Odyssey - Optimisation/Performance and UI (Galaxy & System Map) Feedback
Some feedback on system map and galaxy map.
Overall thoughts:
I find the new system map and, in particular the new galaxy map to be a bit clunky and less intuitive than before, but acceptable for the most part.
Specific issues:
Galaxy map
System map
Suggested fixes:
The solution to some of these is clear, but I can comment on some of them.
Overall thoughts:
I find the new system map and, in particular the new galaxy map to be a bit clunky and less intuitive than before, but acceptable for the most part.
Specific issues:
Galaxy map
- You do not see what filter is currently active when you open the galaxy map, only in which category this filter is.
- Moving the camera in any way closes the current filter menu that is open as well as the filter category sub menu.
- You cannot close the filter menu nor collapse the category sub menu in any way except moving the camera.
- Engineer locations are now orange instead of the long since established purple colour for engineers.
- You can no longer plot courses to directly to bookmarked locations inside a system; now it simply bookmarks to the system where the location is in. The only way to plot a route directly to such a target is to use the Manage bookmarks screen.
- Using my mouse wheel to scroll in the Manage bookmark screen also zooms my galaxy map in and out.
- Fleet carriers end up in the "Systems" category of the bookmarks.
- Would be nice to have a "select all" and "select none" button. Some of these filter lists are quite long.
- Pressing enter after typing in a name in the search bar does not take you to that location, nor even to the first location listed.
- The search function prioritizes search hits badly: if I want to go to system Cail, typing that in gives me Caillie Hub in HIP 18327 as my first search hit, so I have to search for the system Cail in the list, even though I knew exactly where I wanted to go.
System map
- Would have liked that the Map view and Orrery view buttons were more distinguished. Occasionally I will accidentally click the Orrery button, which interrupts my current activity and forces me to wait for a loading screen.
- There's no way to tell if I am wanted by a faction in the system.
- System map no longer tells me that I am wanted by the controlling faction at a station.
- Using the mouse wheel to scroll in left hand side menus also zooms my system map in and out.
- System map does not tell me if gravity or temperature of a body will disallow me to disembark. (gravity and temperature interval is listed, yes, but there's no suit stat that tells me what temperatures it can handle.)
- It seems system map can give me no information on what Odyssey specific station services are available at any station or port.
- The yellow Conflict zone icons tell me there is a ground conflict zone on the planet, but not which two factions are in conflict there. These ground conflict zones are not targetable in the ship nav panel, only the settlement itself, so you can't find out this way, either.
Suggested fixes:
The solution to some of these is clear, but I can comment on some of them.
- I probably will not remember what filter I had up last time I visited the galaxy map. It should be clear. Should the corresponding filter menu even be up and active? Could be considered obtrusive, but I sure wouldn't mind it. Maybe I just want to add or remove a single star class from my filter.
- Make the filter menu and filter category sub menu not close when I move around the camera.
- Make the filter menu close and when I press the corresponding button in the filter category sub menu, and make them both close when I press the corresponding filter category button.
- Make it so that when I click a bookmarked location inside a system and click the Plot route button, that it actually plots to the location, and not just the system it is in.
- Make it so that the mouse wheel does not affect the zoom level of the galaxy map when I am Managing bookmarks.
- I guess fleet carriers should be in the Stations category of the bookmarks? Would be nice to have them even more close, I often plot a route to my own fleet carrier, maybe at the top of the Stations category or even their own category...
- If you know your target location system, typing the name and pressing enter should be enough. And if not, a direct match should always be at the top of the list.
- Make the Map view and Orrery view a different colour or place them at the very bottom of the left hand side menu.
- There should be some way to know if I am wanted by a faction or at a station in the system map.
- System map not telling me if I can embark on the planet or not due to gravity and temperature also goes into missions... if I try to pick up a mission in a system I have not gone to, there's no way to tell from the mission text nor galaxy map (can't even use system map since I have not visited the system yet) if I can even disembark there. I have been sent on missions to planets I cannot disembark on. Even if I knew what planet I would be sent to before accepting mission, system map would still not be able to tell me if I can even disembark there and thus complete my mission.
