Please rework UI Tool swapping etc

[Jeronimo]

Backed the game 2 years ago and wanted to get back into it. But honestly the clunky UI is pushing me back. Swapping items between 4 inventory tabs all the time to do even the most basic things, press alt, etc. My god I love this game but please try to rethink how all this is working. I love the challenge, learning, realism, but this is just insanely tedious. Why not have a toolbar using key 1-9 for example for all tools and let the game pick up material you need from whatever inventory slot you have? This two hand system is driving me nuts.

[Darzai]

Escrito originalmente por delerium76:

Escrito originalmente por Darzai:

If you want to simulate just having two hands to deal with tools and components, the result should not be some arbitrary keybind hell.
Because the whole point of using your hands irl is how intuitive they work. So is using a toolbelt.

The UI in this game however, is the opposite of this. They turned the part of the UI to handle tools and components into a mini game. This simulates nothing.

The devs tried to reinvent the wheel and imo failed.

Again, as I mentioned 5 posts above yours, the devs were not trying to "reinvent" anything. They were simply trying to make a 3D version of space station 13, which had those same controls. I can't say if that is their current vision since they've expanded way past that, but I do believe that was their initial inspiration. I can't speak for the devs so I can't tell you how committed they are to keeping the controls this way forever, but in the past few years whenever this topic comes up, they haven't had much desire to change it aside from the mentioned feature they added letting you drag equipment to inventory spots, which was a concession made for all of those complaining about the pure hotkey controls they had before that.

My post is how it was defended by players back when the game released into EA. Anyway, I am not sure if your reason is better. Copying some weird control scheme while there are already so many proven player control mechanics in games made since Space Station 13.

[delerium76]

Escrito originalmente por Darzai:

Escrito originalmente por delerium76:

Again, as I mentioned 5 posts above yours, the devs were not trying to "reinvent" anything. They were simply trying to make a 3D version of space station 13, which had those same controls. I can't say if that is their current vision since they've expanded way past that, but I do believe that was their initial inspiration. I can't speak for the devs so I can't tell you how committed they are to keeping the controls this way forever, but in the past few years whenever this topic comes up, they haven't had much desire to change it aside from the mentioned feature they added letting you drag equipment to inventory spots, which was a concession made for all of those complaining about the pure hotkey controls they had before that.

My post is how it was defended by players back when the game released into EA. Anyway, I am not sure if your reason is better. Copying some weird control scheme while there are already so many proven player control mechanics in games made since Space Station 13.

Just because something is easier doesn't necessarily make it better. The unique controls were absolutely intended to be harder to work with by design. Using your tools to build was supposed to be more complex than just "press 1, point and click, press 2, point and click". Just because you don't like something doesn't make it "bad". Inefficient, definitely yes, and I agree that it's clunky, but that's the point.

Your argument can be made about just about every popular game out there btw. "why does inventory tetris exist in the diablo series when they can just have every item take up 1 space?" "Why do MMO's need 15 rows of 12 hotkeys each row?" "Why do flight sims have so many damned buttons!?" etc.

My point there is, sometimes what makes a game unique is HOW the UX is designed, and this game's UX is designed to simulate using two hands that can hold 1 item each, and when you need something else, you have to do something with the item in that hand before you can pick something else up. That's pretty core to the experience of the game, and having items assigned to hotkeys that you can just swap items in and out of your hands completely ruins that experience. Then it's like every other game out there control wise.

[Jeronimo]

Bad UI by design lol. Happy you guys don't develop games or they would have 300 players like stationeers.

[delerium76]

Escrito originalmente por Jeronimo:

Bad UI by design lol. Happy you guys don't develop games or they would have 300 players like stationeers.

When did I say "Bad UI by design"? In fact, I specifically said, "Just because you don't like something doesn't make it "bad"" It's designed to be complex and not just "1-click, do everything." If that's not for you, then fine, you don't have to play the game. Not every game is made for everyone. This game was designed to be niche as a pet project for rocket. If you want a more user friendly "for the masses" experience, go play their other game, "Icarus"

[Alizia Kaline]

Escrito originalmente por Jeronimo:

Bad UI by design lol. Happy you guys don't develop games or they would have 300 players like stationeers.

I would be very glad to have the same 300 players of stationeers on my game, rather then billions of player like you... :)

[Strategic Sage]

UI that doesn't give you the experience you want is one thing.

Bad UI is something else.

