Forums » Suggestions
Usability Issues
okay,
Few of you know me, those who do can think back a bit and perhaps something will come to mind ;)
Now, I just recently got back again, so I started the game up with a fresh sense of "bleeh" and never really had the hang of even the most basic controls.
a) Newbie usability / first nation :
Newbies get to choose a nation, can we cycle the top nation in an incremental pattern? (round-robin, or random) . Just to get a more even spread of nation-rankings.
b) Newbies spawn in a safe sector, learn to fly around and activate a wormhole. When they come out from 2 and land in 12 they are presented with a vision of rocks, all condenced a bit away from them...
Going there will invariably kill them pretty badly, as this is the home of 150 level bots.. *ouch*
This is not the impression you want to make on a newbie, Better to move the 150 and the 75 bots around a bit, so that there is an obvious move of diffuculty increase the further you are from s2.
This goes for other sectors as well.
c) Weapon groupings.
Ouch. This really hurts as it is. Many people forget to bind them, all the time. its not a required step, the defaults "suck" pretty badly due to the toggles. This area needs improvement.
d) repair tab.
Can we please have a focus on the item to start with? This would cut down a click that is rather frustrating as theres no other obvious thing to click on.
e) When docked, A tab for the console/help would be good. (dualpane perhaps, console+chat down and help screen up. ) This allows for an easier interface for a beginner. perhaps with some inline help/list of commands.
f) Economy
A good stat to have here would be -buying- price for the goods you opt to sell. Of course, we can always write this down, but its the sort of thing that should be automatic in a trade system.
Few of you know me, those who do can think back a bit and perhaps something will come to mind ;)
Now, I just recently got back again, so I started the game up with a fresh sense of "bleeh" and never really had the hang of even the most basic controls.
a) Newbie usability / first nation :
Newbies get to choose a nation, can we cycle the top nation in an incremental pattern? (round-robin, or random) . Just to get a more even spread of nation-rankings.
b) Newbies spawn in a safe sector, learn to fly around and activate a wormhole. When they come out from 2 and land in 12 they are presented with a vision of rocks, all condenced a bit away from them...
Going there will invariably kill them pretty badly, as this is the home of 150 level bots.. *ouch*
This is not the impression you want to make on a newbie, Better to move the 150 and the 75 bots around a bit, so that there is an obvious move of diffuculty increase the further you are from s2.
This goes for other sectors as well.
c) Weapon groupings.
Ouch. This really hurts as it is. Many people forget to bind them, all the time. its not a required step, the defaults "suck" pretty badly due to the toggles. This area needs improvement.
d) repair tab.
Can we please have a focus on the item to start with? This would cut down a click that is rather frustrating as theres no other obvious thing to click on.
e) When docked, A tab for the console/help would be good. (dualpane perhaps, console+chat down and help screen up. ) This allows for an easier interface for a beginner. perhaps with some inline help/list of commands.
f) Economy
A good stat to have here would be -buying- price for the goods you opt to sell. Of course, we can always write this down, but its the sort of thing that should be automatic in a trade system.
i second a through f
a) At the moment character creation's default is one color 'above' the last character you made. If it's your first char it's random.
b) The 75 bots are closer to the station, changing that would present some problems.
c-e) The devs have said that they will be completely redoing the stations, at the moment they are simply functional nothing more (yes there are a lot of improvements that could/will be done, but have patience).
f) Again this type of thing is poslish that will come after more fundamental things are finished (ie making the increase in prices dynamic, balancing/stablising the economy, etc).
b) The 75 bots are closer to the station, changing that would present some problems.
c-e) The devs have said that they will be completely redoing the stations, at the moment they are simply functional nothing more (yes there are a lot of improvements that could/will be done, but have patience).
f) Again this type of thing is poslish that will come after more fundamental things are finished (ie making the increase in prices dynamic, balancing/stablising the economy, etc).
a) at the moment, the first character created by an account is totally random
b-e) I can't add anythign to eldrad's post
f) This is something that would be a 10 second code (well, maybe not because you need to add in a way to store the information long-term, but still). Please?
b-e) I can't add anythign to eldrad's post
f) This is something that would be a 10 second code (well, maybe not because you need to add in a way to store the information long-term, but still). Please?
