I don't know why this has been happening to me a lot recently, but I've been having a nasty habit of backing up into asteroids during combat missions, sometimes getting killed by it. I'd do the typical strafe, roll, and back maneuver that everyone has been accustomed to. The only problem is most of these sectors have these things called asteroids in 'em. And when you run into one, especially when you're badly damaged and you're backing up blindly, bad things can happen to you.

Someone suggested that I use the distance indicator at the bottom. It's okay I guess. The only problem is that it's completely useless in ion storms. On top of that it has a nasty habit of being inaccurate at times. And I don't know about you, but with my HUD scaled down to 800x600 and with all the action that's going on, I can barely read that indicator using my peripheral vision. So for now I wouldn't rely too heavily on a small bar located at the bottom of the screen.

Now for a suggestion at first I thought some type of warning voice or tone would be a nice touch. But then I realized how it could be a bad thing. The biggest obstacle to creating a warning like that would be in making the distinction between whether you're actually in danger or whether you're just safely passing through. For example people who undock would constantly hear the dumb warning all the time. And miners would just go crazy, hearing this annoying tone as they'd get up to an asteroid to let their beams loose. But then again as a combat pilot I'm going crazy myself selecting those DUMB asteroids while I'm botting, instead of the bots that are mining them. But that's a whole 'nother issue that is unrelated to this suggestion.

So the next best thing would be to perhaps make the distance indicator blink or change color when a collision is imminent. And by that I don't mean make those effects take place at the point where it reaches 0m. But rather a little before, where someone who has fairly good reflexes would be able to react fast enough to avoid damage or death. That would be really, REALLY cool. 'Cause well, there are stupid people like me who just back up into asteroids and die like an idiot, because 4-5 bots are ganging up on me and I don't exactly have the ability to look over my shoulder to see where I'm headed.

so how about the sultry voice of Incarnate saying, "It's ice, yo." whenever you're going to collide with an ice roid, and for everything else, Incarnate screaming at the top of his lungs "GET OUTTA THE WAY!!! YOU'RE GONNA HIT SOMEFIN!!!"

A good solution would be for it to warn you early enough that you have time to stop. A possible way to do this is to base it on your current speed, your ship's acceleration, and its mass, and then add a few seconds so you can notice it.

As long as you could turn the option on and off, then that could work.

Personally, I don't mind cause I'm usually not botting in the middle of asteroids, and when I do I usually keep a close eye on my radar. If this was coded, It would probably take up CPU time trying to constantly calculate which for my eMac would make things worse than they already are. Also, I usually fly close to asteroids during chases, weaving through cracks and skimming across craters. That would make for an annoying experience. :/

One other issue is if it could distinguish between the station and the docking bay. It'd be very annoying everytime you went to dock to have something going on about collisions. :)

Options are good. But adding optional items would also mean more coding. So I'm thinking, just as a temporary solution, just to have something there that's not intrusive to everyone, but at the same time easily noticeable. It should be subtle enough so it wouldn't bother people who constantly fly near asteroids. But you should be able to notice it from the corner of your eye when you need it the most. I think it's possible.

For example a change in the bar's coloration (to something bright like yellow), or having it blink would be more than enough to warn people of an iminent collision, while at the same time not being too distracting. I'm not sure what others would think about that. I personally don't think it would be too annoying. Or rather it shouldn't be any more annoying than having that quick "PRESS F1 FOR HELP" message pop up everytime you'd undock or something. Right?

Now later on in development I'm sure a more advanced threat indication system could be added with custom HUD options for players to choose. I'm thinking along the lines of the graphical warning icons found on Samus Aran's visor in the popular GameCube title Metroid Prime. For bots and hostile players you'd see an exclamation point icon, for asteroids you'd see a rock or comet icon, for missiles you'd see a missile icon, for mines you'd see a mine icon, etc. As you approach each category of threat, each icon would blink at the edge of the HUD to let you know that a threat is nearby. When you get dangerously close they'll remain on the screen and have a neat glowing effect, to warn you further. Each icon could have a distinct color, so you can tell from the corner of your eye which threat is around.

Yeah, an Icon could be added to the distance bar, and when within a certain distance to the object, the corresponding icon could start fading in until it is vivid (at 3-4 metres). This would be easy to code, as long as there is an easy designation system for asteroids, stations and the like.

Okay, how about just a rear-view mirror? Wouldn't that be better?

Ehhh... I'm not sure about that. It might require extra rendering power, therefore increasing the system requirements by a little more (not something I really need right now). And it would probably take up valuable space. A simple, non-invasive visual warning indicator would do just great.

There's really not that much difference between backing up and moving forward when it comes to botting. How about you just "try" not backrolling and move forward. This solves everything.

/givemoney Devs 2c

Well, I've asked for an audiovisual proximity warning almost since the get go, but for botting I prefer to bait the first batch of bots to almost the 3k mark; I start fighting there, and usually as the bots arrive in waves I strafe and roll my way closer to the asteroids. When the first large roid crosses my viewscreen, I look around while dodging to assess the area. If it's too roid-heavy for my tastes, I simply turbo away, again to the 3k mark. Rinse, repeat, enjoy.

Kix, for some of the medium or heavy ships, strafe rolling forward is actually much more dangerous than backrolling. So it's really not an option. When you're also being attacked by multiple bots, backrolling is necessary to group the two bots together, so you won't be attacked from two different directions (adding to the chaos and hell that already is).

I find that botting is very safe using diagonals instead of straight out back rolling. Try holding up and left for 10 secs, then up for 2 secs, then down and right. You normally dn't hit anything in that time because since you always have your nose towards the enemy, you are going in a sphere-like motion.

Arolte, What are you fighting? I've never been effective at killing bots with a medium or large ship. You just can't dodge their fire. Try taking out a valk with 3 neut III's and just killin whatever bot you need to kill. I mean any light ship with neuts is probably the best set up. I don't see how your gonna ever get over 40 kills with a medium ship before you dock.

/givemoney Devs 2c

I've been botting TyCorp Assaults with Hornets and Warthogs. Oddly enough I've found Hornets with four Neutron Mk2 cannons to be most effective. Although I'm working to get the Positron Blasters back once I get Swarms and go hive queen hunting. I like 'em better than Neutrons. Anyway, I barely get a scratch when botting in these ships. As long as I'm backrolling, those enemy shots just zip past my ears. It's when I get up close or when there's a bot from two separate directions when I get in trouble. So yeah, it's sort of necessary to backroll if you prefer the medium or heavy class of ships like me. And I just don't like light fighters for some reason. They bore me.

Gotta be the rear view mirror - think of any driving sim. np with extra rendering there.