Last Author Review 22/07/2022 (Update 12)
Removed and Missing Information / UI Functionality in Elite: Odyssey
Preamble
Greetings Commanders o7
In light of the upcoming narrative and recent announcements about the future development plan for Odyssey and Elite: Dangerous in general, I have decided to reactivate this project. Please help me out, if you can.
What is this thread?
Back in May of 2021 several community leaders and myself have compiled a comprehensive list of UI features and information on display which was available in Horizons, but not in Odyssey. Over the upcoming weeks, hundreds of community members contributed with submissions and helpful insight. As a result the list eventually expanded to cover existing Horizons issues and Odyssey suggestions related to missing information in the game, almost all of which could be traced down to UI functionality in some way.
Looking back at the original list, I am happy to see that many, if not most of the crucial problems with the original release of Odyssey have been addressed.
Why is this still relevant?
As of now, there are still a few features of the Horizon UI that are not currently present in Odyssey. As always, these points will be listed in their own category at the start and remain the priority of the project. I earnestly hope that the UI team or Game Designers will have a look at them, as they did back in May 2021 before. My hope is that this effort can make their lives a bit easier by summarizing and categorizing feedback from across the community in a encyclopaedic format.
The other two lists once again cover information-related issues and suggestions for existing Odyssey and Horizons content respectively. These will be a lot longer, more subjective, and at least in part harder to implement. The focus of the project remains with the first category.
I already made a review of things back in October in a separate thread. I now intend to do this every few months, using and updating the original post, rather that piling up more threads.
How can I contribute?
Without the massive community input, the effort and knowledge of one person would not have been enough to create and maintain such a comprehensive list. A game as versatile as Elite caters to a range of different playstyles, but we are trying to accommodate them all. Please spread the word among your community of Explorers, Miners, PvPers, Traders, Powerplayers and BGSers, Thargoid Hunters or Mercenaries, so that we can help identify issues for every audience. You can contribute personally or as a group, by replying to this thread with submissions, by opening and linking issue tracker reports on entries, and by screenshotting or creating video evidence. Discussions of individual points, suggestions to improve format and simple checks to keep things up-to-date are also welcome.
Special Thanks to:
CMDR Dwarden
CMDR Erimus Kamzel
CMDR Maligno
CMDR ObsidianAnt
CMDR 100.Rub
The Pilots' Summit (discontinued)
The BGS Server (https://discord.com/invite/PZwERyb)
FleetComm HQ (https://discord.com/invite/0hKG2qb9ODixa7Iz)
All forum contributions and other feedback threads on these issues
Legend / Instruction
The three major categories:
Disputed entries will be removed until discussion or investigations have been resolved to keep the list as clean as possible.
Colour Legend:
Outright Hindering Gameplay / Frustrating
Quality of Life (sometimes separation from gameplay is blury)
Likely a Bug
Possible Design Choice / Subjective
Flavour / Immersion
Issue addressed (now listed separately in List D)
Description of the Issue / Further Information
Removed and Missing Information / UI Functionality in Elite: Odyssey
Preamble
Greetings Commanders o7
In light of the upcoming narrative and recent announcements about the future development plan for Odyssey and Elite: Dangerous in general, I have decided to reactivate this project. Please help me out, if you can.
What is this thread?
Back in May of 2021 several community leaders and myself have compiled a comprehensive list of UI features and information on display which was available in Horizons, but not in Odyssey. Over the upcoming weeks, hundreds of community members contributed with submissions and helpful insight. As a result the list eventually expanded to cover existing Horizons issues and Odyssey suggestions related to missing information in the game, almost all of which could be traced down to UI functionality in some way.
Looking back at the original list, I am happy to see that many, if not most of the crucial problems with the original release of Odyssey have been addressed.
Why is this still relevant?
As of now, there are still a few features of the Horizon UI that are not currently present in Odyssey. As always, these points will be listed in their own category at the start and remain the priority of the project. I earnestly hope that the UI team or Game Designers will have a look at them, as they did back in May 2021 before. My hope is that this effort can make their lives a bit easier by summarizing and categorizing feedback from across the community in a encyclopaedic format.
