UI Improvement: Nested Weapons and Automatic Switching.

The purpose of this suggestion is to improve and streamline the battle UI, and also the in-game controls. Furthermore, it solves a ‘very annoying’ issue with the weapon buttons being too small on many phone screens.

The idea is that you would be able to stack more than one item onto the same slot. This wouldn’t allow you to take anything extra, but it would consolidate all the stacked items onto a single button in the battle UI.

How it works in battle:
In battle all of the stacked items would be nested under the same button. So you would only see the first (or top item in the stack). When an item is activated, it is moved to the bottom of the stack, and the next item (or the item that will be ‘ready’ soonest) is automatically moved to the top. This removes the need to keep switching between items unnecessarily.

So for example, if I have three Snipers all stacked together, then it will automatically switch me to the next available Sniper. There is no need for me to keep changing weapons. So long as that group is active, I could fire all three Snipers, simply by pressing the fire button three times.

Another example might be if I have two Nitros, or two Repair Pulses stacked together. When I use one, it will move to the bottom of the stack, and be replaced by the ‘next available’ item. This simplifies my UI, as all my Nitros/Pulses are on the same button. It saves space, allowing me to have larger buttons, and it also makes it easier to see which item will be available soonest.

How it works in the inventory:
There might be lots of potential ways to set up the ‘groups’ of stacked items. For completeness I will offer some ‘possible’ suggestions:

Each slot, could have a small icon on (or near it) which would allow you to select a group for it, and in turn map it to a button. Stack order would be dicatated by order on the ship.

Alternatively, there could be a single icon, near the ship, that would take you to a pop up menu where you could set up the groups (not unlike setting perks).

Another alternative would be to drag items onto the same slot in order to group them, similar to placing a two slot item. This might alter some of the current functionality for switching items, but would be quite ergonomic.

What if I need to switch to a different item in the stack?
Ideally, you shouldn’t stack items that you’re ‘likely’ to need in very different situations. But sometimes, a specific situation might call for a specific item that is not on top. In this situation, I would suggest a ‘press and hold’ functionality on the button, to rollout all the items in the stack, horizontally. Then you can slide to the one you want, and ‘release’ to make it the active item.

Advantages and Drawbacks:
I have already covered many of the advantages: cleaner interface, larger buttons, less clicking around. However, there will also be some disadvantages:

Because some items are hidden, you won’t be able to see the remaining cooldown of all items in the stack, only the one that will be ready ‘next’. However, users aren’t forced to group any items if they don’t want to, so it is entirely up to them if they value that information over the convenience of automatic switching.

It’s possible that if all items in the stack have had time to cooldown, then your ‘best’ item will no longer be on top. For weapons, this isn’t a big problem, as you can just switch back to your best item manually. For ‘click to activate’ items like TS and Repair Pulse, it would be a design consideration as to whether the item is activated when you switch back to it manually, or whether it is just moved to the top of the stack. Again, it is up to the user if they really want to stack items of different strengths and abilities together, for convenience, or if they want them separate, for more precise control. With similar/identical items, it shouldn’t be an issue.

Because your items switch automatically, opponents will be able to see your next weapon straight away (meaning no more hiding it until the last moment). You could still conceal your intentions by switching to another weapon on a separate button, but that’s something to bear in mind.

 

Love the concept!

To solve the weak item on top issue, you could just have higher priority items automatically go to the top once they're off CD.

All of it sounds difficult to code though...

 

I considered something like that, but I think it adds more complexity than is necessary. The main purpose of the feature would be to group items that are similar or identical, where it doesn’t matter which one is on top.

It could also be used to group weapons, for people who simply don’t care which one is on top (good for spammers).

A Shooter could potentially group all five of his weapons, and never need to click anything but the fire button. However, he would sacrifice some of the fine control that comes from selecting the right weapon for the right job. I’m okay with that. I don’t think it’s necessary to overcomplicate things by prioritising weapons for him.

For rare situations where it is a problem, manual switching offers people a way out.

I don’t think there is anything especially complicated about automatic switches and rollout menus (it’s not like we’re building Deep Blue). But of course, I couldn’t speak for what technical considerations the Devs might have that I don’t know about. I just think it would be a big improvement to the UI.

I doubt it would be as complicated to code as the automatic steering, and probably a lot more useful.

 

Awesome idea, I'm on board lol. Very helpful for mk 5 and above (especially shooters).
For instance use items (pulse, nitro, ob) they could make it so you select when you tap and hit fire button to activate... like everything else lol.

 

I made a couple of visual examples. This is my Enforcer with 6 active items. As you can see, the buttons are microscopic. It’s easy to misclick them, and also it’s very cluttered and difficult to keep track of.


Here is what the same build ‘could’ look like with the improved UI. I have chosen to stack my Blast Cannons and Tesla Shields, so that they are on the same buttons, and will just switch to whichever one has the shortest cooldown. This gives me a much cleaner UI, with larger buttons, and is much easier to manage.

 

I just thought of another problem/consideration.

If you group turret and non-turret items together, for example Tesla Bolt and Nito, then after you fire TB, Nitro will be on top of the stack, but TB will still be on your turret, with its CD hidden. Which would be undesirable.

There might be a number of ways to deal with this, but I think the cleanest would be to make it so that turret and non-turret items can’t be grouped.