Small changes to the targeting panel for massive improvement

[Cmdr Snuffler]

1. The inventory/cargo pane
Issue: This pane is taking up valuable real estate. It's only used is you have a cargo scanner. So unless you're a pirate this entire pane is wasted.
Suggested Solution: Remove the pane and allow access to it from the contacts/target selection panel by going left/right on it (similar to the factions panel on the left hand pane)

2. Contacts Pane
Issue: After about ten minutes of combat in a RES site there are a lot of contacts, mostly canisters and mats. The contacts pane is ordered by distance. When there are many contacts the list constantly changes due to ships flying around and makes it sometimes almost a mini game to select the grade 5 mat you want as it constantly jumped up and down 1-5 places in the list. Utterly frustrating.
Suggested Solution: Have an ordering option. Order by distance, order by type...order by name.

Issue: When attacking a wing in a res zone you can't see what ships are part of a wing easily. You've scanned three ships, killed one, but which are the other two? There are 20 ships having a fight...pain to the find the other two wing members
Suggested Solution: Allow the "tagging" of a target. So before the fight starts I tag the three ships in the wing. It's now obvious what my next target is.

3. Navigation Pane
Issue: In an emergency/rush it can be a pain to find a certain body/station. You know it's planet 8...but where's that in a distance ordered list of 50+ items. Could be item 1 or 50...all depends on distance.
Suggested Solution: Similar to issue 2 (above) it would be good to have an ordering option. Order By Distance, Type and System Body Position.

Issue: When jumping into a system the navigation panel seems to select a random item in the list. It may be a star to jump to, or a moon. Again, in an emergency situation this is very frustrating as you may have to scroll many many many lines to find the item you want.
Suggested Solution: When jumping into a new system, always auto select item one (usually the star) in the nav menu.

Issue: If you are jumping between two common bookmarked system it seems overkill to open the galaxy map every time.
Suggested Solution: Have a pane that lists your bookmarks. No need to open galaxy map.

Issue: Sometimes the list can be huge...more so in a large system with many bodies and in a large jump range ship. Large lists are not easy to navigate.
Suggested Solution: Split the system bodies and jumpable stars into separate panes (similar to faction information on the right hand panel...navigate left and right to flick between diff nav panes)

4. Transactions Pane
Issue: No clue as to any info on the mission, without opening it. Very hard to see how many missions to the same destination.
Suggested Solution: When displaying missions in the list give more details, like destination etc without having to open each individual mission. Having a more detailed separate missions panel would be great (replace the inventory one??? see above)

 

[Splin-XS]

I can tell that you've put a lot of time and thought into this and it's a shame that nobody responded. Although I cannot do much to push this forward, at least you know someone has read your work and think that it's all a great idea.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Frontier did pick up a bit of this in the April update
- cargo tab is removed and made part of the target details tab
- transactions tab is categorised so you can see only missions if you want
- contacts pane is ordered so that ships are on top and materials at the bottom. Helps a little bit with the problem, though not a complete fix.
The rest are still good ideas, though.

 

[DGBaley]

For tabs that need to be sorted based on some property, also add 'sort by priority'. This allows the user to control the ordering. For example, if I have dozens of bookmarked systems all over the galaxy, but I know I'm on route to Colonia, then I should be able to promote the relevant bookmarks to the top of the list so I don't have to go scrolling through pages to find the next way point.

 

[Tunstan]

Issue: When jumping into a system the navigation panel seems to select a random item in the list. It may be a star to jump to, or a moon. Again, in an emergency situation this is very frustrating as you may have to scroll many many many lines to find the item you want.
Suggested Solution: When jumping into a new system, always auto select item one (usually the star) in the nav menu.

Actually, I'd prefer the default object selected to be the nav beacon. It's right next to the star, would be very useful for system you haven't visited before, and seems to me to be the most logical thing for the system to home in on (with the possible exception of the primary star).

Frontier did pick up a bit of this in the April update

• cargo tab is removed and made part of the target details tab
• transactions tab is categorised so you can see only missions if you want
• contacts pane is ordered so that ships are on top and materials at the bottom. Helps a little bit with the problem, though not a complete fix.

The rest are still good ideas, though.

