SE5 bad reviews and problems.

AMF · #1 November 6th, 2006, 07:47 AM

OK, so, I spent a lot of time when SE5 first came out being dissappointed with, and griping about, the UI.

I see now that there are a bunch of patches out - and I'm willing to fire up the game again to give it a fair shake.

But before I get up the energy to do that I need to ask: has the UI been improved at all? My primary gripes with it revolved around not being able to see things on the main screen, and the tediousness of the ship design. Have these been addressed at all? I have read through much of the patch history but they're pretty sparse in their descriptions of what the UI changes have been.

Most of the other patch fixes sound great, but there are still some things that I didn't see there - but I am hopeful that MM is fixing them as well...the UI remains my main concern...

Thanks, for any info, in advance.

Suicide Junkie · #2 November 6th, 2006, 08:18 AM

Well, the majority of the tediousness of the design is inherent in the slot layout system... mouse movements between every click is a given.
Using the shift key to place/remove multiple items in a row is critical to your sanity on the design screen. It has been an option all along, but you may not have known about it.
GGmod will also help a lot, once it comes out. Knowing that there is some benefit to the work will alleviate some of the drudgery. (GGmod has directional armor, and internal damage isn't instantly fatal so it matters where you put the armor plates and internals)

The main screen... what things in particular?
For the 3D view, I suggest using high rez, to minimize the UI's footprint and get the most screen area for the actual view. Also, using the angled view and tilting it will essentially compress the vertical extent of the map and allow you to make it fill your screen, more or less.
Definitely get one of the flag-shrinking downloads (thanks to TNZ for that one) from this forum.

See: http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...mainscreen.jpg

Q · #3 November 6th, 2006, 08:44 AM

And don't forget that the most flexible UI is your brain!

I was first too quite unhappy with the UI, but the more I play SE V the less problems I have.

As I said already IMO the real limitation is the hardware/computer resources SE V needs in a larger/advanced game. My system (Athlon 3400+, 512MB RAM, Nividia GeForce FX 5500) may not be the newest, but is far above the published system requirements. And in a game at stardate 2412.0 with about 70 systems and 18 empires a game turn processing lasts several minutes. Even changing the system display or some larger lists may take a few seconds. Compared to SE IV this is a huge difference on my computer.

Atrocities · #4 November 6th, 2006, 07:02 PM

No one can deny that the UI needs a LOT of work. Just a few basic improvements would go a hell of a long way toward making the UI a far more functional asset to the player than it currently is. Hell the onset of TABS would have been ideal but we now know that isn't going to happen so we are stuck with what he have and must work within those confines to improve the UI.

I have made several suggestions for the UI to be improved. One was to have information icons like population, cargo, fighters, etc added to the planet ship views. Take a look at my attachment.

Santiago · #5 November 6th, 2006, 09:20 PM

That would be a great idea along with the buttons at the top. I still think the lower UI should be made indpendently minimizable

BTW Lord Atrocities of the Atrocity Empire? Getting the cheat codes ready?

Atrocities · #6 November 7th, 2006, 12:16 AM

Quote:

Santiago said:
That would be a great idea along with the buttons at the top. I still think the lower UI should be made indpendently minimizable

BTW Lord Atrocities of the Atrocity Empire? Getting the cheat codes ready?

You had better believe it!

kalthalior · #7 November 8th, 2006, 05:33 PM

I hesitate to comment without having played V all that much yet, but....I recall the transition between III and IV taking me about 6-8 months before I really felt comfy with IV. I had ALOT of issues with IV, but learned that it was, in many ways, a much different game. Maybe not better, but different. And I believe, in my heart of hearts, that may just be the case for most people making the transition. Anyone who has been here for any length of time knows we will see improvements from Aaron, some more helpful than others.

I may not have as many issues with the UI as others as I use several of the keyboard shortcuts...and have a trackball rather than a regular mouse. And I've played IV to the point of my shoulder cramping from being in one spot all night. (ahh, to be young enough and free enough to play all night again..)

Anyway, I don't play much other than the SE series and some Paradox stuff (EU, HoI, etc). Both communities are (mostly) extremely civil, there is great support, but no one is ever really satisfied, and probably never will be - so get over it, and enjoy the game, or wait and enjoy it later.

Personally, I don't see me taking 6-8 months to make the move over to a majority of my playing time to V. I think I already like V better than I liked IV to start with. Just my 2 cents, for what it's worth. Maybe I'm just too much of a fanman (I'm too old to be a fanboy!) or maybe I just trust Aaron more than I did back then.

Yimboli · #8 November 6th, 2006, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Atrocities said:
Just a few basic improvements would go a hell of a long way toward making the UI a far more functional asset to the player than it currently is.

YES
We aren't even at the point of diminishing returns with the UI. This is a very important realization! A prudent company owner should see this.

Santiago · #9 November 6th, 2006, 10:09 AM

Quote:

Suicide Junkie said:

The main screen... what things in particular?
For the 3D view, I suggest using high rez, to minimize the UI's footprint and get the most screen area for the actual view. Also, using the angled view and tilting it will essentially compress the vertical extent of the map and allow you to make it fill your screen, more or less.
Definitely get one of the flag-shrinking downloads (thanks to TNZ for that one) from this forum.

See: http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...mainscreen.jpg

On hi rez - many people's pc's don't run the game well. But if you have a small screen or a laptop like I do, there is no way to reduce the UI footprint. It should be made minimizable; ie the button area, info area and map separately. Angling it works to an some extent but its just not suited for my taste.

On another note, the columns for various info such as ships, planets, colonies should be made movable just as in any windows app, so we could fit more when using custom layouts. Since the column width is fixed, there is wasted space I could use to put another selected column into.