Hi peeps! This is my rant on how dumb the dev console is on mobile. There are several glaring issues with it that I want to talk about.
I recommend you read this.
1. The way to activate it is dumb.
Let me show you how:
First what you must do is enable it so that it’s possible to open the dev console. Why must you do that? I have no idea.
That’s not even that weird compared to how it’s done. You’d imagine there’d be an obvious switch in the settings that allows you to enable or disable it. But in SimplePlanes, it is quite possibly the stupidest, least obvious system to open anything I’ve ever seen in any video game.
First you go to the settings on the home page.
You’d imagine there’s be a switch here that’d says something along the lines of “enable dev console” and “enabled” or “disabled”. But no. What you must do is this:
For some reason, the devs thought that the best and most obvious way to activate the dev console on mobile is to tap the “settings” header 5 times. What drugs were they taking???? The only way ANYONE could find out about this is if they read the 1.9 update thing! And even the explanation there isn’t very obvious! IT IS SO STUPID!!!!! It’s unbelievable that they thought doing it like this was a good idea!
2. The integration was half assed.
There has been no effort to adjust the UI size at all to suit mobile devices. Let me show you.
Now you’re probably wondering, “how does a keyboard fit underneath that?” Well... it doesn’t.
And let me show you the issue with that.
Say you want to enter something into the console.
The keyboard covers all the commands. You have to stop typing and stow away your keyboard every time you want to enter something! How dumb is that?
Device: iPad mini 4
@DeGebra No , just 3 fingers on screen also does it
How do you open it. I somehow managed to open it by going to the USS Beast Catapult. But I can't figure out how to open it again
Found it. You have to have a finger on the throttle and pitch, and tap at the top
@JamesieMcPlanesieThe2st oh ok thanks
@MrShenanigans No it's where you change the FOV in the designer
@JamesieMcPlanesieThe2st is this where you hide the hud?
@MrShenanigans the full code is
Designer(Clone)/CameraTarget/Camera>Camera.set_fov [field of view]What does camera target do?
@jamesPLANESii awwwww thx tho
@UltraLight Unfortunately I don't :/
@jamesPLANESii do you know the code to disable the HUD on the dev console?
yes
DOWNVOTE
It's not that bad though, the mods and devs in the comments are right, that's how you do stuff like enable developer settings on mobile phones (atleast on android phones) and then if it's just a 3 tap to open it once it is activated it isn't that hard.
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Stowing away the keyboard might be annoying but for it not not be stowed away and you still getting the commands you'd only be able to see like 1 line of thr dev console and the text bar where you type, that would probably be more annoying.
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Dev console was probably in the game already too, just that they made a way for mobile players to access it, it's like how you can enable the joysticks on pc.
I think that’s the part that I mind the least about it, but it would have been better if it was a button. @QingyuZhou
That's so dumb...
You 3 finger tap @QingyuZhou
How do you even start typing things in the designer...
@jamesPLANESii And if you're into the game to the point where you're particular about the FoV, then the chances are you have an SP account.
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And why does WNP78 suddenly have to make stuff to a higher standard for a piece of equipment that the majority of people in SP don't use? You're telling me you'd rather WNP78 spent more time perfecting the dev console than integrating cool mods that everyone will use? That seems like a very closed minded way of looking at the situation.
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And again, WNP78 clearly stated that it's possible for users to mess around with it, not knowing what it is or does and then complain when everything goes wrong. People younger than the age of 13 are playing this game and they probably don't yet have the capacity to understand the implications of activating such a feature. Let alone correctly diagnose the "problems" they may face when they start accidentally interacting with it.
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Think of it as a child lock. You wouldn't give Tide Pods to an 8 year old and expect them not to try and eat it with 100% certainty, let alone without any context to what it is or does.
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The very fact someone wants to know how to activate the dev console shows they already have an understanding of what it does and the implications of it. Again, much like the developer settings on Android.
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Furthermore, Jundroo is a small team of people. Would you rather they worked on updates to SP and SR2 or spent time repeatedly diagnosing and informing kids via email on how to fix an issue that could have easily been prevented?
Yes true, however you’re a developer now, not a mod maker. Stuff needs to be made to a higher standard. And ignoring criticism is not a way to strive forward. @WNP78
@Squirrel Yeah true however they didn’t need to make it activate in a way that nobody could know about unless they read the 1.9 update thing. Sure the dev console isn’t a thing the average user needs to use, but some users do use it or would like to use features that are only usable through the dev console, such as changing the FoV. (Fiddling around you can actually manage to do stuff). Hiding the way to activate it in such a discrete way was not necessary.
This is why I deleted it from my files in the first place.
@jamesPLANESii I already tagged you explaining exactly why it was that way. It's a tool for debugging and developing, it's not designed for users. If you called another user's stuff half-assed and dumb I'd be removing it for starting drama, but I'll leave it here for now.
Dev consoles aren't something the average user will use. The clue's in the name "Dev" console. the activation is also very similar to the activation of the developer settings on android devices; tap the build number 5 times. Again, developer settings isn't something the average user uses.
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And I feel like stowing the keyboard is a minor inconvenience at best and to say they keyboard doesn't fit at all is a bit of an exaggeration since the screenshots clearly show 100% of the actual dev console interface, with the only thing being cut off being the auto-fill, which isn't even a necessity.
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All things considered, for a first version from a team of Jundroo's size, I'd say it's more than adequate.
@Minecraftpoweer I was about to say...
It’s a small screen, that’s the sacrifice you make when PC based features reach mobile platforms
Cool.