I believe I have found a way to communicate direction in space.

[SnowOwl]

In Arma 3 I am taught to use a compass that marks directions in a three digit number. Yet due to the environment, it is only good for the x axis. 

I think that if you could make a direction system off of two three digit numbers. (0-360), we could establish a x and y axis. Thus allowing us to give direction when in flight.

The Z axis is distance, and could be handled separately. (Z axis being depth).

 

I did come up with this in spurt of the moment. Let me know what you guys think.

[J. Coren]

It's not far off what what already exists with AWACS operators, we'd just need to adapt the system to take zero-g into account.

-First indicate the point of reference by designating what the callout will be in relation to. "BRA" (Bearing, Range, Attitude/Altitude) for indicating that you will be directing them to a point of interest or contact in relation to their current position , or "Bullseye" for indicating that you will be directing them in relation to a pre-established target area.

-Next, follow that with the Bearing to the POI/contact using a compass bearing off the nose of the receiving unit or bullseye.

-Follow that with the Attitude (when in-atmosphere, use Altitude) off the reference or receiving unit's nose to the POI/contact to indicate the angle of attack, up or down.

-Then add the range in kilometers from the point of reference (BRA or Bullseye)

-If you are designating a contact, you would also add what their vector is in relation to the point of reference. "Hot" for indicating the contact is heading toward the reference, or their vector puts them on an intercept course, "Cold" for indicating the contact is moving away; "Flanking" to indicate the contact's vector is perpendicular to the reference, or "Static", to indicate the contact is not moving.

A good example might be like: "BRA, 3-4-5, at 2-5 Down, for 120, hot." From this would indicate to the receiver that they have a contact to their 11 o'clock , 25 degrees nose down at a distance of 120 kilometers and closing.

Until the game has some measured way to give directions, this could be done in the meantime with clock-based direction giving.

[macgivre]

The question is do we really need to naviguate in 3 dimension ?

Right now the galaxies seems to be distributed in a plan, every planet, station are on the same horizontal plane ... so we can apply a classic 2 dimensions navigation. 

But even with this simplification, we have the problem of the point(s) of reference(s)
If you find a way to have a standard point of reference that could be applicable to every systems / galaxies, it will be sweet

Then you will only have to define 1, 2 or 3 points of reference to build your 2d or 3d navigation system

We can use planets, moons, and jump point as basic navigation point... 
 

[Rellim]

I think the easiest for people to understand is if everyone alligns themselves with a certain 'plane' in space. This is usually the plane which stations are alligned with. From that plane you can easily tell people to go left/right/up/down etc.

[CheeseNorris]

just had the most random idea of the day as well.

what if SC ships found a jumpoint into another, distant galaxy.... damn!

[Fizzlefuse]

3 hours ago, CheeseNorris said:

just had the most random idea of the day as well.

what if SC ships found a jumpoint into another, distant galaxy.... damn!

That would be cool but i doubt CIG would open up another galaxy any time soon
I think we'll have plenty to explore within our own galaxy

[WarWulf]

The main problem with communicating direction atm, is having a universal direction for "UP" as the most basic reference point. 

[Jon1812]

7 hours ago, WarWulf said:

The main problem with communicating direction atm, is having a universal direction for "UP" as the most basic reference point. 

 

 

 

 

I agree. I see this as being the first point of order in any squadron or fleet action. I picture a squadron jumping into a system and quickly orienting based on visible landmark or orientation of another ship or ships. In other words, "The blinking light at the top of the comms relay is UP" or "The top of the connie cockpit is UP." Once UP is established, one only need provide direction (for which a 360 degree compass would be nice) and altitude (which can be referenced as "high" or "low" based upon relative position to the person you are speaking to). E.g. "Red One. 290, low" or "Hostile. 180, high"

I think that a physical indicator should be added in cockpits to indicate a selected vertical orientation. There needs to be some way to select an orientation for your ship so you and your wingmen can remain in sync, through engagements. We should come up with something and suggest it to CIG.
 

