I'm serious. This is the number one issue in my book. The UI now causes so many issues that it buries other issues. First: Automatic Camera re-orientation. You guys now mark North and South poles, that's great, but ALWAYS auto-orient the camera so up is north. Getting the camera disoriented when I scroll around the map makes ME disoriented, and I don't like that. Second: Always show strategic icons. How do you expect me to know what unit each icon stands for what unit I can never see both the unit and the icon at the same time? Third: Update unit consumption UI indicators. I need to know how much my stuff is producing/consuming on an updated basis or I will never be able to coherently plan my economy. Fourth: When selecting Ctrl groups, make the double-tap of the selection button snap the camera to see a member of that group. There's not much point in control groups if I had no idea of where they are. Fifth: Figure out a way that I can view the other half of the planet I'm on, either at the same time or very quickly. I don't know, maybe something like a hotkey that automatically centers my camera on the exact opposite side of the planet as the one I am currently looking at (and auto orient the camera so top is north) this way I can zoom out, look at my half, tap the button, look at the other half, and tap the button again to be back on the same side I was before. Simple, elegant, and quick. Sixth: Make unit selects glow bright at every zoom level and/or include them in a list of selected units, such as in supcom or starcraft. I should never be wondering what units I do and do not have selected. Also, I should be able to manipulate my selection quickly and easily, through that same UI interface. Thanks.
1. There is an option for that. It sucks imho however, when you try to play at the poles. Personally I don't get disorientated anymore since the introduction of the pole markers. 2. Yes please. 3 to 6 are all points that are expected to be implemented in the future. The UI is just unfinished. It's gonna improve a lot.
Oh, another "The UI should be doing everything for me so I don't have to learn" threads. Pass. The UI is there to facilitate your commands to your units. It's not there to hold your hand. It'll improve, sure... but you're in no position to make demands.
You sure you read what the op wrote? Cause I don't see anything about that. ------------------------ As for the topic, uber is aware of the state of the UI so there's no point in yelling and demanding (thats how your post and thread title reads...) a better UI when they'll do that anyway. :mrgreen:
most of his points are valid but his attitude comes across like a 12 y/o at a justin bieber concert. I'm guessing not the real funkoff since anyone who played TA or supcom would know that instead of double tapping group key you press t
Yes some of the points have merit but it's already been made clear by Jon that the UI is much less than 50% done, so the tone was unwarranted. The whole 'this is an alpha' thing has still been lost on some. Agreed that making selections more visible in the distance etc are all good things to aspire to.
The fact that all of your points contain problems that you're personally experiencing rather than any empirical data makes you sound that way... not to mention the confrontational thread title. I can tell you that my reaction to your post is: "No **** Sherlock". Where were you when Jon said that there is more work needed on for the UI than has currently been done? http://youtu.be/YhMnyfZ1wJg?t=15m45s --- Your post is flawed from its very inception. It's full of bluster, hyperbole and your own personal problems. I could create an equally obnoxious post that takes all of the points you've listed and give you my own anecdotal evidence that concludes that those same points are irrelevant and not even a "blip on the radar" so to speak, for anyone with even a half decent grasp of spacial awareness, more than a three second memory or being willing to put even a modicom of effort into gathering intel by just looking at the screen for half a second. I don't pretend that these issues don't exist for some users... but they're hardly the most important thing that Uber should deal with right now.
I for one agree with the points he's made; I don't see how any one of them do stuff for you, they would be making navigation and unit-control more efficient. PA is introducing new gameplay with a new perspective therefore there'll need to be a powerful UI to control it all. I've never considered point 5 before. What if you viewed the opposite side of the planet for as long you held the hotkey down so you could get a quick view, but you could double tap the hotkey to shift the camera over there without having the camera snap back? Imagine how useful that would be to quickly view the opposite side of the planet to see if there was anything happening, but you do a double tap to shift your focus over there completely if need be.
I'd rather get units on the moon than overhaul the UI, the only thing about the UI that is urgent to get fixed is the fact that occasionally the UI goes away for some reason and wont come back. First: There is a always north up option, I personally hate it because I like being able to rotate the camera any way I want. There is also the 'N' key which will reorient your view. Second: I'd perfer it to be an option, so I can leave it off. I consider that a learning curve, and a better way to implement that is to add the icon in the unit information which is currently feature incomplete anyway. Third: Feature Incomplete Fourth: Press T, it literally does that exact thing, but I'm sure that when something so trivial is considered the most important feature, they'll get right on that. Fifth: Cool Idea, I'd never use it. I'd perfer to scroll over what I own to the edge of the fog of war. I'd much perfer a hotkey to take me to events, PiP events, and a way to find a single idle fab, rather than grabbing the entire lot of idle fabs. Sixth: Feature Incomplete. Overall, I don't consider this post informative for the community or the developers. As all the features you are requesting are planned, or already exist. Remember that this isn't important. The UI works, people are able to play hours upon hours of this game, and a few of them simply nod at the "ALPHA v.50256" and keep playing. When we hear them say that they need feedback on the UI, that's when a thread like this is important. But the truth is many people want to see other features, such was the case with team games and more (or less) than 4 Man FFA. Not to downplay the concerns, but don't you find this thread a little uncalled for?
Would be better suited to a 'shift+[hotkey]' or similar variant thereof. Since most hotkeys work on a binary system (far as I know of) as is. Especially when you introduce a "hold this button to do this" sort of function. Where as mouse clicking does it a bit differently. So maybe they can double-tap a hotkey? Usually it goes to combinations of keys instead, though. I for one would prefer this as an option myself. But- I've got two monitors, so I might be a bit biased.
In the last livestream Jon Mavor said the UI was not even half done. I think we can kind of expect that RTS experts such as the guys making this game will have discussed & thought of many of the notes FunkOff made, and thus will be implemented as they become needed for the Alpha & Beta.
I would rather have a configuration option on when strategic icons appear / fade in. I for one always disliked strategic icons - perhaps because I just love to see the units fight, even if it is only small dots lobbing brighter small dots at each other. I know they are there to improve overview and I would enable them for maximum zoomed-out level but I prefer to have them disabled at close view.
I guess I'll just get used to the new icons, but as it stands they seem a bit greedy pixel wise. Supcom's icons, to my mind, used only the space they needed to. There were a few inconsistencies but in general I found them almost perfect. I hope these get a tune up and aren't too different just for differences sake.
We have two programmers working on UI full time. It's going to take some time to polish the UI, be patient.
Thanks for the response. I don't post much here because, well, you see the response I got. Hopefully my recommendations were helpful.
