[Multiple Suggestions] A selection of UI/HUD improvements

[Nero Tacitus]

+1 to everything except 7 & 8.

I'd also prefer HUD colors be nonspecific, like engine/weapon colors. No reason to drag factions into it, or bind them to combos like paintjobs.

 

[Evil Flanker]

Love the suggestions, all of them, I have 3 of my own that annoy me in the UI..

Contacts, when in a CZ or RES auto scrolling in contacts when the game adds new contact items it makes it difficult to target the item you want.

1. Contacts Panel: Disable scrolling of new items in the contact list. (Disable auto-sort?) - Selecting the material you want to scoop .when in a CZ or RES can be a nightmare.

2. Contacts Panel: Have a distance to the object on the right side in brackets.. [1.24km] - I have no idea which materials in CZ / RES are closest.

3. Outfitting Modules: Have an option to sort by: Class Size (Low > High, High > Low) and Module Type - I have a lot of stored modules.

 

[Daynen]

A minor, but very specific change I'd like to add to this list:

When we hit 2 to bring up our social panel (wings, friends, chat, etc.) It needs to NOT automatically start a chat message. More often than not, I'm trying to manage wing status, look for friends, or maybe I've even accidentally hit 2 instead of 1 or 3 and I'm trying to switch menus...instead I get qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq or 11111111111111111111111111111. Backing out of the text box is also not as intuitive as it should be; more than once I've opened up the ESC menu (because more games use ESC as back than you might think) or entered a string of numbers in chat for no reason.

Like several menus in ED, the game assumes, usually wrongly, that we want to jump over more than one menu selection, forcing backpedaling to get where we actually want. It needs to STOP.

 

[Lateralus]

Isn't that the entire point of smuggling? To get stuff in (or out) whilst avoiding the law (enemy PP players). If you can just point at any ship and instantly know if they are the enemy it immediately destroys a part of game play that some people may enjoy, smuggling.

How would it destroy smuggling? Smuggling should require stealth, tactics and an appropriate ship for the job, i.e: fast, low heat signature, heat sinks, extended silent running capability etc. Using these methods a scan would be easily possible to avoid still.. Flying around in a T9 expecting to slip past enemies might be more tricky however (but why shouldn't it be?).

It simply shouldn't be possible to know what a person is doing from an external scan, deducing based on what cargo they are carrying or what they are doing yes, but knowing their intentions? It's just to much of a stretch for me. You can guess their intentions and let them go or not based on that, and of course take the risk of being wrong.

Guess their intentions? If you have active missions then there is no need to guess intentions, it's all there in writing on the system.

It's not added risk at all, it's a simplification of game play to make it easy to identify enemies by magic.

If it's not adding risk why are you so against it mm? lol it's not magic, this is the distant future - why should it be impossible to determine what missions a ship is running from an external scan? Some kind of remote hacking scanner is not that far-fetched really is it? Not in a game where we fly tens or even hundreds of light-years in mere seconds.

 

[Lateralus]

I'd also prefer HUD colors be nonspecific, like engine/weapon colors. No reason to drag factions into it, or bind them to combos like paintjobs.

The colours would be changeable as mentioned, 'the theme' would be manufacturer specific i.e the line shapes, look and feel etc. Also the default theme would still be available.

 

[varonica]

If it's not adding risk why are you so against it mm? lol it's not magic, this is the distant future - why should it be impossible to determine what missions a ship is running from an external scan? Some kind of remote hacking scanner is not that far-fetched really is it? Not in a game where we fly tens or even hundreds of light-years in mere seconds.

Because it's the equivalent of looking inside someones head and knowing what their intentions are. You see we have a mission board and mission list, but technically this is just game play mechanic for something we can't duplicate in game. In reality no-one is going to post up illegal missions like smuggling on a public mission board, or missions to attack another faction because all the police or enemy faction would have to do is to look at the mission board to find out who is working against them.

If this was the real future I wouldn't look for smuggling or illegal missions or combat missions on a mission board, I mean how silly in reality would that be.

"This is Sundarvan of the Left Hand of Darkness, we want you to go out and find some weapons for us and smuggle them back into the station for our insurrection....hang on there's somebody at the door," "Open the door this is station security, we saw your post on the public mission board so we are here to kill you!"

In other words the mission board is a poor substitute for clandestine meetings and secret missions offered to shady pilots by men in bars and other places shady pilots meet up. I would be approached by an agent or emissary of the contractor who knew my reputation and willingness to get illegal goods into places for lots of money and everything would be carried out in secret and just kept in my head, I would never put this stuff in a computer simply because someone might scan or hack it, or the police do a search of the ship and download my drive contents, which is what you want to do. Oh sure put legal public missions there for you to scan and find, running medical supplies in to fight a disease out break is no issue, I would log that on my computer, but I have this secret compartment loaded with body armour and guns that no-one knows about except me and my buyer. Oh sure if you scan the ship and detect it you know I have it, but you don't know what I am doing with it, for all you know it may before your side!

