I think that adding static icons for the condition of the ships components would be a great improvement, especially for pilots. As a pilot, it really doesn't matter where on the ship an engine or gun is when at the helm, but in order to know their condition, you still have to scan around the edges of the screen to find the icons because they move. It would be a lot easier to understand what's working, not working, and damaged if there were some icons for every component in one single spot, perhaps at the bottom of the screen.
For gunners and engineers, it could help too for cases when the player knows the ship layout and wants to quickly check what needs to be fixed. With the current HUD, the player has to look around the edges of the screen, scanning for the icons which could be blending in with other HUD elements. The moving icons are very useful for beginners and I'd love to see them stay around with an option to turn them off in settings, but for experienced engineers and any pilot who stays at the helm, the moving icons are distracting and unnecessarily difficult to read and find.
I'm new to using the forum so I'm sorry if I'm writing this in the wrong place. Let me know, thanks.