User Experience. How two tiny details make playing KSP2 infuriating for me.

[MARL_Mk1]

KSP2 has got still a bunch of flaws.

But of them all, I'm going to point out the two that make playing KSP2 a frustration farming experience for me:

1) Pause the Game.
 
ESCAPE. That little guy at the top left of everyone's personal computer ever since the QWERTY configuration became an international standard. THAT has been the key that makes 99,99% of PC videogames in existence to PAUSE.

I can't put into words how frustrating it is to have this one special game that urges you to either press comma (repeatedly, if you are timewarping) or to physically click a button in the UI) to pause your game, instead of...

Pressing Esc to pause. I want my game to stop when I press Esc.

2) NavBall Position.

I admit this one slides into the subjective side a little, but here are my 2 cents.

During KSP1, I never had issues controlling the orientation of my vehicle with the aid of the NavBall. It had a great position in your screen. It was aligned vertically with your vehicle, so slightly moving your eyes down for a split second was enough to get the info you needed when, say, landing a craft and wanting to know where your retrograde marker was.

KSP2 went ahead and made a much smaller NavBall inside a much bigger UI item and positioned it at the bottom left corner of one's screen. As much as I try to shake off KSP1's NavBall muscle memory, I can't. Not just because I've grown used to it, but because the bottom center positioning of KSP1's NavBall was arguably better on the UX side than KSP2's Ball, which requires you to take a diagonal glance at the corner of your screen instead. In other words, my eyes spend more time looking for the same information on KSP2's NavBall than on KSP1's.

Currently, the bottom center of the UI hosts the Time Warp bar. An UI item that could fit literally anywhere. I just wish that in the not-so-long future we get to either: 1. Change the position of the UI elements; or 2. A Settings toggle that allows users to set the NavBall in the bottom center of the screen.

As a small note, even KSP1 allowed you to slide the NavBall around your screen. We deserve no less than that.

Edited October 26, 2023 by MARL_Mk1

[Guest]

8 hours ago, MARL_Mk1 said:

KSP2 went ahead and made a much smaller NavBall inside a much bigger UI item and positioned it at the bottom left corner of one's screen. As much as I try to shake off KSP1's NavBall muscle memory, I can't. Not just because I've grown used to it, but because the bottom center positioning of KSP1's NavBall was arguably better on the UX side than KSP2's Ball, which requires you to take a diagonal glance at the corner of your screen instead. In other words, my eyes spend more time looking for the same information on KSP2's NavBall than on KSP1's.

I get the argument about the muscle memory, I really get it, as a left-handed person I write in weird ways and I can't fix it ever if I wanted, 30 years of muscle memory means that I'm stuck with how I write.

And I have my own weird way of getting around the navball in KSP1 too, before starting to move it aside (which I did in KSP1 as soon as the first image of KSP2 UI was released) I used to just move the camera almost vertically above the rocket, to be able to actually see where I was landing.

And that's the problem, the navball is one tall piece of UI, and, if put in the middle, it usually covers the ground you're trying to land on, forcing the player to find ways to look around it. You stop noticing it after the muscle memeory is formed but I'd argue that having it out of the way from the start is a better option.

 

9 hours ago, MARL_Mk1 said:

As a small note, even KSP1 allowed you to slide the NavBall around your screen. We deserve no less than that.

I don't exactly like the idea of tactically force people to play a specific way, and, as much as I want this as a feature, I really hope it will come later down the line, after most players got used to it in the corner, and the old muscle memory from KSP1 and the nostalgia effect are dispelled. That way when the feature finally drops and people will start putting their navball back front and center, they'll immediately notice how much space that takes away from the craft.

[Mutex]

I definitely agree that, in Single Player mode, pressing ESC should pause the game. I think we all understand this won't be the same in Multiplayer mode, but that's fine. Case in point, this is how it works in Minecraft.

On the second point, I agree with @Master39 - I get your argument about muscle memory, but I prefer to have the navball out of the way, not taking up a big chunk of the middle of the screen.

[Superfluous J]

The first thing I did in KSP1 when they enabled moving the Navball was to move it to about where it is in the new UI.

Before that, I had a mod that did it.

I for one welcome our new navball placing overlords.

However I wholeheartedly support allowing it to be moved. I thought that would be a benefit of the new UI - it seems MADE to allow you to move stuff around.

