'Default' should be a viable configuration
18th March 2012 – 3.25 pmIt's time to bite the bullet. I'm hitting the reset button on all my settings, come hell or high water. Actually, I'm kind of expecting hell to come, as I am about to commit every element of the interface be back to its horrible default position and size. Thankfully, I managed to restore most of my communication channels yesterday, before reverting for the failed ambush attempt on a salvager with Fin, so my display doesn't look truly horrible. It's mostly the interface and information windows that I'll need to reposition from their dreadful and short-sighted default position of the middle of the display.
I open a whole bunch of windows that I will likely use. I have no idea whose bright idea it was for them to sit in the centre of the display, where each and every one covers the ship you are piloting, the focal point of your vision. I move every single screen is away from the centre before resizing it, but that's a step I really shouldn't have to make. Considering the overview, comms channel, and ship controls all appear at the edges of the screen it seems some designer realised that the ship should remain visible, but the process went wrong after that. And it's our job to put it right every time our settings are reset. It's dumb and annoying.
I get my windows mostly in position, once I remember to adjust the window-snap distance before the Penny-snap function overloads. I work on the lines that if I can't tell a window is in the wrong place or the wrong size then it doesn't really matter and move on to the next. Only a little tweaking is needed for column widths and a couple of pane tweaks in the scanner. I import my overview settings, saving me a lot of wasted time and headaches, but it's still not quite right. Some settings aren't saved to the exported file, it seems, as the display order of status icons is the default, and I really need that order to be better. I once nearly shot an allied pilot because his yellow pirate skull obscured his blue alliance icon.
Finally, I have most of the interface squared away. I swap to some commonly used ships and open the cargo holds to reposition them, form a fleet to get that window looking right, and open as many other containers, hangars, and other miscellaneous windows so that I won't be frustrated by them when actually needing to use them efficiently. I'm sure the occasional window will pop up in the wrong place over the next fortnight or so, just to annoy me at the wrong times, but I'll just have to take a deep breath. Oh, right. And there is confirmation box after confirmation box treating me like a new player that I'll have to agree to ignore, which I'm not sure if there is a way to bypass or not. That will be fun when shooting someone in low-sec for the first time and not having my warp disruptor activate until I sign the disclaimer. I always like to give my targets a chance to run whilst I'm sorting out paperwork.
Right, I think I'm ready to explore. Ah, no I'm not. My scan filters are gone and have to be recreated. Yep, lots of little bits like this will frustrate me for a while, when I just want to have fun. This had really better fix the crashes I've been experiencing, because I don't want to go through all this for nothing. Okay, my scan filters are in place, let's see if I can salvage something like an evening out of this session. Launching probes sees that apart from a dozen anomalies there are only four signatures at home. I'll ensure I can resolve each of them, for practice. I find gas, a magnetometric site, the static wormhole, and more gas. I activate the two ladar sites before warping to the wormhole and jumping to our neighbouring class 3 w-space system.
Six little ducks again. I remember being in J222222 before. My directional scanner looks clear from the K162, so I move away from the wormhole, launch probes, and cloak. And cloak. And... move away from the... move away from... away. Holy buggering shit, every setting defaults to something stupid. My 'keep-at' distance has reverted to one kilometre, which I correct to be something my cloaking device finds more agreeable, and then I do the same for my default 'orbit' distance, before I actually have to use it. I'm glad this C3 is clear from this position, or I could have got myself in trouble with my first jump.
Now that I am actually moved away from the wormhole and cloaked I can check my notes. I was indeed here about three weeks ago. I warp off to find the listed tower in the same place, empty of pilots and ships, before blanketing the system with my probes to see a rather untidy system. Fourteen anomalies and twenty signatures are scattered around, and although I pluck a wormhole out as my first choice it is only the system's static exit to low-sec empire space. Further sifting finds a second wormhole, which makes me think scanning wasn't a waste of time until I see it is merely a K162 from null-sec k-space. There's nothing else interesting in this C3.
Still thinking about repairing my security status, I make the obligatory nose-poke out to null-sec. It would probably be a good idea to make a few more jumps and maybe even pop a rat or two just to test the stability of my ship's systems too. I find myself in a system in the Detorid region, sharing it with one other pilot. I see a Reaper frigate and Machariel battleship on d-scan, along with a whole load of rat wrecks. As there is also a tower visible on d-scan I imagine I'll find the lone pilot retreated there in his faction battleship, more scared of me than I am of him. Sure enough, there he is, no doubt waiting for me to leave the system before resuming his ratting.
The scaredy-Mach and populated local communication channel should make it relatively safe for me to pop a suitable rat for security status gain, particularly if I wander the asteroid fields out of d-scan range of the tower to keep the other pilot ignorant of what I'm flying. So I warp out and bounce across a few rock fields until an Angel rat in a battleship warps in to greet me. I give him a warm welcome with some missiles until his ship pops, at which point I warp out, cloak, and check my atlas.
I am in a dead-end system, with a short string of systems ahead of me. But I don't think I'll bother ratting through other systems today. Getting my interface in order has burnt through a lot of time. I think I'll just head home and get some rest. There's only so much maintenance I can do in one day before all the fun is sucked out of piloting a spaceship.
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