Loadout interface needs work.

[Part_Time_Prinny]

I'm completely ignoring the feature and having to manually retrofit/prestige my ships each time because I can't seem to get the Loadout feature to work as I'm expecting it to. When I click to load a Loadout, it doesn't seem to update my build. Each time I save my current gear to a Loadout it doesn't appear to update.

Is it basing what is being saved to the Loadout on what my current ship config *is* or what my current Prestige config *will be* if I click to retrofit/prestige? Because if it's the former it doesn't appear to work. And if it's the latter how is it accounting for targeting config, crew, shard and module setup, etc? Because those don't show in the Prestige tab.

[Sylv]

Loadouts record what you CURRENTLY have equipped, not what is set on your prestige screen.

When you swap to a loadout (and the section is selected, and in this case you have it set to use a retrofit) it will automatically change everything to that and do a retrofit if needed.

[Sinatr]

This is very confusing. I though loadout are buggy.

I also expected loadout to work with prestige screen. It's my mistake, but maybe game could simply tell me more clearly what is going on?

How about making confirmation window to save loadout bigger and adding there text (in red color?) explaining this?

[Leylin Cassiel]

Yeah, loadouts are unintuitive, Deff needs a rework.

[RaptorSolutions]

I honestly don't get what the issue is with loadouts. Did none of you click the loadout button and read the descriptions?
I thought core would be an issue but it very clearly tells you what exactly it saves. Though tbf I can't remember if these were recent.

[Nullpersona]

Meh, loadouts change too much and not enough for the loadout options to have much value outside of very specific circumstances. The most use I got out of them was between 50 and 100 when swapping for warp. Otherwise, I was usually progressing through what would have been loadouts without needing to save them. Loadouts are great for saving a setup before a temporary change, like tailoring for a warp, otherwise they just kind of waste effort you could be using to optimize settings for the current, long-term situation. The adjustments needed after a reinforce, prestige, refit, or new sector are typically too significant and nuanced for a previous loadout to be beneficial.

[adeyke]

Personally, I use my loadouts only for modules and v device, and I find that very useful. I've never even tried using them for cores or crew.

[Nullpersona]

Originally posted by adeyke:

Personally, I use my loadouts only for modules and v device, and I find that very useful. I've never even tried using them for cores or crew.

Yeah, I guess the more comprehensive the loadout, the more specific the use case. I never bothered with partial loadouts, because swapping up to five v devices, or a couple modules doesn't really take enough effort to warrant saving them. Could it save a few seconds here or there? Sure, but when you are dealing with time delays of hours, it hardly seems impactful.

[Neferneith]

Originally posted by adeyke:

Personally, I use my loadouts only for modules and v device, and I find that very useful. I've never even tried using them for cores or crew.

I also found Modules and V Shards to be the most prone to loadout. And with the right click save system, they can be updated quickly as one unlocks mods/slots/shards.
The fighter bay Spec Points under Computer tab could be included to switch between damage heavy and ressource focused.

[adeyke]

It's just QoL. If you're going to idle for hours/days on a particular build, there isn't much benefit to the seconds saved by a loadout. However, there are also times when you want to switch builds more frequently.

One use case is with warps. The procedure is:

1. Back up current build to temp loadout
   
2. Use combat loadout
   
3. Run warp
   
4. Use warp essence loadout
   
5. Accept reward
   
6. Restore backup loadout

(I know that this becomes obsolete if the warp essence build is also able to clear the warp or if idling build is able to maximize warp essence.)

This sort of thing would be a much greater hassle, and much more prone to errors, without loadouts.

[Sinatr]

Ok, I am back in this topic, because I want to use loadouts, but I can't.. It just not working as I expect it.

I just run challenge and used 5/5 retrofits to complete it, because for some reasons the ship was NOT what I expect it to be. It seems after restarting client the content of Prestige windows changes, so I get random ship when doing challenge/prestige.

The UI is EXTREMELLY NON-INTUITIVE. What is "favorite"? What is "auto-update"? What are those stupid icons, how am I supposed to correlate this to real screen? Why I can't see loadouts in way I am seeing everything?

It's NOT USABLE in current stage of implementation.

I don't know even how to check what did I just saved (shift+click shows some window and I DO NOT understand what I see there).

My situtaion: I am at sector 60. I need to start prestige with v3.0 gear on ship and after a while retrofit to v4.0. This is important, because from start I would not be able to upgrade anything for v4.0 (cost is too high) and v3.0 is not powerful enough (it stops at 5x sector).

And I just CAN'T utilize layouts for this simple task. I simply gave up. I need intuitive UI, where I can store my ship layout, name it and clearly see what I just saved. Then I need to create another layout, ideally without applying it to ship.

Then I need to be able clearly check what layout is what.. Currently I am looking at what I saved and I am VERY CONFUSED. The layout switching??? What does layout switching do exactly? I am supposed to use retrofit charge to apply layout, NO?

P.S.: I am very angry, sorry.

[RaptorSolutions]

Considering it literally says it saves MILESTONE NODES and TARGETING/SETTINGS. I have to wonder, are the people having issues playing in a language other than English? Or are not used to the language?

Or are people using loadout for it's meaning and not specifically referring to the thing they buy through the AI store?

[adeyke]

If you start a challenge, you're automatically assigned a build that will work well for it.

"Favorite" means there's a button to switch to it at the top of the screen. There are only 8 slots available for that, so non-favorites are only available via the layout page.

Auto-update means if you currently have a loadout active and then modify your build, the changes will automatically be saved to that loadout.

[RaptorSolutions]

Does anyone ever use auto-update? Can't remember if it's default on or off, but I generally turn that ♥♥♥♥ off because very rarely such things work as you like.
After all, if I have a loadout, it's because I built it for something. If I change something without using one of the many loadout slots, it's because it's a temporary switch.

[adeyke]

I have it off, but there are times when I'll immediately save the loadout after making a change. I still like having manual control over it.

As for the cores, you're right that it says that it saves the milestones and targeting, but it also implicitly saves the type of cores. There's a checkbox for "retrofit if needed". If your current cores are incompatible with the saved loadout and the checkbox is checked, it'll retrofit to use the saved cores. However, it notably doesn't actually save the tier of the core that was used and instead just use the highest ones available. So the desired behavior of a 3.0 loadout and a 4.0 loadout isn't possible.

[RaptorSolutions]

They should just remove that option tbh. I've never used that because frankly it seems like something too finicky to ever be properly used.
Odd though, now that I'm at BB and still have different tiers, yet I no longer see that option at a glance. If I care I'll take a second look later.

But if it's still there, it should be split up from the loadout section and moved over to the prestige screen instead imo. And to a certain extent, the same for crew. Having everything all mixed together especially when for the most part you'll be tweaking vshards and synth modules is a recipe for disaster. As we can see from this thread.
Incidentally I've never touched the loadout options for cores and crew, needing retrofits and sleeves respectively told me that it's too risky to have those used at a click of a button, which I guess is why by default they are turned off. And in such a case, why not just split them off into their respective sections? Actually, unless it's stupid hard to code, why not also have individual loadouts in each section? Best is probably having both a master loadout slot like it works now, and also individual loadouts. Then again, I've honestly never had any issues with the current system anyway, so keep that in mind.