The UI needs a new design before launch

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by ChairStacker, Jan 29, 2018.

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  1. Kain Darkmoor

    Kain Darkmoor Avatar

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    I am not understanding this one. I don't need to stop moving to look left or right while running. Are you using the mouse to move forward instead of the wasd keys?
     
  2. Astirian

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    Yeah I'm not advocating like for like, UO is very old and the size of those elements was typical for that time, also the resolution was 800 x 600 so things tended to look a bit chunkier in general, this was just the status quo in a world before 1024 x 768.

    I agree with, and respect, @Lord British 's views on minimizing UI elements and maximizing the avatar's portal into the world. My point is the artistry of it, the aesthetics. Look at the kind of polish in the UI here for example:

    [​IMG]

    It fits the time period, it's bold, it looks great and very much enhances the mood of the game.

    The UI as it is now looks like an alpha placeholder. Probably because it was, at one point? Maybe then things got prioritized. To me it strikes me as "yeah it'll do for now".

    I just think it would be a great shame to have Denis Loubet's incredible artwork (I mean just look at that fantastic Box Art! :D) and the constantly improving look of the game assets and effects sitting next to the UI as it stands, I dunno, I just am in total agreement with the OP.
     
  3. Kaffien

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    I've heard a few complaints from friends who tried the demo. The thing they starting harping on right away was the
    'ancient' UI.
     
  4. darkskwerl

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    UI is my last bastion of complaint with the game, really. I like the earlier comment someone made about having a UI contest just to see what people can come up with. Not necessarily to use any particular person's submission, but just to get ideas and see what might work. I'd love to see what people have in mind.

    The conversation UI specifically needs fundamental improving, in my opinion. It doesn't draw me in very well with the walls of text it presents. Conversations should be broken up a little bit more, and presented in a more polished way to encourage me to read them (which I have a harder time doing these days then I used to.)
     
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  5. Link_of_Hyrule

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    I think my man complaint is stuff like the task list i can't move and it's in a terrible location if you're in a party so I end up turning it off.

    I wish we had toolbars simply to show how many of an item we have that can be out on the screen.

    I really would love a grid inventory with larger icons it didn't have to allow me to move stuff around the grid just let me have it alphabetically and trans like list and resizeable.

    The journal needs to be completely redone I understand it's supposed to be like a written book but it's borderline useless and I'd rather have a more traditional quest list I can reference.

    The tips should have been popups with arrows in a dialog we can go back to and reference when we forget how to do something similar to what other games do. Sometimes you see a pop-up and it's just gone and you need the information from it.

    It's a joke there isn't an motd or thing with the news from the website and patch notes at this point seriously it can't be that hard to just embed a webpage. I've seen unity add-ons to do this easily. So instead of saying "we have no way to give info in game..." Just make the news/patch notes motd pop-up we can really pull up when we need it.

    Fix the map so it rotates directions correctly and allow us to click compass markers to highlight and set where we're trying to go.

    Let us freely move around other stuff like the health bar and party list. Let us close our inventory while keeping another bag open.
     
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  6. zeme

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    Agree, especially nuke the quest journal and recipes. When you drag skills it should feel better, those tubes connecting the skills should turn into vines for earth, flames for fire in the K menu.

    When you use the scroll wheel while hovered over a skill it should add glyphs to a deck you're modifying, double click to add items to the bank, double click to equip items.

    But what do I know literally nothing I've said has made it into the game when it's glaring, obvious suggestions
     
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  7. Joe Zhudarak

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    Agree, at least the paperdoll, inventory and quest journal, other stuff can be change in the future.
     
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  8. Vladamir Begemot

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    I have a feeling they are already getting ready for a revamp, but I could be wrong. Or maybe this thread will push it up the list.

    But anyway, here's my opinion of the dialog UI, and why I think the Story will get panned in reviews even if it is actually amazing (and also, a reason I can't tell if it is amazing or not):

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  9. Elwyn

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    So are you saying the UI needs to be Changed?
     
  10. Paladin Michael

    Paladin Michael Bug Hunter

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  11. Corv

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    I like minimalistic UIs
     
  12. Vladamir Begemot

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  13. Astirian

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    I just legit lolled. Bravo! :D
     
  14. Astirian

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    How about this... Because of the demise of bag mode and how well we're taking it because we're such cool peeps, as a consolation; why not rally the troops with a new, perhaps more skeuomorphic, NPC dialogue box?

    @DarkStarr I can hear the applause now, trust me it'll be like a stadium.
     
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  15. MindBlast

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    Did they say anything about this in postmortem?
     
  16. 3devious

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    A thousand times yes! I still have a hard time convincing people that the team has played/seen a game since Ultima. I understand that is what made you rich but there is a difference between giving a reverant nod to the game that started it all and making it seem that no time at all has passed.
    More importantly you really need to give some attention to the length of time inventory and other windows take to draw. That makes me want to fight someone and not just PVP.
     
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  17. Nietzsche

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    I wouldn't be surprised if some new lipstick were applied right on launch. It could be a way to Wow the players who have left since persistence to come back. Using it as a kind of marketing surprise to the players. I really hope this is the case , lipstick as it may be would certainly freshen the game a lot, and the UI needs a lot more design to appear competitive.
     
  18. Astirian

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    Here's hoping! I think that would actually generate a lot of goodwill. :)
     
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  19. TheBalance

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    This is sadly another constant complaint that's gotten basically zero attention - it's still one of the most commonly made complaints about the game. We've even had real UI/UX experts offer to lend their assistance, for free, only to be turned away or ignored. Someone even went as far as to go through and wireframe the majority of the UI in a near complete redesign - I tried finding that thread, but there are so many posts about this that it just gets tedious to search for without remembering the user's name that posted it.

    If anyone still has that thread, please link it here or message it to me? Thanks!
     
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  20. Timmy Vortex

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    They probably wanted to go for nostalgia just like half of the stuff in the game + who doesn't like yellow? :p
     
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