I will make this short and simple: I am getting older. And as I age the UI becomes more challenging.
One of the best updates ever done to EVE was the adjustable mouse cursor size. I had been relying on YOLO Mouse because I absolutely could not see the stock cursor. Way too small, especially in 4k on a 55" monitor. Thanks to this update I was able to ditch YOLO. Thank you FC!
The one real problem area I have now is the overheat buttons above the modules.
These buttons are thin green strips above the modules on the HUD, and it is almost physically impossible to click these buttons with a mouse on a 4k screen. Especially in the heat of combat. And its even harder with the larger mouse cursor.
Of course hotkeys do work, and I mostly use hotkeys, but there are often times where a click would suffice or just be easier in the moment and it’s simply not an option because the buttons are virtually unusable.
So, my suggestion for the upcoming HUD changes has to be making the overheat buttons actually usable by someone with a mouse.
I would like to see bigger targets in space as well. UI scaling doesn’t seem to affect those at all. I know only the main “command ui” is going to be changed, this time around, but one can wish.
I’m likely to believe that they are still going with a radial design, but health and cap can be straight blocky lines. Speed control would do better with a slider with tooltip speed indicator and a logharitmic scale of effect (ie, easy stop gaps at 75%/50%/30%/20% and very precise for anything under, if there is use for that).
@CCP_Lumi So, where is the current HUD concept that you want to throw at us? Why is there no clear picture of it shown in the dev blog and only a crappy few at a minor player meeting could see it?
Most importantly, I interested in seeing if this new HUD will be the same trainwreck that Photon is to this day. Hiding parts of text and data values because they do not fit boxes, glitching out the entire UI element because the tech behind it is antiquated and inadequate, overflowing text and data because the box confines do not work, inconsistent UI interaction elements and incoherently used design language, buttons only registering a click in half of their visible volume, just to name a few things, are all pestering Photon to this day. I am looking forward to seeing this in the new HUD soon.
If you use stock keybinding this is fine. Unfortunately I use modified keybinding for accessibility reasons and the shift modifier is used elsewhere. This doesn’t solve the main problem, which is making the button realistically accessible via mouse only.
In the shift cluck scenario you still need to hit shift key. Its another action that is unnecessary, friction where there should be none. Its also an acesssibility issue if you happen to have physical limitations of some kind.
But more importantly why have mouse buttons built into the UI if they are un-usable?
FC intended for you to be able to simply click to overheat, otherwise they wouldn’t have built the buttons in the first place. All I am saying is make them big enough that they are actually functional in practice, rather than in theory.
I do tend to believe this is partially an issue brought on by the ever increasing resolution of our screens. When I started in 2009 I was not playing in anywhere close to 4k, and the mouse cursor and overheat buttons did not seem quite as egregious. But in 2026 when most folks have easy access to 4k rigs, the UI is really showing its age.
I think modernizing the HUD has to include adjusting its clickable elements for the reality of 4k, in much the same way the mouse cursor became an absolute necessity in the 4k world.
Perhaps they should fix the bugs with the existing HUD… like when being disconnected and relogging you find that all the ship’s modules are offline and, if it’s a hauler, that the hold is now overloaded and you cannot jump gates to get out of losec.
The mouse click feature on the element is just garnish, the main function is to show whether overheat is on or not. Although, mouse click is more reliable to work under tidi than hotkeys.
I’m with you here. I can only use one hand, so everything I do has to be with the mouse and functions mapped to the extra switches on it. I’m wondering how these HUD changes may affect me going forward with this update.
I’d also like to add that sometimes when in a rush to click the module icons, the Overheat toggle get’s clicked accidentally when activating the module which isn’t noticed until red status start’s showing…
I’ve had that happen a few times which then takes even more time from targeting and activating modules just to deactivate the Overheat option…
I noticed that “EVE Online Team” began the HUD news piece with the letters: “TLDR”… as if anyone knows what that’s supposed to mean. Why couldn’t the “team” use something more people understand such as WTF?!?
Is in not unreasonable for Fenris to force the player base to conduct internet searches on trendy abbreviations in order to figure out what they are trying to communicate? Are there any native English speakers working at Fenris? It seems that “EVE Online team” is more driven by desire to be hip and trendy rather than abiding by fundamental grammar school knowledge. Perhaps they will convince Fenris to give up on the use of TCP/IP in favor of just spitting out non-formatted bits into the internet next.
In addition, the news piece was filled with redundancy -as if the whole thing had been run through an A.I. letter writing bot with a strong ideological bias towards fluff and based on the principle of ‘Dazzle them with B.S.’ rather than K.I.S.S.
More words are not better. Good communication is better… clear, concise, and to the point.
If the future of the HUD is anything like the news piece, we are not in for something good or helpful.
I’m deliberating on whether or not to submit the HUD news piece as a bug report, along with a suggested revised edition, rewritten for humans, and provided to the English language localization team.
I figured I’d read up on some Eve Online news while forking over my latest $138 USD plex purchase and the HUD news piece is what was provided.
In contrast to the best intentions of the HUD team, any potential anticipation of the work is now tainted by the ideological “EVE Online Team” and at least one player is left disheartened.
TLDR has been around for a while anyone with the webz access should know it.. they knew it was not gonna be a read that ppl wanna read, so they just gave us a tldr..
I sure don’t know why I bother here – with my constant suggestions – to assist both developers and players to be unheard and ignored? The old lady will attempt to explain the very best HUD in the gaming universe and I have been orbiting around the sun for a very long time now. Pay attention people, and FYI, when you post TLDR, I will ignore you too from now on.
There is a 3rd party utility used in Direct X games – both online and offline – known as a uMod ( aka TexMod a very old Direct X 9.0 version ). This texture modification tool doesn’t mod the game, it mods your Direct X. It snags the images from the Direct X, as they pass through from the game, and replaces it with your custom images saved in a library. If no replacement image exists, it uses the game image. In the end, only you get to see your modification to the “replacement” HUD design. Using this tool would require some kind of official nod from FC to use without getting banned.
Moving on to our next and best option, FC writes up a simple localized GUI library for the game, placing it inside the existing C:\Users\ [user name] \Documents\EVE folder, allowing the users to have direct access to the needed graphical elements and replace them manually, eliminating the use or need of any 3rd party modification tool. In simple terms, you would use any graphic editor to access the icons and repaint them. If you mess it up, delete the image and it gets reloaded as the default image from the game.
FC could get real fancy and give us plugins to place the graphics and link custom sounds to the custom UI. This helps FC by placing the UI development into the hands of the user, to upgrade and share upgrades with each other. This solution allows FC to remain in control of what textures are replaceable and which can never be replaced by the users.
In both scenarios, ship skins would not be affected, as any user who purchases skins for ships, wants them to be seen by all, and not just on their end. The UI should be a personal experience and not one size fits all. I hope you read all that.
Nah, I want diversity, but that seems to be a naughty word to some people.
Only should you want to design it yourself, otherwise you could grab a UI designed by another player. You would just toss a mess of images into your personal library. Since only images are being exchanged there are no viral threats. The short answer for a lot of people is yes, you can remain lazy and put some other player to work making your UI.
