A better tool equip system

Discussion in 'Crafting & Gathering' started by redfish, Dec 6, 2017.

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  1. redfish

    redfish Avatar

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    As a player, I find the tool equip system to be very bad in a lot of ways !

    THE PROBLEMS.

    First, it encourages us to carry all of the tools that exist in the game in our inventory, even if we never use them at all. / This happens because, as the system by which we get and equip tools is not obvious to a new player, the game starts us off with every tool that exists, and because they weigh very little and we can carry a lot of weight, we're then encouraged to keep them there and never drop them. The fact that you have to unequip through the Skills window or through a right-click menu only makes all of this more complicated to deal with. So the typical player's inventory is going to be cluttered with tools that don't matter to him. He could have most the tools in his inventory broken and he's just going to keep lugging them around for no purpose, because there's no reason not to.

    Second, this has led a system whereby all of the equipped tools are then disabled in our backpack, and then can be shown or hidden -- a weird and specific mechanic that is a bit awkward, and not intuitive or consistent with other game UI. / Its inconsistent because it doesn't match with how the weapons and armor equip system works -- when we equip a weapon or piece of armor, it disappears completely from our backpack, it doesn't simply get greyed out; plus, we don't get little boxes to equip a weapon or equip a piece of armor in the Adventuring Skills, even though we get the boxes to equip a tool in the Crafting Skills. So it creates a difference between how weapons and tools work in the game and its not clear why the difference exists. Its also not really clear to a new player what's going on when he sees these greyed out items in his backpack; that it means they're equipped. He also wouldn't know either how to unequip them if he wanted to. It doesn't say they're "Equipped" in any of the tooltips, and its not obvious that he has to go to the Skills window or use the right-click menu. The relationship between the Skills window and the Inventory list is a bit labyrinthine. Finally, its weird that we would be expected to hide a portion of whats in our inventory to make it readable, and its not obvious to a new player what the means is to do this, either.

    Third, to the degree that these two other issues exist, it reinforces a lot of bad gameplay and UI issues. / Tools that we never use, or haven't used in a while, but keep on our persons will have a chance to get damaged and broken, or stolen as loot in PvP. If there is ever a 'broken tool' status icon, it would make it hard to distinguish between tools we care about and tools we don't. It makes it hard to teach new players how they have to get and equip tools. &c.

    This is how my current inventory looks,

    [​IMG]

    Now imagine we had a damaged tool status icon just like we have a damaged weapon and damaged armor status icon. It would tell me nothing useful. Yes, I could choose to dump everything I don't use, but everything in the game encourages me not to, and the tool status icon would probably not encourage me to change my behavior. It also has the potential to confuse new players who really aren't acquainted enough with the UI to understand what's happening.

    STEPS TO A BETTER TOOL EQUIP SYSTEM.

    However, I think we could have something that would work a lot better; something that would both be easier to learn for new players, and more usable -- and friendly to good gaming habits -- for longtime players.

    PAPERDOLL TOOLBELT.

    What I would suggest is a kind of toolbelt system that is attached to the Character Sheet, that, for the sake of new players, starts out visible and can then be collapsed, like in the screenshots below,

    [​IMG]___[​IMG]

    Something like a toolbelt I'm sure has been considered before, as we used to equip our tools by dropping them on our utility bar, and we used to also have free inventory slots underneath our paperdoll where we could put any items we wanted. However, the two specifics here are important. First, its important that we equip our tools just like we would equip our gear -- which is why it has to be on the paperdoll system -- it makes it easy to understand. Second, that the slots are designed specifically for tools and labeled in a way -- with a "Tools" icon or text -- that makes us understand its for tools.

    From the perspective of a new user, one of the first things he'll do in the game is open up his Character Sheet. He'll see his gear. He'll see perhaps a few tools he starts the game with, categorized under the "toolbelt" with the "Tools" icon clearly demarcating that those slots are for tools, and tools in those slots. Everything is obvious.

    The tools we equip on our "toolbelt" then disappear from our backpack, just like weapons or armor we equip disappears from our backpack. It would work exactly the same, and everything would be easily understandable.

    If absolutely necessary -- though I don't think it is -- we could underline the point,

    [​IMG]

    INDIVIDUAL DAMAGE STATUS INDICATORS.

    In addition to that, having indicators on our paperdoll which armor, weapons, and tools were broken would be very helpful both to new players and to longtime players.

    [​IMG]___[​IMG]

    In the above screenshots, I've created little status indicators marking a damaged or broken piece of gear or tool, the yellow indicating damaged, and the red indicating broken. This would allow us to see everything we need to know about our gear durability at a glance.

