Friday, May 25, 2012

Unified inventory for non-Luddites. Ok.

     Like so many others of the apparently unclean, change-hating Luddites, I too think the new inventory is fucked up.  I think it's a "change".  Not an improvement.  Not a fix.  So what was the big problem that the CCP wizards figured they'd fix?  Multiple windows.

     So, let's take anything with any kind of storage space at all, jam it all into one window, make all the frames fatter and bigger screen-space hogs, and add more clicks, to do EVERYTHING.  There's also the additional lag, plus all the normal fucked up window behaviours that happen on just about every major patch.

     So about the "multiple windows" . . . uhh, "problem".  If I want multiple windows, I can still have them, they just take up more screen space and add more lag, as mentioned, but how is that helping me or any player by jamming all that shit into a single window?  Apparently the UI bunch don't play as much as they claim, otherwise they'd know that multiple windows CAN BE DOCKED, or UNDOCKED, and managed quite nicley with PERSONALLY NAMED TABS, not something as fucking stupid as " Player's Orca (active ship) Orca".  Really??  That's the best that could be come up with for titles that stretch the shit out of the naming convention and somehow assume that a person sitting with a ship in front of them or flying through space doesn't know that?  That certainly simplifies and clarifies the descriptive convention and eases navigation. Not.    It's brutal, and all the test server players said it was fucked, long before it was installed live, and according to the forum, most of the complaints were ignored, and that too seems to be standard.  Point of fact though, in many other MMOs, devs often don't listen to test server players either.  That doesn't excuse the inventory though.

     It's too bad that every time some "brilliant" GUI change is thought of, the devs don't use their heads and automatically include a disable feature so that players can decide on their own.  If they want to push a stupid "change", it's not too difficult to consider that their perspective is different from the player base.  It's not like there have been a TON of examples like that in Eve history.  Prime example being the stupid captain's quarters.  Maybe they'll clue-in and allow players to go back and use the old inventory system that WASN'T BROKEN.  Maybe, some day, I'll find some activity where this stupid new inventory structure is helpful somehow, but I can't think of anything right now.  I would not be the least surprised if I never find anything that the new inventory does that the old one couldn't do, or even do worse.

     How tough would it be to make some actual USEFUL changes??

1.  Auto SORT the fucking inventory, and yeah, add an on/off switch.
2.  Auto STACK the inventory, and yeah, add an on/off switch.
3.  Enable selling, contracts and trading from ANY inventory window.
4.  Put all the old right click menu options back in, that way, we can navigate around the P.O.S. unified inventory.

There are likely other very obvious omissions that involve other more specific types of play, that I am unaware of, like POS administration, heavy manufacture or trading, but these three things would be super minty to have, in my books.

     A couple things can be kept from the changed UI, things that can and could have been put in the OLD system, without the useless tree structure.

1.  The auto-pricing is funky, but it needs an OFF SWITCH too.  Like, why the fuck do I need a price estimate on a drone bay?  Right click the window, disable price estimates, for ANY window.
2.  The distinction between total volume and selected volume can be kept too.
3.  To further reduce wasted fucking screen space, how tough was it to put the volume, filter window AND the display options ON THE SAME LINE!?  Maybe everyone has, or should have, huge monitors and a single client running like the devs apparently do?
4.  The filters are a good thing too.  it could be put in the old inventory as well.

     If they're going to keep that useless piece of shit of a unified inventory, I hope they add options to allow the players to decide whether they want default mode to be open all inventories in the stupid fucking window, or in their own separate windows.  Maybe, just maybe, CCP will dummy up and rethink THEIR way of playing Eve, THEIR "problem" with multiple windows, and MAYBE man up at put the old inventory back.

     For all the people that are enlightened enough to apparently love the new inventory, and decided that anyone who doesn't share their glee "simply" hates change . . . really??  That is the ONLY thing, in the entire Eve universe of play styles, that you can come up with??  We hate fucking change??  Wow.  Maybe, that kind of "thinker" shares brain space with the CCP clowns who figured multiple windows were a bad thing.  I should be so lucky that I decide to pay Eve by footling along with drool dripping off my chin, and a single, solitary, maximally shrunken ship cargo hold sitting as the ONLY open window on the screen.  After all, what could anyone POSSIBLY be doing that they would need more than ONE window open, ever, right?  AND, if they DO have more than one window open, that is TERRIBLE and needs to be "sorted".  If the new UI lovers, including the CCP GUI clowns, are so overwhelmed with multiple windows, here's a tip:  Drag one window over top another window, and if the rear window flashes, you can nest teh top one into the bottom one by releasing it.  If it DOESN'T flash, hold the shift down at the same time, and try again.  Ok?  Cool, yes??  :)  Look at that!!  ONE WINDOW.  I know, pretty awesome.

     Oh, one more thing.  In an effort to divine why players might not like the new inventory, Mabrick made a little poll for people to answer, and in doing so, hopefully/maybe/never allow Mabrick to possibly quantify what it is, or what play styles it is, that causes teh new inventory to chafe people's arses so bad.  So, go help a brother out and answer the poll, and save Eve.  :)  I read both Mabrick's, and Jester's blogs, find the vast majority of their posts enjoyable, agreeable and sensible, and they seem to love the fucking unified inventory.  I don't understand that, but that's cool, give me back the old one, or at LEAST the option of using the old one, where I don't have to mash down the entire left side of the keyboard with my left hand while opening a container in its own fucking window.  I don't mind change, I don't have a problem with multi-tasking, and I certainly don't lose my shit and get a panic attack when 2 or more windows are open.  That's just me though . . .

3 comments:

  1. Another reason for the unified inventory change is to combat RMT and botting. Making it harder to keep certain windows in the exact same place/setup makes it harder for bots to operate.

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    1. Well, that might be what CCP claims, but I think in the case of the inventory, it's just a "change". Claiming it is anti-bot/macro is laughable. It might initially make the bots and macros unusable, but but that is a temporary thing. The macros not working is merely an issue of the coders haven't changed the cursor positions yet, not that they "can't" do it. Once they get around to updating their apps, it'll be business as usual.

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  2. I've been trying and trying to deal with the new system as best I can. I'm a miner but have been forced into running distrobution missions. Believe it or not mining is a zen thing for me, I can sit there in my hulk and blast rocks, stomp rats and relax. My real job is being a courier so doing what I do for a living in my game time is sucking the life out of me. I've one character and it's a dang miner with minimal combat skills.

    I gravely dislike all the extra clicking and bull that I have to deal with and dragging and dropping making sure I put the items I'm hauling in the right damn ship or container. And having to shift click to make a new window that's got way too much shit in it really pisses me off. I like to keep a window open to show what I have to pick up (general inventory) then I keep my cargo hold open and that used to stay the same between every station I've had to go to but with this new system it's just not working and it's so much more of a bother.

    I Do not fear change, I'm just fine with change but it has to be change for the better. I've tried getting used to it and I can indeed use the damn thing but I really do not like it. I especially do not like dealing with jet cans in the new system. Multiple jet cans (BS mining for when I can't stand to zone one more damn time, BS mining is failsauce and I hate hulkageddon with every fiber of my being)

    I agree with everything you said and thank you for putting it out there. I hope CCP lets us have the option of using the old system. In fact the first thing I looked for was a way to disable it. I sad panda'd when I found no such option.

    Love your blog.

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