Odyssey - Optimisation/Performance and UI (Galaxy & System Map) Feedback

[Momo Belia Deviluke]

Galaxy / System Map Feedback:
​

Overall thoughts:
I can get used to the drastically new interface. I have no problems with its design in concept except for the following points in particular.

Specific Issues:
- I could not find how to access the System Map for a star system selected in the Galaxy Map.
- I think that more common actions than route planning should be accessible when clicking on a system in the Galaxy Map.

Suggested Fixes for the Issues:
My personal suggestion would be to retain a small pop-up menu for the most common actions (select, plan route, System Map) when clicking on a star system in the Galaxy Map similar to its original behavior from Horizons.

 

[Terry Bruge-Hiplo]

Overall thoughts
Probably can't add much to what has already been said. I'm not opposed to changes, and just bringing back the old map isn't necessarily the best way to go either. There was room for improvement there too.

The new Outfitting UI bemuses me more than anything else, but we'll get to that later?

Specific Issues

• Relevant information is hidden behind menus - Most of the commonly used at-a-glance info about travel is tucked behind an info button. Distances, star types, population/government etc. aren't easy to see anymore. The info will auto popup if you hold-target, but doesn't when you click a system.
  
  
• Lack of Button/function grouping - I understand the idea of filtering on the left, selected-system actions on the right, but it also seprates related functions all over the place, also adding more buttons in the process.
  
  Secondary issue: ordering of buttons. I'm not sure what would be optimal here, but grouping could help intuition.
  
  
  
  
  
  • Red - Bookmarks. Manage/view on one side, add on the other
  • Yellow - Stored ships
  • Green - Missions
  • Cyan - Map modes. The current map mode is displayed at the top, next to the title of the galaxy map, and not conveyed through or next to the icon itself
  • Magenta - Powerplay
  • Blue - Commodities/market (3 separate buttons)
  
  
• Still no ultrawide support - This speaks to a wider issue of the UI in general, but a lot of us have ultrawide screens these days. I get that placing the buttons further out to the sides of the screen also adds to the issue of mouse travel distance if buttons are on both sides, but it would also free up a larger area in the middle of the screen.
  
  
  
  
  
  Take this screenshot, and see how much space isn't utilised in the red. This might be okay if things were clickable in this area, but they aren't. Secondary issue, in the blue area, menus will appear which often obscure systems you select.
  
  Related issues: Outfitting screen is cropped at the bottom. Intro video is pillarboxed.
  
  Speaking of which...
  
  
• No reserved space for information - The old system/galmap had a dedicated column on the left side to display options and information. It helped ensure that the main area of the map wouldn't get obscured.
  
  The new map always popups up menus in a consistent location, but that location obscures a large amount of screen estate.
  
  
• Button Labels - Only visible on hover. An option to toggle them always visible would be nice, but eats real estate. There are also a lot of icons used more than once, which I guess is okay when you consider that each side of the screen corresponds to a related set of functions.
  
  
• Selection indicator circle - It doesn't align properly with selection/mouse hovering. There's like a parallax going on, where the further away from the centre of the screen it is, the more misaligned it becomes. I do love the 'hold to target' functionality though.
  
  
• Search Box - Is very dim/faded, and I didn't notice it at first. Having to manually click to select something from the results list is cumbersome, and keyboard arrow button navigation only seems to select the first result. Exact match going directly to the selected system would be nice.
  
  
• ESC key - A bit of a wider issue, but I often instinctively press ESC to perform the action that MENU BACK typically performs when certain things popup on the map, but in the case of the galmap, it exits out and then displays the main menu. This is true of other parts of the game. It feels like either immediately bringing up the game menu, or just performing MENU BACK action until back in the main game window would be more intuitive.
  
  
• Route plotting - Route auto-recalculates in certain situations, but always uses the amount of mass/cargo you had when you first plotted, and doesn't account for any cargo/mass you added since. So you either have to continually press the re-calculate button whenever you log in again, or manually un-plot and then re-plot the route to ensure it updates. The route settings don't seem to persist, or maybe it's just that the radio button doesn't show the selected option until pressed again.

Probably missed some things, but there you go. I look forward to seeing what guys can come up with as a solution.

 

[Iron Body]

On the Carrier route plotting map, when you have set the route, the screen immediately goes back 2 levels to the carrier management screen.
This is very annoying, I usually want to check out the destination some more, or to set bookmarks for possible destinations further on etc.

If I want to exit from the screen I press exit - I dont need or want the screen to assume that I have finished.

