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How should we improve the inventory UI?

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Devore Sekk
Ministry of War
Amarr Empire
#181 - 2012-05-23 00:11:16 UTC
Getting used to the new inventory system, old habits die hard.

Now that there is some space for this, can we have a button to "Stack All", right in the space and beside where you have "Loot All" button? There's room, and if it's not a lootable can, it's otherwise empty space.
snake pies
Dixon Cox Butte Preservation Society
#182 - 2012-05-23 00:15:55 UTC
Currently, the same sorting view option is forced on ship and item hangars, and this is not acceptable. I want my ship hangar in icons, and my item hangars as list view. Thank you.
snake pies
Dixon Cox Butte Preservation Society
#183 - 2012-05-23 00:18:37 UTC
Devore Sekk wrote:
Getting used to the new inventory system, old habits die hard.

Now that there is some space for this, can we have a button to "Stack All", right in the space and beside where you have "Loot All" button? There's room, and if it's not a lootable can, it's otherwise empty space.



I hope you meant to say "repair all items, then repackage all but container/ship items and then stack" button?
Mrs Lemba
Hedion University
Amarr Empire
#184 - 2012-05-23 00:26:13 UTC
I don't know if I am alone on this, but the new inventory windows are aweful. They are the worst. We live in a wormhole and have alot of crap to deal with and the new windows are making it worse. Could we just have an option to have advanced inventory windows? I really preffered the old windows to be honest.
Tark en Chalune
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#185 - 2012-05-23 00:58:15 UTC  |  Edited by: Tark en Chalune
"How should we improve the inventory UI?"



By removing this sorry mess.

And firing the UI "expert" who designed it.

And promoting anyone in company who objected to it but was over-ruled.

This will improve the UI interface, and help prevent poorly tested radical changes in the future.




If you think I am being too harsh, add a switch to turn this monstrosity off. Then check in a few months and see how many people actually like this and left it on.

I also live in a WH ... why in the bloody hell do I want ALL OF THE F*CKING POS ARTILLERY AMMO HOLDS ON MY INVENTORY TREE?

Or CHAs and SMAs I cannot reach? Or ones that are anchored but turned off? What is wrong with you people? Or even ones I CAN access? Why? I only need to get into them when they need to be reloaded ... not every bloody minute.
Brandon Doyle
Seattle Lonestar
#186 - 2012-05-23 01:28:23 UTC  |  Edited by: Brandon Doyle
especially for people that need to use a fully equipped POS in space the new inventory can be a little bit annoying. while I think the idea of this new inventory is great, it lacks some usability we had in the old system or didn't need them. so here are some ideas of improvements that would be great and very helpful out of my view as a producer.


a) make a "go back" or "go up" button.
if you are using the inventory with a collapsed tree to the left, once you open a container, you should be able to go back to the parent containter/window you came from. it would also be cool, if one could utilize the back button some mice have for this.
windows explorer has had this button for years now, as have web browsers, and it has proven to be very useful.

b) tabs for corphangars in the right hand window
again, if you have the left hand side collapsed, you have no possibility to work your way through the different divisions of the corp hangar of, for example an assembly array. let these divisions have tabs like they used to. just above the item area.

c) pin certain windows / containers to the neocom
I would really like to have fast access to the ship hangar like it was before....so, wouldn't it be great if you could pin a container to the neocom? access your ships straight away, maybe your ammo container, or a certain filter that leads you straight to your own personal exotic dancers.
if this is possible, have an option (generally for the neocom) to pin stuff to the bottom, so it doesn't get caught in the middle between notifications and stuff

d) make pessing the inventory open the inventory as inventory even if another, formerly detatched window is open
at the moment i have a window with the market deliveries open, just to move out the stuff. so i have opened it in a new window, made it very small, collapsed the tree view and all. if i want to get back to the inventory, i will have to use the deliveries window after i have closed the last other remaining windows. now to do this i would have to pull the window bigger, uncollapse the tree view, open a new inventory and go on looking, what i was looking for
wouldnt it be better in this case to have the inventory window pop up again, once the original is gone and only a detatched window remains...

