SpaceSimCentral

So far Pioneer has two major deficiencies when it comes to combat and maneuvering:1. Being Newtonian it often forces you to maneuver pointing in other direction than your target.2. You often find yourself firing from beyond unassisted visual range.Both things are quite big problems, and I find having to *listen* for impact sounds in a game set in space in order to determine whether I hit the target plain wrong.I'd propose a few things to be added:1. Zoom function. It should be something given in a spacecraft, either using separate viewport with a smart zoom level (to fit the target in the viewport) or being toggleable in main view.2. Key, hold or toggle, making camera rotate automatically to try and keep the currently selected target in view, preferably along with forward crosshair as long as possible.It would also help to have longer rendering ranges for various objects, and have them represented by point of light once sufficinently far away, instead of just disappearing. Impacts from any sort of high energy projected energy or kinetic weapon should also realistically produce bright bluish to lilac-white flashes that would be helpful in combat. Having coronas around light sources would help make distant ones visible and help convey their luminance - a lot of things just don't look very bright in Pioneer even if they should.Lastly, HUD could use down marker when near celestial body and there should be a way to determine quickly whether surface stations in view are on the same or opposite side of the planet.Thinner font would help too, as current one makes labels obscure pretty much everything of interest.What are your thoughts?

A while ago Luomu did some experiments with zooming and tracking of targetted ships.

has any of that experiementation made it into the main game ?

Nope, it was on an old branch from last summer sometime.