I'm just going to keep this simple. The mini-map is almost useless compared to other options available and have been used in space-sims for decades. Since I mainly play tactical ships I, more than other classes of ship, need to be fully aware of where everyone is and what their situation is. So I'd like offer three quick suggestions.
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SPACE-SIM HUD INDICATORS In most space-combat sims you have on-screen indicators near your reticle that points to nearby ships both hostile and allied. I feel that a hostile indicator would devalue the Corvettes since it would make ambushes very difficult but at the very least I should be able to get information on allies. These indicators can even be color-coded to show an allies hull integrity so I can know how damaged they are within even needing to look at them. Even the minimap doesn't show this vital information.
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PERSONAL WAYPOINTS It would be very helpful if players could indicate where they are going and have this info appear on the team's HUD. At the moment you can only know where someone is going by the direction their ship is pointing but you really have no idea of that when the team is spread out or does not have LOS on each other. It would be a huge help for a player to be able to switch to a cursor mode, right-click on a surface they can see and mark it with an icon to indicate if they are moving to that point. This would allow teams to coordinate far better if the waypoints are used by players to indicate their intended destinations at all times.
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CLEAR INDICATION OF BEING REPAIRED Unless you see the healing beams, there is no clear way to notice that you are being healed other than the health bar rising faster than usua;. It may seem a bit daft but in all honesty, the difference between knowing if I have the support of a tactical ship nearby or not is huge. Swtiching your camera around to see if someone is healing me or if the rising bar is simply the hull integrity regenerating is really quite a poor solution.
