[Feedback] List of Potential Quality of Life Improvements (Updated 12/7/2018)

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duncan idaho
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Re: [Feedback] List of Potential Quality of Life Improvements (Updated 12/4/2018)

Post by duncan idaho » Thu, 6. Dec 18, 02:45

Great suggestions! Hope this gets the attention it deserves.

Pind
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Re: My additions

Post by Pind » Thu, 6. Dec 18, 05:18

Thank you everyone for your suggestions!

I have updated the list accordingly, although not all suggestions were QOL-related (that means obvious solutions for ease-of-use, affecting everyone) so those weren't included. Some responses below as well.
grapedog wrote:
Wed, 5. Dec 18, 04:04
Pind wrote:
Tue, 4. Dec 18, 06:44
grapedog wrote:
Tue, 4. Dec 18, 01:53
Didn't see it listed, but I'd love some kind of zoom/scale option on the map. So I can look at 2 different sectors, zoom into a certain point, and know I've got the same amount of stuff visible on my map. It would greatly help with the efficient placement of satellites, advanced satellites, and stations, if I had some idea of the scale of how zoomed in I am and relative distances.
I see the reason for this but won't include it yet because I can't think of a simple/intuitive way to implement and solve the problem. Any ideas?
I work on aircraft for a living, and working with radar, there is just a little number with up and down arrows next to it on a radar display. The number indicates the viewable area like square kilometers, and the arrows indicate whether or not you can zoom in or out more. once you hit max zoom, the down(or zoom in indicator) arrow disappears, and when you zoom out fully, the up arrow disappears.

It would really come down to sector sizes. We know some sectors are different sizes, but did they use specific numbers, like for example the smallest sector is 28sq KM... the next size up is 56, 112... you get the idea. I'm sure egosoft has some sort of standard for when they were making sectors, they weren't just willy nilly making different sizes. Once the sizes are known, it's pretty easy to create a set of zoom options that could cover them all, or each size sector individually.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Exa ... _258681577

This picture is an example of a weather radar, I'm guessing that the top right corner is saying 80 nautical miles(80NM), put some arrows next to it, that can be activated to zoom in or out, in specified amounts. each zoom, in or out, is say 30NM... or KM, for the X series. Probably for the X series maps, you'd do it in chunks of 100km or so...maybe more.

I'm not sure how/if you want to package all this in a bite size format, but there it is, lol.
OK, I strongly agree here that a lack of map scale does make it difficult for satellite placement and to measure distance in general. So I've added to the list a "scale indicator" for the map. I do feel like there is a better way to solve this problem so the conversation continues...
ghowsak wrote:
Wed, 5. Dec 18, 05:33
I would like to see something like this in near future:

-The ability to retract the landing pads of your ship. So that you can put the landed ship/drone into internal storage.
Currently the landed ship/drone only gets put in automatically, and only if something else needs the pad (something else landing/starting)
>This could be implemented in multiple ways:
>>Function added to the Ship Quick Menu -> Screen
>>Function added buried on the Map screen Info Panel
>>Function added to the console in front of each Landing Pad -> Screen

Building on top of this feature:
-The ability to see all landed ships/drones in your Ship Quick Menu
>This could be implemented like so:
>>When you select the Landing Pad point, the list of all landed ships/drones at that location shows to the right (or always) -> Screen

And speaking of drones:
-The ability to customize the behaviour of the drones, esp. combat drones
>This could be implemented in multiple ways:
>>Function added buried on the Map screen Info Panel -> Screen
>>If previous feature is added to the game, simply clicking on the drone, right click, and then the customize menu like everything else

Hope my Paint skills didn't make your eyes bleed.

greetings,
ghowsak
I am not this far in the game yet so I am guessing this is referring to External/Internal docking in X4? Unfortunately though I think your suggested UI changes are functional they don't pass my simple and clean interface test. For now I will simply add "landed ships list for stations (accessible through map)". Drone behavior also added under features.
IRONOX wrote:
Wed, 5. Dec 18, 07:31
Hotkey for scanning ships or increase scanning range. trying to scan a Xenon N in less than 1km range, at 322m/s, and 3 buttons to press to make that darn scan, while i have to hold clear vision on the target, is way to much!
Seon wrote:
Thu, 6. Dec 18, 00:14
Luxury/QOL, but I should be able to select a group of ships and rename them to "X n+1". So Miner 01, Miner 02 etc. Just had to rename my miners from Miner 1 -> Miner 01 etc, and it was unpleasant. Honestly
Good one! Scan hotkey added to list (under context menu hotkeys).
Nanopizza wrote:
Wed, 5. Dec 18, 22:53
I have a couple.