Totally agree

 

[Sylow]

1. The inventory/cargo pane
Issue: This pane is taking up valuable real estate. It's only used is you have a cargo scanner. So unless you're a pirate this entire pane is wasted.
Suggested Solution: Remove the pane and allow access to it from the contacts/target selection panel by going left/right on it (similar to the factions panel on the left hand pane)

Not a bad idea, but also not that important to me. I see how OCD can make some people hate a non-functional pane, but it doesn't trouble me at all.

2. Contacts Pane
Issue: After about ten minutes of combat in a RES site there are a lot of contacts, mostly canisters and mats. The contacts pane is ordered by distance. When there are many contacts the list constantly changes due to ships flying around and makes it sometimes almost a mini game to select the grade 5 mat you want as it constantly jumped up and down 1-5 places in the list. Utterly frustrating.
Suggested Solution: Have an ordering option. Order by distance, order by type...order by name.

Absolutely! Some filter and ordering settings would be awesome. Maybe even have sub-tabs like "all", "ships", "cargo", "material". With limpets being visible in ships and munitions maybe actually being visible in all, always on top, as "high priority". (That's debateable. But for those who shoot down torpedoes with missiles or screening shell, it might be helpful. )

There's probably several ways to do it. It would help a lot. Especially as i feel just what's described there all too often: trying to pick something out, but the list keeps changing and you just can't get things done properly.

Issue: When attacking a wing in a res zone you can't see what ships are part of a wing easily. You've scanned three ships, killed one, but which are the other two? There are 20 ships having a fight...pain to the find the other two wing members
Suggested Solution: Allow the "tagging" of a target. So before the fight starts I tag the three ships in the wing. It's now obvious what my next target is.

Hmm. Not a bad idea. I mean, oki, i usually manage to figure out which ships are in a wing beforehand by watching them for just a few seconds. The flight pattern is very characteristic. So i scan them first, then attack. Also, as soon as i attacked a member of a wing, the rest soon is easy enough to identify by being red and shooting at me.

So for an experienced pilot it's no issue at all. But i see that it could be extremely helpful for a newer player to have a wing shown better.

Issue: If you are jumping between two common bookmarked system it seems overkill to open the galaxy map every time.
Suggested Solution: Have a pane that lists your bookmarks. No need to open galaxy map.

I see where you are coming from. But I would say, this part only makes sense when it can easily be done while doing the above changes, with limited effort. As soon as it turns into more than one or another day for a developer, it's not worth it. The current system works, this would be a nice quality of life thing but not really important.

Issue: Sometimes the list can be huge...more so in a large system with many bodies and in a large jump range ship. Large lists are not easy to navigate.
Suggested Solution: Split the system bodies and jumpable stars into separate panes (similar to faction information on the right hand panel...navigate left and right to flick between diff nav panes)

I like that. Having this would also eliminate the need for the bookmark pane. Just perhaps also display on the jumpable stars list that it's bookmarked, making it easier to spot. Good enough.

4. Transactions Pane
Issue: No clue as to any info on the mission, without opening it. Very hard to see how many missions to the same destination.
Suggested Solution: When displaying missions in the list give more details, like destination etc without having to open each individual mission. Having a more detailed separate missions panel would be great (replace the inventory one??? see above)

Hmm. Now this gets complicated. At best, i would split off like two lines at the bottom of the list, to display a few more pieces of info for the currently highlighted mission. Displaying all possibly important info for all listed missions will get messy really fast.

To avoid the screen to be an utter chaotic mess, i think it'll remain necessary to go through the list, just display a bit of crucial information (destination system, distance, destination station) in a seperate box at the bottom of the panel and leave it at that.

 

[dm06]

The contacts pane is ordered by distance.

This is not true, well at least now days. It is ordered by ship type all the time.

 

[Sylow]

This is not true, well at least now days. It is ordered by ship type all the time.

Ships are ordered. And i think it orders by mass actually. When in a RES, the Anaconda usually is on top, followed by Imperial Clipper, Python, FDL. While the Asp (also starts with an A) is much further below. So the order sure is not alphabetical.

Things get much messier when you get to cargo, fragments and materials. Considering how they keep changing order for me, range seems to be a factor there.