Focused Feedback Thread - Outfitting UI in Odyssey

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Bruce G

Senior Community Manager
Greetings Commanders,

Last week we posted a forum thread discussing optimisation and map UI in Odyssey. We'd like to thank you all for your comments and feedback which were gratefully received by the development team. A series of changes to UI based on that feedback can be expected in an upcoming patch alongside other improvements.

Now it's time to turn our attention to the Outfitting UI. We're well aware that this is a hot topic and want to ensure that feedback is gathered accurately and effectively. For each suggestion or piece of feedback, please clearly state the observation and beneath it offer any suggestions you have to improve the experience. Keeping these brief and to the point where possible will also be helpful.

As before, any replies to other comments or off topic/non-constructive posts may be removed to keep the thread as practical and useful as possible. For unrelated discussion, please find or create other threads over in Dangerous Discussion.

O7
 

A_D

A_D
By far the most dangerous issue currently is the destructive default of selling even engineered modules without being clear that will happen, otherwise rebuying sold modules needs to be made more obvious

I think the best solution here would be to 1, default to store when a module is modified, and 2, adding a red ! marker as a warning about selling modules.

As for rebuys, perhaps a rebuy modules section on the module store ( in accessing in any way, from loadout or store buttons)

I honestly also wouldnt mind just dropping the module store as it does nothing super helpful vs the loadout interface to the same.
 

Kathryn E Janeway

K
1. Allow players to modify a ship they are NOT 'sitting' in. There are many times when you have some cargo and need to switch to another ship you already own but that doesn't have sufficient cargo space - thereby preventing you from switching. If you could add/change outfitting to a stored ship you would stop this huge annoyance.
2. Allowing players to modify ships they are 'NOT SITTING' in would also allow players to move engineered equipement from one (unused) ship to the ship they are currently it, negating the need to keep swapping ships, or engineering two of the same devices.
3. Players need to be able to select a bay, and then be presented with up to three options - buy from store, load from storage and rebuy sold item - the 'load from storage' should only be selectable if you have something in your storage that fits that class / category of bay. i.e. if you have a 7A in storage, but the ship can only support up to 5A then the choice shouldn't be available. You should NEVER expect players to have to remember what they have in storage and then progress though a large and cumbersome UI to get to place it where they want it.
4. The side list in two columns is VERY poor UX when it comes to quickly seeing the highest spec vs lowest spec - one column is ideal.
5. When viewing items in storage, allow them to be broken down by category
6. Engineered items should be much more clearly marked and type of engineering should also be clearly visible without having to drill down into the item.
7. Ideal: Be able to drag drop equipment from store/storage onto 2D outlines of ships slots. No more menu diving and going in, down, select, up, select etc. Have a list on the left - either Store or Storage and on the right two plan views - one hardpoints and utilities, the other core and optional and drag items from list on left and drop into the bays on the right.

This should work for every ship you own, without you having to be 'in' it.
8. Use colours to show class levels, i.e. you can differentiate colours and shapes quicker than words.
9. If you have icons, always have titles with them.
 

Athan

Athan
If this can include the Shipyard UI... we really need to be able to see some information about a stored ship without switching to it. This is possible in the Horizons/Old UI, but in the new one the only ship-specific information is how many credits you'll get if you sell it.

1. Jump range
2. Cargo capacity
3. Weapons loadout
4. etc - basically go look at how the old/Horizons UI worked for this and put that information back on the shipyard UI.
 

Yehuda Moon

Y
1- Seeing ship module loadouts BEFORE getting into a ship and going to the loadout screen. This was something we have in Horizons which is distinctly missing here
2- Clearer module descriptions including grade, size, and any modifications
3- Selling a module should not be the default...full stop...someone is going to, if not already, rage quit from accidentally selling modified stuff
4- More clarity in being able to equip modules. As it stands it takes sigifantly less time to quit, load up Horizons, set up a ship, and log back to Oddy.

The UI itself LOOKS great. It just needs some refinements in the UX department.

Easiest fix for now is to roll the UI back to Horizons. This is a clear example of "ain't broke, don't fix it"
 
Last edited:

Ninjitsu

N
Critical issues:
  1. When accessing loadout screen, no way to see or mount stored modules. https://issues.frontierstore.net/issue-detail/31832
  2. No way to see which engineering mods have been applied to stored modules. https://issues.frontierstore.net/issue-detail/31444
  3. When equipping a stored module, the default replacement option SELLs the replaced module. The toggle to change this to "store" is very small and non-obvious. It also has to be set every time you go into this screen. Remove the toggle and make it two EQUAL BUT CLEAR buttons, store and sell.
  4. Should be an easy way to filter a list of modules currently in the station.
I like that stored modules are now arranged by type, but perhaps having the old list view would be nicer instead of the store-like view (but with filters).

I also like that it's quicker to see the modification details of equipped modules. This should be extended to stored modules too.

Late edit:
More issues:
5. When you are replacing an equipped module, the new module will show up when you mouse-over the old one. this makes it very confusing.
6. When selecting a module to be equipped in say, slot B, it will show you the weapons of the same type already in other slots. This becomes very confusing and i don't think it serves any purpose.
 
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HuggyFace

H
We currently cannot see what modifications have been applied to a module without first equipping that module to our ship. We were able to do this in Horizons but cannot in Odyssey. Removing this makes it all but impossible to outfit a ship when you have multiples of a module with different modifications.
 