The other two lists once again cover information-related issues and suggestions for existing Odyssey and Horizons content respectively. These will be a lot longer, more subjective, and at least in part harder to implement. The focus of the project remains with the first category.
I already made a review of things back in October in a separate thread. I now intend to do this every few months, using and updating the original post, rather that piling up more threads.
How can I contribute?
Without the massive community input, the effort and knowledge of one person would not have been enough to create and maintain such a comprehensive list. A game as versatile as Elite caters to a range of different playstyles, but we are trying to accommodate them all. Please spread the word among your community of Explorers, Miners, PvPers, Traders, Powerplayers and BGSers, Thargoid Hunters or Mercenaries, so that we can help identify issues for every audience. You can contribute personally or as a group, by replying to this thread with submissions, by opening and linking issue tracker reports on entries, and by screenshotting or creating video evidence. Discussions of individual points, suggestions to improve format and simple checks to keep things up-to-date are also welcome.
Special Thanks to:
CMDR Dwarden
CMDR Erimus Kamzel
CMDR Maligno
CMDR ObsidianAnt
CMDR 100.Rub
The Pilots' Summit (discontinued)
The BGS Server (https://discord.com/invite/PZwERyb)
FleetComm HQ (https://discord.com/invite/0hKG2qb9ODixa7Iz)
All forum contributions and other feedback threads on these issues
Legend / Instruction
The three major categories:
- List A) Information and UI Functionality that was available in Horizons, but is not in the current Odyssey version.
- List B) Lack of information and UI functionality that is detrimental to Odyssey-specific gameplay, the flow of such or even just overall quality of life.
- List C) Same as B, but for Horizons content only. This category may include some older issues too.
Disputed entries will be removed until discussion or investigations have been resolved to keep the list as clean as possible.
Colour Legend:
Outright Hindering Gameplay / Frustrating
Quality of Life (sometimes separation from gameplay is blury)
Likely a Bug
Possible Design Choice / Subjective
Flavour / Immersion
Issue addressed (now listed separately in List D)
Description of the Issue / Further Information
Not including obvious design decisions. Including false and misleading information.
A: Information and UI Functionality that is no longer available in 4.0 (but was in 3.8)
Missions (Mission Boards, Mission Panels in Ship and On-foot)
- All mission details in mission selection when prerequisites are unfulfilled Player can not see the mission details to decide, whether to switch to a suitable ship or change outfitting. Player can also not accept missions to fulfil in a suitable ship later.
- System Jurisdiction (System Controller) and targeted factions of Illegal Missions Some missions used to show what system controller we are committing crimes against. This information needs to be included on ALL illegal missions in the game.
- System Map Button (only the Galaxy Map is available) Let players open the system map directly, so they can plot to the destination port before going there. A button to plot to destination port in one click would also be nice.
- Mission boards only displays one faction state per mission giving faction. We know multiple can be active from the right-hand panel. Horizons still displays multiple. Galaxy and System Map also display only one system state.
- Mission rank recommendations are removed and replaced with "threat levels" There is no indication what threat level corresponds to what rank.
Signal Sources and Surface POIs
- All issues resolved?
System Map
- Plotting to location only works when already in-system
- "fined/hostile at location" indicator next to ports/settlements/etc... This was added for "wanted" already, when hovering over the port on the map.
- List of illegal commodities in system-wide jurisdiction Prohibitions in ports can vary with controlling faction, but system-wide prohibitions are in effect away from ports and listed in Horizons
- Faction BGS States other than primary As we know from the right-hand factions panel and the game files, multiple states can still be active. This information should be displayed correctly. Same issue affects mission boards and galaxy map.
- Pressing "esc" in the map now always opens the main menu, instead of just closing the map
- Precise population numbers of high population systems Arguably the least important, but most picky point on this whole list.
Galaxy Map
- "Apply Filter to Map" keeps unchecking every time the game is restarted or sometimes when filters are changed.