[The Aziz]

Hell, I'd move the time controls out of the bottom center of the screen if I could. Vertical space is limited and since you're more likely to look down than up, there should be nothing there. Or a least a good ol' middle hold to drag the camera so you can see more of what's below. 

Edited October 27, 2023 by The Aziz

[LoSBoL]

If I recall correct in the first AMA it was acknowledged that there was a wish for scalability and modularity concerning the UI. We've gotten scalability since then, and I'm confident modularity will get in the game as well one day.

As some others, I always played with the Navball to the left in KSP1 to get as much screen estate as possible. KSP2 is however still crowding the whole screen with UI, this game wasn't made for 16:9, go wide and the game opens up massively.

VAB; 

16:9 

21:9

32:9

In flight;

16:9

21:9

[MARL_Mk1]

5 minutes ago, LoSBoL said:

If I recall correct in the first AMA it was acknowledged that there was a wish for scalability and modularity concerning the UI. We've gotten scalability since then, and I'm confident modularity will get in the game as well one day.

As some others, I always played with the Navball to the left in KSP1 to get as much screen estate as possible. KSP2 is however still crowding the whole screen with UI, this game wasn't made for 16:9, go wide and the game opens up massively.

VAB; 

16:9 

21:9

32:9

In flight;

16:9

21:9

I wholeheartedly agree with you on how oversized most UI elements are.

I hate the VAB layout just because it takes away literally 1/3rd of my screen everytime I hover or right click on something. I don't need a huge chunk of my screen obscured if I wanna check the mass or the ISP of this certain part. I don't want to see the whole ass list of part categories when I right click an antenna to click 'Deploy'. Same happens with, say, the tapes showing altitude and velocity next to the NavBall. They fit the art style but they are counterproductive. The same information could be shown as a simple text line (literally just like they show AP and PE below it) and have the navball be bigger on the screen. The SAS orientation buttons should be much more compact (and for the love of god, only be shown when SAS is ON, not hang there greyed out when it's OFF).

I'm positive UI will get a complete rework down the line, because there definitely is a big point to be made about how every single individual element of it has multiple flaws when it comes to user experience.

[LoSBoL]

8 minutes ago, MARL_Mk1 said:

I hate the VAB layout just because it takes away literally 1/3rd of my screen everytime I hover or right click on something.

And that's as to why my suggestion to get an immersive user experience is to go wide to open up the game. KSP wasn't any different with a couple of paws open.

 

[NH4Cl Enthusiast]

43 minutes ago, MARL_Mk1 said:

I wholeheartedly agree with you on how oversized most UI elements are.

And the absolutely horrible mess of pixelated smudge that pretends to be a font makes it hard to read even then. If the text was clean and crisp, the elements could be downsized to one third. I have astigmatism and it just makes it so much worse, I literally have to squint even when looking at a screenshot to understand what the text says, let alone when the game is running. KSP2 is literally the only game I have this problem with.

The UI elements should definitely be movable and the camera positioning needs to be better as well. I want my navball at the center especially if I'm flying planes. I completely understand people wanting it out of the way though, but for me the side positioning is just bad. I want to see it  clearly without having to take my eyes off the craft. Hence, it needs to be movable to suit all playstyles.  

[MARL_Mk1]

1 hour ago, LoSBoL said:

And that's as to why my suggestion to get an immersive user experience is to go wide to open up the game. KSP wasn't any different with a couple of paws open.

 

Here's the issue with your solution:  It shouldn't be a problem for me to fix by buying new hardware. I can play KSP1 just fine in my 1080p 16:9 24" monitor and I don't need anything else.

I need the game to be adapted and designed to be not as interface-invasive as it is. No more, no less.

 

53 minutes ago, NH4Cl Enthusiast said:

And the absolutely horrible mess of pixelated smudge that pretends to be a font makes it hard to read even then. If the text was clean and crisp, the elements could be downsized to one third. I have astigmatism and it just makes it so much worse, I literally have to squint even when looking at a screenshot to understand what the text says, let alone when the game is running. KSP2 is literally the only game I have this problem with.

The UI elements should definitely be movable and the camera positioning needs to be better as well. I want my navball at the center especially if I'm flying planes. I completely understand people wanting it out of the way though, but for me the side positioning is just bad. I want to see it  clearly without having to take my eyes off the craft. Hence, it needs to be movable to suit all playstyles.  

