About the authentic design

[Valorin]

Having a development team dedicated to this milestone is our continued and unwavering commitment to making Elite Dangerous the most authentic, ambitious, and expansive evolving space game in the world.

Not picking up on the hype about the 2020 update, but specifically grabbing the word "authentic" by the throat and taking a closer look.
As I am writing this I am catching up with DW2 and got a lot of jumping to do, so I got the time to write this post.

I like that sentence I quoted above, and when it comes to being authentic, Elite is way ahead of other games with its galaxy simulation. Lately though I think, authenticism has gotten way out of focus. There is the new lighting system and colour grading that tints the background and Milky Way in the star's colour (which I keep mentioning...), turning each and every system in an artist's interpretation of space, and not into anything nearly authentic. And yes, it's a game and all, but I thought the idea was to at least move towards authenticism and not away from it.

The issue above is a gameworld thing, but when I think "authentic" in a space game, I also think about the interface, the functions of my ship and how I control it.
Elite features lots and lots of keybinds for customizing ship control, which is just awesome. I can toggle flight assist, I have to ask for permission before I dock and I need to toggle landing gear and things like that. I have to manage power levels for optimal performance and I see every single thruster on my ship when looking at it from the outside. All of these seemingly small points are part of why I play Elite. The simulation. The feeling of being out there for real.
When I look at what's coming with the next update, which, in my opinion, are almost completely good things, especially for new players, I got more and more concerned about the cockpit interface. I never liked to have my CQC rank displayed, because that's not a Pilots Federation rank and I don't even participate in that sport. I also never liked how we have to type through the panels like back in the 90s when configuring a game started from DOS. If this was only a console game, okay, gamepads need that it seems, but for more than 3 decades I am using a mouse, and we are using them in the station menu. Why not in the ship as well.

Looking at the changes coming to the panels in the next update, I see a lot of tiles. Big buttons with nice symbols on them. I see the "help" function refering to the new pilot's manual, and there are button prompts in the galaxy map which have also been highlighted as a feature. In my opinion though it's not.
The design reminds me a lot of Steam's Big Picture mode. It doesn't look like space ship controls in the far future, but like the convenient interface the console user can use on his home TV while sitting far away from the screen and still being able to read the buttons. Doesn't seem at all authentic. Same with button prompts and "HELP" buttons in the cockpit. It dioesn't feel at all like piloting a space ship and again leads away from being authentic.

When opening the manifest of my cargo hold I want to see what I carry and functions that are associated with my cargo hold. I really, really don't want a button that leads me to a section of the manual explaining how trading works. As helpful as this is for new players, the existence of that button is backstabbing the simulation feel real hard.

So, ranting aside, I wonder if this will be going on like this. Don't get me wrong, I think the update is very good for the game and especially the new player experience, but if the additions are not optionial, it will hurt spirit of the game as a simulation and the sentence I quoted above should be changed and the "authentic" would have to be deleted.

TL;DR: Though the new updates brought a lot of good things to the game and will probably continue doing so, the design decisions made for shaders and interface lead away from the quoted "authentic" space game design. I'm sad about that and needed to rant.

 

[Jack Schitt]

Meh. Maybe there'll be an option to hide all the "help" related stuff? If not we can always ask.

As for the interface in general, as I said elsewhere when the superiority of mouse control was raised, I think UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, SELECT, TAB LEFT and TAB RIGHT is a perfectly fine control method for a cross-platform game with a complex UI. Like it or not, ED is designed to run equally well on consoles even if the peripherals available to PC users can offer a generally more immersive experience. This invites the argument that the interface we have is "lowest common denominator" but it's a perfectly OK denominator IMO.

To be honest, the older my eyes get and the slower my reactions are, the larger and more obvious the icons are the better. But that's very subjective.

As for authenticity of the simulation, I don't really see the issue. If mouse control was available and was displayed as a 2D pointer over the 3D cockpit, as used by many flight simulators for clicking on switches, to me this would take away some of the believability rather than enhancing it. In flight sims the pointer is a surrogate for the pilot's unseen fingers, but I can see my pilot's fingers in ED; they're on the HOTAS where they belong. Combining 2D pointer movement with VR or head tracking could also be problematic.