- Filters for Economy are now influenced by 4.0 Settlements, making search for space port economies outright impossible Space ports economies are the only that matter for outfitting, and many other services, which is what this filter was mostly used for. Odyssey settlements are so numerous (with many systems having nearly all economy types represented) that this feature is not worth the trade-off. It makes it a lot harder than before to find the right ports without third party tools.
- Powerplay
- "Open Power Overview" now only shows the main power screen, rather than opening the system in question in the control overview
- 15LY Control System Range indicator sphere selected exploited systems used to show all control spheres conflicting over it (grey/blue spheres)
- Information on systems available for potential preparation/expansion (other than on the few systems already being prepared)
- distance to power HQ
- expansion cost
- radius income
- upkeep cost
- potential loss/profit
- amount of contested systems
- Filter for Fleet Carrier presence (old fleet carrier filter was removed, private ownership government filter does not seem work, private enterprise economy filter is non-existent now)
- "Wanted/fined/hostile in system" We need to open the system map for this, but even there we only see port-specific status for "wanted"
- Pressing "esc" in the map now always opens the main menu, instead of just closing the map
- Engineers markers have the same colour as bookmarks and don't stand out as when they were purple I can't find the engineers among my 300 bookmarks unless I disable their display.
- Stored ships marker has the same colour as Community Goals The old red colour did stand out.
- Some system descriptions do not load at first selection of a system
- Bookmarked Carriers appear as Bookmarked Systems in bookmark list (including Squadron bookmarks)
- The government filter option "Imperial" is not a type that exists in the game world as of now
Planetary Map and Surface Scanner
- Hotspots of geological and biological activity Though the old system of asset placement was removed, these hotspots arguably still exist, but are extremely hard to find on some planets
Settlements
- System controller instead of port controller falsely displayed as jurisdiction around settlements when in ship Unless the settlement itself is selected, this causes confusion over whom players are dealing with or attacking, what jurisdiction they are in - in worst cases the falsely indicated (or not) jurisdiction is from the mission giver
Shipyard / Inter Astra
- All issues resolved?
Ship Outfitting
- Legacy Modifications Indicator
- List of stored modules at port Players have to navigate to every single category to check whether stored modules are at the current location or elsewhere.
- Pop-up Warning for selling highly engineered modules There is a warning on the module now at least
- Weapon Stats
- Weapon Boot time
- Breach Damage and Minimum/Maximum Breach Chance
- Modification information tab needs to be reselected, every time we hover over non-modified equipment
- Context Ship Specs Data (bottom line) used to show shields when hovering over shields, capacity when hovering over cargo rack, etc...
Ship Engineering
- All issues resolved?
In-Ship UI
- Certain mission when completed, but not yet handed in, can not be shared again. Even if a team member participates in a mission, a disconnect or other issue might kick him out of the team, leaving him with no reward. HELP Reports of instances and issue tracker tickets are advisable to players suffering from this issue
- Contacts Panel
- Selected commodities in space not showing "galactic average" value
- Pilot Rank Progression percentages
- Incorrect port and settlement controllers sometimes listed for selected target (see settlements)
Port UI
- Port controller text addressing the pilot is sometimes cut off and can not be read completely.
- Only displays one faction state for port controller. Same problem with mission selection, Galaxy and System map.
- Can no longer select other cockpit tabs when port menu is opened
SRV UI
- All issues resolved?
Fleet Carrier Management
- Plotting Carrier jumps now shows the target system distance from player, rather than carrier
Port Graphics
- All issues resolved?
Other
- Many tourist beacons may be obsolete due to terrain and feature changes
- 0641 Misty Moat of Mrogg
- HELP with submissions is welcome
Not including obvious design decisions. Including false and misleading information.
B: Missing 4.0 Odyssey-related Information and UI Functionality
Missions
- General
- On-foot missions are not available when on ship, ship missions are not available when off-ship This division separates two aspects of the game that should be interconnected
- On foot
- Steal, sabotage and other illegal mission types do not list settlement owners as target faction These probably will issue bounties and their BGS is harmed. Players need to fly to the target port or navigate through system map before knowing who they commit crimes against.
