Star Citizen - ladders chairs consoles - why so complicated?

How many more times is the Star Citizen player going to be confused by the following in-game logic puzzles?

it’s a ladder

it’s a chair

it’s a console

I’ve seen it on countless occassions, let’s get in a single-seater ship. Everybody treats these things in the same way. Like unlocked doors. You’ve already locomoted on foot up to your ship. You F-click on ship canopy, in case there’s some function you can use. You see the cockpit ladder highlight. First thing most players think they have to do is ‘activate cockpit ladder’ so they can locomote up it. They do so, in their minds they’re unlocking the cockpit door and a ladder descends. They (to a man) always Move Towards the ladder … and are then confused why player doesn’t climb up it.

I’ve seen players, once they’re in the medium-sized ship’s cockpit area go up to a chair, remember that they have to F-key the fucking chair to activate it. It gains a visual outline showing functionable. And they try to move towards it. Logically, this is the only thing you want to do. Function is stated, “I am a chair,” and there’s no confusion in the player’s head.

A button panel next to an elevator or lift? You look right at it, close enough to touch it, and it highlights, all on its own; it’s magic! Why shouldn’t it. It’s its job to know there’s a player in front of it, ready to press its grid of buttons. It’s like some sort of logical agreement between two sentient beings. The button panel and the button pusher.

But this game wants to offer the befuddled player a tome of click options to read and cogitate and act upon; open canopy, drop ladder, enter cockpit, make coffee, pick up cup, stow weapon, pickup box, place box, use, don’t use. Even before you’ve decied to do anything. It wants you to make a choice from a list. But the player can do nothing UNTIL he’s logically Move’d Towards, where that puts the functionality IN HIS GRASP so to speak. He knows the recognisable highlighted Item 2.0 has function built into it. So locomoting up descended canopy ladder makes the most sense to him/her. The ladder is there and locomoting up it should be the ONLY THING YOU NEED TO DO until you’re within the functionality of the options it’s offering. So you move towards the ladder, and nothing happens.

A ladder is for climbing up. Fast or slow. Or not even climbing up it at all. Maybe just standing there, halfway up, halfway through the next phase of the climb-cycle anim, looking around, maybe shooting from it with one hand, maybe even landing on it from a jump and clinging on… checking out a Spectrum post in one-hand’d MobiGlas (oh, yeah, make MobiGlas activation a wrist roll rather than a two-handed click). You’re not supposed to click the CLIMB LADDER button to go up a ladder. It’s just another way to locomote from A to B. Once the ladder’s available (whether you’re at the top or the bottom of it) IT’S OBVIOUS what you wanna do, mount that linear locomotion path, you’re not activating a climb ladder cutscene. You’re still in full control.

A chair is for sitting on, ffs. In this case, it’s the door to the Console 2.0 experience of flying the ship i.e. navigating via the control sticks, buttons and MFDs that command the Flight Experience. If you Free Look away from any Item 2.0 you’re stood in front of, it’ll de-highlight. Obviously…

But what if you don’t want all the Items 2.0 highlighting all the time? Good question, easy answer, “If you’re not looking directly at it with your full intent to inspect for usability and you’re not within standing/walking/running range, then it shouldn’t highlight.”

What is wrong with SC’s option heavy game interface that player has to do anything other than Move Towards on these highlighted objects? There’s nothing special about them, just, “Move Towards means I intend to use its intended function.”

insta-finger

 Once you’ve Move’d Towards a Trading Console, your fingertip’s gonna be the mouse pointer, what else do you have to point with? It’s swiftly gonna slide efficiently from option to option, the way your brain works. Not slowly with the player having to aim the mouse pointer directly into the option button’s activation space. But soft-snapping between the eight options on the above screen; buy, sell, and then the various neighbour buttons. You can always Free Look around while in a Console 2.0 experience, this has shown itself to be especially useful if you’re at a buy/sell console in Jump Town; you gotta stay awake, aware, alive.

This also works for the Pilot option, too, once you’re in the pilot’s seat, where the pilot’s hand might hover instinctively to an MFD or switch or EXIT button should he Free Look around the cockpit.

Dear makers of Star Citizen, please simplify your god-awful game interface FOR THE BETTERMENT OF THE PROJECT already.

Source: http://mikephilbin.blogspot.com/2019/01/star-citizen-ladders-chairs-consoles.html