Something Small Really Bothering

Tips, tactics, and general discussion for Evochron Legacy.
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SamVision
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Something Small Really Bothering

Post by SamVision »

I've never played Evochron before and I am trying the demo for the first time. There are several things really bothering me about he interface, more often than not it is incredibly inefficient and almost impenetrable. But the one thing that bothers me about the interface more than everything is the function of the alt buttons. Pressing and holding the alt button to use the cursor is just irritating to me. This should really be a toggle by default just like Freelancer. In fact we have two alt buttons, one could be a toggle and the other a hold. Having to press both alt buttons to toggle is needlessly cumbersome.
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Vice
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Re: Something Small Really Bothering

Post by Vice »

It has indeed been designed for touch and release, due in no small part to having most functions within the main UI bar available within two clicks (no highlight toggling or menu tree layers that would require longer term mouse selection access). But the two key combination is available if someone wants more long term access while in flight mode (and they are of course using the mouse for flight control rather than another control device).

However, if you find that too cumbersome, you don't have to use it to reach main UI options. That only applies for the main bar at the top while in flight mode when all of the consoles are closed. And virtually everything in the UI bar is key/button selectable as well. So for example, if you want to open the nav console, you don't have to click on the button. You can just press F1. Flight mode is then toggled off/on automatically at that point. Likewise with any other console. And you can move between other consoles once just one is open by clicking on their buttons at the top with no need to suspend flight control manually then either (so you'd only really need to contend with one key... one that toggles).

Here is one point to consider with regard to the Alt key option. If the player is in menu selection mode after having pressed the Alt key to turn off flight control and is ambushed or something and needs to quickly return to flight control, they then have to hunt down and press the Alt key again to turn off selection mode and return to flight mode. If the game defaults to flight mode when they aren't on the key, then all they have to do is let go of the key they are already over (if they haven't already done so). So the question would then become, if you already have to press the Alt key to disengage the flight mode, what benefit is there if it has to be pressed twice to turn it back on over just releasing it when you've finished selecting whatever you wanted to click on?

Someone else would likely find a two touch toggle process more cumbersome than just touch and release. It already happened before. It's a little ironic as I actually added touch and release functionality to the IDS because some players thought having to toggle it off and on with two key presses was too cumbersome.

And that mechanism didn't involve a dependency on two key control options either like the Alt key does. Some players may also want to use either Alt key the same way at any time, left vs right handed players and one handed control for each side of the keyboard depending on which key they are aiming for.

Edit: I'll plan on introducing an option to map a key or button to toggle Alt flight control on and off for the next planned update. Just be aware that when it is disabled by a toggle, all Alt actions will be enabled until you enable flight mode again.

I'd certainly be willing to hear specifics on what has been inefficient and almost impenetrable for you with the UI. You can read more about why the UI is designed the way it is and works the way it does in this post: http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtop ... 27&t=11900 (User Interface and Menus section for design in general, Navigation and Open Space Travel section for the nav console UI)

So any changes for me to consider would need to fall within those design principles and objectives to achieve the same level of single layer one click access for most things, clear labelling (no label-less/nameless icons in consoles), clearly defined click ranges/markers, etc. You can also watch tutorials on using the UI/consoles here: https://www.youtube.com/user/SFSW/videos Which may help with learning them as well as expanding on why they are designed as they are.

Edit: The next planned update will provide a bindable single key toggle option to lock flight control on or off.

Edit 5-7-2018: Version 1.0808 is now available and provide a single key toggle option for switching between flight mode and select/Alt mode on page 2 of the key/button configuration menu.
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