I swear when frustrated. Too bad I do not have a microphone that could relay to Frontier what's currently going on in the game to frustrate me; that'd be a good measure for analytics, to figure out where there are interface problems.
Here's what's been bugging me so far:
Specifying a character name. The game is fullscreen and I have a Logitech Gamepad F310 attached. I use the mouse to click in the "name" field and the game minimizes. I bring it back and try again, the game minimizes again but this time the web browser opens up and takes me to the online store. This time I wise up and close the launcher and now I can click in the name field: apparenlty the fullscreen game is not the top-most window and the launcher is still on top (despite not being drawn).
I start the "Travel" tutorial, take my time and exit the station (on my very first try, without even scratching the paint, woah!) and now must retract the landing gear.
There are some hints scrolling on the screen about what the hotkeys do. Maybe one of them told me how to retract the landing gear but they scroll away too rapidly for me to read them.
I saw somewhere online that the keyboard INS key does that. It does not. I go to the Options > Controls and scroll, scroll, scroll through the various ways of controlling the ship and reach the end. Another swear. I more carefully scroll and find the "action", which is unassigned, and set it to the INS key.
Still in the options, I try to learn the gamepad "combos" to perform the various "actions". There's a whole lot of them, way too much for my little brain. Later on I figure out how to open the left (1) and right (3) panels, using menus to perform the actions rather than remembering hotkeys. That's better. But what would be better would be for the GUI to include hotbuttons.
Back to the options and gamepad "combos". Many of them are partially displayed: PAD X-PAD DPAD-RIG. Yeah, I can figure out that HT is missing, no biggie. Unless some combos use two buttons and a stick.
Alright, the landing gear is finally retracted. I saw the message about being 5km away from the station before being able to jump. Hrm, where's the station and how far away from it am I? Sure could have used an online status saying something like "Unable to jump since we are x km from station y". After some more time in the game I finally see that this is in fact there, in the lower right corner!
Hrm, now the controls are all messed up! Figured out why. Selecting the "Advanced Control Pad" configuration and specifying the "Insert" key to toggle the landing gear changes a LOT of OTHER controls! Woah!!
Reselecting "Advanced Control Pad" does not restore the settings. Big swear. I'm spending way too much time in the control configuration window. Read online that to reset the controls I have to delete C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options. Did that and it worked; the controls are reset.
Restarted the game and only the tutorials are available??? Slowly and loudly: W..T THE F..K!!! Figured it out. I need to press "Login" before pressing "Play". I have configured the login to remember my username and password. Please log me in automatically when I start the launcher.
Finally back in the game. Bought some Bauxite, which seems to be needed at Yakabugai. Left the station, opened the galaxy map, set my destination to Yakabugai and jumped, all from the galaxy map. Cool. Hrm, where is it? I don't see it on the screen. Am I going in the right direction?
Alright, finally saw it and moved toward it. Game tells me to slow down so I slow down, figuring out what those colored squares are for near the speed indicator; it's the recommended speed. Then the game tells me to exit faster then light speed so I turn the speed all the way to zero and...that's now how I'm supposed to do it. Back to the options, yay! Ok, not yay but another expletive. Got it, it's the same key at the one to jump, "J". Alright, where am I and where's Yakabugai? Oh no, not again.
Full stop. Open the Galaxy map. Yakabugai's 0.0 light years away so it's just a matter of seeing it. After many turns and twists I see something else and decide to investigate: it's right there in front of my while I still haven't managed to find my way back to Yakabugai.
Turns out I have found an undiscovered solar system. So, how do I discover stuff? Let's head close to the sun, maybe I'll get a message once I'm close enough. Huh, comms chatter? Someone's after me!. Quick, let's jump out of here!
Hey, would you look at that, THERE'S Yakabugai!! Alright, let's go there! While traveling, let's go back to the galaxy map and see what else is there. Cool, there's a system view, where I can see the sun, planets and even asteroid belts. Bah, can't select those items. It's ok, let's head for the sun then figure it out.
Oh cool, I can see the planet's orbits. There are planet's 3, 4 and 5's orbit. And the other way I see orbit's 2 and 1. Hrm, where are the asteroid belts? Back to the galaxy map. Asteroid belts are closest to the sun while planets with increasing numbers are further and further away. So the asteroid belts must be between planet 1 and the sun. Woot, found one!
After getting out of jump speed and almost ramming an asteroid, I get close to one and start firing on it. Hrm, nothing happens. Maybe I should try a smaller one. Hrm, nothing happens. Hrm. After some internet reading I figure out that I need mining lasers. Bah!