AND THE 21:9 ISSUE WHICH HAS BEEN ASKED FOR MANY TIMES.

 

[Northpin]

UI Feedback

Oh, this will be a rather long one, but before that, let me point out that Outfitting is really awful:
Have your guys equip a fully engineered Anaconda, fit modules from storage - like fit 8 shield boosters with various engineering - see if they can identify the engineering on those modules (from storage). And not at last, when replacing a module, defaulting to sell modules instead of storing them is extremely bad since rebuy modules is also missing (this should be corrected asap)

Now back to SysMap & GalMap feedback

UI Feedback, System Map

Overall thoughts:
While cleaner looking, it offers less information and requires more clicks and much more cursor travel to perform the same actions or to retrieve the same information as Horizons UI
The fact that it is splitting the attention all over the screen is not a good thing. Old UI had everything concentrated in the left side, taking around 20% of the screen, but making every action more efficient and more informative


Specific Issues:

• accessing system info and faction info is split into 2 different screens and requires 2 button presses (bug: scroll in windows zooms the system map). Old UI had both info in the same window box
• Object info (bodies): split between multiple windows requiring multiple button presses (description or planetary info). Old UI had both info in the same window box
• Object info (stations): again split between multiple windows requiring multiple button presses (description, facilities, trade data). The old UI was offering all this info in the same window box
• Object info (SysMap generic): requires clicking on each individual body or station. Then extra clicks on various buttons to bring info into attention. Again, extra clicks and extra cursor movement. The Old UI was offering all the information while simply hovering the cursor over the body/station, nicely grouped in a single window in the left panel
• Missing quick action window/bar that was tied to the cursor. In Horizons this was providing useful and quick info and actions (distance, body & atmo type or faction plus Select, Plot Route, Body Map, Bookmark). in EDO this function is provided by 3 extra buttons in the right bar, but again, using it requires extra cursor travel and well... it's missing information
• hold to target can be really awful, having the map moving around instead of locking the movement while holding.

Suggested Fixes for the Issues:

• the most obvious, revert to the Horizons UI and add to it the extra features provided by the EDO sys-map (settlements lists for example)
• if the above is out of the question, bring back the cursor quick action window/bar, then get rid of the right bar, unify again the various info windows (description & facilities / planetary info).
• bring back hover for info (description and facilities/planetary info)
• as a last resort, allow the left and right bar to be moved both on the left side, or their position to be customizable by user, but this will not bring back the lost functionalities, it will not reduce the number of extra clicks - it will only reduce the cursor travel and will allow focusing on a single side of the screen.
• either remove hold to target or fixit so the map does not move while doing the hold action

As a conclusion - Horizons System Map was a perfectly functional tool (and it worked quite nice with both kb/mouse on PC and with Controller on XBox)
EDO is prettier, but it lacks functionality and it hides too much info while increasing clicks and cursor travel, making the whole experience less efficient
I really don't want to think how the experience will be on XBox using the controller only with no mouse access.



UI Feedback, Galaxy Map.

Overall thoughts:
While cleaner looking, it offers less information and requires more clicks and much more cursor travel to perform the same actions or to retrieve the same information as Horizons UI
The fact that it is splitting the attention all over the screen is not a good thing. We have a left bar, a right bar, a bottom info window and a search bar on top.
Old UI had everything concentrated in the left side, taking around 20% of the screen, but making every action more efficient and more informative


Specific Issues:

• bookmarks - having fixed categories is not bad, but splitting them into categories without having also an ALL category is a drag. Also, listing the bookmarks as big tiles takes a lot of space cluttering the screen and making harder to pick the destination. (it would work better on a touch screen indeed, but we do use mouse/controllers and consoles)
• bookmarks manager - same, those big tiles makes difficult getting a quick view, they clutter the screen and they increase cursor travel
• like the sysmap, information is split between different button / windows, requiring extra button presses and extra cursor travel. For example system description and ships (2 different buttons, 2 windows). In the old UI this info was in the same window and it did not require any extra clicks or cursor travel
• the search bar is missing the functionality present in Horizons: input a partial name, then press Enter or TAB to move to the next matching System. Extremely useful for mapping / surveying systems in the denser parts of the galaxy. The list that is currently offered under the search bar, while useful - let's say in the bubble, cannot replace the missing functionality, especially in the denser parts of the galaxy
• again missing the quick action/bar window which provided quick info and actions (select, plot, bookmark, system map)
• hold to target can be really awful, having the map moving around instead of locking the movement while holding (tho less annoying than in the System Map)
• some bugs, like plot to bookmark leave you at the main star, having to select the destination again. Scrolling in windows also zooms the map, neutron boosting not working
• a special mention: missing the ability to remove the jump lines by pressing again the Fastest routes (still keeping the fastest routes enable) is extremely annoying.

