UI - Stylized with minimal intrusion

Hi there!

I have played a countless amount of hours in a countless amount of MMOs and believe I have a reasonable understanding of what makes UIs pleasant to have in front of you. I think it can be summarized in three main pillars:

1. Customization. Whatever is put on the screen; players should be allowed to move the UI around and change sizes & individual elements of each respective UI element. Having this executed well will make even mediocre UIs quite usable.
2. Minimal. Although there is something to be said for visual treats (think of the eagles around your action bar in wow classic): a minimalistic approach really helps here to make sure the player can focus on the relevant elements. I believe that the core UI of Archeage, ignoring the payslip icon's etc., does a decent job at this. The transparent map, similar to the one in the AoC alpha, is not intrusive, but provides with the relevant information. Things like health bar, mana bar, target bar, action bar, chat box and small UI icon bar (inventory, social etc.) are a given in this. Quest box should provide you to track quests in a non-intrusice manner - something done fairly well by WoW. However, allowing for customization is key.
3. Stylized. Although the two elements above are important, they need to be forged whole by a consistent stylization that fits with the game's theme. Classic WoW does this reasonably well (having the old ruin vibe going on), contrasted by FFXIV where the UI in some places looks like it would fit a starwars MMO (health bar, target of target) and other elements look like a sword & sorcery mmo (minimap border). Although FFXIV has both those elements; it helps yo have a consistent feel toroughouy your UI that matches your game's theme. GW2 does this exceptionally well, also shifting the UI's style (to some degree) based on whether you are on land or on water.

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Tallis1

Oops.. was meant for the dev discussion.. unsure how to delete this..

daveywavey

Tallis wrote: »

Oops.. was meant for the dev discussion.. unsure how to delete this..

Message a Mod and they'll nuke it for you.

@Wandering Mist

George_Black

No leave it here. It's a good point.
They need to look good, minimal, consistent.

I for one want to see class abilities share a common pallet of colours and design, instead of being all over the place like ff14 for example.

SirChancelot

George Black wrote: »

No leave it here. It's a good point.
They need to look good, minimal, consistent.

I for one want to see class abilities share a common pallet of colours and design, instead of being all over the place like ff14 for example.

Yeah but what I love about FFXIV is I can rearrange it to whatever I want it to be.
This is what I'm most afraid about when they said they won't be allowing third-party mods/add-ons
I like customizing my UI to whatever I want...

George_Black

SirChancelot11 wrote: »

George Black wrote: »

No leave it here. It's a good point.
They need to look good, minimal, consistent.

I for one want to see class abilities share a common pallet of colours and design, instead of being all over the place like ff14 for example.

Yeah but what I love about FFXIV is I can rearrange it to whatever I want it to be.
This is what I'm most afraid about when they said they won't be allowing third-party mods/add-ons
I like customizing my UI to whatever I want...

Do you need addons with ff14s ui customization?

Vhaeyne

George Black wrote: »

SirChancelot11 wrote: »

George Black wrote: »

No leave it here. It's a good point.
They need to look good, minimal, consistent.

I for one want to see class abilities share a common pallet of colours and design, instead of being all over the place like ff14 for example.

Yeah but what I love about FFXIV is I can rearrange it to whatever I want it to be.
This is what I'm most afraid about when they said they won't be allowing third-party mods/add-ons
I like customizing my UI to whatever I want...

Do you need addons with ff14s ui customization?

No.

FFXIV let's you do what you want. If you think the FFXIV UI is bad that is on you. Without any add-ons FFXIV manages to have one of the best UI customization systems in all of MMOs.

Dolyem

Give an in game UI customization akin to weak auras and I will nerdgasm a bit.

Honestly what it comes down to is preference. Let people clutter it up if they want to or keep it minimal. Leave it up to the player, within reason. Customization is key.

Vhaeyne

Dolyem wrote: »

Give an in game UI customization akin to weak auras and I will nerdgasm a bit.

Honestly what it comes down to is preference. Let people clutter it up if they want to or keep it minimal. Leave it up to the player, within reason. Customization is key.

Basically what I wrote in the main Dev discussion on the topic.

It is not up to the devs to decide for me what I think is useful or bloat. Not when it comes to MMORPG UIs. That is a decision everyone makes for themselves.

George_Black

Vhaeyne wrote: »

George Black wrote: »

SirChancelot11 wrote: »

George Black wrote: »

No leave it here. It's a good point.
They need to look good, minimal, consistent.

I for one want to see class abilities share a common pallet of colours and design, instead of being all over the place like ff14 for example.

Yeah but what I love about FFXIV is I can rearrange it to whatever I want it to be.
This is what I'm most afraid about when they said they won't be allowing third-party mods/add-ons
I like customizing my UI to whatever I want...

Do you need addons with ff14s ui customization?

No.

FFXIV let's you do what you want. If you think the FFXIV UI is bad that is on you. Without any add-ons FFXIV manages to have one of the best UI customization systems in all of MMOs.

I didnt say that it's bad.
I was about to make this point:
IS has said that UI will be customizable. So, why fret? You dont need addons.

Dolyem

George Black wrote: »

I didnt say that it's bad.
I was about to make this point:
IS has said that UI will be customizable. So, why fret? You dont need addons.

If they pull off a UI that utilizes everything players could want from addons previously used in other games, I will be so freakin happy.

Vhaeyne

George Black wrote: »

Vhaeyne wrote: »

George Black wrote: »

SirChancelot11 wrote: »

George Black wrote: »

No leave it here. It's a good point.
They need to look good, minimal, consistent.

I for one want to see class abilities share a common pallet of colours and design, instead of being all over the place like ff14 for example.

Yeah but what I love about FFXIV is I can rearrange it to whatever I want it to be.
This is what I'm most afraid about when they said they won't be allowing third-party mods/add-ons
I like customizing my UI to whatever I want...

Do you need addons with ff14s ui customization?

No.

FFXIV let's you do what you want. If you think the FFXIV UI is bad that is on you. Without any add-ons FFXIV manages to have one of the best UI customization systems in all of MMOs.

I didn't say that it's bad.
I was about to make this point:
IS has said that UI will be customizable. So, why fret? You don't need add-ons.

I fret because "Customizable" is a very subjective term. More so when you are trying to use it as a marketing point, like Steven does for Ashes. No doubt, Aion or Lineage 2 think they have a customizable UI because you could move a few things around. In my opinion, both games have extremely rigid UIs that are stuck in the dark ages of MMORPGs.

I don't need add-ons, but I do need UI freedom. I want to be as vocal as I can about this to ensure that I get the most out of Ashes. Every time someone says they want a streamlined UI with less bloat, I don't know if that person is my advisory on this subject or not.

All I can do is try to make it as clear as possible that allowing the most customization makes it so that anyone who wants to streamline their UI still can, and anyone who wants a "bloated UI" still can. Which is the best of both worlds. FFXIV is the only game I have played in recent years that allows this without add-ons. Literally, the only thing I can think of outside of "weak auras" (a popular add-on style) in FFXIV that the game is missing is a distance to target number in the UI. Which is something I would use if available.

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