nameplates/combat text terrible

ArchivedUser

Hi all,  new here and excited for a game which is bringing hope back to the community.

Though, is it just me, because I just watched an early gameplay video and the nameplates and combat text look terribad. The font, the colours (washed or and clashes with background), the dark text borders and bad use of serifs make it hard to read, it looks cheap and woefully outdated and, for me at least, completely ruins the overall aesthetic, which, btw is otherwise outstanding and is the reason I'm here! But seriously, these are all stereotype "I just started graphic design at college" mistakes. 

Please don't with the "pre-alpha" nonsense. Someone will have genuine presented this along with numerous options and a dev team have concluded this was good. It's not, and not even in a subjective sense. This is quantifiably terrible. 

First impressions matter.  A LOT.

ArchivedUser

Thank you for your input. Since the style and vision is not to your liking, we can assume this will be your last critical post until launch. Then again, ignoring regular development steps during an iterative process and bandying hyperbole almost always gets reality to bend to your entitlement. Buh-bye 

ArchivedUser

@UnknownSystemError oh my, what movie does that gif come from? seem fun to watch.

ArchivedUser

It's Denholm Reynholm (Chris Morris) in The IT Crowd
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=8&v=UxVivkXUfdU

ArchivedUser

UnknownSystemError said:

Thank you for your input. Since the style and vision is not to your liking, we can assume this will be your last critical post until launch. Then again, ignoring regular development steps during an iterative process and bandying hyperbole almost always gets reality to bend to your entitlement. Buh-bye 

Thanks for your input. Since your overtly generic supporter fanboy dismissal of valid criticism, we can assume you will continue to loiter on these forums shooting down other criticisms as soon as possible continually defending "development" like you have a clue how design choices in games are made (you don't).

Nothing I said was hyperbole, and if you want your game to succeed, criticism of anything they are "confident enough to show to the public" (i.e. close to final form), which is not AAA standard, should be your first port of call. I bet you were originally/still are defending the stupid whack-a-mole critical hit gameplay mechanic in-game at PAX. 

Nothing I said was "entitlement", it's 20 years of mmo gaming and watching countless almost certainly avoidable failures. Pointing out issues begets change. The assumption of change due to it being "early" will simply result in a crap game and the dev will just be like "wtf, noone in alpha complained, what's the problem". Seriously, for the good of the community, get over yourself.

ArchivedUser

just noticed that in an earlier gameplay walkthrough video, the nameplates and combat text are much cleaner/clearer/less-distracting - I would strongly advise you revert to this aesthetic.

ArchivedUser

I'd advise that you figure out what "in-development" and "placeholder" mean.

ArchivedUser

Still in development, they wouldn't focus on things like text and font just yet, they are trying out different things so called trial and error.

ArchivedUser

This very topic was brought up in another thread straight after the live stream, with the same sentiment that the name plates were very distracting and looked out of place. @helqq you are right feedback needs to be given at all stages of development, the good, bad and the ugly, those name plates were the ugly. 

ArchivedUser

Nameplate aesthetics would seem to me, relatively speaking, to be a fairly easy thing to change / experiment with.  Hell, most games have an option to turn them off by category...... I'm not going to get bent out of shape over nameplates at this point and maybe not at any point.

ArchivedUser

     My man, you got valid concerns but the general response you will find here is the same response that a university prof would give you if you asked him a question that should be answered in the course outline. He'd tell you to go read the course outline. By your complaints im assuming that you got this from the pre alpha footage. So you probably didn't watch the entire near 2h stream. Someone already complained during the stream and it was said that this stuff is all a place holder and they know its terrible. Someone also complained about this in a different thread and they got the same response. The point is its pre-alpha stuff and the purpose of their pre-alpha was to test their servers and whether their systems could support a large number of people. They weren't at all worried about mechanics and looks. If they have the same looks as now in alpha 1 and 2 then yes i'd start to be a little concerned and im sure the community would let them know about .

ArchivedUser

helqq said:

just noticed that in an earlier gameplay walkthrough video, the nameplates and combat text are much cleaner/clearer/less-distracting - I would strongly advise you revert to this aesthetic.

Please link the two videos so that people can see what you're talking about. Do keep in mind that nameplates are client-side, and therefore very easy to modify either via an ingame menu or third-party addons. It has become quite normal in the MMORPG community to use third-party addons for UI modifications of this nature. The game is in no way close to launch, there are several Alpha and Beta builds between now and launch. Since this is a client-side issue, modifications could also be made easily at any time.

ArchivedUser

UnknownSystemError said:

It's Denholm Reynholm (Chris Morris) in The IT Crowd
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=8&v=UxVivkXUfdU

Thanks, It's so funny xD .