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Burhtun
Burhtun Shipyards
86
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Posted - 2015.01.31 09:54:34 -
[1] - Quote
Basically I really want to use F1-F5 to control my drones individually, the same way guns and missiles can be assigned to attack individual targets.
If I am in my Ishtar running a Guristas Scout Outpost or a level 4 mission and I deploy my Gardes, I don't really want to hit 'F' and assign all 5 Gardes to a frigate. That is massive overkill, inefficient, and a waste of time. I want to kill 5 frigates at a time, 1 Garde per frigate. This is doable with the current drone list, but involves a whole lot of clicking:
- Click target 1 - Move mouse to drones window - Click and hold on Garde 1, drag up to attack icon - Move mouse back to targets - Click target 2 - Move mouse to drones window - Click and hold on Garde 2, drag up to attack icon - Move mouse back to targets - Etc....
Not exactly healthy for your hand. Even when I am using a flight of 5 Hobgoblins to take out frigates that get in close, I prefer to control them individually like this and assign one drone per frigate.
So yeah, I'd like to control my drones with F1-F5.
I came up with a mockup of a possible solution, a new drone interface. What do you think, forumites? Would this make sense and work for you? See any problems?
Mock-up: DRONE UI REVAMP
EVE Ship Design Contest Entry
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Rivr Luzade
Coreli Corporation The Kadeshi
1175
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Posted - 2015.01.31 10:49:25 -
[2] - Quote
That is one impressive mockup. I also like the idea. |
Ralph King-Griffin
Lords.Of.Midnight The Devil's Warrior Alliance
8705
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Posted - 2015.01.31 10:53:12 -
[3] - Quote
very nice, i would rather see the functions from the drop down menu displayed (orbit, return, engage ect,ect...) set off to the left as in image one with the individual drones displayed as they are in # 3. great work though + 1 from me good sir.
"I'm also quite confident that you are laughing
and it's the kind of laugh that gives normal people shivers."
=]I[=
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Burhtun
Burhtun Shipyards
91
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Posted - 2015.01.31 11:00:58 -
[4] - Quote
I think I see what you mean. That would be better, it would keep the pop-ups from covering up the modules in the lower rows, and would work fine whether the ship controls are at the top or bottom of the screen. Hmmm... think I might have to try drawing that up.
EVE Ship Design Contest Entry | Drone UI Revamp
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Solhild
Republic Military School Minmatar Republic
1941
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Posted - 2015.01.31 11:04:59 -
[5] - Quote
Burhtun wrote:Basically I really want to use F1-F5 to control my drones individually, the same way guns and missiles can be assigned to attack individual targets. If I am in my Ishtar running a Guristas Scout Outpost or a level 4 mission and I deploy my Gardes, I don't really want to hit 'F' and assign all 5 Gardes to a frigate. That is massive overkill, inefficient, and a waste of time. I want to kill 5 frigates at a time, 1 Garde per frigate. This is doable with the current drone list, but involves a whole lot of clicking: - Click target 1 - Move mouse to drones window - Click and hold on Garde 1, drag up to attack icon - Move mouse back to targets - Click target 2 - Move mouse to drones window - Click and hold on Garde 2, drag up to attack icon - Move mouse back to targets - Etc.... Not exactly healthy for your hand. Even when I am using a flight of 5 Hobgoblins to take out frigates that get in close, I prefer to control them individually like this and assign one drone per frigate. So yeah, I'd like to control my drones with F1-F5. I came up with a mockup of a possible solution, a new drone interface. What do you think, forumites? Would this make sense and work for you? See any problems? Mock-up: DRONE UI REVAMP
Impressive. It would be good to group say 3 and 2 or 4 and 1. This means that you could easily assign groups to different tasks on the fly. Great mockup by the way.
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chaosgrimm
Universal Production and Networking Services
185
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Posted - 2015.01.31 11:05:49 -
[6] - Quote
Would def make salvage drones easier to use. +1 |
Danko1978
Astral Plane Inc
4
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Posted - 2015.01.31 11:37:50 -
[7] - Quote
This a good idea pointed in the right direction.
