Please don't reinvent the wheel.

[Kaela]

There are many aspects of 'flying around in space' games that can be adopted or hinted at from the way other games do things.
No, I am not suggesting FD copy Star wars or Eve, but as an example, having an onscreen representation of how many jumps left in a long chain would be nice.

Have an ability to resize some elements of my screen, or even move them around would be neat as well, so maybe I could slide my hud onto another screen and have just the look ahead star field on my larger screen.

I am not saying copy the way established games do it, but I am saying you don't need to reinvent the wheel to supply enhancements we all would love to have access to .

Personally, I would love to do some simple things when I am flying between points in a solar system, 1) Turn of all need-less cabin lights and features, 2) Look at the 'rear view' camera now and then to see whatever I just left receding, 3) Set auto-detect stop when I reach my selected destination and finally , the big one, the ability to 'switch off' the Hud, Window Frame and other ship parts that don't actually contribute anything to the game other then to obscure what could be a brilliant view.

 

[Mufus]

There are many aspects of 'flying around in space' games that can be adopted or hinted at from the way other games do things.
No, I am not suggesting FD copy Star wars or Eve, but as an example, having an onscreen representation of how many jumps left in a long chain would be nice.

Have an ability to resize some elements of my screen, or even move them around would be neat as well, so maybe I could slide my hud onto another screen and have just the look ahead star field on my larger screen.

I am not saying copy the way established games do it, but I am saying you don't need to reinvent the wheel to supply enhancements we all would love to have access to .

Personally, I would love to do some simple things when I am flying between points in a solar system, 1) Turn of all need-less cabin lights and features, 2) Look at the 'rear view' camera now and then to see whatever I just left receding, 3) Set auto-detect stop when I reach my selected destination and finally , the big one, the ability to 'switch off' the Hud, Window Frame and other ship parts that don't actually contribute anything to the game other then to obscure what could be a brilliant view.

There are ways to turn off much of the HUD (and you can also turn off the scanner in your modules). To get a view outside of the cockpit... well, you can wait until 1.2 is released and then you have the handy but marginally annoying to control external "debug" camera. It's pretty funky seeing your heat sinks in operation and glowing hot when near a star.

However in general the UI in ED sucks big hairy ones, with horrible omissions and inconsistencies everywhere. I can only hope that FD have a list of these and will fix them as just basic navigation and mission management is considerably harder and more annoying than it needs to be.

 

[zynaps]

Have an ability to resize some elements of my screen, or even move them around would be neat as well, so maybe I could slide my hud onto another screen and have just the look ahead star field on my larger screen.

The user interface is the way it is so that it won't differ too much from the XBone and PS4 versions. It was designed to be console portable from the very beginning.

 

[Mike Evans]

The user interface is the way it is so that it won't differ too much from the XBone and PS4 versions. It was designed to be console portable from the very beginning.

No it wasn't. It was designed to be used without a mouse, that's all. More specifically we didn't want you using an operating system interaction method to control the ship's functions when you're supposed to be pretending to be a pilot handling a ship with a bunch of HOTAS like controls. Thus everything was designed to be done through HAT switches and buttons. We did not want a mouse cursor on top of the screen in space flight as that's the exact opposite of how a pilot in this universe would interact with their ship.

 

[Komemiute]

No it wasn't. It was designed to be used without a mouse, that's all. More specifically we didn't want you using an operating system interaction method to control the ship's functions when you're supposed to be pretending to be a pilot handling a ship with a bunch of HOTAS like controls. Thus everything was designed to be done through HAT switches and buttons. We did not want a mouse cursor on top of the screen in space flight as that's the exact opposite of how a pilot in this universe would interact with their ship.

+1. I can totally relate to this- HOTAS+ self made cockpit owner.

 

[Gogster]

We did not want a mouse cursor on top of the screen in space flight as that's the exact opposite of how a pilot in this universe would interact with their ship.

Tell me, when did you get back from the future?

OSD with touch/mouse cursors? Why not?

 

[CaptainKremmen]

The user interface is the way it is so that it won't differ too much from the XBone and PS4 versions. It was designed to be console portable from the very beginning.

No it wasn't. It was designed to be used without a mouse, that's all. More specifically we didn't want you using an operating system interaction method to control the ship's functions when you're supposed to be pretending to be a pilot handling a ship with a bunch of HOTAS like controls. Thus everything was designed to be done through HAT switches and buttons. We did not want a mouse cursor on top of the screen in space flight as that's the exact opposite of how a pilot in this universe would interact with their ship.

Hmm.

Who to believe? Who to believe?




Sorry, zynaps. Nothing personal, but I'm going full Team Evans on this one.

 

[Mike Evans]

Tell me, when did you get back from the future?

OSD with touch/mouse cursors? Why not?

Because that's not how we wanted the Elite future to be like.

 

[Komemiute]

Tell me, when did you get back from the future?

OSD with touch/mouse cursors? Why not?

As I wrote I use an HOTAS and having to drop my right hand and shift position every time to click on stuff would really bother me.
As of now with the Thrustmaster Warthog I can do all really Hands On Throttle And Stick. Pretty much a win for me.

You're allowed not to like it, just don't assume stuff for the whole human race. There ARE different opinions around.

