Suggestions for Improving the User Interface & improving QOL

I have no idea if the devs read or even consider suggestions made in the forums. I see a lot of great suggestions posted, and hopefully these suggestions are actually getting through to the dev team.

The pics I have provided are purely conceptual, and I am sure there are better ways to implement these suggestions.

Hotbar Suggestions

1. Ability to lock/unlock movement of the hotbars - this would prevent accidental dragging of the hot bar across the screen when when furiously clicking on glyphs in battle.
2. Ability to lock/unlock editing of the hotbars bars - again, when furiously clicking on glyphs in battle, all of the sudden a "locked" glyph disappears and the deck re-shuffles (either from accidentally right-clicking the glyph or from dragging the glyph off the bar). Turning this option on would only prevent you from moving or removing the glyphs directly on the hotbar, it would not prevent you from switching decks and it would not prevent you editing your combat-bar in the deck-editing window. [Portalarium attempted to partially address this problem: they created a right click menu where you select "remove" to delete the glyph. This is not a sufficient fix because glyphs can still be deleted when clicking. Also, dragging glyphs around is still an annoyance. With the right click menu, if you click twice in rapid succession (as often happens in combat) the first click opens the menu and the second click removes the glyph.]
3. Shortcut from hotbar to the deck creation/edit window.
4. Ability to activate/deactivate auto-attack directly from the combat bar - instead of remembering the hot-key or finding the setting buried in the options menu, I think that it would be more user friendly to set this directly on the combat bar. Perhaps right double-click on sword, right click on the sword to open the menu, or perhaps include it as an options in the "cog" menu shown by the red arrow below.
   
   

Paper Doll & Inventory Suggestions

1. On the paper doll, have an option to show which equipped items are locked in your inventory - In the pic below, I show 3 possible ways of accomplishing this - see red arrows: close the grey box, place a green dot next to the item (since locked items are also green in the inventory), or place a lock next to the item.
2. On the paper doll, have options to:
   • show/hide locked items on your paper doll
   • lock all equipped items
   • unequip all items (get naked!)
     
3. Ability to repair items that are locked in the inventory - When I drag a repair kit or essence onto an item that is locked in my inventory (whether equipped or not), I should be able to repair the item without having to unlock it. I think you should still have to unlock the item to drag it onto a crafting table for repair. I think a locked item should have the following properties:
   • Cannot be removed from inventory by oneself (but can be removed by PVP loot or stealing)
   • Cannot be destroyed while in your inventory
   • Can be repaired while in your inventory
4. Ability to place all locked items in a special container in the inventory - I would like have a bag in the inventory called "Locked items". When you lock an item, it automatically gets put into the bag. This suggestion has been made many times already, and there is a nice discussion of this suggestion & similar ones in this thread.
5. Fix the hover-over-equipped-item window conflict - when you hover over the equipped item, the item-info window pops up. But when trying to lock/unlock an item, the info window pops up and overlaps the lock/unlock item window (red arrows in pic below) - this is very distracting. To fix this, you could have the info window pop up only when the mouse hovers over the equipped item, and the lock/unlock window pop up only when you hover over the lock icon (or whatever graphic you use to show the item is locked). Fixed. right click now opens menu & gets rid of info window. However, the implementation is still rather clunky.

• 

Recipe Book

1. Cross reference recipes - for example, in the recipe for a Longsword, I would like to be able to mouse over (or click on) the metal hilt, and have the recipe for the Metal Hilt show up in a pop up window. I do not like flipping back and forth between recipes.
   
2. Add a search function with ability to search for crafted item and for ingredients - this has been requested ad infinitum, but I wanted to suggest the ability to search not only for the recipe, but also for the ingredients. For example, it would be nice to find out all the things a skeleton bone can be used for.
3. Put the Usual Yield # in recipes - In the recipe book, put the usual # of items created by a given recipe (I realize that efficient refine materials may increase the yield, and this is why is chose the term "usual yield"). Also include this information in the crafting window!
   

Crafting

1. Add ability to choose max/min batching amount:
   
2. Put the Usual Yield # in the crafting window for the currently crafted recipe - In the crafting window, put the usual # of items created by a given recipe (I realize that efficient refine materials may increase the yield, and this is why is chose the term "usual yield"). Also include the usual yield in in the recipe book!
   

Teleporting

1. Discovered locations list - I'd like to have an easier and more direct way to see which locations I have discovered for teleport to zone. Right now, I have to exit combat, make sure i am not encumbered, and click on a teleport scroll, and then check the list. I would like to show the discovered locations list using all of the following options: select it from the drop down menu of the Window Selector icon, open it when a hot key is pressed, a drop down menu on the map, or by clicking on a teleport to zone scroll. Then, once that menu is open, clicking on a location automatically uses a teleport to zone scroll if it is in my inventory.
2. Sort the locations in the teleport to zone list alphabetically by default - right now I am not sure how it is sorting the list, but however, its sorting now, its not user friendly nor helpful.
3. Ability to right click on a friend shown in the friends list or in the chat window and teleport to them - add an option to the right click menu "teleport to friend" (which would appear only if the person was on your friends list). When you select the "teleport to friend", it automatically consumes a "teleport to friend scroll" from your inventory. This would co-exist with the current way of teleporting to a friend.

