ESC should work as a general "cancel" key based on context

[Snark]

Details below, but short answer boils down to "make it work like it did in KSP1", or something pretty close to that.

Right now, what the ESC key does is:

• Toggles the display of the game menu, regardless of context
• Does not pause the game, if in flight view

What I contend it should do, instead:

• If any dismissable UI (other than the game menu) is present:  Dismisses the UI.
• In the editor:  If a part has been picked but not yet attached to a craft, cancels the action (i.e. it winks out of existence)
• If the game menu is currently displayed:  Dismisses the game menu.  If in flight view, returns the game to whatever time warp setting it was before.
• If none of the above is the case:  Pops up the game menu, and, if in flight view, pauses the game if it wasn't already paused.

Because right now, the current behavior causes several confusing and undesired behaviors that keep tripping me up:

• If the part info window is open and I want to dismiss it... the ESC key is how I want to do that.  Instead, it pops up the game menu, which I don't need-- I will never need to interact with that menu while I'm tinkering with the properties of a part.  Right now, there's no way for me to dismiss the window without moving the mouse cursor up to the little X button in the corner, which is distracting and intrusive and requires me to move the mouse away from where I want it to be.
• If I'm in flight and want to check something out on the game menu... there is no circumstance in which I don't want the game paused while that menu is up.  Right now I have to manually pause it and then bring up the menu.
• If I pick a part in the editor accidentally (or pick one and then change my mind), getting rid of the darn thing is a pain-- I have to use the DELETE key, which is on the wrong side of the keyboard (I have to move my left hand way over, since my right hand is occupied with the mouse).  Picking a part is an action, and I want to cancel the action, and ESC is how one cancels things.

The constant metaphor, here, is that "ESC is how you cancel actions" is an overwhelmingly common UI metaphor.  It's how KSP1 worked, it's how just about every game (or other software, for that matter) works.  It's intuitive and instinctive.  KSP2 should adhere to that and use the ESC key as the general "cancel what I'm doing" key.

[Razor235]

PLEASE for the love of god.  I absolutely hate finding that little X every time I pop up the part manager over my wing editing by accident. If you absolutely positively have to have a one-key open menu, use tab or something.

[The Aziz]

I agree with everything (though there's a button at the bottom for part manager so you don't have to aim for the tiny x, saved me a lot of seconds already), except

11 hours ago, Snark said:

If I'm in flight and want to check something out on the game menu... there is no circumstance in which I don't want the game paused while that menu is up.  Right now I have to manually pause it and then bring up the menu.

This is most likely made with multiplayer in mind. If you're within physics range of other player, you wouldn't be able to pause the game, this is normal in most if not all MP games. So you can open the menu without pausing and just go elsewhere, and the pause itself doesn't work while you're there. It's a weird approach but it is one.

[Snark]

2 hours ago, The Aziz said:

This is most likely made with multiplayer in mind.

Oh, I agree that you shouldn't be able to pause the universe while in multiplayer-- that would affect other players and would not be okay.  This is the same as with other multiplayer games.

However, I'm talking about the single-player experience, for which I contend that it is unambiguously the correct thing to do to pause the game clock when it's up.  Pretty much every single-player game I know, does this:  pause the game when the menu is up.  The only one I've encountered that doesn't (Satisfactory) drives me actively nuts because of this.

We don't have multiplayer now.  We're not going to have it for a long time yet.  And even after it arrives, players will still be spending plenty of time (perhaps the majority of time?) in single-player mode.  (I personally will have no use for multi-player mode, because that's not my personal cup of tea, for example.)

So:  I agree that multi-player would work differently.  But I don't think we should let the existence (future or otherwise) of multiplayer mode be a reason to have a suboptimal experience in single-player.

[Demcrew]

I agree with @Snark - this Esc key has become a "generic" (if not genetic) behavior for whomever is interacting with a GUI based software (not only in games)...

I don't think it is a challenge for the Multiplayer sessions:

18 hours ago, Snark said:

If none of the above is the case:  Pops up the game menu, and, if in flight view, pauses the game if it wasn't already paused.

if in MP - Hitting the Esc key should have the exact same result except:

Pause feature would then be simply disabled (greyed out - good reminder you're on a MP session).

Anyway, this is something I'm sure the dev crew is keen to manage properly.

[Rpatto92]

This is so universal it seem like it's hardcoded into almost all software, so for KSP2 not to have this is fairly basic thing, is a swing and a miss.

Absolutely add this most basic of features. 

 

Ps. LOVE that delete/backspace deletes selected parts.