Hi Dev Team, thanks for the communication and the desire for feedback. My main consideration with the galmap UI is the loss of the ability to rapidly delete bookmarks. I tend to use bookmarks transiently and so being able to 'one-click' add or remove a bookmark is very helpful. As it stands, I can still rapidly add a bookmark, but deleting one takes many more steps than it does in Horizons. I would greatly appreciate 'one-click' removal of bookmarks being re-enabled. Thanks!
I've been having a decent enough time with the game right now thanks to having a beefy machine to run it and while I can live with some temporary texture or model rendering issues the real meat of the problems for me have been with my experience with Quality of Life changes in efficiently participating in co-op with friends and some of the new interface. While fine on mouse and keyboard, as a controller user some of the changes to previously existing UI elements have been a step backward in accessibility.
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Issue/Fix 1 - Wing/Team Beacons should not be mandatory for joining allies in private instances and need to be less cumbersome.
My friends and I have realised that we can't join each other at Nav beacons unless we land on each other's Wing/Team beacons when in Horizons we could just land at the location and still join the same instance. The Beacons also override any targeted destination once they come within range and fight over dominance with each other constantly meaning we have to re-target our destination incredibly frequently.
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Issue/Fix 2 - Wing/Team Missions need to always be shareable.
Last night most of my Wing/Team was having connection issues and while that's an understandable problem right now it was even more irritating having to undo the whole Wing/Team and then re-invite everyone just so we could share the mission again. On top of that the mission needs to be shareable after it's been completed because I personally disconnected on the way to handing it in and the mission host couldn't re-share putting me out of 21 million credits on a 49 kill mission.
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Issue/Fix 3 - Stations can no longer be plotted to from Bookmarks.
By far the biggest issues I have with the new expansion over all is inside of the new Galaxy Map, which is the inability to tab through your bookmarks and plot a route to a station. When doing so you plot to the system it's in. It sounds small but it's another step I have to do when coming out of a jump which can either leave me vulnerable or just plain old waste my time. 90% of my time is spent flipping between Gorey Enterprise (Recua System) and Dean Hub (Yawa System) and not being able to plot between the two while docked in station is infuriating.
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Issue/Fix 4 - Contacts have way too many tiny tabs.
The inability to single click hand in all bounties upon opening a contact's screen is incredibly confusing. This was something that never needed changing and simply needs reverting. Going through all these new tabs with a D-Pad is just annoying...
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Issue/Fix 5 - Bring back exact shield and armour health to an easily accessible part of the ship HUD.
Getting an exact amount of shield health and recharge value on the "Bottom Panel" is incredibly critical in the heat of combat. This was a feature that never needed to be removed. An alternative fix would be to add a value to the primary HUD next to your Shield Rings.
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Issue/Fix 6 - Please allow double inputting of controls on controller as an accessibility option.
Having [Hold X] and [Press X] be two different things is nice but not being able to bind several things to the [Press X] input, which is an incredibly common interact input in other games, is still disheartening... I wouldn't mind getting a warning for double mapping but please let us do it. It would cut on the dozens of [Press D-Pad + (Press Face Button or Bumper)] inputs I have.
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If the ED Dev. team does find this message I want to be clear that I'm still supportive of the game and the hard work that's going on with the repair crunch that's no doubt underway. While I normally don't post about this kind of stuff for games due to the large futility it usually is I felt this to be a rare instance where someone might actually listen. I love a lot of the new content and would have even just payed the expansion price just to be able to chill in the space pub with my friends but the thing keeping me on Horizons is the troublesome changes to accessibility (the renaming of Wings to Teams also didn't help) and current issues with co-operative play.
I wish you luck Frontier. I'm looking forward to the next couple months of improvements and patches.
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Issue/Fix 1 - Wing/Team Beacons should not be mandatory for joining allies in private instances and need to be less cumbersome.
My friends and I have realised that we can't join each other at Nav beacons unless we land on each other's Wing/Team beacons when in Horizons we could just land at the location and still join the same instance. The Beacons also override any targeted destination once they come within range and fight over dominance with each other constantly meaning we have to re-target our destination incredibly frequently.
---
Issue/Fix 2 - Wing/Team Missions need to always be shareable.
Last night most of my Wing/Team was having connection issues and while that's an understandable problem right now it was even more irritating having to undo the whole Wing/Team and then re-invite everyone just so we could share the mission again. On top of that the mission needs to be shareable after it's been completed because I personally disconnected on the way to handing it in and the mission host couldn't re-share putting me out of 21 million credits on a 49 kill mission.