    In case our paperdoll were closed, it would also be helpful to make the tooltip for our broken gear icons in the upper right more verbose, saying or showing which gear we have that's broken or damaged.

    [​IMG]

    Using the graphics with the same status icons that are in the paperdoll isn't necessary, but its also communicative and helps create a relationship between the paperdoll and the tooltip. If the graphics aren't shown, it could simply list which ones are broken and which ones are damaged. The argument for verbosity would be that it would be more understandable to new players and that the graphics aren't always clear. Either way, this would be more helpful than lack of specificity that's currently there.

    After all, currently we don't know whether its our sword is broke or our shield is (and the broken shield icon doesn't mean a broken shield, but the broken sword does ! -- something that might be worth changing, btw), and we don't know whether its our helm that's broke or our leggings.

    LIMITED EQUIP IS BETTER.

    If also absolutely necessary, we could adapt the paperdoll toolbelt to hold more than is visible by allowing it to be scrollable, putting arrows at the ends when the player is allowed to scroll up and down (where 'up' would disappear when the player is at the beginning and 'down' when at the end),

    [​IMG]

    However, I'd emphasize again the virtue of having players make choices on what to equip. I think its important that players aren't carrying around tools that aren't used by them, and having a UI that doesn't encourage them to do the opposite.

    The limited space also enforces a metaphor, which helps teach: these things are equipped on your person.

    So how is a new player to get comfortable with a limited-space? Simple. He starts out with a few harvesting tools on his toolbelt. Maybe four of them, which would be every one except a fishing pole. If that's the case, and the amount of space available is as above (and it could always be different), that would mean he has two slots left. At the beginning of the game, the new player interacts with different NPCs, which might include crafting trainers. Say, he's talking to a Tailoring trainer. The Tailoring trainer will say something like, "Hey, here's a pair of scissors, look at your equipped gear, equip it on your toolbelt to use it at the table." Right then and there, the player is taught what is going on with crafting tools and how to equip them.

    To make it clear for harvesting tools, he could meet a fisherman early on, and he'll say something like, "Hey, you already have some harvesting tools on you. Here's a fishing pole to use and try out to catch some fish. Look at your equipped gear, equip it on your toolbelt. Make sure to make room and if you need to put your other tools away."

    Simple.

    And this all makes players aware of what they're doing. It makes them aware of what tools they're carrying, and they have to choose to be carrying them. They'll put away the tools they don't need, and the paperdoll toolbelt all simplifies it for them and tells them what they need to know. Much better than carrying every tool you don't need for no particular reason. Some might argue not carrying all the tools you don't need is an inconvenience. Good. Some types of inconvenience can help players out by making the UI and game mechanics better -- they'll then thank you for it later.

    POSSIBLE SECONDARY USES.

    One possible suggestion is to be able to use the paperdoll toolbelt for other things that a player might want to have quick access to, like bags, or even potions. There are pros and cons to the different options.

    First of all, I think its important to make it clear this is primarily intended for tool equips, which is what the "Tools" icon or text would mean, because this is an important bit of UI. So it should start out like that, and should be encouraged in the game for that purpose mainly.

    I don't think its more problematic to use a potion from the paperdoll than to use it directly from the inventory; the same rules would apply. However, being able to drag a potion to the paperdoll might confuse a new user in the sense that it doesn't guide him towards the intended goal of using it through the utility bar.

    I think bags are far less problematic, and currently there's no way to drag a bag to your utility bar, and its hard to know if this will be an option in the future, because it conflicts a bit with what the design of the utility bar is supposed to be (though just for practicality, it would be nice to be able to drag bags there, too). Placing bags on your "toolbelt" could have possible functional purpose. Sorting out the reagents you want to use, your coins, etc., separating things from your main inventory to reduce the clutter and simplify some things. It would be a nice player option.

    At any rate, the game would simply allow or restrict whatever items are considered "acceptable" to be placed on the toolbelt.

    INDICATING INOPERABILITY IN GAMEPLAY.

