Post by falconne on Aug 10, 2018 1:58:13 GMT -5
I had some QoL suggestions that might help make it easier to play as a trader, to make it faster to find the best place to sell goods than to have to go through the star atlas all the time.
In screens such as "Buy Goods", Cargo/Stash, Looting, etc, when you click on a resource you get a side panel that gives you some info about it and lets you do actions on it. It would be good if this panel also included (or a new panel tab is added with) a list of all the known zones that buy the good, along with the demand grade (as would be shown in the Star Atlas) and the distance to it. This panel should include a persistent Filter button to filter on: "All zones", "Zones in this quadrant only", "Only zones where player can sell this resource". Also a Sort button to sort by demand grade or distance. A "Waypoint" button next to each zone would help too.
Additionally (or instead of the above), a new trade oriented screen, similar to the star atlas but focused on resources would be quite useful. This would show all available resource in game and for each resource you should be able to view the demand in known zones as above (with similar filters and sorting), but this screen would include a supply section too, to show the same info but from a supply perspective. If the above described "side panel" view on the Cargo display is not available, then this screen should have a filter to only show resources in the cargo bay, for convenience.
I also think it would be good to have a bit more detail shown on the Map screen for each system, especially for traders, so you don't have to keep swapping back and forth between the map and star atlas. This should ideally be controlled by a whole new dialog that let's an experienced player turn on or off the various zone info panels they want to see directly on the Map screen, which can include (for all zones in a system):
Of course zones with multiple zones will need more room to show this info, but the map screen has plenty of empty space not doing anything.
This would help when you are are carrying a variety of cargo and want to map an efficient route through a system that lets you sell it all.
In screens such as "Buy Goods", Cargo/Stash, Looting, etc, when you click on a resource you get a side panel that gives you some info about it and lets you do actions on it. It would be good if this panel also included (or a new panel tab is added with) a list of all the known zones that buy the good, along with the demand grade (as would be shown in the Star Atlas) and the distance to it. This panel should include a persistent Filter button to filter on: "All zones", "Zones in this quadrant only", "Only zones where player can sell this resource". Also a Sort button to sort by demand grade or distance. A "Waypoint" button next to each zone would help too.
Additionally (or instead of the above), a new trade oriented screen, similar to the star atlas but focused on resources would be quite useful. This would show all available resource in game and for each resource you should be able to view the demand in known zones as above (with similar filters and sorting), but this screen would include a supply section too, to show the same info but from a supply perspective. If the above described "side panel" view on the Cargo display is not available, then this screen should have a filter to only show resources in the cargo bay, for convenience.
I also think it would be good to have a bit more detail shown on the Map screen for each system, especially for traders, so you don't have to keep swapping back and forth between the map and star atlas. This should ideally be controlled by a whole new dialog that let's an experienced player turn on or off the various zone info panels they want to see directly on the Map screen, which can include (for all zones in a system):
- Name
- Stats (Economy, Military, etc)
- Fuel price grade
- Icons of resources in demand, above a set grade
- Icons of resources supplied, above a set grade
- and other stuff advanced players would want to see
Of course zones with multiple zones will need more room to show this info, but the map screen has plenty of empty space not doing anything.
This would help when you are are carrying a variety of cargo and want to map an efficient route through a system that lets you sell it all.