---
Issue/Fix 3 - Stations can no longer be plotted to from Bookmarks.
By far the biggest issues I have with the new expansion over all is inside of the new Galaxy Map, which is the inability to tab through your bookmarks and plot a route to a station. When doing so you plot to the system it's in. It sounds small but it's another step I have to do when coming out of a jump which can either leave me vulnerable or just plain old waste my time. 90% of my time is spent flipping between Gorey Enterprise (Recua System) and Dean Hub (Yawa System) and not being able to plot between the two while docked in station is infuriating.
---
Issue/Fix 4 - Contacts have way too many tiny tabs.
The inability to single click hand in all bounties upon opening a contact's screen is incredibly confusing. This was something that never needed changing and simply needs reverting. Going through all these new tabs with a D-Pad is just annoying...
---
Issue/Fix 5 - Bring back exact shield and armour health to an easily accessible part of the ship HUD.
Getting an exact amount of shield health and recharge value on the "Bottom Panel" is incredibly critical in the heat of combat. This was a feature that never needed to be removed. An alternative fix would be to add a value to the primary HUD next to your Shield Rings.
---
Issue/Fix 6 - Please allow double inputting of controls on controller as an accessibility option.
Having [Hold X] and [Press X] be two different things is nice but not being able to bind several things to the [Press X] input, which is an incredibly common interact input in other games, is still disheartening... I wouldn't mind getting a warning for double mapping but please let us do it. It would cut on the dozens of [Press D-Pad + (Press Face Button or Bumper)] inputs I have.
---
If the ED Dev. team does find this message I want to be clear that I'm still supportive of the game and the hard work that's going on with the repair crunch that's no doubt underway. While I normally don't post about this kind of stuff for games due to the large futility it usually is I felt this to be a rare instance where someone might actually listen. I love a lot of the new content and would have even just payed the expansion price just to be able to chill in the space pub with my friends but the thing keeping me on Horizons is the troublesome changes to accessibility (the renaming of Wings to Teams also didn't help) and current issues with co-operative play.
I wish you luck Frontier. I'm looking forward to the next couple months of improvements and patches.
Overall thoughts - I don't like it.
Specific Issues - All of it.
Suggested Fixes for the Issues - Just go back to the Horizons UI. There was nothing wrong with it. You've gone and changed something that didn't need to be changed, and you've managed to increase user clicks by 247% in the process ... UI/UX 101 - the least amount of clicks the better.
To much Clicking.
Back and forth between mouse Keyboard and control system. Particular problem for me is :
1 Navigating Mission system
2 Galaxy map.
I suffer with arthritis and I am one of those people who cannot use VR (not because of cost).
The way I see it is CONSOLE rule hence all the ICONS.
Back and forth between mouse Keyboard and control system. Particular problem for me is :
1 Navigating Mission system
2 Galaxy map.
I suffer with arthritis and I am one of those people who cannot use VR (not because of cost).
The way I see it is CONSOLE rule hence all the ICONS.
Bring back the information about Fleet carriers in system map. Cmdr name, squadron they belong to, and who has landing access.
Galmap/Sysmap UI feedback
Overall thoughts – cant say I’m overly fond.
Specific Issues – I tend to do more exploration or transport missions than anything else. Since EDO I dont seem to be able to reliably select a star by mouse clicking. If I try the map just moves back to where I am currently. This makes exploration etc difficult. I can select by searching for the name then clicking the route icon on the right but this is cumbersome.
Suggested Fixes for the Issues –allow mouse click to select. This may be a binds error on my part, but with the game issues we’ve seen I’ve not played EDO much as yet.
Overall thoughts – cant say I’m overly fond.
Specific Issues – I tend to do more exploration or transport missions than anything else. Since EDO I dont seem to be able to reliably select a star by mouse clicking. If I try the map just moves back to where I am currently. This makes exploration etc difficult. I can select by searching for the name then clicking the route icon on the right but this is cumbersome.
Suggested Fixes for the Issues –allow mouse click to select. This may be a binds error on my part, but with the game issues we’ve seen I’ve not played EDO much as yet.