So putting an insta-know button in is just ruining some RP game play that people like to indulge in, so I am against the idea, no-one can know what's in my head, the fact we have to put everything down as a recorded mission is just a limitation of the game, not a reason to be able to find out what everyone is up to.

 

[Jubei Himura]

I love this thread. All great ideas. To an extent, I agree with Lucius-Darcia, but you made decant counter-points.

May I add a small QoL suggestion that is technically already in the game? Let's have the 'sit down' animation play when you start the game. Kinda like you're coming back from your quarters after a rest. It's a small suggestion, but the resources are already there (used for when you come back from the SRV), and I think adds to the immersion.

The suggestions for different HUDs are wonderful and I think work really well with the different brands, I know that changing the HUD colour is something that is on FDev's list, but far down the list as a non-priority (it has been stated by many FDev managers and designers). So it's coming... soon^tm.

 

[Daynen]

Because it's the equivalent of looking inside someones head and knowing what their intentions are. You see we have a mission board and mission list, but technically this is just game play mechanic for something we can't duplicate in game. In reality no-one is going to post up illegal missions like smuggling on a public mission board, or missions to attack another faction because all the police or enemy faction would have to do is to look at the mission board to find out who is working against them.

If this was the real future I wouldn't look for smuggling or illegal missions or combat missions on a mission board, I mean how silly in reality would that be.

"This is Sundarvan of the Left Hand of Darkness, we want you to go out and find some weapons for us and smuggle them back into the station for our insurrection....hang on there's somebody at the door," "Open the door this is station security, we saw your post on the public mission board so we are here to kill you!"

In other words the mission board is a poor substitute for clandestine meetings and secret missions offered to shady pilots by men in bars and other places shady pilots meet up. I would be approached by an agent or emissary of the contractor who knew my reputation and willingness to get illegal goods into places for lots of money and everything would be carried out in secret and just kept in my head, I would never put this stuff in a computer simply because someone might scan or hack it, or the police do a search of the ship and download my drive contents, which is what you want to do. Oh sure put legal public missions there for you to scan and find, running medical supplies in to fight a disease out break is no issue, I would log that on my computer, but I have this secret compartment loaded with body armour and guns that no-one knows about except me and my buyer. Oh sure if you scan the ship and detect it you know I have it, but you don't know what I am doing with it, for all you know it may before your side!

So putting an insta-know button in is just ruining some RP game play that people like to indulge in, so I am against the idea, no-one can know what's in my head, the fact we have to put everything down as a recorded mission is just a limitation of the game, not a reason to be able to find out what everyone is up to.

I like where you're going with this. In fact, we already have something resembling that. How many times have you received a random mission in your messages while you're out and about? Seems to me that would be a PERFECT time to offer some illegal, dangerous and lucrative missions, rather than the humdrum garbage follow-ons I usually see. This could definitely be developed into a much more robust element of the game, I'd say.

 

[Dahill]

To add to the suggestion of a scrollable information panel.....PLEASE move all the information (system status on jump; ship scan; scanner results) to the actual information panel instead of throwing it in the middle of your line of sight. It seems too "gamey" with the big flying letters for scans and the jump information seems like a lazy implementation.

 

[ilo]

I might not agree with all of them (e.g. 7), but count me in if you need support to push this suggestions. 10/10 effort and presentation. Chapeau!

 

[RockSi]

I'm thrilled to see this post. As a PS4 player, the orange HUD is by far the biggest let-down in what is otherwise a gorgeous-looking game. The current aesthetic reminds me of an old Motorola car stereo I had back in the 80s, and not in a good way!

I would like to see the HUD completely overhauled with the ability to customize it into different configurations that are switchable (similar to fire groups) depending on whether you're discovering, navigating or fighting.

We should have the ability to customize colour schemes to our preferences and so that the whole thing is not largely one monochrome block.

We spend 99.9% of our time looking at the HUD, and it is getting pretty out of date compared to the luscious visuals of ship exteriors and planets. It really needs a graphical overhaul and to be more dynamic - more "holographic" - more futuristic. The "HUD" on Tesla 3 is more space-age than this.

And there are idiosyncrasies that are at first confusing, and now a bit annoying... Why does travelling into an Anarchy system bring up an option to abort the jump? Why is HOSTILE displayed in big red letters when it's perfectly fine to go there? Why is there a secondary fuel gauge that is barely a couple of pixels thick? Can't we have a numerical representation of shield strength and visual representations of ammo reserves?

Anyway... I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks improving the HUD is important for continuing to enjoy the game!

 

[RockSi]

Let's have the 'sit down' animation play when you start the game. Kinda like you're coming back from your quarters after a rest.^tm.

Cool idea. The "stand up and fade out" animation is already there... and it's a small but cool touch.

 

[RockSi]

 

[FatzDomingo]

If your target is a station or outpost with landing pads, bind Landing Permission to a key!
No more oopses in voice Attack, no need to take your eye off of where you're heading.

 

[Lateralus]

If your target is a station or outpost with landing pads, bind Landing Permission to a key!
No more oopses in voice Attack, no need to take your eye off of where you're heading.

That would be convenient..