Suggested Fixes for the Issues:

• as for the sysmap, reverting to a single left panel that concentrates all the information and actions will improve the usability, bringing it back to Horizons levels. Adding more tabs with the features added in the EDO UI would help while still maintaining usability
• bookmarks - having all bookmarks also listed as in the Old UI when clicking the main bookmark button (top of the left bar) would help, but without removing the ability to dive in the categories. Having all bookmarks in a single list was more convenient while still being informative due to the icons specific to the icon. Now we have to remember if that bookmark was a system, a body or a settlement...
• either remove hold to plot/target or fixit so the map does not move while doing the hold action
• bringing back the quick action/bar window, will make most of the right bar redundant, while providing the increased usability

As per SysMap feedback, it looks prettier, but in the end the Galmap is a tool that in EDO became more difficult to use compared with Horizons.
Sure it has some nice extra features, but those could have been added to the old UI as well

 

[NULUSIOS]

I believe they made this thread to get feedback and they will not even thoroughly read it.
At best they will quickly scroll through it.
Prove me wrong.

 

[Thardem]

UI:


Looks good and I like the long button press to set a course. However...

• having icons to press on each side of the screen with maximum mouse distance is not great. You should bundle everything on one side of the screen - looks are not everything.
• whenever I want to plot a course to a bookmarked station it will only select the system the station resides in as navigation target. Either please change the plot course icon to plan a course directly to the station, or make the bookmarks themself "long clickable" to plot a course to the very target and not only the system
• switching the menus is more tidysome then before and it exits you to ship facing the /1 game ship menu. Please add an exit button with a decent hotkey to directly switch back to centered cockpit view once you have set course
• The map cursor to select a system or a station seem to be a bit of the mouse and/or the item it selects sometimes, it's irritating
• Edit: info-menus somtimes block the map and I am not able to click on the system I want to fly to (no idea how to fix though)

New features I would have hoped for: "travel back" option for loop transports A->B->A->B...

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Overall thoughts – the idea behind the new maps I like, and I think they have potential to be more effective than the old ones, but at the moment it's a rough initial interface versus one which had been refined over several years, so until it's had that refinement there's a lot you just can't do with it that the old one could.

Specific Issues –

1. Plotting routes to things is time-consuming, wasting a lot of the new benefits of the layout
2. Missing features like partial system name search
3. Missing information like secondary faction states (on system map) or system security (on galaxy map info panels, though you can filter it)
4. Bookmark categorisation is unhelpful for me
5. On the system map, new Odyssey Settlements are in unhelpful order
6. Can't tell size of new Odyssey Settlement landing pad from map (for other stations of course, the type alone is sufficient to give this information)
7. Was a problem on the old interface too, but you can't filter systems for secondary states (or Pirate Attack at all)

Suggested Fixes for the Issues –

1. From the map screen you can pick up bookmarks, mission destinations, my fleet, and on the system map also various POIs ... but clicking on those only focuses them or - more often - their container. You should be able to select or plot a route to any of these in a single extra click.
2. Reinstate partial name search. Check neutron boosting and FSD injection boosting workflows
3. Synchronise information on all displays - side panel and local news and system map and squadron page and journal should all contain the same information about a faction (with local news and journal having more detail as they're not space limited). At the moment the system map is an obvious place to look for this for a system you aren't in, so it needs to be as good quality as the others.
4. Allow custom bookmark categorisation, or at least an "all bookmarks, alphabetical" option as well
5. Sort Odyssey Settlements by planet first, hierarchally (i.e. A1, A1a, A1b, A2, A2a, A2aa, B1, AB1, etc) then alphabetically ordered by settlement name for the same planet.
6. Display pad counts on one of the station info panels (or split docking service into SmallDocking MediumDocking LargeDocking) - ideally also expose to journal
7. Add Pirate Attack to state filter list. Allow state filters to show if controlling faction of system is in that state whether alone or as one of many.

Thanks

 

[Givian]

Overall thoughts – Galaxy map is pretty, but not terribly useful for anything other than pasting in system names from tools outside the game.