1: Filling out the entire encyclopedia. Of course the stuff critical to gameplay should come first, but the lore and worldbuilding of the X Universe has always been one of the strongest aspects and has made it feel more alive than most space sims, so having that lore to read really helps the believably of the world. Perhaps not QoL but it would make the quality of my experience better so.

2: Being able to use the travel elevators in stations to go to shops/traders on the same platform. For example if I land my ship over one side of the dock and the shop is on the other, I have to walk there. Instead being able to use the travel-pod-elevator-things to quick-travel to that shop would save a lot of time.
Flavor/lore encyclopedia (though it would be GREAT, as in previous X games) unfortunately falls out of scope for this thread. I also don't like walking to the trader, but prefer to simply comms the trader from the cockpit of my ship and have the goods delivered! So I'll leave the list as is for now.
DaMuncha wrote:
Thu, 6. Dec 18, 00:10
I would like a camera zoom. So I can see what Im flying into. or see those pesky mines around a ship.
Also miss this feature, added. Though with less combat this is not a huge issue right now.
Arretu wrote:
Thu, 6. Dec 18, 01:27
On the Logistics Overview, once you get onto stage 2 production (e.g. silicon -> wafers -> microchips), the horizontal scroll bar is a clunky piece of awfulness. Either make it analogue for that smooth scrolling feel, or let us use the mouse wheel to scroll horizontally while hovering the cursor over the horizontal scroll bar. Ideally both.

Luxury/QOL, but I should be able to select a group of ships and rename them to "X n+1". So Miner 01, Miner 02 etc. Just had to rename my miners from Miner 1 -> Miner 01 etc, and it was unpleasant. Honestly going to restart before I get to the "010" namechange because that will be hell.
Not this far in the game yet. Can you take a couple screenshots to show me this problem (logistics one)?

Mrouija
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Re: [Feedback] List of Potential Quality of Life Improvements (Updated 12/6/2018)

Post by Mrouija » Thu, 6. Dec 18, 06:28

Just a short list of things I either noticed or desired during probably 20 hours of playing. Admittedly, I did not read the entire thread and probably not all entries qualify for "quality of life."
  1. Company license, name and configuration independent of player name.
  2. Company liveries
  3. Faction dependent research
  4. Free market tech that appears based upon overall tech level of factions, companies or empires [ie: anybody who can hold a sector]. All factions shouldn't necessarily start out with Mk3 engines, they should be progressed to as the game develops.
  5. Do away with the Mk system in general. I know Egosoft was pressed for time, and this wasn't a high priority... but the whole red, green, blue variant system is a bit disappointing. Hoping it's mostly placeholder.
  6. Personally, I'd like the option to play without travel drives but with SATA as a default state.
  7. [QOL] Allow fast transit from a ship docked on a station to wherever. Allow it to go directly to trade offices etc.
  8. I was disappointed that you can't actually walk off of "docking" modules. I think the game should just switch to EVA once the confines of a docking bay are escaped. Maybe a magboots upgrade?
  9. Improve the sector jabber in all respects. Variety, clarity etc.
  10. Some visual indicator of ships loading and unloading. All these fancy docks, so little actually going on. Give ship crews something to do.
  11. Load/Unload times are very low for a game that is basically intended to be run real time.
  12. Improve the combat fx, I'm sure this was intentionally delayed for 'later', but it is quite bad.
  13. [QOL] FOV slider/config.
  14. [QOL] Boresight target key
  15. [QOL] Reduce spacedust a bit
  16. [QOL] Depth of field to reduce that obnoxious white pixel twinkle on remote stations in darker systems.
  17. [QOL] Strongly reconsider the placement of resource fields as they relate to highways and major trade centers.
  18. [QOL] Pilot management screen (dedicated)
  19. [QOL] Speed matching in travel mode
  20. [QOL] Screenshot keybind
  21. [QOL] Keep the location of the trade offers static on the map/trade screen. It's infuriating to chase them around the map window. Just a list, on the right, that when you mouse over the ware in question a line is drawn to the sector/station on the map.
  22. [QOL] Tell me what killed me when I die. I had a satellite deployment mission end explosively last night and here I am this morning still wondering what actually happened.
Sorry for duplicates and/or other irrelevancies.
Last edited by Mrouija on Thu, 6. Dec 18, 18:00, edited 1 time in total.

furirkeeper
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Re: [Feedback] List of Potential Quality of Life Improvements (Updated 12/6/2018)

Post by furirkeeper » Thu, 6. Dec 18, 10:02

[Tedium] I think the configurable options when a ship is asked to drop its wares could use an option to simply "ignore" the request. The ship would then just continue what it was doing and not slow down or do something else that require your immediate attention (useful for fast but defenceless ships).

