Critique

[Curtise]

The following is a copy and paste of an e-mail that I sent to Support.

So far nothing about my experience has changed.

Though it seems that every time I log in, I have to do A password reset which is just something else to be annoyed with.

While I’m a huge fan of the graphics in your game and really appreciate the possibilities for unlimited expansion within the eve universe, I will not be keeping the game and will in fact be removing it from my hard drive shortly.

Because I see the game is having immense potential I felt the need to inform you of my reasons for this decision in the hopes that you can correct the problems in the future.

1. The user interface is extremely cumbersome and none intuitive.
   There’s so much crammed onto the screen at one time with the multiple overlays and semi-transparent nature of them leads to a perpetually cluttered strain that is difficult to sort through the things that you want and remove the things that you don’t want.

Also when I would close the “social” messaging boxes (all three of them) the next time I would pull up the menu they’d be back and in my way again.

2. On screen text is too small and can’t be adjusted adequately.

I was playing the game on a large screen TV with HDMI from across the room and was unable to see the text clearly enough to read it even with my glasses. I had to change the settings on my computer to magnify things enough to barely read them without sitting directly on top of the TV.

Although you’re not the only game that I have this issue with I feel very strongly that you and other game makers need to take into account the fact that some people want to play their games on 50 in wide screens and that you need to make the text visible on those screens from about 10 ft away.

3. I think the tutorial froze up on me. I was trying to complete my first mission assigned by a “station contact” and when I exited the station it forced me to quit the tutorial or “skip” it. I wasn’t ready to do that but I had to anyway in order to move ahead with what I was doing.

4. Instructions are not always clear and impossible to repeat. I frequently found myself missing important details and wanting to go back and replay a dialogue and was unable to do so.

5. Ship control and weapons systems quite simply sucked.

I don’t like having to do everything with my mouse!

Far better to just select Target with the left mouse button and use right mouse button to fire weapons.

Weapon selection can be done with the numbers or other hotkeys while ship control performed with the standard W. S. A. and D. Layout for pitch and turn with Q. and E. being acceleration and deceleration.

Literally like just about every other game out there.

You can even use the TAB key and the R key for rolls to the right and the left.

Or move everything to the right just one set of keys so that you’re using Q. and T. For rolling. Then W and R for deceleration and acceleration respectively and so forth.

6. Your star maps are impossible to read and interpret. If a quest giver is sending you to a particular spot in a particular system that spot should be highlighted by your HUD and I indicated on the star map.

Furthermore when in a particular system where your objective is present you should be asked for confirmation about warping out of the system if you inadvertently select on a neighboring system for your destination. (For instance when there’s a waypoint on the other side of a asteroid that you want to go and investigate only to learn that that waypoint is in another system on the other side of the asteroid and you wind up warping back and forth between three to four different star systems because it’s not clear that the waypoint that’s showing up is not within range of impulse engines.)

7. having the ability to freely explore a system on impulse engines without selecting waypoints would be helpful.

8. Again ship functions need to be hot keyed. (Like the scanner)

9. your Skinner function is pretty much worthless.

Can’t figure out when you’re scanning what the direction of the skin is in relation to the front of your ship.

Impossible to interpret what you’ve scanned in any meaningful way because there’s no way to understand what you’re looking at. (Never received a tutorial about using the ships scanners.)

For the most part my complaints and issues can be summed up by user interface and control systems.

Also there appears to be too many ways to get to the same menu.

You need to put all of the drop-down menus in the same place and allow people to expand or retract them at will.

Exe. Here are all the star charts available to you.

Here are all the communications menus available to you.

Here’s your mission journal where you can replay all previous dialogue and cut scenes.

Here’s your cargo hold.

Here’s your financials.
(Including transaction histories AND current transactions available.)

Here’s your ship status and repair capabilities. Ect.

At most there should be a drop-down menu bar at the top of the screen and one to the left or right but not both. This would keep the main part of the screen clean any clearer for any visual necessary or to house the drop-down menus that you have open.

Certain interaction menus should be closable and only opened manually.

It’s fine if you give a little icon to indicate that someone sent you a message but there’s only one thing that pisses me off more than unsolicited “FLEET INVITES” from people that I haven’t interacted with in game in any way and that’s commercial advertisements coming in through my chat channel which I usually ignore anyway because I usually fly solo.

Basically, your UI needs to be radically simplified and your control scheme needs to become more intuitive preferably with left hand on the controls of the ship and the right-hand selecting targets and points of interest and maybe firing weapons or using tools with the other mouse button.

Also, what’s with your zoom function!!!???

Frankly it’s totally ass backwards!

I scroll forward and move away from the ship (zoom out) and when I scroll backward, I move towards the ship (zoom in.)

WHY???!!!

That’s literally the opposite of what anyone expects!

Like I said, the controls aren’t intuitive, not even remotely!

I understand that you put an awful lot of work into this game particularly into the graphics and the immersion experience and I do appreciate that.

I would love to play this game if it weren’t such a chore.

But all of the issues that I’ve already mentioned make this game decidedly not fun because frankly it’s too much work.