Something a player doesn't like, doesn't make it bad.

[Jeronimo]

Escrito originalmente por delerium76:

Escrito originalmente por Jeronimo:

Bad UI by design lol. Happy you guys don't develop games or they would have 300 players like stationeers.

When did I say "Bad UI by design"? In fact, I specifically said, "Just because you don't like something doesn't make it "bad"" It's designed to be complex and not just "1-click, do everything." If that's not for you, then fine, you don't have to play the game. Not every game is made for everyone. This game was designed to be niche as a pet project for rocket. If you want a more user friendly "for the masses" experience, go play their other game, "Icarus"

There's a difference between a niche game and a commercial failure. The core gameplay is great, top notch and should be appealing more than 300 concurrent players. Other engineering games are niche indeed but have a much larger player base. I see in this forum every now and then people mentioning the game lacks of players, I see calls for help ("please advertise this game", "please buy DLC to provide financial support", etc). But ok just keep ignoring people signaling there's an issue with the UI and pretend it's great and does not hurt the game's appeal to people who actually would like the game otherwise. You guys are weird, pretending to "defend" this game but actually you're hurting it. And some of you come across as very selfish, you even reject optional UI feature, arguing all kind of silly things you have no clue about.

[God, owner of the Universe]

What he said.

[Alizia Kaline]

Escrito originalmente por Jeronimo:

You guys are weird, pretending to "defend" this game but actually you're hurting it. And some of you come across as very selfish, you even reject optional UI feature, arguing all kind of silly things you have no clue about.

Imagine you play a game you don't like as it is, you ask it to change for yourself, and people refusing to accept it are selfish... You imagine this situation with a restaurant ? You go in a restaurant, you don't like the menu and you ask it to change, insulting regular clients to be selfish because they don't want their menu to change ?

Play something else and stop annoy us, seriously. And please, stop pretending you care about the number of players when you just want your UI to be like you want it. You are embarassing...

Devs are making the game they want to play. You like it, play it. You don't like it, don't play it. Simple.

[Jeronimo]

Escrito originalmente por Alizia Kaline:

Escrito originalmente por Jeronimo:

You guys are weird, pretending to "defend" this game but actually you're hurting it. And some of you come across as very selfish, you even reject optional UI feature, arguing all kind of silly things you have no clue about.

Imagine you play a game you don't like as it is, you ask it to change for yourself, and people refusing to accept it are selfish... You imagine this situation with a restaurant ? You go in a restaurant, you don't like the menu and you ask it to change, insulting regular clients to be selfish because they don't want their menu to change ?

Play something else and stop annoy us, seriously. And please, stop pretending you care about the number of players when you just want your UI to be like you want it. You are embarassing...

Devs are making the game they want to play. You like it, play it. You don't like it, don't play it. Simple.

You made alone 30% of the comments in this thread. Why don't you unsubsribe. I'll talk as I please. If you don't like it, sorry for you. You pretend you're a majority but you're just a very loud person alone trying to make stupid analogies that don't make sense at all.

[Alizia Kaline]

Escrito originalmente por Jeronimo:

You pretend you're a majority but you're just a very loud person alone trying to make stupid analogies that don't make sense at all.

Please quote me exactly where I said I'm a majority.

The analogy is perfectly valid. Do you have the habit to think that everything not like you want are bad ?

Escrito originalmente por Jeronimo:

You made alone 30% of the comments in this thread. Why don't you unsubsribe.

17.44%. And as you are also in the top 3 with 12.79%, can I ask you to unsubscribe too ? :)

Or maybe "I'll talk as I please. If you don't like it, sorry for you." is only valid for your majesty ?

[delerium76]

Escrito originalmente por Jeronimo:

Escrito originalmente por delerium76:

When did I say "Bad UI by design"? In fact, I specifically said, "Just because you don't like something doesn't make it "bad"" It's designed to be complex and not just "1-click, do everything." If that's not for you, then fine, you don't have to play the game. Not every game is made for everyone. This game was designed to be niche as a pet project for rocket. If you want a more user friendly "for the masses" experience, go play their other game, "Icarus"

There's a difference between a niche game and a commercial failure. The core gameplay is great, top notch and should be appealing more than 300 concurrent players. Other engineering games are niche indeed but have a much larger player base. I see in this forum every now and then people mentioning the game lacks of players, I see calls for help ("please advertise this game", "please buy DLC to provide financial support", etc). But ok just keep ignoring people signaling there's an issue with the UI and pretend it's great and does not hurt the game's appeal to people who actually would like the game otherwise. You guys are weird, pretending to "defend" this game but actually you're hurting it. And some of you come across as very selfish, you even reject optional UI feature, arguing all kind of silly things you have no clue about.

