Some thoughts on UI and usability

[thebmxeur]

Hi, I've been enjoying KSP for quite some times now and since it's an early access game I wanted to share some ideas.

Keep in mind that those are just my personal opinions, some are just little details. They aren't in any particular order. Feel free to share your ideas.

• It would be great to have access to every "Buildings" (VAB, SPH, TS ... ) from the "escape" menu. It would remove unnecessary loading screen (even if they are short).
  
• In the KSC scene I think the bottom bar (with the exit button and the time warp arrows) should be put on the top and merge with the other buttons : on every other part of the game the exit button is always on the top right and the time warp on the top.
  

In the VAB there are several things that could be improved :

• having a scroll bar instead of pages for the part listing;
  
• putting the contract and notification buttons on top of the window, next to load, save, exit ... buttons (Is the notification button of any use anywhere in the game ?);
  
• pinning part descriptions to be able to compare several parts;
  
• a way to force a ship to have no pilot (and save that to avoid a rescue mission that has no free seats ^^);
  
• a better way to move the view around (like in 3D packages, it's harder to learn but so much more efficient);
  
• having more infos on the ship : the total mass, the total thrust, the mass of a part of the ship, the thrust of a part of the ship.
  

For the last point I think a rework of the sub assembly system is needed. I don't use sub-assemblies often : most of the time I can't connect what I put in it how I want it (mostly because there is only one attachment point). What I think would be great :

• Construct a rocket completely.
  
• Select parts of the rocket and "tag" them to be in "super stages" : the ship as it will be at some point during the flight.
  
• That would allow to configure the staging of that "super stages" easily, know the weight and thrust of that super stage, see the center of mass, center of thrust, center of lift for that "super stage" and stock them as sub-assemblies. Those "super stages" could also be used in the "Resources" window during flight to determine what should be shown as part of "Stage only".
  

During flight :

• Having a sidebar where you can dock windows ( contracts, notifications, resources... ). It should be shared between stage view and map view;
  
• Having more windows :
  
  • a node window allowing to tweak maneuver nodes precisely;
    
  • a window with periapsis, apoapsis, current altitude, time to node...
    
  • the transfer fuel windows (it can be hard to click on the buttons when the ship/view is moving)
    

  [*]Improve the contract window : being able to resize it and have a scrollbar in it.

  [*]being able to right click on the "orbit" line to open a contextual menu, allowing to add maneuver, displaying apoapsis ... The left click that does thing depending on where you click doesn't work well.

  [*]I would really love a "Time warp to this point of the orbit" feature.

  [*]having better orbit lines : when trying to get near an asteroid orbiting the sun, there can be a huge offset between the ship and the orbit line, separation numbers seems way off making it hard (I know it's hard to fix due to floating point precision but there should be a way around it).

  [*]maybe being able to stage in map view.

  [*]being able to select the only ships you want to see on the map.

  [*]no limits to the time warp speed as long as you are in orbit (waiting for interplanetary transfer is long if you can't time warp at maximum speed).

Contract :

• seeing the part when choosing contracts
  
• no contract like "testing wheels splashed down", "testing jet engine with no air intake parts unlocked"
  

Main menu :

• for the moment it's : long loading (all parts) > small loading > menu > sub menu > window > loading > KSC and often loading VAB or TS
  
• a "resume last save" item on the main menu would be great
  
• an option to select what is the default building you go to when you load a save (VAB, SPH, TS)...
  

Technology tree :

• seeing all nodes to know which path you want to take to unlock a certain part ?
  

General :

• detect keyboard layout ( AZERTY, QWERTY ...) to avoid having to remap keys or switch keyboard layout.
  
• being able to remap keys in the "escape" menu while in flight.
  

Thank you if you read up to that point.

Cya