e) sorting of the tree on the left hand side
I have ships, lots of ships, I also have a pos....with lots of guns and lots of arrays, all shown in this new tree view on the left of the inventory. that is fantastic! really! but there are too many of them. too many arrays that are still copying for a month I dont want to look at. can we please be able to control how these things are sorted, maybe even have them filtered (e.g. only caldari frigates, only equipment assembly arrays and corporate hangar arrays etc...). at the moment I think the only way of controling this, is changing names of ships/pos modules, as they are sorted by name (I have unfortunately not found any other way to do so).
StoneRhino
Rhino Heavy Industries
#187 - 2012-05-23 01:46:41 UTC
Do you really want creative feedback on these changes, or even ways to improve the UI?

First off, if you're going to make the UI customizable, do so. Having a choice how to make it look is part of "Customization".

There's many good things about the new UI. There's also an absurd learning curve to it as well.

Just like the station services window, you can CHOOSE what is there and what is not.

I would like to see:

  • Options on disabling market price checking on mouse-over. My PC gags every time it checks market and then it gives me a very poor estimate.
  • Options to switch between inventory systems.
  • Choose whether doubleclicking ship boards or opens its cargo.
Atomic Option
NO Tax FAT Stacks
#188 - 2012-05-23 02:04:02 UTC  |  Edited by: Atomic Option
I like the new interface generally, but some people I know are throwing a fit. There are some specific things that would alieviate most of their pain...


  1. POS batteries of all kinds should be in their own collapsible category by default. Most of the time when you're using inventory at a POS, you're not screwing around with the gun batteries, so collapsing them or even filtering them from the index by default makes sense. This is really annoying when trying to work with inventories at a deathstar.

  2. rclick menu for POS structures should have a Select option so you can figure out which Battery or CHA or SMA you're dealing with, without having to figure it out based on the contents.

  3. CHAs / SMAs / Other pos containers where more than one can be anchored should be renameable.

  4. as in the OP the current click and shift-click functions of the cargo button should be mirrored/reversed and the simple cargo window should remember its size and position.

  5. clicking a CHA tab in the inventory window should display the animated circle to indicate that the contents are still loading.

  6. The status bar with item count and est. price should be toggleable to save screen space when having the simple cargo window open while in space.

  7. Views for different containers should be remembered independently (list vs icons, sorting etc.) and saving a default should be available.
Devore Sekk
Ministry of War
Amarr Empire
#189 - 2012-05-23 02:24:30 UTC
snake pies wrote:
I hope you meant to say "repair all items, then repackage all but container/ship items and then stack" button?


Whatever works for most people, I'm anal and find myself stacking all the time, repairing not so much. Maybe the repair feature should have a "repair all" button, since you can only do it in station?
Lri Heaviside
Eighty Joule Brewery
Goonswarm Federation
#190 - 2012-05-23 02:38:08 UTC  |  Edited by: Lri Heaviside
Issues with plastic wrap:

Still can't see the size in the hangar. Why this can't be fixed when you're mucking about with the rest of the inventory system is beyond me, but I know the data is stored (obviously) and just not displayed. Display the size data! Stacking plastic wrapped goods into freighters is like playing blind tetris, is generally awful, and is something that you can fix.

The second issue, related to my plastic wrap woes is that any time you accept a courier contract for your corp and have the deliveries hangar displayed you get the message "You have been denied access for the following reason: You can not open items in the delivery bay." I don't need them added to the tree. Stop that. It does the same thing when I change the type of view for the deliveries bay or try to change sorting.

For those who may be dealing with the same issue, the workaround is to accept the contracts while displaying another hangar.

I haven't tested if the "can't move a partial stack of items from a corporate hanger just after docking" is still happening yet. Previously the fix for that was to swap corp hangar tabs.

