User interface improvements (suggestion and discussion)

Here some suggestions with existing user interface issues and suggestions for improvements. Most of them are NOT that difficult.

  • I really hope the UI / operation of the telehandler is improved. On PTS, thats plain nonsense and a pain in the butt. I really hope that putting the telehandler to operation will allow six buttons on the gamepad being temporarily reassigned. You need arm lower/higher, arm extend/retrieve, fork up/down while being able to drive. Make use of the D-Pad plus two controller buttons like 1&4 or X/Y while the module is active.
    Done in the meanwhile

  • the UI of the exploration unit is still a series of keypresses to activate and get back rather than a single menu call and getting back to drive mode after its finished. There is never a reason to scan twice from the same spot.

  • Gearbox: Slamming the brake and staying on it in "A" should not autoreverse immediately. Allow "release and brake again" to reverse or even disable this autoreverse. For wheel users its non-intuitive. Brake is brake.

  • Gearbox: If you allow on game controllers two buttons for "shift up/down" existing gears (RLHA) with the existing gearbox - problem of the strange gearbox UI solved to 100%. Wheel users will also like this with "Gear flippers". Suggestion: left/right shoulder buttons with a short press - shift up/down. If you are already in auto, its "clutch trigger". Long press of these buttons is as now manual clutch with gear selection (so compatible) and activating the handbrake or "shift" function on the other side. No total redesign, but an evolution. And really convenient. I already made that by script, really love it. Doesnt sound much, but changing from high to low or A to high and back with a single short push - great. Another option would be, that e.g. the left shoulder button is used as "shift" key rather than brake and you can reassign the D-Pad with at least the X/Y key. Six additional functions for less often used stuff as "Light, beacons, attach/detatch trailer, park brake, engine...."

  • Wheel & Keyboard config: Allow key assignments for "attach trailer", "use crane", "operate my module".

  • Visuals: "beacons default off" or at least "remember last setting". Allow a "medium and high light setting" to avoid overexposure on winter maps. A short klick on "light" will toggle OFF>Low>High and a long push may toggle the beacons. Simple. Edit: 12.4 seems to HAVE the remember of last status.

  • Garage & truck storage: If you sell a truck, please save the configuration. If you buy that truck again, offer an "buy with last configuration" option if there is enough cash. The game mechanics "not losing a dime" with a sell/rebuy should encourage changing your trucks rather than "then I need my config back again" stuff.

  • Trailer store: move unsuitable trailers to the end and grey-out or cross them out. I dont care. Why should you be able to select unsuitable trailers? If you have a saddle, offer "fitting" semitrailers with the proper saddle first and sort them by the amount of cargo slots.

  • trailer store: if you get in the store with an attached one, why not preselect the attached trailer so its a single click to sell it? Its even marked in the dialogue. What do you THINK I wanna do as a user?

  • Trailer operation and managing fuel sources: Never allow a completely filled up destination being a "fuel target" as the dialogue pops up. Makes no sense to refill a fuel trailer with my depleted vehicle tank. Please preselect the largest source of fuel as initial selection of a source. If there is a fuel trailer, don't offer me the roofrack first. If I like to refill a fuel trailer from my vehicles tank or roofrack, I can and will still do that. But 99% of all operations are the other way round.

  • wheel users & functions menu are messy. Do following test: get to a downhill section. Stay on the brake pedal in e.g. low. Vehicle is stopped. Activate "functions". Although you are still on the brake, the vehicle will roll downhill as the brake signal is not accepted anymore as long as the functions menu is active. You close functions, brake is there again. Makes no sense.

  • camera: The camera position seems to be defined by the rear axle. That makes the camera shaky with tall and bouncy trailers. Tall cargo may also obstruct your vision as the camera height is restricted. Please allow a bit more forward movement and optional height above cargo. Or define that position with respect to the front axle. So a bouncing trailer does not make your camera shake and causing some motion sickness. Its sometimes dammn close to.

  • Map UI: mark "scanned, but not activated tasks" with a different color. See also https://forums.focus-home.com/topic/55400/suggestion-for-an-improved-map-user-interface for improvements.

last edited by JTT

I would also add, what has been asked a lot of times, but never paid attention.

  • Disable auto reverse option for auto. In auto mode it is impossible to hold a truck by the breaks.
  • Move task givers to the task section of the map menu. There is no reason they should be in objects menu. Especially above the Garage.
  • Move Garage on top of the objects map menu.
  • Fix finally this aggressive switching of auto to the 1st gear. Sometimes it is that much stupid, when it switches you to the 1st gear, that cause instant wheel blocking and uncontrolled sliding. This is ridiculous! There is such technique in rally driving to cause sliding. But it is done only on manual gearbox in a controlled fashion. In Snowrunner the road aspect of the physics works as intended, but stupid auto gearbox settings ruins everything.
  • Where is manual gearbox with shifter that the DEVs was asked since day 1 of the release?! Over half a year passed. More than enough time to do something finally.
last edited by Tigron

good above

+basics, return from mudrunner, PLEASE:

  1. INDIVIDUAL VEHICLE MILEAGE

  2. WINCH PULL MODE

last edited by Stazco

@Tigron said in User interface improvements (suggestion and discussion):

Where is manual gearbox with shifter that the DEVs was asked since day 1 of the release?! Over half a year passed. More than enough time to do something finally.

I would be already happy if the fallback "auto-downshift" to full stop and first gear would not happen that much any more. Shifting is with game controller (likely 90-95% of all users) and holding down a clutch key plus D-Pad or mouse plainly a pain in the butt.