 

[CaptainKremmen]

Tell me, when did you get back from the future?

OSD with touch/mouse cursors? Why not?

Why guess?

Here's someone who was ACTUALLY from the REAL future, showing us what happened when we gave him a mouse as an interface device...

 

[Gogster]

Because that's not how we wanted the Elite future to be like.

Clearly not a UX man.

History is on your side, of course, we're 90+ years into the motor vehicle and our primary input is still via hard controls, some higher end cars have adopted voice, for which VA fills that gap.

If I could live for another thousand years and saw that our greatest development was a button to eject cargo, I'd be mildly disappointed.

 

[Vincent Starson]

No it wasn't. It was designed to be used without a mouse, that's all. More specifically we didn't want you using an operating system interaction method to control the ship's functions when you're supposed to be pretending to be a pilot handling a ship with a bunch of HOTAS like controls. Thus everything was designed to be done through HAT switches and buttons. We did not want a mouse cursor on top of the screen in space flight as that's the exact opposite of how a pilot in this universe would interact with their ship.

I hadn't thought about it that way. I apologize for thinking otherwise.

I just recently noticed I can control the station menu with my joystick's hat that's bound to vertical / horizontal thrust, and trigger is enter. Hats off to the brilliant design

 

[Alshain]

No, I am not suggesting FD copy Star wars or Eve, but as an example, having an onscreen representation of how many jumps left in a long chain would be nice.

The entire route system/galaxy map needs some massive improvement.

1. Show us how many jumps left in a route.
2. Let me make my own multi-jump routes. Stop forcing me into economical or fastest!
3. Allow us to make "round trip" routes so we don't have to keep jumping back to the galaxy map for 2-jump trade routes.
4. Let us filter systems in the galaxy map by distance.

That is just off the top of my head.

As I wrote I use an HOTAS and having to drop my right hand and shift position every time to click on stuff would really bother me.
As of now with the Thrustmaster Warthog I can do all really Hands On Throttle And Stick. Pretty much a win for me.

You're allowed not to like it, just don't assume stuff for the whole human race. There ARE different opinions around.

Yep, I use the T.Flight HOTAS and I find the interface perfect. While in flight, just about the only thing I have to move my hands from the stick for is deploying landing gear and retracting hardpoints, which are on my lower buttons. There are a few less used keyboard keys as well (headlook) but I don't need those at critical moments.

 

[Gogster]

I hadn't thought about it that way. I apologize for thinking otherwise.

No, no, no - think otherwise, never stop thinking. Question why things are the way they are!!

 

[purf]

Trigger Warning: EVE

As much as I don't get the Excel in Space / Spreadsheet remarks about EVE Online, it plays like using your standard Operation System indeed.
Click click move window click click window's in the way move window more click click click minimise window click click maximise again.

So:

No it wasn't. It was designed to be used without a mouse, that's all. More specifically we didn't want you using an operating system interaction method to control the ship's functions when you're supposed to be pretending to be a pilot handling a ship with a bunch of HOTAS like controls. Thus everything was designed to be done through HAT switches and buttons. We did not want a mouse cursor on top of the screen in space flight as that's the exact opposite of how a pilot in this universe would interact with their ship.

Absolutely great job here!

 

[Alex988]

No it wasn't. It was designed to be used without a mouse, that's all. More specifically we didn't want you using an operating system interaction method to control the ship's functions when you're supposed to be pretending to be a pilot handling a ship with a bunch of HOTAS like controls. Thus everything was designed to be done through HAT switches and buttons. We did not want a mouse cursor on top of the screen in space flight as that's the exact opposite of how a pilot in this universe would interact with their ship.

+1, even as a pc-only gamer: please never ever add mouse support for the pilot interface. It's amazing how it is.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

No it wasn't. It was designed to be used without a mouse, that's all. More specifically we didn't want you using an operating system interaction method to control the ship's functions when you're supposed to be pretending to be a pilot handling a ship with a bunch of HOTAS like controls. Thus everything was designed to be done through HAT switches and buttons. We did not want a mouse cursor on top of the screen in space flight as that's the exact opposite of how a pilot in this universe would interact with their ship.

+1, even as a pc-only gamer: please never ever add mouse support for the pilot interface. It's amazing how it is.

 

[Kiblams]

It's not just aesthetics, the static HUD elements do wonders for the useability of VR such as headtracking and the rift.
.
I have tried headtracking in mechwarrior and because of the HUD elements moving with your head, orientation for aiming is nigh on impossible.
.
I applaud FD for using this method as without it we can all throw away our VR stuff.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

Mike, I will add this - this was absolutely brave step and right one. Thanks for all hard work to make it work.

 

[Vincent Starson]

No, no, no - think otherwise, never stop thinking. Question why things are the way they are!!

Of course, but I did more than question I assumed.

 

[RingoD123]

We did not want a mouse cursor on top of the screen in space flight as that's the exact opposite of how a pilot in this universe would interact with their ship.

To play Devils Advocate here, can you explain the implementation of the debug camera using these same "rules" (in bold in your quote), otherwise it just seems like your only applying this logic to the systems you want, and therefore the point about "mouse cursors on screen - why not" is valid, it would be a detractor from the game "lore" in order to add gameplay functions, just like having a debug camera rather than a physical camera drone.