Forums » Suggestions
Hmm...
Blacknet's UI is definately cleaner, although at the cost of robustness and a degree of loss in regards to centralization. Give me something with the cleanliness of his, and the intuitive desgin of evoros' and you'll have me sold.
Blacknet's UI is definately cleaner, although at the cost of robustness and a degree of loss in regards to centralization. Give me something with the cleanliness of his, and the intuitive desgin of evoros' and you'll have me sold.
Sweet, so you mean imagine my mock-ups weren’t done in MS Paint, weren't saved as lossy .jpgs and we’re good...? ;)
I'm just going to tap out my thoughts while reading this, they're filed under sections.
4.1
This is a good layout. As a side note, in Linux you can have the maximize button either way. I would probably be more inclined to put the configure and maximize buttons at the bottom of the 3D view, though.
4.1.1
I sort of like BlackNet's use of the menu better as a plugin developer and from a utility standpoint, but it needs some tweaking. Right now it's just reskinned tabs.
4.1.2
I'd prefer to have Home Sector included in the information block, but Ship Name and Cargo aren't really needed.
I'm conflicted with the above thought and replacing that edge with description. I like both methods. As an alternative, perhaps descriptions should be put into tooltips? You don't really need to see everything all the time. However, with tree views that's bordering on technically infeasible with iup.
4.1.3
Yes, this is good. The 3D view doesn't need to take up half the screenspace anyway.
4.1.5
Right click isn't implemented, which is silly. I wish it was. I wonder if shift click does, though.
4.2
The Neutron Blaster is not a ship, other than that I like the layout of it.
4.2.1
When buying addons, the 3D view should switch to the ship configuration view so you can drag and drop equipment into the proper port if you so desire. Other than that, it's good.
4.3
I don't know, I think there's a better way to do this, but I can't think of it right now.
4.3.1
It's possible to make it slide! Though not the easiest thing in the world to do nicely as well as not be resource sucking.
5.0
Not much to say here, looks good.
7.0
The PDA is a mess, probably needs more revamping than this. I do like the idea of moving missions from a station services to a PDA-explicit service though.
(Are they already this? Probably)
I think the distinction between Station and PDA should be made more clear, but that might just be me.
Advancement logs do seem strange under mission headings.
8.1
Does VO even support stack splitting? I don't know, someone else will have to answer this.
8.2
Hotkeys should go. They're really only there to provide some sort of inconsistent streamlining to a cluttered and confusing UI, and don't work in all situations.
8.3
Trick is getting the sounds, implementing them would be a breeze.
Sometime this week or next weekend I'll take this and see if I can rip it up into a prototype along with my own hamfisted "improvements". I need to let the PS3 work on my F@H score anyway, this'll distract me enough to do so.
4.1
This is a good layout. As a side note, in Linux you can have the maximize button either way. I would probably be more inclined to put the configure and maximize buttons at the bottom of the 3D view, though.
4.1.1
I sort of like BlackNet's use of the menu better as a plugin developer and from a utility standpoint, but it needs some tweaking. Right now it's just reskinned tabs.
4.1.2
I'd prefer to have Home Sector included in the information block, but Ship Name and Cargo aren't really needed.
I'm conflicted with the above thought and replacing that edge with description. I like both methods. As an alternative, perhaps descriptions should be put into tooltips? You don't really need to see everything all the time. However, with tree views that's bordering on technically infeasible with iup.
4.1.3
Yes, this is good. The 3D view doesn't need to take up half the screenspace anyway.
4.1.5
Right click isn't implemented, which is silly. I wish it was. I wonder if shift click does, though.
4.2
The Neutron Blaster is not a ship, other than that I like the layout of it.
4.2.1
When buying addons, the 3D view should switch to the ship configuration view so you can drag and drop equipment into the proper port if you so desire. Other than that, it's good.
4.3
I don't know, I think there's a better way to do this, but I can't think of it right now.
4.3.1
It's possible to make it slide! Though not the easiest thing in the world to do nicely as well as not be resource sucking.
5.0
Not much to say here, looks good.
7.0
The PDA is a mess, probably needs more revamping than this. I do like the idea of moving missions from a station services to a PDA-explicit service though.
(Are they already this? Probably)
I think the distinction between Station and PDA should be made more clear, but that might just be me.
