SE V demo Interface

Noble713 · #1 September 16th, 2006, 09:09 PM

Is there a difference in behavior between Core/Escort/Picket ships other than their location in the task force? How do I tell which ship is the lead ship in a task force, especially in tactical combat? Since the rest will move to maintain formation, you should effectively be able to move the whole TF by moving just the lead ship. The tactical mini-map also needs some zoom functions. In my most recent battle against a huge planet my fleet was almost entirely "off map". I can only imagine the difficulty of tracking separate ships/TFs after they move off different edges of the mini-map.

I love the depth that fleet organization has, but the interface needs work. Like much of the game's interface, there are screens that present info, but in order to change that info you have to go to other screens. For example, if you select a fleet and right-click to bring up its report, it will display the attack/defense formations, list all the ships, and display TF information on a sub-tab, and the warp transit order on a sub-tab. You can't change any of this stuff without leaving the Fleet Report. I shouldn't have to go to the Fleet Transfer Screen to change the Task Force formations and strategies for a single fleet I'm looking at already.

LordAxel · #2 September 16th, 2006, 09:27 PM

Not sure if it was a bug but my first battle my ship would refuse to move toward the enemy. May have been bc i didnt set a strategy when i built it but then i couldnt ad one after. i had to physically move the ship by clicking near the enemy, clicking on it would cause my ship to turn and run.

StarShadow · #3 September 16th, 2006, 09:38 PM

In my opinion the UI needs an overhaul, so many things are either completely unintuitive, or takes more 'work' to do. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but retro-fitting seems to be a prime example. It seems to be impossible to retrofit multiple ships at the same time, also.

Suicide Junkie · #4 September 16th, 2006, 10:16 PM

It is definitely not just you.

Santiago · #5 September 16th, 2006, 11:11 PM

I agree it needs an early overhaul already.

If looking at the entire system- you can barely see ships.

Way too much clicking everywhere.

The windows at the bottom seem to be taking up too much screen real estate.

Being able to lock the rotate and zoom with the mouse would be most helpful and also it does not seem to be much of a zoom as it is moving in and out.

Atrocities · #6 September 17th, 2006, 12:38 AM

You won't find one person amoung the "group" that will disagree with you regarding UI issues. The focus has been on bug fixes and getting the features to work, and balance, not UI improvments. However now that the Demo is out and the Fan feed back is coming in, perhaps the focus will now be shifted a bit toward improving the UI and its functionality.

AMF · #7 September 17th, 2006, 02:33 AM

Having had an entire night and much of today at work to think about the game, I have come to a painful conclusion:

There are a lot of little problems. Most of them I could probably power through and just be constantly annoyed by. There are, however, two overwhelming problems that I can't get past:

1) The main window UI needs to be fixed.
2) The ship design UI needs to be fixed.

I can go into detail on what I mean, if needed. But until these UI issues are fixed, the game is, to me, not viable and I WILL NOT be buying it.

If those things are fixed, then I'll buy the game immediately (and then, being an annoyingly critical S0B, I'll press for all the other problems to be fixed...)

I really can't see playing it with the UI as is.

Thanks,

AMF