System map:
The option to plot a course to a bookmark should be brought up a level so it's a contextual option on the actual bookmark list, not hidden down behind extra clicks.
Meanwhile, collapse multiple Fleet Carriers gathered around a single body down into one icon, and we can click it to expand and see them individually if needed. If something should be hidden behind an extra click, it's FCs cluttering the map in busy systems, most of which I don't need to know about or land at.
The option to plot a course to a bookmark should be brought up a level so it's a contextual option on the actual bookmark list, not hidden down behind extra clicks.
Meanwhile, collapse multiple Fleet Carriers gathered around a single body down into one icon, and we can click it to expand and see them individually if needed. If something should be hidden behind an extra click, it's FCs cluttering the map in busy systems, most of which I don't need to know about or land at.
- offer a single close button. Don't make me go back through the galaxy map when I want to exit.
- compression the bookmarks. Having to scroll through big boxes is unnecessary. If you insist on the big boxes can you at least put a smaller button within the box so I can one click set a destination?
Generally the problem with all of the UI is there are so many clicks. Nothing is streamlined. You have to open 4 windows to get to something and then click back through all 4 to get out. For a game with so much grind we need for things to be utilitarian and speed us up, not slow us down.
- compression the bookmarks. Having to scroll through big boxes is unnecessary. If you insist on the big boxes can you at least put a smaller button within the box so I can one click set a destination?
Generally the problem with all of the UI is there are so many clicks. Nothing is streamlined. You have to open 4 windows to get to something and then click back through all 4 to get out. For a game with so much grind we need for things to be utilitarian and speed us up, not slow us down.
UI Feedback
Overall thoughts – Art assets great, updated bookmark functionality great. Overall functionality took clunky and info either removed or buried too deep and default to sell modules
Specific Issues – Engineering on modules during outfitting, currently equipped modules on ships from shipyard menu. Info on systems, planets, settlements too buried. Storage should be default option, not sell
Suggested Fixes for the Issues – Best: Rollback UI interface navigation, retain new assets/bookmark functions. Will stop tearing hair out: All data listed when you click the first time on any one item (planet, module, ship, setlement, etc) IE no need to input any other command to know everything about what you clicked on like in the old UI.
Overall thoughts – Art assets great, updated bookmark functionality great. Overall functionality took clunky and info either removed or buried too deep and default to sell modules
Specific Issues – Engineering on modules during outfitting, currently equipped modules on ships from shipyard menu. Info on systems, planets, settlements too buried. Storage should be default option, not sell
Suggested Fixes for the Issues – Best: Rollback UI interface navigation, retain new assets/bookmark functions. Will stop tearing hair out: All data listed when you click the first time on any one item (planet, module, ship, setlement, etc) IE no need to input any other command to know everything about what you clicked on like in the old UI.
Thank you for hearing us re: the UI on the whole. I want to say that I do appreciate the ”quick button” that you put in for apex transport to missions... that is exceptional. My biggest problem with the galaxy and system maps is that it’s a sensory overload, and taking away mouse-over info in system is never good. I think you should actually have mouse-over menus in lieu of what you have implemented. the last real important UI matter is the jarring difference in chat and contact menus between ship and foot. trying to communicate with squad mates when on foot and while others are in ship mode and can type more freely is such a hassle I have to ignore a lot until I can take a break. quick chat hot key is one thing, but when you have squads, wings and direct chats coming at you on foot, it’s overwhelming to try to keep any conversations going, or even take notice. I think there needs to be an option to display multiple chat tabs in your visor HUD so that you can see an important message and find a place to stop and respond.
Basically, all this feedback can be summed up into:
- Odyssey introduces too many clicks per action result
- Odyssey obfuscates or removes useful information (e.g. Wanted state and explored/mapped/footfall state)
- Odyssey menu interactions (e.g. going back or exiting) are even more inconsistent than it was in Horizons.
Overall thoughts – Once you have worked out the changes to the UI in general it works well. The main problem is loading and lag in the menus. Graphics loading. Twirling icons etc.
Specific Issues.
1. Trying to select a planet causes the UI to move around whilst using a mouse this can mean 2-3 attempts to lock in a route.
2. System map in particular takes upwards of 10 -20 seconds to load fully.
3. Back button has 2-3 seconds lag.
Suggested Fixes for the Issues.
