Test Server Feedback

OK so CCP you found a problem, or you think you have, why didn’t you do some of the following;

Ask the users why they needed so many open windows?
How do they use all those open windows?
Is there a reason they have them open in a particular way?
Could they take a picture of their window layout and describe their workflow pattern.
Can they think of any problems with using so many windows?
Can they show us (with a picture if possible) the way they use windows both docked and undocked, also during PVE and PVP.
How would you as a user simplify things if given the option of using a single window with a tree view like the Windows file manager?

Then when you have sufficient input make a draft resolution outlining the way you would like to change things, put this to the CSM (by the way where are they in this discussion?) and let them forward it to the players for analysis.

Only then should you go ahead with a major change like this.

Also over the course of the many threads I have seen people ask for a ‘Split Window’ display to show one item (corp hanger) side by side with say (cargo container).

Well you already have the code for doing just that, the Customs Office display.

Don’t you ever re-use any of your code or do you write a new block every time you do anything. This display should, if coded properly, just be a ‘black box’ to which you pass parameters you need displayed, and you should be able to use it as the Inventory display with just a few adjustments.

This!

i am lol'ing at all of you. Thanks for bringing this to my attention Zagdul.
All i have to say is that it took me all about five minuets to get acclimated to the new inventory system. i love it all i have to say is again multiple windows for items and ships. To the people who complain about a few extra clicks of the mouse, i laugh at you. if your carpel tunnel fingers can't handle it get some bengay.

I'm loving this idea. This would be a massive improvement in productivity and also an entertaining time waster; I could happily waste hours messing around with fits, especially if I could use hypothetical fits with greyed out modules from other stations, or greyed out modules I don't own - EFT style

lol who's trolling, I am laughing at the people who get so overworked on this thing, complain that "oh no woe is me too many clicks" and don't keep an open mind. I love this interface, except i am one of those people who would like a separate interface for my items and ships.
I genuinely feel bad for CCP, because they have to deal with the faggots who complain about everything, when CCP tries to introduce something new into the game.

I've gotten past the initial pain of change and have come to love the new inventory system, both in station and in space. But when I am at a starbase with multiple corporate hangars that I cannot rename, it can become cumbersome. I can remember where I put things based on how I arrange them in space but in the inventory i have to click through each one to find something.

Being able to rename corp hangars at a POS, while not necessarily based in the inventory system code, would make my only qualm with this system disappear.

http://i.imgur.com/5SVPw.gif

Here is some feedback from me. In general I like some of the new ideas, but the implementation as it is on Sisi right now sucks in a major way.

First, let me say that I am a corporation CEO, an alliance logistics and sovereignty director. I deal with towers, hangars, corp hangars, and many other inventories a lot. I can see how the new UI might look shiny to someone who only needs to loot wrecks and dump loot in a station, but for practical heavy use it is very clunky.

I have been using the shift-click function, and opening multiple windows. To manage multiple inventories I simply need to see what's in each of them, without having to tab between them all the time. I don't know who at CCP got the idea that "multiple windows are always bad". If I need to manage multiple hangars, I want multiple windows.

Multiple windows don't add complexity to the game - completely the opposite. Having multiple windows means the complexity is distributed and each window allows me to manage one tiny part of my work separately. Merging everything under the sky into one mother of all windows doesn't make things easier. It makes them way more complex.

My first and biggest problem is individual windows not remembering their attributes (size, position, icon size...). All inventories were not created equal, as the blog might suggest. My hangar will have myriads of different items, I want it nice, large and in the middle of my screen as I use it a lot. My fuel bay will only ever have one stack of fuel in it. I want it tucked away in the corner somewhere, just big enough so that I can take a glance and it and see that yes I will not run out in the middle of my route. My ships window has a couple of different ships in it, I want quick access to it so I can see which ships I have at this station and be able to hop in one of them easily.

Currently, only the attributes of the last window are remembered. Any new window I open inherits these attributes. So I open my hangar, and expand it to see items I need to move. I open my cargohold, which opens right in front of the hangar. I need to manually move them apart so I can move stuff between them. Then I open my fuel bay to see if I'm good to go. The fuel bay opens taking up half of the screen in order to display one item. I move it out of my sight in the corner. However next time I open my hangar, it gets stuck down there too and I have to move and expand it again and again.

