After reading a few posts I realized there is one more thing I want. I noticed a lot of people did not like the floating numbers for healing and damage, but I have learned to accept them and they don't bother me in the slightest, and, in fact, I love them. Just make them able to be turned off. Having to read text in a chat box is no more immersive than reading text floating above your head. It is still text and you still have to read it if you choose to have the information. And a compass. Still nice and simple.
'I think that there are certain crimes which the law cannot touch, and which therefore, to some extent, justify private revenge.' -Sherlock Holmes
For me, I am a minimalist when it comes to the UI's in games. The LESS i have to see the better.
Being able to move windows around, resizing ithem, make them opaque, change font colors/sizes, etc is all good.
However I also like how some games are doing it now where information you need comes up contextually. So say for example, if you are talking to someone, or someone is talking, the chat box shows up so you can read what they say, etc. however when you stop talking/get no messages, the chat box "disappears" (Becaues it's not needed then).
I LOVE this kind of thing, and would like it to be applied also to health/stamina and other UI element stoo. For example, do you really NEED to see your health? Unless you're in combat or have a buff or somtehing applied that affects your health ? Not really.
Also hoping that there's no "graphical" UI , or if there is you can turn it off. By this what I mean is like, take the Diablo games for example. How they have their UI elements with their artistic health/mana bubbles and the graphics around it? I know the designer spent time on that and is proud of it, but I do not need to "see" that. When I play a game I would like to look at just the game and only have the information I "NEED" at that moment in time, nothing more.
What I DON'T want to see is immovable skills and interactive minimaps that force me to watch them instead of the game world. Both annoyed the hell out of me in GW2.
I would say, an interface with a ton of flexibility - the more flexibility the better! (to toggle on/off, change colors, size fonts for us middle-aged blind folks who don't want to feel elderly through having to peer at the screen using reading glasses, move things around, customize chat tabs, etc) .
That way, the people who are helped by a ton of heads-up info can throw everything up there in 14-point, and the people who love an immersive experience can turn everything off except whatever key info is most useful for them.
What I am hoping won't happen is that it becoming a yet another game where you have to go floundering around looking for Interface Mod Flavor-of -the-Month, strapping it on to your previous interface that you just got used to, and re-organizing everything. Bleah.
And I strongly agree with the poster that felt customized settings should be saveable...whether in the cloud or native on your machine.
can we not use buzzwords like "in the cloud"? thanks ;
sorry, I get snarky.
Anyway. Highly customizable, with a DEVELOPER SUPPORTED modifications program. I had some pie in the sky dreams for WAR, unfortunately they fell through.
- full UI documentation at launch, with updates to the UI listed plainly in build notes. This includes anything going to the test server. Flag funtions as stable/testing, etc.
- UI source compare. A new feature was added and the default UI now takes advantage of it. Compare versions and see how it was done (although there should be full documentation of the change as well. since this feature can be automated I'd like it anyway, something like this: http://wow.go-hero.net/framexml/builds )
- in-game access to UI mods. Consider this "google play" for UI mods. Browse by category, see screenshots/video/whatever.
Even visitable via a website. Just like google play - pick a few addons, they will be downloaded the next time you log in that account. Simply enable them. This makes sharing addons as simple as it is to share an android app. (Bonus points if you guild can set 'favourite' addons, and you can sort by that - someone in the guild is talking about a mod they all use, you can pull it down instantly)
MarkJacobsCEO City State EntertainmentMemberRarePosts: 649
Funny, Andrew filmed a video update for our Kickstarter on just this question. He and I are both major proponents for doing something interesting with UI. I think you guys are going to get a kick out of the piece. Originally it was going to be a Foundational Principle but it came out so well I held it up for post KS launch.
Comments
'I think that there are certain crimes which the law cannot touch, and which therefore, to some extent, justify private revenge.' -Sherlock Holmes
For me, I am a minimalist when it comes to the UI's in games. The LESS i have to see the better.
Being able to move windows around, resizing ithem, make them opaque, change font colors/sizes, etc is all good.
However I also like how some games are doing it now where information you need comes up contextually. So say for example, if you are talking to someone, or someone is talking, the chat box shows up so you can read what they say, etc. however when you stop talking/get no messages, the chat box "disappears" (Becaues it's not needed then).
I LOVE this kind of thing, and would like it to be applied also to health/stamina and other UI element stoo. For example, do you really NEED to see your health? Unless you're in combat or have a buff or somtehing applied that affects your health ? Not really.
Also hoping that there's no "graphical" UI , or if there is you can turn it off. By this what I mean is like, take the Diablo games for example. How they have their UI elements with their artistic health/mana bubbles and the graphics around it? I know the designer spent time on that and is proud of it, but I do not need to "see" that. When I play a game I would like to look at just the game and only have the information I "NEED" at that moment in time, nothing more.
Three quick bars , which would change automatically under certain cconditions
I.e. stealth, non stealth, ranged weapon, two hander, s&s, two-hhanded not sure if it would help a caster much though
I would say, an interface with a ton of flexibility - the more flexibility the better! (to toggle on/off, change colors, size fonts for us middle-aged blind folks who don't want to feel elderly through having to peer at the screen using reading glasses, move things around, customize chat tabs, etc) .
That way, the people who are helped by a ton of heads-up info can throw everything up there in 14-point, and the people who love an immersive experience can turn everything off except whatever key info is most useful for them.
What I am hoping won't happen is that it becoming a yet another game where you have to go floundering around looking for Interface Mod Flavor-of -the-Month, strapping it on to your previous interface that you just got used to, and re-organizing everything. Bleah.
And I strongly agree with the poster that felt customized settings should be saveable...whether in the cloud or native on your machine.
can we not use buzzwords like "in the cloud"? thanks ;
sorry, I get snarky.
Anyway. Highly customizable, with a DEVELOPER SUPPORTED modifications program. I had some pie in the sky dreams for WAR, unfortunately they fell through.
- full UI documentation at launch, with updates to the UI listed plainly in build notes. This includes anything going to the test server. Flag funtions as stable/testing, etc.
- UI source compare. A new feature was added and the default UI now takes advantage of it. Compare versions and see how it was done (although there should be full documentation of the change as well. since this feature can be automated I'd like it anyway, something like this: http://wow.go-hero.net/framexml/builds )
- in-game access to UI mods. Consider this "google play" for UI mods. Browse by category, see screenshots/video/whatever.
Even visitable via a website. Just like google play - pick a few addons, they will be downloaded the next time you log in that account. Simply enable them. This makes sharing addons as simple as it is to share an android app. (Bonus points if you guild can set 'favourite' addons, and you can sort by that - someone in the guild is talking about a mod they all use, you can pull it down instantly)
Funny, Andrew filmed a video update for our Kickstarter on just this question. He and I are both major proponents for doing something interesting with UI. I think you guys are going to get a kick out of the piece. Originally it was going to be a Foundational Principle but it came out so well I held it up for post KS launch.
Mark Jacobs
CEO, City State Entertainment