Small UI improvements I would love to see in next Sandbox update

[Kyopaxa]

Hi there,

Several times I felt like the UI is being improved awesomely in the visual part, while it still has room for improvement in the user experience part, especially for the actions performed more often, usually behind ridiculous amount of unnecessary clicks. Here are small suggestions that I would love to see in the next Sandbox update, since the UI really looks awesome now, lets focus a little more in the usability:

TL;DR version:

• Display character status info also in the radial menu. Then add drinks and food to the radial menu too.
• Add a second list with recently cooked items in the cooking fire UI. We would be able to directly drink/eat those items from there without having to close the fire UI and find them in the backpack. Especially useful when heating coffee/tea to directly drink it.
• Add double arrows to increase/decrease sleep time or crafting time directly to the max/min amount, without having to click 12 times to select 12 hours.
• Add button to move entire stacked items bypassing the quantity UI.
• Add buttons in the description UI of items for the different objects involved in the different actions of that item. Clicking them will perform those actions directly. Example, show sewing kit in cloth items to directly repair them. Show tools or jerry can in storm lantern to directly repair or refill it, etc. Mouseovering those icons will show a tooltip with required time, success rate, missing reagents and any other info to perform those actions.
• SHIFT+Click when exiting a building will also autosave.
• Add a configurable key to keep walking without having to press W.

 

Detailed version:

More reachable drink and food items

I believe drinking and eating is one of the most performed actions in this game. Having to open the inventory, find the water, then double click it every time I want to drink becomes a little annoying after several days of game time. Especially when you usually have to close other UI to do it. Example before going to sleep:

1. TAB to check status.
2. Open inventory.
3. Click on food/drink filter.
4. Find water and double click it.
5. Find something to eat and double click it.

While it doesn't seem a huge amount of steps, I should remark again that this is one of the most used actions in the game. Would be great if  we could check status and click on any drink or food directly there without having to do all the inventory process. Maybe this could be added to the radial menu, showing the status bars when the radial menu is open and adding food and drinks there available to one or two clicks maximum.

 

Eat/Drink recently cooked items directly from fire UI:

Cooking things to eat or drink is behind an unnecessary amount of clicks. If someone wants to heat a cup of coffee to drink it, this is the current way, assuming you already are at the fire UI:

1. Select coffee
2. Heat it.
3. Close fire UI
4. Open inventory
5. Search for the recently heated coffee. If you have more than one, click all of them until you find the one that's hot.
6. Drink it.

This definitely could be improved by having a second list with recently cooked items in the fire cook UI. Then we could directly drink/eat them from there without having to close the fire UI, open the backpack and find the item in question. Also, there should be some indicator in the inventory to distinguish between hot and cold food/drinks.

 

Increase/Decrease to Max/Min:

Often I find myself adding 12 hours of sleep one by one, meaning 12 clicks every single time I want to go to sleep. Click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click. Same happens for crafting, when selecting 8 hours to spend crafting an item.  Click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click. Please add double arrows for increasing or decreasing hours to the maximum or minimum everywhere.

 

Move all items directly from backpack UI:

Whenever I want to move stacked items--like matches--from one container to another, I have to click the arrow, then a UI appears to select the amount where I usually click to move all. Let's say I have 7 boxes of matches, I need to do this, switching from the inventory UI to the quantity selection UI seven times, moving my mouse back and forth 14 times.

The inventory UI has space to add an extra button in the middle with a double arrow icon, just below the existing big arrow. Please add it so when clicking it, the whole stack will be moved, no intermediate UI needed.

 

Reduce the amount of clicks to recycle, repair, refill:

Very often I feel like this game just became a clickathlon whenever I need to move and click my mouse several times from one corner of the screen to the other, just to be able to repair 5 pieces of clothes. For instance, let me describe the process to repair my smelly socks:

1. Select item in inventory at top left.
2. Click the 'Actions' button at bottom right.
3. Select 'Repair' at top left.
4. Click 'Repair' at bottom right.
5. Click the arrow to choose my desired tool at center.
6. Click 'Select' at bottom right. ---> DONE! (If it doesn't fail, hehe).

Now compare this experience with dropping an item:

1. Select item at top left.
2. Click 'Drop' at bottom right ---> DONE!

Solution

• Add extra buttons at the item description page (where the 'Drop' button is, see screenshot below). Those buttons will have the icons for the different tools involved in the actions of each item. For example, for clothes, if you have both a Sewing kit and Fishing Tackle, two icons will appear to directly repair the item with either the Sewing Kit and Fishing Tackle (If you have more than one, use the one with lower condition automagically). For the Storm Lantern, if you have repair tools and a jerry can, both icons will appear to repair or refill the lantern. Hatchets and knives will show Whetstone icons if you have one, etc. If you don't have enough materials, icons will appear faded.
• Add a recycle/harvest icon to directly recycle/harvest items.
• Move all the calorie cost, time, success rate, materials needed and other info that appears for every action in current UI as a toolltip that appears when moving the mouse over the icons explained above.