Related to the first issue, undocking completely messes up the windows. I am used to the old functionality: when you undock, any station-related windows close. When you dock, they open again. In the current build, when I undock, all the open station-related windows stay on my screen, and turn into my cargo bay. Yes, game, thanks for telling me I forgot to pick up a courier package. Thanks for telling me on eight different places on the screen at once, too. So I dock, intending to just grab the package and leave - however my hangar and my containers are nowhere to be seen. Only the eight "my ship's cargo bay" windows.

I would say that 99 percent of time, when I dock, I want my hangar and my ship list visible, and both in the familiar positions. I want to be able to dock, pull put a new ship, grab ammunition, and undock without having to dig through fifteen menus just to open the individual inventories. Please make the station windows close when I undock, and remember their positions and state for the next time I dock.

The inventory UI itself is very slow and clunky. I hope this is a beta issue and will be fixed for release. However, one thing I absolutely can't stand are the animations. Just open anything with a page's worth of items in it and move your mouse across the list. The animation is anything but smooth, and definitely annoying as hell. I don't see what's wrong with "highlight whatever has the cursor over it". Similarly with opening inventories and folders in the index. I don't want your fancy animation. I want to see my stuff. Preferrably without having to wait 2-3 seconds every time I need to see another inventory.

I would love an option to simply turn off all UI animations in the ESC menu. UI animations weren't a good thing when Windows came up with them, they are not a good thing now, and you will not turn them into a good thing either. All they will ever be is nice and flashy and "awesome" for the casual players, and a major slowdown, distraction and a pain in the arse for people who actually need to use the UI to do stuff.

On a positive note, I love the fact that I can see all the inventories in a station in a single screen. Dropping off POS fuel into a labeled can inside a corp hangar is now as easy as a drag-and-drop, and no longer requires me to open three hangars that I don't need or want to look at.

As I said above, I mostly use the index to shift-click the labels to open the individual windows. I rarely ever use the window that's next to the index at all. In fact, with the way my EVE screen is set up, I would prefer to have the index on my right hand side. Could there be an option to *only* show the index, and to open individual inventory windows on double-click?

Keyboard shortcuts. The only thing that keeps me sane since I don't need to dig through a thousand menus. Right now my usual procedure to pick up stuff after docking is alt+C, alt+H, alt+G (cargo bay, hangar, corp hangar). This opens the three windows side by side (as the UI remembers them), and I can start moving items. In the new implementation, this is not possible without having to dig through the index menu. Please add keyboard shortcut to "open cargo hold in a new window" and similar.

Also please add a shortcut to "open fuel bay of active ship".


(Continued in the next post. Character limit reached.)

I admit that I'm pretty drunk at the moment when writing this but I but I have to give plenty of respect to the guy/chick behind the previous post. I particularly liked the lines

"As I said above, I mostly use the index to shift-click the labels to open the individual windows. I rarely ever use the window that's next to the index at all. In fact, with the way my EVE screen is set up, I would prefer to have the index on my right hand side. Could there be an option to *only* show the index, and to open individual inventory windows on double-click?"

which pretty much follows what I think about Unified inventory in general;

It should be starting point or feature in single window, which gives plenty of new wonderful options to open windows. It has been been said many times that multible windows are sometimes necessaries. Some tasks you can perform with one window but not all of them. This new menu of yours gives excellent source to access them, but it is not necessarily the optimal way to interact with them.

Think about that - I can't do much of that because I'm so wasted at the moment.

edit:: ...and no - I didn't quite pass out yet.

Man I had to put 20 separate items into the hangars of 200 ships. It took me so long I am now
20 times older than the rest of the universe, and this new system stripped the enamel from my teeth.

For the love of god, this new system?; give it some more love.

While I'm at it, consider installing a 'divide stack into sets of x number' option, none of us are getting
any younger, and I'd love to complete said task and undock again before the stars burn out.

Beyond that, fundimentally awesome game.

Fair enough, maybe I exaggerated a little :)