Patch 27 - Port interface and usability feedback

[Parchin]

Windows 10

[Ink]

27 minutes ago, Parchin said:

Windows 10

Captain, could you please send connection test report via Steam launcher 3rd option to make sure the issue is not related to closed ports.

[Parchin]

5 minutes ago, Ink said:

Captain, could you please send connection test report via Steam launcher 3rd option to make sure the issue is not related to closed ports.

Report number is NAS-1027559.

[Cecil Selous]

Small thing I noticed. If you have a custom paint on a ship it doesn't show in the port UI.

[Old Crusty]

I just placed a sell contract for hull and rigging repairs in Little River. It took the repairs from my ship first and then from the warehouse. I am sure that is not intended and needs to be fixed.

[Anolytic]

@Wraith, @vazco and others have some good points about the new UI and about the amount of clicking for each operation. But they are perhaps conditioned to be more critical of this particular aspect of the game than what the average user will be. 

11 hours ago, admin said:

you can already customize the hotkeys.

Personally I have no gripes regarding the new UI (apart from the lack of text to accompany the icons). I liked the old one and I like the new one. I really like the fonts you used though, I wouldn't mind knowing what fonts they are?

But regarding statements like the one above, wouldn't just answering questions raised about UI with that there are hotkeys be a bit of a cop-out? 

Forgive me, but isn't the point of the UI that it should be smooth and intuitive (I'm not saying that I think it isn't)?

If it's clunky so we have to use hotkeys instead of the icons, wouldn't that suggest that usability isn't optimal?

On a personal note, I'm not sure I'm going to get used to using the hotkeys, but I assume that I will soon be sufficiently familiar with the icons to use them efficiently.

Also, I think that I know exactly what @vazco means about splitting repairs being "hard". I've noticed the same. I have big stacks of repairs in most ports, and splitting off the amounts needed for my ship to leave port just feels like it is that little bit too slow and difficult. Part of it is getting used to new things, like the fact that scrolling when splitting stacks is now opposite of what it was in the old interface if I'm not mistaken. Now scrolling the mousewheel "up" increases the stack size, while before scrolling "up" moved the slider towards the left, and scrolling "down" moved it towards the right. It's however also the annoyingly long lag every time the hold or warehouse updates, which is every time you move something. Moving hull, rig and rum means 3 lags for splitting off the stacks, 3 for moving them to the hold, and then for those of us who are a little bit neurotic another 2-3 lags when rearranging the stacks into the right order in the hold.

Getting the right stack size of repairs by just moving the slider with your mouse pointer is simply inconceivable if you have more than a couple of hundred repairs in your warehouse. You won't even end up in the ballpark, so you either have to scroll for a very long time to get to the right number, or you have to resort to writing the number of items you want in your stack, which is probably what you should get used to doing anyway.

And then there's one more thing I realised has been bothering me in the UI:

If I have more than 2 windows open. I.e hold, warehouse and chest. And I want to drag something from one of those windows to another. Then if one of those windows are behind both of them, and I drag something from my hold to my chest, then as soon as my mouse hovers over the background window it gets pushed to the foreground, covering my other windows.

So if I want to drag something from one window to another I have to only have those windows open, and close all others until I'm done, or I have to make sure the two windows overlap so I can drag from one to another without hovering over the third window.

I'm not sure this can be improved, and I might just have to learn to live with it. But it's been causing me some consternation

[admin]

7 hours ago, Old Crusty said:

I just placed a sell contract for hull and rigging repairs in Little River. It took the repairs from my ship first and then from the warehouse. I am sure that is not intended and needs to be fixed.

it was always like this.. because traders who travel to ports without the warehouses want to sell directly from hold.

[Old Crusty]

1 hour ago, admin said:

it was always like this.. because traders who travel to ports without the warehouses want to sell directly from hold.

I have been selling repairs for months and this is the first time it has happened.it doesn’t make sense for traders either. 

Sell from warehouse first, then hold. If you have no warehouse then it comes straight from hold.

[Ouwe Knar]

23 hours ago, William Livingston Alden said:

"current buildings were closed and wiped for all players (costs to reopen was added to redeemables) "

Sorry but I got nothing except the 2k Doublons!

 

Same here I say*

[Old Crusty]

I don’t know if this is a bug or not. 

The Btitish took Omoa where I have an outpost. I had an LGV, and a Trader Brig with a few things in warehouse. I loaded the LGV and went to Truxillo and then tried to close my outpost in Omoa. 

The warning came up and said I would lose any ships and all stuff in warehouse, it had me type close, then it said unable to close because I have a ship docked. So now I can’t close Omoa unless I jump in a basic cutter and waste 45 minutes of my valuable time to do a round trip to Omoa so I can close the output. 

