Distant Object Indicators

[Bullet_Magnate]

Many of us are probably familiar with the Expanded Helicopter Events mod -- I use it every playthrough now.  One feature it includes (that I didn't fully appreciate at first) is indication of the sight / sound of distant objects (like helicopters, planes, and supply drops) with a directional indicator on the edge of the screen.  This indicator uses an icon, color, and a pointer to show the object's identity, direction, and approximate distance.  

 

It occurred to me that such screen-edge indicators could be a good way to compensate for the player's limited (and, frankly, unrealistic) field of view.  Even using combat mode to maximize view distance doesn't really help much.  Buildings and vehicles would be visible to a person much sooner than the current vision / display function currently allows.  

 

The most obvious application would be screen-edge indicators showing buildings and cars the character should be able to see, but that the player can't.  (This would probably help A LOT with the issue of suddenly coming upon wrecked cars, etc, while driving fast ...). 

 

This could be used for other things, too, however, that would have interesting implications in both single- and multiplayer.  For example, what if a campfire or building fire created a plume of smoke made visible for long distances by such an indicator?  What if distant gunshots had an indicator making it easier to figure their general direction?

 

Some tinkering would be required to keep this function from becoming cumbersome, however.  For example, if you were in an area with lots of buildings and vehicles (like Louisville), the sheer number of "seeable" objects off-screen might result in a large, visually cluttered number of indicators.  Maybe it could be toggled on and off, or maybe be briefly activated by a "scan the horizon" action or something similar ... 

 

Just food for thought.  I think the idea has a lot of potential.  

 

 

Edited September 23, 2022 by Bullet_Magnate