Specific Issues –

• quick search top middle and always open is great! Please keep this.
• Filter options being limited to only a single filter per top-level menu is a problem and a loss of functionality compared to Horizons. For example, when high grade emissions farming, in horizons I would set to show only fed/emp systems, in certain states, with high range on the population slider. in Odyssey, allegiance and state filters are on the same top-level menu so only one can be active at a time.
• exiting the map with anything other than the mouse is extremely tedious for something I do a million times a session. Currently we have to click left 2-4 times to get to top level menu, then down 2-10 times through the many top level options to reach exit. the button that exists most full screen interfaces does nothing form the galaxy map that I know of, and i am using default key bindings for my joystick model (Saitek X55).
• system dots are either tiny, or do not render because map is zoomed in to a small sphere. This is much worse when playing at super ultrawide resolutions.
• Still begging for multi-point routes.

Suggested Fixes for the Issues –

• Need advanced search options to layer multiple filters. Something like most web stores have, where each filter menu has an add filter button. Added filters are shown on a list of active filters. Each filter has an X button to remove it, and a reset filters button to clear them out.
• in horizons many menus had good shortcuts to the exit button that could be used with default keybinds. in the Galaxy map in particular the info tab only had the exit button on it, so we could tab to this and press down to exit quickly. Would personally suggest making navigating off the edge of the menus go to the exit button as a shortcut. then if in one of the filter menus for example, we could just click left 2-4 times and have exit selected. Alos it would make a lot of sense to just make the same button that exits FSS, surface scan, and almost every other full screen interface to work in the map screens by default too.
• options to scale system dots somewhere would be nice. It is very much personal preference (like font size) how large is appropriate, so probably best to give player control instead of one size fits all.
• Put a waypoint button next to plot route. even if it was just a static 1,2,3 marker and not a full n marker ordered list would be better than nothing.

 

[Brainjax]

Greetings Commanders,

First of all, we’d like to thank all of you for supporting us throughout Odyssey’s development and at launch. For those of you who have access to the expansion and are able to play without issues, we hope you’re enjoying yourselves!

That said, we are aware of some commonly reported issues and will take this opportunity to address them. In this post, we’d like to specifically discuss optimisation and UI.

Optimisation and Performance

We’re aware that performance in Odyssey is varied according to PC builds and other factors. While many players are enjoying the game at the intended standard, unfortunately some are not.

If you are experiencing performance issues, here’s how to report them and include some especially useful information. Please send us as much information as possible to edoperformance@elitedangerous.com using the template below. To report any other issues, please go via the Issue Tracker as normal.

Please provide as much information as you can from a DXDiag report (see link for help)

Where were you in-game, and what were you doing? (Solo/Open, in Wing/group or not etc.)

Are you running Odyssey in borderless/fullscreen/windowed?

Are you running Odyssey in VR?

Do you have any other apps running at the same time?

Are you running any third-party shader suites?

In addition to the above, please send us your graphics configs. To do this:
1. Navigate to this file location: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options\Graphics
2. Copy all folder contents to a ZIP file and attach it to your submission

We’d like to thank you in advance for submitting this information. Your reports will be invaluable in assisting our team and expediting performance fixes.

UI Feedback

We’re also keenly aware of feedback on several aspects of the updated User Interface in Odyssey. The comments on this topic have been followed closely since the beginning of the alpha phase and your feedback shared in our Alpha feedback forum has been gathered and collected. Your concerns over the ease-of-use and accessibility of these systems are being heard and passed to the development team.

While fundamental issues such as connection and performance remain a priority, we’d like to build a clear understanding of issues surrounding features such as UI to lay the groundwork for in-game improvements.

In this thread, we are looking specifically for feedback on the Galaxy and System Map UI. We have noted feedback on other UI elements, but would like to start with these in particular.

If you have feedback on the Galaxy and System Map in Odyssey, please leave it below in a reply using the following format:

Overall thoughts – please keep this brief (one or two sentences)

Specific Issues – clear and concise (bullet points are ideal)

Suggested Fixes for the Issues – clear and concise, directly linked to the issues

Please keep all replies to this post in the format above. Any discussion that is off topic or replying to other posts may be removed to keep the thread as useful as possible.

Thank You

Odyssey represents a huge change to Elite Dangerous at multiple levels. All of the teams across Frontier, are working hard to deliver an experience that meets a standard the community deserves.

On that note, thank you again for your support and patience. As soon as we have any more information regarding the points above, we’ll make sure to share it with you.

o7

Edit: please use the edoperformance@elitedangerous.com mailbox to report optmisation issues in Odyssey rather than the Issue Tracker.

