Oolite Bulletins

GGShinobi wrote:

cim wrote:

Very true - I just think mission screens are not the best way to provide that sort of feature

Hmm... now that's probably my tired brain again but... what would be the best way in your opinion?

Scriptable HUD overlay for output, responding to two-button control from a primable equipment item for input. Gives you access without losing control of your ship or awareness of your surroundings. Two-button lets you do some complex menu systems, and the overlay can help you navigate them, but the really complex ones might want to let you configure presets while docked using the interfaces screen.

PhantorGorth wrote:

Just for info my WIP Visas OXP uses F5-F5-F5 to list visas and permits you have (both inflight and whilst docked).

Thanks for the info, PhantorGorth, I added it to the list!

PhantorGorth wrote:

I can certainly pull such an OXP together in a reasonable amount of time if people want one.

This would be great! I could use it! (and I don't wanna write it)

Thargoid wrote:

Flight log also uses a key combination, as does Vortex (I think the latter shares the keys for Hypercargo as the two are incompatible, but I'm not on my coding machine at the mo so I can't double-check). Both have been shifted onto the F4 screen when docked, but in-flight they may also need adding to the list.

Oocheat has now been also moved to the F4 screen, but that's only when docked anyway (so it'll no longer clash with OXPConfig).

Thanks Thargoid, I edited the list accordingly

cim wrote:

GGShinobi wrote:

cim wrote:

Very true - I just think mission screens are not the best way to provide that sort of feature

Hmm... now that's probably my tired brain again but... what would be the best way in your opinion?

Scriptable HUD overlay for output, responding to two-button control from a primable equipment item for input. Gives you access without losing control of your ship or awareness of your surroundings. Two-button lets you do some complex menu systems, and the overlay can help you navigate them, but the really complex ones might want to let you configure presets while docked using the interfaces screen.

Oh, I see... sure sounds reasonable... but:

cim wrote:

Not that you can do that at the moment, of course, without horribly complex shader tricks (or very limited overlay flexibility), but it wouldn't be too difficult to add them for the future. Scriptable HUD overlays have been either explicitly or implicitly requested several times in the last few months alone, so they're one of the things I want to look into after 1.78 is out.

Ahem... I think I'll stick with the menu solution - at last until the feature is implemented! Hope you don't mind!

cim wrote:

Scriptable HUD overlay for output, responding to two-button control from a primable equipment item for input. Gives you access without losing control of your ship or awareness of your surroundings. Two-button lets you do some complex menu systems, and the overlay can help you navigate them, but the really complex ones might want to let you configure presets while docked using the interfaces screen.

I was thinking wouldn't an option for a mission screen to have a transparent or semi-transparent background when in flight be the easiest way to achieve the idea of doing complex overlay like screens in many cases?

Phantor.
Currently on a train between York and Leeds.

Just being able to toggle the comm_log_gui between permanent and fade-out mode from script, would go a long way. I know a trick to do that in 1.76.1, but I haven't tested it in 1.77 yet.

Thargoid wrote:

Docked:

F5-F6 - Flight log

This combination is rather annoying because 99 out of 100 times I was just going to the galactic chart. I already disabled this compination on my copy because you now use the F4 page also. No need in invoking the flight log from two places.

Everyone, thanks for providing the info - I've updated the collection / summary of special equipment key combinations in my post!

Btw, I've written a world script which allows configuration of such in-flight keyboard-combos through OXPConfig. It is tailored towards my LongRangeScanner, but should be very easy to modify for use with any other OXP. So here is the link:

https://www.box.com/s/n2jwh3v10ymkovd3erzr

Enjoy!

In-flight trophy log from Trophy Collector uses F5-F5-F7.

To bring this thread back to what I originally had in mind, I think the discussions on this thread are exactly the problem I have with using lots of key combinations.
I have a bunch of OXP equipment installed but most of them I can't remember the key combination for when I actually want to use it in combat.
Yay, I bought a railgun, how the hell do I activate it now I have it, oh crap I'm being shot at, Shift N, err..., panic, fuck it, shoot the bastard.

It just doesn't flow naturally. You remember most of the others. (T)arget a missle, Fire (M)isile, Docking (C)omputer, (H)yperspace, (ESCAPE) capsule, Activate equi(Shift-N)pment, Use equi(N)pment, F5-F5-F8 - Hypercargo & Vortex multibay (I picked that at random from the previous posts).
These are just not intuitive.

Now that the energy bomb has been removed, make the tab key do something useful again, besides it is what most of us are used to for 'tabing' between input boxes in forms.

I propose this:
Press <TAB> and the pop up appears at the side of the screen or wherever else on the hud it could be (maybe a button bar like when you put the MacOS doc on one side).
Pressing tab highlights the next piece of equipment or function in the list (or icon list).
Return activates the entry and shows an indicator on the hud of what's active.
Return activates equipment, or something else obvious.
Tab, deactivates equipment and displays the popup again.

I'm not saying this is the only way, but this just needs rethinking to make it intuitive.

!m!

Actually, your proposal is not much different from what we already have, you've just switched the function of the SHIFT-N key to the TAB key.

The only thing about in-flight equipment that you have to keep in mind is that it's chosen by SHIFT-N (and then used by N and B). Forget about combinations with FUNCTION keys. The one and only way to use non-core equipment that needs keypresses while in flight (and keep looking into space, not at an interface screen) is SHIFT-N. Period. That's not hard to remember or train yourself to do. The currently selected equipment is displayed on your screen, and hitting SHIFT-N again selects another equipment, scrolling through a list of all of your available equipment (only that the list is never displayed as a list). Once the equipment you want to use is displayed, hit N (or, for some equipments, B). If you want to use it again, hit N again (or B).

And that's the whole deal. There's nothing more to it. SHIFT-N and N (or B).

And this general principle wouldn't change one bit, if SHIFT-N would be replaced with TAB.

Yes, it would perhaps be nice to have a graphical interface, and probably even a point-and-click selection. But Oolite isn't built to have graphical interfaces and point-and-click. What you're requiring amounts to a major re-write of the whole GUI-code of Oolite. Which may be desirable, but I don't know how realistic it is.

Commander McLane wrote:

Yes, it would perhaps be nice to have a graphical interface, and probably even a point-and-click selection. But Oolite isn't built to have graphical interfaces and point-and-click. What you're requiring amounts to a major re-write of the whole GUI-code of Oolite. Which may be desirable, but I don't know how realistic it is.

Point-and-click is beyond the current GUI code, at least for in-flight where the mouse might be being used to steer!

Something to list on-screen what primable equipment is selected (and next/previous in the selection list) is basically just another HUD dial, though, and that's very possible (and already on my list, though maaarcooose's post has pointed out some extra features it would need)

Hmm. Swapping the key assignments so cycling through primed equipment were on the TAB key, and the NRG Bomb were on the N key, strikes me as a very good idea.