[Suggestion] Simple UI Improvements

[Lord_Of_Sith]

I'll start off by saying that I think the UI is great how it is for starting off playing GS, it isn't overly cluttered and communicates the basic information necessary (whether the player will know what everything means is another issue).

 

However, I think there there needs to be more options for components to be added to the UI for players that would like to (just toggle boxes in the settings for whether you want them or not).

 

Things that I would love to see are:

1) Number indicators. Numbers for shield strength, hull hp, movement speed, base blaster damage, you name it. Among other things, these would help make it more transparent what power to weapons/shields/engines do for you.

2) Ammo indicator next to weapon power indicator. All too often I run out of missiles and don't know until I try locking on and manage to notice the red text saying 'out of ammo'.

3) Countdown indicator for shield regen delay. Shields either don't regenerate at all or regenerate at a reduced rate after being hit. In your ship stats tooltip (and several components can affect this) it tells you what this cooldown is. I think there should be some sort of indicator on the UI as to whether or not your shields are currently regenerating, and how long it will be until they are.

4) Missile lock indicator. The current missile lock indicator is hard to follow in the heat of battle. It goes from red with some triangles, to red with more triangles, to red with more triangles. If you are following a non-moving target from 7k away it is easy to watch for more and more triangles to appear, but if you are dog fighting there are other things to pay attention to. My suggestion is have the entire indicator turn green (or any color other than red) when you are locked on.

5) Incoming missile range. I think it would be nice to have an indicator saying how far away incoming missiles are from you.

 

I think these are all ideas that would take very minimal development time and would be easy to implement.

[GalacticKegger]

I agree with most of the OP's ideas - most notably breaking out numeric indicators for dashboard-level reference. I think what would also be of benefit is to be able to live-swap load-outs (ala' Legacy field respec) and have that available through the UI. I'd pay CCs for it.

 

Once there are enough additions to functional customization, giving the UI the same customization love that the 1.2 Legacy patch gave the game's base UI would rock. Here's hoping that some of these ideas have already migrated from BW's "Wall of Crazy" to "in the works."

Edited December 8, 2013 by GalacticKegger

[Tenacity]

Definitely agree on an ammo indicator. Hell, we dont even know how much ammo each type of launcher holds - it isnt shown anywhere in the item information or hangar windows.

[Gavin_Kelvar]

I agree with the OP's ideas, particularly the missile lock indicators. Related I think as soon as someone starts locking on you should be able to use R to target them. At least I've found that unless the missile hits I can't target them (I've used abiltiies to dodge missiles but then nothing comes up on my scope when I hit R). Right now the advantage goes to the attacker who effectively remains untargetable until they damage their opponent but by making them targetable as soon as they start locking on it will be more balanced between attacker and defender.

 

Also I'm not sure but I've heard that gunship's railguns trigger the missile lock indicator too. If so I think they should do someone like in X-Wing vs Tie Fighter where there were separate indicators for missile locks, turbo laser locks, and regular blaster locks rather than a single indicator that leaves you guessing.

 

It would probably also be good to add a "target target's target" type thing where you could target an ally and then hit another button to target whoever they are targeting. This might help encourage teamwork since it would allow for easy, intentional focusing fire.

 

EDIT: Regarding the ammo indicator I believe they already have an indicator. I'm not sure where on the screen it is by default (I moved everything around in UI settings) but for the default Striker there is a UI bar that shows your currently equipped primary and an ammo count for your secondary.

Edited December 8, 2013 by Gavin_Kelvar

[davracahan]

UI from Freelancer + Galactic Starfighter = instant better game.