Game Discussions Star Citizen Discussion Thread v12

[Agony_Aunt]

People running ruining immurshun!

Walking : a small thing, but an important one (as for me) - Star Citizen Spectrum

Dear Space-Travellers, I'm just curious on this topic : I'm… embarrassed when I'm surrounded by folks who run like freaks all around stations and cities. I know that time is precious, but time is...

robertsspaceindustries.com

Comments are a fun read.

I played out going to the rooftop club, going to the bar, ordering a drink from the bartender after he had dealt with another NPC, and then went and sat at one of the tables. Whilst sitting there I was looking out at the nighttime clouds, the cargo barges and player ships flying past and through a gap in the clouds I saw the stars, realizing that out there, there were other players going about their business and soon there'll be another system of players doing their own thing.

Peak Citizen right there.

 

[sovapid]

I do all the time and have done for the last 9 months or so. I never ever said that ED UI is not functional at all, it is and does what's needed to be done, just not elegantly. As a UI designer it ticks all the wrong boxes for me, its awful.

As a side note i will say i understand the reason why in a way. ED has to be useable to those on PC but also on XBox and the like.

Obviously a UI designer and not a UX designer.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

The interfaces in SC are pretty much standardized. You can get in any ship and be fine if you have played the game for any amount of time.

At least for now........

Strange. I've had backers tell me how much better they are in SC because each one is different, not the same like in ED.

I mean, assuming you're talking about the layout right? Panels always in the same place?

Always got the impression (because i haven't flown enough ships in SC to know otherwise, you know, things like bugs preventing me from even getting to a ship) that each was wildly different, and i got that same impression from screenshots. Maybe that's just because i'm not understanding what i'm seeing, or all the greebles and whatnot around make each one look radically different.

 

[VR Golgot]

Yes, worse in 3.14.

The triangle is probably fine.

But using elite as the base line, you can at a glance see where you are distributing power and the status of the 3 "buckets" all in one glance. All that information is located in the same area of the screen.

In SC, the power triangle may or may not display default in an mfd. But you can put it in any available mfd. The power "bucket" for your weapons is towards the upper right side of the screen and each weapon has its own bucket. Power bucket for thrusters is towards the upper left side of the screen and disappears if it is full. I dont think there is a power bucket for shields, you just have to see if you shields are recharging. Shields recharging is also in an mfd. So the info you need for power management is all over the place and not readable at a glance.

Then, if you are in combat you want to be aware of 3 things:

• Your ship status
• Target ship status
• Power triangle status

All of these are in MFD's. However there are ships like the Gladius where you can only see 2 MFD's without looking down. This doesnt affect all ships.

SC has a velocity indicator the indicates the direction the ship is traveling in. When decoupled the ship is not always traveling in the direction the nose is pointing. In 3.14 the velocity indicator now disappears when it gets somewhat close to the ship traveling in the direction of travel. With years of depending on the velocity indicator this is a huge step back for me. It is irritating enough that it makes me not want to play.

In 3.13 your velocity is indicated by a bar graph type thing that fills up as speed increases. It turns read above SCM. It is one of the few things that is resistant to getting washed out by the background. In 3.14 the bar graph is permanently filled in and there is a tiny carrot that indicates speed. It is hard to see under optimal conditions and is washed out all the time.

thanks for coming to my TED talk

Nice one ta

Arg so the velocity carrot is new with 3.14? I figured that'd be some legacy thing that'd get a buff. Meh.

Is the velocity vector disappearing a designed thing? Like they think you don't need that info when roughly aligned with your direction of travel or something?

The capacitor info being scattered / unavailable at a glance does seem pretty daft.

 

[JohnMarchant]

Obviously a UI designer and not a UX designer.

I design HUD's and MFD's actually.

 

[sovapid]

Strange. I've had backers tell me how much better they are in SC because each one is different, not the same like in ED.

I mean, assuming you're talking about the layout right? Panels always in the same place?

Always got the impression (because i haven't flown enough ships in SC to know otherwise, you know, things like bugs preventing me from even getting to a ship) that each was wildly different, and i got that same impression from screenshots. Maybe that's just because i'm not understanding what i'm seeing, or all the greebles and whatnot around make each one look radically different.

No, not really.

The basic UI, your speed, targeting, scanning, missiles launching etc is all exactly the same between all ships.

There are 2 different types of radars. But all ships have one of the two radars. Radar being the round thing right in the middle of the UI that shows ships around you. There is a 3d one that is just like one in elite and there is a 2d one.

Each ship has different layouts for where MFD's are. But the screens you put in the MFD's are identical between ships.

For me in the MFD's in 3.13 i just care about my status and target ship status. I put them in the MFD's directly to the left and right of the radar. All the combat ships have MFD's located on either side of the radar.

The only thing that does change from ship to ship are "buttons" for like turning on the engines, opening doors etc. All of these things are available as keybinds and I use the keybinds for all those functions. The only reason to use the in game buttons is if you are an RP nerd and if you are an RP nerd you deserve to suffer.

 

[sovapid]

Is the velocity vector disappearing a designed thing? Like they think you don't need that info when roughly aligned with your direction of travel or something?

It has been acknowledged, so I'd say it was intentional. And they will look at making it an option not to disappear.

Spectrum - v7.52.0

RSI’s Spectrum is our integrated community and player interaction service, including chat, forums, game integration, and Player Organization facilities. Player Organizations (“Org”...

robertsspaceindustries.com

And I see where they are coming from. The UI does get cluttered on center in some combat situations, but getting rid of the TVI is a no go for me.

 

[Trinity Star]

Any flightstick recommendations for SC? I currently use keyboard and mouse.

