Three chances to get it right

[HagarTheHorrible]

The way I see it, we have three opportunities to help the Dev's make getting into BoS as simple and pain free as possible. From personal experience I can say it is very easy to be discouraged and daunted by strange terms and unintuative control set ups.

 

With that said I think we have the Premium, Standard and final release to try and help get the GUI to be as simple and straight forward as possible in order to get new pilots up and flying as quickly and easily as possible.

 

My suggestions would include

 

1). A simple controls set up, featuring only the controls most likely to be needed or adjusted and not the full whack. It can be quite intimidating trying to pick out what controls really need to be set up and adjusted from the full list. I would include the main aircraft controls, shooting and bombing buttons, but also internal, external, padlock enemy, pan external view and last but not least pilot head and camera zoom view.

[HagarTheHorrible]

Thinking about it, it might be beneficial to have an step by step automated axis/button walk through for the most useful controls for first time users.

[Finkeren]

Thinking about it, it might be beneficial to have an step by step automated axis/button walk through for the most useful controls for first time users.

If it's made optional I think it's a GREAT idea. War Thunder had it, and it gets you flying in a matter of minutes. Just because WT is an arcade game, doesn't mean you can't use their good ideas. Some in the more "casual" crowd would definately appreciate a controls guide.

 

It's not something that's really needed for early access, but it's something the devs might wanna work on for the real launch. 

[Cybermat47]

Just because WT is an arcade game, doesn't mean you can't use their good ideas. 

 

Agreed. War Thunder is very popular, so if we can learn from them, but not ruin the realism of this sim, it would be a great idea. In my humble opinion, of course.

[Fifi]

IMO, controls set up in ROF and BOS are quite easy and enough intuitive.

Not that much stuff anyway. Nothing compared to DCS hundreds of controls! 

 

PS: one thing very useful missing though: 

When clicking a key or mapped button, would be great to see it highlighted in control setup.

This way we quickly see/remember what it was mapped to.

(i discovered this feature in DCS, and have to say it's great indeed)

Edited November 19, 2013 by Fifi

[Finkeren]

Honestly Fifi, I would like for BoS to reach a wider audience than DCS.

 

For a person who likes flight games but is new to flight sims the controls setup will seem more than daunting. Just one look at the "pilot head" section will make him/her go: "OMG what is this? Maybe I should just stick with War Thunder".

 

It's gonna be enough of a shock, when they try to get airborne for the first time - that can't be helped, this is a sim. No need to strain their patience further by figuring out the controls by themselves, when you could make an automated guide, that covers the basics.

[LLv44_Mprhead]

For a person who likes flight games but is new to flight sims the controls setup will seem more than daunting. Just one look at the "pilot head" section will make him/her go: "OMG what is this? Maybe I should just stick with War Thunder".

 

It's gonna be enough of a shock, when they try to get airborne for the first time - that can't be helped, this is a sim. No need to strain their patience further by figuring out the controls by themselves, when you could make an automated guide, that covers the basics.

 

This.

 

I haven't been able to try BoS yet, but at least in RoF set up, especially cameras/views are not "quite easy and enough intuitive." And this is something that can't be explained away, if end user feels that it's not easy enough, telling him that it is, is not going to help.

[HagarTheHorrible]

Fifi, I think it's straight forward enough if you're coming from RoF, but starting from new might be a little confusing. One of my favorite things about RoF was the very limited number of buttons etcetera , it meant I could concentrate on flying rather than faffing about in the GUI.