Fixing the Horrid UI

[Atrocities]

Here is an idea for improving at a glance the systems you have control over. Take a look at the attached image to see what I mean.

[Phoenix-D]

AT: get the patches. The troop thing already has a condensed view option. The third would be already in-game, if the buttons above the quadrant map worked right..

[Atrocities]

I can't play the game after installing the 1.13 patch. The game just locks up after turn 2 on any new or saved game.

I have to alt Ctrl Del out of it and then close it down. Its very frustrating. Makes me want to say *uck this and unistall it and wait until a stable version can be cleanly installed.

I didn't see the troop condensed view option. When I get the damn game to work again I will look for it. Thanks Phoenix.

[Slick]

General comment: I really think MM should listen to fans' request for UI improvements because, no matter how "good" the game is, SE5 really loses its fun due to the UI. I just don't enjoy playing it, although I want to. The crappy UI just ruins the experience for me; it's too much work, too inefficient and aggrevating.

Specific recommendations:

Ship design:
- add "sensor range" & "sensor level" to both the create design screen and view design screen.
- allow installing any researched level of a component, not just the latest.

System view:
- add "system attributes" where there is only 1 entry per known system with all system-wide abilities shown

In various queues:
- allow drag/drop to reorder lists
- as a minimum, have "move to top", "move to bottom", "move up", "move down"

In research queue:
- add button that adjusts research percentage to "next # of turns" so that I can click to cycle a research project to finish in 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, etc. turns; or whatever is possible. This would be nice since I bet everyone is already tweaking the research percentage to get these anyway.
- for overlapping techs (like engines) add toggle option to either "upgrade to next level of same" or "upgrade to next higher component" so (for engines) I could decide to upgrade ion engines to higher levels of ion engines OR to jacketed photon engines based on this toggle. This may require restructuring the various files and/or adding another field to link them to the same family like in SE4.

In retrofit screen:
- allow retrofitting multiple ships at a time.

In Log screen:
- or better yet, a hotkey for: "take me to the location of the next log event and pop a small window telling me what happened there" That way, I don't have to keep coming back to the Log screen. I can just step thru the events, stopping as desired to take action at any/all locations.


In the help screen:
- show all versions of components, facilities, mounts, vehicle sizes, etc. so that the player can see how research is affecting higher levels and if higher levels are worth continued research. Make this easily viewable from the Designs screen and the construction queue screen for the purpose of upgrading.


In the cargo transfer screen:
- highlight the existing value so that I can just overwrite the existing number to be transferred. Having to backspace to delete the "1" is just insane.

In input dialogs for naming things:
- make the CAPS LOCK key work.
- make the ENTER key work



I have to eat dinner now. I'll add more later.

[Atrocities]

General comment: I really think MM should listen to fans' request for UI improvements because, no matter how "good" the game is, SE5 really loses its fun due to the UI. I just don't enjoy playing it, although I want to. The crappy UI just ruins the experience for me; it's too much work, too inefficient and aggrevating.

I agree 100%

[Sivran]

Just four words: Show all the buttons.

What was so wrong with the two rows of buttons in SE4? Show them all, light up the ones that have a use in the current context. Simple, and effective.

[AstralWanderer]

Mouse Cursor
Fix the lag - this makes every flaw in SEV's UI far less tolerable and is the biggest current problem IMHO.

Window Focus
SEV doesn't appear to have any concept of an "active" window to determine where a keyboard command should apply (resulting in the hilarious situation of not being able to use the letter "T" in ship design names during the tutorial since this just brings up/closes the tutorial window). This means that pressing Esc may close a background window (e.g. in Ship Design when reviewing component details).

If having an active window is too big a change for SEV's UI, then each one needs to have unique keyboard shortcuts (especially for common buttons like Close or Cancel).

Better Use of Screen Space
SEV's use of screen real estate is inefficient making it harder to use with lower resolution screens. One specific problem is with the unit display where the headings (in gold) take up as much space as the information field. It should be possible to reduce the space taken by 1/3 just by changing this format (i.e. to something like Heading: Details).

More (and Consistent) Keyboard Shortcuts
SEV only seems to offer keyboard shortcuts for the top-level commands - these need to be expanded to other areas also. In particular it should be possible to use the cursor keys:

• to select a square in the Ship Design window;
• to select a hex/planet/ship (depending on the command chosen) in the System Display window;
• to select a location or ship (depending on the command chosen) in the Combat windows.

Better Positioning of Command Buttons
Having the unit command buttons at the bottom right is just about the worst place possible for efficient utilisation, in terms of minimising mouse movement. A better option would be a floating window which would appear alongside a selected unit which would only contain applicable buttons (reducing wasted space).

Filter/Display Indicator and Selection
SEV needs to indicate when it is possible to right-click on a heading to access filters or displays (adding a special icon which provides left-click access would be the simplest method).

It should then also be possible to select/combine multiple entries - e.g. being able to list engines and weapons in the Ship Components window or being able to display construction queues along with existing facilities in the Colony listing (this is one feature I especially want to be able to quickly determine where I can build new facilities).

Map and 3D Control
Having the map rotate when the cursor is at the left/right hand margins of the screen is counter-intuitive and inconsistent - the map should move left or right just as it moves up or down. Rotation should then be done via right-click drag as with Homeworld. It should also be possible to center the display on any item (e.g. by Ctrl-clicking on it).

One particularly interesting option could be to switch viewpoint to that of a selected unit when in tactical combat mode - this would make it a more immersive experience though it could also more clearly highlight the lack of "true" 3D currently (everything being on the same plane).

Ability to View Old Components
Previous versions of SE allowed you to view previous versions of weapons and other components or facilities (and even use them) making it possible to check the exact benefits of a new generation. This needs to be restored to SEV.

[Suicide Junkie]

...a floating window which would appear alongside a selected unit which would only contain applicable buttons (reducing wasted space)
Do you know about the right click order menu? Select a unit, then right click (on the destination in case of remote actions) and select from the menu.

Also, try turning off the alpha sort (and use KwokStock if you aren't already). Instead of "Ion engines" being completely separate from "Quantum", things will look much more like a hardware catalog, and you won't even need the filters.

[Atrocities]

<Malfador> So yes, we'll get to them. But bugs come first. It usually goes, bugs, UI improvements, modding requests, feature additions.

Good news.

[AMF]

Most of ther main screen UI problems could be fixed by SIMPLY allowing the player to move the orders, galaxy, and other windows and buttons around. I can't understand why we can drag all the other windows (ship design, etc) around the screen, but not the ones on the main screen. I find it maddening.