Are There Plans On Console To Make Save 2 Clicks Like It Is On Tsw2 Instead Of 6 Like It Is In Tsw3?

We're all well aware at this point that DTG haven't gotten around to starting to develop the new UI for consoles, much less testing it on them, but now we have save back it's really highlighting just how little thought was given to us in the layout of the new UI being designed for and tested exclusively with mouse. Six clicks utilising three buttons, to accomplish what took two buttons, each clicked once, to do before.

It's understandable that the current reimplementation, as a short term stopgap, doesn't have the dedicated save button on Y, but it really highlights how poorly laid out the pause tabs are for controller users.

We really need a way to get to the options menu in one click from the overview screen, or even have it be the default destination when we pause, with a single click to get from there to the overview.

I reiterate my earlier bafflement at options, the most used menu tab, and overview, the default one, have two entire tabs between them that are unlikely to ever be used by anyone who isn't new to the game, and which could easily be relegated to the far end of the menu tabs.

(I include for reference my previously suggested improvements to the menu tab layout with a "heatmap" visualisation of how frequently tabs see use, red for "hot" tabs, green for "cold" ones)

 

Your bafflement is shared. One thing that this UI was advertised as doing was improving the player experience and making things more accessible for the way players play the game. This wouldn’t have passed the early design stages had any players been consulted (and listened to) at that stage. It has made almost everything worse and less accessible and although that can easily be compensated for with a mouse the console functionality makes it even worse. Extra clicks multiplied by extra lefts and rights, missing shortcuts (not just save) and endless scrolling through the menus.

 

It’s the Pause menu layout that’s bothering me the most. It seems to require a lot more navigating to use it on console.

The rest I don’t mind to much, though at he moment I’m just going ‘To the Trains’, Route, Scenarios. So I’m not really making full use of it yet. I do find that part easier though. Can’t say I like the Last Played and New Banners, but I’ll get used to them.

 

From a PC perspective, the UI is a slight improvement on the previous iteration, though the way the save game function has been shoehorned back in is very clunky and it's still missing a map with any usefulness.

Without a mouse, I can imagine the difficulty console players will have, so this UI was clearly not designed with those guys and gals in mind.

I don't know whether there was any player input, but, if there was, it must have come from the PC crowd, I guess.

 

I'm of mixed feelings about the UI.

I play exclusively with a gamepad on both PC and Series X, and i don't find it to be too bad except:

The grey "yes" highlight color- this has been pointed out extensively.

The removal of the "Y button" shortcut to the search bar when in the service selection menu

Otherwise i think it's fine. Reminds of the menus from the Forza Horizons series.

 

I think the options menu has the potential to be quicker to navigate once you get used to it, and can remember which button is left, which is right, which is down. Once you have the muscle memory it ought to be fewer button presses than scrolling through a vertical menu. A big problem is the overly large tiles, reminiscent to those of us on XBox of the Kinect era, where everything was designed for gesture or touch control - and the fact they are different sizes, makes it take longer to process which button is which and recognise where to go.
That, and the grey on grey selection makes it harder to highlight where stuff is relative to your cursor.