+1 |
Lugh Crow-Slave
633
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Posted - 2015.01.31 12:15:09 -
[8] - Quote
would like to be able to tell when my drones are in shield armor hull rather than one grey/red bar but over all i like it
Fuel block colors
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Burhtun
Burhtun Shipyards
96
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Posted - 2015.01.31 13:44:09 -
[9] - Quote
Edited image with what I think Ralph King-Griffen was suggesting: Mock-up V2 It's probably a bit tidier. I suppose the existing ring-menu currently in game could be shrunk down and fitted around the drone slot, but it's currently loaded with unimportant commands - keep distance to drone, view drone, etc.. stuff that is more about controlling your ship or camera than controlling your drones. That stuff can be done by selecting your drone on the overview and using the "selected-item" buttons... not sure why CCP put all of that into the drone ring-menu.
Solhild wrote: Impressive. It would be good to group say 3 and 2 or 4 and 1. This means that you could easily assign groups to different tasks on the fly. Great mockup by the way.
Do you mean group drones the same way that you can group guns? I hadn't thought of that. I guess that would make sense, as long as you're grouping the same type of drone. Same restriction as with grouping guns/missiles. Though drones have health... but I guess the group could display the health of the group-member that has suffered the most damage.
Lugh Crow-Slave wrote:would like to be able to tell when my drones are in shield armor hull rather than one grey/red bar but over all i like it
The gray bar actually is divided into shield/armor/hull, by little white lines. Perhaps it's a bit too subtle. Not a hard problem to fix though.
EVE Ship Design Contest Entry | Drone UI Revamp
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Adrie Atticus
Shadows of Rebellion The Bastion
899
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Posted - 2015.01.31 14:07:35 -
[10] - Quote
1) UI doesn't support 10 buttons there 2) Where's the actual launch / management UI? |
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Foxicity
Red Federation RvB - RED Federation
113
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Posted - 2015.01.31 14:48:43 -
[11] - Quote
Along the same vein of what Solhid said, I'd like to be able to group all my drones into a single stack. I'm not always flying a drone-centric boat and separating my drones' dps is not as important to me as minimizing time spent managing drones.
But you represented your idea really well. Great mockup.
Also +1. I hate clicking drones. |
Calvyr Travonis
The Martial Virtues Foundation
14
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Posted - 2015.01.31 14:59:27 -
[12] - Quote
+1
I like the direction of this idea. It does need some more work, obviously but it's definitely a great start. I'd also like to see the ability to group drones, similar to weapons. Maybe in the case of grouped drones, there are small bars added above the button for each drone in the group to represent the shield, armor and hull levels. Or maybe keep the interface the way you have it, but when grouped, the bars each represent one drone and are color coded based on shield, armor and hull levels. The existing drone window can also be retained for more detailed information and management. Overall, a great job and I hope CCP considers this as a starting block for a new drone management system. |
Arthur Aihaken
X A X
4056
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Posted - 2015.01.31 14:59:46 -
[13] - Quote
I really like the idea and mockup you came up with. A few suggestions for simplicity...
GÇó Whether you assign a single drone or multiple drones to a drone group, commands apply to all drones in the assigned drone group, ie: all attack, all return and orbit, etc. GÇó When you click on the drone group or press F1-F5, it auto-launches and/or assigns the drone group to engage the selected target. If there's no target selected or present, it simply launches the drone group. Reassigning a target is as simple as selecting a new target and either clicking on the drone group again or pressing F1-F5. GÇó Double-clicking on a drone group recalls that group to orbit. Right-clicking on a drone group just brings up the drone settings menu. As an alternative, shift-click could simply toggle passive/aggressive using the overheat visual graphic reference - except I'd substitute blue for passive (default) and red for aggressive (and then this doesn't conflict with the green overheat feature). This also has the added benefit of freeing up right-click for another drone group command. GÇó When attacking, the drone icons could have a pulsing green circle around them (as opposed to the traditional rotating green circle on most weapon systems); when recalling to bay or returning to orbit, the new dotted grey timer bar could be used as an approximate ETA for that drone group (based on the drone furthest from the player ship).
I am currently away, traveling through time and will be returning last week.
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Xoceac
This is Tax EVASION Corp
3
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Posted - 2015.01.31 15:19:56 -
[14] - Quote
I really like this idea, +1.
