Science Gathering UI/UX Rework

[Presto200]

I would like to suggest that the science tab on the left of the flight screen becomes a two button press to do each experiment rather than a one button press to do all the experiments.

I would like to see the button open a menu that has all your experiments on your craft and a button for each. I think this would improve the user experience as it would make dong the experiment more personable and would make you feel like you're actually doing the science and not just having everything happen at once that feels separate from your efforts. I personally like doing each experiment and getting to watch the little animations of each, I feel like having it all happen instantly all at once takes away from that experience. A menu like this wouldn't take away from the people who don't care about that and just want to get all the science as soon as possible because they can just go down the list and start them all from the menu. 

It would still be an improvement on KSP1 science system where you have to find each part to do the experiment. Furthermore, it would also allow all the information to be in one spot, especially sense the experiments take time now it would be helpful to have a menu for all the parts so you can see all the timers without having to click around and find which part is taking the longest. 

This menu could also be connected to the experiment report menu making all of the science parts and information all in one place. I hope others will agree with this suggestion but of course if I'm missing the mark whatever the community is best will be overall best for the game as a whole. 

 

P.S. 

Also see @Spicat Redesign proposals, I really like their pitch for a new experiment popup design when you hover over the science button on the left of the flight screen

Credit to image: @Spicat

[kdaviper]

One issue I encountered with the button running everything at once is that it can really suck down ec especially doing the orbital survey and radiation samples together. 

[Presto200]

20 minutes ago, kdaviper said:

One issue I encountered with the button running everything at once is that it can really suck down ec especially doing the orbital survey and radiation samples together. 

That is a very good point, a menu would help with that because currently to avoid that you have to find every science part. That is exactly what they were trying to avoid and make different from KSP1.

[Superfluous J]

Yup and a "run all" button for those who (and those times when you) want to do them all at once.

[Flush Foot]

Your UI looks bugged @Presto200...

Flying / Atmosphere (above deserts) and 'Surface Survey' is ready?

Kidding aside, even if the devs kept it 'single-press' (or optionally leave it that way as a configurable setting)  your 'status/availability of all experiments' view would be VERY welcome! (Better than diving into Parts Manager > Science > check each experiment for runtime)

[Presto200]

13 hours ago, Flush Foot said:

Your UI looks bugged @Presto200...

Flying / Atmosphere (above deserts) and 'Surface Survey' is ready?

Kidding aside, even if the devs kept it 'single-press' (or optionally leave it that way as a configurable setting)  your 'status/availability of all experiments' view would be VERY welcome! (Better than diving into Parts Manager > Science > check each experiment for runtime)

Ha! That is pretty funny, all credit for the UI design to @Spicat

[CFTeague2]

Hello, I would like to suggest a minor refinement.      The Orbital Survey experiment (part: OSCM-01 "mini lab", or the manned version), takes 6 minutes to scan.     Its also biome-specific when in low orbit.

Over some bodies, at low orbit velocities, you can cross over a biome somewhat often.     When this happens, the experiment will auto-pause.

 

This is fine.  (tho in a best-of-all-possible worlds, "it might be nice if", it remembered that it was gathering for "highlands" and auto-resumed if it returns to a "highlands" biome)

 

This experiment also has an associated animation which is several seconds long.   (extending antenna booms, I think).      Every single time the experiment auto-pauses, the antenna booms retract.   And then when I click [Resume] in the part manager window (lets assume the biome beneath changed for just a split second and then changed back to the one I was getting science), the animation happens again.

 

What this means, is that there is several seconds delay, every single time, the experiment autopauses.     

 

** Could there be any way to unlink the auto-pause, from the animation and its delay?  

Maybe keep the animation tied to the original START of the experiement -- but just dont fire the "close" animation on auto-pause, and then re-fire the "open" animation on resume??

 

Having to click [Resume] every time the biome flickers is ok  I guess.    But when it takes several seconds delay for it to happen, I see frustrating cases, where the timer will be like 5:43, pause.   I'll click the button to continue.    few seconds pass, and the timer is not counting down yet, because its doing the antenna boom animation.     Then the clock starts ticking on the experiment again.     and then, sometimes it will rapidly change biome again.    Because of the delay, 8 seconds of being over my biome, only results in like 1-2 seconds of getting the data.