Edit: Hahahahah can't even move the plastic wrap to a ship because of the same popup. Guess corp accepted courier contracts are broken. I'll go post a bug report now.
Akyla Dey
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#191 - 2012-05-23 04:52:28 UTC
It's awful. Please change it back, or give us the option to choose..

The biggest problem for me is the massive lag. It took me 30 seconds to load an SMA today. That's neither a fun nor acceptable use of my game time. I'm also willing to bet that none of them devs tried salvaging 70+ wrecks with that system, because it's a slow and miserable process. Did you even try it at a POS? You might have reconsidered releasing it if you did. It also makes me pull my hair out when I'm about to move something at a POS and someone switches ships causing the whole thing to refresh. More time wasted.

I can see the potential of the system (with some major functionality additions and tweaks) for someone living out of a station. For those of us living in POSs, this is an absolute nightmare of lag and wasted time. Having to sort through POS guns (which I'm rarely if ever going to use) to find five SMAs (which we can't rename, so I get to guess which is which) and then watch the screen churn as it tries to load everything is a miserable experience, and keeps me from actually playing the game.

I'll admit, there's some neato stuff in there. Price estimates, selected space, etc is great, but I'd trade it all for the old streamlined system that lets me get in and get back to playing. I don't need that stuff. I need to quickly grab what I need and get on with my day. You've put a lot of nice frosting on a badly burnt cake here.

I get that you all think it's really clever and cool, but for those of us that don't, please give us the option of using the old interface. You did it with CQ, you can do it with this.
Ketov Aktar
Grey Wolff
#192 - 2012-05-23 05:05:57 UTC
It would be nice if the Index window had brighter lettering,ie white instead of gray so we can see it.
Arden Bastilla
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#193 - 2012-05-23 05:35:02 UTC  |  Edited by: Arden Bastilla
i like the new price est. feature. however i think it could really benefit from some granularity options.


ISSUE: Lack of price estimate options.

SOLUTIONS:
1. Allow us to filter what types of data is used for estimates. like only buy or sell orders, or both.
2. set a deviation threshold as well. so only count items that are within x % of market average.

Similar to the filter options that you gave us for the uni inventory.

Thank you.
Shadow51585
Relapse Anonymous
Sedition.
#194 - 2012-05-23 05:35:17 UTC  |  Edited by: Shadow51585
The new inventory system is frustrating and rediculously overdone.

The old way was far simpler to use.

When I dock, I want to see my ships and my items in front of me. I don't want to have to open a ton of windows to do it and "shift click" to get a ship screen where I can change my ship.

I also want to open my ship cargo by double clicking the freaking ship icon like we used to. Now it makes that the active ship... which is kind of stupid.

For ease of use and functionality the old UI was perfect for inventory control.

The new UI is frustrating enough that I honestly don't feel like logging in to play EVE because I have to use it.

Add to that corporate hangers, which are horrible now.

CCP says that they want to eliminate the mass of windows. Well personally, I LIKED the mass of windows and found them very helpful. It allowed for fast movement of items between various cargo bays and hangers and was a lot easier to manage then this clusterfuck of an inventory menu that is being forced upon us.

To be perfectly frank, the inventory UI did not need to be improved. It was functional and easy to learn. Why would you change something that is easy to use already?
Exodus Lied
Deep Core Mining Inc.
Caldari State
#195 - 2012-05-23 06:22:19 UTC
Issue:


As with most of you I started Eve today to find that they released their new expansion. I was kind of jazzed because I like to fly missile boats and this was going to be the expansion to make the missiles cooler. I will admit that I never read the patch notes in any great detail. However had I read the newest one I would have noticed the slew of changes they made to make cargo and inventory “easier”. Now I put the term easier I quotes because that is the term they use.