I hope that my input is helpful in correcting the issues with this game so that it may be perfected and become a resounding success.

For now, though I will be removing it from my hard drive let me know when you make the improvements and I’ll try it again.

[Luther_Fairfax]

One point I agree with, the new player experience does a terrible job of introducing you to probe and directional scanners which are crucial in-game tools.

As for the rest, lol @ your sense of entitlement. Eve already is a ‘resounding success’ and has been for almost 2 decades.

You have too many complaints to address each one but it is obvious that about half of them are rooted in lack of understanding and the other half are due to lack of effort or perseverence.

I suggest you go back to playing whatever other arcadey type games you are used to because when you make posts like these it proves to both CCP and the playerbase that you just ‘dont get it’ which is okay, Eve isn’t for everyone.

Before you delete from your hard drive can I have your stuff?

[Bob_Mo_rane]

@Curtise

The user interface is extremely cumbersome and none intuitive.
There’s so much crammed onto the screen at one time with the multiple overlays and semi-transparent nature of them leads to a perpetually cluttered strain that is difficult to sort through the things that you want and remove the things that you don’t want

Every windows can be closed or minimized except for Local and Corp which can only be minimized until you dock/undock.
Why not close everything and deal with each window as you go along instead of having everything open?

@Curtise

On screen text is too small and can’t be adjusted adequately

There’s a Font option in the Settings.

@Curtise

I was playing the game on a large screen TV with HDMI from across the room

Why from across tue room? I may be completely wrong - probably am -but I’m sitting not 3 feet away from my 180cm sceen, that way I feel I’m in the game and can read everything even though I have myopia… but again, I’m probably wrong.

@Curtise

I think the tutorial froze up on me. I was trying to complete my first mission assigned by a “station contact” and when I exited the station it forced me to quit the tutorial or “skip” it. I wasn’t ready to do that but I had to anyway in order to move ahead with what I was doing

You can always create an Alt and go through the tutorial again and create another one and go through it again until you know it by heart.

@Curtise

Instructions are not always clear and impossible to repeat. I frequently found myself missing important details and wanting to go back and replay a dialogue and was unable to do so

I take pics on my phone of the things I want to read again if they contain important info. I can delete those pics anytime I like.

@Curtise

I don’t like having to do everything with my mouse!

There are keyboard shortcuts that work in conjunction with the mouse. The mouse is used with every game unless you get a controler.

@Curtise

Your star maps are impossible to read and interpret

I love maps, any kinds of maps, I was pointman and scout and I have to say that galaxy map in EVE is impressive.

@Curtise

If a quest giver is sending you to a particular spot in a particular system that spot should be highlighted by your HUD and I indicated on the star map

You can do that yourself. It’s not hard. Type the name of the system in the searchbar and click ‘System’, it will open the map for you right at tye system in question. All you tyen have to do is save it and delete it whenever you like.

@Curtise

Can’t figure out when you’re scanning what the direction of the skin is in relation to the front of your ship

It doesn’t matter. It’s from your ship to a point in system if you choose funnel scan or from your ship all around if you choose sphere scan. All you have to do is look at how far everything is which is either in the scan window and in Overview or only in the scan window because the rest is too far for your sensors to appear in tue Overview.

@Curtise

Impossible to interpret what you’ve scanned in any meaningful way because there’s no way to understand what you’re looking at

If you can look at it you can click it and see Info for it or just hover your mouse over it.

@Curtise

Never received a tutorial about using the ships scanners.

There’s an in-game video and vids-a-gogo on the subject on YouTube.

@Curtise

For the most part my complaints and issues can be summed up by user interface and control systems.

It’s not perfect but far from being unplayabvle.

@Curtise

Also there appears to be too many ways to get to the same menu.

Good. That way I can access everything in different ways so that I don’t have to minimize or close a window to get to something else.

@Curtise

You need to put all of the drop-down menus in the same place and allow people to expand or retract them at will.

Already done. The main drop-down contains everything and you can shortcut the different sections on the sidebar.

@Curtise

At most there should be a drop-down menu bar at the top of the screen and one to the left or right but not both.

Why not? That’s versatility. A UI for EVE needs that.

@Curtise

This would keep the main part of the screen clean any clearer for any visual necessary or to house the drop-down menus that you have open

I could be wrong - in fact I probably am - but maybe you need to learn to manage your screen space.

@Curtise

Certain interaction menus should be closable and only opened manually.

They’re all closable but for Local and Corp.

@Curtise

It’s fine if you give a little icon to indicate that someone sent you a message but there’s only one thing that pisses me off more than unsolicited “FLEET INVITES” from people that I haven’t interacted with in game in any way and that’s commercial advertisements coming in through my chat channel which I usually ignore anyway because I usually fly solo

I don’t know I could be wrong - I probably am - but if I don’t want to see the trash in Local all I have to do is move the separator all they to only show the members and size the window to hide the chat side. Lock the window, done.

@Curtise

Also, what’s with your zoom function!!!???

Frankly it’s totally ass backwards!

You can set zoom direction in Options settings. It’s not the first game to have it backwards. Even intelligent people can have their duh moments.

