Cards Against Monotony
The first baby step toward improving ship interaction and giving your vessels the spotlight they deserve was the introduction of ship cards in the hangar. This goal is to bring more information to the forefront, making it easier to see ship types at a glance, and providing quick access to traits and fitting details for owned ships.
The Ship Info Overhaul
The Ship Info window was a much bigger project and greater challenge. Unlike ship cards, which introduced a new way to display ships, this was about rebuilding one of the most used windows in the game – one of the cornerstones of EVE Online!
The Community Response
A change of this scale was bound to generate strong reactions. Some were a bit more vocal than others, and some, let’s say, interesting bug reports were submitted. Despite some particularly passionate opinions being voiced, most of the feedback gathered was constructive, thoughtful, and quite valuable. The support is greatly appreciated and was very useful in refining the final product. The Ship Info window is only the beginning. Many ideas surfaced during development, both internally and from community feedback, for example compact mode which was added recently. Some other great ideas also surfaced but didn’t make it into the first release. These include further improvements to the 3D view, triggering warp animations, further improving the fitting panel, and more that will be explored in the future. With the new framework in place, these and further refinements will be easier to develop and roll out and might lead to more specialized UI elements as well.The Boarding Cinematic
Ships are the heart and soul of the EVE experience. They represent investment, progress, and identity. In a game built around acquiring and piloting different vessels, boarding a new ship should be an exciting experience, not just a menu action. The goal was to make boarding a ship for the first time feel like a milestone. It should be visceral, satisfying, and feel like an achievement.