Advancement logs do seem strange under mission headings.
8.1
Does VO even support stack splitting? I don't know, someone else will have to answer this.
8.2
Hotkeys should go. They're really only there to provide some sort of inconsistent streamlining to a cluttered and confusing UI, and don't work in all situations.
8.3
Trick is getting the sounds, implementing them would be a breeze.
Sometime this week or next weekend I'll take this and see if I can rip it up into a prototype along with my own hamfisted "improvements". I need to let the PS3 work on my F@H score anyway, this'll distract me enough to do so.
Grateful for the comments, Scuba Steve 9.0. Some replies:
4.1.5
Right click isn't implemented, which is silly. I wish it was. I wonder if shift click does, though.
Nav map uses shift click for waypoints.
4.2.1
When buying addons, the 3D view should switch to the ship configuration view so you can drag and drop equipment into the proper port if you so desire.
Good idea! I didn’t think of this. Hmm, my only concern is it might be ‘too presumptuous’ in some few and rare cases, but for those few cases this would become very unintuitive to switch something under your feet. (Let’s say you’re browsing add-ons before choosing your ship, or say you wanted to compare it to your list of ships.) I think I’d have to use it a bit to decide which I liked better. One click on configure might not be a heavy price to pay for the predictability of not switching things under your feet.
8.1
Does VO even support stack splitting?
Two items of the same type in the same container should always be absorbed into one stack. What I mean is to unload half your cargo onto base, or sell half of it, etc. we currently have action buttons qualified by the Quantity box—in order to fully support the mouse we should have a streamlined option to do this without clicking those action buttons, such as r-click pops up a quantity box at your mouse cursor, and the divided stack is only in effect until you drop it. This is brand new functionality, so understandable if it’s not priority.
P.S. Can't wait to see your prototype! Still debating whether I want to tackle this Lua thing myself or not. Maybe after Incarnate replies we'll see.
4.1.5
Right click isn't implemented, which is silly. I wish it was. I wonder if shift click does, though.
Nav map uses shift click for waypoints.
4.2.1
When buying addons, the 3D view should switch to the ship configuration view so you can drag and drop equipment into the proper port if you so desire.
Good idea! I didn’t think of this. Hmm, my only concern is it might be ‘too presumptuous’ in some few and rare cases, but for those few cases this would become very unintuitive to switch something under your feet. (Let’s say you’re browsing add-ons before choosing your ship, or say you wanted to compare it to your list of ships.) I think I’d have to use it a bit to decide which I liked better. One click on configure might not be a heavy price to pay for the predictability of not switching things under your feet.
8.1
Does VO even support stack splitting?
Two items of the same type in the same container should always be absorbed into one stack. What I mean is to unload half your cargo onto base, or sell half of it, etc. we currently have action buttons qualified by the Quantity box—in order to fully support the mouse we should have a streamlined option to do this without clicking those action buttons, such as r-click pops up a quantity box at your mouse cursor, and the divided stack is only in effect until you drop it. This is brand new functionality, so understandable if it’s not priority.
P.S. Can't wait to see your prototype! Still debating whether I want to tackle this Lua thing myself or not. Maybe after Incarnate replies we'll see.
We did not utilize right-click, because at the time (98, 99, 2000) a lot of Macs still only had one button, and the game was designed to function identically on all platforms. I think most recent macs now have two buttons, although there are still enough people playing on PPC iMacs and stuff that any usage should probably still be a convenience and not a requirement. FYI.
Don't most Macs emulate right-click via control+click? I guess that would be the expected behavior for someone with a one-button mouse, but I've never owned a Mac myself. Or a one-button mouse for that matter, heavens.
yes control click works as a substitute for right click on a mac with a one button mouse, so i dont see why station interface couldn't incorporate right click, just as long as its not a necessity
This begs the question, how many out there has 1 button rat? In the classic GUI (all os) you have right click being hotlink to frequently used sections, you can get around that by going to the file menus.
The other layout I was looking at is a drop down listbox with all the sections on it. you click on one and the window below is filled with the relevant info. You can even have hotlink buttons in a toolbar if you wanted.
The other layout I was looking at is a drop down listbox with all the sections on it. you click on one and the window below is filled with the relevant info. You can even have hotlink buttons in a toolbar if you wanted.