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Author Topic: Weapon Groups and Resolution  (Read 3630 times)

CrashToDesktop

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Weapon Groups and Resolution
« on: June 11, 2014, 06:49:59 PM »

So, as a laptop user, I pretty much stick to 1024 or 1280 resolution.  And with that, the sides of the screen come very much closer to the center.  When you've got a lot of weapons on a ship, especially lots of weapons groups, all that text can blot out about half the screen.  I'd suggest the ability to simply name weapons groups.  Give the weapon group a short name in the window where you assign your weapons.  I'd make the screen a lot less cluttered.

Just a screenshot so people know that pain:
Spoiler
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It has cost me my flagship a few times, where I can't see something that comes up from behind me, especially missiles.
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Midnight Kitsune

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Re: Weapon Groups and Resolution
« Reply #1 on: June 15, 2014, 02:16:34 AM »

And this is even worse on 1024 by 768 (yes, a 4:3 . My old man refuses to upgrade his monitor...
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ahrenjb

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Re: Weapon Groups and Resolution
« Reply #2 on: June 17, 2014, 01:15:14 PM »

The vastest majority of computer users these days, even on laptops, have resolutions of at least 1366x768. In my experience, that's plenty of space and I had no problems playing the game at those resolutions. I didn't find my view obstructed by the GUI in any appreciable way on my 7 year old ASUS.

Outside of netbooks which are utterly useless for games anyway, I haven't seen any resolution smaller than that in years.

It seems pointless to restructure the gui of the game for outdated and disappearing hardware, especially when the current trend is higher and higher resolutions. Heck, my new 15" laptop is sporting a 1920x1080 resolution. This game does a great job of running on outdated and sub-optimal hardware, but there has to be a limit and nothing can be truly optimized for email-tier machines without sacrificing higher end capability.
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Alex

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Re: Weapon Groups and Resolution
« Reply #3 on: June 17, 2014, 01:33:18 PM »

On a related note: the game will default to 1280xXXX in the launcher starting from the next version, if that's available on the system. 1024x768 is still "supported", but it really is difficult to create a UI that works well in 1024x768, while taking advantage of higher resolutions. My feeling on it is that if you're running at 1024x768, that meets the "minimum requirements", but definitely not up to "recommended". It's similar to running the game on a super-low-end video card - it'll work, but it's not going to run great.

I'd suggest the ability to simply name weapons groups.  Give the weapon group a short name in the window where you assign your weapons.

That might help here, but it's far from the only thing that's less than ideal at 1024x768, and, honestly, I don't think this specifically is worth singling out over other issues that crop up. That said, it is pretty busy regardless of the resolution, and I might end up taking a look at it at some point anyway. I do feel your pain, I just don't think I can realistically make the entirety of the UI work well in 1024x768. It'll work, but there are going to be some rough edges here and there.

(I was recently thinking about dropping support for 1024x768 entirely, btw, but have so far decided against it. It really is quite an added complication to constantly deal with.)
« Last Edit: June 17, 2014, 01:41:14 PM by Alex »
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CrashToDesktop

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Re: Weapon Groups and Resolution
« Reply #4 on: June 17, 2014, 02:16:06 PM »

Well, that's sad.  Guess I'll have to start getting used to 1280 at some point.
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