EDIT 9 (10/12/2017): Well, hello new ATV, looks like we've made progress with this... NOT. Because seeing the gun fire is superbly important for the pilot. EDIT 8 (07/28/2017): WIP, you say? http://i.imgur.com/JEzFljm.png Looks like nothing changed in the past few weeks and CIG continues to build atop a faulty foundation - those panels are still unreadable and having actual info displayed there like on the screenshot proves the point even further! This is ridiculous! EDIT7: Adding a link to Whitesnake's video about the Gladius cockpit design: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i6g4E_X76E EDIT6: ATV Fragment with this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRRyuKDAr1U - thanks Seb71 EDIT5: Censored to keep it pg5 friendly What in the flying is this *? EDIT4: Ok so. Uploaded on image that compilse 3 cockpti views. The very old one with the CVI (Combat Visor Interface - aka the Helmet HUD - at the bottom). The current (2.6.x one - at the top). And the new 'improved one' in the middle. Few points why this is just absolutely trash: 1) It's a combat ship, not a potato ship. In combat - function over form. 2) If you look at the design of all combat cockpits / panels in both real craft and even in game craft, you will see a pattern (if it's done right) - the radar is in the fracking middle, because you don't have to move your eyes away from your flight path to have a brief look at the radar to gauge your situation in combat and know where the enemy/friendly craft are. 3) 'Gun firing fidelity' - you don't need to see the gun firing. In fact, it's the fracking opposite. Your eyes need to be shielded from the muzzle flash (and that's exatly why guns have muzzle guards and ship hull blocks the flash) for several reasons (and one of the main reasons i HATE flyign the Sabre): a) it impairs your vision and obstructs your aim., b) it's a potential cause for epileptic attacks (especially with a damn GATLING generating light flashes superbly rapidly), c) @HerrMatthias made a fantastic point so pasting it here for posterity If you like your eyes and a clean vision I recommend Gladius pilots not using a main gun until this is fixed or your eyes can severely suffer. Looking constantly into a muzzle flash is painful and cause problems with your eyes, same like the overdone bloom effect. I really ask CIG to rethink their goals of how presenting combat from the pilot view in a Gladius or also the other ships to us. Thinking of real life examples and why is it good to protect the pilot from looking into muzzle flashes. Same with shield effect flashes and sun reflections inside the cockpit. Muzzle flash may not seem like a big deal, but over time, with the wrong circumstances, it can add up to permanent damage to your vision. Thank you CIG for listening and preventing damage done to backer eyes 4) We went from having almost 40 HUD/CVI elements to a scarce handful - and it is absolutely NECESSARY for combat ships to have all that info ready and available in under an eye-blink 5) Why on earth are those MFD's ANGLED AWAY from the pilot, this causes: a) information being distorted so miliseconds longer to read/decypher b) exposed to sun/star glare as they aren't shielded c) refer to 6 below 6) DISTANCE from MFD"s to the Pilot - at the same time, MFD's (talking about the ones that are below those you can actually see) (and I am assuming the two angled ones will be interactable too) were shown to have buttons / or being touch panels. Well, judging by the distance from the Pilot's seat to the MFD's, the Pilot would need to ***** UNSTRAP from their seat and bend over to actually reach to them. In ALL fighter craft panels are designed in such a way that they are either operable by peripherals on the HOTAS and the non-critical ones which you press with your fingers but NOT in the middle of the engagement - and with the cockpit designs we have now, the pilot would need to unstrap and bend/reach forward to even itneract with them. It's certainly possible when pulling several G's... NOT. 7 ) AT THE VERY MINIMUM what you need to see when you are in a middle of an engagement is: 1) RADAR, 2) Status of YOUR CRAFT, 3) Status of ENEMY CRAFT. And this is like a bare minimum which isn't even acceptable for me as you need all those other 40 critical information pieces which this does not cover. The new one only allows you to have 2 out of those bare minimum 3. What the s***, seriously? 8.) Finally, cockpits / MFD"s should absolutely NOT be designed in a way that forces the pilot to use either HEADTRACKING or MOUSE LOOK to even look at them, this is a pattern on most of the ships and it's just BAD. You are not going to use MOUSE LOOK when you're in the middle of a dogfight to look at your hud elements to see if your guns overheated, position of enemy/friendly craft, pinned friendlies/hostiles, how much ammo you have left, what's the status of your hull/shields, signatures, etc etc +@+@+@ that I will not even bother to go into, as this seems like a lost cause at this point and there was so much HUD/CVI/MFD valid information/feedback provided to CIG over the past several months/year, especialyl after the CVI has been turned off, that I really don't know what the we are even doing having to do this again. TL:DR ****_this_bridge_godzilla_meme.png BONUS: Some good quotes from the thread below: —▬≡VALK≡▬—@xXx_VALK_xXx The issues I have with this new set up is that you took out a important instrument from view, I need Situational Awareness. So instead of having three screens with information I can only see two while actively engaged with an enemy craft. Now that the screen is gone you now see a lot of muzzle flash, that actually gets in the way of seeing the target if its anywhere close to level on my nose. This is a combat craft, you want to be able to glance at or have information within your periphery so you can focus on your role, which is prosecuting a target in front of you. If you have to look at a screen to know your status, this getting in the way of evading fire and trying to engage a target. It seems like there is too much focus on The Cinematic and not the Simulation part of these display choices. Ricar Venn@Ricar Wow. Seeing that muzzle flash is blinding to look at. There's no possible way that muzzle flash, in the middle of the screen, is a good idea with gatling guns TechyTF77@Techy_TF77 truly atrocious please stop wasting resources on horrible ideas. If you want community supported ideas please put it to a vote, or open development further so that there is earlier visibility on these types of bad ideas. Deliverece@Deliverence What a waste of backers money getting this designed. Sir Berticus@Sir-Berticus Agreed. IRL cockpits are designed to shield the pilot from being blinded by the muzzle flash. THIS DOES NOT HELP ! Annabelle 'Boo' Huxley@AnnabelleBooHuxley If there was one ship that they had about right it was the Gladius. Flew this ship a lot in the PU before upgrading to a Buccy. Why oh why would they mess about with this cockpit and leave so many others that are in need of attention? DragoFire@DragoFire god that is the dumbest setups every. first off the gun flare kills all vision when the chin gun fires, this is a reason guns have muzzle guards, or have ship hull to block the flash of the gun firing. CIG great way to make a ship next to useless. CIG really need to go out and see realworld examples of what they are trying to mirror in the game, not make uneducated guesses on how things should be EDIT1: Yeah, so in better words - there has been a ton of feedback provided about how UNUSABLE MFD's are in combat and what do we get? Something that was completely acceptable and actually nice exchanged by something completely trash - and then called an improvement? Why was this even spent time on? EDIT2: I would actually very much like to know who within CIG greenlighted this.