- Mission instructions mentioning builds to not differentiate between buildings of the same type "Fetch item from X in Habitat" is not very clear when there is several Habitats
Galaxy Map
- Bookmark Browser
- Squadron Bookmarks do not name their system on card (like regular bookmarks at the bottom of the card)
Signal Sources and Surface POIs
- New Odyssey "Irregular Markers" have the same name as Horizon ones (despite different content)
System Map
- Landing Pad Size of Ports and Settlements These are not always apparent, especially to new players
- POI list issues (Ports, Landfall Planets, Ground Ports, Horizon Settlements, Odyssey Settlements)
- Too many entries without means of filtering (there can be +50 settlements)
- No filters for economy type (especially for Odyssey settlements, economy matters) Economy symbols have somewhat addressed the later
- No filters for controlling faction
- No way to identify Anarchy controlled POIs
On-foot UI
- In-Sight Hub
- Inventory
- Detailed Description of
consumables, assets, goods and data Including info where to get them, what type
- Detailed Description of
- System Factions and Reputations (as in ship status tab) BGS player's need to access this information, also relevant for some mission locations. This can now only be accessed at ship or SRV.
- Can only be a hold, not a toggle
- Comms
- Mails on Promotions do not display a sound
- Inventory
- Object Interactions
- context information of assets and goods Making it difficult to prioritize what to pick up and to tell the two categories apart
- rarity/value
- type (what is it useful for? trade, engineering, junk etc.)
- current amount in inventory
- required for the blueprint I need?
- foyer mission givers
- allegiance I need to talk to everyone first to find my factions' guy. If not a faction display next to the name, perhaps different clothing based on faction government type and superpower could be used, like with existing Horizons mission boards. More on the latter further below.
- context information of assets and goods Making it difficult to prioritize what to pick up and to tell the two categories apart
- Ship/SRV health (hull and shields)
- Exobiology
- Genetic Samples Collected (this is only viewable at Vista Genomics (now alsoSystem Map) Have not heard about this in a while, have to re-confirm and assess after recent updates.
- Sampling progress per planet (this has to be counted manually)
- Message when completely sampled (like FSS completion)
In-Ship UI
- Storage
- Detailed Description of assets, goods and data
- where/how they can be obtained
- purpose/type (for engineering, trade, junk, other).
- Detailed Description of assets, goods and data
- Home
- Engineering
- Progress bars for Odyssey engineers (old ones have these)
- The new engineers are not listed separate from Ship Engineers (there are a lot of engineers now)
- Engineering
SRV / SRV UI
- Mirrors to see the back of the vehicle or warning indicator for people behind the vehicle (would make it harder to run over NPCs or teammates in Odyssey)
Odyssey Settlement UI (HELP: This section needs an update)
- Data Ports don't contain or highlight properties of data such as:
- rarity/value
- type (what is it useful for, can it be traded, junk etc.)
- current amount in inventory
- required for my blueprint?
- Facility Numbers to tell similar facilities apart (4x the same "Habitation" in Tourist Settlement for example) No distinction between similar buildings makes it very hard to find stuff. (See missions for further detail)
- "Current facility" not highlighted when using settlement computer inside a facility
- Indicator what facilities have active fires in them other than only the same room the terminal is in being highlighted
- UI shows system control faction next to settlement name and settlement controller in the bottom This is confusing players about settlement jurisdiction
- UI shows symbol of economy, but does not name it anywhere
- Only displays one faction state (same issue as with regular ports, mission selection system map and galaxy map)
- False economy icons displayed
On-foot Loadouts and Customization
- Weapon damage per second (rather than only "damage", does it mean damage per shot?) This info was available during Odyssey Alpha.
- Complete inventory of owned suits and weapons (when upgrading)
On-foot Engineering
- Blueprints at engineers or upgrades can not be pinned Players can do this in Horizons, hopefully too for Odyssey at some point.
- Details and description of assets, goods and data in an upgrade blueprint (where can this be found? how rare is this? etc...)