[Features] Maybe I have missed it, but some way to see trade ware supply and demand depth without manually looking in every sector/station. Now if looking in the map and zooming out you only see the cheapest sell and highest buy price and their respective amounts. So now if I globally can see that I can buy 10000 really cheap <wares> and sell 100 of those for a lot of money I don't know how much I get for the remaining 9900 <wares> or even if there is a demand for them without zooming in and looking in every sector. If someone knows how to do this, please tell me how.

Thank you for putting this list together.

pittlebelge
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Re: [Feedback] List of Potential Quality of Life Improvements (Updated 12/6/2018)

Post by pittlebelge » Thu, 6. Dec 18, 11:09

Here is Zog Zog's list for quality of life, perhaps some already there but Zog Zog doesn't know :

- When docked to bigger ship with little ship, on the overhead menu, have a teleport to bridge option if player unlocked it.
- When teleport done, close map. If Zog Zog teleports, Zog Zog wants to do stuff in the world, not on the map.
- Autotrader and autominer are good options for elves, they make easy to do complex stuff. Zog Zog would like better complex orders for Decked small ships on big, big ships. Like :
-- For small escort : Stay docked until under attack. If attacked, kill all in 5k radius and dock back when done. If health of little ship <50%, dock back. If small ships wants to go far from big ship, come back.
-- For small bomber : Stay docked until wing attack order, kill target and then other big ship in 10k radius. If health of little ship <50%, dock back. If small ships wants to go far from big ship, come back. If no more missile, come back.
- Possibilities of making different wings decked on one big ship and select them easy
- Save small ship numbers and type on big ship : if small ships are lost, can issue order to big ship's captain to go around shipyards and buy small ships with same load out

- Flee sector order, ship will not engage, just run away to nearest non-hostile sector and hold, moving to travel mode asap.

- Favorite ship and stations on map : If ship is a favorite, it will always appear on the property list, even if not in view on map screen. Many ships and even whole wing at once can be favorite.
- SETA, Travel mode toggle and stop engine to work on map. For many reasons, Zog Zog want to turn fast travel on and off all the time when on map screen.
- When in station build mode, autosave changes on exiting screen. Zog Zog lost too much work of constructions planning when traveling because Zog Zog closed map mode to try to avoid collision.

- Zog Zog wants to clutter his HUD : Have options to see contact list, missions offer list, even trade prices for the elves. All of them to be seen on screen when flying around. Missions are especially important, Zog Zog often moves fast on highway looking for missions. Zog Zog would rather see the universe than map and be able to react faster, leaving highway before reaching gates.
- When using view to the side or up down in cockpit, have it recenter either if opposite side view button pressed or same side. Zog Zog doesn't want to use recenter button. Zog Zog has no center button on POV hat on joystick.
- Zog Zog likes to ogle ship's exterior, Zog Zog presses F2 twice, but looking over is weird, Zog Zog thinks that frame of reference for view rotation is universe, not ship. Zog Zog wants ship to be reference frame, makes it simpler for Zog Zog's head to understand.
- When Zog Zog is in ship and lets Captain take control, Zog Zog would sometimes like to have captain keep Zog Zog's move order for autopilot and sometimes not. Zog Zog would like to tell captain to keep going following move order in dialog. Perhaps other options would be nice, like fighting or fleeing.
- Zog Zog would like a way to know if ship's systems are damaged in cockpit view when in combat. Xenon defense drone destroyed Zog Zog's engine and Zog Zog did not know about it until engine destroyed and ship stuck.

That is all that Zog Zog thinks of now, perhaps there will be more later.

