[IDEA] Small interface improvements

Ideas for improving Starport:GE

Moderators: Moleman, Kwijibo, Luna

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Do you like these interface ideas?

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Total votes: 12

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Freakazoid
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[IDEA] Small interface improvements

Post by Freakazoid » Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:31 pm

I think there are some places the interface could use some dev love :) Little things here and there that are quite annoying and only add to frustration. Here they are in no particular order:

1. Hyper links in map

They just don't work. When you write down a coordinate the text changes to blue and the regular brackets are replaced with rectangular ones, but they still don't work.

2. Pick up radius for compound mines

Yeah this gets quite annoying, especially when you have mines mixed with lasers. Compound mines seem to have a much larger radius that other deploy ables and even when I'm on top of a laser cannon I need to pick up, the game still picks up all compound mines nearby first.

It would be nice if all the defenses had a uniform pick up radius.

3. Picking up defenses in space

When I place defenses in space, I usually want them to stay there. Since enter mode is also used to pick the defenses up, it gets tedious to land on a planet surrounded by them. If you don't have full hardware slots, you will pick them up, and need to redeploy them every time. Even with full hardware slots it's problematic to enter the planet, if the defenses are packed tightly around it, since if you're not touching the planet when you hit enter mode, the game will register you as picking up the cannons instead. It's almost impossible to enter such planet "on the go".

I think adding an "auto defense pick-up" option in menu would be a great fix. If it's turned off, you won't pick up the defenses as you fly over them.

4. Highlight online members of other corps on the corporation screen

Bringing back this option would be really swell. You can find out which member of a corp is online by skimming through the "who's online list", but in order to do that you need to:
a) memorize their names
b) search for each member independently
c) switch between different screens a lot
It's just tedious is all.

5. Some improved mail functions

A forward option would be great. It would be neat to be able to send mail to an entire corporation (not just yours) as well.

That's about it I think.
Feel free to add more.
Last edited by Freakazoid on Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:57 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Jwilson6
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Post by Jwilson6 » Sat Mar 08, 2008 12:58 am

Completely agree to all of that except the part about the auto pick up defenses

I think there should be an entirely seperate button to pick up defenses.

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DarkLStrike
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Re: [IDEA] Small interface improvements

Post by DarkLStrike » Sat Mar 08, 2008 1:19 am

Freakazoid wrote:

4. Highlight online corpmembers on the corporatiuon screen

Bringing back this option would be really swell. You can find out which member of a corp is online by skimming through the "who's online list", but in order to do that you need to:
a) memorise their names
b) search for each member independently
c) switch between different screens a lot
It's just tedious is all.
a quick fix to this is to type "/c" when you log on.

MuTAnT
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Post by MuTAnT » Sat Mar 08, 2008 1:30 am

I kind of like the ability not to know if another corp is online when I invade them, can help make for some devious tactics if the invader is lazy.

Hell I once spent 20minutes in the same system with some idiot invading me before he noticed... That was pretty lulzy.

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Freakazoid
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Re: [IDEA] Small interface improvements

Post by Freakazoid » Sat Mar 08, 2008 3:08 am

DarkLStrike wrote:
Freakazoid wrote:

4. Highlight online corpmembers on the corporatiuon screen

Bringing back this option would be really swell. You can find out which member of a corp is online by skimming through the "who's online list", but in order to do that you need to:
a) memorise their names
b) search for each member independently
c) switch between different screens a lot
It's just tedious is all.
a quick fix to this is to type "/c" when you log on.
Perhaps I should clarify this. I meant members of other corps, not necessarily my own.
MuTAnT wrote:I kind of like the ability not to know if another corp is online when I invade them, can help make for some devious tactics if the invader is lazy.

Hell I once spent 20minutes in the same system with some idiot invading me before he noticed... That was pretty lulzy.
You can know if the other corp is online, you just need to spend more time browsing through the "who's online list". It only keeps you hidden if no one cares if you're online :)
Jwilson6 wrote:Completely agree to all of that except the part about the auto pick up defenses

I think there should be an entirely seperate button to pick up defenses.
Yeah separating enter mode and pick up mode is also a way to fix this, though I think that adding an option to turn auto pick up on and off is easier to implement. Besides, this way you won't need a separate button for defenses. When it's turned off you won't pick up any defenses when you fly over them in enter mode. Turning it on would be only a matter of a couple of clicks in options menu.

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feenix
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Post by feenix » Sat Mar 08, 2008 5:18 am

well he said yay for my idea about rocket boosters, and i like the idea so yay to him too :wink: :lol:

McGrod
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Post by McGrod » Sat Mar 08, 2008 2:15 pm

good ideas, It is annoying when the mines keep picking up when all I want to do is get my money on planet!

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Jwilson6
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Re: [IDEA] Small interface improvements

Post by Jwilson6 » Sun Mar 09, 2008 3:02 am

Freakazoid wrote:
Jwilson6 wrote:Completely agree to all of that except the part about the auto pick up defenses

I think there should be an entirely seperate button to pick up defenses.
Yeah separating enter mode and pick up mode is also a way to fix this, though I think that adding an option to turn auto pick up on and off is easier to implement. Besides, this way you won't need a separate button for defenses. When it's turned off you won't pick up any defenses when you fly over them in enter mode. Turning it on would be only a matter of a couple of clicks in options menu.
I really don't want to have to go the options menu and screw around with that stuff everytime I need to switch to picking up defenses though.

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Luna
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Post by Luna » Sun Mar 09, 2008 10:12 pm

I give this 5 stars for usefulness!!!

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D
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Post by D » Wed Mar 12, 2008 8:27 pm

I like this idea! picking up my defenses when i land is a pain in the donkey , GIRAFFE? DAYMARE DID NOT KNOW THE FORUM WAS SWEAR FILTERED! i need to figure out all the censor words and make a guide to translating my own posts

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Freakazoid
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Post by Freakazoid » Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:32 pm

D wrote:I like this idea! picking up my defenses when i land is a pain in the giraffe , GIRAFFE? DAYMARE DID NOT KNOW THE FORUM WAS SWEAR FILTERED! i need to figure out all the censor words and make a guide to translating my own posts
http://starportgame.com/sgeforum/viewto ... ht=#155845

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angelizer
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Post by angelizer » Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:51 pm

Yay.

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The real Hellbent
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Post by The real Hellbent » Tue Mar 18, 2008 5:10 pm

It would also be nice if you could navigate the menus on your colonies with your keyboard instead of switching to your mouse every time you want to grab a load of nukes or drop off a load of oil (also to navegate the port menus also)

I understand that it would take time to remember any of the keys that you would need to use (i.e Ctrl+shift+B to goto main biodome menu) but after a bit of time using them it would be a peice of cake.

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milo
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Post by milo » Tue Mar 25, 2008 5:47 pm

we need 3 for sure. and i think that the problem in number 2 is not the pickup radius but the order in which the program executes (e.g. first it checks if any mines are close enough for pickup then it checks for flacks then it checks for lasers and so on) if this is the problem it might be a more difficult fix than usual.

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