- Details and description of assets, goods and data in an modification blueprint (same as above for engineers.)
Apex Transport
- Warning when booking, while cargo is still on ship (there is no means to sell cargo remotely)
Bartender
- More categories for things to sell (engineering, junk, etc.)
- Some goods still refuse to stack for no apparent reason This is now only an issue for stolen goods
On-foot Conflict Zones
- Conflict Zone (difficulty) viewable from Frontline Solutions, but not from Map or Navigation
- Falsely displays Influence gain or losses upon completion Influence is actually locked during war
Death Screen
- All issues resolved?
Squadron UI
- Management > Members
- No info on mercenary and exobiology rank
Codex
- Knowledge Base
- Lore entries on major corporations and organizations (that were newly introduced with or since release) Thinking of Omnipol, Pioneer Supplies, InterAstra, Apex, etc.
Foyer Immersion (not UI, Visual/Audio)
The following points maybe mostly for immersion, but they would give players vastly more context of what where they are and who they are interacting with,- Difference in appearance/voice lines to tell Mission-givers apart when Imperial, Federal, Alliance, Corporate, Anarchist, Communist, etc. (as in Horizon mission boards)
- Difference in voice-lines from mission-givers depending on faction/superpower relation with the player Why are you rude to me, I have supported your Imperial faction for years!?
- Visual port style distinctiveness based on Allegiance (Anarchy, Communism, Superpowers, etc.) in addition to Economy. Communists and Anarchists feel particularly wrong with billboards everywhere.
- Music distinctiveness when Federation, Empire, Anarchy, Communist port, etc. (as currently in Horizons-era soundtrack for ships)
Settlement Immersion (not UI, Visual/Audio)
- Difference in voice-lines based on faction relation with the player or previous mission completion "I literally just did a mission for you and now you... "
- Difference in appearance/voice lines depending on kind of control faction (anarchist, superpowers, etc.) Anarchist Guard: "You stick to the law around here!". Currently there are at least four visual variations for security based on superpower, which can be expanded upon.
- Difference in appearance/voice lines depending on economy work-related conversations This would feel more authentic and immersive, less like a "generic settlement".
Category C: Some of these may be by design or for technical reasons.
C: Information and Functionality that was already unavailable in 3.8 and older versions
Missions (in general)
- Indicators on whether mission impact will be counted within the current BGS conflict state (War, Election) In a war state, only combat missions count for the war progress and all inf movements are locked anyway. This is not reflected in the mission boards. To the contrary: Trade missions have war-related names, indicating that they would make the faction win the war. This is not the case however and misleading for everyone who does not know how this part of the BGS works
- Indicator for when fulfilling mission terms would get player wanted in jurisdiction of mission-issuing port This is caused by the port and the system/area the illegal mission takes place in being in the same jurisdiction, handing in the mission may now be impossible before the "wanted" status has ended. HELP: I have not encountered an example of this problem in a while, please submit any example in the thread and ideally post an issue report, if you find one.
- Target Faction Allegiance (Superpower) "I came here to support the Federation, not sabotage another Federal faction..."
- POI mega-ships are not highlighted in navigation when they are mission target locations
- Nav beacon is not highlighted as mission location when scan is needed or recommended
Galaxy Map
- No way of combing filters Third party tolls required to find "Federal systems in boom state" for example. This information is needed to find certain materials for engineering.
- Secondary system states do not show on filters and are not listed as active Makes it much harder to find systems in the right state without using third party tools
- Non-controller faction states These states still determine the appearance of CZs etc
- Name of Bookmarks when selected on map
- Ability to create a squadron bookmark, without creating a personal one
- Location of nearest penal ships / ports Where will I be when I die?
- Other allegiances/governments present in system
- Locations of inhabited space outside of Bubble (when not already known by player)
- Locations of other squadron members (need to add all to friends as workaround)
- Thargoids, Guardians and Pilot's Federation are allegiances, but show up as "none" and can not be filtered for
- Barely any systems have descriptions PMF home systems are a rare exceptions. Not even lore important systems from previous games, such as Gateway have descriptions.