Let us fast forward through the downloading and patching to the start of a normal Eve day for me. I am a member of the corporate Planetary Interaction chain to help produce fuel for our towers. For this I need access to:

1) The corporate hanger. We keep all of our materials in there.
2) The ship bay. For this process I use a couple of different ships to expedite the process.
3) Ship cargo. Well this one is obvious. The stuff is not going to move itself.

Now before I go on I need to remind you this is “easier” than the old way.

So when you first open up your “inventory” you are subjected to a rudimentary filing system. You have ship hanger, item hanger, and corporate hanger. Below that you can apply filters (because applying a filter is “easier” than using the search function already in place).

I need to move some electrolytes from the corporate hanger to the cargo in my ship. So I scroll down through the menu and I find the section labeled “Corporate Hanger” and then I scroll down to find the “materials” section. As a reminder that is “easier” than clicking the “Corporate Hanger” button next to the “Station Management” button in the lower right had corner.

Now that I found my material I need to get it into the ship. So, I did what I usually did to open my cargo (back in the day when things were hard) and double clicked on my ship. All of a sudden I lose access to the corporate hanger selection and the filing system moves the selection to “Active Ship”. Well that was unexpectedly annoying. Apparently having more than one window is not compliant with the new “easier” way of doing things. Dragging and dropping things from one window into another window is too archaic for this day in age.

I went back to the corporate hanger and opened up the materials portion again and began working on the puzzle of how to get something from the hanger to the cargo in my ship. I tried dragging and dropping the item on to my ship and that didn’t work. So out of frustration I try to open my cargo by right clicking and selecting “Open Cargo”. Well as anyone can tell you that was a waste of time as well considering it does the same thing as double clicking on the ship itself. I just want to remind you that this is the new “easier” way of doing things. Apparently what you need to do is scroll down to the corporate hanger, select materials, than scroll back up to active ship, drag the material over to the file selection portion, and drop it there. That is the “easier” way.

Back in the day when things were hard all we had to do was open the corporate hanger, open the cargo on our ship, and drop in the stuff we wanted in there. I can’t imagine how we ever put up with that. Obviously the new way is “easier”.

After finally getting my electrolytes in my ship cargo I close the inventory window and undock. I guess that it is not as common as I would have thought but I like to fly around with my cargo window open. It makes it easier to keep track of ammo, fuel , and the goods you have in your cargo. I was a fairly disappointed when I clicked on my cargo button as I was in warp to my first stop. The new “easier” system took up the whole screen. I remembered that while I was docked I expanded the window to take out some of the mind numbing scrolling. At that point it occurred to me that this “easier” way of doing things is going to be 1 window… everywhere. In the station, in space, at a pos, in a wormhole; everywhere you want to go the “easier” system is going to be there to make life “easier”. By consolidating everything into one window CCP had single handedly taken a 10 minute process and made it a 30 minute process. With constant resizing and scrolling and moving it out of the way this “easy” system has defiled even the simplest of tasks. I turned around at my fist stop to dock up and write a petition.

If there was ever was a time to say this old beat up over used saying it is now

IF IT IS NOT BROKEN, DON’T FIX IT!


Solution:

Change it back to the way it was. The harder old days were easier than this mess.

With all the mistakes and problems with Eve, you wonder if the DEVs actually read the forums. But it is a worse thought to think they do.
Cardano Firesnake
Fire Bullet Inc
#196 - 2012-05-23 06:36:52 UTC
Issue: after salvaging it is impossible to loot all the surrounding containers easily.
Before I openned all the containers then I spamed "loot all" butoon to take all the stuff.
Now I must open the fist container, then loot all, then open the second container, then loot all, then open the third, etc.

Perharps a "loot all the surrondings" that would open an loot all the containers less than 2500m of you could be create?

Posted - 2010.07.01 11:24:00 - [4] Erase learning skills, remap all SP. That's all.
Cardano Firesnake
Fire Bullet Inc
#197 - 2012-05-23 06:46:31 UTC  |  Edited by: Cardano Firesnake
Issue: when I want to transfer an item from a place to another, I cannot have the two places open at a time.
So, it is nearly impossible to do a drag and drop because the left menu is so long that I cannot see the second container when I am in the first container.
An explorator should always be constituted with two parts: Departure/Arrival.