1. On detection of a long mouse press prevent the ui from moving.
2. Optimise loading, preloaded assets etc.
3. Stop lag
Specific Issues.
1. Trying to select a planet causes the UI to move around whilst using a mouse this can mean 2-3 attempts to lock in a route.
2. System map in particular takes upwards of 10 -20 seconds to load fully.
3. Back button has 2-3 seconds lag.
Suggested Fixes for the Issues.
1. On detection of a long mouse press prevent the ui from moving.
2. Optimise loading, preloaded assets etc.
3. Stop lag
Overall thoughts
User Experience is horrible
The UI layout LOOKS nice but doesn't take into consideration what the user is trying to do. Most mundane tasks are extremely tedious to achieve.
Specific Issues
- Fragmented information
- Unreasonable amount of user interaction to access said information
- Excessive use of icons
- Lack of hover information
- Hire a User Experience (UX) professional who is familiar with the game instead of crowd sourcing
- Expanding menus with clear labels rather than only icons with pop-up side menus
- Use Filters that are meaningful to users
- Aggregate relevant information rather than fragmenting it
- Drag and drop (wait, that's for outfitting, I'm out of my lane)
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Overall thoughts:
I am a mouse & keyboard player and I used to be able to go to a system rather quickly. What I dislike the most now is:
Specific Issues:
1) selecting a system or a planet now needs a click and hold (this is really bad IMO) [GALAXY MAP AND SYSTEM MAP]
2) clicking on a system with the mouse will no longer center that system in the screen nor will make it "selectable" [GALAXY MAP]
2.1) clicking SPACE BAR after will not target the desired system or planet anymore
3) SPACE BAR is not even working properly when clicking and holding... nothing happens https://streamable.com/z0kog3 and here https://streamable.com/p5inhd
4) I don't like how the bookmarks are now organized. It is SLOW navigation that needs SEVERAL clicks and the grouping by system, planet, station etc made me lose the sequence of bookmarks - now they are all split. Before I had everything in the same "section" due to the ordering - such as "LORE ADAMASTOR #1", "LORE ADAMASTOR #2", "THARGOIDS STRUCTURE", "THARGOIDS SIGNALS", "MATERIALS ENCODED", "MATERIALS MANUFACTURED", etc https://streamable.com/4rv1z4
5) Missing "I AM HERE" button where I could click it and the Galaxy Map would center itself on the current system I am at
Suggestions on how to fix the mentioned issues:
1) I think this one if self explanatory, just make it clickable instead of click and hold
2) in Horizons it would drag the view to that system https://streamable.com/s429o1 and I could use the SPACE BAR to do an action when the system was selected
3) if 1) and 2) are fixed, this one will be meaningless but in other words, remove the click and hold, bring back the 1 click with MOUSE or SPACE BAR to do an action
4) Horizons provided me with a quick access to the Bookmarks and through the naming convention I gave, I would have all the bookmarkers sorted perfectly https://streamable.com/nr17xd it was also FAST to navigate to with 1 or 2 clicks MAXIMUM
5) Add the button back to center the Galaxy Map where I currently am
- I like the new filtering and the possibility to check Services in the Galaxy map which makes me not rely on external tool to find what I need or want anymore o7
- I don't like how we target a system (click & hold) and SPACE BAR button is not working properly for this either
- I don't like how the new bookmark works AT ALL
I am a mouse & keyboard player and I used to be able to go to a system rather quickly. What I dislike the most now is:
Specific Issues:
1) selecting a system or a planet now needs a click and hold (this is really bad IMO) [GALAXY MAP AND SYSTEM MAP]
2) clicking on a system with the mouse will no longer center that system in the screen nor will make it "selectable" [GALAXY MAP]
2.1) clicking SPACE BAR after will not target the desired system or planet anymore
3) SPACE BAR is not even working properly when clicking and holding... nothing happens https://streamable.com/z0kog3 and here https://streamable.com/p5inhd
4) I don't like how the bookmarks are now organized. It is SLOW navigation that needs SEVERAL clicks and the grouping by system, planet, station etc made me lose the sequence of bookmarks - now they are all split. Before I had everything in the same "section" due to the ordering - such as "LORE ADAMASTOR #1", "LORE ADAMASTOR #2", "THARGOIDS STRUCTURE", "THARGOIDS SIGNALS", "MATERIALS ENCODED", "MATERIALS MANUFACTURED", etc https://streamable.com/4rv1z4
5) Missing "I AM HERE" button where I could click it and the Galaxy Map would center itself on the current system I am at
Suggestions on how to fix the mentioned issues:
1) I think this one if self explanatory, just make it clickable instead of click and hold
2) in Horizons it would drag the view to that system https://streamable.com/s429o1 and I could use the SPACE BAR to do an action when the system was selected
3) if 1) and 2) are fixed, this one will be meaningless but in other words, remove the click and hold, bring back the 1 click with MOUSE or SPACE BAR to do an action
4) Horizons provided me with a quick access to the Bookmarks and through the naming convention I gave, I would have all the bookmarkers sorted perfectly https://streamable.com/nr17xd it was also FAST to navigate to with 1 or 2 clicks MAXIMUM
5) Add the button back to center the Galaxy Map where I currently am
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Your new UI is a mess. The loss of muscle memory is expected with any UI change, especially one this big. But the new experience is just SO MUCH WORSE.