- Location of Hyades Cluster (the other star cluster settled other than the Pleiades)
- Location of Star clusters in general
System Map
- Landing Pad Size of Ports and Settlements These are not always apparent, especially to new players
- Positions of POIs such as Combat Zones, Pirate activity, Scenario-Megaships and Installations etc. which are BGS-sensitive and are necessary/useful to work the BGS (this is already done for ground CZs, why not others?)
- Orbit Installations and Megaship locations (non-dockable ones that trigger scenarios / don't trigger scenarios) Scenarios also deserve better integration into the game overall on that note, maybe missions?
- Conflict progress (days of war/election won by factions)
- Way to advertise fleet carrier trade and services In example: trade request signal, owner's message ("Buying Commodity at X Price, 10k profit for you", etc). Currently carrier names are sometimes used as work-around
- Fleet carrier clutter in popular or servicing systems This looks a bit silly and needs some sorting mechanics, many don't even allow docking
- Bookmarked carriers (squadron) wrongly highlight the entire planetary system and all other carriers are also shown as bookmarked
- Bookmarked bodies highlight every fleet carrier or station orbiting the body
Planetary Map
- Not accurately displaying day/night side of planets (HELP, should be investigated again)
- No visual distinction between the huge circular city ports and other (smaller) types of ports
In-Ship
- General/Targetting
- Display of selected location being behind a ring system. This is done for planets too, a similar feature for rings would be good for quality of life.
- Transactions
- Not all missions state mission giver
- Infiltrate the Megaship
- Missions inside a system are not highlighted When players have 20 missions, this may be convenient
- Not all missions state mission giver
- Chat
- Chat window does not open team or direct tab with for quick-access hotkey after a message has been received (standard hotkey: enter) This is annoying when I try to respond to a message quickly
- Can not tab-cycle through direct message contacts This is annoying when players try to respond to a particular person
- Info Log
- Info Log History can not be accessed to see past entries, or operation updates When in a scenario, the window is actually blocked, so updates can not be read. This would also be useful to check on issued bounty-payouts, actions by other players, changes to factions, etc.
- Contacts
- Indicator when selected material is in blueprint
- Indicator which limpets are yours
- Disable limpet button
- Navigation Menu
- Signal sources do not display their relevant faction
- Owner of POI installations and mega-ships Usually system controller, but I may not know who this is unless I go out of my way to check or fly there to check
- POI mega-ships are not highlighted when they are mission target locations
- Nav beacon is not highlighted as mission location when scan is needed or recommended
- Facility List for selected port (so opening the map is not necessary every time)
- Method to only show certain fleet carriers (the ones I need for trade; own and friends, etc. - workaround: bookmark carriers excl. Squadron bookmarks)
- Tourist Beacon Indicator when not yet scanned for Archive
- Navigation Target Selected (Bottom Left)
- Targeted Systems don't show Economies (when not inside system)
- Targeted Systems don't show Allegiance (when inside system)
- No way to advertise fleet carrier trade and services In example: trade request signal, owner's message ("Buying Commodity at X Price, 10k profit for you", etc). Currently carrier names are sometimes used as work-around
- Modules
- Legacy module mods not highlighted as such
- Synthesis progress only visible in right-hand-tab
- Fire Groups
- No Separate Fire Groups for Combat / Analysis Mode
- Ship > Statistics
- Lack of Ship Statistics Information such as Total Mass (Right Panel -> Ship -> Statistics)
- Inventory > Synthesis > Rearms
- No information on which weapon is rearmed different classes and mods of multi-canons are all just called "multi-cannons"
- Transferring individual cargo to and from carrier is tedious speed does not scale with amount as in trade or destroying/abandoning
- Suitable/Affordable Rearms should be at the top The scrolling is painful, order of modules is not alphabetical either
- Synthesis progress only visible in right-hand-tab
- Info Log
- Info Log History (to check bounty-payouts, actions by other players, etc.)