Overall thoughts –

I like the direction the UI is headed overall but have specific issues as listed below.

Specific Issues –

1. In system map, there is no list of factions present on a given planet however some on-foot missions require you to search around a system for settlements owned by a given faction. If the system is big enough and has a lot of settlements, it becomes challenging to find a settlement with the correct faction ownership.
2. My bookmarks were named and numbered in such a way so that like-bookmarks would be listed together. After the update, they are partitioned according to whether it's a system bookmark, a planetary bookmark, a station, or a settlement. For example my bookmarks, 1.0.0 - Home system, 1.0.1 - primary station, 1.0.2 - planet with selenium, 2.0.0 - Encoded trader. With the new system, bookmarks 1.0.1 and 2.0.0 are in one folder and the others are in their own. So it would appear if looking at the station folder of bookmarks that I don't have anything between 1.0.1 and 2.0.0 where in fact I do.
3. There still isn't any way to bookmark a specific location on a planet, like a location on a planet with a beautiful view or cool geological features. Right now, I write down the long/lat of the location in a journal I keep next to my desk for this very reason. . . . I keep a journal of planetary locations because ED can't.
4. The galaxy map still can't filter views based on multiple criteria. For example, I want to be able to find a federation system in boom or expansion with high population. That's currently not possible but it would be very useful for finding specific types manufactured materials that occur more frequently in those catagories. Right now, I use a third party tool outside of ED to do it.

Suggested Fixes for the Issues –

1. Provide a list of factions present on a planet in the "information" view when a planet is selected in the system map.
2. Provide a "see all" option for bookmarks.
3. Provide the ability to bookmark any location on the surface of a planet.
4. Create the ability to apply multiple filters to the galaxy map

 

[Starbuck Phoenix]

1) I actually like the new galaxy map/system map. Takes a bit of getting used to. But I find overall especially the new system map actually gives more Faction information and I like that.

2) the new outfitting ui is a hot mess that needs to be put behind the barn and shot. Where as I like the "look" I feel what was trying to be done was to make it more pleasant to look at. But this has come at a great cost.
3) we have finally figured out that you can rebuy things you've sold. But it's in the shop menu? At the bottom with a symbol... why? Put back the buy back module button
4) the shipyard is another one... no way to see the modules you have stored. The old shipyard I could see every module and the engineering mods that where on it? I mean why? Are you trying to make this more difficult? I'm at the point I don't even want to play.
5) same as above with stored modules. No way to see engineering until you actually put it on a ship?
6) I mean sooo much more it's frustrating to even open up a "new menu" to see where all the stuff has been changed. Buy no it's not changed its just not there anymore.
Did Whoever make this not actually know all the features the old menus had? Maybe you thought People don't have 120 fully engineered modules they often change around onto different ships? You didn't think that was useful information? Ughhhhhh if I was in charge around there I'd fire the guy responsible for making this shipyard/outfit ui... because they clearly have never played elite dangerous. Or even looked at the features the old ui had.

 

[cmdrmørke]

Galaxy Map


Overall thoughts – I like the idea of a more concise map

Specific Issues – my bookmarks for specific stations or planets don't work from the map. I have to go into the physical system map instead of navigating route from bookmarks. Also, the selection dot is not centered on the system star.

Suggested Fixes for the Issues – make the old features like navigating to bookmarks work without the extra clicks. More clicks and buttons is a bad, bad idea for accessibility. Gotta keep it simple.

 

[DigitalNikki]

Okay fdev, you want me to upgrade my hardware? Give me at least 10k USD to buy stuff like 3090 SLI and 256GB RAM I don't need so I can still have bad performance because the issue is your game not my hardware.

 

[Thardem]

Outfitting / Shipyard UI:

start from scratch or revert to Horizon. Sorry, nothing nice to say. It's worse in every single regard.

 

[William J Smith]

Heres my points (not that I've done everything updated in Odyessy) and yes I have issues

Galaxy map
Friends are marked, but who it is does not show up
No 'click to map target' and holding the cursor on the target to plot route is annoying
Icon arrangement could be clearer, maybe going back closer to the old style where a map mode would only show the icons related to it

Mining
The mining lasers seem to be less bright than they were, also the 'burn trail' on the asteroid is missing
Abrasion blaster also seems less bright than it was
Sub surface missile has a slower rate of fire and seems to need to be locked onto the mining target, all of which makes sub surface mining a pain on fast rotating asteroids.
Pulse wave resolution seems to be far more 'corse' than before.

