SE5 bad reviews and problems.

[Suicide Junkie]

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