 

of course, if the biome below is very regular, this is not an issue.     And this isnt broken, just a QoL issue.

 

specific example:

Low orbit polar orbit over TYLO.

The south pole area seems to have a mix of Highland, Lowland and rarely Crater biomes below.   Im trying to capture HIGHLAND.      if I can micromanage the [Resume]  button, I will eventually gather all 6 minutes of data needed for the experiment.

 

Just some thoughts, THANKS!

-CFTeague2

Edited March 28 by CFTeague2
rewording

[Presto200]

10 hours ago, CFTeague2 said:

Hello, I would like to suggest a minor refinement.      The Orbital Survey experiment (part: OSCM-01 "mini lab", or the manned version), takes 6 minutes to scan.     Its also biome-specific when in low orbit.

Over some bodies, at low orbit velocities, you can cross over a biome somewhat often.     When this happens, the experiment will auto-pause.

 

This is fine.  (tho in a best-of-all-possible worlds, "it might be nice if", it remembered that it was gathering for "highlands" and auto-resumed if it returns to a "highlands" biome)

 

This experiment also has an associated animation which is several seconds long.   (extending antenna booms, I think).      Every single time the experiment auto-pauses, the antenna booms retract.   And then when I click [Resume] in the part manager window (lets assume the biome beneath changed for just a split second and then changed back to the one I was getting science), the animation happens again.

 

What this means, is that there is several seconds delay, every single time, the experiment autopauses.     

 

** Could there be any way to unlink the auto-pause, from the animation and its delay?  

Maybe keep the animation tied to the original START of the experiement -- but just dont fire the "close" animation on auto-pause, and then re-fire the "open" animation on resume??

 

Having to click [Resume] every time the biome flickers is ok  I guess.    But when it takes several seconds delay for it to happen, I see frustrating cases, where the timer will be like 5:43, pause.   I'll click the button to continue.    few seconds pass, and the timer is not counting down yet, because its doing the antenna boom animation.     Then the clock starts ticking on the experiment again.     and then, sometimes it will rapidly change biome again.    Because of the delay, 8 seconds of being over my biome, only results in like 1-2 seconds of getting the data.

 

of course, if the biome below is very regular, this is not an issue.     And this isnt broken, just a QoL issue.

 

specific example:

Low orbit polar orbit over TYLO.

The south pole area seems to have a mix of Highland, Lowland and rarely Crater biomes below.   Im trying to capture HIGHLAND.      if I can micromanage the [Resume]  button, I will eventually gather all 6 minutes of data needed for the experiment.

 

Just some thoughts, THANKS!

-CFTeague2

Great thoughts! I think auto-resume feature on experiments was added in the last patch but I might be wrong. I do think you bring up a good point with the animation time though. Maybe if they really wanted to keep a visual indicator for players to know when an experiment isn't running they could have a animation that closes some things but not all that takes significantly less time (like 2 seconds max). 

[Flush Foot]

I'll check again when I play tonight, but I really thought with the v0.2.1 patch the auto-pause did not retract the sensors (as evidenced by ongoing power-draw) and picked back up scanning quite quickly (though higher time-warps might confuse things) while the manual-pause forced the animation to run (but also stops sucking power while it waits to be re-engaged).

That being said, I know I have had a number of times where the experiment hard-stops prior to the scan completing (and when I 'start' it again over the target biome it does credit me for the previous time scanning it), but I don't believe that's expected behaviour.

[Presto200]

1 hour ago, Flush Foot said:

though higher time-warps might confuse things

speaking of this I think the animations don't speed up when under time warp either 

[CFTeague2]

Hi All.   In case it matters, I was NOT timewarping (speed 1:1).       

 

Also, I do have some mods, perhaps, the stock game auto-resumes, and one of my mods is somehow stopping that --- if so, then perhaps a lot of my above post needs a "nevermind" ??

 

---------------------------------------------------------

ALSO, a seperate NOTE:

I did later notice a trick or exploit or something odd.     I started Orbital Survey experiement, TYLO LOW ORBIT, over LOWLANDS.    it counted down, some seconds, to like 5:57.   and then I was over highlands -- apparently a quite large area of highlands.    (side note: at this point I already HAD gathered highlands science, and transmitted it).   