How about stacking them, just like weapons? |
Lugh Crow-Slave
638
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Posted - 2015.01.31 15:23:56 -
[15] - Quote
Burhtun wrote:] The gray bar actually is divided into shield/armor/hull, by little white lines. Perhaps it's a bit too subtle. Not a hard problem to fix though.
ah i can see that i guess it was just how they had been damaged that made it look off
Fuel block colors
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Parsimony Kate
University of Caille Gallente Federation
25
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Posted - 2015.01.31 15:59:20 -
[16] - Quote
The drone UI is awful, I really wish they'd do something about it. There are some nice ideas here with a little fine tuning. Nice graphic design :)
>> CCP if you're reading this and decide to do something like it then please... for the love of all that is unholy, can you please please please add an optional shortcut for MINING DRONES. It's a small thing and I know you don't care about us miners, but it would be appreciated :( |
Zimmer Jones
Aliastra Gallente Federation
100
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Posted - 2015.01.31 16:52:20 -
[17] - Quote
an update of the UI would be awesome +1 supported |
Xavier Thorm
Dreddit Test Alliance Please Ignore
147
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Posted - 2015.01.31 17:59:58 -
[18] - Quote
The V2 mockup looks really good overall. Along the same lines as others have mentioned, I would like a way to control a group of drones with a single button (or rather a single set of buttons, for different commands) but preferably with a visual interface that still shows me the health of individual drones. |
Ichtys kuromitsu
Fit me I'm famous
2
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Posted - 2015.01.31 18:04:40 -
[19] - Quote
+ 1 supported.
Need for the hand sake. ( and my little salvage drone =D) |
Komodo Askold
No Code of Conduct Fluffeh Bunneh Murder Squad
287
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Posted - 2015.01.31 18:34:13 -
[20] - Quote
I like it. That's something I've wanted to be able to do since I first trained into drones. +1 |
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Donnachadh
United Allegiance of Undesirables
109
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Posted - 2015.01.31 19:04:36 -
[21] - Quote
+1
A couple of suggestions for minor changes. Why bother with starting to the left of the hud simply start them lined up like they are in the center image. These would need to be stack able like most other weapons systems icon that way those that want to control a full flight can do so using a single icon.
Thank you for the time and effort to put this all together it is appreciated. |
Burhtun
Burhtun Shipyards
107
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Posted - 2015.01.31 22:27:15 -
[22] - Quote
I did not expect so many people to suggest grouping drones into stacks, this is interesting. Are most people who want to do this thinking about piloting capital ships with 10 drones? Because with 5 drones I personally don't see the need. I can hit 'F' to make them all attack a single target, or juggle drones across multiple targets with F1-F5... I'm not sure I would personally have much use for say... one stack of 3 drones and one stack of 2 drones. Though I guess pressing F1 on a target 1 and F2 on target 2 is a little bit easier compared to pressing F1-F3 on target 1, and F4-F5 on target 2.
But yeah as I said earlier I don't see why it wouldn't work just like guns - stacking same drone types together. CCP would just have to deal with the health of stacked drones somehow. Calvyr Travonis' suggesting of adding all their bars on top of the icon would work I suppose, but I think it wouldn't look very attractive. And my previous idea of only showing the health of the most damaged drone of the group isn't ideal. Perhaps grouped drones could get a combined health pool? So if one drone in a group of 3 drones receives an attack worth 30 damage then it gets split among all 3 drones - 10 damage per drone. Thus only one health bar is needed. No... this would be pretty bad now that I think about it. Gilas would group their 2 drones together and all of a sudden it would take twice as long to kill one of their already super-tough drones. lol. Not sure if that would be game breaking or not. It would be harder to cut a Gila's DPS in half, but easier to make them recall both drones I guess.
Adrie Atticus wrote:1) UI doesn't support 10 buttons there You mean 10 top-slots right? F1-F10? Yeah, it stops at F8. So there is a problem for capital ships. I guess CCP could add 2 more slots, but then they would need to remap F9 and F10 shortcuts to something else. F10 currently opens the map. F9 isn't used for anything at the moment I think. Just CTRL-F9 to toggle UI. So just F10 to remap. Maybe not so bad.
Adrie Atticus wrote:2) Where's the actual launch / management UI? You mouse over any empty drone slot icon to have the drones list pop up. Then they could have you click and drag into space as normal, but personally I'd prefer to just click on a group/drone to launch. Holding the mouse button down and dragging is just unnecessary strain.
