Graphical Interface Overhaul

GaelicVigil

Join Date 08/2010

Graphical Interface Overhaul

Remember this picture?

Apart from the much more colorful world, who the heck changed the User Interface into what we got now? This is what a good UI looks like, as far as design goes: it's intuitive, it stands out, and does its job very well.

For all the talk of a tutorial, an easy-to-use GUI goes a long way to helping people understand how to play the game.

I'd love it if Stardock decided to go back to something that looked more like this.

Here's the current UI:

As a new player I'm wondering what the heck all those funny little icons mean on the right that I can barely see. It looks like I have 4 pieces of corn, zero arrow thingies, 12 goblets, and 11 towers. What are those itty-bitty little red and blue round buttons on the very bottom? What are the tiny numbers next to them? What does the red/yellow line around the big round picture in the middle? The whole thing is confusing and ugly to me.

elemental

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davidvoss@gmail.com

Join Date 04/2003

+14

Quoting Heavenfall,

reply 21

If elemental taught us anything, it's that you can't trust the screenshots released.

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Quoting Wintersong,

reply 24

quoting postThis is what a good UI looks like, as far as design goes: it's intuitive, it stands out, and does its job very well.
Basing your opinion in a pic, without being able to actually try it (the interface, not the pic) and see if it really works well...

I'm not saying that the one shown in the mock-up is perfect. I'm saying it's a quite few steps in the right direction. Obviously, we have more resources to worry about than gold and food, but I see some things in the pic that don't need to be there either. I'm saying that it is a fantastic concept and we should have a user interface that builds upon it, rather than throwing it out the window and using what we currently have.

What I see in the picture immediately jumps out at me and explains, very clearly, what I am looking at in a very concise way. As a new, unfamiliar user, it only takes a moment to understand what is going on.

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Hmmm . . . only 288 dxpacks to replace for a compete interface mod.

Sorting the dxpacks by date is interesting to see the order things were built (or updated).

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Quoting GaelicVigil,

reply 20

I love how the mock-up interface had the picture of the selected unit displayed so vividly and clear. There is no question here, who you have selected. Half the time when I'm playing now, I often do not even know who or what the heck I'm targetting without squinting at the bottom.
.

YES

Quoting GaelicVigil,

reply 27

also yes

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Why do people keep insisting that those promos are screenshots? They are MOCUPS. Meaning, they were created by an artist as a still image, an imagining of an end product.

Now, its one thing to release mockups while the game is in active development, but to include them on the box of the finished product leads consumers to believe that those are actual in-game screenshots. Its a bit sleezy and misleading.

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Quoting hairrorist,

reply 30

Why do people keep insisting that those promos are screenshots? They are MOCUPS. Meaning, they were created by an artist as a still image, an imagining of an end product.

Now, its one thing to release mockups while the game is in active development, but to include them on the box of the finished product leads consumers to believe that those are actual in-game screenshots. Its a bit sleezy and misleading.

Actually that is not exactly true. Brad Wardell used this UI during an early alpha build of the game. Check this video out to see for yourself. So, the excuse can't be made that this never made it off the drawing board, as it was actually used at one point in game-play.

Edit: Also, notice how in the video the top half of the UI actually disappears when no unit is selected. So, again, those saying this UI is too big are incorrect. When a unit was not selected, it became even smaller than the current UI.

Secondly, this image is not on the box. So there is no false-advertising here, it's just a design I wish they had kept from early alpha.

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I was more referring to the other piece of promo art that made it into this thread.

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Yeah, it's pretty amazing that the unit/units selected are in no way tied to the actual actions that this unit can perform. It is extremely non-intuitive.

If anything, the UI should at least reflect the internal structure within the domain model. It doesn't even go this far.

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Quoting GaelicVigil,

reply 31

Quoting hairrorist, reply 30Why do people keep insisting that those promos are screenshots? They are MOCUPS. Meaning, they were created by an artist as a still image, an imagining of an end product.

Now, its one thing to release mockups while the game is in active development, but to include them on the box of the finished product leads consumers to believe that those are actual in-game screenshots. Its a bit sleezy and misleading.
Actually that is not exactly true. Brad Wardell used this UI during an early alpha build of the game. Check this video out to see for yourself. So, the excuse can't be made that this never made it off the drawing board, as it was actually used at one point in game-play.

Edit: Also, notice how in the video the top half of the UI actually disappears when no unit is selected. So, again, those saying this UI is too big are incorrect. When a unit was not selected, it became even smaller than the current UI.

Secondly, this image is not on the box. So there is no false-advertising here, it's just a design I wish they had kept from early alpha.

Thx for the vid. Was interesting to see that there was even a equipment screen there which got dismissed again.

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@Gaelic

The interface in the video you linked is not the same as the screenshot pictured. Also: developers confirmed that it was a mock-up.

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Quoting hairrorist,

reply 35

@Gaelic

The interface in the video you linked is not the same as the screenshot pictured. Also: developers confirmed that it was a mock-up.

Are you sure you're looking at it closely? The camera cuts off the bottom of the screen for parts of it so you only get glimpses of the top and bottom halves. It's awfully blurry, but it's very, very close to the mock-up pictured above.

We can agree that it was a mock-up, but it was a mock-up that made it into actually game-play at one point in time.

If this is not something Stardock is willing to spend time on, I would hope a modder takes something like this on. It's just plain awesome.

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i'm going to be specific not because i'm making demands, but because i think "better" doesn't help people very much

i would like to see

- bigger scrolling buttons and generally everything to be designed so i very rarely have to scroll anyway

- the tech, spell research, diplomacy, dynasty etc buttons displayed on the main screen so they're always one cllick away

- consistent format for where the "close" button goes: sometimes it's at the bottom, sometimes in the top right

- unit cards that update to show what i have equipped. it's kind of lame that all my units are in armour but my sov can't be. and give me the ability to make my kids unit cards myself.

- a minimap that doesn't freeze on me. every time i seem to close and open the thing, or load a new game, the minimap is always showing a static old image that doesn't update (and the square doesn't follow my camera).

- completely redesigned spellbook. i like the icons and art style, but functionally it's abysmal. first the casting and research menus have different purposes and should be laid out totally differently. for research: have each page/screen represent one magic book and have all the spells within that book SORTED BY LEVEL. use smaller icons if that is necesarry to get them all on one page. consider a full screen interface. highlight each icon slightly differently depending on whether i know, don't know or am learning it. put the big icons on the right with the info for the spell i currently have selected as currently along with a button to toggle learning. then show the small icons of the spells i am currently learning at the bottom (independently of what book i have selected, along with my research production and other constants). for the CASTING menu, show only my spells known that i can cast in that mode (ie, don't show strategic spells in tactical mode), sorted by level or mana cost, and do this in a small transparent overlay, with a brief description appearing as tool tip (right click take me to it's entry in the research screen). consider making this automatically appear on screen when i select a channeler (for a great example see the nwn2 quick cast menu on the left of this screenshot)

in conclusion: research menu fullscreen with lots of detail and art, casting menu small ingame overlay, with spells in some kind of order.

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To the OP: most of your origional complaints are solved with tooltips. It would take less than a second to hold your mouse over something to see what it does/means.

Stardock has more improtant things to worry about than the UI. It's servicable and certainly not in my top 10 problems with the game. If they are going to do anything just simply make the ui modable and let the community figure it out. This way those of us who can use a mouse well can keep small buttons and those who like information overload get their wish.

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