UI / UX Feedback Megathread

[ArmchairGravy]

This isn't entirely useful. I have the target locked, but no idea of which PE is which.

[The Aziz]

Yep you hit another of the color coding holes. Same with encounters, if you have two (since they're unrecognizable from the12AB mess), one is orange, the other is more orange.

[BlarghAld]

• VAB - tapping the DEL key should delete the currently held part/sub-assembly (if any) - instead of trying to switch to docking mode
• in-flight - clicking on any SAS attitude control button whilst SAS is disabled should (1) enable SAS, (2) activate clicked attitude control

Edited January 2 by BlarghAld

[cubinator]

-The big circles around planets and the dull colors of the planet orbit lines make it hard to watch multiple phase angles at once.

-SAS/RCS on/off distinction is difficult to discern from color alone.

-Gilly's timewarp limits are much too conservative.

-What's the point of unlocking different length fuel tanks anyway? The only reward I can think of is "better performance". 

Bonus: I just found the resource menu today. I thought you all were talking about the "Vessel Resources"/"Non-Stageable Resources" menu and was confused about why I couldn't get my methalox to show up there. Turns out it was hidden two layers deep in a generic menu icon that I couldn't always get to open when I clicked on it anyway. I thought it was nuts that it covered up half the view when all I needed was to see my fuel reserves.

Edited January 3 by cubinator

[Bamian]

I am playing since Christmas (FS! Update) in 1080p on 32" with bad eyesight and UI Scale on 120 %.

I have about 300 hours in KSP1, mainly around mun and minmus. I'm having fun with KSP2 and I have already flown more missions to Jool / Eve / Duna than I did in KSP1.

I LOVE many things. For example the colors or the part PICKER in the VAB. Or the overall GUI elements inflight. Though I second almost everything that has been posted yet. I want to emphasize/add the following points:

• Mission control:
I would like to sort the missions by "latest" and "science reward".

Maybe show the potential science reward right in the List.

• Techtree
Scroll from left to right by mouse wheel and by click and drag.

More prominent display of my current science points. Bigger font, more central position.

• VAB
saving the workspace should need fewer clicks. I want to type the craft name and hit the save button. Maybe put a second textfield for the workspace-name so I dont have to open a dialog for saving.

Camera controls like in KSP1 please. Especially scrolling along the rocket with the mouse wheel.

I cannot read the delta v number of Stage 01. Is it 4893 or 4093?

Spoiler

The Button for extended stage information should be clickable at the right edge of the screen so that I don't have to aim with the mouse cursor but can just push the mouse to the right edge of the screen.

Parts Manager needs to change please. I never search parts by scrolling in it. I always rightclick the part on the rocket and confuse already opened parts with the one I want. I would prefer the KSP1 way.

closing the Parts Manager with Esc.

Some rows of the Parts Manager should have tooltips with descriptions. For example I don't know what the switch "Fore/Aft" of a Mk1-3 Gumball command pod does. Or "Use main throttle".

For the trip planner just show me the commonly known delta v map. Or find a good way to show the inclination delta v of a trip leg that might not be necessary.

Ability to assign no color at all so I get just shiny metal tanks if that's possible.

some really important information of parts is hidden in the shift-view in the part picker. f.e. the range of antennas. Some Information is redundant like the thrust of engines. I would prefer just one representation of information without the need to hit shift.

• Tracking Station:
I don't like the circles around the planets and the star. It does really not feel like a map of the star system this way. Also I don't see the planets at all because there are capsule icons.

Spoiler

I would like a higher contrast in the list on the left. The font should be brighter.

please give the entries in the list some color coding. dark grey for debris, white for capsules, maybe yellow for stations etc. Maybe put small images of the planets beside their names in the List for quicker navigation.

A single click on a Planet in the List should expand its sub list.

When I double click a planet on its orbit, it should focus the planet but I always get some vessel orbiting it.

I cannot distinguish the planets at a glance. F. e. sometimes I confuse Dres with Jool.

• In Flight:
Please give us the option to disable some notifications like when a solar panel cannot face the star anymore.

I would like to close the parts manager and the research inventory by pressing Esc.

The following screenshot shows that the research inventory is partly off screen and I cannot drag it somewhere else.

Spoiler

I would like to delete specific science results.

"completed reports" and "remove all" are not intuitive to me. I am not 100 % sure how these two elements interact with the list.

When I press the science Button, please show little bars next to it that show the progress and the remaining time of all running experiments.

• In General:
please put thousand separators everywhere. (10,000 instead of 10000)
For example in Mission Control at the Science rewards or my current Science points in the techtree in the upper right corner. Or in the orbital velocity and altitude.

clearer fonts without pixel-style.

