Been using the TA plugin since starting and it does come in handy. However, I'd like to offer some UI improvements that would make using TA even better and more user-friendly. The following suggestions are for the Stations tab and would make using TA both quicker and require less input from the user at EVERY launch. Effectively these suggestions reduce user actions from 3 clicks (Buy, Sell, Go) to one (Sell).
The UI improvements I'd like to see are:
1. When docked at a station, the Buy Station dropdown is already set to the current station. The game knows where you are, it should be trivial to get that info and update the Buy list to display it instead of the first station in its list of stations. With this change, one user action is no longer required.
2. The item list should automatically update when the user selects any Sell Station and at initial opening of TA. It has the current Buy station and a destination Sell station set so it can just show the item list.
3. Remove the Go control. With the change made in #2 above, this control is no longer needed.
That's it, just three changes will make using TA a more responsive and better experience for everyone.
OPTIONAL: One additional improvement I'd like to see is if its possible to sort the stations in the Buy/Sell lists. If yes, then I'd like to see the stations sorted by wormhole distance from the users current location and not by name. Yes, in some instances sorting by name makes it easier to find, but normally users are looking to see what can be traded in the current sector, zero wormholes away. Less time searching the dropdown for a station, quicker return on trade data. Thus, if you were in Nyrius, grouping them by wormhole distance (then alphabetically) would create a list that looks like this: Nyrius (current sector), Dau, Verasi (1 wormhole away), Arta, Azek, Edras (2 wormholes away), and so on.
Thx for listening and if you can update TA to do any of the above you'll have my eternal gratitude (for whatever that's worth).
// Khaliban
By tsreknor (Commander / Trident Captain)
Date 2013-02-05 19:31
Hello Khal, and thanks for the ideas.
I suggest you wait until we graduate you to full membership. Assuming you stick with us to that point, you will then have access to tools that are greatly superior to TA. Meanwhile, using TA, even with its limited capabilities, will give you a solid foundation in how trade works in VO.
As a side note, the author of TA, Moda Messolus, is no longer active. Some of our current lua experts could no doubt work on the changes you suggest, although I think you'll see in the near future why that's not viewed as a priority.
-- tsreknor