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Splash Screens of Death and Destruction!!!

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
I think from a user-friendly standpoint the splash screens should and probably will change in this game. I know I'm not the only one that gets frustrated by these, because my fleet has ventrilo, and I've been on skype with the fleet of friends I've made in game. I've spoken with a lot of people about this, and I have a feeling once I post this message there will be a lot of 'amen brother' coming after what I'm about to say.

Anyway, the Splash Screens that alert you about what's going on in the mission are highly interruptive. On a few levels. One of the commonly irritating cases is in Defend Missions (Ie: Kahless Expanse, Azlesa Expanse, Defend against Romulans, etc.) It doesn't matter if you're a Klingon or a Fed captain, the problem is the same, albeit worse on federation side. You zone in. While your computre is loading the graphics, 20 ships have already zoned in on you, your shields are down, and by the time you see what's going on you are at half health. You try as you might to click F as fast as you can (lets hope you didn't accidentally click something else or F won't even work) to get your First officer to shut up so you can defend yourself. Boom you are dead. Enemies swoop away at Warp 35.9 and laugh at your dead exploded hull. You respawn, and then play the mission normally.

The second scenario has to do with team play. You talk to your contact upon entry into a mission, Infected, lets say. Then you walk forward. Then another guy talks to the contact, and you have to click it again. Then again. THen clear it again, because each member of your team got it. So, despite possibly fighting, you're being bombarded by the same message from your first officer or mission contact. This is irritating though often not life threatening.

The third scenario is like the one above, lets say you're in B'tran cluster. You move into a randomized mission, and everyone gets the splash screen where some nefarious enemy forces are hailing you and telling you they want you dead. You say no, click F, and try to move on. Because you're in a team, you have to click 3 or 4 more times, meanwhile the enemy gets an unfair advantage to unload on you. Worse yet, one of your buddies was late to the show, zones in, and gets assaulted while he frantically tries to click his way out of the splash screens. Lets hope he's in a cruiser, or his hull might go boom.

Admittedly, I'm using a little rhetoric here to make apoint though. The splash-screen interface can be annoying, and I think there's better ways to handle it. Preferably by putting a face on the left or right hand side of the view-screen. Put some text beside it, and make it smaller than it is currently. That way you can actually see what's going on and still interact with your environment. Secondly, try to fix the problem where the splash screen hits you multiple times when you're on a team. It gets downright obnoxious (or even lethal to some players) when you have to click your way out of that.

Finally this brings up another point. There should be safe load in zones in the Defend Missions. I realize you're being assaulted, but because of the lag time it takes for the screen to come up, as well as death penalty degradation of gear its a little annoying. I simply suggest you throw people in a 'safe zone' till they actually move their character's ship. That way you have a fighting chance. Its never fun to pull into a screen and see your ship blew up before you had a chance to do anything, nor fun to get your ship nearly-blown up for the same reason. It is fun to at least have a chance to react to your foes however. Hope these ideas help. :)
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    There have been a lot of posts on this topic.

    Maybe because it annoys me so much, too, I am not sure there can ever be enough until it has been addressed. ;)

    Popups are only okay if they happen due to something I did, or because a critical problem arises and the popup is the only way to deal with. When I enter a enemy contact mission, a critical problem arises - ships start shooting at me. But the popup doesn't help me to deal with that, so it needs to stay away!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    I hadn't noticed other posts on it, which doesn't particularly surprise me. THere's lots of posts to fish through. I'll say this though, it would be nice if they made the interface for contact with people a little less in your face :) Or hard to get out of in combat. I've also been killed in pvp a few times, trying to get that splash screen out of the way. Its been only ground pvp, but memorably annoying.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    In the same genre as the pop up issue, I despise it when I start talking to starfleet while moving in sector space and my ship slows to halt so that a signal contact can intercept me.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    There is an option that lets you keep moving while the screen pops up. It keeps you from stopping, but it can be tricky if you approach a starbase, and you may crash into it before you can click the dock button. I **** off more then a few dockmasters when I sctach the stations paint. I use to be way too close to a ship about to blow before I found the proper option to disable it.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Keeping moving, doesn't necessarily solve the problem in most of the cases. I do use that feature though, but its specific to only one type of splash screen occurrence, and not the others that cause trouble.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    it does need work, the only place where it annoys me so greatly ide wanna yell at my pc (which is obviously silly) is the defend base missions where there are waves of enemies coming towards you. 9/10 the popup window makes my ship stop next to an exploding enemy. maybe they should make the window smaller (half the current size) and move it towards the lower left corner so that it doesnt block yer view.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    keep moving during dialogues + tab selects offscreen opponents = no problem
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