Surface mission
Managed to get myself killed after getting a no fire violation, paid off the fine at detention center, however since I used my ship to get to the target, it has a fine/bounty on it, but no way to pay it off. (must admit, not checked today after logging off in disgust)

Graphical glitches
Yes

Bill

But a rock steady 40FPS with everything maxed out in 4K is ok by me (even if my CPU/GFX fans sound like their about to take off )

 

[Nanjan Ohare]

Hello

thanks for hearing the voices of players. Here some sugggestions in Gal- / Systemmap:

System-Map - 1:

Ship and combatzones have the same color. It is not good for fingding the ships, if there are a lot CZ.
Please use different colors.

***

System-map - 2

Please install a way to select a target from the orange field.
Else we have to click on it - select planet - zoom into planet, select station as target. tooooo much clicking.

***

System-map-3:
Please make a Button or keybindings for switch on/of the carriers in systemmap.
In systems with a lot carrier, it is not nice to finde something.
The photo showes a system with less planets/mmons. in bigger systems it will more confusing.

***

Gal-map:
It is similar to problem 1. To much different symbols, and all have the same color. Please reinstall the colors from Horizons.
Here is toooo much orange symbols (7 different symbols are or include orange).

Thanks !

Greetings
Nanjan

 

[joerg]

Overall thoughts
A new UI is a matter of getting out of one's comfort zone and trying new things. My overall feeling is positive. LOVE the copy option.

Specific Issues
1) When you open a Gal map, focus a system, open sys map, focus a planet, open a planet map and then click Back, you appear back in the gal map instead of going one step back.
2) It seems the info about prohibited goods is nowhere to be found in station details. Info, Features, nothing.
3) Typing a full sys name in the search bar you have to take the mouse and click the name in the drop down menu.
4) The grey separators between groups on the left and rightmake your cursor stop moving when using the hat on a stick.
5) I have a feeling my Route planning setting resets. I am sure I had to set it at least twice already. Was it done by an upgrade?
6) In the old map you could click the current sys name in the planning tab and it'd go there. I don't see any option to instantly moce to your current system.

Suggested Fixes for the Issues
1) Add a button Back to Sys map to the planetary map view
2) Add info about illegal goods to station info
3) When full name is typed, pressing enter should focus the system.
4) Remove the separators.
5) If the upgrae is the root cause and it will stick to what I set it now, it is ok. If it keeps resetting it is a major issue.
6) Add Focus current system button.


Other than those, I guess I am pretty happy with the new UI. It take some getting used to but I would still call it a big improvement

 

[Vortex-XIII]

UI feedback - system map and galaxy map​

okay, here's my thoughts on galmap and sysmap.

please note: at the moment, I am first and foremost a BGS-player (planner) - so ease of access to information is a primary concern.
I will not focus on just that, but it definitely weighs in on the classification of importance.

General impression:
The new UI looks nice - visually, it is an improvement over the old. But, information gets lost in the many submenus. And within the menus itself, it is often 'form over function'.
Plus, compared to Horizons: some information is flat out missing (!)
As a result of the latter: I still use ED-Horizons for BGS planning, and will for some time.

let's get to the details....
separate sections for system map and galaxy map, with a third section for the bookmark manager in both.
Not going to go too much into design choices, assuming that is 'set'. Instead, going to focus more on the functions, and suggesting fixes/improvements that should be within the 'current build'.

system map:​

​

menu "system information" (system map)
looks good

suggestion:
combine "system information" with "powerplay information" (add powerplay info to the bottom - just to save one submenu)

menu "faction information" (system map)​

Issue: active states are not all shown
importance: very high
The current UI only shows 1 state for a faction. But with the post-3.3 BGS, multiple states can be active for any one faction at the same time.
suggestion / fix:
show all faction states in the UI pop-up
additional suggestion: include information about pending states (importance: medium)

Issue: faction information hard to read / low contrast.
importance: high
Bright orange on an orange-grey background picture (or, black on grey&white when highlighted) is quite hard to read.
suggestion / fix:
use a different colour scheme for faction info display (eg: replace the background faction allegiance picture with a black background, and add the allegiance symbol next to the allegiance text)

Issue: current conflict status of wars/civil wars/elections is not shown on systemmap.
importance: high
Descr. While that information is also not in Horizon sysmap - only available in station news or in-flight right panel - it'd be 'very nice-to-have' on system map as well.
(note: old sysmap is really old - in pre-3.3 BGS, we could see conflict status (current winner/loser) by faction influence. sysmap was not adapted to post-3.3 BGS for this)
suggestion / fix:
add a 'conflict' menu button, opening a sub-display that lists pending and active conflicts with either the 'slider-state', or numbers of days won/lost

note: see addendum below (also posted separately at <https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...alaxy-system-map-feedback.578093/post-9219391>)

menu "points of interest" (system map)​

looks good - improvement over the old.