Foxicity wrote: I'd like to be able to group all my drones into a single stack. I'm not always flying a drone-centric boat and separating my drones' dps is not as important to me as minimizing time spent managing drones. Yeah, that's why I gave the mouse-over controls for a single drone the ability to recall all drones. So if you're not drone centric and don't want to micromanage, you use 'F' key to attack a target with all drones. And if you don't want to use the complicated shortcuts to Return&Orbit or ReturnToBay, then you can mouse over any drone icon and give a return command to all drones (the icon with the 3 dots). No need to recall each drone individually. Non-drone centric players/ships would also probably leave the drone slots to the left of the ship controls rather than eat up their F1-F8 slots with them.
Arthur Aihaken wrote: Right clicking a drone group brings up the drone settings menu.
I like this idea. Then the options button can be removed or replaced with something else...
Like a disconnect button. I forgot about the need to disconnect from drones sometimes. Oh geeze. And usually you'd want to disconnect all launched drones not just one, so there would need to be 2 disconnect buttons. Ugh. Maybe we can use the right click function on the menu buttons as well? So there is only one recall to bay button, one recall and orbit button, and one disconnect button. Left-click to issue command to that specific drone, right-click to issue that command to all drones in space...
Arthur Aihaken wrote: when recalling to bay or returning to orbit, the new dotted grey timer bar could be used as an approximate ETA for that drone group (based on the drone furthest from the player ship).
I like this idea too, since a drone returning to bay is basically its version of a reload timer.
EVE Ship Design Contest Entry | Drone UI Revamp
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Burhtun
Burhtun Shipyards
107
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Posted - 2015.01.31 22:31:36 -
[23] - Quote
Donnachadh wrote: Why bother with starting to the left of the hud simply start them lined up like they are in the center image. .
Because a lot of ships have drones as a secondary weapon and will have their turrets/missiles in the F1-F8 slots. Those players probably will not want to micromanage drones, and won't want the interface in the way of their modules. So I started the drone interface off on the left for their sake.
Donnachadh wrote: These would need to be stack able like most other weapons systems icon that way those that want to control a full flight can do so using a single icon.
I designed this concept with the ability to control all drones even without stacking them. The mouse-over pop-up menu on a single drone also contains the commands to recall all drones to bay or to return all drones to orbit your ship. It doesn't have a button to tell all drones to attack at the moment, because I figured people would just press the 'F' key for that. But I suppose it would be more consistent to allow players to perform all commands via graphical interface...
If I rework the mock-up with the idea of being able to: - left-click a menu button to assign the command to the individual drone/group - right-click the same button to assign the command to all drones in space Then perhaps that would be more intuitive and open up space for an attack button since I will no longer need 2 Recall buttons and 2 Return buttons.
So there would still be 4 mouse-over buttons: - Return & Orbit - Return to Bay - Attack - Disconnect
And with these buttons you could control a single drone/drone group (left-click) or ALL launched drones (right-click)
EVE Ship Design Contest Entry | Drone UI Revamp
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Tusker Crazinski
Delta vane Corp. Mordus Angels
28
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Posted - 2015.01.31 22:51:29 -
[24] - Quote
+1 but seriously **** drones >:( |
Arthur Aihaken
X A X
4057
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Posted - 2015.02.01 01:00:50 -
[25] - Quote
Burhtun wrote:I like this idea. Then the options button can be removed or replaced with something else... No problem - consider it (and the others) yours.
Quote:Like a disconnect button. I forgot about the need to disconnect from drones sometimes. Yeah, I completely forgot about this one too. Option-click disconnects the drone group?
Tusker Crazinski wrote:but seriously **** drones >:( I'm sure we all feel that way to some degree... but since they're destined to remain, we might as well have a decent drone interface.
I am currently away, traveling through time and will be returning last week.
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Donnachadh
United Allegiance of Undesirables
110
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Posted - 2015.02.01 01:28:32 -
[26] - Quote
Burhtun
Thank you for the explanation of starting them to the left of the hud. I see your point and I will amend my suggestion. I still think starting them on the right side is better and would suggest a 4th row to accommodate the drones. From top to bottom I would suggest guns/missiles, then drones, then the remainder as they are in the 3rd and 4th rows.
So this is clear I am basing this next part on my experiences with PvE and make no attempt to determine how drones are best used for PvP. Generally in PvE it is best to use all drones on a single target as the increased killing speed of the combined fire allows you to kill and move on more quickly than independent targets. This is especially true for the BS and BC class rats.
