Fiddly interface

[MistrBill]

I just bought the game, so I'm sure I'm beating a dead horse, but I've still gotta say it. The interface for this game is just wacky, all throughout. I don't know if HG had controllers in mind rather than mouse/keyboard, or if they just think differently than I do. I guess not everyone shares the same definition of 'intuitive'.

Every other game in @#$!ing existence has menus that stay put on the screen. Would it be so awful if there was a way to make the menus be still when you move the cursor, instead of squidging around in (I'm guessing) a doofy attempt at a 'you are there in your spacesuit' vibe?

How about consistent controls for a function, no matter what you're doing? A total PITA trying to remember if I have to press E to back out of a menu or if escape will do the trick.

Every time I talk to an NPC and go with an option, It drops me back out, and I have to re initiate conversation with 'em to try another option. How about a single screen that stays open for buying AND selling, AND whatever else, until I decide I'm done and close the dialogue screen? Not helped by the pointless, repetitive fluff you have to click through to GET to that screen.

I could go on, but yeah, I know, probably beating a dead horse.

[GIJoe597]

I am about a week into the game and the first thing I noticed was it appears to be made for consoles as far as the menu/ui. A shame really. But I still have Elite. I consider this Elite light.

[Scratch]

Yup, I agree, interface reeks console game”. But I got used to it and I’m playing with xbox360 pad to go all the way 😁

I also play Elite Dangerous, with HOTAS, I consider these two games completely different fruits.

[MistrBill]

I thought I'd get over the floaty menus, but the more I play the more it bugs me. I want to make them hold effing still, like every other bloody game I've ever played. What this is supposed to be adding to the experience is beyond me, and not providing a way to toggle it off adds insult to injury.

I keep meaning to get around to Elite, but I'm a mouse and keyboard only kind of player, and I get lazy about learning new games if they're too involved. It looks worth the effort though- especially since I don't want to buy Star Citizen until it's in some kind of 1.0 state, and it looks like that'll be a long, long time, if ever.

[¸.-•~¹°”ˆ˜¨ÐŖ3Y♒]

some key binds are hard coded. and the game allows duplicate binds so if you use one of the hard coded ones than you have some strange behavior.
i use a keypad (razor tartarus v2) and an MMO mouse (ROCCAT Nyth) so i can set different keys for the controls.
the game controls are a pain in the B.
you cant even strafe the ship left right up down. ...

[Wylie28]

Huh? Its a mouse/hotkey based UI. it sucks on consoles. This is pure PC design. Which makes sense. NMS was PC only first. It was announced having undergone over a year of development in 2013. Sony didnt offer to do advertising until 2014.

About the only problem is the lack of rebinding all the hotkeys. The moving around thing is lretty common polish in games these days.

[Corvus]

Nah, I agree this is a controller port. Q and E are obviously bumpers, A and D are triggers and Left and Right mouse clicks are A and B controller buttons.

I don't use the mouse to navigate menus often anymore. It has become very intuitive to me and I love the menus.

[Corvus]

It started as a pc only game, but the game had a completely different HUD in those days. When they sold out to console, they changed everything and focused on console support. That's why so much changed from announcement to release.

[Johnny in the Clouds]

When using a controller plugged into a PC the controller makes better sense of some of the menus, particularly the Quick selection menu - designed for fast button pressing. The game was launched initially towards the PS4 console design so if you want that experience perhaps a third party PC controller would be good to try. Otherwise I think using a controller and mouse gives the best experience.

A game that has a screen non-cluttered with menus is always good. I think NMS does that very well and once you are familiar with the menu design and the short-cuts committed to memory, the GUI really works well. You don't actually need a GUI to play and can turn off the on screen icons in the options screen. Relying on audio and in game ship menus etc the landscapes and experience become really fun.

Some of the text interaction questions could maybe use a smaller text font maybe. And you're right about cancelling requests and interactions could be more refined.

TIP:
You can actually zip through text screens really quickly by pressing right or left mouse (I forget which) Having completed the game this is a real time saver. You can also click through landing screens too avoiding the 'cut scene widescreen black bands'

[Johnny in the Clouds]

Originally posted by Corvus:

Nah, I agree this is a controller port. Q and E are obviously bumpers, A and D are triggers and Left and Right mouse clicks are A and B controller buttons.

I don't use the mouse to navigate menus often anymore. It has become very intuitive to me and I love the menus.

The last two major updates really helped make the transferring and swapping of slot items (using X on PC) far easier and simpler to manage especially with the addition of more choices to store stuff, like the exocars, more ships, freighter and now other players. Initially I was put off by the changes as I had got so used to the early system. Now it all makes perfect sense.

Playing a lot of different games will always end up being frustrating swapping between GUIs. Extended play of one title always becomes easier once familiar with the quirks. But a new user should always be listened too as their frustrations can sometimes throw up alternative solutions to better design. But there may be reasons for a design quirk the new user has not yet encountered and will make sense and easier game play much later in their journey.