> b) The 75 bots are closer to the station, changing that would present some problems.
Actually, this seems more an issue to just move a waypoint or five so they don't go as close, its a design question, and not a very obvious one I'd say. Making a game like this "newbie-friendlier" when it doesn't cost experienced users anything is a "good choice".
c-d :
Aye, i can buy that, and its been so for a while, still, I feel its something that needs to be documented, again if has to be. Since this -is- a test, and usability is part of what I do "for life", things like this end up on bugreporting/suggestion forums as it is what I can, and are quite willing to, participate with. :)
Actually, this seems more an issue to just move a waypoint or five so they don't go as close, its a design question, and not a very obvious one I'd say. Making a game like this "newbie-friendlier" when it doesn't cost experienced users anything is a "good choice".
c-d :
Aye, i can buy that, and its been so for a while, still, I feel its something that needs to be documented, again if has to be. Since this -is- a test, and usability is part of what I do "for life", things like this end up on bugreporting/suggestion forums as it is what I can, and are quite willing to, participate with. :)
b) The 75 bots are currently the closest bots to the s12 station. This doesn't matter at all to experienced players, but may be more important to newbs than the distance between the 75 bots and the s2 wormhole. Though yes the first time they go into 12 they will be close more dangerous bots if they ever go to the station and home there they will repeatedly be exposed to 75 bots. In 4 and 6 75 bots are the closest to both the station and wormhole, s12 could (probably will be) rearranged a bit in order to produce the same effect (though at the moment I think the person who would do that is looking for a job :'-( hopefully they'll find a publisher or source of money).
c-e) Cool you do usabilty IRL really important feild, and quite useful as a tester.
c-e) Cool you do usabilty IRL really important feild, and quite useful as a tester.
b, some more ;)
My idea here isn't that "just move them around" ( if so be, move the wormhole to the other side of the sector? ;) But that both cases are cared for. so that both closest to initial exposure (wormhole) and common case (station) are cared for an "gentle".
doing this should be fairly simple by just relocating coordinates to other places :-)
As for usability, yeah, and the more you work with it the more bitter you become, unfortunately ;) Though I haven't been working with games before, so this whole set is new for me :)
However, to rant on a bit more about usability and "easing into" a game like this. Its pretty important to never "shock" a user, as most will just shun away and hide, claiming "its too hard" or "its impossible" rather than rethinking strategy. if they feel completely overpowered at first, they seldom "rise to the challenge".
the trick in the current game isnt as much that the simple bots are too hard, I don't think they are. The problem is that its not obvious that the first bots met are "difficult" (no, bounty doesn't mean much here, users don't read text. users don't read manuals either, as I'm sure you've all seen ;)
Doing "Sane defaults" is usually a -better- approach, than trying to make something "dead simple" to use, or trying to document something to the extreme. Making "sane defaults" or "it just works" things, also doesn't mean that you have to take away control from a user, it just means that you put them in a position where they don't have to take control to start with.
My idea here isn't that "just move them around" ( if so be, move the wormhole to the other side of the sector? ;) But that both cases are cared for. so that both closest to initial exposure (wormhole) and common case (station) are cared for an "gentle".
doing this should be fairly simple by just relocating coordinates to other places :-)
As for usability, yeah, and the more you work with it the more bitter you become, unfortunately ;) Though I haven't been working with games before, so this whole set is new for me :)
However, to rant on a bit more about usability and "easing into" a game like this. Its pretty important to never "shock" a user, as most will just shun away and hide, claiming "its too hard" or "its impossible" rather than rethinking strategy. if they feel completely overpowered at first, they seldom "rise to the challenge".
the trick in the current game isnt as much that the simple bots are too hard, I don't think they are. The problem is that its not obvious that the first bots met are "difficult" (no, bounty doesn't mean much here, users don't read text. users don't read manuals either, as I'm sure you've all seen ;)
Doing "Sane defaults" is usually a -better- approach, than trying to make something "dead simple" to use, or trying to document something to the extreme. Making "sane defaults" or "it just works" things, also doesn't mean that you have to take away control from a user, it just means that you put them in a position where they don't have to take control to start with.