UI controll of assets

[madtulip2]

First of all thank you very much for the extremly fast 1.13 patch right on monday.

Also i think the engine you have made there is extremly nice and well done. taking a look at the structure of the savegames i can only imagine how the code would look internaly and i believe there is a lot of potential in this creation.

Sadly i have to say that the UI is still far from the functionolality of where it could be. I believe this can be fixed quite fast, but also has to be adressed fast. This is the interface that the user is percieving and there are to few options and to few information. I partly believe this is due to the 6 choices radial menue which ... well the discussion about that.

It seems to be in a state where you as the developer know where all things are to be found but it is not easy accessible to people who didnt use it so far. due to the radial menue there is a lot of scrolling through submenue where switching between the radial menue hirarchy layers should be very fast if not instant. if i known that i want to navigate to 2,2,5,3,2 then i should just be able to type that in as fast as i can.

Please also include a lot more commands to controll your assets and display information about them. Atm for me i do not feel in controll when i.e. building a station. im not sure if the ships do what i ordered them or if some condition is not fullfilled. i done know when they will start moving or if they will at all.

Regarding the abilitie to issue orders there is i.e. the situation where a ship under your controll has no orders and is not in youre group but will still follow you by default. This gets the ships in fights where you maybe dont want your unarmored transporters. The default action should be do nothing.

I also dont understand why you made it so, that you can only give commands to ships in youre squad. i guess thats due to the tree structure in which a ship controlls a ship, conrolls a ship. I dont see any sense in the squad unless you can order the whole squad at the same time or have other commands which affect objects on the same hirarchy level (like "move in this formation" or "attack everything that attack someone in your squad"). If ships in youre squad are just ment to receive the current following command then please dont make them "follow player" the moment you add them to the squad because that is often not what you want. make "no new order" the default for ships just beeing added to the squad. i think it would be better if you could order anybody and use the squad functionality just for combat related ships that you want to fly around with you similar as wingmans. if you give an order to someone that is not in your squad and has a supperior your oder should just have priority and after your orders are all processed the ship should move back to be controlled by its supperior

some bulletpoints about the UI from my point of view.:

- add all standard movement orders like:
-- stop and do nothing
-- move to this object
-- move to my current position
-- follow me
-- follow this object
-- patrol from object to object

- trade interface
-- list of all current tasks similar to loaded items list (displaying buy, from, ware, ammount ... per line)
-- ability to select tradeorder and delete
-- ability to select tradeorder and move to another position in list

- list of all current orders (movement related) similar to described trade task list

- combat behavior
-- defend yourself
-- defend your supperiors
-- defend objects you conroll
-- defend objects inside youre squad (your level of controll hirarchy)
-- attack everything hostile close to ... (same as above with defend)
-- should be implemented as states in some menue similar to the option to resupply own drones or missiles.


- status about current order states
-- can execute and is currently ... (in transit)
-- cant execute because ...

- fuel
-- is unclear to me how it works compleetly.
-- seems to be the only occasion where you would doubleclick the video in a chat with NPCs ?
-- solve this with checkboxes or some state to be set like : refuel by (never,buy yourself from closest, buy yourself from specific)
-- if ship cant jump then (do nothing, fly manula (highways and gates), ask what to do view intercom))

- treelike structure for all assets sorted by who is supperior of what i.e.:
- station A
-- transport 1
--- fighter 1
--- fighter 2
--- fighter 3
--- fighter 4
-- transport 2
--- fighter 5
--- fighter 6
--- fighter 7

- map (sector, zone ...)
-- scrollable
-- zoomable
-- objects selectable

------- optional/later/nice to have/idea: ----------
- construction of bases
-- place one anchor building at predefined positions
-- then place each next building section to snappoints/hardpoints relative to an excisting building. you can predefine where those hardpoints are. maybe have the current station as is displayed in normal ingame view. place a blue mesh/outline/wireframe of next module to build at all possible connection points. have player select one of the blue meshes as target and confirm builing of new module with raial menue. or other way around: select connection point first, then select what to build with radial menue.

- construction of surface elements
-- select surface element to place on youre captial ship or station
-- spawn a blue box or blue wireframe of the item to be placed in all possible position on the station/ship. have the player target one of those and confirm building location with radial menue.

just some thoughts. thanks for youre time.

[csaba]

Good summary!

I'd be happy with a "clear all orders" at this point just so I can clear my freighter's trips when it gets stuck.

[Norsk]

This! If they add even half of this it would be a huge step forward for the UI/ ship control. Also make somethings less buried like people working on a ship.

also does anyone know what "budget" does? do you need to give them a budget for them to trade? I would appreciate it if someone could explain what that slider does.

[Manddrack]

Great post

It sure would help to improve a lor of things.

[Sincerity]

This.wants.more.various.weapons.to.eliminate.biological.and.nonbiological.objects.

This.wants.more.ships.in.same.class(light cruiser?).
This.wants.a.garage.where.this.can.change.own.ships.to.eliminate.objects(&reference:first string).

This.cute.little.kitty. confirm.or.be.eliminated.


Serious: Old game - "Parkan 2", it have - seven changable ships, with moving inside it. but boring galaxy, and standard boring "leveling" 2 type of weapons =( Rebirth walking in same direction in the weapons...

Game wants - 1.More various sector with various stations(not like in X3 "AI generated sectors").
2.more weapons, like in X3, it will be great
3.more commands to ship + remote control, not sitting in captain chair. Sometimes asking a question to myself - it my ships or not?
4.More player ships it really needed, controlled only by player inside, changable in garage, buyable, or better most be found, and resurrected by the quests(it will be really great! have a collection of various ships in same class!)
5.More room inside the ships please. in the skunk we have only ramp with... no cargohold! You kidding me? If ship have ramp it must have and cargohold! Otherwise, for what reason ramp there? You can see ramp with cargohold in "firefly" ser.

Sorry for my english, it is not my native language.

[arknor1981]

we need to be able to contact ships we have assigned to stations as well, the only way to get them back in your squad and property list is to fly all the way to them and double click.

you can still see where they are from the DE tab on the station info

[madtulip2]

we need to be able to contact ships we have assigned to stations as well, the only way to get them back in your squad and property list is to fly all the way to them and double click.

you can still see where they are from the DE tab on the station info

you can DE on the station controlling the ship
-> open all submenues like employees,storage and so on. one of the sublevels is then ships which you can further open to see all controlled ships.

[duncan idaho]

Great post, this is exactly what we need. The functionality is all there, we know that; it just needs to be made available to us. This should absolutely be top priority.

[gruff83]

Best post ive read, op is spot on. With additional commands and asset management, the game would be brilliant imo.

[hawat]

Commands to transfer or remove npc a would be great as well, at the moment it seems that once you have assigned an npc to a ship he is there for the rest of his life, until the ship is destroyed or sold.

[Sibilantae]

Best post ive read, op is spot on. With additional commands and asset management, the game would be brilliant imo.

Yeah, I think with a clearer UI this game could go far