More uniform fonts and font sizes.

Please no dot in zeroes. Also no diagonal line in zeroes like in the stage number in flight.

please make leading zeroes in a darker grey so the value / time is easier to read.

Edited January 3 by Bamian
typos

[Jackalope]

My biggest issue with the UI is the text is hard for me to read. The UI scale helps a bit, but being able to scale the text up would be nice. My resolution is 1920×1080, i havent tried lowering the res to see if it helps.

Tutorials for rendevouz and docking would be nice too. Idk if there in now with the fs update, but i dont recall seeing them early on in the ea release.

[krbvax]

Some additional UI/UX thoughts now that I've had a few more days to play with the new version:

General

• Along with the pixel font issues I (and others) mentioned previously, I think part of the readability problem stems from the dotted pattern present behind many numeric fields - the delta-V display on the big staging button is a good example. I assume this was intended to mimic the lines between pixels on old dot-matrix displays, but as with the pixel fonts themselves, these really should be consigned to history. They'd be fine on background graphics we can imagine the Kerbals reading, but not on UI elements that players look at.
   
• I find it confusing that the "beep" sound effect indicating when the mouse is over a UI element changes its pitch depending on the screeen position of the element. It does sound cute when I run the mouse up and down a menu, but I think in this case cuteness should (at least optionally, via a setting) give way to consistency.
   
• I understand that the ESC menu was designed to not pause the game, but I'd like to ask for this to be reconsidered. I haven't yet encountered a case in which I'd like the simulation to keep running while that menu is open, and plenty of cases in which I would like it to pause - such as typing the name of a new save file, reverting a failed launch (before it blows up completely and I get snarky comments on the flight report), etc.

Settings

• When changing a keyboard binding, the game pops up a scary-looking dialog asking if you want to "overwrite the assignment of this key". This is not only unnecessary (the whole reason I clicked on the binding was to change the key assignment!), but confusing because when other programs display a warning like that, it's to inform you that the key you're trying to bind is used by another function. Instead, the key bind popup itself (the "Enter a new button for:" window that waits for you to press a key) should have a "cancel" button allowing you to cancel the operation.

Main menu

• Every time I go to load a campaign, I instinctively mouse down to the "delete campaign" button at the bottom because I expect it to be a "start" button. I'd suggest not automatically popping up the save file list, and instead having three buttons where the delete button is now: "start" to load the save marked as "last played", "load..." to open the save file list (as clicking on the campaign does now), and "delete", ideally with a red background so it's obvious that it's the delete button.

R&D

• There doesn't seem to be any way to view the experiment data you've collected, and thus no way to know where you can still perform new experiements (for SCIENCE!). KSP1 had an "Archives" tab in the R&D screen allowing you to view your collected data.

VAB

• Another issue in the "cute, but" category: icon tooltips should display immediately rather than typing out a character at a time like in old sci-fi movies. Again, these are player UI elements, not decorations for Kerbals to look at.

Flight

• A subtle thing I didn't even notice until yesterday but am now in love with is that navball markers are visible on the far side of the navball. In KSP1 (particularly when using unskilled pilots or cheap probe cores) I was always having to guess at which direction to rotate the ship to bring the maneuver or target marker to where I could see it.
   
• I'd like to see the SAS temporary toggle (the F key) from KSP1 return. It's frustrating having to fight against SAS as I'm trying to rotate to a new orientation, and having a temporary toggle ensures that - as silly as this sounds - I don't forget to turn SAS back on if I turn it off to rotate.
   
• The white target markers on the navball are difficult to see against the navball's own text (lines and degree markers) in orbital or surface velocity mode. The contrast is fine in target velocity mode, so maybe have the target marker take on that red color in other velocity modes?
   
• Something I often wished for in KSP1 when docking was an indicator or display showing the target's orientation, so I could make sure I was properly aligned for the docking ports to connect; what I ended up having to do was control the target vessel's docking port, note its orientation, switch back to the original vessel, rotate to the opposite of that orientation, and hope orbital movement didn't cause the angles to change too much in the interim. Perhaps docking mode could be used to activate such an indicator? (I originally thought that was the purpose of the square display that shows up in KSP1's docking mode, but apparently that just shows RCS linear thrust.)
   
• The throttle adjustments (left shift/control) feel too sensitive. In KSP1 I could generally hit a target throttle level within a percent or two using those keys, whereas with KSP2 I feel like I have to drag with the mouse to have any sort of accuracy.
   
