Feedback Thread: GUI Changes

[Mastablasta]

Please please please READ THE PATCH NOTES BEFORE POSTING! If you want to post and haven't, then go read them, and make an effort to understand them and chain together the usual things like "oh, the skil GUI has stuff put in the "i" menu, maybe the map window and all other windows also has stuff there now" and DON'T post if you haven't done so!

It's getting so tiresome reading all these stupid posts "OMG NO MORE IPR!!! I QUIT!" when there's a neat little option to turn them on.

Think before posting damnit!

And you'll never ever see the old GUI elements back. The code is deleted and replaced with the new part, as it is incompatible with the new AO code.

[Schwad]

what do those of us who use the mouse wheel to scroll the docked windows do now?

Cry.

Or just move the mouse pointer over the window liek you always had to do anyway?

I dont like the new zoom thing either though.. it just feels like its in the way now and I keep borking up my finely tuned angle and zoom settings when I try to scroll.

[Telcea]

Mastablasta, the voice of reason in a forum of whiners <3

(No offense to non-whiners intended)

[Doctorhyde]

ugh, head hurting after the zoning problems this morning so I'm not gonna read the whole thread.

My feedback ... summary: I like the direction, but you're not there yet.

SKILLS UI:

1) The new skills UI is tooooo small ... I liked the old one having the larger text. At least put stuff in bold.

2) The green/blue/dark blue color scheme doesn't work here very well. Too muted. It worked before because it stood out. Now its a bit hard to see the colors. Bold text (see previous) would help. Making the bar the color of the skill would also help. All bars being baby blue is just too much. The old method had colored bars, surely it wasn't that hard to replicate

(( EDIT: in fact, I would far rather the -name- of the skill be a default color (more readable, the dark blue skills are very dark) and the bar be the only thing that was colored. You could even make the bar background a "pastel" of the same color so that you didn't have to worry about those times when the bar was empty or full ... I posted mockups in this reply ))

3) Suggested IP distribution just seems dangerous. I didn't have much time to play with it, but unless you're going to give unlimited IPRs, don't be force-feeding IP schemes. I know, I know, you gotta press "Save Changes" but still. Give some form of UI for you to customize your own IP distribution scheme and/or graphically edit the one that you apply (maybe this was there, but I didn't catch it if it was).

4) Sue me, but I liked having my skills up without blocking the whole screen. It helped alot when twinking (going through bags) or trying to figure out what you needed in a skill to do something (bags again) or just when you are contemplating how much IP to put in you navel while semi-afk in a mission Maybe give the window (heck, ALL windows) the same background transparency and click-through options that the chat windows have.

5) Damn this thing loads slowly. XML is great, but, something tells me AO's XML engine needs some optimization. Maybe load the window and the default screen THEN populate all the skill windows below it? I'm guessing here, but I think its a pretty accurate guess ^^.

6) Nah, I don't expect much of the above to happen. But at least color the damned bars and bold the text.

...

PLANETMAP:

1) Can be docked now ... cool

2) I gotta say WTF on the pyramid layering of the buttons ... why not do it like the Nanos window and have the buttons go side-by-side if there is enough space, only stacking if the window is too small?

3) (( EDIT: Been told its because of custom skins ... so I reverted to the old GUI for now but can't test it until the game is up again ... followup: tested, works fine in the default GUI, leaving this as a note for people who have the same issue )) I'm told not everyone is having this problem, but when I Zoom in, close the planetmap (its still a floating window btw) and then open it back up, its always zoomed back out to the default view. I HATE THIS. If its not intended and other people don't see it, consider this a bug report.

4) (( EDIT: Its alot more functional than my few minutes of testing showed when I first posted this, so I'm deleting this one ))

5) I still want hotkeys to do what the buttons do (examples of hotkeys that wouldn't touch anything else: {alt-p then +} = zoom, {alt-p then -} = zoom out, {alt-p then m} = center on mission, {alt-p then c} = center on char, {alt-p then s} = disable scrolling, {alt-p then b} = toggle buttons).

6) I have no problem at all with the tower building functionality being part of the towers by right-clicking them ... works fine for me.

7) No, again, I doubt most of the above was worth taking the time to write it. But the button stacking (or maybe just give us a toggleable 3rd button state that reverts to the small icons all in a single line) and the ability to lock the map so it doesn't scroll are paramount.

[Graxster]

The mouse-wheel scroll needs to have an option to turn it on/off.

The camera in general needs several problems fixed. The 8 and 2 buttons, which tilt the camera, make too large of an adjustment, too quickly. This needs to be slowed down and smoothed out.

The "preferred camera position" recall button (1 on numpad) is non-functional. Setting and recalling preferred camera position needs to be fixed so it's working properly.

[ZenWon]

Please please please READ THE PATCH NOTES BEFORE POSTING! If you want to post and haven't, then go read them, and make an effort to understand them and chain together the usual things like "oh, the skil GUI has stuff put in the "i" menu, maybe the map window and all other windows also has stuff there now" and DON'T post if you haven't done so!

It's getting so tiresome reading all these stupid posts "OMG NO MORE IPR!!! I QUIT!" when there's a neat little option to turn them on.

Think before posting damnit!

And you'll never ever see the old GUI elements back. The code is deleted and replaced with the new part, as it is incompatible with the new AO code.

