Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Comments
Being a huge fan of player choice I really like this idea. Let us turn on/off what we think we want and allow us to customize the UI as we see fit. imo.
"Do I want cohesion and style in my menus, or do I want a lot of simpler tileable components that I can put anywhere and maybe group some together?"
I prefer scaleable over tileable, but don't care much about cohesion or style when it comes to the following:
Health and Mana/resource, of self or others
Chat window (I like playing from further away and I like being able to make chat bigger generally'
Hotbar itself (usually just turn this off whenever I can get away with it)
Cooldowns (innate sense of time, so this goes off with the Hotbar)
I care about cohesion and style when it comes to:
Menus for bag, character stats, interactions with crafting stuff.
I guess other than that, I don't care much as long as I can drag most data to the bottom of the screen instead of the top. Ability to place party member info displays laterally across the bottom of the screen instead of on that sidebar would be good, with my own just in the middle when I'm not in a group.
What I want the most, I think, is UI presets that dynamically change based on conditions, beyond just 'in Raid' and 'not in Raid'.
I want to be able to set up an 'Explore', 'Raid', 'Siege', 'Town/RP', 'Solo', and 'Fullgroup' config. If that's too much, I'll settle for just 'Solo', 'Raid' and 'Grouped', because 'what information I need' changes drastically depending on these situations, and 'where I want it' changes even more.
This is particularly true for 'where I want certain windows to open, by default'. When I'm in a group, I want my map to open in a different location on screen than when I'm alone.
I understand that fully customizable UI can cause some weird QA and performance issues, so if we must be limited relative to that for any reasons, then my basic 'requests for where to focus' are related to that.
1. Let me tile things across the bottom of the screen other than hotbars, even if just party info
2. Let me put enemy info down there too, right side if it must be restricted.
3. I want a wide chat window that can snap to either side.
4. Main map should sometimes be able to open and cover up minimap
I ended up assuming that this question is about options for performance optimization and isn't really about things like bag and character info windows, since those are things that can already be moved around.
It depends on how many skills my class will have/be able to use and it also depends on the situation. I might want more or less information depending on the situation.
I want some information to be always available: available skills, minimap, party/raid/allies' HP bars, a compass, toggleable quest list and skill cooldowns.
In any case I believe it's crucial for Ashes to have a high level of UI customizability and also allowing players to save a handful of UI loadouts, preferably if they are saved on local configuration files.
Immersive UI (I.e. not just a generic modern interface) would go a long way to make AoC feel unique and fun to play. Love the art team, please go wild!
I want a screen covered in info of varying opacity to check that I'm not standing in fire / going to get hit by some telegraph for anything remotely serious.
I think highly customizable is definitely the way to go. I'll add that a large variety of preset themes would be nice (Minimalistic, 'Classic', Dark Theme, Light theme, Phoenix theme, Raid default UI, PvP default UI, Screenshot mode, controller mode, Mushroom Theme, Nik & Phee, Clean, Modern, information overload, 90's throwback, etc. I'd like something like 50 of these to exist just so players could have some fun going through them even if there are some that are pretty unlikely to actually be used.) and let individual UI elements in each be toggled off (or on if normally hidden by default in that theme), moved, opacity adjusted, etc. from the theme default.
One thing that I think would be cool, and unique, would be allowing custom bars/shapes/sizes to certain UI elements, almost like what Weak Auras for Wow does.
Certain things that stuck out to me (without going into the depths of my games):
the Diablo Health Globe vs a standard HP Bar (or dare i even recommend an HP Potion Flask?)
the option for the mini map to be circular or square (and location of anchor)
moveable (and split-able) hot bars, with the ability to add or remove more as needed
visible key binding options on bars, especially for custom ones
customizable reticle for action targeting
customizable combat text - i prefer larger text for my own damage dealt, bold colored text for crits, and i personally like the text to 'fountain' out of the targets bar and my own damage to fall off below/beside me
i like the low hp blood spatter / red alert things, i feel most games use dated one, and a drippy bloody one would be pretty cool IMO
I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have a few different AoC preset "UI themes" (like a scroll/watercolor paper backed, or dark theme) or even special particle animations when hp or mp is decrease or increased (and of course with the option to turn those off and on)
If i think of more, i will add an edit below this point.
Target bar specific colors for when target is targeted on me (a more visual simple 'threat bar') - again defaulting to ff14 as an example (without the targeting arrows from ff14)
This way you can create in-game macros to enable/disable parts of your UI depending on the activity you're doing. If you can assign macros to your hotbar like FF14, then you can swap between UI modes by pressing a button. This way you can click a button to toggle screen clutter like quest info when raiding, or click a button to toggle your favorite emotes hotbar, or click another button to toggle your crafting hotbar and hide all combat UI.
Here's an example: video link
Especially when you're a new player, I much prefer if the more complicated parts of the UI are unlocked as I progress in the game so that I'm not overwhelmed by all the buttons the moment I log in.
