what is easy to implement and what would be very usefull is the ability for the group leader to be able to mark targets for the whole group. or at best that the whole group sees what groupleader has targeted. it is very important in fights with lots of ships so you can better take targeted ships into crossfire.

Instead of having the group leader have complete control over who I target, I would rather have a way for members in a group to call out their targets, and then hotkeys to select the most recently called target, the previous called target, and the next called target.

you don't get it, group leader does not control who you target, you simply have second target indicator which is selected by group leader. it is much easier that way as a bunch of hotkeys

We experimented with this back when we were experimenting with VO squad tactics, and tried in vain to create a bind that could do something, anything, along these lines. No luck, of course, but when we mentioned it to the devs (about a year ago), they replied in devspeak (related to politi-speak; an ancient language that makes everything sound reasonable, likely, and possible, but without ever giving any specifics or making any promises) that we might very well see something like this in the future.

What I'm saying is that it's a great (perhaps even necessary) idea (great sets of ideas; I'd like to see both your suggestions implemented), and that there is a good chance we'll see it in-game, if our chat with the devs about it was anything to go by.

Ion, thank you for your support!

This is, of course, an excellent idea that really shouldn't be that hard, unless there's some hidden obstacle in the code. If everyone in a group can see a different color target that is their leader's target, and a hotkey will toggle between their own target and the group target, that would be very useful and convenient. The other option would be a hotkey to simply target what the leader has targetted, but I like the idea of always having the leader's target visible, even if you're not using it.

A leader could also have the option to cycle through what each group member has targetted. This will come in handy when we can own capital ships, for a captain of a fleet to give orders. There's a thread about this somewhere where a dev suggests the possibility of a future cap ship interface similar to Homeworld, which would be very cool.

here's my take on the visuals of this:



every target change could automatically notify the group chat as some of us currently do with binds.

if the ships are in the same sector you are, then you'd have the radar visuals update with a white line connecting your group mate to his target.

this way you can quickly visualise acquired targets and those left unattended.

edit:
not sure how best to display this if you stand between a linked pair. aka, target in front and mate behind, making their dots appear in the two different radar screens.
Though, being in-between probably doesn't require you to see any link but rather duck for cover.

I think we'd have 2 modes of this kind of thing:

"Bombing" Target Designation:
Have a single group-member have a laser target designator, and seekers from the group would go after that target. Designator would be an [S] port item, the designator pilot would be relatively vulnerable while designating the target. (Pretty sure this has been suggested before.)

"CnC" Target Designation:
A group leader could select a group member and have them go after a specific enemy combatant. I think you'd need a better interface for this kind of thing, though, and aren't the devs working on this in the "Homeworld-Style" interface that we'll get when capships come out?

uc's idea sounds ACE... Having the lines connecting group members with their targets on radar would be VERY useful, and eliminate many annoying things such as accidental kill stealing or interrupting fights while allowing for better target distribution in an engagement.

Sleon:

insert the following into your wgaf.cfg:

alias gTarget "say_group Target %target%"
bind 'X' gTarget

(where X is the key of your choice)

Also that it would show what hrm targets you may have forgotten about. :D

UC, you are brilliant.