Whats so bad about the UI????

[Possum]

One more vote for "overly cumbersome".

Plus it takes too many clicks.

My question is, what the **** was wrong with the SE4 interface, that it had to be changed? Why did all the KB shortcuts need to be changed?

It's the same ****ing game, people. It's just an updated version. There are no major changes which required a total rework of the UI.

And don't take the rampant asterisks to mean that I'm all upset. I'm not. I'm just profane by nature

[Raapys]

Considering the entire game is basically remade, I guess it's natural with a change in UI as well. Unfortunately, reinventing the wheel didn't lead to an improvement in this case.

As I see it though, the shortcomings of the UI unfortunately pales when compared to the other issues the game has right now.

[RCCCL]

I agree with Raapys.

The UI is definately cumbersome, but it seems a minor issue compared to the other problems.

[Hugh Manatee]

Meh, people need to get their left thumbs out of whatever - Removed by Moderator - and start using it. Seriously, unless you are gimped from the neck down somehow there's no good reason not to use a PC with both hands unless you're - Removed by Moderator - busy cramming cheese powder coated salty fried nummies into your gullet. I've noticed this too among people who dislike RTS type games, calling them confusing clickfests, when in most RTS games there are hotkeys that can greatly ease the load off the mouse.

Most routine ship operations only take eihter 2 clicks, a hotkey and a click, or for cargo a short series of double clicks. Only the research and build lists need a whole lot of clicks, and the design screen needs upper, mid and lower hotkeys with an add item button.

Moderator Note: - Removed offensive material. Please keep your posts in agreement to the TOS of this forum. Thank you.

[Suicide Junkie]

*A series of double clicks*

Whereas, in SE4, you needed only single clicks.
Load, there, this. Drop, there, that. Repeat Orders. 7 clicks/keys total, if it is in the same system.

Whoever gave Aaron the idea that everything needs an "OK" confirmation for SE5 did a lot of damage.

[Devnullicus]

In all honesty, even as a long-time player of SEIV, I don't really have any major gripes with the SEV UI. This is not to say I don't have SOME gripes, but I don't consider them major.

• One part of the UI that annoys me is the ship design. It really needs to be able to switch "decks" easier, especially while currently holding a component.
• Another UI gripe I have is lists and moving items up and down in the lists. Every time I move an item up or down, it moves the display to the top of the list. This is one of my biggest gripes about the UI, actually.
• Lists also need "move to top" and "move to bottom" buttons.
• Finally, while I like the listings of colonies, fleets, etc and how you can pick and choose which columns to show, I hate that you can't widen the damn window to fit more columns in. The window is too damn narrow and I keep having to switch views in order to see enough information.

All of these are very specific gripes. Three of the four I suspect would take less than 2 hours total for Aaron to fix. But he currently has more important problems to solve, and I agree with his priorities, personally.

So, despite the above list of UI gripes, I don't really mind the SE V UI. It's certainly a lot more modern than the SE IV UI and I think with a few minor fixes (and one possibly semi-major one), it would be just fine.

My REAL gripe with SE V really doesn't have anything to do with the game, but with the lack of a modder's guide or at least clear documentation in the data files about what the fields do and what their possible values are. *shrug* Wrong thread for that one

[AstralWanderer]

I'd add the following:

• Sluggish mouse cursor (especially painful during ship design).
• Hot-keys only exist for top level functions (none show for options within most dialogs) and SEV's "modeless" UI means you can't be sure which open window receives a keypress either (try naming a ship design using T during the tutorial for example).
• Many windows (ship design, colony details, planet/colony lists) would benefit from enlargement with higher screen resolutions.
• The right-click menu can have too many options and appear disorganised as a result - a radial menu could be one way around this.
• Switching between selectable items in a hex (ship, planet, warp point) is cumbersome - including an icon for each item type in place of the "go back" arrow would improve this.
• Presentation generally is wasteful of screen space - the headings (in gold) take up the same space as the data fields whether needed or not.
• The order box at bottom right requires too much mouse travel to use and takes up more space than needed (since many options are unavailable most of the time). Having it instead only appear alongside a selected item with only the valid options would both minimise travel and free up screen space.
• Replace the bars in the Weapons Report (the most useless graphical indicator I have ever come across) with line graphs for damage over distance and accuracy over distance.
• Every component/facility/weapon detail window should include a button linking to previous generations, making it easier to review the benefits gained from research.

Ship design would benefit from special attention:

• Remove the existing component menu (allowing for both ship statistics screens to be displayed instead) and instead have it appear as a floating menu alongside a selected A,I,O space (again minimising mouse travel).
• Add hotkeys for component selection, e.g. E could bring up a listing of available engines with a letter for each item. Assuming there are 26 or fewer possible choices this should work well, but more than 26 could be accommodated with numeric prefixes, 1A..1Z then 2A..2Z, etc.
• Use cursor keys to move around a ship level and changing decks (e.g. Ctrl-Up and Ctrl-Down to go up/down a deck).
• Add a hotkey for jumping to the next available A, O or I section.
• Add a "condensed" display along the bottom just showing the components added and their number (like that in SEIV) making it easier to review total component usage across all decks.

[Possum]

Hugh Manatee said:
Meh, people need to get their left thumbs out of whatever oriface it's crammed into and start using it. Seriously, unless you are gimped from the neck down somehow there's no good reason not to use a PC with both hands unless you're beating off or a lazy fatass who's to busy cramming cheese powder coated salty fried nummies into your gullet. I've noticed this too among people who dislike RTS type games, calling them confusing clickfests, when in most RTS games there are hotkeys that can greatly ease the load off the mouse.

Ok, this is what we mean when we talk about hostility toward anyone who complains. We were having a calm, rational, objective discussion of issues, and then Hugh chimes in with personal attacks.

How is this justified? Why is this violation of forum rules tolerated?

[Artaud]

Hugh Manatee said:
Meh, people need to get their left thumbs out of whatever oriface it's crammed into and start using it. Seriously, unless you are gimped from the neck down somehow there's no good reason not to use a PC with both hands unless you're beating off or a lazy fatass who's to busy cramming cheese powder coated salty fried nummies into your gullet. I've noticed this too among people who dislike RTS type games, calling them confusing clickfests, when in most RTS games there are hotkeys that can greatly ease the load off the mouse.

Most routine ship operations only take eihter 2 clicks, a hotkey and a click, or for cargo a short series of double clicks. Only the research and build lists need a whole lot of clicks, and the design screen needs upper, mid and lower hotkeys with an add item button.

^^^
Reason #1 why I very rarely post in this forum anymore.

This, friends, is what I meant when I said before that I sense a growing hostility here toward those of us who politely voice complaints.

[Demorve]

One of the improvements to the UI that I would like to see is moveable windows that are also resizable. I currently have a dual monitor setup and would love to be able to move some of the windows to my secondary screen. Imagine being able to take quadrant map, enlarging it and then moving it off the system window to your other monitor and then clicking on the systems' icons and being able to see what's in that system. Another advantage would be being able to open up a window that you use alot, resize it to what you want and then leave it open all the time. The game would also remember the size and position in case you closed and then reopened the window. This UI would favor those of us that have dual or widescreen monitors, but if every time you opened a window it created a tab on the task bar then you could open up as many window as you want, leave them open and then just single click on a windows tab to make it the active window and bring it to the front.