Menu Construction

I really want to love this game, but, among many other issues, the menus are a bit of a mess, with too many clicks or delays between some functions, and other being missing altogether.  Im a designer by trade, and some of the UI decisions/bugs are really affecting my experience of the game.

Codies, please consider fixing/implementing some of these to make gameplay far more intuitive and enjoyable:

1) Menu Ribbon - Do not show the main menu ribbon when not in the main menu. If you are using a mouse, it leads to incorrect clicks. E.g. when in the time trial sub menu.

2) Options Menu - Please make the options menu just a 'selectable item' in each menu, rather than a button-only-activated sub menu. Its just not intuitive on PC.

3) Animations - Please remove animations between menus, especially when going "back". This is really, really irritating when you are trying to review clubs and their stages, for example. Menus should be super quick above all else.

4) Mouse use is a bit broken at the moment:

a) Hovering over a vertically scrolling menu like advanced graphics settings causes the list to go up and down, without the user having clicked anything or used the scroll wheel.

b) The sub menu buttons (e.g. options and extras) sometimes cannot be selected with a mouse.

c) Sliders do not move proportionally with the mouse - you have to move the mouse about 100% further than the slider, which is really irritating in the setup menus.

5) Confirm Buttons - There is really inconsistent applications of Confirm buttons. For example, they don't exist in the options menu, yet others like the livery editor insist you confirm. This needs streamlining properly. My preference is for a confirm after changing controls or settings, incase you change your mind.

6) Save Setting Presets - With all the graphical difficulties of the game, having an ability to save graphics setting options would really help. It allows PC users to test multiple settings across multiple stages to settle on the best set up for their hardware. The same applies for force feedback settings.

7) Button Bindings - Please, please allow the menu buttons to be bindable. On the Fanatec Clubsport RS wheel, you have set "Select" to button 2, which is right at the bottom of the wheel. I need to take my hands off the wheel constantly to navigate menus, moving between the dpad and this button.

8) Car Setup -

a) There is no quick way to review what stages are coming up during car ser up. You have to back right out of the set up menu and then click through multiple events layers to view them. This is just not fluid.

b) In DR2, you could use shoulder buttons to skip between each setup menu. This is now dumbed down to having to back out of each set up menu to adjust something else. Very irritating.

c) Setup, Tyres and Repair should be directly accessible from the service park menu, not buried under a 'vehicle' sub menu.

9) Menus and Wheels - Please make an option where the menu bars can be raised up when you have a steering wheel. I just cant see them, and its infuriating.

10) Viewing /selecting events. Again, there are just too many clicks here. For example, it should be "Clubs>Select Club>", then you should just see the horizontal list of events, with stage quantites for each. The "enter event” would just be below this list, and the settings could remain off to the side. Instead, the current giant "Audi tile" serves no purpose other than being an unnecessary click. I will happily storyboard this if codies pm me.

11) Performance Info - At the end of your stage, regardless of game mode, you should be able to quickly view:

a) Your stage time against your PB. This does not happen in time trial at the moment.

b) Your performance on that stage compared to others - both in the current event and via the leaderboard.

c) Your performance within the event so far. This is buried in the stage submenu at the moment, which is ridiculous. It needs to be readily accessible.

d) Each of these options are pretty crucial for enjoyment, given the game's primary replay value is based on competing against yourself and others.

12) Overall, please just consider reviewing the menus and reducing the amount of clicks where not needed, so people can get on with using the meat of the game quickly!

I know this is a long list, but I really hope it can be seen by Codies and taken seriously. I'm something of a hardcore codies rally game follower, and I'm so irritated by the above that it almost puts me off playing the game. Particularly point 9.

If more casual players who are less willing to persevere walk away, I imagine thats the revenue stream for DLC narrowed down. Which fans don't want to see - we want to enjoy the game and shout about how good it is and see it flourish as the only sim-ish rally game available beyond DR2 and RBR.