I feel like this UI only really needs a small amount of tweaking to be good for veteran players. I would say that this current one is a bit bubbly or curvy, but I feel that it could be fixed. This would make the new UI more readily match the current KSP 1 UI, of course, but I find that to be extremely functional anyway.
Changes I think should be made:
1) Shrink the kerbals and move them to the top right, out of the way. They're too centered for what's (in my eyes) a less important part of the game. Don't stick them too far over, ofc, or they might interfere with many-stage rockets.
2) Move the time "zoom" to the top left, and make it a bit more compact. It's way too bubbly in its current state, but it doesn't need to be restrictive. I'd put it in the corner, because it's not important enough for centerstage.
3) Slightly decrease the width of the extended panels for the staging layout. It's quite large and obvious, which isn't bad (as this is something that should be big) but I foresee it causing problems on smaller displays. It could easily be toned down just a bit.
4) Add lines to the navball. This one looks fine and I like the gutter, but there are way too few lines for any real precise maneuvers. Maybe add a setting for this more detailed navball, if they really don't want to make it cluttered.
5) Straighten the throttle. This small change very quickly removes a lot of the "curviness" for this UI. I would also move the direction indicator down a bit to the bottom of the screen and make it more boxy, but that's not in the image. My editing can only go so far.
They could probably save a bit more space by making the altimeter disappear at certain thresholds and moving the RCS/SAS indicators next to the velocity, but I think it's fine where it is.
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To be clear: I don't have any major issues with this UI besides the kerbals being front and center. I'm just nitpicking because I want KSP 2 to be the best game that it can be and that won't happen without community feedback.
