120 replies to this topic

[Bishop Steiner]

It's not perfect, no doubt.

-Hate the eye searing colors, but am guessing the hi-def colors are to make things easier and quicker to discern. Don't know if it helps or hinders those with color blindness issues.

-Would like to see some functionality added, like being able to see your equipped inventory and what it's in, from the Inventory screen. Being able to equip and unequip from there would be nice too, but just finding stuff faster would be nice.

-Appears people with Lo-Res monitors have trouble using the Expanded Menus? Not sure about the full details, at on my monitor, I have over 1/4 the screen empty in Expanded Mode. But also play on a 40" Widescreen, so readily admit that these are details I would probably overlook, that other people might not be able to.

On the plus side?
-Account Injection dropbox is a nice replacement for the "redeeming items" message
-FoV Slider and Cockpit Glass in Setting? About time, and TYVM.
-Mech select is fast, easy and organized, and I love being able to see the payload at a glance. Not as fast for some purposes as being able to see it all in the Inventory screen, but it is certainly 10x faster to find a module or engine now than before.
-Expanded View Mechlab building is stupidly easy, very similar to Smurfy. Strip and Reset buttons are handy. Haven't played with it enough to see if you can "stock" your loadouts, but would since a lot of times you would probably end up with key parts in other mechs at any given time, could see the issues with that, compared to smurfy where you have unlimited "phantom" inventory.

Took my half the time of normal to build my new ZEU-5S, including finding the modules in other mechs to equip. In a few areas, it might be a few more clicks, but in total, the process was faster, more linear and simpler.

So, that's my 15 minute impression of the new Mechlab. I'm sure the more I use it, new praise, and a some head scratching will ensue. Not perfect, room for improvement, but barring the Resolution Issue, which I could see being a real problem potentially for some, not seeing the big problems, or all the melodrama.

Are there legit issues? I'm sure. Perhaps if people addressed them in mature and intelligent manners, and with some modicum of respect, the Devs will even read it and work on it in future patches. But all the entitled whining in the world just pretty much guarantees a post that goes unread. So if that is your inclination? Have fun gnashing your teeth in the dark.

As for those who are inclined toward proactive thinking, what are the Pros and the Cons you have seen, thus far?

[Fuggles]

where do you see the quirks?

[Sarlic]

They didn't fire the same designer who did 1.0.

I think the amount of clicks says enough. Together with all info rammed on one side of your screen with walls of text everywere ie a good sign of basic understanding of GUI is missing. It's just beyond annoying. (Think the extend function away for a moment)

No offense.

The good part is the improvement, icons, faster, coloring and data.

For the rest it's in my opinion 'meh' all over again.

Edited by Sarlic, 02 June 2015 - 12:32 PM.

[Rehl]

Most of the changes - ease of loadout changes, etc., I like. Mech selection: I'll get used to. Being able to easily tell what mechs have which modules is great, too (well, more easily than with the last iteration of the mechlab). Overall, it's fine. There are only 2 things that really bother me, though.
1) Quirks... from what I can tell, you can only see them in the Mechstore - not on your mechs at mech selection. Annoying.
2) Lack of skill level on the mech selection screen. I'm usually leveling up some mech or other, and II don't want to have to click through to the skills menu to see where I stand. I like to be able to click and go. Also annoying.
Are these game-breaking gripes? No. Do the pros outweigh the cons? Meh... hard to say. It's something to get used to, but I think that these two QOL issues should be addressed.

[Bishop Steiner]

Fuggles, on 02 June 2015 - 12:30 PM, said:

where do you see the quirks?

A good question.

click where it says "Mech Stats" in the bottom right corner, and it will expand. Took me about 30 seconds to find it, because I was confused, also.

Edited by Bishop Steiner, 02 June 2015 - 12:40 PM.

[DONTOR]

Ya I'm a mechlab fanatic, and this new ML rocks, so much faster!

[Bishop Steiner]

Rehl, on 02 June 2015 - 12:35 PM, said:

Most of the changes - ease of loadout changes, etc., I like. Mech selection: I'll get used to. Being able to easily tell what mechs have which modules is great, too (well, more easily than with the last iteration of the mechlab). Overall, it's fine. There are only 2 things that really bother me, though.
1) Quirks... from what I can tell, you can only see them in the Mechstore - not on your mechs at mech selection. Annoying.
2) Lack of skill level on the mech selection screen. I'm usually leveling up some mech or other, and II don't want to have to click through to the skills menu to see where I stand. I like to be able to click and go. Also annoying.
Are these game-breaking gripes? No. Do the pros outweigh the cons? Meh... hard to say. It's something to get used to, but I think that these two QOL issues should be addressed.

nope, Click on the Mech Stats tab. I do think you have to have it selected in Mechlab though.

[Fuggles]

Bishop Steiner, on 02 June 2015 - 12:37 PM, said:

A good question.

click where it says "Mech Stats" in the bottom right corner, and it will expand. Took me about 30 seconds to find it, because I was confused, also.

i see that now, but its not very intuitive. it would be nice if that tooltip came up when you moused over the mech in the select mech screen.

