Planned Decluttering the screen: Replace Popup Window functionality with sane alternatives.

[Winterhome]

We already have icons displaying whether the ship is under the effect of an Effect system - both own-ship and other ships' weapon impacts. I would like to see a number displayed beneath own-ship Effect indicator icon, showing the percentage of the Effects in use. To make it clearer which icons are which, the Block Descriptions for all effects should have their associated Icon printed at the top of the description, so that players may learn to associate the icon with the effect.

This would totally replace the current popup windows that often clutter up the screen and oftentimes make it impossible for players not running at a ludicrously high resolution to see the upper 2/3 of their Power, Aux. Power, and Velocity bars.



Along with this, all other Popup window messages should be moved to a separate Chat Channel - "Server Information" - which would effectively function as a read-only private message channel from the server to the player. Messages passed from the server to the player would be in red so that players may easily identify them as server messages, and would include error messages, debug notifications, Killspam, and the like.

Popup windows are exceptionally disruptive to smooth visual design. Please replace them with the above alternatives so that the game doesn't look like utter trash when recording combat footage, streaming, or generally just playing it - it would be nicely in-line with the recent updates meant to modernize Starmade's UI and graphics.

 

[Heillos]

We already have icons displaying whether the ship is under the effect of an Effect system - both own-ship and other ships' weapon impacts. I would like to see a number displayed beneath own-ship Effect indicator icon, showing the percentage of the Effects in use. To make it clearer which icons are which, the Block Descriptions for all effects should have their associated Icon printed at the top of the description, so that players may learn to associate the icon with the effect.

Addendum: It is with no little confusion that, during the production of "StarMade - Anatomy of a Battle", we noted that the Effect indicator icons for Piercing, Punch-Through, and Stop Effects, are all the icon of the Stop Effect. They also occupy the same icon slot (that is to say, when more than one is active, it will still display only one Stop Effect icon), further compounding the confusion caused.

Should the changes proposed in the OP be set in place, it is absolutely necessary to fix this inconsistency (which should not exist in the first place, as it is known that icons for Piercing and Punch-Through Effect already exist and were in use in the past).

 

[kupu]

Azereiah Absolutely agree with all of that.

It's pretty much inline with my own thoughts on removing the excessive amount of debug / clutter / tedious info for some of the most simple tasks and mechanics in the game.

It's my definitely on my to do list. It's time to start treating the HUD as an immersive element to the game and not a debug tool.

 

[rocketman221]

One of the most annoying popups is the one you get when you open an inventory. They end up on top of the window for the inventory, then you have to wait for them to go away before you can access any items they covered.