Pisodeuorrior

P
Ok I had a conversation on the following topic with a lot of people and this is CRUCIAL. Just marginally related to the outfitting UI but bear with me.

In Horizons, the Shipyard window displayed the modules equipped on each ship while selected.

Even remotely, I could access the "Transfer Ship to this station" menu (I can't remember the exact name, you know what it is) and have the same information.
It was still far from perfect, as you couldn't know which modification each module had, but it was something, at least you could tell what was engineered and what wasn't.

The reason why this was crucial is because there's that hated limit of 128 items in players' hangar. This forces people to buy ships with the sole purpose of storing modules in them. I know some people who own dozens of ships, named "Storage 1, Storage 2" etc. I have myself quite a few.

Now, if while outfitting a ship (here's my plug into the outfitting UI) I decided that I wanted to transfer a module from another ship, in Horizons I could go the the shipyard, check which ship had it, jump on it, store the module and equip it in the ship I was working on.

Now that information is completely absent in Odyssey, which means that when a player wants to get a module from another ship he owns (and I assure you they can be A LOT), he has to physically board each single ship and then get to its outfitting menu to figure out what's in it.

I'm sure I don't need to point out how terribly long this takes.

Either that or, as people suggested, log out, log into Horizons and make things quick.

Long story short, Odyssey lacks a way to display ships modules at a glance and it's a big problem.

Solutions 1 (best) : provide a list of modules installed on each ship through the shipyard menu, possibly including engineered modifications.
Solution 2 (maybe better): include a page in the outfitting menu with the whole list of modules stored on other ships, and add the chance to easily transfer them from one ship to another.
Solution 3 (the greatest): implement solution 1 or 2, and at the same time do something about the 128 items limit and increase it to a reasonable number. It's still doesn't make sense that I can't store more than 128 modules on a carrier that is literally bigger than an outpost.
 
Last edited:

MikeMetalic

MikeMetalic
I like the way the new UI looks.

I want to be able to view what engineering and effects I have applied to any module without it being fitted to the ship I'm currently sat in.

You should be able to click "equip module" without first having to few up a space to fit it into, as in Horizons.

Selling engineered modules should not be the default option.

Maybe have ship loadouts like we now have suit loadouts. You select how you want you ship equipped from a list of pre-defined loadouts, click once. You ship is configured and ready to go. I would then be very, very happy.
 

Voggix

V
Positive Feedback:
  • Stored modules sorted into categories in the same way as the store - PLEASE KEEP THIS NO MATTER WHAT. This is a huge improvement over scrolling through a list of 120 modules with no rhyme or reason to it.
  • Ability to sell existing equipped modules when transferring in from storage - yes please I don't want to store the E-grade default I'm replacing. Please do make the option to sell/store a bit more conspicuous
Opportunities:
  • The top level menu has an option for module shop and one for stored modules - why then when I select module shop am I still being confused by listings of my stored modules?
  • The dots in the store listings are meaningless - they are not the max size available or the count of available modules. Suggest dropping them altogether.
  • The dots denoting the size of individual modules in the store is a major downgrade from just showing the number. It is also inconsistent with how the modules are displayed in the ship loadout section. Please just lose the dots and use numbers.
  • In the stored modules interface the individual module detail screen is 50% blank space - please include engineering details like blueprint, level and special effect.
  • Shipyard menu... there is just too much wrong here. You have removed an admittedly utilitarian (but functional) interface and replaced it with a pretty picture of the ship (which takes forever to load anyway) with no functionality. The lack of equipped module detail is huge miss. Suggest a complete revert to the previous menu while developing something that has BOTH form and function.
Appreciate all the team is doing and the pragmatic approach to fixing Odyssey.
 

Gwallt

Gwallt
Roll back shipyard and outfitting to the Horizons UI. The new one is cumbersome, confusing and uninformative. I have accidentally sold a module I wanted to store, though fortunately it wasn't an engineered one, so no real harm done. Had it been engineered, I'd have been opening a ticket, which is the last thing needed at the moment.

As someone above said, it wasn't broke, so why on earth fix it? "Improvements" should make things faster and more intuitive, not less so.

If rolling back is viewed as too much of a climb down or professional insult to whoever designed the new UI, then I do have one suggestion. The scrollbar selection for a new ship is almost unusable, I usually end up accidentally getting in the wrong ship. Get rid of the scrollbar and provide a tiled display of the available ships. Once one is selected, display its main stats with a "Switch to this ship" confirmation button.

Or just go back to the old style. For pity's sake, do you not have more important things to worry about than stubbornly holding onto something that no-one asked for and no-one wants?
 

Pigletslastand

Pigletslastand
Bruce G said:
Greetings Commanders,

Last week we posted a forum thread discussing optimisation and map UI in Odyssey. We'd like to thank you all for your comments and feedback which were gratefully received by the development team. A series of changes to UI based on that feedback can be expected in an upcoming patch alongside other improvements.

Now it's time to turn our attention to the Outfitting UI. We're well aware that this is a hot topic and want to ensure that feedback is gathered accurately and effectively. For each suggestion or piece of feedback, please clearly state the observation and beneath it offer any suggestions you have to improve the experience. Keeping these brief and to the point where possible will also be helpful.

As before, any replies to other comments or off topic/non-constructive posts may be removed to keep the thread as practical and useful as possible. For unrelated discussion, please find or create other threads over in Dangerous Discussion.

O7
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for this, we really appreciate you listening and working really hard guys, please pass on our thanks to the hard-working guys an gals behind the scenes.
 
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