 

SHIFT + Click on the door to exit a building automatically saves the game

I find myself going out of the building, entering again and exiting again just for the extra save that happens when you enter a building. Would be great if we could purposely save a game when exiting a place with the SHIFT (or any other key you think its better) pressed.

 

A configurable key to keep moving forward

I had to make an AutoHotKey macro to be able to keep walking forward without the need to stick my finger to the W key--as if it had glue--for more than 5 minutes. This game has hundreds of situations where you need to keep walking, and walking, and walking. Would be great if we could configure a key to keep walking without pressing the W key. Then, pressing Forward or Backward or zoning would cancel the auto-walk mode automatically. However, strafing, crouching and sprinting would not cancel it.

[cekivi]

Interesting suggestions @Kyopaxa and welcome to the forums

[akodo1]

I like your general ideas.  Rather than have a double arrow that goes to max though I'd like a double arrow that goes to 10.  This would be for crafting, moving, dropping, sleeping, etc.  Mainly it's utility would be in moving and dropping stuff like sticks, tinder, etc.  But it would also help you quickly max out your sleep, most crafting, etc.

I also agree that drinking pure water should be on the radial menu.  Not sure eating/drinking other stuff should be, it seems okay to rummage through your pack and see all your options from the inventory menu for that.

The one thing I am surprised to not see you mention is a way to consume whatever you just cooked up on your fire.

Lots of areas should be more fluid, you are spot on for repairing and dropping and other activities taking too many clicks.

 

The ONE action that SHOULD take an extra confirm click is moving from region to region.  I just accidentally went out the carter dam door because I was clicking to turn my lantern off.  F___!

[markala5]

There should be an "unequip button" for lantern, rifle, flare, whatever's in hand, it's too many clicks to unequip stuff.

[Kyopaxa]

4 hours ago, markala5 said:

There should be an "unequip button" for lantern, rifle, flare, whatever's in hand, it's too many clicks to unequip stuff.

There is a hotkey for that. Press H, it should unequip whatever you have in your hands

[Kyopaxa]

5 hours ago, akodo1 said:

The one thing I am surprised to not see you mention is a way to consume whatever you just cooked up on your fire.

I couldn't agree more, I usually mutter some bad language whenever I heat a cup of coffee and I have to open my inventory to find it to drink it. Honestly I totally forgot about it while writing this. I'll definitely add it next to the drinking suggestion.

5 hours ago, akodo1 said:

The ONE action that SHOULD take an extra confirm click is moving from region to region.  I just accidentally went out the carter dam door because I was clicking to turn my lantern off.  F___!

Haha. This is exactly what happened to me the first time I discovered I could click that door. Oh f___! And it was already getting dark. Had to sleep burning fires all night before venturing to find my way back the next morning.

[Gaboris]

Nice ideas. I can always get behind UI improvements, but in this case I have to ask: "What about the console version?" or HECK "What about those who like to play with a controller?"

Should we just drop the ones that can't work when there's a controller or how would we make them work? Add a trigger/bumper combo if icons are meant to be user or the likes?

[Dirmagnos]

Great summary of various ideas.

Ease of food/water consumption. Currently it included quite a few steps, could be improved. Radial menu seem to be logical choice. There should be general section where player can add any specific item he likes to a specific slot.

Eating from cooking menu.

Long awaited, still not implemented. Its rather annoying to have to redo all steps when try to cook and eat as same time. Maybe using modifier key, as shift, for it. Eg. normal button is "cook", but if player holds shift then it changes to "cook and consume". Advanced usage for many simple actions/keys.

Min/max. Move items directly from backpack.

Shift key has been long time modifier for such things. Or any modifier keys, could be customizable for any actions that deal with amounts.

Clicks for repair/recycle/refill.

Possible solution would be to add pictorgrams for all those actions in inventory ui. Select item, select appropriate pictogram, if necessary do additional action, and done. Pictograms would only be clickable when item is selected and only for those actions that can be performed for set item. Additional buttons would do the same, but would take considerably more space.

Autowalk key could be either additional key, double tap or, preferable, just using modifier, eg shift+move forward key.

7 hours ago, Gaboris said:

Nice ideas. I can always get behind UI improvements, but in this case I have to ask: "What about the console version?"

Nobody cares about console peasants. #pcmasterace. 8)

But if devs would simply implement modifier keys, then it would work with controllers as well. After literally thousands of games and various control schemes i find usage of modifier keys and context-specific actions and lock-outs to be most effective way to govern game controls. Usage of Shift/Ctrl/Alt can quadruple amount of available keys, especially if they are togglable.

[Vinceofpyrenees]

yes ! awesome +1. It s right the game is beautiful enough. Let s go for usability !