Zog Zog out

RomanRichter
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Re: [Feedback] List of Potential Quality of Life Improvements (Updated 12/6/2018)

Post by RomanRichter » Thu, 6. Dec 18, 11:28

Couple of things I think can be improved:
Make separate crew-management tab with full control over crew without need to comm them every time if they was assigned as captain.
Reassign crew from captain to another jobs.
Auto unlock mouse when action menu opened up.

Zasso
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Re: [Feedback] List of Potential Quality of Life Improvements (Updated 12/6/2018)

Post by Zasso » Thu, 6. Dec 18, 11:33

Could you add a Field of View / FoV slider/setting to the list?
I've been asking for this feature which was in X3 since 2 weeks before release but had 0 information regarding if it's even a known issue which fully prevents someone like me from being able to play and enjoy the game as per my thread: viewtopic.php?f=146&t=401712
X:Rebirth didn't have it, X3 did. I've spend hundreds of hours on X3 with and without mods, but could barely play X:Rebirth and was worried X4 wouldn't have it either, and indeed after 10 hours of playing X4 without it I had to quit from getting too sick.

djviperx
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Re: [Feedback] List of Potential Quality of Life Improvements (Updated 12/6/2018)

Post by djviperx » Thu, 6. Dec 18, 13:05

This thread is just awesome, bumping it up with the hope that any of the devs could see it

Zealoth
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Re: [Feedback] List of Potential Quality of Life Improvements (Updated 12/6/2018)

Post by Zealoth » Thu, 6. Dec 18, 14:38

  1. Sensitivity settings for all bound axes. My Thrustmaster rudder on throttle is so sensitive i literally have to tap it microscopically
  2. Throttle control in travel mode
  3. Joystick button combos (JOY2 + JOYPOVUP, JOYPOVUP) so I can use same buttons for different sets of things or alternatively just make mode specific setups - same button honks the scanner in Long Scanner mode and Scans target in Scanner Mode
  4. Make full stop work even when in map or menu unless it's bound to something else - some real ouchies were had
  5. Hotkey for Remove All Orders, ability to set a ship to clear orders automatically when I tak command of it (Or make it part of marking it a personal ship which would add it to the top menu where research, map, etc is)
  6. Mission objectives should always include target sector (visible in the abridged description, without going to Open Briefing), or the nice map suggested route should always display even if I am not on a ship

ravisoul
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Re: [Feedback] List of Potential Quality of Life Improvements (Updated 12/6/2018)

Post by ravisoul » Thu, 6. Dec 18, 14:44

nice list!

this however is already in the game: "Deploy Satellite at Location" order

if you select one of your ships (that has satellites) just right click on the map and go to Civilian and then click deploy Satellite
you can even queue them, this is how i deployed like 200 satellites close to stations to get info :) and gates to see traffic

Zealoth
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Re: [Feedback] List of Potential Quality of Life Improvements (Updated 12/6/2018)

Post by Zealoth » Fri, 7. Dec 18, 02:35

After playing some more around with my PHQ complex I realised there is a crucial thing missing from ware management

Ability to restrict just buying or just selling of intermediate wares. Right now you either both buy and sell or not trade.

And my genius 3star station manager happily buys everything he can get his hands on even though the station itself is producing way more of every intermediate ware - so it would be nice to keep just selling on, to get rid of an eventual build-up...

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grapedog
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Re: [Feedback] List of Potential Quality of Life Improvements (Updated 12/6/2018)

Post by grapedog » Fri, 7. Dec 18, 04:47

I'd love to see a tab added to the messages section strictly for assets lost and found. So if you lose a satellite, or freighter, it's listed as it's own line item. Or if your own fleet finds an abandoned ship. All segregated to one tab.

Pind
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Re: [Feedback] List of Potential Quality of Life Improvements (Updated 12/6/2018)

Post by Pind » Fri, 7. Dec 18, 06:21

Updated the list! Couple responses below.
furirkeeper wrote:
Thu, 6. Dec 18, 10:02
[Tedium] I think the configurable options when a ship is asked to drop its wares could use an option to simply "ignore" the request. The ship would then just continue what it was doing and not slow down or do something else that require your immediate attention (useful for fast but defenceless ships).
Does this happen a lot? Describe the situation for me, because I believe there is already an "ignore" option under behaviors.
Zealoth wrote:
Fri, 7. Dec 18, 02:35
Ability to restrict just buying or just selling of intermediate wares. Right now you either both buy and sell or not trade.