    Right now, when you try to do a harvest when your tool is broken, you still get the harvesting cursor and tooltip saying you can harvest. You might have a broken sickle, but when mousing over a cotton bush, you're still going to get a sickle icon and a "Harvest Cotton" text. It will look something like this,

    [​IMG]

    Right now, what happens is if your harvesting tool is broken, and you have "Misc" unchecked in your chat window, you won't know what's going on when you try to attempt to harvest the cotton -- whether your tool is broken, or you're just experiencing game lag. But the game should make it clear that this is not a viable action if it isn't a viable action. So for example, it could be something like this,

    [​IMG]___[​IMG]

    In the first case, the text says the tool is broken in red, and borrows the status icon from the inventory display; and in the second case, it shows similar text with a color and icon to show the tool is missing and needs to be equipped. I shortened the text a bit in this case to fit the image; it could say something more verbose like "You need to equip the proper harvesting tool."

    We could even have a mid-state showing the tool is usable, but damaged, to better inform the player of what's going on,

    [​IMG]

    Although its possible new players might not understand this, so the mid-state might be left out.

    While it would be ideal, in my view, if your weapon was broken it would either show visibly on the weapon or you would have to unequip this, its possible to take lessons from this and apply it to combat,

    [​IMG]

    Why would this help? Because even though we have a damaged and broken weapon indicator in the upper right, sometimes players are still swinging at enemies before they realize its broken. Obviously, even if this were done, you might have to handle it differently than harvest and not show when its simply damaged.

    * * * *

    Me, I would enjoy if some of these changes were made, it would make my gameplay experience better, and I think it would be better UI more generally.

    I hope this helps, in any case !
     
    Last edited: Dec 6, 2017
  2. monkeysmack

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    Good idea. This would definitely make the tool system more intuitive for new players. Makes much more sense to have the tools equipped on your avatar be accessible from the paperdoll. But I'd prefer that all the tools are visible when they are rolled out instead of another scroll bar.
     
    Last edited: Dec 6, 2017
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  3. Cinder Sear

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    This is really well thought out! I like this idea!
     
  4. Vero

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    Big +1 for this thought out and well picture guided post
     
  5. Rentier

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    @redfish well done well done

    really cool ideas - i like them all :D
     
  6. redfish

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    A way to better ephasize the damaged state more for equipped gear might also be to change the color of the bounding boxes like this depending on the status,

    [​IMG]

    The yellow and red colors of the boxes then call more attention to the damaged items, even with the damage status indicators. Other similar methods could be used, like changing the background color of the box to yellow or red.
     
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  7. Nelzie

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    Very nice write up.
     
  8. Lained

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    I think the border colour changes with a tooltip would suffice without the power icon.
     
  9. eli

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    Thanks.

    I also want to add that this would address the most infuriating part of tools to me:

    If I want to apply an "engraving kit" to a tool (e.g. "tailoring scissors"), neither of them show up on the same tab, so I have to use the "all" tab of my inventory.

    However, their weight and alphabetic order is different enough that there is no sort available where I can get them to appear on my screen at the same time. Since i have to drag one onto the other, this is frustrating.

    So the way I do it is, i use the text filter box, and keep trying random 2-letter substrings of the tool I'm using, until I find a 2-letter combination that also matches the engraving kit.
     
    Last edited: Dec 6, 2017
  10. redfish

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    @eli

    I don't think the way the inventory organization works is the best in the world either, though that's a whole different subject.

    Repairing a tool in your inventory is the same thing, you have the Tool Repair Kit and crafting tool separated into the Consumable tab and the Crafting tab. Putting equipped tools on the paperdoll like I suggested helps at least somewhat with equipped tools, but it wouldn't help with unequipped tools. At the very least, this could work how it would in an OS file browser or web browser, where when you're doing a drag-and-drop operation, it allows you to navigate. So when you'd be dragging something, you'd be able to scroll up or down by moving the drag-and-drop cursor to the top or bottom of the list, or you'd be able to change tabs by moving the drag-and-drop cursor to the tab you want to change to.

    That would make it more practical and functional at least.
     
  11. eli

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    yea it would work fine. That's what i do when i repair equipment. Just equip it, then repair.
     
  12. Elwyn

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    This would actually help with a problem I have, which is that I'm using boots that are near the end of their life. When I repair them they are still yellow, so I have to go out of my way to "scrub" my character sheet for tooltip boxes to see which other armor might be damaged. I've also had a problem with exceptional gear having a high enough maximum that it goes yellow at 40!

    I also dual-wield sword + wand, and there is also currently no way to tell which one of the two is damaged without scrubbing.

    Those of us with a full set of prosperity tools enjoy that we can just equip everything and forget about it. That was one of the main reasons I got them, but it has proven to be worth more in lack of fiddly-ness than I expected. Whatever gets changed, it would still have to support equipping everything.

    I like the little red and yellow circles. The outlines by themselves are not good enough for people with less than perfect vision.
     
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