[SnowOwl]

We would need two compasses, added into the game for ship pilots.

One compass will read 0-360 on the x axis, while the secondary would read 0-360 on the y axis. 

This would be something the game developers would have to develop and put into the game.

[J. Coren]

18 hours ago, WarWulf said:

The main problem with communicating direction atm, is having a universal direction for "UP" as the most basic reference point. 

The system's star is the only thing with a constant position, but that would only be good for navigating on a system-wide scale. Everything else would require the compass be directed off the nearest planet/moon/largest asteroid.

11 hours ago, Jon1812 said:

I agree. I see this as being the first point of order in any squadron or fleet action. I picture a squadron jumping into a system and quickly orienting based on visible landmark or orientation of another ship or ships. In other words, "The blinking light at the top of the comms relay is UP" or "The top of the connie cockpit is UP." Once UP is established, one only need provide direction (for which a 360 degree compass would be nice) and altitude (which can be referenced as "high" or "low" based upon relative position to the person you are speaking to). E.g. "Red One. 290, low" or "Hostile. 180, high"

I think that a physical indicator should be added in cockpits to indicate a selected vertical orientation. There needs to be some way to select an orientation for your ship so you and your wingmen can remain in sync, through engagements. We should come up with something and suggest it to CIG.
 

You wouldn't need an "up" in space. So long as everyone's in formation you can give directions based off the formation and still have it make sense. Everyone would need indicators though.

Also, "High" and "Low" are brevities used while in an engagement. They're too imprecise to use in navigation or referencing.

22 minutes ago, SnowOwl said:

We would need two compasses, added into the game for ship pilots.

One compass will read 0-360 on the x axis, while the secondary would read 0-360 on the y axis. 

This would be something the game developers would have to develop and put into the game.

You'd only need a compass with a predetermined measurement (could be in degrees, miliradians or some other more precise form of measurement) and an attitude indicator, which would be much simpler than a second compass.

[Rocket Man]

18 hours ago, SnowOwl said:

We would need two compasses, added into the game for ship pilots.

One compass will read 0-360 on the x axis, while the secondary would read 0-360 on the y axis. 

This would be something the game developers would have to develop and put into the game.

Instead of two compasses use a NavBall, a sphere marked to match the magnetic field you are in.  It rotates giving you the direction in which you are facing.  If everyone had one tied to the planet you are orbiting, everyone will know which direction is 240 down-60.  Which would be 240 degrees in the horizontal plane and then 60 degrees down (south pole?).  It all really comes to the point of reference.  You can make that your ship, so all gunners know that 3 o'clock 30 high hot, means a hostile is approaching from the very right of the ship, 30 degrees above the horizontal plane heading right at us.  Once everyone agrees on the point of reference, maintaining formations and solid communication would be rather intuitive.  We just don't know how to imply the point of reference yet.

[Sky Captain]

My hunch is that Snow Owl's approach would produce the most consistent results.  The challenge with a '3-o'clock high' approach (which I like) is that it assumes that every ship receiving instructions is oriented on the same horizontal plane.  That may be reasonable for a well-trained squadron in the atmosphere in real life, but seems less likely to be the case in the chaos of battle in a space game where horizon referencing is harder.  

[Th3 Warm0ng3r]

CIG could also implement a mapping grid system set up as standardized for solar systems. So you jump into a new system and your map of the system updates with a 3-d grid overlay that is standard for all running that program. As things are discovered and added it would need to be updated by all to show other major objects but the grid should still stay the same. It's simple coding and would make things a lot easier.  And I don't see everything being on a single plane as the game gets farther in development. That would really defeat the purpose I think and they have already hinted at this by looking at the current star chart in 3-d and seeing how it is clustered.

[Painmiester]

On moons and planets army,marine land nav will work easly to pinpoint your location .as long as you have distance direction 2 known locations azmuth you do resection  (intersection ) or polar corridents work also