#redo shuttle control console and cloning console ui

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

stable void
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Both are different from all other type of consoles as they open and are interacted from the top right corner instead of a pop up box. I don't know if that's just because they are the oldest or what but I think updating them to make them more consistent with all of the other consoles would be a good thing to do eventually.

stoic tulip
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how would you handle shuttle control console? If it opened in the middle of the screen, that would be annoying

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maybe it could replace the player interface while you are sitting?

south summit
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I think the cloning console could be moved to the pop out. But I agree with Gilles that having shuttle controls being in the middle and having to drag it around would be very annoying. Having it in the top right allows you to still see where you are flying clearly

stable void
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Yeah I thought about that too

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I’m sure there can some kind of work around or something maybe

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Having a better radar system for one would help cause some ships too it’s really hard to see around you

slow rover
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i was going to post something about ui windows and maybe bringing them under more of a standard. there are aspects of the 'docked' boxes in the corner i like a lot

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ss14 has more of a 'static repositionable windows' thing for containers and stuff which is a little clunky but a decent implementation

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i think ui elements for machines and stuff, even if floating windows, should tend to pop up in a corner moreso than on top of the middle of the screen, particularly when they're kinda big

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some windows you don't want to 'lose' if you move a couple tiles away for a sec, others you probably want to auto-close for quality of life (like vending machines)

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iow, i think this goes rather deep into game ui design philosophy

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if shuttle piloting popup is movable, something that obstructs as little screen as possible is desirable--but i'd go with the docked form for that and probably several other machine types

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you've also got the RCS player movement lock-in with the shuttle piloting

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i could also imagine a shuttle piloting interface that requires a free hand(s) and makes use of virtual items in hand/takes over the held items ui with a small shuttle piloting console docked to the bottom center of the screen (if there's anything that deserves special treatment, it's shuttle piloting)

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maybe a first step would be to harmonize the interfaces by making ui popups dockable to corners/edges and making the stuff currently in that upper corner docked by default but movable like new ui windows have been for a while

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the ui of buttons along the top of the viewport and stuff are a weakness of byond ss13 imo

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it's not 2000 anymore--screens are wide and there is enormous unused real estate to the left and right in terms of this game

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also a gameplay issue for discussion, but possibly move notes into the PDA

stable void
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i dont really like the ones that are in the corner i think the ones that pop out and are larger are more "immersive" or whatever

slow rover
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which would make it 'diegetic'

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well where on your screen do you want them to pop up?

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i'd config mine to corner

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if they're floating/dockable, we can both have our preference

stable void
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i think having it show up at the bottom perhaps? replacing some of the bottom ui elements? so it also kinda looks like you are looking at the computer screen but can also look up from it

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i think it would make most sense and it could be done where it doesn't take up too much space

slow rover
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the worn inventory must be exorcised

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it's been like 2 years and i still think it's worse than byond's layout. the shoes are at the top, the headwear is at the bottom, and it sticks up into the player's view area totally unnecessarily

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BEAT IT WITH A MALLET

stable void
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oh idk i always thought that part was fine

slow rover
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why is it 2 columns and tall enough to cover objects on your screen instead of 3 columns and slightly shorter

stable void
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idk i doubt theres much of a reason

slow rover
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taking up valuable real estate near the center of the screen when it could instead grow toward the bottom-left which is totally unused

stable void
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well you can close it you know?

slow rover
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but i want it open

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to put on/take off items

stable void
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well open it when you want that and close it when you dont

slow rover
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why make a player take extra steps to remove an obstruction to their view that doesn't need to be there in the first place?

