Posted - 2007.11.30 17:03:00 - [182]

 

Edited by: G0rF on 30/11/2007 17:06:39
Some great ideas here, and some that would just make macroing a dream.

I admit I've only read the first page and a bit, so apologies if this has been asked already.

How come the "Ship AI voice" can tell me "I cannot set a waypoint for the same destination twice", or "those items are not stackable", but can't be bothered to tell me "Shields down" or "Armour at 50%"?

[EDIT]I'm with MKingley here: I'd also like to hear "you are being warp-scrambled" BEFORE I get to the point where I have to hear "You're going to die because you're being warp-scrambled" or whatever she says.[/EDIT]

How come when I'm locking a target I get a tone, but when he's locking me, there isn't?

More useful audio feedback would be great.

I'm looking forward to the new UI, I must admit. Almost as much as I'm looking forward to the new models.

Posted - 2007.12.01 20:17:00 - [184]

 

/signed for bump/support

Posted - 2007.12.06 15:21:00 - [186]

 

In celebration of reaching page seven:

NERF RIGHT CLICK

Seriously. Boost Q W E R T Y U I O P A S D F G H J K L Z X C V B N M!

Posted - 2007.12.10 21:37:00 - [188]

 

Kei Nagase /signed

Posted - 2007.12.22 08:36:00 - [190]

 

Many concerns listed by Xaen echo my own. The UI is pretty but it is convoluted. A significant fraction of the battle in EVE is not with other players but with attempting to navigate the UI efficiently.

Although I was very happy with the Trinity I expansion changes to the Overview (drone hotkeys too woot) it worries me CCP is investing time in the current UI when something altogether different may be needed. Whatever language the UI is written in appears bulky and lacks versatility. Rookie chat lags/pauses the client if left open for long and the Overview is known to bog down and do the same. Right click menus in EVE can be quite long and change in length depending on the situation. This could be helped by using a color, highlight, or symbol (▼ Asteroid belts) to help with quick identification and selection of commonly used commands. Absence of these aids must mean it's not possible with the current UI's code.

If you can't give us a new UI please keep improving the current one. I'd be happy skipping an expansion of content just to have CCP full power applied to the UI.

Posted - 2007.12.22 11:45:00 - [192]

 

This is a great thread, and I'll sign as others have that the client needs some help.

I'd like to see less space used by unnecessary items in the interface. For example, I don't need to see people's character pictures (or place holders) in the channel user list (especially local)...I only need to see their names and standings. I waste the entire left side of my screen with a big "local" window, when it doesn't need to be anywhere near that size.

I would like a way to reduce the size of the icons for the targets...again, using a lot of space unnecessarily.

Likewise with the item icons in the inventory windows.

Posted - 2007.12.28 16:16:00 - [194]

 

Shortcut L to lock <<<< This is the most needed shortcut in all of ****ing eve.

Posted - 2008.01.02 21:50:00 - [196]

 

/signed

CCP, listen to Xaen. Better yet, hire the dude!

Please..

Posted - 2008.01.07 16:16:00 - [198]

 

Originally by: Siest Pelan

---

/signed

CCP, listen to Xaen. Better yet, hire the dude!

Please..

---

While I appreciate your vote of confidence I am currently not willing to move to Iceland, and thus have not even applied. So remote consulting is really the best I can offer. But I appreciate your support!

Posted - 2008.01.07 19:07:00 - [200]

 

/signed

Think about this CCP, boosting the UI is the ONLY change you can make to the game which will not result in huge forum whines from anyone. Imagine that... a patch that actually results in general forum-wide praise

... well, maybe there would still be a few whiners, but at least you wouldn't get 50 page threads threatening to hunt down and kill Zulupark

Posted - 2008.01.10 21:34:00 - [202]

 

Posted - 2008.01.14 00:38:00 - [204]

 

Here are some comments from a clueless newbie who, back in the dark ages, was a game designer, programmer, and user interface designer. After playing the game for a couple of weeks there are a few simple things that can make the UI a lot easier to work with, many of which have been mentioned earlier in the thread. Here are a few that didn't get mentioned AFAICT.

