Why do we need Analysis Mode?

[Myou]

Analys mode as whole seems entirely redunant. Nothing changed about how i setup my firegroups. What changed now is that i get spammed with can-not-be-used-in-this-mode for my scan/interdict/limplet firegroup and ocassional start fights with a major disadvantage due analys mode disabling my weapons.

Its borthersome to say the least.
Only way to make this worthwhile i see is if instead of "analys"-mode it'd be "secondary firegroup set"- mode for those that have a lot of firegroups to juggle, eg no module limitations for modes. Then again, this mightnt actually help those that need it the most still: Miners.


Not even to mention all this scanner overload. I have them ALL on the same trigger, why do we have so many scanners that all do the same thing? Just have it be addons for the basic scanner we use, instead of being dedicated scanners with dedicated fire-triggers... what gives with this composition scanner thats now prebuild into all our ships, doesnt ever need to be actively fired because DSS uses it automatically - and yet it has a firegroup entry. Why.

 

[Alec Turner]

Analysis mode should be an overlay only. All tools and weapons should be available in both modes, with Analysis mode simply being a HUD overlay that visually displays additional data.
This whole splitting of tools into different modes is silly and actually more annoying than it really needs to be.

Totally ... HUD overlay would be fine but the entirely arbitrary prevention of the use of all modules in both modes? Why? Can anyone suggest what useful/practical purpose that restriction actually serves?

 

[Ralph Vargr]

Someone at my work here just posted a link to an excellent article on UI design.

https://blog.prototypr.io/make-me-think-90b46aa50513

I reckon' the ED UI is currently still a bit ...



.. where it should be more like ..

Nailed it. It's been this way from the beginnings of cave paintings.

 

[Daynen]

Analys mode as whole seems entirely redunant. Nothing changed about how i setup my firegroups. What changed now is that i get spammed with can-not-be-used-in-this-mode for my scan/interdict/limplet firegroup and ocassional start fights with a major disadvantage due analys mode disabling my weapons.

Its borthersome to say the least.
Only way to make this worthwhile i see is if instead of "analys"-mode it'd be "secondary firegroup set"- mode for those that have a lot of firegroups to juggle, eg no module limitations for modes. Then again, this mightnt actually help those that need it the most still: Miners.


Not even to mention all this scanner overload. I have them ALL on the same trigger, why do we have so many scanners that all do the same thing? Just have it be addons for the basic scanner we use, instead of being dedicated scanners with dedicated fire-triggers... what gives with this composition scanner thats now prebuild into all our ships, doesnt ever need to be actively fired because DSS uses it automatically - and yet it has a firegroup entry. Why.

This is what I'm talking about. It's completely unnecessary information and clunky design. Remember before the update? We switched to our scanner's firegroup, held the trigger and BAM. system scanned. Why did we need another button press BEFORE that? I'm all for the new system that comes AFTER you scan, but needing an entirely new "mode" just to USE the scanner didn't serve much purpose. We already have to come to a full stop and switch to a completely different SCREEN after we fire the scanner off anyway, so what was the point of "analysis mode" to begin with? It could be cut out entirely and no one would even know it was ever there. It's a "feature" we wouldn't miss. The composition scanner is just more of the same on top of that. Someone at Fdev has a serious addiction to UI bloat and needs to have some of their decision making power revoked until they learn how to design a more elegant and less obnoxious UI.

 

[Andrej]

I love these new exploration tools, but I am a bit baffled as to why we need separate "Analysis" and "Combat" modes. The only thing I can think is that Analysis mode gives us the blue grid over planets we launch probes at. If this is all AM is, then it adds a tremendous amount of unnecessary complication to the system.

Why not instead just have the blue grid visible when the DSS is in our active fire group, and turn it off when DSS is not in our active fire group? As for FSS and "honk", these are totally separate things, so just let them work, no analysis mode necessary.

As it is, there are extra buttons to toggle between AM and CM (buttons being in short supply on my DS4 controller), and these annoying "Module cannot be used in this cockpit mode" messages. And then there's analysis mode in my SRV (???), but I'm hoping that's just a bug.

To quote another game I play, Frontier, "You're making a chicken out of a feather!"

Analysis mode is a great QoL update for larger combat ships that can have 3-4 or even more fire groups.

 

[Sylow]

Analysis mode is a great QoL update for larger combat ships that can have 3-4 or even more fire groups.

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Sure you can put weapons and scanners on the same fire group and the mode determines, which of them are used when you pull the trigger. But if you do that, the game also keeps spamming error messages. I haven't found a way to switch them off.
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Also i remember that during the beta i had a configuration, where the error message for one item on the fire group seems to have prevented another (legit) item later in the fire group not to be triggered any more. Unfortunately i was just too much about switching things around in the beta. I don't remember in which exact configuration of items that happened and didn't manage to reproduce it. So it might be a very specific problem or a thing of the past.
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But you are right, with just a few small improvements, the mode switch could do miracles for managing fire groups.
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