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'i urinated on your car but it's ok cause you can clean it off'

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esp. cause my character tends to smoke so i'm always putting cigs in my mouth

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ig there's the E key but you get the point

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being able to slide the worn inventory off to the left a little bit would completely solve the problem

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though the layout is still less logical than the old one

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old one corresponded to position on the body roughly

stable void
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i dont know i dont think its that big of a deal to click to open it but idk

slow rover
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new one is just straight up random i-don't-know-what-they-were-thinking

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it's not a big deal. it's a small deal

stable void
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i personally just like big pop up ui boxes in general

slow rover
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a lot of small deals add up to a big deal, though

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in terms of the quality of a game

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i like good-looking popup boxes :)

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and RESPONSIVE UIs

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milliseconds count

stable void
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i might work on more ui mockups later i like ui

slow rover
slow rover
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at least, for range of vision if not visibility distance

stable void
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i mean the one ss14 has is really nice and the system could probably be used to make a station map or something as well

slow rover
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i guess i'll throw out another somewhat longshot idea i had--since the player is already locked-in while RCSing, what about making locking player movement a general function of using a shuttle piloting console?
to use a shuttle console, you have to be standing directly in front of it. interacting with it shows a progress bar (about 200-400ms, pretty fast) after which that character has his/her hands on the shuttle controls and is hunkered over them, giving them exclusive control over the shuttle console until they get up from it or are pulled/jarred away

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now you can overlay a minimal, transleucent ui or whatnot--maybe just a joystick icon with a couple buttons

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but fully incorporate WASD movement into shuttle piloting in a satisfying way

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e.g. take out the RCS toggle, let WASD fire RCS engines at all times, turn with the mouse using the joystick ui, and hold shift to pull on the throttle, like the gas pedal on a car

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so you could RCS laterally while throttling/accelerating/decelerating to 'slide' port or starboard

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or curve your turns

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ss14 uses a free-rotation method right?

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i tried building a shuttle but the camera movement made it insanely dumb

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the world spins when you hop off a matrix

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or whatever they call theirs

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ss14 just does too many eyeroll things i'd expect kids who don't know how to respect the form to do

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us13 does too at times but... cleanest dirty shirt ig :D

half saffron
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Also make the shuttle movement have almost no drag

slow rover
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you mean how RCS takes a long time to slide over a tile?

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or somethign else?

half saffron
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I mean have it so if you fire your engines one way it keeps going at that speed until you correct the movement

slow rover
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oic

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actual space inertial physics

half saffron
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Also make it take up fuel fast

slow rover
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yeah, that would work well with being able to RCS dynamically

half saffron
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and add engines other then plasma

slow rover
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yes

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different tiers of range, armor, other capabilities

half saffron
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Changing the movement when you get shot at would also be cool

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For example if you detonate a bomb behind you it pushes you.

slow rover
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if you had those inertial physics, you could actually get rid of the throttle altogether

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and just alter the RCS values to make forward propulsion more powerful than the other directions

half saffron
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Making the the top left or right the radar

slow rover
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you'd have to implement an arbitrary speed cap for the shuttle tho

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to prevent acceleration to infinity

half saffron
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You would have to make certain fuel only go so fast

slow rover
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that means the same thing

half saffron
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Yes but no a top cap

slow rover
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or ig you can fix the horrendous rubberbanding when ppl accelerate the shuttle past a certain speed

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also might feel weird to hit the limit if it's flat rather than shaped

half saffron
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Having no total limit would be funny

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Imagine someone going the speed of light

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Then crashing into the station

slow rover
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i dare not imagine having a reimplementation of ss13 so well built it could do that

half saffron
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It would be like cubin pete

slow rover
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would have the luxury of being able to do that

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also if you want to warp drive telefrag a station, you gotta have a good collision damage system in place that will scale up with it

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to make it Worth

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wonders if he's gonna have to learn c# to try to proof of concept some shit...

half saffron
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Bod had some kind of a plan for changing the flight system

slow rover
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try My Plan! Good Plan! Strong Plan! #1088131152763686912 message

half saffron
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All I want is cool space battles

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Aslong as I get that im good

slow rover
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👍 ☄️ 🚀 🔫 🔫 🔫 🛩️ 🪐

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you play FTL?

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FTL is an inspiration for how i imagine us13 space battles could be

half saffron
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I want space battles to be like Starsector

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Or a mix of both

stable void
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i dont think unitystation is gonna be like that at all

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maybe in the future thats should that would be added in custom servers

half saffron
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It wont be that way gameplay wise