 

[Surefoot]

That is exactly why i used the terms depth and breadth. In SC you can interact with every button, door and such, walk around your ship, take a nap and no doubt in the future stop to go to the toilet, that's depth, ok bugs aside. They have created an immersive game.

You are mixing immersion with depth. Arguably ED is more immersive in VR. In SC all of these buttons (aboard ships) do nothing and a there for show, save for door buttons. All of these extra terminals and copilot seats are there for show only. Also the "no doubt in the future" means absolutely zero. We ARE "in the future" from where these were promised, actually, back in 2012 if one of us would post that these features would be nowhere near any completion timeline by 2021, we would have been downvoted to oblivion or even banned. This actually happened to people who predicted a release by 2018 (back then the planned released was... 2014.)

ED has breadth, because whilst it does not allow you to do most of those things it has a massive universe and infinite diversity. Except of course much of it looks the same and you get one ship UI like it or leave it.

Well i can go anywhere in the galaxy, see vastly different systems, stars and planets, follow the neutron highway, and carry passengers for sightseeing in remote locations. I can also complete multiple game loops that include cargo shipping, infinite missions (procedural..) in many, many places, actually smuggle illegal stuff (where are the smuggling mechanics in SC ? ...), in ED i can also go and interact (fight, help, etc.) AI that actually works etc. So while criticism aimed at ED is valid in context, in this case ED is much deeper in gameplay than anything SC can offer.

As my original quote said, i would like the visuals of SC and the gameplay of ED. To much depth is not a good thing really. Oh look call a lift, nothing happens for 25 seconds, you walk away and then it turns up, that sort of depth is probably to much.

Especially when the button offers NO feedback, when the said lift then warps around the room you are in with doors sliding across, then said lift blocks you from entering or crashed the physics engine and kills your character.

 

[VR Golgot]

So looking forward to CIG implementing Earth or Terra! In 2050.

The exclusive shop plushies will be ace

 

[Mole HD]

Strange. I've had backers tell me how much better they are in SC because each one is different, not the same like in ED.

I mean, assuming you're talking about the layout right? Panels always in the same place?

Always got the impression (because i haven't flown enough ships in SC to know otherwise, you know, things like bugs preventing me from even getting to a ship) that each was wildly different, and i got that same impression from screenshots. Maybe that's just because i'm not understanding what i'm seeing, or all the greebles and whatnot around make each one look radically different.

Cockpits are different for each ship or make of ship, the HUD layout is standardised but is different colours dependent on the ship manufacturer, MFD placements are ship specific but they can all be switched to a preferred display option like Sovapid mentioned. Combat players use the HUD more than players who are just faffing about hauling boxes, mining or shuffling cargo so the display on both the HUD and the MFD's need to be instantly readable and obvious.

Right now, the new HUD seems to be set up for general pilots rather than combat pilots...all the info I need to fart about in a Prospector or a cargo hauler are there and obvious...but flying a fighter during Xeno in PTU was a nightmare...my eyes were all over the HUD, glancing down at MFD's and wondering what had happened to my shields. It's clumsy and the layout is wrong.

 

[LittleAnt]

You are mixing immersion with depth. Arguably ED is more immersive in VR. In SC all of these buttons (aboard ships) do nothing and a there for show, save for door buttons.

No. Each button you can press has a function.

All of these extra terminals and copilot seats are there for show only.

Not anymore in 3.14

 

[Mole HD]

Any flightstick recommendations for SC? I currently use keyboard and mouse.

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Anything from a Thrustmaster T-16000 hotas to a Warthog or Virpil-posh-stuff. I use an X56, same as I do in ED. As a mid range hotas price wise, I can't fault the X56 for anything...flight sims or space games.

 

[Mole HD]

No. Each button you can press has a function.

Not anymore in 3.14

Yup...beat me to the reply there. Clickable switches and buttons have been a thing for quite some time, the newer cockpits are obviously more suited to it since they were designed to have the function...all older cockpits have been converted to have the functional switches too...as far as I know. Having a co-pilot as missile operator is pretty good too. Especially for Agony...there are also keyboard shortcuts for all the functions, it's nice to have the choice

 

[Red Anders]

Dated? It looks like they let some intern fresh out of university full of ideas that have been drilled into him by the latest course in modern UI design. You know the sort of stuff. That is hailed as the next revolution in UI design but is universally hated by users.

The sort of thinking that gave us the Windows 10 "Settings" menu (and loss of actual ability to change anything useful) and the Microsoft "Ribbon" - yes, i'm still salty about that one, more than 10 years later.

I still can't do anything worthwhile in Word to this day since the advent of the ribbon. By the time I've gone through my third of fourth iteration of 'oh for f's sake where the hell is...' I end up just e-mailing somebody who can actually be bothered with it.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Each ship has different layouts for where MFD's are.

Ah, that's probably it. Thanks.

 

[sovapid]

Any flightstick recommendations for SC? I currently use keyboard and mouse.

Like Mole said.

T16000 for spending a normal amount of money.

Virpil of VKB if you are spending a nutty amount of money.

If you arent doing combat type stuff, the X56 is nice because it has a lot of buttons and switches, but the joystick isnt as accurate as a t16000. Conversely the t16000 doesnt have a lot of easily accessible buttons on the joystick itself.

 

[Darkfyre99]

Don't think so. Looks more of interest to the Space Engineers demographic.

There is some overlap…

 

[Darkfyre99]

And remember, the new Dune movie is out before he leaves for the UK! He might demand the sandworm is reworked!

I want an ornithopter!

 

[Agony_Aunt]

I want an ornithopter!

Certainly sir.

$500 with LTI. Warbond only.