Issue: Some POIs are missing
importance: high
Travelling megaships (the ones with the 6-jumps-route, jumping every 2 weeks) and spaceborne installations (the non-landable ones) are not shown on sysmap, or in the POI menu.
suggestion / fix:

• add fixed space-installation and the travelling megaships in their own category under "Points Of Interest"
• also show travelling megaships and spaceborne installations on the system map, with context menu available on the right side menu

menus "Description", "Market", and "Features" (system map, right side)​

Issue: for stations and system bodies, information is spread over too many too many submenus.
importance: low/medium
suggestion / fix:
combine those 3 menus into 2:
- for stations and carriers:
- "description" menu - showing the info of "Description" and the "Features" panel (description at the top, facilities below)
- "market" menu - showing the info of "Description" and the "Market" panel (maybe without the faction banner)
- remove "features" menu, as information is included in "description"
- for planetary bodies and stars:
- "description" as is
- "planetary information" as is
(maybe add population information to inhabited planets)
- remove "market information" (=making it 2 menus for the information, just like stations if changed as above)


Issue: Fleetcarriers, some information is missing (owner name and squadron, as available in Horizons)
importance: high
suggestion / fix:
for Fleetcarriers, add the ownership and squadron-allegiance information (maybe even powerplay and faction allegiance of the squadron) to the description panel

menu "local Fleet" and "stored ships" (system map)​

issue: when there are many ships stored, the list is "wasting space"
importance: low
suggestion / fix:
- sort them by ship type (atm, it seems to be sorted by the internal ship no./CMDR)
+ either do smaller / more compact boxes for each ships (=equal to the size of bookmark-display?)
- or, show some additional information (i.e. wanted status, no. of seats, cargo/passenger space, and/or the indicators from shipyard about engineered modules to fill the 'empty space')
(note: some suggestions also in the galaxy map section - sync potential changes)

Galaxy Map:​

Issue/BUG: all systems show the system state of the system you are currently in (in the description panel)
importance: very high
suggestion / fix:
have them show the actual state of the system (=the system controlling faction)


Issue: only one state is shown for a system on system map
importance: high
factions can have multiple states active at the same time - yet, only one is shown
suggestion / fix:
show all the states of the system controlling faction in the "system information" panel


Issue: filter for "carrier presence" is missing
Importance: medium/high
in menu "map mode", there is no filter for carrier presence (as there is in Horizons)
suggestion / fix:
add the filter "carrier presence" to menu "map mode"


Issue: cannot see which friends are in a system with a 'friend marker'
Importance: high
while I see the 'friend marker' on systems - I cannot see who it is (without exiting map and checking in the in-flight comms panel)
suggestion / fix:
add a button "friends" (maybe on the right side, in between "stored ships" and "system missions"

addendum: while it would be nice to have the same option for squadron members - that would be more a data privacy design choice.
Although I would argue: they are part of the group I am in.


Issue: menu filter "compare by size"... very finicky/hard to use
importance: low
suggestion / fix: ...?
(I dont use it often enough, but it's a little hard to get it working correctly when I do)


Issue: routing/plotting buttons are not together
importance: medium/low
suggestion / fix:

• move the 'display options' to the bottom right ('opposite' of exit button - always visible; just to make some space there)
• move the "target" and "set destination" button to the left, below the "route settings"

Issue: "search field" does not trigger focus-on-system to exact match when pressing 'enter'
importance: medium/low
suggestion / fix:
implement function that "enter" focusses the target system if an exact match was entered into the search field

menu "local Fleet" and "stored ships"​

see above (in sysmap section) - sync changes on galmap with sysmap

Issue: ship counter "your Fleet" is only showing 2 digits
importance: low
I have 185 or 186 (187?) ships - counter on the button is showing "18"
suggestion / fix:
show correct number (yes, I think a 4 digit display may be required)

suggested improvement:
add a 'full screen' display box/pop-out button for 'your fleet', that will show the list in a style comparable to the bookmark manager

bookmark manager:​

Issue: no 'list all' option is available
importance: high
suggestion / fix:

