Hmm.
I’ve only played Artemis as far as this genre goes, and weapons is my primary station. But I did do the old Star Trek Bridge Commander, and Starfleet Academy games. (Well and the whole range of Wing Commander, X-wing and TIE Fighter games. But that’s a flight sim. Not really close.) And of course I only play this with a single screen.
Anyways that’s what I’m going to compare with as my basis. Not looking for copy and paste though, as you’ve got a very different look and feel. Just inputting some play experience information, that may or may not be relevant to the UI display.
Just from your visual alone, I’m seeing empty space along the top left and bottom right of the image. Planning on putting information there? I could see the screen objects being slid down to the bottom right, and doing something with the left corner.
Distance and bearings to targets (updated from science?) might be useful, or firing arcs; though big lines can clutter up the targeting as happens in Artemis. Very annoying when I can’t lock on a called out target if they are cluttered in 6 ships sharing almost the same space. Nothing but firing arc lines covering targets, even when I zoom in the display a little. Thin is good.
Maybe ‘ light bubble arcs’ (Think of Star Trek shields, or even just simple Star Wars shield colours.) might do, for defence displays on our ship and/or the target (if applicable, or vitals if it’s a life form)?
I’ve heard some of the players here use touch screens, and pretty much all of the weapons/ordinance and auto/manual firing can be done via a mouse on the screen in Artemis. Someone correct me, but I reckon there’s also keyboard keys? I’ve never seen the game manual, and never touch my keyboard save to talk on TeamSpeak, lol. Just a thought really, but we’d need to see what the keyboard does to relate to what I’m seeing at the tactical screen.
Will the ‘radar’ be zoomed in and out, or is it set in one range increment?
What’s my scan and/or weapons range? The Weapons station in Artemis has a lower field of view and distance than Science or the Captain. Players call out targets I never see until Helm gets us closer, and that usually makes my job harder, having a ‘delay’ because I’m two steps behind from not having any visual to click on my screen, until the weapon was supposed to be fired a minute ago. 😛
Back to the image: I take it the lower left corner is a display of the enemy ship if selected, or our own ship? (Like seeing either or both, if that’s so.) Will we have the ability to target it via that, manually, or set auto firing to certain locations of the ship, like engines, weapon emitters, power plant, etc?
One thing with Artemis and ship combat, is that I can never tell when a ship is destroyed, or has cloaked/stealthed. There’s (mostly) no wrecks or debris on the tactical screen. Also, I never get an indication that my munitions (torps, mines etc) actually hit, or miss the intended target. And if it hits another, I have to make an educated guess, like if a drone/fighter flew into it instead of the targeted ship.
Heck, maybe even something as simple as a specific sound(s), could indicate these things, since display space is a premium and clutter can happen. Clean Homeworld/Battlestar Galactica visuals are striking. Artemis does the BSG style of having my dradis ‘shake and stutter’ when we’re getting hit, so I can get the visual cue that way. (Also makes targeting harder, but in a good way, and adds some depth.)
I’d better stop for now. I’m sure heaps of the more experienced players can comment better.