According to this guy's calculations, the number of UI interactions required to find a station's information from the system map has increased over 200%. Plotting a route to a planetary site feels like a fight against the UI, with things constantly shifting around as I try to hold the mouse down.
And that's not the only place where things have gotten worse. The galaxy map is also dreadful, taking much longer to set paths to bookmarks and mission targets. Information is separated across multiple tabs for no obvious reason, meaning I have to flip thru half a dozen menus to find the system or station information I actually want. And if you set a route from a planet, but then have to supercruise (when your destination is obscured), THE GAME FORGETS YOUR ROUTE, and you have to fight the UI all over again to recalculate it.
Then, there's dealing with ships. The shipyard UI looks pretty, and kinda works, but it wastes a LOT of screenspace, and again, information is spread across multiple tabs when there's PLENTY of room to show more info on screen at once.
But the REAL horror show here is the outfitting interface. I say "horror show" because I'm afraid to try and mess with my ship's modules for fear of accidentally selling something (for example, a set of very expensive and heavily engineered thrusters for my Anaconda that I'm pretty sure have disappeared, with no apparent options to buy them back). The number of menus I have to click thru to exchange a mounted module for one in my storage approaches numbers science hasn't calculated yet. There's still no way to save ship configurations for easy switching. And I still have to watch THE FULL HARDPOINT ANIMATION for each hardpoint I want to swap out.
Just revert to the old UI. PLEASE. I know some modifications were necessary, like the lower panel needing a button so we can disembark and manage suit loadouts, but the rest didn't need changing like this.
According to this guy's calculations, the number of UI interactions required to find a station's information from the system map has increased over 200%. Plotting a route to a planetary site feels like a fight against the UI, with things constantly shifting around as I try to hold the mouse down.
And that's not the only place where things have gotten worse. The galaxy map is also dreadful, taking much longer to set paths to bookmarks and mission targets. Information is separated across multiple tabs for no obvious reason, meaning I have to flip thru half a dozen menus to find the system or station information I actually want. And if you set a route from a planet, but then have to supercruise (when your destination is obscured), THE GAME FORGETS YOUR ROUTE, and you have to fight the UI all over again to recalculate it.
Then, there's dealing with ships. The shipyard UI looks pretty, and kinda works, but it wastes a LOT of screenspace, and again, information is spread across multiple tabs when there's PLENTY of room to show more info on screen at once.
But the REAL horror show here is the outfitting interface. I say "horror show" because I'm afraid to try and mess with my ship's modules for fear of accidentally selling something (for example, a set of very expensive and heavily engineered thrusters for my Anaconda that I'm pretty sure have disappeared, with no apparent options to buy them back). The number of menus I have to click thru to exchange a mounted module for one in my storage approaches numbers science hasn't calculated yet. There's still no way to save ship configurations for easy switching. And I still have to watch THE FULL HARDPOINT ANIMATION for each hardpoint I want to swap out.
Just revert to the old UI. PLEASE. I know some modifications were necessary, like the lower panel needing a button so we can disembark and manage suit loadouts, but the rest didn't need changing like this.