I like it when the UI has 2 modes --> minimal by default, but an option to show/hide the finer details and controls (like holding shift while hovering over UI items to display detailed info, or some other toggle that can be flipped on/off quickly to get in and out of specialized mode)
Essential components for me are:
Here's a summary in image form (note: I don't think your player's healthbar needs to be represented more than once on screen):
other preferences:
Go Intrepid!
An extremely important part of FFXI UI that is different than most is that you didn't see the health bar of a player in the middle of the screen. You had to specifically target the individual you were wondering about to see their life bar and magic or mana information was only shown to you if they were in your party or alliance.
There were 'ad-ons' with third party tools that would show you how far back you were standing and I thought that was massive cheating. But I did LOVE the gear change macros that helped make the most of every spell or attack you made. Ninjas would blink and disappear on screen if they constantly changed gear when loading up a move to reduce the count down timers and speed their attacks up.
Making gear sets is an extremely important part of MMORPG hardcore playing IMO and I hope your game will encourage it and help it.putting on a few different pieces of gear right before using a certain spell or ability or weaponskill really made a huge difference in FFXI and made getting that gear worthwhile.
Please make our gear rewarding and useful long term.
Ps. I don't want to see users health bars if I'm not playing healer... Not unless I am selecting them. That ruins the look of the game to see health bars on top of character names. I also want the ability to remove guild names or only see guild icons. I don't care about their teams... Ffxi just made colored dots that weren't an eye sore. We want eye candy.
Also FFXI made the text color changable. So I could make damage red and cures blue and monster attacks orange and chat colr purple and shouts/yells black and whisper/tells white or whatever I wanted!
Having my chat box in the escape menu like New World did was infuriating to the say the least.
A good example is how the ElvUI addon works in WoW. You can full modify your interface as you please, show and trackind debuff/buffs, moveable actionbars/map/unitframes/castbars ecc... So each individual can customize the UI to be minimalistic or full of the details they want!
If elvUI is taken as an example the only thing is not needed to you is the art style of elvUi because it looks like nothing to do with the style of AoC!
I would like to see user selectable options to have each UI element automatically be toggled on or off depending on the combat state. F.ex. automatically turning off inventory or guild window if the character enters combat. They should be able to be opened again right away if need be obviously, while still in combat.
Below is the Alpha 1 UI, which I actually really liked as a starting point in terms of minimalism and feel. I liked how the menus were hidden away by the three lines in the bottom right, as well as having to move the mouse to the upper edge to make that menu fall down.
One thing I feel is a must have is something I first saw in Dark Age of Camelot 20 years ago, which was the option to have multiple, customizable and essentially borderless chat windows placed where ever you wanted on the screen. You could select colors, font, background opacity, and chat-channels and even name each window. They could also be combined into different tabs in one window. Check this guide for some details: https://camelot.allakhazam.com/story.html?story=9921
I love to admire sceneries in games, so when I wander through the world, stuff like the skill bar, health/any other combat-related info should be invisible. Equipping my weapon/getting hit should then automatically show those UI elements again.
There should also be a hotkey to show/hide pinned quests.
Being able to adjust the position, size, rotation, and transparency of each element and having the option to save multiple UI layouts is also important to me.
Of course, players should always have the option to enable/disable the adaptive UI and go full out minimalistic or info-packed.
For some players (like myself) that have visual impermeant in my case I am very near-sighted meaning I need to sit close to the screen to see. Am also colorblind not that I don’t see colors, but brown can be green and so 4th. Now my use case is probably more extreme than most as I am 1 of 3 with this specific eye condition in the world. But the challenges can be applicable to a lot of people and can make a huge difference for many players.
I manage fine but do have some limitations and challenges when it comes to getting all the information I need when playing a MMO.
Here are some usual problems\ Challenges I face in MMO`s.
• Seeing what debuff`s that proc on a enemy.
• Reading the Nameplates of Players, NPCs and Monsters.
• Seeing particle effects on interactable objects.
• Knowing what rarity, the Item has, I love it when it says Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic instead or as well as the color code.
• Reading quest tracker (if you can’t scale text).
• Reading chat (if you can`t make a black background and scale text).
• Seeing the Icons and indicators on the minimap.
Also here are some problems I see I will get in Ashes.
• As far as I know names of NPC`s have different color depending on if they are a Quest NPC or a merchant NPC? If so, PLEASE let the ones that want turn on an icon for this or in the least let us choose the color for the names of the NPCs with different functions.
• I noticed from some Alpha footage that there was a skeleton or something in a cave that had no particle effect that you needed to interact with for a quest. PLEASE let the ones that don`t see well have the opportunity to turn on particle effects or a small icon for quest objects so we can find these things. (Maybe it’s a low range so you have to be close to see it but it helps a lot)
When Alpha 2 comes around I hope it is not to late to give feedback on UI am sure there are more use cases that will show up.