Time for (real life) work.
Here's what's been bugging me so far:
Specifying a character name. The game is fullscreen and I have a Logitech Gamepad F310 attached. I use the mouse to click in the "name" field and the game minimizes. I bring it back and try again, the game minimizes again but this time the web browser opens up and takes me to the online store. This time I wise up and close the launcher and now I can click in the name field: apparenlty the fullscreen game is not the top-most window and the launcher is still on top (despite not being drawn).
I start the "Travel" tutorial, take my time and exit the station (on my very first try, without even scratching the paint, woah!) and now must retract the landing gear.
There are some hints scrolling on the screen about what the hotkeys do. Maybe one of them told me how to retract the landing gear but they scroll away too rapidly for me to read them.
I saw somewhere online that the keyboard INS key does that. It does not. I go to the Options > Controls and scroll, scroll, scroll through the various ways of controlling the ship and reach the end. Another swear. I more carefully scroll and find the "action", which is unassigned, and set it to the INS key.
Still in the options, I try to learn the gamepad "combos" to perform the various "actions". There's a whole lot of them, way too much for my little brain. Later on I figure out how to open the left (1) and right (3) panels, using menus to perform the actions rather than remembering hotkeys. That's better. But what would be better would be for the GUI to include hotbuttons.
Back to the options and gamepad "combos". Many of them are partially displayed: PAD X-PAD DPAD-RIG. Yeah, I can figure out that HT is missing, no biggie. Unless some combos use two buttons and a stick.
Alright, the landing gear is finally retracted. I saw the message about being 5km away from the station before being able to jump. Hrm, where's the station and how far away from it am I? Sure could have used an online status saying something like "Unable to jump since we are x km from station y". After some more time in the game I finally see that this is in fact there, in the lower right corner!
Hrm, now the controls are all messed up! Figured out why. Selecting the "Advanced Control Pad" configuration and specifying the "Insert" key to toggle the landing gear changes a LOT of OTHER controls! Woah!!
Reselecting "Advanced Control Pad" does not restore the settings. Big swear. I'm spending way too much time in the control configuration window. Read online that to reset the controls I have to delete C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options. Did that and it worked; the controls are reset.
Restarted the game and only the tutorials are available??? Slowly and loudly: W..T THE F..K!!! Figured it out. I need to press "Login" before pressing "Play". I have configured the login to remember my username and password. Please log me in automatically when I start the launcher.
Finally back in the game. Bought some Bauxite, which seems to be needed at Yakabugai. Left the station, opened the galaxy map, set my destination to Yakabugai and jumped, all from the galaxy map. Cool. Hrm, where is it? I don't see it on the screen. Am I going in the right direction?
Alright, finally saw it and moved toward it. Game tells me to slow down so I slow down, figuring out what those colored squares are for near the speed indicator; it's the recommended speed. Then the game tells me to exit faster then light speed so I turn the speed all the way to zero and...that's now how I'm supposed to do it. Back to the options, yay! Ok, not yay but another expletive. Got it, it's the same key at the one to jump, "J". Alright, where am I and where's Yakabugai? Oh no, not again.
Full stop. Open the Galaxy map. Yakabugai's 0.0 light years away so it's just a matter of seeing it. After many turns and twists I see something else and decide to investigate: it's right there in front of my while I still haven't managed to find my way back to Yakabugai.
Turns out I have found an undiscovered solar system. So, how do I discover stuff? Let's head close to the sun, maybe I'll get a message once I'm close enough. Huh, comms chatter? Someone's after me!. Quick, let's jump out of here!
Hey, would you look at that, THERE'S Yakabugai!! Alright, let's go there! While traveling, let's go back to the galaxy map and see what else is there. Cool, there's a system view, where I can see the sun, planets and even asteroid belts. Bah, can't select those items. It's ok, let's head for the sun then figure it out.
Oh cool, I can see the planet's orbits. There are planet's 3, 4 and 5's orbit. And the other way I see orbit's 2 and 1. Hrm, where are the asteroid belts? Back to the galaxy map. Asteroid belts are closest to the sun while planets with increasing numbers are further and further away. So the asteroid belts must be between planet 1 and the sun. Woot, found one!
After getting out of jump speed and almost ramming an asteroid, I get close to one and start firing on it. Hrm, nothing happens. Maybe I should try a smaller one. Hrm, nothing happens. Hrm. After some internet reading I figure out that I need mining lasers. Bah!
Time for (real life) work.
