Pressing 'R' to select target too cumbersome when presented with lots of gas clouds

[CurioInventorium]

Short Description of the issue:

Fly towards star till gas clouds appear. Press 'R' to select one. Due to so many being present it is nigh on impossible to see which one you have selected. With the mouse middle-click removed it is no longer possible to select targets manually in front of the ship. ...

Steps to reproduce the issue:

...

Environment

• Starship EVO version: 22w11a
• Graphics Card: RTX2060

Additional information:

Additionally, auto-pilot just flies in circles around the targeted gas cloud.

(Screenshots, Videos, Error logs, Related issues) Screenshot shows region near star filled with gas clouds.

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[Briaireous]

ay fam, i thought the same thing. would love it if manual selection of targets came back. would also love it if gas clouds are only selectable if you have a certain sensor module on the ship

[BigBadKangaroo]

I. Am. Confused.

[Briaireous]

Lol, ur surrounded

[ProPeach]

Not being able to select the target straight in front of me like you could previously is one of the weakest parts of the new targeting system for sure, perhaps the T key could be used for that.

With regards to the gas clouds in particular, would it be possibly to cluster the GUI icons for them? So that instead of 5 icons a cluster, you have one "Cloud Field" or similar. Perhaps just making the actual clouds themselves larger, and rarer so there are fewer icons.

As an example, Space Engineers tackled this kind of problem of icon spam by combining multiple icons into one "mixed signal" when the players ship is far away, and then splitting them back up into their individual icons for ships/stations/gas clouds etc when the player gets close enough for that to be useful.

[tsunamayo]

@CurioInventorium Yep that is a lot of cloud I will do something about it. Btw @ProPeach you can select what is in front by going into free look mode. That is why I wanted to map it to Right Click to free look, it is just so much more seamless, you can insta pin point a target.

[tsunamayo]

@Briaireous @CurioInventorium

ay fam, i thought the same thing. would love it if manual selection of targets came back. would also love it if gas clouds are only selectable if you have a certain sensor module on the ship => you can select what is in front by going into free look mode. It seems everybody missed that...

[ProPeach]

@CurioInventorium Yep that is a lot of cloud I will do something about it. Btw @ProPeach you can select what is in front by going into free look mode. That is why I wanted to map it to Right Click to free look, it is just so much more seamless, you can insta pin point a target.

Oh I see! At least the option is there I suppose, but it kinda just puts another barrier in there to get around. It doesn't feel right that I can target what I'm looking at in free-look mode, but not in regular flight. Also from a logical standpoint, why would the player need to go into a mode all about looking around with freedom to be able to target the ship right in front of their reticle?

I'm not sure this is the best way to go about it, it also changes the button for cycling between targets [F] into somethings else too. Having a dedicated Pick Target In Front hotkey (which would work in free look and out of it) without needing to go into freelook would be much smoother imo, especially as there are a lot of players around who would like an option to toggle freelook.

I do understand that you want to minimize adding new keys for everything, and I'm glad that's a concern, but some things really are worth it

[CurioInventorium]

@tsunamayo The whole middle-click to free look and right click to select targets is really awkward. I use the same finger for middle-clicking as I do for right-clicking (Left-handed). I don't know how easy it is for right-handed people, but holding down middle button and then right clicking feels really cramped and not natural. If I was in a rl car, it would be like putting the same foot down on the brake and the accelerator at the same time.

And while in free look mode it is now awkward to zoom in and out with the mouse wheel because it's being used as middle click!

[tsunamayo]

@CurioInventorium You dont need to middle click and right click at all. You need to middle click, look at your target, then press the target key (R by default). I was referring to having by default Free look mapped to Right Click, I think it is much better than Middle Click.

I think having two fire key by default is not essential. You can always map an hotkey to a mouse button is you think it is mandatory, so I think this is the way I will go moving forward once I add more hotkeys (the 5-9 remaining). Thanks

[tsunamayo]

@ProPeach

I do understand that you want to minimize adding new keys for everything, and I'm glad that's a concern, but some things really are worth it Here we go again ^^ I hope you can understand my reluctance to add 5-6 keys for targets cycling like in Elite and co. Things are already too complex tbh. But I am okay to add ways or more mapping for advanced users as long as they are not mandatory. I want to do a bit of work on the key mapping UI first to hide them by default, so it is not too intimidated at first. Thanks

[CurioInventorium]

@tsunamayo Sorry, misread earlier posts. Didn't know about the pressing 'R' while in free look.

[ProPeach]

I hope you can understand my reluctance to add 5-6 keys for targets cycling like in Elite and co. Things are already too complex tbh. But I am okay to add ways or more mapping for advanced users as long as they are not mandatory. I want to do a bit of work on the key mapping UI first to hide them by default, so it is not too intimidated at first. Thanks

More options in advanced settings would be fantastic, thank you. I still disagree on what should be available by default for ease of use, but I guess we can't always agree 100% on everything!

[DrizztCode]

hi - just wanted to add to this - since i think really the gas clouds are the main one for this - since once you have discovered them, they are then on your scopes pretty much until you reload i think - and do clutter things somewhat - but of course when you are looking for fuel you might want them all on there so you can toggle through them and see how far and how full they are (but on the other hand, when you need fuel probably the nearest one will do lol)

but i think it would be nice to have a target type select menu - with checkboxes for Gas Clouds, Planets, Stations, Ships, Habitats - and maybe even a way to filter ships and stations by Friendly, Neutral or Hostile

also - it would be nice to be able to target more things using the holomap - from what i can tell now it is really only the stations that can be targeted

but that tip about freelook targeting was really good to know - thanks :-)

it would also be good to be able to turn off the targeting system until R is pressed again - to free up that bit of the screen (apologies if i have missed an existing option or way to do this)

anyway - i reckon target type filtering would work great - and hopefully won't be as pain in the ass to implement! :-)

as ever - loving the game - and i hope all is going well with the current work

Cheers! :-)