Relation - color (defaults specified here, can be edited in settings xml) | shape

Here are my suggestions for defaults:

Enemy - red (unchanged) | triangle (point up)
Neutral (will aggro on hit, ex, salvagers) - blue | tilted square (45 degrees)
Friendly - green (unchanged) | square
Owned* (ex, autons, player ship, if the player owns a station, etc) - white (unchanged for player) | circle

*Owned objects should have a sovereign that is marked in some way. Perhaps they could inherit from &svPlayer;, or have a custom attribute? Owned objects should share alignments that others have towards the player.

wolfy 12 Jul 2020:

Turns out the engine differentiates angry and enemy, so..
Angry - orange | triangle (point down)
Also forgot these cases:
Allied - cyan? or green? its user configurable, so I'm ok with either, what do other people think | square (same as Friendly)
Dead/Inert/abandoned - grey | need suggestions on this

derakon 13 Jul 2020:

Your suggestions sound good to me, though is there a reason to use gray for destroyed targets instead of the current system where the shape on the radar becomes an outline? I guess technically a dead ship/station has no allegiance, but e.g. if you're coming up on a station and see a green outline surrounded by red outlines, that immediately tells a story that would otherwise require the player to get the station on-screen *and* be able to recognize factions based on the appearance of their wrecked ships.

wolfy 13 Jul 2020:

The use of grey for the destroyed targets isn't quite an accurate descriptor - its because george uses grey for 'explored' targets (ones where the loot screen has been accessed), but the behavior is inconsistent between stations and ships (haven't gotten to making it consistent yet). What does happen now in the current version of the code I have though is that when killed, unexplored stations and ships all become darker hues of their enemy/friendly/etc. colors, before becoming grey when they have been explored (For ships only, not for stations), since thats still using george's code. I would like to find a solution where the information about dead faction allegiance is still apparent and communicated both in color and in shape though.

Maybe:
Alive - Full brightness color (implemented), Filled in shapes (as current) (new shapes are todo)
Dead, unexplored - half brightness color (implemented), Empty shapes w/ small cross (todo)
Dead, explored - half brightness color (todo), Empty shapes (as current) (need to add new shapes though)

derakon 14 Jul 2020:

Sounds good to me! Not that you need my approval :D

george moromisato 17 Jul 2020:

Merged PR into 1.9 Beta 2 stream. Thank you!