Feedback Thread: GUI Changes

[charmant]

i refuse to use this new gui....it freezes my screen for 3 secs and i simply hate it
please make an option to choose between old and new gui

[Darkbane]

Spheremap has 2 layers, one with labels, one without. Both are the same scale, so in this context "zoom" is a misnomer. Zomm in/out simply change layers in the map, whetehr this actually zooms in or out depends on the map.

[Nemessis]

Fist off the new GUI is nice but like everyone stated it take a sec or 2 to open-Not good

the fact that it shows your base abilities and buffed abilities is near useless; if you wanted that feature it should show:
Base ability--------------Abilities w/o imps, symbs, items or buffs etc.
Unbuffed ability---------Abilities including imps, symbs, items etc BUT not buffs
Buffed ability------------Abilities all buffed up

I also find the sizing of the words and teh bars to be too small, at a glance you cant tell to well if there is room to add IP points and the +/- buttoms are small as well.

Its nice that the name of the ability is color coded but the IP bar should be as well
the scroll button in the mouse controling zoom needs to go or at least give us the ability to turn it off

[Lumifly]

the fact that it shows your base abilities and buffed abilities is near useless; if you wanted that feature it should show:
Base ability--------------Abilities w/o imps, symbs, items or buffs etc.
Unbuffed ability---------Abilities including imps, symbs, items etc BUT not buffs
Buffed ability------------Abilities all buffed up

Bump for this. I *thought* that's what they said they were going to implement. They should

[DaviasI]

I give it a little time, and come back and figure people will have realized that they can still play the game with the new GUI and not think the end of the world has happend.

I came back and find another ton of whines about things that won't get changed and only a very few constructive suggestions. Yes, I said there are a few constructive suggestions. Progress in made by going forward and improving on the old and this is definitely an improvement, going back just leaves you in a rut.

Reading though them, it seems a lot of people are upset, because they simply don't understand the interface and still haven't realized that some things can be changed to suit thier tastes in game now.

Of course the real culprit is in fact the thread itself. Its gotten so large that people who are just noticing the changes aren't bothering to read the entire thread and find out that a lot of thier problems with the interface can be solved with the click of a button, instead they just post the rant.

For the record, the only time I ever zoom is doing PB spawning or showing people raids when I go in 3rd person. 90% of the time I play first person. I use the scroll mouse on my sidebar windows all the time, so I know they only work when the mouse is directly over them. Having the same functionality apply to the main view and the map as well just seems to unify it.

I completely disagree that the current implementation is near useless. It is much more useful than the old one for planning future things like weapons changes.
While Nemessis enhancement for stats would be very useful and completely inline with the complex nature of AO ability twinking.

And I'm surprised that no one seems to have mentioned that in the player stats window, you can see all of your current AC's as well as your AR (used to be just melee AC and AR). Which is a curiosity for me since I rarely pay attention to the protection tab anyway.

Oh wait maybe I should have said that because it gives people something else to whine about that they can easily fix....

[Telcea]

And I'm surprised that no one seems to have mentioned that in the player stats window, you can see all of your current AC's as well as your AR (used to be just melee AC and AR). Which is a curiosity for me since I rarely pay attention to the protection tab anyway.

Oh wait maybe I should have said that because it gives people something else to whine about that they can easily fix....

Suprisingly enough, there have been two or three whine posts about this already by people who couldn't figure out you could resize the window

[Alisarine]

The last time they totally revamped the GUI - remember the old one? - I remember there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. OOC was flooded with complaints about how horrible it was, how much everyone hated it, and that it was the end of the world as we know it.

Eventually everyone got used to it. But the difference here is that the new one is an improvement in some ways and not others. Last time the GUI was revamped, it gave a bit more control - and I have to say the pet window is quite useful, though kinda clunky. In this case, opening the skill window is causing lag, and a lot of people are unhappy with the map. Also, I agree with others that the skill window is just not as clear and easy to read as the old one. I think the idea behind it is cool and it gives a lot of detail - such as say clicking on "Martial Arts" and seeing all the info in the window automatically - but everything is so pale and the text is so tiny.

I think once people get used to it the complaints will die down, but I do think some improvements could be made.

Still wondering if anyone else is having the same problems with the map that I am. :P

[Bereavement]

Here you go

Ignore the white text if it doesn't apply to you. And yes, it's total cost for the single skill

yay that would be great if maximized, detailed veiw wasn't too laggy to use =/ They still need to bring back the olg IP window in the next "hotfix"

[Healyhatman]

They don't need to, nor will they. They just need to fix the lag, which they will.

[Uaintseenme]

I can live with the map changes, i could even at a push live with the stupid mouse wheel zooming since im almost always in first person view anyway.
What i cant live with is that great ugly box of a skill window that obscures 90% of my screen.
It wouldnt be so bad if, everytime i wated to hunt through a pack for a buffing item to see how much trickle down i get from say my fly catchers, my game didnt lag solid for 15 seconds.
Where the old skill window could be left open and i could equip, pack sort and generaly F**k about with items with minimal fuss, this giant solid box of uglyness now requires that i close it every time i want to get an item from my pack.
Not such a big deal i guess if it opened and closed instantly and without the lag, but even then it wouldnt change the fact that its ugly and not nice to look at.
It feels like a huge step backwards.
Also people complaining is not the same as poeple whining.
people complaining about something they dont like, in a product they pay for is a good way of getting your message across to the producer of your product.(and also the very reason this thread is here)
People repeating the same complaints about other people voicing thier opinions,,, that would be whining.

[Healyhatman]

Sorry but did you minimise the view? Also, you couldn't click through the old gui, you would still have to close it or put all the stuff you wanted to click on to the far right.

