinder.
But so that is why i agree with this.

But the information should only be available to the user, just to make gunners use it more and communicate.

[DMaximus]

And remove those spinning flashing circles that show you where to shoot if you want to miss the enemy ships.

Yes please. Zill started taking rangefinder instead of spy glass occasionally, and while knowing the exact range is nice the spinning circle of miss is rather annoying.

[sparklerfish]

It would be cool to make the range finder more useful in some way.  As it stands right now it's just an annoying thing that I constantly have to tell lower-level players not to bring.

[pandatopia]

I agree especially with the spinny circle thing.

It is HORRIBLE for sniping as it completely obscures the target box and the ship itself - esp when it gets tiny (how do the circle sizes work anyway?).

It is unnecessary visual clutter and actually makes it worse.

[Sanji the Chef]

Personally, I think the range finder should work as such: when it has targeted a ship, the gunners of that team get a clear, clean circle around the enemy ship, 20% negating even clouds/tar from view, and when aiming in that area, the area outside of a probable hit is slightly blurred.

[Nietzsche's Mustache]

My whole thing with the range-finder is that it takes too long to use. Might have something to do with clouds, but I'd be sitting there trying to get a range on something for 20 seconds before I actually get a number, and then it disappears before I can even read it. And even if I do read it, it's instantly wrong because that ship is moving. And once more, once you know the grid size of the map, you can press M when a ship is spotted and get an approximate range.

So, for those of who do want working range-finders because of range achievements, we might consider making the range finder work on anything that's spotted, rather than just whatever's visible.

And yeah, get rid of those silly circles.

[RearAdmiralZill]

I realize its an older thread, but id rather not open a new one.

- I'd like the "aiming" circles removed, as currently they don't work half the time anyway, and make gunnery worse when they do pop up.
- I'd like for it not to rely on ships being spotted. I see the ship. I should get the range. Cloud cover and such will still deter it of course.
- I'd like for the captain and gunners only to see ranges. In this age of everyone wanting to buff gunners for whatever reason, it can't hurt eh? Brings in some more pro/con with all engie strats.

I think a tool like this would have some more use versus what it does now, which frankly isn't much beyond sometimes giving range, and giving me a zoom function.

[pandatopia]

I realize its an older thread, but id rather not open a new one.

- I'd like the "aiming" circles removed, as currently they don't work half the time anyway, and make gunnery worse when they do pop up.
- I'd like for it not to rely on ships being spotted. I see the ship. I should get the range. Cloud cover and such will still deter it of course.
- I'd like for the captain and gunners only to see ranges. In this age of everyone wanting to buff gunners for whatever reason, it can't hurt eh? Brings in some more pro/con with all engie strats.

I think a tool like this would have some more use versus what it does now, which frankly isn't much beyond sometimes giving range, and giving me a zoom function.

Uh, what if you're an engie with the rangefinder? Do you just not see anything?

[RearAdmiralZill]

I realize its an older thread, but id rather not open a new one.

- I'd like the "aiming" circles removed, as currently they don't work half the time anyway, and make gunnery worse when they do pop up.
- I'd like for it not to rely on ships being spotted. I see the ship. I should get the range. Cloud cover and such will still deter it of course.
- I'd like for the captain and gunners only to see ranges. In this age of everyone wanting to buff gunners for whatever reason, it can't hurt eh? Brings in some more pro/con with all engie strats.

I think a tool like this would have some more use versus what it does now, which frankly isn't much beyond sometimes giving range, and giving me a zoom function.

Uh, what if you're an engie with the rangefinder? Do you just not see anything?

You would provide ranges for your gunner and captain if you wanted to go that route. Some tiny indication you're providing that indication (brighter reticle when using the scope maybe?) would be needed.

I'd be more worried that an engie would be standing around rangefinding instead of, being an engie.

If you feel it leaves the engie out too much, then this opens the door for another form of scope to be introduced for the engie to use to some yet-to-be-determined boon. Maybe to show the armor levels like some people want.

[pandatopia]

Well yea, noone should be using the rangefinder.

Anyway you put it, noone should be using anything other than shooting as the default mode of operation.

Spotting takes a split second, engineering is merely a stopgap measure to delay your inevitable doom, but shooting is the primary task of every person on the ship (obviously guns permitting).

A rangefinder is simply used to get the initial range for easier sniping - most gunners i see dont' even use one since they're so used to it by now.

[RearAdmiralZill]

Gunners simply cant use rangefinder because they cant use in while on a gun. Captains can to relay ranges so the gunner knows when to shoot (which leads into my idea of a gunner just getting the range as well instead of those useless circles). Sure good gunners can get this down fairly close, but precision can win an engagement. Engies cant use rangefinder well enough because they are too busy running around. If you run full engie, you forgo the proposed precision with added defensive measures.

It's really a pilot-only tool, and currently underwhelming in that aspect. My goal is to simply make it an option. It's unfortunate to see such items called worthless and never used when time was spent to put them into the game.