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Simplify the travel menu's

ihatepwe735ihatepwe735 Member Posts: 337 Arc User
The menu system(s) that facilitate travel in STO are in serious need of some kind of overhaul.

Ground Maps
On ground maps there seem to be three paradigms at play:
* Some maps disable the "Beam to Ship" minimap button (e.g. Starfleet Academy but not Earth Spacedock)
* Some maps always have a minor interaction menu. This can be called random things like "Operations" or "Beam Up".
* Some maps require you to find a transporter pad to pop up a minor interaction menu.

If the map uses a minor interaction menu to facilitate beaming up, some maps will prompt to confirm, others will just beam you up.

Space / System Maps
Again, some space maps will disable the "warp to sector" button. And, depending on your position, some will offer options via the minor interaction menu to either beam down, or "Warp to Sector" space options.

Sector Space
In sector space, when your ship is near a destination, a primary interaction menu opens that cannot be dismissed. This is annoying if you are just trying to take in the view.

Transwarps
At any one time the player also has a number of transwarp options available. There is the transwarp menu in the minimap. some missions have a transwarp available. And various events also add a transwarp option.

Missions, Fleet Holdings, Social Maps, What
New Romulus is a case in point for this. Arriving at the New Romulus system in sector space shows a menu with about 3 - perhaps more - destinations on it. Some go to fleet holdings, some the New Romulus space map, and some to the Romulan faction zone. Going to the space map you are again presented with a profusion of options and some of the maps don't link in obvious ways: Going to the fleet embassy locks you in as the beam up menu is disabled and you can only exit via a turbolift or the doors as there isn't even a minor interaction menu to beam out.
Going to the romulan faction ground zone and exiting that puts you outside some doors in the New Romulus open world zone and if you re-enter those doors you are now in the Embassy Fleet holding.

Proposal: Helm
This is all very confusing with so many different ways that you could travel from one zone / map type to another. So my proposal is,
* borrow some UI ideas from the console version and roll ALL navigation options into a minor interaction area menu.
* Add some iconograply to the navigation options that indicates whether the destination is a faction, fleet, social, or open world mission zone.
* In space and sector maps Give us a "Navigator" or "Helm" menu that discovers and lists ALL available transwarps & navigations by scraping the missions and transwarps.

Proposal: Transporter Chief
On space or ground maps, when there are transporter destinations available to beam down to up to, again provide a consistent minor interaction menu option to call on the Transporter Chief. In maps like new romulus or the Sol social zones the transporter chief will always offer point to point transports as well as the relevant beam down/up destinations - including the bridges of any adjacent friends or fleet mates that have open bridge invites.

Two menus should merge about a million different menu options into one easy to navigate interface and even better, the resulting menu can use my Captains selected Operations Officer.


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