The art style for fonts and UI is horrendously optimized for this purpose. KSP1 didn't feature any of those and it worked fine. Flight UI is there to give us critical information. It needs to be visible and properly out of the way (or at least offering you options to get it out of the way in your own, personalized way).

I hate the RCS and SAS buttons. With KSP1, I didn't even have to glance over to the NavBall to know that I had enabled SAS when pressing T, because I would see that Green button pop-in in my rear vision, and the small orientation buttons would pop in aswell. With KSP2, I've found myself many times having to direct my view over and over to the corner of my screen to check if that tiny little "RCS" letter outline changed from Dark-Blue to Light-Green.

The more I think of it outside the game the worst it becomes in my head.

If UI design doesn't change down the line it might actually be one of the reasons for why I stop playing the game altogether. I just need the simplicity KSP1 offered me. Quirky art styles are literally needless.

Give me numbers and utilities that are direct and easy to glance over, not literally the opposite. If they had literally copied KSP1's UI I would be so freaking delighted.

Hope the devs check these threads often. Not sure if they give topics like these a read every now and then.

Edited October 27, 2023 by MARL_Mk1

[Periple]

18 minutes ago, MARL_Mk1 said:

Give me numbers and utilities that are direct and easy to glance over, not literally the opposite. If they had literally copied KSP1's UI I would be so freaking delighted.

I also think the KSP2 UI needs to be clearer, especially with statuses like SAS on/off. 

However I don't think the KSP1 UI is a good model to copy from. It's really fussy and gets worse with even a couple of mods, things like fuel transfer or crew transfer are actually painful, and the information isn't laid out sensibly. Some of us just have played it so much it's in muscle memory and we don't really think about it anymore. But objectively (if there is such a thing with UI/UX design) it really isn't very good.

[LoSBoL]

7 minutes ago, MARL_Mk1 said:

Here's the issue with your solution:  It shouldn't be a problem for me to fix by buying new hardware. I can play KSP1 just fine in my 1080p 16:9 24" monitor and I don't need anything else.

I need the game to be adapted and designed to be not as interface-invasive as it is.

I do agree with you, as in my first post here saying that the game to me doesn't look like it's designed for 16:9, it becomes way to cramped and somewhat unpleasant to play. 

It's quite common to upgrade stuff like graphic cards, processors, ram or trade in an HDD for an SSD when it comes to play games nicer, but monitors not so much and they get upgraded far less frequently. They do however expand on the user experience and immersion when it comes to gaming.

[Meecrob]

To me, it seems that the KSP1 flight UI/navball was made by someone who has experience with flight sims, while the KSP2 UI was made by someone who plays arcade games that involve flying.

Not sure how hard this would be to program, but maybe have multiple flight UIs that you can switch between, like HUD modes in aircraft. For example have a separate UI for Ascent, Orbit, EDL and Atmospheric/Ground Ops. That way you can prioritize important information pertinent to the flight regime at hand, rather than trying to place it all on the screen at once.

With reference to the navball discussion above, you could have one UI where it is in the middle and one where it is off to the side, with the ability to toggle between the two, rather than having to choose one or the other (or manually moving the navball mid-flight).

Edited October 27, 2023 by Meecrob

[Wheehaw Kerman]

One thing that bugs me is the loss of the early Space Age/Shuttle Era NASA aesthetic vibe that KSP1 had.   As a huge spaceflight history nerd that is like catnip to me.  I have no objection to P.A.I.G.E. being female, but I think I would have preferred her to come across more like Mae Jemison or Sally Ride and less like a drama major recruited out of a Seattle Starbucks.  KSP1 Kerbals looked like like astronauts - they had that The Right Stuff vibe regardless of whether they were male or female.  KSP2 Kerbals don’t.  

[Gargamel]

Thread moved to suggestions.  

[Superfluous J]

On 10/26/2023 at 6:45 PM, MARL_Mk1 said:

Pressing Esc to pause. I want my game to stop when I press Esc.

I don't care the button, really - though esc is perfect for it.

But time warp and pause should not be coupled at all.

[Filed.Teeth]

All UI elements should be scalable and movable, within limits. 

And ya, Escape should pause. Kind of a universal thing.