Player Features and Ideas Discussion

My partner and I both have the same problem when using the probing interface: the controls to move probes around are too complex (as in: too much detail in a little volume of 2D space) to interact with safely. We often find that probes are moving in axis perpendicular to the plane of the screen when trying to drag the control around by the face of the cube.

As a means of simplifying the probe controls, it would be nice if the control was just a square, drawn parallel to the plane of the screen, which would only move the probe in the plane of the screen. No longer will people be stymied by the requirement to think in 3D space, while working through a 2D interface. The 2D interface would only allow operation in the obvious two dimensions: left/right and up/down. The existing CTRL and ALT shortcuts will still work, nothing else will change except that the "cube and six arrows" interface will be replaced with "floating square".

I very rarely need the precision of direction offered by the six axis arrows. In fact, I use them only because attempting to grab the cube by the face often results in me unwittingly grabbing the perpendicular-to-screen arrow and moving my probe infinitely fast towards or away from the screen without realising it. Then when I resort to using the arrows, I often have to move in the X and Y axis anyway, in order to get the probe to where I want it.

So there's my attempt at reducing the frustration of the new player experience: replace the current 3D-immersed-in-2D control system and replace it with an intuitive and logical 2D-in-2D control system.

Watch the existing official probing tutorial: the spread of probes is only 2D anyway. Some probers use a tetrahedron to nail down very faint signatures, but the 2D spread of four or five probes is enough for basic probing requirements (e.g.: hisec exploration, ninja salvaging) while the tetrahedron is really only required for difficult assignments (e.g.: probing down "unprobeable" off-grid boosters).


TL;DR: replace the complex probe "cube plus six arrows parallel to EVE coordinates handle" with a simple "square-parallel-to-screen-plane handle" which only moves the probe in the current plane of the screen. CTRL+move will move in the same plane, ALT+move will still alter the constellation around their geometric centre regardless of screen plane.

No, what I mean is that whatever angle you're viewing from, you'll only be able to move the probes in the plane that is perpendicular to the axis of the camera (or the plane for which the axis of the camera is the normal, or the plane parallel to the viewport).

If you want to move in (x,y), you'll need to point the camera down the z axis. If you want to move the probe in (y,z) you'll need to point the camera down the x axis.

Here's how I zero in on a signature at present:

1. View (x,y), adjust probe constellation to be visually centred on the target
2. Adjust view to (y,z), adjust probe constellation to be visually centred
3. Set probe range as required
4. Use Alt+Drag to change constellation size
5. Run the scan
6. Repeat from step 1 if signal is not 100%

Since I'm absolutely no good at judging depth when presented with a 2D rendering of a 3D environment, I have to keep switching planes anyway, in order to view the layout of probes and signatures. Since I have to switch planes and I only ever use the controls that are perpendicular to line of sight, I don't see that the controls which move the probes along the line of sight are of any particular use.