It might work better as 2D pointer over zoomed-in and locked 3D panels (more or less how the maps already work) but then I would have to ask myself what actual hardware my 34th century pilot was using to control that pointer. A mouse seems archaic, as well as problematic in zero-g. So from a realism perspective the mouse is likely already simulating some other unseen piece of 34th century tech.

 

[Valorin]

As for the interface in general, as I said elsewhere when the superiority of mouse control was raised, I think UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, SELECT, TAB LEFT and TAB RIGHT is a perfectly fine control method for a cross-platform game with a complex UI.

It's not about superiority at all. I fly with Hotas and actually only use mouse in the station menus, which is really SO much better. It's about the option to use mouse. I guess in the real thing it would work like a holo touch screen, so a mouse pointer would actually simulate that better than moving with cursor keys.

 

[Jack Schitt]

It's not about superiority at all. I fly with Hotas and actually only use mouse in the station menus, which is really SO much better. It's about the option to use mouse.

Fair enough. I guess it would be nice to have it as an option, as long as it was also available on console where a mouse is optional rather than there by default. I can't imagine a scenario in which I would find it preferable, but it would be a boring world if we all played in the same way. Personally I'd like to never have to take my hands of the HOTAS even for the maps, but the mouse is so convenient and the nubbin on the throttle is a poor substitute.

I rarely if ever use the mouse in the station menus but I did just try it while head tracking and it was surprisingly usable. I've been told it's much worse in VR but I have to take others' word for that. I will agree that it's kind of jarring to be able to use the mouse in the floating station menu but not in the ship's floating menus when they pop up. The ship's panels actually disable the pointer completely if you happen to head-track them into existence while pointing at the station menu. If mouse is your preferred interface choice that must grate.

I guess in the real thing it would work like a holo touch screen, so a mouse pointer would actually simulate that better than moving with cursor keys.

This is where our opinions have to part company again. If it's a holo touch screen my avatar should be touching it, which leaves that hole in the authenticity. I find it less of an immersive stretch to believe that my pilot is controlling things through his flight controls even though I can't see his fingers moving, than to believe that he's tapping on screens when he never moves his hands.

I'm happy to concede that optional mouse control everywhere would please some players without negatively affecting the others, and it's arguable that these are the sorts of win/win (or at least win/don't-lose) things FD should be aiming to implement in their smaller QOL updates prior to the big one.

I'm just not convinced that the argument is given any more weight by hanging it off a single isolated word in an official Announcement. But it was a good excuse to raise the subject again, and at least two of us are talking about it with another 80+ looking on, so I guess in that regard it did the job.

 

[VR CMDR Novindus]

I get where you’re coming from, and agree with the spirit of it, even though I tend to give greater concessions to gameplay over authenticity or simulation.

With the interface and HUD though, I feel the question that has to be asked is how do we know what a spaceship’s UI is going to function or look like that far into the future, such that we can fairly judge its authenticity? For all we know, UI design based on principles that advocate larger and more recognisable buttons, or game-like arrangement might be a standard, even including links to reference material such as a pilot’s handbook.

But I guess it’s more of a feeling you’re describing, relating to how pop culture submissions in the genre depict space flight controls and ship interfaces. Personally I would like a selection of ship interfaces, preferably customisable to some degree, which would allow what you’re getting at, among other options that would suit the preferences of others.

 

[Valorin]

But I guess it’s more of a feeling you’re describing, relating to how pop culture submissions in the genre depict space flight controls and ship interfaces. Personally I would like a selection of ship interfaces, preferably customisable to some degree, which would allow what you’re getting at, among other options that would suit the preferences of others.

That would be space ship heaven!
Options, toggles, customization. Let me kill of that tint and toggle off any button prompt and HELP button that connects my ship controls to an out-of-game help center. Whoever wants to keep it can do so.
Otherwise you are right of course, who knows what the interface of the future would look like? I'm just pretty sure it wouldn't look like Big Picture console screen. I don't know, you can say what you want about Star Citizen, but they really got the ship interface right. Very immersive and pretty believable.