I am hoping this is a bug and not another scheme to get me out sailing (wasting my time for no gain)

[Forlorn Hope]

Yeah, most of the changes are 'time wasters' Devs do not understand forcing ppl to sail just means lots of RA types sailing around in cutters. My wife already thinks this game is just a sailing screen saver.

[Guest]

@admin , maybe you guys should have replaced “Teleport” with “Quick Sail”, and then the fee might have gone down smoother, you know with alittle descriptive labeling, like it costs to sail, so therefore the cost (fee) of quick sailing makes some sense.

 

Edited November 3, 2018 by Guest

[Aldeveron]

On 10/31/2018 at 9:49 AM, admin said:

Please provide feedback on the port interface and its usability. 

I'd like to express my praise for the tasteful graphic artistry seen in the new port UI, especially, for example, the Events and Missions window:
I'd like to see equivalent finesse applied to the gameplay environment, making it more convincingly like the Caribbean. Why not give us some of the beautiful turquoise and blue seas of the Caribbean - and some of the cloudless blue skies? How about some exotic birds? And how about some whitewashed buildings, rather than having all of them rendered in that rather strange orangey-tan colour?

Edited November 3, 2018 by Aldeveron

[AngryPanCake]

It seems like the sorting function for "Type" does not work very well. Everything is working fine: Sort by Buy/Sell prices, Item Name, but not Type.

 

[Capn Rocko]

It would be nice if there was a button to un-equip your ship in the "Navy" menu. Currently, if you only have one ship in port, you have to teleport to another port and teleport back to be able to tow your ship. 

[Liq]

Can we please get the option to cut FPS when in port, just like we get the option to cut max fps in battle / OW ?

Only one char was in OW, rest in Port. RIP my cpu

 

[Capn Rocko]

4 minutes ago, Liq said:

Can we please get the option to cut FPS when in port, just like we get the option to cut max fps in battle / OW ?

I have heard from a few people that port UI is putting heavy loads on their CPU/GPU. This is not a problem for me, but I have a nice gaming computer. 

[Liq]

2 minutes ago, Capn Rocko said:

I have heard from a few people that port UI is putting heavy loads on their CPU/GPU. This is not a problem for me, but I have a nice gaming computer. 

my rig is okay ish, gtx 1070 and i7 6700k

game runs fine on one client only

[RedPanther]

When you want to sell a ship in port... and you hit "to auction", then it says "ship nead zu be repaired" instead of "needs to be repaired"

[CptPrincess]

10 hours ago, Capn Rocko said:

It would be nice if there was a button to un-equip your ship in the "Navy" menu. Currently, if you only have one ship in port, you have to teleport to another port and teleport back to be able to tow your ship. 

Totally agree that a move-to-dock option on your main ship is needed but I think a work around that currently functions is right-click->send to fleet->right-click->move to dock.

Failing that, you can always grab a B. Cutter, assign that to main, tow the ship, sell the cutter, provided you have the dock space for a temporary cutter

[AngryPanCake]

For change, instead of posting about what I didn't like, I am posting what I like:

The new gun equipment system is very nice. You open the ship equipment window, it shows you what guns/carronades can be mounted on that ship. Clicking on the box opens a window that shows you what appropriate guns are available in your warehouse and double clicking the gun of choice, it mounts them directly. You don't have to split and get the exact number you need per deck! just double click and the guns are transferred to the deck...et voila!

In my opinion, the best improvement was getting rid of gun/carro classes and just work with shot weight...excellent change!

 

[Capn Rocko]

On 11/1/2018 at 10:29 AM, admin said:

you can already customize the hotkeys.

@admin Is there any way the port hotkeys can independent of the OW/sailing hotkeys? Right now, when I set my warehouse to "W" key, it deletes the entry for "sails up". But there is no scenario where I will need to access my warehouse and put up my sails at the same time. 

[Capn Rocko]

I don't like how the windows automatically come to the front as you move over them. As shown in this video, they get in the way more times than not. Maybe there could be an option in the menu to turn this feature on/off? 

Edited November 4, 2018 by Capn Rocko

[Wind]

War and Peace on server page do not make any sense, switch them around @admin

Peace PvE - Ships fire guns 

War PvP - Ship is peacefully sailing 

Also, please add a warning to when you do not have the required amount of guns when mounting Ex. in red - 24/26

Edited November 4, 2018 by Wind

[Aster]

Not sure if its been answered yet but since trade ships apparently are whats generating goods in ports now. What does the trading post upgrade in ports actually do?