VMEDS Main Menu & Lauching Suggestion

[grash]

Menu Order
Esc key is linked to perform F1 operation. Given the suggestion above, it would make sense to move the Pilot documentation from
F4 to F1. It's the first thing on the menu, and for new player the first thing they'll want to look at!

Launching
Right now from the Main menu, you have to open the telnet, connect to the dock, and the launch... While this makes sense within the set up of the game, it does not make sense inters of interface design for a game. Ideally, we want to get into game as fast a possible and with as few barriers. Each one of those operations to launch the ship, is an place where you can lose a new player who hasn't figured things out yet. When I first started playing Jameson, it took me a bit fumbling around, not realizing what I was doing before I launched. This alone can lose new players right away.

The suggestion to improve this is (With moving Pilot Docs to F1) Make F4 a launch option when docked.

[Darkond2100]

Well said, though I think it should be even more laissez faire and give players costomization of the game controls.
I USE BIG WORDS AND OVERLY LONG SENTENCES

~Cpt Darkond

[stereotypo]

Do not be afraid, Darkond of the expanded vocabulary of an individual who is willing to conduct a proper discussion.

As for my opinion, While I feel that the lack of sensible interface adds more to the atmosphere of the game than it detracts from the UI accessibility. VMEDs is supposed to be inefficient, (but technically still more efficient that a GUI).

Grash, your solution is rather elegant but I suppose it's up to Farbs to implement it, or anything for that matter...

[grash]

After playing a bit more, I've come to realize that
"F1 is non functional while in Dock'.... But When you're Undocked, F1 puts you back in the game.

So a more elegant solution would be F1 to Undock while in Dock. Hence the main menu behaves the same while in Dock and Not.

[10tativ]

I definitely agree with the Menu Order but I'm a bit of a masochist with these games - I think a fairly big part of the feel of the game comes from being dropped into the game with barely any help. I still think that VMEDS needs quite a bit of redoing, and custom controls, for 0.6.

[grash]

Mar 17, 2012 9:02:24 GMT 10 10tativ said:

I think a fairly big part of the feel of the game comes from being dropped into the game with barely any help.

There's only a certain amount of learn on your own that you can really do. If you never explain how to float, they'll never swim... and if you throw them into the deep end like that, they'll drown.

They'll leave and not come back.

[elvengod]

rather than "redoing" the main menu, why doesn't Farbs just add a little optional tutorial before the main menu even opens that appears immidiatly when you start the game? that way, there is the floaty so you can learn to swim, but you still have the option to dive stair in without it.

[Captain Michaela Nul'dolaer]

Hmm, this is an awesome discussion! But, it's old as fck.