[beta3] UI ranting

from Elemental Forums

Now that beta seems way more game like UI issues are becoming more distracting  - at least for me.

It takes way too many clicks to either perform actions or get data. I know that elemental also targets netbooks (1024x600?) but it should probably use large screen estate if available (writing this on 1920x1200)

1 - there isn't enough info about what city is doing. HUD should include at least what is being build and if units are being trained

2 - there should be go to next (and maybe previous) city while on city screen

3 - when you click on screen there should be enough space on screen to display all buildings and all units. Currently it is:

click city

click build

click building

place building

 

while it could be:

click city

click building

place building

 

same goes for training

4 - How do you find city that has nothing to do? hotkey? icon on UI?

5- Spell casting UI is bad. So many clicks, small icons etc. There should be way to get from selected unit to spell casting immediately - and possibly not that small icons but icon + short description list or at least larger icons. There were favorite spells mentioned - that might help but I'd prefer direct access to all spells.

6 - Spell learning is not intuitive, I cannot figure out how it works and I don't want to read up on that. UI should make that obvious.

7 - How to select specific unit in group? Should be easy if you want to use special unit ability - it isn't. Probably needs hotkey and/or icon for next/prev unit. How do you target specific unit in group with spell? It seems that it just selected random one. Anyhow, not obvious.

8 - How do you move whole group out of city at once? I think groups should stay somehow liked even when entering and leaving cities.

9 - I cannot differentiate between bunch of people in one square and group in one square. You can move unit inside the square however :)

10 - Health bars - at least opt-in? I cannot see how damaged the unit is.

11 - For some reason messages boxes on top right don't really stand out. Maybe is the whole Elemental color palette, but I think there should be some sort of animation (short flare?) when new messages arrive?

12 - Same for  units and city icons on top left. No idea what to do there though.

13 - Next turn button should be in right bottom, so you can just pull the mouse in that direction. It is common UI experience practice to put very common elements on screen edges - so they are easy to hit.

 I'll write more things that bother me later, after I play with the beta some more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3,592 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Agree with most of your points. I've had some issues with the HUD and UI myself. It feels like too much work. Definitely needs streamlining, but I think Stardock is aware of this (at least I think Frogboy is....)

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

+1 on that.

I would also like to add that the enter key or spacebar should be utilized for many of the pop-up boxes that you must now manually mouse over and click on.  This may already been discussed and if so I apologize for the duplication!

 

 

Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

How do you find city that has nothing to do? hotkey? icon on UI?
End of quote

Color of the city in the empire tree?

6 - Spell learning is not intuitive, I cannot figure out how it works and I don't want to read up on that. UI should make that obvious.
End of quote

What isn't intuitive in opening spellbook and clicking on available spells to put them in the research queue?

8 - How do you move whole group out of city at once? I think groups should stay somehow liked even when entering and leaving cities.
End of quote

Selecting them while holding the CTRL key perharps.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Same for units and city icons on top left. No idea what to do there though.
End of quote

It is the empire tree. Very useful for knowning if some hero has ovement left or how the city is with its build queue or the levelling.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

The Empire tree needs a lot more functionality to be useful past the start, though. And it actually doesn't accurately show movement points of people in groups - not to mention it doesn't show the groups themselves. So it's fine if you have a bunch of individual guys running around, but once you start grouping them the tree starts breaking.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

The entire GUI needs large amounts of polish and re-working IMO.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting TheProgress, reply 6
The entire GUI needs large amounts of polish and re-working IMO.
End of TheProgress's quote

I agree. This weekend I'm planning to write a big post about that, and figure out if I can put together a crappy mock-up based on the pre-beta UI mockups (mainly color scheme). I don't have very strong issue with the layout of the main GUI, other than the clunky spell and equipment screens (which Frogboy already mentioned), but the color scheme and overall artistic side of it is very plain and looks, well, cheap. :x

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

Agree with the OP's points, all the ones related to cities in particular have been bothering me since Beta 1.

Especially compared to something like Civ 4 where they made it so easy to change what a city is building, I find that it takes way too many clicks to build or train anything, and too many clicks (that is, more than zero) to see what a city is currently building and how long it will take.

It also bothers me how when you select a city, it locks your camera to it in a limited way, so that if you scroll away it snaps you back, and yet you don't really expect this since it allows you to move the camera somewhat... just not very far. When this happens I always get confused, and it takes me a second to figure out that I have to unselect the city or select something else.

Being able to quickly move between cities (with arrow buttons or something like in Civ) would help with the latter as well, since I usually encounter the issue when I finish setting build orders in one city and try to move the map to another one.

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Annatar11, reply 7
Quoting TheProgress, reply 6The entire GUI needs large amounts of polish and re-working IMO.


I agree. This weekend I'm planning to write a big post about that, and figure out if I can put together a crappy mock-up based on the pre-beta UI mockups (mainly color scheme). I don't have very strong issue with the layout of the main GUI, other than the clunky spell and equipment screens (which Frogboy already mentioned), but the color scheme and overall artistic side of it is very plain and looks, well, cheap.
End of Annatar11's quote

 

Color scheme was designed by somebody who really likes quake 2. :)

I understand "after the catastrophe" setting but there should be bright colors in the game.

Magic should stand out, restored land should be bright and vivid and UI elements could use some base colors. Even pictures are dull.

I guess we'll see what happen is the next beta ...

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

I agree with much of what is said here.  What I recommend is putting all your suggestions/requests into a series of threads in the feedback area and we'll take a look.

That said, UI polishing and such won't be part of the public beta. You won't see the results until release.

Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top

It is good to know that you are working on that - this game has great potential to exceed my favorite turn based fantasy games - MoM and AoW:SM. It is also my first pre-order ever.

Being developer I know you can get used to any sort of horrible UI after using it for a while and not notice anything is wrong - very very important that you get some usability expert or just random folks that never saw your app before.

When I started gaming on c64, I could put up with anything - horrible UI, typing commands, game load sequences that were longer than actual gameplay sequences, strange key combinations. With every year I get less flexible and more demanding. I want UI to work and not get into my way - and that includes both games and work. Work - I have to deal with whatever there is but games I can chose.

For example, I recently bought Blood Bowl (from Steam, was cheaper than impulse :( ) and UI for playing was horrible. PSP version has better UI and I can play game faster there - you have to really try to achieve that. I played that game for 10 minutes  and that includes loading the game and creating my team. I wish I could return this game...

I could go on and on with shitty UIs in games I have played (or not played just because of that). Some symptoms:

- unskipable animations and cut scenes

- taking to long to open simple menu (bf2 is worst offender I ever saw)

- taking so long to load that I just don't feel like starting the game at all  (and I have a ssd drive) . And yes, I think this is a UI issue.

- honoring esc key to skip anything that is blocking my ability to interact

- skipping loading and logo screen or just disabling them outright

- in strategy games - watching long battle sequences or units move - let me skip to result or have adjustable movement/battle speed or maybe fast forward/rewind button (never saw that implement, would be cool). Maybe developer though 3 seconds is short enough for anyone to watch. It isn't. 1 second? Still not fast enough. Let me skip everything and go directly to result.

I want to play a game. If I wanted to watch something I'd be sitting in front of TV.

 

 

 

 

Reply #12 from Elemental Forums Top

Yes, I think the UI needs *just a little bit* :P of work before release. ;-)

Best regards,
Steven.