That said a long time player of any game who know the controls will understand the decisions made in the GUI design and why they are there. They will arguably help provide the best feedback for improved GUI development. I think Hello Games do this quite well. Hopefully they will continue tinkering with the menus that don't work as fluidly as perhaps they might. At the moment though I think with the current update things work quite well.

The difficult menu for me is the building selection screens. They do work best with a controller but there is a LOT of clicking to find stuff. It would be helpful to maybe customise a most recent selection items or exclude items not used very much.

[MistrBill]

Originally posted by Wylie28:

Huh? Its a mouse/hotkey based UI. it sucks on consoles. This is pure PC design. Which makes sense. NMS was PC only first. It was announced having undergone over a year of development in 2013. Sony didnt offer to do advertising until 2014.

About the only problem is the lack of rebinding all the hotkeys. The moving around thing is lretty common polish in games these days.

As others have said here, the current game is retrofitted for consoles big time. But I was just trying to come up with a reason why the interface is the way it is. Even if you're right, that means they @#$!ed it up even worse than I thought.

WASD to move on foot, but mouse direction only in flight.

"tethered" rubber band flight control as a default, but still sloppy as hell even when changed to the far more sensible 'locked' setting.

Dropping all the way out of NPC dialogue menus after many (but not all) transactions.

Escaping out of a menu requires esc, E, or M, depending on what screen you're on.

Click, click, click through needless, repetitive color dialogue that feels like it was written by someone killing time while they were sitting on the pot. Click click click to select anything in base construction.

There's actually a lot I'm finding to like about this game. But the interface was either designed by a committee, or by some evil sadist who likes effing around with the players.

[Corvus]

Meh, I just created macros for anything I access often... One button and done. The rest are committed to muscle memory after only a few days.

Though I may have disagreed my first day or two, I love the menus now and wouldn't change them. (Especially when compared to the menus of most other game in this genre and with this level of inventory management)

[Metanoia]

Ya, it's a little wonky.. but once it sets in, it make perfect sense.

[¸.-•~¹°”ˆ˜¨ÐŖ3Y♒]

here is a post for some performance related config settings which are not accessible in game.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/275850/discussions/1/1471967615888254926/

and here is a bug in game which places base objects automatically when using the up arrow key to select them. it can be avoided using the select key instead. mine is F
https://steamcommunity.com/app/275850/discussions/0/1762481957318201738/

[Wylie28]

Originally posted by MistrBill:

Originally posted by Wylie28:

Huh? Its a mouse/hotkey based UI. it sucks on consoles. This is pure PC design. Which makes sense. NMS was PC only first. It was announced having undergone over a year of development in 2013. Sony didnt offer to do advertising until 2014.

About the only problem is the lack of rebinding all the hotkeys. The moving around thing is lretty common polish in games these days.

As others have said here, the current game is retrofitted for consoles big time. But I was just trying to come up with a reason why the interface is the way it is. Even if you're right, that means they @#$!ed it up even worse than I thought.

WASD to move on foot, but mouse direction only in flight.

"tethered" rubber band flight control as a default, but still sloppy as hell even when changed to the far more sensible 'locked' setting.

Dropping all the way out of NPC dialogue menus after many (but not all) transactions.

Escaping out of a menu requires esc, E, or M, depending on what screen you're on.

Click, click, click through needless, repetitive color dialogue that feels like it was written by someone killing time while they were sitting on the pot. Click click click to select anything in base construction.

There's actually a lot I'm finding to like about this game. But the interface was either designed by a committee, or by some evil sadist who likes effing around with the players.

This is default for flight sims.

Default for flight sims. The old mode IS the console mode. Mice have to move and we dont have infinite mousepads. Everything but NMS and Planetside 2 works the way tethered does.

Nothing to do with console or pc. Just bad UI flow.

Again. Nothing to do with console or pc. Just bad consistancy for button bindings.

Organization saves time. You will appreciate it once you gain muscle memory. But again. Nothing to do with console or pc.

I never said it was good. I just said it was primarily designed for pc. Still is. Its cursor based. There are hot keys for everything. The hold to action thing, despite popular belief, is a PC invention. A lot more mislicks than mis button prresses on the controller. As you fingers rest on the thumbsticks on controller while on pc its left click and right click. Although ill agree the hold time could be halved. It cant take that long to register a misclick.

[¸.-•~¹°”ˆ˜¨ÐŖ3Y♒]

there is a thumb stick on the Tartarus V2 Keypad.
just found out that you can hotkey the quickmenu.
CTRL + 0-9 but somehow its buggy.
when i want to refill my stuff, it sometimes uses the first resource in the list automatically. so when it does that i have to rebind that. -> binding is CTRL + 0 for example and when it starts to use resources i have to use CTRL + 0 again. so i have bound CTRL + 0 to my mouse instead of just 0.