I don’t use the hundreds of fancy house pieces - but the stuff I craft CONSTANTLY is at the bottom. I count 10-15 seconds every single time I open the crafting menu… This is a solved problem in UI design. (the current filter only visually filters by dimming items, it doesn’t reduce scrolling) How about a “recent” or “favourites” tab? How about letting me put the construction items on another tab and letting me make a darn torch immediately instead of scrolling past 100 foundations, walls, corners, lintels, parapets, stairs, and 15 kinds of roofs?
Edit: I dropped some better-considered UI improvements later in this thread…
I just wish Funcom would accept that the crafting menu has 400+ items now and needs a better control than one designed for around 50 items.
I was trying to make myself feel better by telling myself it would take more than 15 seconds to actually make a torch, but even that in-game logic fails because it would take longer to build a 2-tonne Aquilonian Arch than a torch,… and why is silk and string at the top but all other useful things at the bottom of a 400+ item list?
The craftng menu has become too big for me, too With all dlc there are far too
many items to scroll, that’s why I reset the points and put away the new T3
buildings… They take time to build an eternity solo, and once you’ve used them
all, you quickly get one freeze A new UI design would be great, and I am also
for a “favourites” tab!!
I agree, we really need some means of being able to customize the handcraft menu how we want. Just being able ro move everything to whatever square you want like you can in the inventory would be good. This should apply for the crafting stations too.
I also have this thing in the handcraft menu where while scrolling down, it always, after three or four secomds, jumps back to the very top automatically. Then I press down, and it jumps me back to where I was before it jumped to the top.
THINGS THAT COULD IMPROVE USABILITY OF PS4 CRAFTING MENU:
(disclaimer: I have done UI design for 20 years.)
Wrap-around scrolling, you scroll up when you’re at the top of the list, and it jumps to the bottom. This one thing cuts the longest scroll loosely in half, as you’re only ever half the list away from the thing you want.
Sticky - it opens at the same place you left it - How many times have you opened the crafting menu just to find out you forgot to put one ingredient into your inventory from a chest, then you have to close it, get the wood (or whatever) and then scroll scroll scroll again to where you were. If it just remembered where you left it, you could just leave it where you do most of your crafting for a while.
Recent - the top 10 slots are reserved for recently-made items (although the radial menu already kinds of does this – but doesn’t help when you need 50 of something), the problem is that loading up all your radial slots is in itself a bit of tedium, and then a panther attacks you and instead of your weapon you have a ceiling tile in your radial
Favorites - or the top 10 slots are items you can favourite (maybe harder due to lack of buttons on the controller)
Make the thing wider than 5 slots, so you can at least scroll x% faster
Have a “fast” modifier, so if you hold the trigger (or whatever) when you’re scrolling you scroll super fast
Additionally, you could order the list by simplicity or frequency. I’m level 60 but I still make pretty much everything out of sandstone. I wish sandstone building parts were first in the list, then later on list the building pieces that require more effort. Is it “alphabetised” now? This is not necessarily a good sort order as nobody knows the names of all those pieces, do they?
Thankyou for raising this issue texas_jay. As a ps4 player myself I share the same frustration as you. Not too long ago now I created a thread asking for the Bedroll and Campfire, my two most frequently crafted items to the top row of the Handcrafting menu for the sake of convenience. The results were fairly middling at best. The problem is as you say we now have some 400+ items in the Handcrafting menu, and with a minnimum of 3 more dlcs and numerous free updates still yet to come, that number is set to explode. And we dont even have a search bar on console. However I like your ideas even more. Honestly, I would support any or all of your ideas outlined in post no 6.
Controller has enough buttons. The mapping is just hideously abhorrent (outdated; not sure about Xbox).
Removing the character model from the middle would open more space. Model itself is useless enough and thus should be removed. Anything else in that middle area can be integrated to the left panel.