• Now that I've found the resource manager, I rather like it (aside from the bug with having to quicksave/quickload to clear the transfer column), especially as someone who couldn't stand having mismatched LF/O2 levels after a KSP1 fuel transfer. But there are times when I want to leave just a bit of fuel in a tank, and the transfer goes much too fast to be able to stop it in time. It would be nice if I could set a target level beyond which a tank won't fill or empty during a transfer.
   
• There's no need to pop up the flight report when docking.
   
• Please have the flight report remember the open/closed state of the "tutorials" tab. The only thing it seems to provide is sometimes snarky commentary, and especially after a failed launch, that just adds to my stress level.

Map

• Now that I'm moving on to interplanetary missions, I find the Kerbol system map much harder to visually parse than in KSP1. The planets' orbit lines are so dark I can barely make them out against the starfield background, and the circles around the planets mean... what? Certainly not SOI size, since Eeloo's circle is as big as Jool's. Perhaps the map screen is still a work in progress, but this honestly strikes me as rather sloppy.

[cubinator]

8 hours ago, krbvax said:

A subtle thing I didn't even notice until yesterday but am now in love with is that navball markers are visible on the far side of the navball. In KSP1 (particularly when using unskilled pilots or cheap probe cores) I was always having to guess at which direction to rotate the ship to bring the maneuver or target marker to where I could see it.

I do like the idea of this, but I've had trouble telling whether something was in front or behind a couple times, and I'd appreciate a little more visual distinction between them.

8 hours ago, krbvax said:

Something I often wished for in KSP1 when docking was an indicator or display showing the target's orientation, so I could make sure I was properly aligned for the docking ports to connect; what I ended up having to do was control the target vessel's docking port, note its orientation, switch back to the original vessel, rotate to the opposite of that orientation, and hope orbital movement didn't cause the angles to change too much in the interim. Perhaps docking mode could be used to activate such an indicator? (I originally thought that was the purpose of the square display that shows up in KSP1's docking mode, but apparently that just shows RCS linear thrust.)

My strategy for docking has been to have both vessels target each other, and set both to align to target. A docking alignment indicator would be extremely appreciated though.

[hatterson]

2 hours ago, cubinator said:

My strategy for docking has been to have both vessels target each other, and set both to align to target. A docking alignment indicator would be extremely appreciated though.

The patented Matt Lowne lazy method. You can end up with some rotational/lateral movement as they close, but the magnets in the docking ports are strong enough in KSP to overcome it.

It's a completely unrealistic method of docking, but it works like a dream in game and is fine for a game like KSP.

[modus]

3 hours ago, cubinator said:

My strategy for docking has been to have both vessels target each other, and set both to align to target. A docking alignment indicator would be extremely appreciated though.

https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/topic/218752-docking-alignment-display-dad-v043-for-ksp2-020/

[cubinator]

35 minutes ago, hatterson said:

The patented Matt Lowne lazy method. You can end up with some rotational/lateral movement as they close, but the magnets in the docking ports are strong enough in KSP to overcome it.

It's a completely unrealistic method of docking, but it works like a dream in game and is fine for a game like KSP.

Seems realistic enough to me, just not what they do at ISS. I haven't noticed any large movements except when I screw up a burn or RCS move.

Edited January 5 by cubinator

[Nate Simpson]

I just wanted to check in on this thread to tell you all that we're following this conversation and are prioritizing a number of UI improvements related to legibility and ease of use. 

Areas that we're looking at right now:

• font legibility and scalability
• maneuver node usability, in particular the difficulty of selecting and dragging the gizmo itself
• trajectory tag iconography and differentiation
• trajectory tag stem organization (eg. the "stem salad" that you sometimes get when a bunch of tags are near one another)
• SOI transit "bullseye" indicators are too aggressive
• map icon scale issues and related difficulty of selecting a CB when you've got something in orbit around it
• difficulty of rearranging staging stack order when selecting the bottom- or top-most stage
• general part manager usability - in particular the tracking of fuel levels on a per-part basis, but also a bunch of general legibility/organization issues

This is by no means an exhaustive list - we've got quite a pile we're working through. But we are in strong agreement about the opportunity for improvement in this area.

Thanks as always for sharing your feedback!

[Pthigrivi]

Thanks, @Nate Simpson! Im out of likes! Too many good convos lately. 

[cubinator]

One thing I think about on the maneuver node front is that when manipulating an interplanetary transfer, it's often useful for me to adjust both the delta-V on the large, solar system-scale of the maneuver, but also the timing within the low planetary orbit I'm usually coming from, which helps to get the angle just right. Being able to see both those things without having to scroll a bunch in the map view to switch between them would be helpful.