Heres one for ya if ya hate all these posts so bad. Dont Read Them. Go elsewhere. Move on. You always have something negative to say to anyone daring to say they dont like something.

[Telcea]

4) Sue me, but I liked having my skills up without blocking the whole screen. It helped alot when twinking (going through bags) or trying to figure out what you needed in a skill to do something (bags again) or just when you are contemplating how much IP to put in you navel while semi-afk in a mission Maybe give the window (heck, ALL windows) the same background transparency and click-through options that the chat windows have.

You can minimize the skill window and move it out of your way quite easily.

5) Damn this thing loads slowly. XML is great, but, something tells me AO's XML engine needs some optimization. Maybe load the window and the default screen THEN populate all the skill windows below it? I'm guessing here, but I think its a pretty accurate guess ^^.

They've said they're working on this a few times, so just hope and pray

2) I gotta say WTF on the pyramid layering of the buttons ... why not do it like the Nanos window and have the buttons go side-by-side if there is enough space, only stacking if the window is too small?

You can turn the buttons of through the i menu, though personally I'd prefer them returning the old buttons.

3) I'm told not everyone is having this problem, but when I Zoom in, close the planetmap (its still a floating window btw) and then open it back up, its always zoomed back out to the default view. I HATE THIS. If its not intended and other people don't see it, consider this a bug report.

Sill posted saying that this was an issue with cxustom GUI's I believe, there's a sticky about it.

4) Scrolling with you while moving should be a selectable option. Or at the least should be turned off "magically" when you center the map on a mission or shop, then reactivate when you center on yourself.

Last I heard, this can be turned of simply by scrolling the map in any direction

PS. I would have liked to have seen the Planetmap and Minimap windows -merged-. Making the Minimap the last level of zoom-in (hot keys for this would be necessary though ... unless you simply overlayed the mini-map when "p" was toggled). Ideally, you would have merged both as part of Control-6, and left the old planetmap essentially unchaged. But its not an ideal world ... so work on the other priorities, don't go into overload ^^.

Personally, I prefer the two maps seperate. But that's just me

The camera in general needs several problems fixed. The 8 and 2 buttons, which tilt the camera, make too large of an adjustment, too quickly. This needs to be slowed down and smoothed out.

Hold Ctrl, the drag the camera around with the right mouse button

Woot

[Nanoath]

Here's a funny thought.
Convert AO GUI to a DOS/Linux interface :P
Type your way through the game O_o

[qapluss]

Dislike the new Skills window.

WTB old format.

Where to begin ....

Basics:

The primary function of the GUI in a gaming environment is to convey information and allow user control. Clarity and ease of use are key. i.e. Don't put graphics behind text unless the text is part of the artwork and not meant to be read.

The less clicking the user has to do to perform a fuction the better. NEVER add more branches to an exixting user interface that force the user to perform more clicks for the same operation as the old.

Issues:
The new interface takes up too much window surface and is a hinderance to adding points quickly after leveling in a fast moving team. And no, I dont want the points 'auto distrubted'.

It's harder to navagate than the old.

The point size of the fonts used to display stat points is too small.

It's harder to read the different colored texts on the nice grey background. Who decided that dark blue text on a dark grey backgroud was a good thing?

...

[Mastablasta]

Heres one for ya if ya hate all these posts so bad. Dont Read Them. Go elsewhere. Move on. You always have something negative to say to anyone daring to say they dont like something.

No, I have something negative to say about people doing something stupid.

[Schwad]

Dislike the new Skills window.

WTB old format.

Where to begin ....

Basics:

The primary function of the GUI in a gaming environment is to convey information and allow user control. Clarity and ease of use are key. i.e. Don't put graphics behind text unless the text is part of the artwork and not meant to be read.

The less clicking the user has to do to perform a fuction the better. NEVER add more branches to an exixting user interface that force the user to perform more clicks for the same operation as the old.

Issues:
The new interface takes up too much window surface and is a hinderance to adding points quickly after leveling in a fast moving team. And no, I dont want the points 'auto distrubted'.

It's harder to navagate than the old.

The point size of the fonts used to display stat points is too small.

It's harder to read the different colored texts on the nice grey background. Who decided that dark blue text on a dark grey backgroud was a good thing?

...

I'm sure you posted this already :P

[Telcea]

She did, but got moaned at because it wasn't in this thread

[superdec]

omg what a load of crap what the hell is the new ip tele box all about its as big as my monitor .... yet the skills stats are so god damm small i cant even see them im half blind as it is this sucks..

[Telcea]

Don't we all love constructive posts like these?

[ZenWon]

j00r just flat out mean. Grumpy. Take a chill pill man. It'll all work out.

[Telcea]

If that was too me, I ran out of pills just before the servers went down If it's to masta, then ignore me

[ZenWon]

lol ya ignoring j00 was to tha masta

omgz nerf
This forum requires that you wait 60 seconds between posts. Please try again in 15 seconds.

[Telcea]

omg, I can't believe you're ignoring me I'm so much cooler than masta

[Hastuur]

I actually like the new skill window, and haven't really experienced any lag when opening it. I did find one issue, and I'm not sure if anyones mentioned it yet. The window will not stay tacked when you open it, tack it, close it and reopen it. I'd also like to see both the skill window and the large map retain their positions when you close/open them.

EDIT: Just read Sils post about the issue with the windows losing placement...

[Telcea]

Read the stickies please