Discussion: Part-Picker UI, showing system stats

[keith.lamothe]

Main thing that I'm missing is a power display thats present on both customization screen and when you are fitting modules.

I see that new interface added power balance to fitting screen.
So it's missing only from customization screen - need to scroll stats around to see it.

In theory, yes, but it's one of the top two lines of the readout, so it's always displaying unless you've intentionally scrolled to something else, right?

[Winge]

Would it work to put weapon info in a different window in the main customization screen, and provide a button to switch between weapon stats and Exo stats?

[Tridus]

Just in for 0.914:

* The Exo Customization Window now has mouseover tooltips for each of the weapons (if your cursor is within their area without being over a filled slot of theirs; otherwise it shows what's in that filled slot), listing attack power, range, aoe radius and type (if any), and ammo capacity.

I think this will handle the bulk of that case.  An alternative is to try to actually include that text in the layout of that customization screen, similar to how it already displays the ammo for each weapon.  But I think that could to be just too visually busy and too much info to see at a "summary level".  It also would be none-too-easy to fit on 1024x720.

Another alternative is to also list the info for each weapon in the bottom-left stat block on that window.  It would make that much longer, but it's already scrollable. Would that help?  Or be stuffing too much in there?

It could work with the info in there, but I definitely want the mouseover. That was how I tried to look at them originally.

If they're going to all be in the stat block as well, can you sort it so the weapons are at the bottom? The core stats should be at the top IMO.

[keith.lamothe]

Would it work to put weapon info in a different window in the main customization screen, and provide a button to switch between weapon stats and Exo stats?

It could be done, but why?  Adding another interface element (the button) seems to be a significant additional complexity.  The fact that the area has to be scrollable is bad enough, I think   I suppose if it were _only_ paged (by that button and another one, maybe another one after that) it could be an improvement, but even there I dunno.  And Chris really prefers scrolling to paging.

It could work with the info in there, but I definitely want the mouseover. That was how I tried to look at them originally.

Right, the mouseover part went in earlier than the changes to the lower-left block.

If they're going to all be in the stat block as well, can you sort it so the weapons are at the bottom? The core stats should be at the top IMO.

Yep, I put the weapons at the end.

[Tridus]

Sounds good.

While you're in there, any chance of the button to remove all equipped items at once? It takes a lot of clicking to do that with epic exos right now.

[keith.lamothe]

While you're in there, any chance of the button to remove all equipped items at once? It takes a lot of clicking to do that with epic exos right now.

Where would it go?

[bytestream]

I just started playing this Monday and I have no issue with the part picker, it currently shows me exactly what I want to see.

However, I have to agree that the basic/current stats of a weapon have to be displayed somewhere on the main customization screen. I would prefer having a tool tip pop up when we hover over a weapons name that tells us all of its current stats. This way, the information would only be displayed if we need it and it would also be easy to find. No scrolling an searching for a specific weapon.

[keith.lamothe]

However, I have to agree that the basic/current stats of a weapon have to be displayed somewhere on the main customization screen. I would prefer having a tool tip pop up when we hover over a weapons name that tells us all of its current stats.

Right, and that's already in for 0.914

[Tridus]

While you're in there, any chance of the button to remove all equipped items at once? It takes a lot of clicking to do that with epic exos right now.

Where would it go?

Right here.

[keith.lamothe]

While you're in there, any chance of the button to remove all equipped items at once? It takes a lot of clicking to do that with epic exos right now.

Where would it go?

Right here.

Done

[keith.lamothe]

Did anyone want to weigh in on:

Ok, well, we can try just having weapons always show all Attack, Range, and Ammo (and AOE-range if its base aoe > 0) on the part-picker comparison block... but we couldn't do just that and leave it, really.  Right now the header for that section is "Clicking Right Now Will Change:", followed by "(Nothing)" if nothing would change.

What should it say when you're in there for a weapon slot?

Something like changing from:

Code: [Select]

Clicking Right Now Will Change:

(Nothing)
to:

Code: [Select]

Clicking Right Now Will Change:

(Nothing, but for reference here are the weapon stats):
(System-Specific)
Attack Power: 250
Attack Range: 4
Ammo Capacity: 24

?

I'm willing to try it, but I'm looking for some kind of reasonable way to display it to the user that is at least not self-contradictory

[nas1m]

Including the weapon stats into the overall layout would be my preferred solution if it can be fitted in.

It makes sense on the surface of it... but on a 5-weapon exo, do you really want 10-15 extra lines of info spread across that screen?  At some point you just get to a wall of info, and a substantial portion of the target audience just glazes over and stops absorbing it.  Or do you think that's not true?

Never acquired an epic exo yet, so that's a little hard to say.
I think it would turn out okay for three weapons (see: the assault exo), though.
It's just that I would prefer a solution that does not hide that info in a tooltip or a text dump, really.
How about only including damage, range and ammo into the text that is shown directly in the customization UI? The argument being that AoE is fairly situational, while the type of a weapon does not change. Would that mitigate your concerns a bit ?

EDIT2: If the change to add the stats to the customization UI is trivial for you, just lets give it a shot and see what the others think, don't you think?

What about adding the main weapon info (i.e. damage , range and ammo) to the main customization UI the way ammo alone is already displayed now as proposed above? For smaller reolutions the info could be added to the same line. If more screen estate is available linebreaks could be added.
Adding the text directly to the customization UI would be no downside, imho. For me it adds to the "techy" flair of the screen (like, it being the blueprint for the respective exo including "engineering annotations" and stuff. But maybe that's just me ...

[keith.lamothe]

Adding the text directly to the customization UI would be no downside, imho

Up to 15 more numbers on an already-busy screen is a downside

[Tridus]

Did anyone want to weigh in on:

Ok, well, we can try just having weapons always show all Attack, Range, and Ammo (and AOE-range if its base aoe > 0) on the part-picker comparison block... but we couldn't do just that and leave it, really.  Right now the header for that section is "Clicking Right Now Will Change:", followed by "(Nothing)" if nothing would change.

What should it say when you're in there for a weapon slot?

Something like changing from:

Code: [Select]

Clicking Right Now Will Change:

(Nothing)
to:

Code: [Select]

Clicking Right Now Will Change:

(Nothing, but for reference here are the weapon stats):
(System-Specific)
Attack Power: 250
Attack Range: 4
Ammo Capacity: 24

?

I'm willing to try it, but I'm looking for some kind of reasonable way to display it to the user that is at least not self-contradictory

What if you did something like this, visible all the time while on the part selector with the current stats:


Affected Stats
(System-Specific)
Attack Power: 250
Attack Range: 4
Ammo Capacity: 24

Then if you are hovering over something that would change it:


Affected Stats
(System-Specific)
Attack Power: 250 => 300
Attack Range: 4 => 3
Ammo Capacity: 24

So you always show the system (weapon) stats, and just add the modified values to show the change next to it if there is a change.

Done

Thanks!

[keith.lamothe]

FYI, just in for 0.922:

* Part-picker header line now displays the name of the in-context system (so "Reactor", "Shotgun", etc).

* Part-picker, when in the context of a weapon, now always includes the attack power, ammo, attack range, and (if an aoe weapon) aoe range in the comparison block, under an "(unchanged, but related)" subheader.  If a stat has already been listed because it is being changed, it is not listed in that new section.

The second one being the important one here, but the first seemed pertinent too.  Attack power of what?  Etc.

Anyway, the second change may be info overload, as I was concerned about, but we'll see   Please let me know what you think either way when you try out 0.922 or later.