[The Aziz]

I'm not sure as it's been nearly a year - but I think the way it was dealt with in KSP1, when you grabbed the node and then pulled the cursor away from the parent body when zoomed out, you were able to slowly drag it around like if the planet was close (hopefully my explanation makes sense). Now, even slight movements regardless of cursor location are very imprecise because it's treated 1:1.

[Sea_Kerman]

I reiterate that the way KSP1 handled the maneuver node editing (in later versions) was great, it allowed a quick and rough editing, and precise numerical values, all without having to be able to see the physical node.

[StrandedonEarth]

Since many of the keybinds from KSP1 are used in KSP2, I would like more of the KSP1 keybinds to be added to KSP2. Along with other features that have been mentioned, using [tab] to switch focus between CBs and ships was very handy; I miss that. And I'll echo the call for a navball docking alignment indicator; it was so easy to use yet unobtrusive. And I only figured out how to pause the game by accident.

[jclovis3]

On 1/5/2024 at 7:42 PM, StrandedonEarth said:

... And I'll echo the call for a navball docking alignment indicator; it was so easy to use yet unobtrusive. And I only figured out how to pause the game by accident.

I never really liked the docking mode in KSP1. I use the target speed indicator in the navball and I know that on target retrograde, if I steer away from the marker, thrust pushes it away from where I am pointed and if I steer toward target prograde and just away from the marker, thrust pulls the prograde marker towards where I am pointed. That principle used to rendezvous works for docking as well. Then there's the RCS actions that move it around as well as selecting what docking port to "control from here" ensuring the navball lines up with my target with respect to the side of the ship I am docking.

Edited January 7 by jclovis3
Corrections to spelling.

[cubinator]

I think it would be nice to have some additional autopilot stuff like what's in airplanes nowadays - "maintain altitude" would be more useful in SAS than "maintain horizontal orientation" for me, and an ability to set a desired heading angle in SAS would be nice too.

I also noticed that the 3-Kerbal command pod only has the "forward" and "reverse" control orientation options, where a vertical option would have been useful on my 2.5m diameter lander which lands on its belly.

[emerald]

Please add a highlight of the vessel selected as target in map mode, as well as a highlight in normal mode as well, it's hard to know which one is the target if there are (e.g. station building) multiple vessels float around close by.

And, if possible also a target distance display at close range, so when trying to dock one knows the distance to the docking port/vessel. Some better distance display in map mode would be much appreciated as well, it's hard to fly the craft while always hovering the mouse over the potential rendezvous node markers in order to see the final distance.

[The Aziz]

18 minutes ago, emerald said:

And, if possible also a target distance display at close range, so when trying to dock one knows the distance to the docking port/vessel

Isn't that covered under F4?

18 minutes ago, emerald said:

it's hard to fly the craft while always hovering the mouse over the potential rendezvous node markers in order to see the final distance.

Right click to pin the extended info on the screen?

[emerald]

32 minutes ago, The Aziz said:

Isn't that covered under F4?

Indeed it is, I was not aware of that. I always know there was a small display (might have been a mod in ksp1) which showed the distance to target right next to the navball, that made rendezvous handy, now I'm always searching for the target craft to look at the distance, I've not only missed the final rendezvous burn just once while fiddling with the distances (vectors, closest target distance in map mode) and the actual craft distance (normal mode).

33 minutes ago, The Aziz said:

Right click to pin the extended info on the screen?

This get lost when switching back to normal mode when searching for the target again, and then the nodes stick that close together it's hard to pin one and actually see what's written there...

I might have to do some screenshots to show the issue.

[Vl3d]

1 minute ago, emerald said:

This get lost when switching back to normal mode when searching for the target again, and then the nodes stick that close together it's hard to pin one and actually see what's written there...

It disappears sometimes - when moving the maneuver node out of the encounter margins for example.

[emerald]

19 minutes ago, Vl3d said:

It disappears sometimes - when moving the maneuver node out of the encounter margins for example.

... and it also disappears when switching from map mode to normal mode, which typically happens when doing rendezvous ... 

The maneuver nodes are a lot of fiddling, when carefully aligning the prograde and retrograde vectors will also get you very close to a ship. But this requires knowing the distances, and also frequently switching to map mode and back.

... I really need to find a picture to illustrate my point

Edited January 8 by emerald

[cubinator]

I wish the TWR display in the VAB would show its value when it's below 1. Currently if I have a ship with TWR < 1 it's not possible to tell how close I am to making it viable, or at a glance if it could launch from another body.