[Uaintseenme]

I have a crap computer and have to run in a very low screen res, even minimised, with the paperdoll open for equiping things i have little to no available screen left, with the old skill window you could arange packs and stuff around it, in the middle of it or whatever.
I could cope with it if it didnt lag up so badly, but that doesnt change the fact that its a big ugly box that looks like it was made with windows 3.x in mind.

Someone pointed out the fuss that was made over the last gui change and while people stoped complaining about it after a while, this was more to do with learning to live with an unintrested FC than growing to like the new GUI.

In a strange turn around from FC they actualy seem semi intrested in our thoughts on this one so a good many more people are voicing thier opinions.
This is a good thing.

[Otinsainpas]

the skill-window:
too slow to open.. thats obvious
it would be good if it remembers what stat group was active when you last closed it

mouse-wheel-zoom-thingy:
ewwww... how can i disable it?

stat+AC window
only displays your mainhand AR. some players have different class weapon in offhand so attackrates are not the same.

rest of changes seems to be ok

[Telcea]

Okay, after all the people complaining about the size of the things and not being able to have backpacks and whatnot open, I went to the lowest resolution I could and had a quick messaround with window positions. I'd just like to present my findings after about a minute and a half of thinking about it.

800x600
Firstly I'd just like to say I feel sorry for anyone using this resolution, backpacks or not. Ouch

Space for at one backpack and the inventory, fully open and two slightly shrunk backpack windows, with the equip screen open in the corner. IF you need NCU or something shown, it can be pulled out and stuck below the skills window. If you need to see chat or the view, close one of the backpacks while you're doing that.

1024x768
Now if you're using this resolution, I really don't see the problem. Room for three open backpacks, one slightly shrunk, inventory, skills window and equip window all at once. You still have space to see or for a fitfh backpack in the middle and a smaller space for something like the NCU window to the left of that.

Now, it could be that I've missed something major and totally not understood while everyone's complaiing about the size, but as far as I can tell, there's nothing wrong with it.

[Nanofox1]

Mouse scroll - I find annoying, but can live with it.

Map - Fine with it wondow-wise, scrolling sucks now.

Skills View - Laggy to open, makes me have to squint, I find it less clear to see what I am putting IP into, can no longer multitask with window open, feels like a step backwards. Old one was near pefect imo.

[Kylissa]

First off i HATE the zoom function! If i could disable it i would! There needs to be a toggle option to turn this on or off. It should never have been forced on us.

Second.... I run AO at 1600x1200... any idea how hard it is to see that skill window at that rez? I have to put my nose to the screen and move the mouse-pointer VERY slowl to hit the right skill! While I see potential with the screen, i think it seriously needs to be rethought as it's FAR FAR too small... it's a hazard to players eyesight.

Third.... while seeing most of our ACs in the F9 window is all nice and tinkery toy..... but whats the point please beyond seeing if you've been debuffed? And you know that fast enough when the damage you tke goes through the roof!

[varrus]

Now, it could be that I've missed something major and totally not understood while everyone's complaiing about the size, but as far as I can tell, there's nothing wrong with it.

Yeah, you missed one simple fact that many people play at higher resolutions.

[Healyhatman]

Does everyone know that you can

a) set your inventory, backpacks, NCU window etc... to LIST mode?

b) DOCK your backpacks together! omg ubah! Try that and you can fit like, 30 backpacks AND your inventory in one spot. Then anyone who complains that they can't see 3 backpacks on their screen anymore is.... [word]

c) your backpacks and inventory can be docked in your sidebar!!! Also ubah!

Al this could occur before the patch. List mode particuarly I like

[Khalem]

Second.... I run AO at 1600x1200... any idea how hard it is to see that skill window at that rez? I have to put my nose to the screen and move the mouse-pointer VERY slowl to hit the right skill! While I see potential with the screen, i think it seriously needs to be rethought as it's FAR FAR too small... it's a hazard to players eyesight.

Yeah, you missed one simple fact that many people play at higher resolutions.

I think there is something else at play here. Im running at 1920x1200 and have no issues whatsoever with reading the text. And my vision isn't all that great O.o

[atlasdreamer]

My Two cents worth on the new GUI after playing with it for a bit:

Mouse Scroll wheel Zoom : ick, if you accidentally hit the thing while turning it can really screw you up as it changes the camera angle. (almost ran off edge in SL over this) plus the ease of which it is to accidentally zoom in or out kind of throws me off. but I guess I am going to have to live with it :/

New Gui for Skill window : Ick! seriously. The color scheme that worked wonders with the previous gui now makes it somewhat difficult to read in Minimized Mode. Full mode is just too big and bulky to use. Seriously. at 800x600 res it takes up dang near the entire screen. while the Minimized mode the colored numbers makes it sort of a headache to read. its ugly and has lost its "sci-fi" feel to it. The previous GUI had a sort of "Star Trek"ish or perhaps "stargate"ish feel to it. This new one is just plain as to working around it. many a time while in a team I have had my skills window open checking to make sure I wasnt debuffed (among other things) due to being a pet user.(debuffs = disaster if Pet user isnt carefull). With the previous Gui I could "work through" it due to the more open design of it. Now I have to live with either loseing 1/3 of my screen / all of my screen / or just not use it at all and Hope I dont get debuffed leading to my pets wandering off. and before anyone says "just put pets on /behind" that doesnt always work. any pet class will tell you that there are times even with strictest management that the pets just flat dont do what they should. The proper Pet class watchs for this and is ready to spam /behind /pet wait /pet %t terminate (this last being in extreme circumstances). The lack of pets "obeying" is why Pets are banned from Pandemonium for crying outloud. Again these are just my opinions on the new GUI