Thoughts on UI/controls

Finally got in game for about 2 hours

First off performance wise the game ran just fine in the beginning instance, and when I got out away from the cities/crowds, but otherwise I've experienced a light to moderate amount of stuttering gameplay, which given the sheer amount of people on screen and me trying to set my graphics probably a bit higher than I should, seems reasonable/what i expected for a beta.

***Actually I went and tried it out on my room mates desktop, and the game runs a lot smoother than it does on mine, even in crowds, so the stuttering might just be because i haven't lowered my graphics much yet. If your running a high end gaming PC i imagine the game will run fairly smooth for you, but the average/low end PC will probably experience some performance hits.

I'm not particularly fond of the mouse, if FPS dips down, which it often does in my case, the cursor starts stuttering quite a bit and is difficult to handle. Thankfully most, if not everything, in the game can be controlled via keyboard, and it seems to work well/responsive.

The control scheme is a bit different than what im use to, movement is typical WASD, but camera control for example is IJKL unless you decide to use the mouse, which i'm not very use to at this point. Theres a few other commands on the keyboard that are placed on akward keys I keep pressing on accident, and i imagine it could be frustrating for players who aren't quite as familiar/quick with a keyboard as others. I highly recommend looking at the game manual on the beta site before playing.

The UI seems decent/modern in terms of its layout. It seems certain commands such as interacting with an aetheryte need to be accessed through the main menu's interaction panel, rather than being context sensitive or anything. As far as input lag with the UI, it's still a bit of a problem. So far i've only really noticed it during combat. Other character menu's and inventory seem to work decent, although switching out skills and gear does lag behind about 2-3 seconds it seems like. SE should definently look to improving it at this point.

I think that's about all i've really noticed so far. Overall the performance is what I expected for an open beta, though their are a few things like UI lag that I think should be addressed or at least improved by release.

I havent really done much in terms of actual gameplay yet, checked out the UI, ran around, did a leve and killed a few mobs but thats it. I'll probably be trying to get a little further later tonight.