[ISD_Traindriver]

Thread moved to correct Category.

[QuakeGod]

EVE is not, and cannot be, a flight simulator. The server runs on 1 second ticks, meaning every input you make to a keyboard or joystick for movement is delayed by 1 second. If a real-time space flight sim is what you are wanting, you’d be better off playing Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen, or No Man’s Sky.

[tutucox_Khamsi]

[Aisha_Katalen]

EVE is a weird beast in many ways. Partly because it precedes almost all other games so UI conventions that became mainstream later on it simply doesn’t do, partly because it’s just such a different game from anything else and partly because it’s made by very stubborn Icelandic people who have this automatic reaction to do things differently from others just because, thinking they know better.

Some of the OP’s stuff is simply “you’re playing a very different game that isn’t just another WOW copy, it’s going to take time to get used to” and others is “yup, it’s dumb” but also yet others “yeah there’s options for that, I guess you didn’t find them”.

The scroll wheel is a very obvious example: it’s dumb, literally backwards. At least we got an option to change it to normal these days but it would make sense if the out of the box setting for that is “inverse” (so normal) for fresh installs. Such an easy change that would make the game far less jarring for new players.

[Gix_Firebrand]

Sounds like you’re just bad at vidya games.

I suggest Stardew

[Arya_Yeshe]

One thing I don’t like is the auto loading of lists, for example if I open the Assets Window it will auto load all items from an expanded station… that I checked yesterday…

Auto load the Search Asset window… it also auto loads when there is nothing typed in the search field…

Auto load all blueprints in the factory… that happens before I choose which hangar or container I will use…

All auto load this and that just make the UI even slower, I don’t care having a tiny icon or key on everything for refreshing the list. That’s me I guess, but it’s better than having all windows having spasms.

[Omnis_Decline]

@Bob_Mo_rane

Every windows can be closed or minimized except for Local and Corp which can only be minimized until you dock/undock.

As a new player, it’s also worth noting (and it’s explained if you look for it) that for your first 30 days in-game, the “rookie help” chat channel will always open AND force the chat window to pop-up on many transition points. It is a time-limited annoyance for someone who doesn’t want to be involved with the chat at all, BUT at the same time, it sounds like this person could have used the help.

Because…

@Bob_Mo_rane

@Curtise

On screen text is too small and can’t be adjusted adequately

There’s a Font option in the Settings.

…there are multiple options which interact to provide this, and while I’m experienced enough with general computer use to have found all 3 settings options without too much trouble, it IS very easy to overlook them if you’re assuming the UI is going to behave more like it does in other modern games.

There is a set of UI scaling options which adjust tex size as well as spacing and other elements in the UI, there is a “text size” option which scales all text in the game, and there’s a “font size” option which scales the size of teh text used in UI elements and chat windows.

The more I get used to the interface, the less problematic it feels, but that DOESN’T negate the fact that it feels awkward to navigate when you first pick it up. It also has a distinctly “old-fashioned” feel to it, which in some ways can be a good thing, but in this case, doesn’t always play to the game’s benefit.

@Curtise

Also, what’s with your zoom function!!!???

Frankly it’s totally ass backwards!

I scroll forward and move away from the ship (zoom out) and when I scroll backward, I move towards the ship (zoom in.)

Fortunately, the menu also has a helpful (and very easy to find) “invert zoom” option to fix this, because you’re right, it IS backwards from the perspective of modern games. Doing it this way around was somewhat common when EVE Online launched, because there wasn’t as much of a standard for this type of control back then. Or more accurately, there were different standards for different genres, and over time, the more action-oriented games have had their standardised control layouts ecome more prominent across other genres, and this is one which changed over the years because of that spread of action-friendly control schemes.

And while it doesn’t “fix” all the complaints outright, it’s worth noting that ALSO in the menu is a feature which, if you pay attention to that rookie help chat, you’ll see mentioned at least once or twice every few hours, might actually be useful. Check out the “feature previews” tab of the esc/main menu page, and there’s a “Photon UI” which is a recent still-in-progress redesign of the interface. As I mentioned, it’s not going to completely remove all the concerns being raised here, but it might help with this particular case.

[Bob_Mo_rane]

@Omnis_Decline

The more I get used to the interface, the less problematic it feels, but that DOESN’T negate the fact that it feels awkward to navigate when you first pick it up. It also has a distinctly “old-fashioned” feel to it, which in some ways can be a good thing, but in this case, doesn’t always play to the game’s benefit.

It does take getting used to. Many things the O.P mentioned can be remedied by exploring the settings. The UI is intricate, not perfect but far from being the useless confusing thing he describes. I mean, he expects the game to show him where to go on a mission if jumps out of his route and clicking on the mouse is a chore for him so

[tutucox_Khamsi]

if i can give you a tip is
right button > show info
them navigate the “hyperlinks “
nothing in EVE teaches more

[Ramona_McCandless]

“A well crafted but still transparent bait post. 5/10 Must try harder”

Hey you go the same score as my sick note to PE last semester.

[Namaros]

All is fine, just buy more PLEX!

[Gix_Firebrand]

Bro, CCP really does own your soul