Suggestion - Interception Bingo Fuel indicator

[skyhawk]

Apologies for not putting this in the Suggestions forum, but they seem to have some syntax they use there.

I would like to see a line added to the Craft Status screen on the Geoscape, probably just under the Fuel percentage would make sense:
Either "Estimated time to bingo fuel" or "Worst case time to bingo fuel", whichever would be easier to implement.

Reasoning should be pretty obvious - if I'm chasing or shadowing a UFO hoping it's gonna land, I would like a reliable indicator of how much longer I can put off shooting it down.

[Falko]

for non-elerium based crafts the fuel consumption is based on speed
so the pilot has to predict the future speed of the ufo he follows - would be a bit hard to do

[skyhawk]

Hence my suggestion of "worst-case time to bingo fuel". If my Skyranger is patrolling, and worst-case to bingo is five hours, I know it can stay on station for about 10 hours.

If my Interceptor is tailing a UFO and reporting worst-case 10 minutes, I know it'll bingo in probably between 10 and 20 minutes.

The really hard part is how to deal with the fact that not only does consumption vary with speed, but also bingo-time decreases as distance from home base increases. The worst-case bingo fuel calculation should make the assumption that the craft is travelling in a straight line away from home.

Implemented this way, the bingo timer would be wildly inaccurate on a freshly launched craft, but would be very accurate once it was running on fumes. Fortunately, I only really care about the bingo timer when it's about to run out.

[Firestorm]

All you need is to list the % of fuel required to return from the craft's present location.  If the craft is travelling towards its base, you have more time than your current fuel suggests, if you're travelling away, you have less.  The craft's current speed would likewise affect the estimate, but it's enough for that ballpark approximation you're looking for.

[skyhawk]

All you need is to list the % of fuel required to return from the craft's present location.  If the craft is travelling towards its base, you have more time than your current fuel suggests, if you're travelling away, you have less.  The craft's current speed would likewise affect the estimate, but it's enough for that ballpark approximation you're looking for.

I'd rather have a timer per my suggestion, but Firestorm's idea sounds much easier both to implement and to work into the UI ("RTB FUEL NEEDED" is much shorter and more intuitive than something like "TIME TO BINGO FUEL"), and would satisfy my reasons for the feature request.

[TryHittingSomething]

RTB FUEL NEEDED for the selected aircraft sounds cool!