Skills & Combat

1. Exit Combat When Talk to Vendor - When talking to a vendor, automatically take me out of combat so I can trade (or have an option that allows me to select if I want to do this). It's a bit of an annoyance to close the window, get out of combat, and open the conversation again. Also, the instruction that you need to "sheath your weapon" has 2 problems:
   a) When I am in combat mode and do not have a weapon equipped, SOTA still tells me to "sheath my weapon". So, the warning would be better if it did not mention a weapon - something like "The merchant will not trade with aggressive people. Try using a non-aggressive approach (get out of combat mode)".
   b) The warning is only visible if you have the "miscellaneous" info selected in your chat box. So, a new play may get frustrated trying to figure out why the merchant's text box keeps closing. You should also put the warning in big white text in the middle of the screen (like when i get the announcement that the oracle gave me my daily XP.
2. Option to Turn off Training of All Skills - in the skills window, have an option to "not train all skills" which would shut off training of all skills.

Emotes

1. Indicate which emotes require an item to be equipped - one way to do this is place an asterisks at the end of the emote name. For example:
   
   
   
2. Sorting & categorizing of emotes - as it stands now, I often cannot recall the name of an emote, but I know the action I want to display. I have to keep clicking emotes to find the one I want. I suggest an additional category (type of emote) in the emote window. Then we could sort by emote name or by emote type. This would make it far easier to find an emote.

Example emote types could be:

• Dance - zombie, Mosh, chicken, etc.
• Fitness/yoga - jumping jack, push up, balancing stick, tai chi, flex, etc.
• Facial Expressions - eyeroll, smile, frown, etc.
• Toss - all the emotes that toss leaves, flowers, etc
• Breath - all breath emotes: breath fire, breath spiders, etc.
• Juggle - all juggle emotes.
• Magic - bird from hat, mouth coil, etc.
• Music/Theater - sing, conduct, Mime emotes, etc.
• Greet/Goodbye - wave, tip hat, etc.
• Salute - darkstarr salute, love salute, etc.
• Opinion/Sentiment - Cheer, clap, boo, smells bad, toast, yes, no, shake head, shake fist, laugh, belly laugh, etc.
• Clean - rake, sweep, etc.
• Puke/Vomit - all the puke emotes
• Physical interaction- hug, spank, hold hands, flirt, face slap, kiss
• Direct - come here, point, etc.
• Read/Write - read book, write book

​

Other Suggestions

1. Allow selection and deletion of multiple pieces of mail (Fixed)

 

Very much yes please. Especially the hot/combat bar suggestions.

As of next to last release this is in the game.
You can multi select and click Take All, or Discard.
The multi select is with CTRL or SHFT keys.

 

Fabulous stuff. I find it hard to believe the glyphs can't be combat locked in the hot bar, I'm forever deleting them or switching them around in battle.

 

Yes Yes Yes!

 

@Chris
During the Livestream you wondered what "locking a glyph" meant. See the first post in this thread for the meaning and a suggestion on how to fix it.
This has been requested many times, so I was surprised that you may not have known that this is a bothersome usability issue.

 

The items in the intial post in this thread are mostly still a problem, but i edited the post to show what has been fixed or addressed so far.

Here are some other QOL things that I would like to see:

1. Exit Combat When Talk to Vendor - When talking to a vendor, automatically take me out of combat so I can trade (or have an option that allows me to select if I want to do this). It's a bit of an annoyance to close the window, get out of combat, and open the conversation again. Also, the instruction that you need to "sheath your weapon" has 2 problems:
   • When I am in combat mode and do not have a weapon equipped, SOTA still tells me to "sheath my weapon". So, the warning would be better if it did not mention a weapon - something like "The merchant will not trade with aggressive people. Try using a non-aggressive approach (get out of combat mode)".
   • The warning is only visible if you have the "miscellaneous" info selected in your chat box. So, a new play may get frustrated trying to figure out why the merchant's text box keeps closing. You should also put the warning in big white text in the middle of the screen (like when i get the announcement that the oracle gave me my daily XP)
     .
2. Put the Usual Yield # in recipes book - In the recipe book, put the usual # of items created by a given recipe (I realize that efficient refine materials may increase the yield, and this is why is chose the term "usual yield").
   
   
   
3. Option to Turn off Training of All Skills - in the skills window, have an option to "not train all skills" which would shut off training of all skills.
   