Think about this: http://www.freecommander.com/fr/index.htm

Posted - 2010.07.01 11:24:00 - [4] Erase learning skills, remap all SP. That's all.
Cardano Firesnake
Fire Bullet Inc
#198 - 2012-05-23 06:54:11 UTC
Exodus Lied wrote:
Issue:


IF IT IS NOT BROKEN, DON’T FIX IT!



I don't agree it is not because something is working that it is perfect. But if you have to change a thing, be sure the changes will be better than the old way.

It is not the case here.

Posted - 2010.07.01 11:24:00 - [4] Erase learning skills, remap all SP. That's all.
stoxxine
OLVI industries
#199 - 2012-05-23 07:18:27 UTC

The new inventory dialog is a nice effort to reduce window clutter. However, there are a few small things i'd like to see improved.

1. previously some windows would auto-open:
- active ship cargo
- corp hangar
- corp deliveries

Shifting things with inter-window drag'n'drop is faster and more convenient. It would be nice for anyone shifting lots of stuff if these windows could be made to auto-open like before. auto-opening pos-hangars would be bonus. YES, i'm talking about auto-opening (and not closing) when they are opened as separate windows. Some people liked those. It's like with windows explorer if you think about it.

Now even active cargo closes on every session change :(

2. previously corp hangar divisions were tabs and not selection in a list. the list gets long fast, and it would be a nice _option_ to return to the old mode. Even so that the setting stays when you shift hangars (POS).

3. This is a bit related to the last thing - it would be nice if empty hangars and containers could be filtered out from the list.

4. Filtering by container type would be nice. POS. no need to clutter the list with all the gazillion guns if the user is only interested in labs or factories.

5. When doing intra-window drag, the hangar index doesn't autoscroll. Clumsy.

6. not really inventory-related, but auto-navigation works for other types of containers but not for POS structures. that'd be nice i guess.

ps. i'm sorry for not reading through all the 10 pages. some of these things must have been mentioned already.. number 1 seems popular on a quick glance.

Disclaimer: The above was probably written drunk or by a friend on my pc or a hacker. No warranty for any misinformation provided.
tookar
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#200 - 2012-05-23 08:54:57 UTC
The new inventory is a hassle to use. Having to shift click to open separate windows for everything is a pain although to be fair eventually I'll probably get used to it. However, why oh why are the cargo holds of all of the ships in the hangar above the main hangar? Most of the time you're going to be dealing with your hangar and your active ship, not all of the other ships in the station, so placing the two most used buttons as far apart as possible seems counter intuitive, let alone what happens when you have loads of ships in station loaded with ammo- I shudder to think how long the client would take to load let alone trying to get to my stuff through that mess.

What isn't acceptable though is the way containers open in space, in particular wrecks and cargo containers. It now takes noticeably longer for the wreck or can to open because its loading all of the useless sidebar (who’s going to sort stuff in a wreck or jet can, seriously?), then when you loot it all to your cargo instead of disappearing, it dumps you back into your main cargo, which again takes noticeably longer than pre patch. So for every wreck or can you want to loot you have to sit through 1.5-2 seconds of client lock up and have your cargo open when you don't need or want it, whereas immediately before the patch, you could clean up a mission or mining op literally as fast as you could click on the cans or wrecks.
It doesn't sound like a lot, but when you've got 15-20 cans floating around from salvaging a big mission that's suddenly almost a minute of waiting for the client to respond, which is frustrating to say the least.

The addition of the loot all button sped up collection before the patch and that was appreciated a lot because I didn't have to drag and drop, but its done an about turn and takes longer than it did without the loot all button, except now I have to look at a locked up client instead of actually dragging things.