* Buttons in background windows (like the repair window). I spent 10 days cursing the fact that there wasn't a "repair all" button. Well, there is, but it's always hidden behind the chat window! Having buttons like that at both the top and the bottom of those windows would make them a lot easier to use.

* Oh, and the line items in the repair window -- you can click on the name of the item, but not on the icon.

* You cannot organize objects at a station or in your cargo hold into convenient groups (ie: file system directories/folders). Everything's all mixed together. And while we are at it, a line item view would be nice, instead of the large icons. Folders are an easy fix, they can be faked in the client the way the original MacOS did it.

* The ship control panel is graphically very nice -- but its location is a problem, because it's dead center in the middle of the bottom area of the screen, which is absolutely prime real estate. It prevents, for example, the user from having a wider chat window, or having more untruncated tabs in that window. It should be movable anywhere on the screen, with options for the action buttons to extend either left, right, up, down or in a "halo" around the status circle.

Also, from a mousing point of view, bottom center is harder to mouse to, because the mouse will not pin left and right. Many people would no doubt prefer the control panel in the TL or BL corner because the edges of the screen will make it easier to quickly mouse to the control panel. There is a reason why Apple put the Apple menu in the TL corner (though they forgot when they came out with OS X, much to Bruce Tognazzini's annoyance)

* Similarly, you should be able to set the center of the 3D display to any XY position on the screen, so you can do things like have windows to the right and bottom, and have the 3D display of space have its center in the unused space.

* Collapse all (ie: all the subelements) in lists like the Market items list.

* You can select several items at once in the window that has the compare button, but any compare you do will compare all of the items, not just the ones selected.

* An easy to use "sell all this junk" interface that lets you just select all the trash you've looted. Ideally it should bring up a window similar to reprocess, tell you the price you will get (and choose to reprocess if it will get you more ISK), let you exclude items you decide not to sell, and do all the transactions with a single button press.

* Better documentation of the features of the UI. I *still* don't know what the heck PIN does other than make a window more transparent - it certainly isn't documented anywhere that I can find!

* A meta-suggestion -- a better forum user interface would cut down on the duplication and confusion. Simple things like telling me when a thread I've posted in has new postings. AFAICT, unless I manually bookmark this thread in my webbrowser, and manually check, I'll never know!

I would write more, but I've got to log in and change skill training... oh yeah, regarding that, when time's up on training a skill, the game should just keep track of accumulated untrained time (say, up to a week), and let me use it when I log in. If nothing else, it would save wear and tear on the authentication server...

Posted - 2008.01.14 04:28:00 - [206]

 

Excellent ideas everyone /signed, signed, signed.

In big letters - ones you can see. In a readable font. That you can change.

Originally by: Trebor Daehdoow

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* ... I spent 10 days cursing the fact that there wasn't a "repair all" button. Well, there is, but it's always hidden behind the chat window!

---

There is a Repair All button??? I've played the game for three months and not seen it! OH, it must be covered by my chat window!

Originally by: Trebor Daehdoow

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* You cannot organize objects at a station or in your cargo hold into convenient groups (ie: file system directories/folders). Everything's all mixed together. And while we are at it, a line item view would be nice, instead of the large icons.

---

Well, you can buy and use station containers to sort your stuff out (like using bags in other MMO's). But if an item is in a station container, you can't repackage, sell or fit the item!

Trader: "Hi, welcome to Salia's Discount Emporium! I have over 500 items for sale but if its in a container, I can't sell it to you!"

I think you can organise as a set of line items though - isn't there an icon toggle in the top section of the window? Show Large/Small/Line?

Originally by: Trebor Daehdoow

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* The ship control panel is graphically very nice -- but its location is a problem, because it's dead center in the middle of the bottom area of the screen, which is absolutely prime real estate.

---

Absolutely agree - the overview used to be fixed too - why not the target icons, ship shield/armour status display, weapons/modules etc aswell???

I'd like straight lines for shields etc, or a LARGER numeric option (one where you can read the difference between 8 and 9. Not all of us have 200/20 vision and using a tiny font with extremely poor kerning just throws readability out of the window.

