UI Improvement Ideas

[Possibility454]

Please add right mouse click to close any screen and return to the star map. This has become an established convention in other games and greatly reduces the tedium of having to move the mouse to click on an X, which just isn't fun, and games are supposed to be fun.

Please make ships always rendered the same size in the fleet screen. Its confusing when they are rendered at different sizes when there is another ship type that is larger. This leads to confusion and mistakes, and thus requires you to mouse over ships to verify their size, which again just isnt fun. Things should be consistent so you can verify with quick visual reference and train your brain. When things can vary, its confusing and you dont trust what you see, thus requiring the mouse over. When you dont trust things (such as your own brain to correctly identify the ship size) and/or get confused, it detracts from the fun of the game.

[bjg]

Please add right mouse click to close any screen and return to the star map. This has become an established convention in other games and greatly reduces the tedium of having to move the mouse to click on an X, which just isn't fun, and games are supposed to be fun.

If you truly believe that an "established convention" for the right click is to close a window you are coming from a "wrong" set of games. Just use both hands and hit an ESC.

[Arioch]

I don't necessarily agree that it's an "established convention" to have right-click exit windows, especially when right-click has other functions, such as context menus or right-click to move/act, which is equally common. We use right-click for a variety of other purposes in many screens, including the main map (right-click to move fleets), fleet pane (right-click to invert selection), build menu (where it queues items) and in the tactical screen where it performs a variety of functions.

In early beta we did have right-click exit some windows, and testers complained that it was inconsistent and confusing.

I am interested to hear the opinions of other testers on this subject.

[Possibility454]

Research screen: right click currently does nothing in there, make it close the screen.
Planetary report window thats on the left: right click currently does nothing, make it close that window.
Edit Designer window: right click currently does nothing, make it close that window.
Ship Designer window: right click currently does nothing, make it close that window.
Diplomacy window: right click currently does nothing, make it close that window.
Planetary window: (shows planet, population, planet stats, defenses) right click currently does nothing, make it close that window.
Event window: the window at the button of the screen with the current event info in it, right click currently does nothing in there, make it close that little window.

Take using the right click to add items to que. I didnt know the right click could do that, its a hidden feature and not discoverable by the player. But you do have a button on the items in the build menu to add them to que instead of the current production, so really a right click isnt needed for that, thus the right click could be used instead to close that screen.

Endless Legend, game of the year on many websites, implemented a very consistent right click to close menu/screen, and a right click to move units. The game had a highly polished UI which a lot of pointers can be taken from. Just saying, because the game isnt released yet so now is the time to make all of that little polish to remove some of the trudgery that is in this game. As it is now, the UI slows me down too much and makes the game a little boring. But I think there is great potential here.