Yeah, people can get overly dramatic at times, waving arms and screaming about how their life is going to end if X isn't changed, and calling the devs names and stuff... bit annoying when that happens because it often takes over the thread and marginalises the point being made.
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- Thread starter HunterTX
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Yeah, people can get overly dramatic at times, waving arms and screaming about how their life is going to end if X isn't changed, and calling the devs names and stuff... bit annoying when that happens because it often takes over the thread and marginalises the point being made.
Not unsettling me. I can get my brain around 1 being a low priority and 5 being higher. And I've had a few beers.
When I'm asked to do something at home I often answer, "Yes dear, that's my number one priority," when I mean it's the last thing on my mind.
The value could be negativ - but displayed as its absolute value.
Highest priority 1 would be -1 internally.
Lower priority 2 would be -2 internally.
Even lower priority 3 would be -3 internally.
The highest internal value (-1) would still be the highest priority. But in the UI the value would be the lowest (1).
But maybe I'm not thinking straight. Was a long day today.
Call it 'shutdown order' or 'shutdown sequence'.
Or (preferably),
Change it to the way most people perceive 'priority' to function, with the most important systems as '1', lesser ones as '2', etc. BUT with the addition that if you try to promote a system as being more important than '1' it stays at '1' with all other systems dropping a number.
That way people wouldn't moan about extra shuffling, and it would be more intuitive?
Or (preferably),
Change it to the way most people perceive 'priority' to function, with the most important systems as '1', lesser ones as '2', etc. BUT with the addition that if you try to promote a system as being more important than '1' it stays at '1' with all other systems dropping a number.
That way people wouldn't moan about extra shuffling, and it would be more intuitive?
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This IS a storm in a teacup but it perhaps highlights an underlying issue: A lot of people expect to have more influence, being Alpha testers (whether or not this is fair, is up for discussion). To those who think they should be able to influence the design of the game at this point (again, up for discussion) it might seem flippant, that FD simply reply "it doesn't work like that", when they genuinely raise their concern about a design decision.
It is indeed more practical and logical.
But nevertheless the other way around (priority 1 = highest priority) is engraved in my old brain.
But I can get used to it and adapt.
Just how number works, convenient that
Can't you colour code them and do away with numbers? So a Green icon = high priority, Yellow icon = medium, Orange icon = low priority, Red = offline ?
That would be more universally understood by all I think (except the colour blind.... oops
)
Mike, if and when you pass by again,
It turns out that this isn't the way we're ending up using the PRIORITY system at all.
If we have a power draw problem and want to solve it with "Priority" tweaks, usability is, in fact, the complete opposite to the way you were expecting.
Say someone has a ship and loadout that shuts down life support (or whatever) whenever hardpoints are deployed.
Our advice to that pilot is typically to go through the ENTIRE MODULES LIST and set EVERY item to "2", except for FRAME SHIFT and CARGO HATCH...
FRAME SHIFT is a module that cannot, by design, be used when hardpoints are deployed.
CARGO HATCH is also a module that can easily be done without when guns are required.
So an easy and intuitive fix.
But the pilot is faced with changing from this default:
DRIVES 1
SHIELD GEN 1
RAILGUN 1
RAILGUN 1
RAILGUN 1
CARGO HATCH 1
L-SUPPORT 1
PWR DIST 1
SENSOR SUITE 1
HEAT SINK 1
FRAME SHIFT 1
to this...
DRIVES 2
SHIELD GEN 2
RAILGUN 2
RAILGUN 2
RAILGUN 2
CARGO HATCH 1
L-SUPPORT 2
PWR DIST 2
SENSOR SUITE 2
HEAT SINK 2
FRAME SHIFT 1
That's a whole lotta clicking. On a well equipped ship, he'll be there for hours.
And, to add to the fun, we have to keep explaining to people that "Priority 1" means the opposite to everything they've ever heard of. "Yes, 1. It's LOW priority. No, less important than 2. No, Priority 1 isn't more important, it's less important."
There's also an ongoing headache with any new equipment we buy. If we fit a new laser or scanner, we have to remember to manually bump up its priority from default "1" to "2" (ie. more important) in line with all the rest of the ones we did earlier. If we forget, it will fall into the same bucket as Cargo Hatch and Frame Shift.
If we forget, then the ship may power a newly acquired CARGO SCANNER instead of LIFE SUPPORT... because it doesn't know any better. So not even the default for new equipment is useful to those actually tweaking priority numbers.
As it stands, this system means more work, AND it's counter-intuitive, AND it's prone to nasty ongoing surprises w.r.t every bit of new gear.
Surely there is a case to be made that we'd all be better off if 1 = High...
If we all started out with everything on 1, and we were faced with power issues, we'd just change these two module priorities:
DRIVES 1
SHIELD GEN 1
RAILGUN 1
RAILGUN 1
RAILGUN 1
CARGO HATCH 2
L-SUPPORT 1
PWR DIST 1
SENSOR SUITE 1
HEAT SINK 1
FRAME SHIFT 2
That's it. All done.
It would also make sense to everyone, instead of inverting a universally understood convention.
As a bonus, it would have the convenient side-effect of keeping new equipment (usually offensive/defensive/scanning items) powered when hardpoints are out, if priorities have been used.
Thoughts, anyone?
Wait... what?! :S
I can see this thread was started a while back. Is this still the case in 1.0.4?
I've just spent time shifting all modules, so that I can keep Drives at Priority 1, Weapons at Priority 2 and thinks like Cargo Hatch and Live Support to Priority 5. Took a while, I agree it wasn't convenient. But never did it even cross my mind that "Priority 1" wasn't "Number one priority"
If the final game will only have 5 "priority" levels, I agree with another poster the best thing would be to name them: Critical (last to shutdown), Trivial (First to shut down)
I totally agree with Kremmen here.
The designers solution might have worked well for those who knew it worked in that way (and I wonder if any of the players discovered that by themselves) but this was totally misleading for all the people who used the power management system and based their actions on the universally known "priority system method".
Plus, as pointed out from Kremmen in the example he provided, the click-to-assign thing would be faster the other way around... and by the way, I don't mind at all fiddling around setting up my rules of shutdown priority... even if it takes time: I mainly do that when I'm docked... plenty of time sitting there!
The dev's should make this their number 1 priority ...
oh wait ... the dev's should make this their number 5 priority
Which is higher?
I'm confused now
Come on dev's, this 'feature' will get panned when the game is released,
I know it, you know it.
plz sort it out. make it you number 5 priority
oh wait ... the dev's should make this their number 5 priority
Which is higher?
I'm confused now
Come on dev's, this 'feature' will get panned when the game is released,
I know it, you know it.
plz sort it out. make it you number 5 priority
The dev's should make this their number 1 priority ...
oh wait ... the dev's should make this their number 5 priority
Which is higher?
I'm confused now
Come on dev's, this 'feature' will get panned when the game is released,
I know it, you know it.
plz sort it out. make it you number 5 priority
Yeah, I have to agree. This is the kind of UI design that game studios can talk themselves into, inside a closed office tester group, but doesn't make sense when it hits the real world. It's especially jarring because the rest of the UI works pretty well.
I like what was mentioned up-thread: just call it "Shutdown" and you can keep the same number system. One text replacement, easy. It's the word "Priority" that makes peoples' heads spin.