[Sarlic]

Bishop Steiner, on 02 June 2015 - 12:37 PM, said:

A good question.

click where it says "Mech Stats" in the bottom right corner, and it will expand. Took me about 30 seconds to find it, because I was confused, also.

And this is exactly the reason why it's even more frustating for new players.

[Pjwned]

The mech selection screen is absolutely abysmal.

[The Iron Chancellor]

Aside from removing the easier access wall of mechs, and changing the colors in such a way that your eyes hurt?

Seems impossible to configure 'invalid' mechs, in other words, if I have mechs without an engine/weapons
(ones I've stripped of gear), I cant configure them now, because in the select mech window
(which I've never bothered using until now because I had a choice),
I cannot click 'save' in order to confirm my selection of an 'invalid' mech, as such I cant configure an 'invalid' mech and place an engine in it.

So unless I'm missing something, I cant use any of the mechs I've stripped of equipment/engine,
because there is no 'configure' button anymore, and I cant click 'save' to get to the mechlab to give said mechs engines which I've swapped.

If so, this is a pretty huge $%@% up considering it took me 3 seconds to find out, and any normal amount of Q&A would've found this out in a minute.

Edited by The Iron Chancellor, 02 June 2015 - 12:49 PM.

[Sarlic]

Pjwned, on 02 June 2015 - 12:47 PM, said:

The mech selection screen is absolutely abysmal.

Correct. PGI removed the old overview.

So much fun when you have 100+ mechs. I pity them.

[Nighthog]

I would like the drag and drop function of items to be smoother in expanded view. Can't change a item from one part to another. Just refuses too often. have to unmount and then drag it into new location.

I really like the tooltip/hoover info functions when over items though. Much more detailed usefull info.

[Mudhutwarrior]

The issue is they dump it on us to guess how it should work. No explinations.

Same crap with the gift store. I buy one for the gift code but once you do no mention on where to find the gift code and your e-mail receipt makes no mention of it.

I have to come here and rely on some other poor bast### to figure it out and tell me.

Up yours PGI, were not damned mushrooms.

[aniviron]

It's not so much a problem with the mech lab- which is a fair amount better- but with the mech select screen. I use the mechlab maybe one in thirty drops for something other than shuffling modules around, so it's good to have a usable mechlab UI. But the mech select screen I use on every single drop, and that went from a single click to select the mech to about five or more, plus some scrolling. Since the very first retry at the UI, we have been telling PGI: Less clicks, less clicks, less clicks. So now the new mech lab is here, and that's nice, but it came with a new mech select screen which is the opposite of nice.

[Bishop Steiner]

Fuggles, on 02 June 2015 - 12:44 PM, said:

i see that now, but its not very intuitive. it would be nice if that tooltip came up when you moused over the mech in the select mech screen.

agreed.

[Kristov Kerensky]

Hang on, people are actually trying to say that the Mech Stats screen showing the quirks is non-intuitive? Am I actually reading that right? Is that NOT where you would expect to find that information, you know, under the STATS?

I am at work, so I can't see the new Lab currently, but from what I've seen in the shots so far, it looks good. To be honest, I didn't mind the previous Lab, never really got all the whining and complaining about it, so take that into consideration.

And let us keep in mind, this WAS on the PST for a bit, so people had the chance to see it and give real feedback already, day late now don't ya think?

[FupDup]

It's less bad than before, I'll give it that. Still quite a ways from qualifying as "good," however...

[Mcgral18]

Omnipod swapping; it became terrible. Doesn't automatically open to the available pods in the selected component, doesn't even open the 'Pod tab when you remove one.

Loading ammo will replace the gun, because of the new replacing system. Will take getting used to. More precision required.

Trying to load a weapon into the RA, but moving too high or low will open the LA or LT tab, rather sensitive.


Ammo filter is good; about damn time.


Column view is damned annoying; a step down 2.0.

Perhaps Expanded is nicer, but I can't exactly try it.

Thanks Obama

Edited by Mcgral18, 02 June 2015 - 12:57 PM.

[Kristov Kerensky]

Ouch Mcgral, that has to hurt, and it's the one complaint I've seen that I have to agree with, WTF PGI, a non-scaling UI?

Yes, I know, most of us are in 19x10, the defacto standard for resolutions in HD, but guess what, lots of people are on laptops(don't ask me why) or using old vcard/monitor combos that don't allow for higher resolutions(again, don't ask me why), and you guys at PGI already KNOW this, Russ has mentioned it more than once that the playerbase tends to use OLDER hardware/software, so why didn't you take this into consideration?

I've read that scaling is on the table, just no ETA yet, which leads me to wonder why they released this new Lab BEFORE they got that working. Seriously, are enough players pitching absolute fits over the Lab that you had to release this NOW before they all quit screaming and demanding refunds on Wave 3 and Resistance 2?