And my genius 3star station manager happily buys everything he can get his hands on even though the station itself is producing way more of every intermediate ware - so it would be nice to keep just selling on, to get rid of an eventual build-up...
Seems like an annoying problem! Could you take a screenshot for me for where this function would appear and describe how it might appear?

Mist Dragon
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Re: [Feedback] List of Potential Quality of Life Improvements (Updated 12/7/2018)

Post by Mist Dragon » Fri, 7. Dec 18, 07:16

I am quite tired of having to grab the mouse to click on things that you would expect the primary fire or one of the gamepad buttons to do...but no, to kick the pilot out of my seat...mouse...to sit in my seat...mouse. Really irritating

and the map
close the map, open it and you are zoomed in to where you are, even if you were way zoomed out...no you are now clearly seeing the ship symbol in large on the screen...zoom back out again. and you can't use a cursor to navigate to a specific spot, only x, y....z is impossble to specify in a fly to.

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grapedog
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Re: [Feedback] List of Potential Quality of Life Improvements (Updated 12/7/2018)

Post by grapedog » Fri, 7. Dec 18, 07:40

Mist Dragon wrote:
Fri, 7. Dec 18, 07:16
I am quite tired of having to grab the mouse to click on things that you would expect the primary fire or one of the gamepad buttons to do...but no, to kick the pilot out of my seat...mouse...to sit in my seat...mouse. Really irritating

and the map
close the map, open it and you are zoomed in to where you are, even if you were way zoomed out...no you are now clearly seeing the ship symbol in large on the screen...zoom back out again. and you can't use a cursor to navigate to a specific spot, only x, y....z is impossble to specify in a fly to.
Not to mention, when you open the map, it opens up to the sector you have something selected. So if you went into the map, and another sector and targeted something you wanted to look at, if you don't clear the target, and just open the map again, it will bring you back to that same sector, and not the one you are in.... hard to say if it's a feature or not.

Zippo342
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Re: [Feedback] List of Potential Quality of Life Improvements (Updated 12/7/2018)

Post by Zippo342 » Fri, 7. Dec 18, 10:19

I must ask, how are better controls/rebindable controls/more control options, not Quality of Life? Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean it doesn't help people. Plus they said they are trying to see if they can do it.
Streaming most nights 1800-0000ish at www.twitch.tv/chthonicone/

dreamer2008
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Re: [Feedback] List of Potential Quality of Life Improvements (Updated 12/7/2018)

Post by dreamer2008 » Fri, 7. Dec 18, 10:25

Small suggestion: transport everything related to empire management, ship and weapon balancing, from Litcube's Universe into X4 :P . Also, add some massive smart enemies to have an end goal to use those empire tools against, like the OCV and Phanon Corp.

CaptObvious
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Re: [Feedback] List of Potential Quality of Life Improvements (Updated 12/7/2018)

Post by CaptObvious » Fri, 7. Dec 18, 10:29

Add the ability for construction drones to pull from the station's storage instead of the build storage for modifying existing stations.

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Re: [Feedback] List of Potential Quality of Life Improvements (Updated 12/7/2018)

Post by Grimmrog » Fri, 7. Dec 18, 10:38

manual docking with a mk2 docking computer feels rather non mandatory, all you do is to fly averagley where the landingpad is and it does the rest.

i just wish there were a right click and requets dockign in the map, because I prefer to fly my ship with the mouse. but doing so right clciking on targets during flight keeps the mouse turning enabled and then goign down int he context menu turns the ship.

So maybe an option would be great that allows us to turn off mouse control when we right click for a context menu. I don't really want to manually change this by shift space everytime I wanna use a context menu.

Arretu
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Re: [Feedback] List of Potential Quality of Life Improvements (Updated 12/7/2018)

Post by Arretu » Fri, 7. Dec 18, 11:12

Not this far in the game yet. Can you take a couple screenshots to show me this problem (logistics one)?
Had a think, and I'm not sure the problem itself can be screenshotted, but here you go.

Here you can see both the horizontal and vertical scroll bars. While the vertical bar is analogue (I can move it up and down, and stop at any position even if that cuts the bottom off of some content) the horizontal bar is digital (locks to "steps" of scrolling) and with a Tier 2 production chain (a -> b -> c) can only be positioned as shown. It feels strange and unintuitive. I realise this is by no means a major issue.

It's kinda hard to screenshot something which is to do with the ergonomics of the UI.

edit: And while we're at it, all graphs should autoselect all station products by default. Searching through that list sucks.

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