The problem here is that you seem to think that changing the UI for this game is going to make a difference in drawing in new players, as if that's the only hurdle to making this game appeal to the masses, all while you ignore the fact that this game is designed to appeal to engineer mindset type of people. Between the fluid dynamic systems and the IC10 scripting language to automate tasks, this game will never be mainstream. There's nothing like this game, so please stop trying to compare it to more mainstream games. The closest game to this one is probably space engineers, but compared to the dynamic systems implemented in this game, space engineers is like a kiddy pool compared to this game as far as complex systems go. If you want something simple, look elsewhere, and that kinda includes the interface. Sorry to say it, but maybe this game just isn't for you, and that's perfectly fine. I don't like dark souls games, but I don't say they're crap, they're just not my type of game.

[Darzai]

Escrito originalmente por delerium76:

Escrito originalmente por Jeronimo:

Bad UI by design lol. Happy you guys don't develop games or they would have 300 players like stationeers.

When did I say "Bad UI by design"? In fact, I specifically said, "Just because you don't like something doesn't make it "bad"" It's designed to be complex and not just "1-click, do everything." If that's not for you, then fine, you don't have to play the game. Not every game is made for everyone. This game was designed to be niche as a pet project for rocket. If you want a more user friendly "for the masses" experience, go play their other game, "Icarus"

A UI designed to be complex?

The UI should never be in your way of trying to do something in a game. Sometimes you can't get around it simply because a game has a lot of functionality and therefore menus (think 4x games for example, or tycoon games). But in a 3d game, the UI should support the game, not be the game.

Something like selecting a tool from your belt, or taking a component from a pouch on your belt, is supposed to be easy and effortless. It should not take mental effort. That goes against the whole idea why people use a toolbelt to begin with. You are playing a character, not just their brain.

I guess we have to be lucky that breathing in the game doesn't require you to press a key in a steady rhythm.

[delerium76]

Escrito originalmente por Darzai:

Escrito originalmente por delerium76:

When did I say "Bad UI by design"? In fact, I specifically said, "Just because you don't like something doesn't make it "bad"" It's designed to be complex and not just "1-click, do everything." If that's not for you, then fine, you don't have to play the game. Not every game is made for everyone. This game was designed to be niche as a pet project for rocket. If you want a more user friendly "for the masses" experience, go play their other game, "Icarus"

A UI designed to be complex?

The UI should never be in your way of trying to do something in a game. Sometimes you can't get around it simply because a game has a lot of functionality and therefore menus (think 4x games for example, or tycoon games). But in a 3d game, the UI should support the game, not be the game.

Something like selecting a tool from your belt, or taking a component from a pouch on your belt, is supposed to be easy and effortless. It should not take mental effort. That goes against the whole idea why people use a toolbelt to begin with. You are playing a character, not just their brain.

I guess we have to be lucky that breathing in the game doesn't require you to press a key in a steady rhythm.

see, here's where the terminology diverges. The UI for stationeers is FINE. The things you guys are complaining about is called UX. I refrained from correcting you a while back because I wasn't trying to be pedantic because I knew what you meant. But now you are confusing the two by saying that a UI should never be compex but then start talking about controls, which is a UX thing, not a UI thing. The UI is the visuals you see on the screen.
The buttons, the inventory slots, etc. UI should be simple, clean, and stay out of your way all while giving you all the information you need to play the game. The UX is HOW you interact with the game, which is what you are complaining about. The UX can very much be complex depending on your goals. If you want the controls to be part of the unique way to play your game, then the UX will reflect that. You are literally complaining about something that's a core feature of the game and telling everyone that it's bad design because it's not cookie cutter simple. How about instead of spending all of this time complaining about it, you spend some time actually trying to learn the system. You might actually enjoy the game.

[shadowrider]

Agree the UI needs reworking or at least an alternate setup we can choose. Only reason I don't play this game is the UI is frustrating and difficult for me to use (I have issues with my hands). If a better or optional UI setup made it more enjoyable and accessible for some, wouldn't that bring more players to the game? And wouldn't that be better for everyone?