Going always back to first is like "Mommy, I am in top gear and my engine is shaking and not revving ..... No, not the TV show, I am talking of my gearbox .... So you think I shall shift down? ... Really? ... Ok Mommy, if you say so. Love you, see you next sunday for lunch.... -- Shit its now stalled"

how about bringing back the map function where we could drag the waypoint line on the map and add new point or while holding R2 on console that was useful as f...

@JTT said in User interface improvements (suggestion and discussion):

  • camera: The camera position seems to be defined by the rear axle. That makes the camera shaky with tall and bouncy trailers. Tall cargo may also obstruct your vision as the camera height is restricted. Please allow a bit more forward movement and optional height above cargo. Or define that position with respect to the front axle. So a bouncing trailer does not make your camera shake and causing some motion sickness. Its sometimes dammn close to.

That's an interesting take. I thought the camera bouncing around was because of tall trucks at the back pushing it up and down on bouncy roads. I usually just move the camera aside so it stops but never thought about the rear axle thing.

With that said I also have some borderline motion sickness from it because it's 100% manual now. There are no more quick snap camera buttons like Mudrunner had on d-pad left/right

In mudrunner it was a piece of cake to survey your immediate surroundings while moving and there was barely any manual adjustment necessary with the way the d-pad was used to snap the camera around including trailer view.

Now there's soooooo muuuuuch awkward swiveling and twisting and bouncing, it gets really disorienting in certain situations.

@Piecekeeper00

I am not 100% sure if my assumption is right - but a flatbed 2070A in with no cargo in lowplus on Taymyr and a tall service trailer - I assume its the trailer.

What I really like to see (aside a "fix it") - if you could store camera positions. Like left/right side of truck, center middle "front forward looking" and "look back". Assignable to e.g. the D-Pad on my wheel. So I can quickly change the camera by simply pushing the D-Pad.

last edited by JTT

@JTT said in User interface improvements (suggestion and discussion):

@Piecekeeper00

I am not 100% sure if my assumption is right - but a flatbed 2070A in with no cargo in lowplus on Taymyr and a tall service trailer - I assume its the trailer.

Any tall truck, or tall object on a truck causes it for me if the camera is over the truck or very close. It's like the truck, trailer, cargo or any physical part of the truck, if it's tall enough, is bumping against the camera repeatedly.

I should mention that I use legacy camera.

@JTT said in User interface improvements (suggestion and discussion):

@Piecekeeper00

What I really like to see (aside a "fix it") - if you could store camera positions. Like left/right side of truck, center middle "front forward looking" and "look back". Assignable to e.g. the D-Pad on my wheel. So I can quickly change the camera by simply pushing the D-Pad.

Have you played Mudrunner? It was pretty much exactly as you describe except you couldn't customize and save the angles. I could go on all night about the genius of the camera in that game. I was pretty damn disappointed with snowrunner when I found out the whole system had been axed and we were left with only nausea inducing swiveling. No one seems to care that much, but the camera hasn't exactly been suuuuper well received in Snowrunner. I was expecting more Mudrunner players moving to SN to come out of the woodwork about that but it hasn't really happened.

last edited by Piecekeeper00

Havn't played a single second Mudrunner. But I am quite familiar with shitty user interfaces as I am currently fixing one as a smaller part of my job 😉

Everybody knows how to store a radio station in an old car stereo - adjust the frequency and then push "the button" for some seconds. And here we have a pretty poor camera control with no options to store a certain perspective. Despite you cant see "everything" from your default position. "Surprise, I am a treestump - got you!"

Would simply imply, that there is a short and long press detection on game controllers and that there are likely 4 camera positions to be stored.

last edited by JTT

I personally miss not having to close the cargo selection window when manually loading cargo. Now I constantly have to close and re-open the cargo selection window just to use the crane.

And, to add insult to injury, the crane now resets every time I open said window. EVERY. GOD. DAMNED. TIME.

And yeah, fix the gearbox coding. Try making the the gear, speed and RPM actually related to each other.

Seriously, Mudrunner's gearbox is more preferable.

last edited by Rin_Lynn

This whole thread is a winner. I hope the devs take some tips from this. Excellent discussion!

Well, at least they have "fixed" the Telehandler. A bit better now, but not that good/intuitive. Updated at least the first issue from the I think 10.0 version.

last edited by JTT

@JTT said in User interface improvements (suggestion and discussion):

Trailer store: move unsuitable trailers to the end and grey-out or cross them out. I dont care. Why should you be able to select unsuitable trailers? If you have a saddle, offer "fitting" semitrailers with the proper saddle first and sort them by the amount of cargo slots.

I justed wanted to mention (i know this point is still a good sugestion and still valid and i agree.) BUT you know that entering a trailer store with no saddle mounted at all, you get the option to mount any trailer, the appropriate saddle comes in that case with the choosed trailer, just a tip and headsup for anyone actually.

I think you could have like in Gmail, favorites... would be nice, with a star you just check and they end up at the top of the list.**

@JTT said in User interface improvements (suggestion and discussion):

trailer store: if you get in the store with an attached one, why not preselect the attached trailer so its a single click to sell it? Its even marked in the dialogue. What do you THINK I wanna do as a user?

YES, very good sugestion!

@JTT said in User interface improvements (suggestion and discussion):

Wheel & Keyboard config: Allow key assignments for "attach trailer", "use crane", "operate my module".

Oh YES, this is important!
Just mada a post about it here, please upvote:
https://forums.focus-home.com/topic/57533/v-space-v-space-v-space

@evilomatic

Good point with "suitable saddle will be mounted". But you have still a machine having the potential for saddle high and saddle low. So the standard trailers should be for a "semi trailer truck configuration" listed behind the semis as second priority.

And I like the idea of having some favorite trailers, so you do not need to scroll that much. Kind of "most often used AND fitting three ones".

Edit: Is it me or does 12.4 on PTS does remember the last selected beacon settings?