@robn: Here are some muckup ideas about the sector map:
I put almost all info into the panel to the right. The upper portion has a bunch of tabs for different functions. This first one shows some general information about the selected system.
The lower portion is a System List that shows every system that's in view (depending on zoom and map position.) It's sorted by distance at default, but it can be shorted by name and faction too. The system the player is currently in would always be the first one on the list. Search moved here too (and coordinates could be searched too, like in the game). The little + buttons are shown next to systems that could be added to the route planner.
Uninhabited systems are gray, and systems already in the route planner are in [square brackets]. The selected system is highlighted too.
Double clicking a system would center it on the map.
The next tab on the upper part is the route planner:
Which shows the list of systems in the route by the order of travel and could be reordered or removed. If the player doesn't want to plan route, then there's no need to do anything, If the route is empty, then the currently selected system will be there, without the need to add it, effectively setting it as the hyperspace target.
Systems could be only added to it, if they are within hyperspace range from the last system in the list. (based on hyperspace distance, assuming that the empty portion of the cargo hold will be filled with fuel. Also assumes refuel in each system). Or maybe systems could be added if they are in the furthest possible range the ship is capable of, and would be highlighted in red, if it's unreachable with current load and fuel amount. Or no limit in adding them, but they would be highlighted in red if they are unreachable. I'm not sure which one would work best.
A system could be added into the list several time, provided it doesn't come right after itself (for round trip planning for example). Or if it's next to itself, then it would be ignored.
Jumping to a system would remove that from the list, and set the next in the rout the hyperspace target, so no need to select it manually.
The map would also show the route with dashed arrows between systems.
Systems and routes could be saved as favorites for later use:
These might need some additional functionality, like renaming, load button, etc.
There's also a 4th tab, which is Filtering, so the player can filter out certain factions, star types, uninhabited systems, etc. These mockups might even show a bit of filtering, but I just didn't wanted to clutter up the image with a lot of stars.
Camera controls are at the bottom:
- Center on current system.
- Zoom in and out
- Reset view rotation
- Highlight current system or route (dims everything else).
[*]Jump button to activate Hyperdrive (it's missing from some pic above though, but it shouldn't).
Also, there's a bit of color coding there, similar to the current Map, like the circles are colored by star type, and sys names by Faction. Also I made uninhabited systems a circle, instead of a solid spot.
And another thing I think would be useful, if the camera position controls would move it on the world's xyz coordinates, not in the view space.
This one is on a 16:9 screen, but it could in theory fit into 4:3, where the side panel would be about 1/3th of the view.
What do you think?