Things I hope we can expect, and many needs for a Game UI.
• Let use move any objects around.
o Target and Group Health Bars, Self Buffs\ Debuffs and Target Debuffs and Buffs, Quest Tracer, Mini Map, Hotbars and everything else displayed to us on screen.
• Let use scale anything individual for any UI window.
o Again, Buff and Debuff Icons, Text and everything in-between best option is if every UI element have its on setting\ preferences so you can manage it yourself.
• Where seeing color is important or relevant let us set this color in settings so we can easily distinguish it, there is no color to rule them all individuals will have individual preferences and\or needs.
o Text or simple icons to represent a color is preferred for many.
• Let us move around any element so we can setup and prioritize important UI elements where we see them the easiest so we can be competitive in PvP and PvE and generally get the information we need when we need it.
• When we have a skill that have X chance to proc Z effect when the effect procs on target let us know with a text notification that also has a spell\ effect icon in the notification. (Of course let us scale these notifications and let us place these where we want\ be moveable)
I know am potently asking a lot here but at the same time since no UI modding will be allowed then I feel Intrepid must give us UI customization that can really help the visually impaired to thrive as well. Also, I hope I am not coming of as entitled here I only want to convey the usual issues I and many other people have when it comes to these types of games. We love MMO`s too even though we don’t see as well as other people, we stile like to be as competitive and un-reliant on other people to play the game effectively and competitively as well.
Thank you for your time.
Best Regards
Blip
Same opinion !
I like to move my health/mana frame close to the skill bar/s , the party maybe somewhere else `. the skill bar/s more down ... like Flex said "Very customizable, the ability to change most things around, change the size, etc."
Best example , exept , i`d like to move all of them . And if it can , to lock and unlock them in the position they are/or I moved them.
Out of combat and full HP/mana? Hide those bars away.
Travelling on your mount and not using any class skills? Fade it away.
Selected chat tab being quiet. Chat window disappear.
New chat line in the active tab comes in, the chat box become visible again.
Enter combat and everything pop back up.
Give the option to lock any UI window in a visible (or invisible) state and I'd be happy.
A primary thing missing from FFXIV, which I think is essential for a lot of players, is some kind of combat log/dps meter. Performance is something many players love learning how to improve and direct output is an essential measurement.
Additionally, being able to toggle friendly and enemy nameplates, total and percentage of health/mana, and cooldown timers on abilities are always welcome to the playerbase
Customisation is key! When I play tank or DPS l like to have my health + Target health in the middle, and my raid UI to the side. But when I play as a healer I like to have the raid UI in the middle and my health + Target health i either side of it. Currently I use Elvui in wow to customize my UI, it's very very indepth but the UI is clean and simple.
Basically, keep the UI frames simple and clean while having an easy to understand (with advanced options) UI customisation tool.
Customizable UI! Some UI features that would be great would be:
Actual time in my area
Minimap with compass
Damage/healing meter
Party members, chat
Active quests and quests that party members share
Health/Mana/Casting bar
Threat meter
Spells with tool tips
Bags
Tooltips
Tool bar to put mounts, pets, etc
That said, maybe there could be multiple UI settings which players could bind to certain keys. Especially if the UI is greatly custemisable as many players seem to wish for. Because we might want Different UI settings if we're farming recouces, casually questing, pvp, or clearing dungeons. And it would be an absolut pain to always manual change them to your current needs.
Another thing I'd like to see is the elements that ARE mandatory/ widely utilized to be very UNINTRUSIVE. If it's just a menu button, it doesn't need to occupy any real screen space or be opaque, or health+mana bars don't need to be huge circles on 8% of my screen. This all fits in with the customization options people has been asking for though..
If people want little to no information displayed, then let them do that. If people want as much information to be displayed on screen as possible, let them do that. Options is key.
I'm going to take an unpopular game choice here, take wow for example. One of the games biggest strength (besides just the gameplay being the most fluid of all MMO's) is the ability to customize the UI how you want. If you want a UI that looks like GW2, FFXIV, D3 or anything, that is possible on WoW, or they can stay minimalistic if they choose to. Let people choose what they want instead of taking that choice away from them.
Even FFXIV has alot of UI customization by default without the use of addons like WoW does so you dont nessessarily have to implement WoW's addon level customization.
The right information, in the right place, at the right time.
What is too much and too little is subjective anyway.
Better to have user defined hover as default or permanently on as an option IMO.
If people want clutter, just make it an option.
Had a good discussion about searches and relevancy vs search times the other day.
It was about how in depth and how many aliases needed to be recovered for a website vs how long to search and get a response.
Decided on a user defined LOD for data/information in the end.
Not much different to wasting memory, badwidth and cycles on 100,000 vertex graphics which are too far away to be resolved/noticed anyway.