Interface Suggestions

[trumpet]

Loving the beta. I'm terrible. But I love it anyway.

Not sure where the suggestions box is for this stage of dev but in the long run here are a few suggestions for the cockpit and station interface (feel free to move this thread to where it should correctly be if you have to)

1.) Key Bindings
It'd be great to load in the keybindings for Frontier or First Encounters as a preset to get started with. Once I was flying around in space I keep finding myself pressing F8 for hyperspace or F2 for Nav etc etc.. '

Further to that it would be great to give communications its own binding rather than having to switch to it by bringing up the lefthand side console - actually any of the console panels should really by able to have their own binding... that would be very helpful. I've worked around it so that left side panel is both F2 (nav in FE2) and also F4 (comms in FE2) so that my muscle memory doesn't fail me but it'd be nice to go straight to comms

2.) Speaking of Comms - Faces eventually??!!!!

I've dived in and out of sandpit space games across the years including Evochron which is pretty decent ... but one of the reasons why I kept coming back to FE2 would have to be those weird faces that would show up when you were taking a job on the bulletin board or just docking etc etc - it made the NPCs you were interacting with more personable somehow. Rather than just reading some text... suddenly you were looking at a person asking you to take them to Sol and insisting there'd be no trouble

So yeah it'd be great to see faces like that eventually in comms - maybe in the orange monochrome of the interface like a bad security camera video feed to stay inline with the cool interface you have. Having a face pop up as you're attacked saying "You're not so tough!" or whatever would add impact - the in combat messages get a little lost at the moment

3.) Targeting tunnels for celestial & ships

Oh how I miss these - no seriously, am I missing these somewhere in some setting?? Currently if I set a course for another star I kind of rotate blindly around trying to orientate myself in the direction of the star--- the old targeting tunnels from FE2 were really helpful at bringing a ship around to its right course - both for celestial object and when dogfighting. I know they're not for everyone but they'd be great to have back

this game is going to be SO GOOD. I definitely don't have the skills to stay alive long enough to make any money... And I don't have enough time in my life to increase my skills enough to change this -- but nevertheless it's so great to be back in the Elite universe flying a goddamn sidewinder of all things... pesky Sidewinders... I miss my Asp! :smilie:

 

[SnowGhost]

3.) Targeting tunnels for celestial & ships

Oh how I miss these - no seriously, am I missing these somewhere in some setting?? Currently if I set a course for another star I kind of rotate blindly around trying to orientate myself in the direction of the star---

Yes.
The compas in the top right of the scanner shows you where the current target is. It it's bright it's in front of you somewhere, if it's dimmer, it's behind you. When it's bright & centered, it's right in front of you,

 

[mckayi]

The interface will get more cluttered, once they add icons to show when your gear is down or cargo scoop deployed it will become a very busy place.....

 

[Iskariot]

3.) Targeting tunnels for celestial & ships

Oh how I miss these - no seriously, am I missing these somewhere in some setting?? Currently if I set a course for another star I kind of rotate blindly around trying to orientate myself in the direction of the star--- the old targeting tunnels from FE2 were really helpful at bringing a ship around to its right course - both for celestial object and when dogfighting. I know they're not for everyone but they'd be great to have back

I would love targeting tunnels that are projected onto an optimal course.
Because it would be helpful, but also because it looks cool.

 

[trumpet]

The interface will get more cluttered, once they add icons to show when your gear is down or cargo scoop deployed it will become a very busy place.....

My hope is they keep working on adding the interface - one person's clutter may just well be another man's lifeline... but the ability to toggle HUD systems / readouts would be useful

 

[trumpet]

Yes.
The compas in the top right of the scanner shows you where the current target is. It it's bright it's in front of you somewhere, if it's dimmer, it's behind you. When it's bright & centered, it's right in front of you,

Ah yeah right ok- I wondered if that was used for missiles... that makes sense... and is probe useful... I'd still like the targeting tunnels though - its funny as they almost show up in FTL

 

[Memnoch]

2.) Speaking of Comms - Faces eventually??!!!!

This could go one of two ways and one of them ranges somewhere from dreadful to laughable. Do you use live action head and shoulders? Or do you use computer animation.

If you go live action, in a game with potentially hundreds of thousands of inhabited worlds and colonies, FD are going to have to explain why there are so many clones in the universe.

If they go the CGI route we had better hope that their modelling is top notch otherwise it just won't work. Within this they could go a few directions too such as stylised or lifelike. Stylised won't attempt to look like real people and can then be forgiven if they look odd but if you go the lifelike approach and get it wrong you have the worst possible outcome: uncanny valley.

I think voices would be enough rather than graphical comms. What would be interesting to see would be if FD come up with a series of stock phrases they would like in the game, and put it out to the community to voice! I'm sure we would all jump at the chance to even do it for free. Just one stock phrase for vetting purposes to see if the voice is suitable for the game and then others would follow.

 

[trumpet]

This could go one of two ways and one of them ranges somewhere from dreadful to laughable. Do you use live action head and shoulders? Or do you use computer animation.

If you go live action, in a game with potentially hundreds of thousands of inhabited worlds and colonies, FD are going to have to explain why there are so many clones in the universe.

If they go the CGI route we had better hope that their modelling is top notch otherwise it just won't work. Within this they could go a few directions too such as stylised or lifelike. Stylised won't attempt to look like real people and can then be forgiven if they look odd but if you go the lifelike approach and get it wrong you have the worst possible outcome: uncanny valley.

I think voices would be enough rather than graphical comms. What would be interesting to see would be if FD come up with a series of stock phrases they would like in the game, and put it out to the community to voice! I'm sure we would all jump at the chance to even do it for free. Just one stock phrase for vetting purposes to see if the voice is suitable for the game and then others would follow.

Def not live action - but I am guessing you were thinking along those lines as a throwback to FFE!!

3d model faces would be totally acceptable especially if the image was orange monochrome like the rest of the interface

Skyrim and others have a wide range of face shapes colours for example I'm sure the masters of procedural (espec as they spent so long on the outsider which would have had procedural 3d model chars )

Procedural voice just isn't there yet - that would be uncanny valley & pre-recorded would be limited surely