Help, I'm stuck on the holodeck

[mendel]

On the Piper Maru, after destroying the CPUs,I am supposed to confront HEIDI in the holodock; but I go there, close the door (or not), click "start simulation", nothing happens. Is there another precondition that must be met, or am I missing something?

I did enter the small spacecraft and saw HEIDI there, am I supposed to look for her elsewhere on the Piper Maru?

Addendum: Maybe I should also mention that I am playing as Wolf and, before that, played the Drequexius story branch. Also, it seems I killed everyone onboard the Piper Maru before I found the Old Man.

[mendel]

Figured it out. You need to select (highlight) the holo to be run in the screen above (at this point there is only one choice, before there were two others, which made it a tad more obvious) before you click the button to start the simulation.

[Maxwolf]

I will make it so the holodeck program you run on that map is automatically selected when you enter the room. That will hopefully make it easier in the future for others.

[kschang77]

I think part of the problem is the "buttons" on the screen where not obvious as can be interacted with, much like the huge Green brackets of the switches you can push or boxes/corpses you can loot.

If you can look at my playthru video, I says "plug HEIDI into server" and it was NOT obvious at all I need to punch the "download into chip" (or whatever the wording was) button. This is a new mechanic, interact with buttons on a screen without it popping into full-screen, that was never explained before.

[Maxwolf]

Someone suggested to me that I add an arrow with distance like how Killing Floor does for helping people locate the trader on each map. I could do this for quests that have objectives so you know it wants you to go near the monitor.

I would be up for any other suggestions on how to make that more intuitive.

[mendel]

Originally posted by kschang77:

I This is a new mechanic, interact with buttons on a screen without it popping into full-screen, that was never explained before.

No, it's not a new mechanic, you do that with other screens on your own ship all the time, if I recall that correctly.
The problem is that the non-button-y parts of these screens are usually non-interactive, so maybe a simpler redesign would be to replace the two-step process (select sim, start sim) with single buttons: Press to start: "industrial", "train station", "self-destruct abort"
I'd also keep the former two holos available later and not remove them, if that's some players first visit to the holodeck they're going to miss them.

[mendel]

I didnd't have a problem finding the holodeck, I didn't have a problem finding the monitor (it is the only control available in that room), I only had a problem operating it.

Adding an arrow with a direction would spoil immersion; you don't give us a minimap for a reason (I hope). If it's there, it should be optional, and available throughout, so that you can hold down a key, and while it is pressed, the arrows appear (one for the objective, one for the trader). That would work like a hint system.