Scrapyard Bob
EVE University
Ivy League
990
   |
Posted - 2012.05.22 22:39:00 -
[1] - Quote
There's a central design flaw with the concept of a "unified" inventory window. It makes the poor assumption that all locations should be treated equally and have equal precedence.
There are roughly (7) main classifications of containers. Each of these classifications should have their own parent window, which only includes containers of similar type and purpose and each parent window should remember its location and open/close state.
(1) the current ship - which used to be opened with the ALT-C short-cut key combination. The unified inventory would be an improvement if that would have limited ALT-C to just showing a inventory window encompassing the cargo, corp hangars, ship maint bays, ore bays, fuel bays, drone bays of the current ship. This setting needs to be remembered on a ship *type* basis when docked and in space. The cargo display that I want for an Orca is vastly different then one for a carrier vs a freighter vs a frigate vs a cap-boosted battleship.
(2) other ships - These should have been left in their own window, but with the improved access that the tree view (somewhat) brings to the table such as being able to look at fuel bays, cargo bays in a faster manner then the old right-click menu. It needs its own dedicated short-cut key to open.
(3) personal hangar - All the cans and containers within your personal hangar. This needs to be its own separate parent window so that the player can easily understand "this is the stuff in this station" vs "this is the stuff in my current ship" vs "this is stuff within my other ships" vs "this is stuff that the corporation owns". This also needs a dedicated short-cut key and neocom button.
(4) corporate hangar & deliveries - These deserve their own dedicated parent window which includes *only* the corp hangars and delivery hangar, which remembers its position and whether it is open/closed. It should never be merged with the personal hangar window because corporate stuff should never be easily confused with personal stuff.
(5) permanently floating structures - POS labs, arrays, batteries, anchored secure containers, jump bridges, customs offices should all be banished to their own parent window, not merged into the existing "inventory" window. These are all the sorts of things where you'll probably only have (1) or (2) of them open at the same time and they need to be shown as separate and distinct from your ship's cargo.
(6) another ship's corporate office or ship bay - such as Orcas and carriers - These need to be kept visually distinct from your ship's contents window to avoid confusion.
(7) temporary floating containers - These are typically accessed one at a time, maybe 2-3 at a time in a mining operation. They need their own parent window, but that parent window could easily manage all containers within range.
|