SRV / SRV UI
- Ship health indicator
- Turret view
- Acceleration/speed indicator
- Discernible fire groups left/right position as in ships
- Not showing data link scanner / comp scanner when selected
Hotkeys
- Super Cruise Assist would be much more useful, if there was a hotkey, rather than requiring the player to start it via navigation.
Port UI
- Contact
- Powerplay (systems in turmoil) - always displays 0 progress towards fortification
- Local News
- Start date of conflicts/elections in Local News
- Local News are not sent to Journal (would be good for our beloved third party tools)
Ship Outfitting
- Can not see module and current outfitting details (such as open slots) unless outfitting services are available
- Secondary damage types and damage distribution among them only primary damage type is shown
- Stored hangar units do not show what vehicles are inside of them
Ship Engineering
- Several mod blueprints have outdated descriptions (HELP to come up with a precise list would be appreciated)
- Detailed/accurate description of materials and more useful info on where to obtain it Where can this actually be found? Descriptions of high-grade manufactured should list the system states that increase spawn chance, such as "Boom" for "Core Dynamics Composites" (Currently just says Federal systems). High-grade emissions could be an alert to assist player decision to look for signal sources there - otherwise third party tool knowledge is essential to find the right systems.
- List of Thargoid/Guardian/other materials not yet obtained Normal materials are shown as 0 from the start, these ones only show up after first pickup)
Combat / PvP
- Engineering mods of enemy ships or estimated amount and strength of mods) Do I even have a chance against this ship or is this fight uneven?
- Use of "Premium" ammunitions by hostile players (synthesized ammo) Really useful for tournaments or just "fair fights" in which you are not supposed to synthetize
Thargoids
- Progress counter to fight incursions (global progress + personal contribution) The Galnet reports don't indicate concrete progress that has been made. At worst players work a day longer than necessary. Maybe this could at least be done hourly, like Powerplay on galnet.
BGS
- General
- What systems can I best help a faction in? The Local News Faction Reports are useful for this information, but there could and should be missions, messages to the player about new conflicts, etc. for factions the player is allied with when in their space. Why would the faction ask them to do missions in system they have no trouble in, while they are struggling in another.
- UI
- Ability to turn in bonds only in part like exploration data
- Local BGS Information
- Info on whether influence gain cap is/was reached or overshot Have players had their work negated for doing too much?
- Transaction traffic in systems and distribution among factions (how much is done for my opponents enemy?) there could be local news articles on this
- Effect of individual transaction types in overall traffic (Am I even causing a dent or wasting time?)
- Active players in a system (who is doing transactions/missions against me?)
- Global BGS Information
- Official Server "Tick" (would be good for our beloved third party tools and put players at ease)
- Conflict Zones
- Falsely displays Influence gain or losses upon completion (influence is actually locked during war)
Powerplay
- Rating
- Merit expiration mechanic is not apparent. What merits will players have next week and the one after? Merits from one week decrease by half in amount every week up until the fourth, when they expire completely. Over time this can cause confusions as different sets of merits are calculated seperately, but such information is not shown on the UI.
- Control Tab
- List is not alphabetical, no sorting mechanism Generally difficult to navigate / find what you are looking for
- fortification progress updates only every 30 minutes Not good enough for players to reliably decide where to go without waisting their time. When they reach the listed location, the numbers may be out of date already.
- Details for fortification trigger calculation of Control Systems (Favorable, Unfavorable, Neutral Government Types)
- Plot to system / open system map buttons
- systems in turmoil always display 0% progress, no matter the actual fortification progress tested with Mahon's delivery-based system
Fleet Carriers
- Carriers can not refuel themselves remotely with fuel that is stored on the ship...