I was able to click the [Resume] button, even though the biome below, was different  (started over LOWLANDS, resumed over HIGHLANDS)

And the timer, did not reset, it continued from where I left off.      It may be something of a trick or exploit.    As it turns out, LOWLANDS were somewhat rare.    I was able to gather like 5 minutes of the data under HIGHLANDS.    Then it autopaused.    and I was able to wait until a patch of lowlands (using mod for biome maps from Orbital Survey mod, i could see it was lowlands for a while), and gather the last bit under lowlands.

It counted as science for LOWLANDS.    I do not know if thats because it ENDED as LOWLANDS.    Or because the original start was LOWLANDS.

 

 

-------------------------------------------------------------

FINALLY,  one more opinion ---

Not sure if the Orbital Survey experiment is easier to gather at high warps, or some tricks like the above issue.

But, it does seem like gathering some types of data "Craters" biome,   "Canyons" biome, etc.      While a vessel is in ORBIT and cannot stop,  for an experiment that needs to gather 6 minutes of data -- this is going to lead to a lot of auto-pausing.

 

It feels like it makes the Orbital Survey experiment kind of frustrating to gather significant amounts of science with.

In the current EXPLORATION MODE, this is perhaps moot -- because there are enough side missions and other science experiments -- you can pretty much max out the tech tree as it stands now (page 1-4), without needing EVERY biome researched with the Orbital Survey experiment.

 

BUT, I do wonder -- if the tech tree gets expanded when the colony content is added, or when the 2nd star system content is added, or really for any reason.     IF there is a design expectation that the players MUST gather 2/3 of the science from the Orbital Survey experiment across several planets or moons, in order to get the tech tree unlocked ---  Well, then I really wonder if the minor frustrations in the experiment will be magnified.    Right now, Im using it for the "cherry on top" science points.    But if it becomes really required on a lot of planets, I think its current version may become a hassle and stop being fun.

 

Thats pretty speculative -- its not even a problem yet,   but just throwing the thought out there.

 

 

Thanks!!

-CFTeague2

 

[Kalessin1]

8 minutes ago, CFTeague2 said:

It feels like it makes the Orbital Survey experiment kind of frustrating to gather significant amounts of science with.

Try to get Olimp biome from Eve. That's hard.

[Flush Foot]

3 hours ago, Kalessin1 said:

Try to get Olimp biome from Eve. That's hard.

I simply gave up, assuming it was probably only a surface-area (like if I wanted to scan Capyrock from LKO)

[CFTeague2]

Yeah, so while I do like the direction of having some science that takes time to gather, Im not sure if what we have now is the best answer.    maybe if it can somehow keep track of progression, simultaneously for each biome as it orbits.

 

so you might put your probe in a polar orbit, let it run for a few orbits and see something like this:  (using Tylo biomes for example)

- orbital survey / low orbit:

----- highlands -- 100% complete

----- lowlands -- 57% complete (3:23 of 6:00)

---- craters -- 2% complete (0:05 of 6:00)

---- dimple -- 0% complete (0:00 of 6:00)

 

But I dont know if that would be thought of as "too automatic" / "too easy" and maybe defeat the entire idea of making it take time to gather?     I dunno.   just some thoughts.

[Presto200]

21 minutes ago, CFTeague2 said:

Yeah, so while I do like the direction of having some science that takes time to gather, Im not sure if what we have now is the best answer.    maybe if it can somehow keep track of progression, simultaneously for each biome as it orbits.

 

so you might put your probe in a polar orbit, let it run for a few orbits and see something like this:  (using Tylo biomes for example)

- orbital survey / low orbit:

----- highlands -- 100% complete

----- lowlands -- 57% complete (3:23 of 6:00)

---- craters -- 2% complete (0:05 of 6:00)

---- dimple -- 0% complete (0:00 of 6:00)

 

But I dont know if that would be thought of as "too automatic" / "too easy" and maybe defeat the entire idea of making it take time to gather?     I dunno.   just some thoughts.

This could be cool, if it did this for all of them I think it would only be fair that it takes longer for each biome, otherwise you could get all of the biomes in just a couple orbits