Four UI suggestions (QoL, not crucial)

[Stickman]

1) Make grabber module targeting line appear on ship mouseover. Would also look good on emitter control tech.

Spoiler

Right now targeting line behaves oddly, like it's tied to green ship silhouette. It's here while selecting where to build or move, but it wouldn't show up on mouseover. Only way to figure out if grabber ship is in correct position is to click on it and then superpose silhouette under the ship. It's fiddly and can result in accidental ship movement (and grabber ships are not the kind that should be moved accidentally). Simply showing targeting line on mouseover would be much better. Similar problem exists with emitter control tech

[close]

2) Indicate ships front on green silhouette.

Spoiler

That's custom ships problem. Since we've got great customization opportunities, ships can have very different hulls. Sometimes it's not easy to quickly recognize ship orientation when moving one. And ship positioning and orientation is quite important, especially on bigger ships. Having some indication would be beneficial. My suggestion:

It uses CM position for indication. This would be also useful for bigger ships positioning - clear indication of CM position would help to keep supercapitals in energy range.

[close]

3) Show ship info while mouseovering ship pickups.

Spoiler

I'm cheating a bit, similar suggestion existed, but only half was implemented.
This is custom map problem, especially on maps with multiple progression paths. While there are some hints that ship pickup would contain something big, that's one and only educated guess player can get on first playthrough. Modules, size, speed, cost - all is unknown until actually picked up. That's a bit weird to see in otherwise very information accessible game, especially after ship preview was implemented. To better illustrate my point, two ships and their respective pickups:

[close]

4) Better cycling through weapon targeting options. At least some way to move both ways in option list.

Spoiler

I personally don't use it often, but changing targeting on weapon modules is sometimes immensely useful. Saving power with proper MK7 and particle beam settings cannot be overlooked with overall game focus on energy. Cannons are very versatile, and well-equipped ship can focus on many different tasks - cleaning mire for safe omni drop, getting rid of struc without ramming ships, scaring off enemy ships in particle-heavy areas - I remember several times when I was very thankful that I have these options. But actually using these options is quite clunky - a lot of clicking, even more clicking in case of missing the option. Drop-down menu for option-heavy weapons would probably be the best way. Any way to choose previous option (right click, ctrl/shift/alt+click) would also be good.

[close]

I would like to see your corrections, criticism and comments.

[Relli]

These all seem pretty helpful, to be sure. The only thing I really have to say is on the ship-facing direction, which is that the triangle you created points three ways, making it just as difficult to tell which way is forward. The former picture would work much better, and I'm doubly fond of the way it highlights the location of the command node. I find myself often using that tiny little resupply line to tell whether my CM is in range of a mine or not, so a quicker, more visible method appeals to me strongly.

[yum-forum]

3) - necessary as soon as possible!  :)
Now very uncomfortable when You don't know what ship You will pick up!  :(

[Stickman]

The only thing I really have to say is on the ship-facing direction, which is that the triangle you created points three ways, making it just as difficult to tell which way is forward.

That's a good point. The triangle in question is not equilateral, but isosceles one (google translated!). So it should point in one direction, although it's hard to read. I like the idea of a triangle, though. Requirements (IMHO) are:
1) Should be read from afar easily, so it can be used when camera is zoomed out rather far. It rules out tiny things, so first picture with tiny arrow might not work. It would probably look too similar to square, and that defeats its purpose.
2) Should be easy to find and recognize, so it would probably rule out thin things like normal arrows (ex. field arrows). They might gel lost in the energy supply lines, etc.
3) Should not interfere with everything else. Again, first picture shows CM buried deep in hull. What if CM was right in front of a ship? That would cause tiny arrow to float in space. What if there is jagged hull in front of CM? Tiny arrow might get lost in jaggies.

This, of course, my understanding, and actual implementation might prove me wrong. But, from my criteria, triangle is big, bold and can be fully contained inside of CM. That makes it pass my version of requirements. Of course, the one in my first post is a failure, but probably something can be done to fix it. For example:

Spoiler

[close]

Or add a stripe near the base, so it looks like eject button.

Crazy idea - some of you are testing ship sharing with all these corporation logos. If some kind of square with a tiny arrow is adopted, space inside the square can be used for lo fi logo. But it's a crazy idea.

[Kharnellius]

Going to vote my support on ALL of these.  There should also be a ship summary on mouse-over on your ships in your side bar inventory.

Regarding the arrow, the arrow with the notch removed in the back is the best option.  Easy to tell the orientation of your ship.

[Stickman]

There should also be a ship summary on mouse-over on your ships in your side bar inventory.

That's in beta right now. It's stable, switch to it. Makes you exchange experience better.

[Kharnellius]

OT: Is there  a changelog for the beta?  Nevermind, delete this post.  Found it.

[Kharnellius]

Can the health and percentage in the pop-up be separated by a dash "-" or at least some extra space.  I'm having a hard time seeing the two numbers separately.  Also can there be a way to make the preview larger?  Kind of hard to see the components of a ship. 

Also, a general "total build" time would be nice too.  Even after the CM is built it is still not completed for some time.

Lastly, can we get total energy cost as well?

[GoodMorning]

Total cost is visible in the ship editor, and I had thought it was in the preview as well; and total build time is surprisingly complex to estimate due to variable consumption and the energy flow cap, combined with potential acceleration by Guppies.

[Kharnellius]

Well, yes, but I don't think anyone would expect it to calculate build time on the fly.  I just mean total build time if I started building it now and it built at it's normal rate.  Does not need to be dynamic and can be calculated at the time a ship is finalized in the ship editor.  This would be useful to know, hey I should probably not start building this ship that takes 38 minutes before building this other one that only takes 14 seconds.

[GoodMorning]

The CM construction time is present/easily figured out, the hull build time will be affected (for virtually any ship in which it is significant) by the energy rate cap, because the ship cannot build more than one energy-worth in one frame without a buffer, which would be depleted. So this would generate misleading information, or be an extremely complex calculation (to the point where it is probably best solved by the game attempting to build the ship in a dummy environment).

Interesting thought, but not really practical.

[Kharnellius]

Ok, fair enough.  Can we get a total energy cost then?  The information provided isn't super clear what it means and thus not really useful.  I've played the game a ton and none of it makes much sense and is not very intuitive.

I can only imagine the confusion a new player would have.  Honestly, it feels a little too technical and not very accessible.  Still have no idea how to gauge the build time for one ship vs another.  What does CM time mean?  I sorta know what it means, but I'm guessing most will be all "WTH?".

EDIT:  Also, I think it'd be worthwhile to move the preview to the lower left of the screen so it can be larger.  I'm having a hard time seeing the ships and the text is very small and I have pretty good vision.