- Every time when plotting a route to a system that is full, the map closes
- No way to transfer all of one cargo type fully /rather than whole inventory)
- Can not sell select amount of cargo (rather than all of a type)
- Transferring individual cargo amounts to and from carrier is tedious speed does not scale with amount as in trade or destroying/abandoning
- No way to advertise fleet carrier trade and services In example: trade request signal, owner's message ("Buying Commodity at X Price, 10k profit for you", etc). Currently carrier names are sometimes used as work-around
- No information on what players docked, used carrier services and who is currently on-board
- Jump history / Flight Log (systems visited)
- Commodity market / inventory transaction history
Community Goals
- Ability to turn in bonds only in part
- (current) size of contribution per contributor tier
Squadrons
- General
- "Last Online" information in list of members
- Squadron Posts (internal and public statements) can not be copied into the game reliably Only a snipet of text can be ported into the text window at a time using ctrl+v. This can make it tedious to write up posts.
- Squadron Posts lack customization and flexibility There is no customization to this messaging system, such as referencing a system on the map or using different background images. Post s can not be edited. Past posts are always deleted whenever a new one is made.
- No means to highlight squadron's current objectives / required actions (+highlight on galaxy/system map) The internal announcements can be somewhat used for this, but are extremely restricted.
- Allegiance
- System that is the source of expansion (tied to next point)
- "Happiest" system is misleading information (it does not appear to influence expansion, only influence does)
- Open system in galaxy map button is all the way bottom (scrolling past 50-100 "locations" in a system takes time)
- No system map button
- No plot route button (would also be useful behind locations)
- "Happiest" system is not in line with Security and Economy states what is it based on?
- Leaderboards
- No information on how ranks are calculated does political include supported factions other than the one selected as allegiance?
- No way to "pot out" of leaderboards
- Squadron Browser
- No filter for superpower allegiance (strangely there is for powerplay pledge though)
- No information on activity of squadron
- No way to contact squadrons
- No ability to search squadrons supporting certain minor factions
Scenarios
- Conflict Zones
- Falsely displays Influence gain or losses upon completion Influence is actually locked during war and there is otherwise no information what happens with this influence.
- Immersion
- Difference in Voice lines to tell Alliance/Imperial/Federal navies, Anarchy factions apart
- Different decals/paint jobs/kits for different factions/superpowers/pirates
- Mega-Ships and Installations
- No way to identify scenarios-spawn sources from non-sources via navigation players can still memorize the classes by name as work-around
- Signal Sources
- Signal Sources of factions the player actively tries to support are not highlighted and have to be manually looked for (which makes little sense for distress calls, which should perhaps be a sgip alert notification even) Since other ways of doing BGS are way more effective, the signal source feature is rarely utilized as a result. A highlighter or even message to the player would be a good way to change up the routine and help immersion.
Codex
- Discoveries
- Does not list mega-ships, historical locations, mysteries, etc.
- Pilot's Handbook
- No articles on BGS (faction support) and Powerplay
- Hub > Commander > Archive
- Entries not alphabetical Should be sortable by date and alphabet, maybe type.
- Hub > Codex
- Several individuals do not have articles on them
- Hadrian Augustus Duval
- Octavia Volkov
- Nakato Kaine
- Several (historic) organisations have no entries
- GalCop
- Several individuals do not have articles on them
Multiplayer-related
- No means of offline communication with players or squadron (player mail)
- Let players find find what's going on more easily.
- Centres of recent player activity (24h - 1 week) Where are all the players?
- Most active systems + ports
- Highest risk systems interdictions, PvP, warning upon entry in Open?
- Most active trades routes
- Most active wars/elections And superpowers/minor factions/squadrons involved. Show players where they can support their power / grind their rank in a fun way. Sometimes these can evolve into small events that come close to story-driven community goals.
- etc... Right now all of this information is available in third party tools, where newer players will not find it.
- Centres of recent player activity (24h - 1 week) Where are all the players?
- Major minor factions of the galaxy (minor factions with giant populations, hundreds of systems and assets)
Lore and Mystery
- Locations of lore and mystery locations not seen yet by the player Lead players towards unique locations (such as generation ships) with one-time "story missions", "tip-offs", possible "rumours" such as exploration discoveries in codex or by other means.
- Tourist Beacon Indicator when not yet scanned for Archive Tourist Beacons could be seen as lore-pieces that payers can collect, so this mechanic would make sense.
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