With the massive amount of data in the game competing with the actual game graphics, it would be great to see a feature added that would allow in-game windows (such as Overview windows/tabs, D-scan, etc.) to be “undocked” from the game window and become separate windows that can be moved around.
For example, my monitor setup involves a 16:9 monitor above a 21:9; this does not allow for spanning EVE well across them, and even if I set them as if they were horizontally oriented, it removes my ability to easily use web browsers, as refocusing the game makes the browser windows fall behind it. Having separate game data windows would allow arranging or tiling them alongside a browser window, and free up more of the actual game window to see space instead of just “the spreadsheet.”
I would absolutely love to have the Locals and Overviews of my entire fleet in a second screen. Why bother needing to alt-tab between them ever again? See what’s coming in every surrounding system without looking at the clients of the scouts.
Make running my Ishtar fleet much easier if their drone windows were on another screen, so I didn’t have to actually go to each client to assign drones to the drone bunny.
Were these the kinds of use you had in mind for this idea?
The reason that it’s against the ToS - as in cutting up the client - is that it gives the player an unfair advantage which isn’t available to the average player. Now if CCP were to make such feature possible by the client itself then it’s no-longer an unfair advantage as everybody has access to the feature.
Although I think this would be extremely difficult to achieve since the Windows Desktop is not a “Canvas” as you can have on websites where you can have a separate window but still be part of the original window.
The advantage comes from being able to easily control so many clients. If it was about equal access, then we’d be limited to one account online at a time.
The spreadsheet is the game, I don’t know what game you’re playing. Eve is a series of constantly changing spreadsheets with a space GUI to give you a frame of reference. To say it’s a space game with spreadsheets is like saying it’s a PvE game with PvP elements, entirely misleading and backwards.
Nobody is talking about multiple clients here. OP is just advocating for CCP to implement feature to allow for certain in-game windows (potentially) like Chat channels, Overview, Map, or Probe/directional scanner to be de-attachable from the client into their own windows which can then be placed on other monitors (if you happens to have multiple).
There are programs that can do something similar to this but they are paid feature, which means that only those who can afford to pay up could have access to it and thus gaining a clear advantage.
So you don’t stop to think how an idea could be abused before you decide if you support it or not?
This is Eve. If a system or mechanic can be abused in some fashion to benefit the player, you’d better believe at least 1,000 of them and their alts are going to do it.
You need to pull your head out of the clouds and face reality. No one gives a sh!t about equality here. If they did, we’d only be allowed one account. I’ve already explained this, go read that post again. I get an advantage over the average player because I can afford to keep 9 accounts active, and the players that afford more than 50 accounts have an advantage over me, so put in pin in that delusional bubble you play in.
If the only concern is that massmultiboxers could pile up all their “control windows” conveniently next to each other and even easier manage multiple accounts, there is an easy solution for that: The moment a client loses focus (aka going into background), all “undocked” areas disappear until the client is brought back into focus. So, the feature would only be usable for one active client at a time, multiboxers would not benefit at all.
Might be difficult, but I’ve seen it in photography software like DXO and CaptureOne, and imagine that the more well-known Lightroom allows for it as well. Now for a game I know things are different, but don’t know enough about the programming to know how much harder it would be to do.