The health display of the drones. With them un-stacked I like your proposal from the OP. When they are stacked I think and average would best, if the pilot wants to see individual drones condition there is always the drones window. this is less than optimal but given the restrictions of space it may be the best we can get.
I am not for the spreading damage between all of the drones in a group. While it would be a huge help to PvE pilots I think it would be a bad thing for the PvP crowd as you suggest.
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Adrie Atticus
Shadows of Rebellion The Bastion
900
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Posted - 2015.02.01 08:58:27 -
[27] - Quote
Burhtun wrote:Adrie Atticus wrote:1) UI doesn't support 10 buttons there You mean 10 top-slots right? F1-F10? Yeah, it stops at F8. So there is a problem for capital ships. I guess CCP could add 2 more slots, but then they would need to remap F9 and F10 shortcuts to something else. F10 currently opens the map. F9 isn't used for anything at the moment I think. Just CTRL-F9 to toggle UI. So just F10 to remap. Maybe not so bad. Or rework capitals so that they can not control so many drones individually. Maybe after 5 drones, they start becoming groups. So you end up with 5 groups of 2 to control individually. Adrie Atticus wrote:2) Where's the actual launch / management UI? You mouse over any empty drone slot icon to have the drones list pop up. Then they could have you click and drag into space as normal, but personally I'd prefer to just click on a group/drone to launch. Holding the mouse button down and dragging is just unnecessary strain.
I get the idea, but how would you handle, let's say, 15 light drones in a dominix of all same type (let's say Hobgoblin II's), but only 8 have taken damage. From those 15 you want to launch undamaged ones instead of the heavily damaged ones. How can I choose which ones plop down to the drone UI and which ones don't if I can't use a list to see quickly which ones to launch manually?
I get what you mean on how to select the drones, but having to hold a button down 5 times in a row just to pick the drones I want to launch instead of either: 1) Ctrl+click to select the individual drones 2) Drag them out of the bay one by one 3) Move damaged drones to their own folder and use undamaged ot launch a full flight will be a massive strain fast. You clearly want to make the drone management against multiple targets way easier, which is understandable, but managing drones before they are launcher is as important as flight controls. |
Burhtun
Burhtun Shipyards
108
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Posted - 2015.02.02 05:26:31 -
[28] - Quote
But you can see which drones are damaged, and release only ones that are not damaged. You mouse over the grey launcher icon thing, you get the drone list to pop up, and as long as your cursor is over the list of drones it is not going to go away. So you can take all the time you want opening groups, left clicking on drones to assign to groups, and launching whatever drones/groups you want. It is the exact same list with the same functionality, it just tucks away when it isn't needed.
However, if clicking on a drone launches it like I want, then yes, you would not be able to click and drag drones into different groups as you can now. Oops.
Several possible solutions.
1. Add launch buttons to the right side of the drones list, for each drone/group. So launching drones can still be a simple left-click and not a click+drag or right-click+left-click. All other functionality with regards to moving drones and setting them up in groups is the same as the current drone list.
2. Make the window function and look exactly the same as it does currently in-game, in all regards, and add a close-delay of a few seconds to give you time to drag out multiple drones/groups, before it tucks back into the launcher icon.
3. Trash the whole gray drone launcher button and pop-up drones list idea, and retain the drones window exactly as it is now. Just add a button/option on it to convert the in-space portion of the list into the graphical buttons. Personally I think the drones list is ugly and I'm not fond of it always being open. EVE has too many windows/lists eating up screen space already.
EVE Ship Design Contest Entry | Drone UI Revamp
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Adrie Atticus
Shadows of Rebellion The Bastion
901
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Posted - 2015.02.02 09:15:00 -
[29] - Quote
The drone window, in all it's ugliness, is the most efficient window in the whole UI. It does exactly the thing you need with minimal padding. Your proposition of how to control the drones is excellent, but it's excellent just for controlling; management has to have a separate window.
Could it be that we have a form over function suggestion here on the management window? |
Samillian
Angry Mustellid The Periphery
693
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Posted - 2015.02.02 09:22:56 -
[30] - Quote
On the whole I like this, I assume you would form drone groups much as you group weapons which would be interesting.
NBSI shall be the whole of the Law
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