Other UI gripes that may not be listed yet:
- Move/resize medical bay/repair windows etc
- clock-hand style timer on activated/deactivated modules (like the original Command and Conquer)
- "Show market details" for skill books listed in the Character Skills window
- If you open a market window for a single item; fix the Groups Tab, so it actually shows all items in that group.

There are so mnay others... I love Eve but Eve UI - its like pulling teeth!

Posted - 2008.01.14 05:07:00 - [208]

 

Firstly, great thread. I'm also a developer and I have to agree the interface does seriously need some work, for me it feels like Eve is an application, rather than a game with windows all over the place and having to right click everything.

Just add a way for people to write their own 3rd party customisations/mods, similar to World of Warcraft (sorry to refer to this game, but I started playing it after I quit Eve and it's the only other MMORPG I've played). If CCP can't be bothered or don't have the time to implement good ideas, let the players themselves have some control over it. Failing that of course, here's my list of things I can think about off the top of my head.

Cut back on having to right click everything, shortcuts or an intuitive UI would help. If I was playing an FPS, I wouldn't want to right click the person I'm shooting at. I know it's a harsh comparison but you know what I'm saying...

Modules need to show the time remaining per cycle. I'd like to know just how much longer my armour repairer is going to take. Again similar to what's shown in WoW (sorry but their interface works quite well).

If you've equipped a survey scanner please show the remaining units of ore that's left on the targetted asteroid. Failing that, highlight targetted roids with a different colour in the results. Finding the same roid can suck and with the cycles of strip miners it's a huge waste of time on a roid with only a few units left.

Combat logs that are customisable. I want to see damage done and damage taken separated. Customise it to filter certain things. Add more windows (but for God's sake not freakin poorly designed ones). It would be nice to have an alert window, perhaps similar to the fleet broadcast window for certain events like being scrambled and by who.

Please stop sharing the window positions of cans with the items/ships in station. Say I'm mining... I like to have my ships cargo hold open, and directly above it a cargo can that I'm mining into. I like this window small as it's nice to see what else going on out there. I like my station item window large because I always seem to have a bloody huge amount of stuff because it's so time consuming sorting out loot. Normally this wouldn't affect me because I normally merge these into the station side panel - but as CCP screwed that up this patch I've had to revert to yet more windows.

Although I hate having to right click everything, if you must use that method, please add a refine context menu to items in corp hangers (if you have full access to them of course).

For the love of God add horizontal scroll bars. I'm running Eve on a 22" widescreen at 1680x1050 and I STILL don't have room for some of the screens (mainly in the Corp window).

The chat window shouldn't be a window as it currently is. I think typing a message should be initiated by pressing the Enter key, that way my key presses wouldn't sometimes end up in the chat window and I wouldn't have to spam corp mates with random rubbish.

The number pad could be used for your targets. Pressing a number would correspond to a target (which would have a relevant number shown on the target (maybe like how T2 items have the little bit in the corner).

Please.... When I'm CTRL clicking a target in the overview to lock it stop refreshing the list while the CTRL key is held down. I can't express how frustrating it is to lock the wrong target because it's shifted position in the list.... Normally I lock a corp mate or something by accident which in turn makes them lock me, annoying both parties...

Above all else, please when/if you eventually implement these features take the time to test them thoroughly. Bug fixing generally means fixing bugs, not re-introducing old ones again. You'd be able to implement more nice features if you didn't have to fix old problems . Sometimes I wonder if CCP play the game or to be honest any other game the way this clunky UI works

Posted - 2008.01.14 19:22:00 - [210]

 

/signed

As for skill training queues, its just not gonna happen guys. We all know CCP isn't gonna bend over backwards for this so just leave the issue alone. Never gonna happen period. Be glad you have evemon.

There are a lot ideas in this thread and I admit I haven't read them all but here are my 2 most wanted gui improvements.

1. Easy range and orbit insta-click modifiers.
(just right click the orbit or keep-in-range icons and have a list of predefinable distances you can make)

2. The ability to add specific bookmarked locations to the overview in overview settings

If I had these two fixes I would be a happy man