• add a submenu button "all", that will list all bookmarks in alphabetical order
• see system map improvement point for POI for additional categories (sync changes there with here)

Issue: no 'direct plot route to bookmark' possible
importance: high
Either you have to open the system map and plot a route there, or open the bookmark manager to plot a route directly to the bookmarked object..... far cry from Horizon's 'right-click->plot route'
suggestion / fix:

• add a button 'plot route' next to each bookmark entry
• OR: click-and-hold bookmark entry to plot a route (comparable to the click-and-hold for plotting to objects)

Issue: not enough bookmarks
importance: medium
yes, one cannot mention bookmarks without mentioning the limit ;-)
suggestion / fix:
increase personal bookmarks to a maximum of ... 1024 entries?



That's it for now..... although I'm going to bet I missed a point or three, and might add them later.
A few of these points cross over with this very good post about missing information. https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...-missing-information-in-elite-odyssey.576454/
Frontier: if you want discuss this / would like more feedback - feel free to contact me.
I care enough about this to spent some time on it - more than the 2h I spent organizing my thoughts and writing this up.

now, back to take a look how today's tick worked out (hoping it's finished)

edit/addemdum:​

(this is both added to the original post and posted separately - I am not sure how this thread is being parsed)

regarding the "Issue: current conflict status of wars/civil wars/elections is not shown on systemmap." and the subsequent suggestion to implement a "conflict status" menu:

Issue: not visible which Odyssey settlements are actively contested during conflict
importance: high
EDO-settlements are (supposed to be) transferrable not with the 'old' conflict mechanic. Instead, post-conflict owner will be "the faction that won the most Conflict Zones at that particular battle site during the War" - see <https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/elite-dangerous-odyssey-bgs-and-crime-details.575842/>
(yet to be seen how that actually works - or how this works for elections)
Currently, there is no way of seeing which EDO-settlements are actively being fought over (or, how much)
Keep in mind: it can be a long list. (For example, I know a system that now has 98 additional EDO-settlements)
suggestion / fix:
add a list of active battle sites to the 'conflict menu'.
Include an indicator which side has won the most battle zones for each single battle site. (either a counter, or a simple indicator who has the upper hand).
For flair / completeness sake: list the space conflict zones as well.

alternatively:
do not do this "conflict status page" on system map - but as a menu option at a station terminal. (not the Frontline desk - space outposts don't have them, and some systems have no large station or planetary port).
PS: It is a gameplay design decision - whether that info should be accessible from anywhere via system map - or only in-system, at a station. But, it should be available somewhere.

 

[Ydiss]

I prefer the new layouts generally, it feels more streamlined. There are just some missing features.

1. Plot route directly to bookmark (including sub systems) missing
2. Cannot see stored modules when looking to replace a ship module in ship loadout
3. Cannot see module engineering effects
4. Default toggle is sell item, bad for engineered modules
5. On foot ui often has no escape button (forcing using escape key)

Fix those and it'll be much better.

 

[SecretIdentity]

Overall thoughts
- It's... fine. The change was unnecessary but welcomed if all of the functionalities of the old map remains which it doesn't.

Specific Issues
- Cannot plot directly from bookmarks (major!)
- Fixed bookmark folders (I want to set them myself)
- Colour change to the engineers tag (used to be purple, now orange), made it hard to distinguish with most tags on the map being orange.
- Information on planets unclear (separated into two different tabs)
- The 'loading simulation' thingy takes up too much time when I just want to quickly hop in to target a place.

Suggested Fixes for the Issues
- Make bookmarks directly plottable.
- Customizable bookmark folders.
- Coloured bookmarks (!) Please, it is really needed.
- Merge the planetary info into a single tab.
- Optimization perhaps?

Thanks for taking feedback and I sincerely wish these and many other issues can be resolved quickly!

 

[Jon Keane]

The new maps ‘look’ fabulous. I just want to be able to see the simple info that we used to be able to see straight away in the system map by simply hovering over the body. What type of planet is it (so I can tell if it’s system scanned or not, or whether it’s worth flying all that way to scan it properly), who first discovered it and who first mapped it - and now, who got first footfall.

Oh, and bring back the bio and geological spots on planets please. It says it’s there in the System Map, but it’s not there on the planet surface.

Apart from that (and a couple of really minor things that I’m happy to live with) I’m really enjoying the new content. It looks absolutely stunning