I believe PS system (at least PS4) has an integrated feature that allows quicker scrolling. Press D-pad into a direction the same as you hold the left (or right) stick and scrolling should happen approximately twice as fast.
I really hope this idea takes off, the Handcrafting menu is already so cluttered, and unfortunately it will only get worse with time and further additions. As I said earlier texas_jay, any one of the possibilities you listed would be great. We as a community are all talking about Quality of Life improvements, and here is one at the forefront. Even if for example, the top row (5 tiles) were transformed into a favourites bar. It would be great to put some of my most frequently crafted items such as Bedrolls and the Campfire on it. I might see if I can drum up some more support for you on this one texas_jay.
@sestus2009, @Arsenalcontrol@Wak4863. My fellow ps4 comrades does the original post, or any of the ideas listed in post no.6 sound appealing to you? Its fine if it doesnt, and there is certainly no pressure here. Im just putting the call out and seeing if anyone else supports this idea.
Thanks for reaching out @Croms_Faithful. I support something that works better then scrolling the way it is now.
At one point I think I posted a recommendation to create tabs for the different crafting areas. But whatever they can come up with to simplify the use of the hand crafting section for console users would be appreciated. I currently use 2 different physical copies of the game one US one UK. On the US disc I have all the DLC on the UK disc none. I don’t play on the US disc unless I’m building simply to alleviate the amount of scrolling.
As a console player and someone who owns all the dlcs, I think texas_jay really nailed what needs to be done. I especially like the idea of the favorites tab, which would allow us to put some recipes at the top. Half the time I’m searching for something, I scroll all the way to the bottom, forgetting what I was searching for to make. Even a simple search function, like in the admin panel would greatly enhance our quality of life. I’d also like to see filters for the dlcs/building tiers, the current filter system is lackluster at best- as it only greys out the items instead of removing them from the list.
By Crom. I agree having all dlc it takes way to find what I am looking for. Perhaps be able to turn off or move a Dlc by group. Any improvement would be appreciated.
“Tabs”. Thanks for adding your voices @Wak4863 and @Aria_of_Sorrow. Tabs are more than fine with me. As I said earlier I will take anything at this point. If the proposed tabs ate anything like the way the Feats menu is set out, that that would be great.
It does Sestus, all of the additional building pieces (with many more still to come…) do tend to cluter it up. One aspect of the game has become a bit of a catch 22 situation; additional Feat points learned via Fragments and Tablets of Power. On the one hand it is more convenient knowing all recipes and not needing to respec regularly, but on the other hand it reduces convenience to some degree by bloating the Handcrafting menu.
Really!? Thank goodness, I though I was the only one. Yeah I will often go into the Handcrafting menu intent on making something, only to forget, and either have to search from the top again, or stop for a minute or two to try and remember. Somehow it even still manages to happen if I am rehearsing while I scroll, and get distracted. Yeah texas_jays ideas ALL struck me as both sensible and very reasonable. And like yourself, the Favourite option calls to me. But any of them would go such a long way to as you said, enhance our QoL.
Thankyou both for lending your voices to this issue.
As I was playing today, I was thinking even “paged” lists would work - having a button to scroll past 20-50 at a time to get where I was going.
Trying to think about the least development work - either a scroll accelerator mode mapped to a button (as mentioned above) – or a button that would allow you to skip 50+ items down the page (akin to paged scrolling, but there wouldn’t be discrete pages, just the one long list still) might be easier than trying to come up with a tab system or a recent/favourites system… That would go a long way toward easing the pain.
Tab 1: Equipment and specialty items
Tab 2: Tier 1 Building items
Tab 3: Tier 2 Building items
Tab 4: Tier 3 Building items
Tab 5: Extra Tabs - Nested tabs with a separate tab for each DLC
A new UI design would be great, and I am also
Yeah texas_jays ideas ALL struck me as both sensible and very reasonable. And like yourself, the Favourite option calls to me. But any of them would go such a long way to as you said, enhance our QoL.