"Options" window really needs some Accept button to close

I've been meaning to post about this for a while...

Although within gameplay you're likely to bring up the Options window by pressing Esc, so are likely close it by pressing Esc, you don't have this kind of flow when you're accessing it in different ways. So, for instance, I've used it several times from the Main Menu in the startup screen, where the entire flow of the UI involves clicking menu buttons to move between different screens.

I might be on the "Welcome to New Britannia" screen, and click "Main Menu", and then from there click "Options". From there, my natural instinct is to look for anther menu button to Accept the options and return to the Main Menu. Its actually a bit confusing the first time you go through this, until you realize you have the X in the upper right corner, or that you can close it from here also by pressing Esc.

Ultimately, It would help integrate it into the UI flow by having an "Accept" button somewhere ; I think this would be less confusing to new users, and less awkward for familiar users. Then perhaps removing the X in the upper right corner just to not create confusion as to whether the two buttons have different functions or duplicate functions.

 

Also looking at things again...

The 'Quit' button should also probably be hidden when accessing Options from Main Menu, because going back to the Main Menu gives you a 'Quit' option anyway, so its a bit redundant.

 

What I really want is to not have the options come up when I press escape.

 

Why must you pretend that you've never used a computer before?!

 

It is kind of an odd thing, since Esc the first time closes your overlay windows, then only the second time brings Options up. Then if you want your windows back up, tough luck, because you have to bring them up manually again. In the end, this makes using Esc to bring up Options very unattractive.

It also personally gets in my way, since I do a lot of screenshots with the UI off, and sometimes I find that I have to press Esc to get out of the chat window, where I'll be typing things like emotes (I don't use Enter in case I have text I don't want entered). Sometimes the Options window will come up and I won't know it, because it counts as UI. So I get stuck, and don't realize right away this is because Options is up. I have to press Esc several times just to make sure I have things set up right.

Its just pretty awkward the way it works right now.

 

Exactly. If I'm doing a thing and something attacks me then I want to quickly close all the windows. Sometimes there's some lag or it just takes multiple presses to close everything, I end up pressing escape more than I need to and the options dialog pops up. This is very bad. Sometimes there's some lag and I already pressed the escape key one extra time and the options window will eventually close but I don't know that and I press it again; the options window closes and then opens again. Super frustrating.

I can always bring up the options from the icon on the right, I don't need escape to do that.

 

@Barugon

I think probably any key that hides your windows should also unhide them and bring them up again the second time you press it, unless you've opened up new windows since then. That would seem to me more intuitive behavior.