Author Topic: Add cooldown indicator ring around damaged hull and balloon icons  (Read 7491 times)

Offline Horatio Leafblower

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Several captains have suggested (Yelled and threatened) to me that while they are majestically posing and 'inspiring'  us engineers, they would like to see some indication that we are indeed dutifully banging away at the hull instead of wandering around fixing unused guns. These  noble , majestic and awe inspiring captains would like to have some sort of indicator ring around the hull and balloon icons, visible from the helm of course, to gauge when the item will be out of the red and how long the cool-down will take.
 
Our brave Captains need this to better judge when to ram or use copious amounts of moonshine (which they NEVER seem to run out of)

Muse, can you please add this feature and help the poor harried engineer?

--Horatio

Offline -Mad Maverick-

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Re: Add cooldown indicator ring around damaged hull and balloon icons
« Reply #1 on: August 18, 2014, 08:00:27 pm »
I actually like getting my audio progress reports from "engineering";  "how much longer?! I need engines NOW!" 

"I'm giving her all I got captain 3 seconds!"

"... you've got 2..."

Offline sparklerfish

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Re: Add cooldown indicator ring around damaged hull and balloon icons
« Reply #2 on: August 18, 2014, 09:04:11 pm »
Hm... part of the challenge of engineering is remembering the cooldowns and working with them and keeping track of/managing time.  Having an indicator would eliminate that element.

Offline Hoja Lateralus

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Re: Add cooldown indicator ring around damaged hull and balloon icons
« Reply #3 on: August 18, 2014, 09:23:05 pm »
Options:
1) Make it a captain or engineer tool? I'd call it "A Swiss Watch" - so the characters would really check the time (maybe then "bangable" objects would get a glow; just like they'd be buffed, but different colour?)
2) Make such indicators and make them visible for everyone (Muse "everyone can everything" policy)
3) Don't make anything and keep on telling people need to communicate more
4) Make people "see" further - in a meaning that the cooldown view activates when our character is further (so we see from far whether cooldown is active, but to do something we need to come closer).

Offline Canon Whitecandle

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Re: Add cooldown indicator ring around damaged hull and balloon icons
« Reply #4 on: August 19, 2014, 07:46:00 am »
Several captains have suggested (Yelled and threatened) to me that while they are majestically posing and 'inspiring'  us engineers, they would like to see some indication that we are indeed dutifully banging away at the hull instead of wandering around fixing unused guns. These  noble , majestic and awe inspiring captains would like to have some sort of indicator ring around the hull and balloon icons, visible from the helm of course, to gauge when the item will be out of the red and how long the cool-down will take.
 
Our brave Captains need this to better judge when to ram or use copious amounts of moonshine (which they NEVER seem to run out of)

Muse, can you please add this feature and help the poor harried engineer?

--Horatio
Engineers oughtta be giving readouts to the captain when a critical part goes down. When I'm repairing hull armor I'll call out, "Quarter... Half... Three Fourths... We have hull, captain!" Or however large the increment is, usually 1/4th with the spanner, 1/5th with the pipe wrench on the hull, depending on the ship. Communication is key and feeding info to the captain through the UI like a stock ticker kills the experience IMHO.

Offline pandatopia

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Re: Add cooldown indicator ring around damaged hull and balloon icons
« Reply #5 on: August 19, 2014, 10:38:26 am »
Captains (usually) trust me enough to let me do my thing.

I don't think this needs to be a thing.

Furthermore, I feel it would be odd to have captains be able to see the cooldowns instead of the engineers.

I think good communication is the key here - that and learning to be a better engineer means watching indicators and counting timers in your head.

Offline RearAdmiralZill

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Re: Add cooldown indicator ring around damaged hull and balloon icons
« Reply #6 on: August 19, 2014, 10:48:19 am »
Quote
I think good communication is the key here - that and learning to be a better engineer means watching indicators and counting timers in your head.

And for those captains, that's a trust issue, not a game issue.