SE:IV Gold vs SE5 Demo: Basic UI

[Blade W]

In research/intel window make available to hold the mouse button on "%" bars when setting values. Yea I know about shift thingy (from this forum, not from the game itself...), but it's not adequate.

[Phoenix-D]

You can click directly on the bar to set a value, as well.

Actually the "hold to do it more" thing could be incorperated into pretty much EVERY screen.

[Noble713]

SE4 gives a rough idea of a planet's population from the system screen, SE5 does not.

Advantage: SE5. Improvements: See above.

Under the little planet on the Empire flag is a box. The box fills up vertically based on how populated the planet is.

[Phoenix-D]

huh, I thought that was for the number of planets in sector. Editing OP.

[Tampa_Gamer]

PD- I agree with most of your points except one, where you say:

"SE4 allows you to have lettering under a planet for a number of different facilities on a planet. SE5 removes most of those catagories, retaining only Has Spaceport, Can Resupply, Has Spaceyard, and Can Repair. It adds icons to display empty construction ques, domed colonies, fighters/sats/mines/drones/troops/WPs in cargo.

Advantage: SE5. Improvements: ?"

I would say SE5 since SE4 required you to click each planet to figure out if any sats/wps/fighters were ready for pick-up (now you can see each system at a glance). Also, SE4 had no way to tell which planet had an empty construction queue by looking at the system. Now we do (similar to GalCiv II).

[Phoenix-D]

Which is what I said. However we did lose some status icons in the bargin.

More write-ups later. The ship design screen especially should be interesting.

[Tampa_Gamer]

Whoops, re-read your post now I understand your system. Sorry about that.

While it is NOT an excuse or subsitute for a poor UI, keep in mind that there are shortcuts for just about everything to minimize clicks (i.e. retrofit - CTRL + E, CTRL + Click to move a ship, etc. that are still being documented).

[Jarena]

This game reeks of potential.
I'm pretty excited.
Anyway, here are mine:

Most menus and sub-menus: Visually confusing. I'd reccommend darkening the system screen behind the menu (50% opacity maybe?) Something small, but I think it would help considerably.

Ship Design Screen:
allow a (doublt/shift/ctrl?) click to add a component to the next available slot. Move the filter comps button somewhere else. I'm not too fond of the upper/mid/low decks as it is, but the restriction on armor worries me. The ship designs can only hold so much armor, but (apparently) almost as many shield generators as you could ever want. Not sure if this is a good or a bad thing. And, if armor ends up becoming unbalanced, what's to stop a gamey shipset creator to add unnatural numbers of armor slots?

As an aside - that's a lot of research for ship hull levels :\

That's it for now, more later probably

[Phoenix-D]

Part 2:

Ship Design Screen, main: SE4 has buttons for switching between ships/units, enemy ships/units and show obselete. SE5 makes you click through a sub-menu or right click on the colum header to do that. SE5's Ship Detail screen has all the details of SE4s in fewer pages, except it does not show component levels. SE5's Upgrade/Copy buttons don't always copy the ship name. Upgrade will sometimes add a number (12345) or a Roman Numeral (I, II) to the end of the name, but this isn't consistant. More importantly, if you try to change the ship's name, the name is completely erased.

Advantage: Slightly SE4. Improvements: Show component levels as small numbers in the component boxes, as in SE4, allow changing the ship strategy from the design details box, remove the Filter button and move the buttons in that menu back to the main menu..there is room. When the player clicks "set name", input the current name into the box so the player can change it rather than having to re-type the entire thing.

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note: this next section is JUST ABOUT THE UI. The merits of the new ship design system are off-topic.

Ship Design, Designing: SE5 has a screen to select ship size, SE4 has a pop-up screen. If you want to change size in SE4, you select a new hull. Doing the same in SE5 clears all components from the ship. In SE4 you can select a name from a drop-down box or click in the box and type one; in SE5 you have a button elsewhere on the screen to click, bringing up a screen with the same function. SE4 allows you to add new design types and delete old ones; SE5 does not.

SE4 displays to-hit, defensive bonuses. SE5 displays strategy, crew, ordinance, and allows you to set the strategy here. SE5 has an "Autocomplete" feature and a "clear design" button. SE4 allows you to filter comps with a button; SE5 has that and a right-click menu. SE5 has tonnage remaining on a different display than speed, cargo space, etc. SE5 displays total hull structure.

To add multiple components in SE4, you click multiple times. To do the same in SE5, you shift-click on slots. You can't switch between decks while "holding" a component in SE5. SE4's component list displays 9 comps at a time, and can only be scrolled by clicking. SE5's displays 8 at a time, and and be scrolled by clicking or the scroll bar. To use a mount in SE4, you click Comp Enh, then the mount type. To use one in SE5 you click the mount type.

SE5 displays component levels only in the component list, not on the ship. SE5's component detail screen is scrollable; SE4's is not. SE4 allows you to use obselete components; SE5 does not.

Advantage: Nil. Improvements: SHOW TO-HIT EFFECTS. They could fit quite easily into the display between tonnage used and total cost. Allow clicking on the name to change it. Swap the locations of the Hull Structure and Tonnage Used displays. Impliment custom Design Types and allow deleting of design types. Show component levels on the ship itself.
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General Interface Issue: The use of the keyboard is not consistant. Sometimes Enter closes a window, sometimes ESC does, sometimes you can use the arrow keys to move a list sometimes you can't.

Advantage: Nil, SE4 had the same problem. Improvement: Allow the use of the keyboard in ALL windows. A good example of one that doesn't allow it is the ship design screen- ESC and ENTER work, but you can't scroll the ship list with the arrow keys or pageup/down. Filter Components allows the use of ESC but not ENTER; stuff like that.