Konstantin
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Posted - 2003.07.11 19:34:00 -
[1]
I am so tired of controlling nearly every aspect of this game via Right-Click menus. But, maybe I'm spoiled by games like DAoC. Moan if you must, IMHO DAoC has so far been nearly the most stable game on the market. And although its UI isn't perfect, the playability is still by far some of the best out there.
So, we should bring some of what we've learned from other games into a fledgling game with great potential...like this one!
The Drone control is simply not working well enough for me at all. I'm sorry, but right-click menus are fine and dandy under some circumstances, but I think CCP went a little crazy with them in this game. Right-click menus are not emergency-situation-friendly. When I am in need during combat, I don't want to right-click anything.
Here are a few ideas:
- Add a Launch button for each drone in the drone bay
- Add an "Attack" button for each attack drone in the drone command window
- Add a "Scoop" button to each drone
- Allow us to see the damage done to drones in real-time. As it is, you can only tell how much damage was done to a drone after scooping them and relaunching them. They could be on their last leg, but if it had 100% when you launched it still appears to have 100%. Well OK, maybe thats a bug...but it segues into my next request:
- Allow is to see drones' shield levels as well as their struct. This wouldn't even require a new bar. In fact, when I first saw the drone control window I thought this feature was already implemented but was disappointed to find it was not. The current struct bar is already surrounded by an outline which, at first glance, may seem to represent shields (ie surrounding armor). Alas, it does not, it is merely meant to give a point of reference so one can tell how much damage has been done to the drone.
Perhaps if the drones shield/armor levels were presented as numbers rather than bars it would be easier to display them in real-time?
- An ability to "Group" drones. This would be similar to the features commonly found in Real-Time Strategy games whereby a group of units is selected together and assigned a "Group #". A certain key combo combined with the number for the "Group #" would re-select the entire group.
In this way the group could have a single "Attack" and "Scoop" button to control all of them. Think of this as "linked drones".
Now, don't get me wrong, I already know I can rightclick in the drone command window and click "Select All" and this is a nice feature. But, what I am suggesting is that this "Grouping" of drones be permanent until otherwise de-selected. That way, when the drones are scooped and then re-launched again, they will still be grouped together. In fact, it would be nice if they remained a group in the drone bay window as well! Which brings me to another issue:
- The option to reduce the icon size of both drones and modules in Cargo and Drone bays. With the latest decreases in module size, pirate hunters can now hunt for longer periods of time. However this means larger quantities of modules in the hold. This isnt such a big deal, but the drone bay can become unweildy when using drones numbering > 4. I don't like being forced to increase the size of my drone window so much just to be able to select all of them (and I trust you are aware of the drone selection bug ;). I personally dont see the reason why the drone icons in the bay window need to be so large all the time. They shrink when they are in the drone command window and I dont have trouble seeing them in there, so why cant they look the same inside the bay? Which brings me to:
- The ability to see the damage levels of each drone even from inside the drone bay. Why not give us the option to work with drones in the bay the same way we do in the command window. There should be little difference between the two really. When they are in the bay, the new buttons on their control bars would be just a single "Launch" button each. Possibly add an "Active/Inactive" button so we can take damaged drones out of combat and still "Select All->Launch" from the drone bay without worrying about them.
Then, once launched, in the control window, the same bars are shown for those drones (Name, shields, armor) and now with different buttons (Attack, Scoop to Drones, Scoop to Cargo).
- One last thing..perhaps a little more indication as to what your drones are actually doing. Only way to tell now is to see them either flying toward me or toward a target. It would be nice to have perhaps a little light bulb on their control bars showing if they are attacking/in-transit/returning/mining...etc.
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Anyone else 'ave anything 'e'd ... rather be doin'? RIGHT! Off ya go! |