   
4. Sorting & categorizing of emotes - as it stands now, I often cannot recall the name of an emote, but I know the action I want to display. I have to keep clicking emotes to find the one I want. I suggest an additional category (type of emote) in the emote window. Then we could sort by emote name or by emote type. This would make it far easier to find an emote.
   Example emote types could be:
   • Dance - zombie, Mosh, chicken, etc.
   • Fitness/yoga - jumping jack, push up, balancing stick, tai chi, flex, etc.
   • Facial Expressions - eyeroll, smile, frown, etc.
   • Toss - all the emotes that toss leaves, flowers, etc
   • Breath - all breath emotes: breath fire, breath spiders, etc.
   • Juggle - all juggle emotes.
   • Magic - bird from hat, mouth coil, etc.
   • Music/Theater - sing, conduct, Mime emotes, etc.
   • Greet/Goodbye - wave, tip hat, etc.
   • Salute - darkstarr salute, love salute, etc.
   • Opinion/Sentiment - Cheer, clap, boo, smells bad, toast, yes, no, shake head, shake fist, laugh, belly laugh, etc.
   • Clean - rake, sweep, etc.
   • Puke/Vomit - all the puke emotes
   • Physical interaction- hug, spank, hold hands, flirt, face slap, kiss
   • Direct - come here, point, etc.
   • Read/Write - read book, write book
     .
5. Reduce # of Loading Zones Further - Add nested adventure zones to the list of entrances for a given overworld zone - in this case, the entrance to the nested adventure zone would be discoverable. For example, if you have never found Elysium Mine inside Twins foot hills, then the overworld entrance would not show Elysium mines.
   If you have found Elysium mines, then every time you enter twins foothills, Elysium mines would appear on the Overworld Entrance list - so that you could enter Elysium mines directly from the over world. If this was done for all nested adventure zones, it would dramatically reduce the # of loading screens. Although i think this feature would be nice, it may be less relevant now that we have the ability to teleport to discovered zones.

 

1. Discovered locations list - I'd like to have an easier and more direct way to see which locations I have discovered for teleport to zone. Right now, I have to exit combat, make sure i am not encumbered, and click on a teleport scroll, and then check the list. I would like to show the discovered locations list using all of the following options: select it from the drop down menu of the Window Selector icon, open it when a hot key is pressed, a drop down menu on the map, or by clicking on a teleport to zone scroll. Then, once that menu is open, clicking on a location automatically uses a teleport to zone scroll if it is in my inventory.
2. Sort the locations in the teleport to zone list alphabetically by default - right now I am not sure how it is sorting the list, but however it's sorting now, it's not user friendly nor helpful.
3. Ability to right click on a friend shown in the friends list or in the chat window and teleport to them - add an option to the right click menu "teleport to friend" (which would appear only if the person was on your friends list). When you select the "teleport to friend", it automatically consumes a "teleport to friend scroll" from your inventory. This would co-exist with the current way of teleporting to a friend.

These suggestions were added to the more comprehensive list of GUI improvements suggested in the first post.

 

Nice list.
If I have not overlooked something the following would be nice:

Emotes:
Add filter capability to emotes as in each inventory window.
Add the ability to attach some preferred emotes as icons to a separated toolbar.

Default clickables:
Make default options of NPC always available on dialog window like bye. So Buy, Bank, Train for the appropriate NPCs.

Mounted interaction:
At least a hotkey to unequip/reequip the coconuts. Or remove the limitation at all as long as there are no real mounts.

 

You can sort (I hope all kind of) lists by clicking the heading For sure it works for the teleport to ... list.

 

@Paladin Michael is correct, you can sort the teleport to zone list by clicking the headers.

Also, I believe the default sort of the list is the order you discovered them in. At least it seemed that way to me when I first started looking at it.

 

Yep, you can click on the headers and sort the list. I was not clear in my post (so I edited it) to reflect the default order should be an alphabetical listing of the locations. This would make more sense, and it would avoid the need to click on the locations header every time i use a teleport to zone scroll

 

Great suggestions

I started to type some to add to your list, but then I realized how much work it was gonna be so I went back to grinding.


Here is one that might save everyone a lot of time and effort

1. Remove wallet from back pocket

2. Purchase some modern RPG / MMO's

3. Copy and Paste

 

Not helpful at all .....

 

-Draggable UI

-Mini grp bars with health/focus status

-Different party member name color based on malus applied (dot red/poison purple for easier healer dispel etc)

-Bonus/Malus icons status effects draggable to magnify personal timings

-REPAIR LOCKED GEAR

-Grp member position in map with PINS

- REAL TARGET LOCKS

-Target Lock range> 45 yard

-selective disable of floating damages

-remove the triple check when looting ransoms. Terrible in GvG scenarios

-REAL BONUSES show and explained on tooltip.

- Real descriptions (aka formulas) on the skilltree. Dozens of skills dont report bonuses once mastered

Can keep on for days tbh..


No rocket science.. basically the fundamentals of every mmo since Directx 7...

 

But funny, got to admit. Lol