Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Comments
UI itself does not fit game at all. Some concept arts fit very well but coloring and overall tables/big chatboxes simply are looking like mobile/moba like game while game itself is trying achieve realistic looks. Just like with skills' VFX there is clash of styles. While game trying to go towards realism everything else seems not fitting the world at all. I strong suggest to take a look better at Guild wars 2/Black Desert Online to see how VFX/UI made fit the world looks.
However stream once more was delayed, AGAIN. This cannot happen. Stream should be prepared in advance so than delays are not happening. And in case if something bad happens. You have to be prepared for that. Maybe have someone else to be on stream if Steven cannot be there as example. But now, we waiting 15mins and Margaret with Steven talked about candies etc for another 5+ minutes. This just shows that Intrepid Studios does not respect our (as the community) time.
Then QnA part. Most upvoted posts are ignored. Questions selected which often are very softball questions. This stream we even had issue where Steven said crossbow don’t exists, when wiki and past streams said it exists. Even worse crossbow skin was sold in the weapon pack 3. Then the question regarding freehold and corruption. Are you safe in your freehold or not? We once more have mixed answers on different livestreams.
This mediocrity and lack of professionalism is starting driving me crazy.
Dont use drop down boxes for graphical settings. Using sliders with step descriptions is better because it is immediately which relative position a setting is on.
Very few games get this right. The main issue with drop down boxes is that individual settings can have an uneven amount of steps. Sliders immediately reveal whether or not a setting is on max or not.
Please do a little bit of research in what makes a good options menu from a usability perspective. There are a few great examples that should be just copied.
Regarding customization, I basicly want any UI mods options, + the bar ui script functionality there is in ffxiv where we can make our own menues like this, where the bar to the far left opens sub menues like the class picker i made.
where we both can change the stack of the hotbars from 1x12 to 2x6 to 3x4 to 4x3 to 6x2 to 12x1 as a example from ffxiv
if you want to know plugins ive used for the longest time for ui ELV UI in wow, DELV UI for ffxiv, bandits UI for ESO, AUI for eso. let us have several ways to display our healthbars, ideally let us individually move each resource seperate, and let us snap/group them together to move them easier later on.
the way i have had my ui settup is always like this, its a good mix of maximum info and alot of viewable area.
Given that AoC doesn't allow addons, Intrepid has taken on the responsibility of providing a fully customizable UI. I appreciate the efforts taken by the company in this regard, and I really love the direction they have taken in allowing users to fully customize the user interface.
What are your favorite UI elements that you would like us to incorporate? Please provide examples when applicable.
Maybe the guild window could have an option where leaders could save a few UI setups so the newbs could apply them to their own UIs.
Being able to customize the window borders and font size is helpful for many people who struggle with reading a lot of text in certain games. It's great to have control over how the information is displayed to meet your specific needs. Also, it is great customizing where each window should pop up, certain games pop windows right in the middle of the screen and it is a struggle sometimes.
Is there anything in particular you’re excited or concerned about regarding what was shown with the UI Progress and Processes?
It would be nice being able to save a file having the customization and share it with others or even have your own backups.
Amazing so far, I am glad to see that the UI will be fully customizable and look forward to it much. As well the action/spell icons are beautiful.
Is there anything in particular you’re excited or concerned about regarding what was shown with the UI Progress and Processes?
The UI Archetype class icons i think need more work some looks too much alike and don't explain the archetype well, i couldn't discern what i was looking at with some. I didn't like the melee class far left one they all looked the same as well. And oddly bard was the only one that all looked unique per (I know you said unison is important but i thought those icons looked great).
tihs! other game asked about ui and never done tihs, not everybody have good eyes and it can be really hard to read text.
AoC class wish: https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/comment/422108#Comment_422108
- The only concern i have is if my personal health bar/stamina bar can be moved to the same location at the bottom of the creen like the exp bar is. I Personally think your own persoanl health bar should be seperate from the parties health bar.
How do you feel about the direction the UI is taking, based on what we shared during the February Development Update?- Honestly i like the way it is all going. Every game should have its own feel/motion to there UI system. Think you guys are doing a good job taking alot of ideas into consideration and making it your own. I like the inventory UI better navigation of your own personal inventory is nice. AS someone who hoards stuff resources while exploring the inventory system looks very friendly to me.
What i would like to see different in Ashes compared to other games is a well rounded Guild UI system. What i mean by this is as a Leader id like to be able to customize ranks with my own personal names. This way for one Leaders will have a name we find cool and has meaning to what they are in charge of. For example my PvP leaders title is Lord of Bones, Very fitting for someone who is into PvP and others under him will know hes there leader when it comes to PvP aspects. Also it would be great if the guild UI has a sort of tree so they can see This is the commander, This is the Leaders of certain aspects and this is where i fall in the system. I think this will add a great Guild aspect to everything especially since we can have alliances and have to worry about espionage and other stuff. It would be nice to finally have a game that doesnt just make us follow their ranks/naming of our guilds.What I tend to like is when you can see as much as possible all at one place to avoid wasting time/effort navigating and scrolling. I would rather be able to quickly see everything and rely on something "catching my eye" in a more quick and easy manner. This generally requires things be more "zoomed out" with more abstract organization/categorization, and to have things be more condensed into the area you can immediately see, but that is where recognizable icons/color coding/zooming/pop ups/categorization options helps get your eyes on the more specific location you want to go- but I also don't want to rely on memorizing what a bunch of small icons/colors are or where they are, so being able to hover over them for a specific description or a more "zoomed in" view/pop-up windows (maybe off to the side or something), that provides a reminder of what the icons in question are, or maybe an immediately visible chart on the side that references color codings/categorization methods- that way anything I might be interested in is easy to see and click on immediately regardless of whether I know what it is or not, and If I can't remember what it is then, that info is also provided and is immediately visible/accessible, to minimize time/effort navigating. Then, once you click on the item/icon of interest, you could just follow this logic to access more and more granular info for said item/icon until you quickly and easily reach the "layer" of info you are interested in.
Bouncing back and forth between different layers of info should be just as easy and quick. I generally don't like when I am trying to find more specific info on an item or something, so I click on it, then the whole screen changes to show what I am looking at, making me have to go back and lose my place because I was trying to reference or compare to something else on from the more "generic layer" of info. This is why I like being able to just hover over something to have pop-up windows with more granular info, because I can easily have everything accessible and visible on the screen, but still be able to quickly and easily find more specific info on a specific thing as needed, without having to change the screen too much or go through extra steps and lose my place.
This also is important in easily and effortlessly transitioning from a minimal UI with nothing on the screen, to pulling up info as needed. It should be just as easy to keep certain parts of the screen minimalist, but pull up specific categories categories through pop-up windows/zooming and dig for info, without having your whole screen dedicated to that search, while still being able to have the more generic info visible and easily/quickly accessible as needed on other parts of the screen, and able to remove/parse through that info separately as needed.
As far as the actual information provided to the player within the UI, this video is worth checking out and this youtube channel in general makes for a great game design resource. The main points made are that
1. Its generally better to present information organically to the player, through in-game mechanics/feedback/animations rather than adding stuff overlayed on the screen.
2. You want to avoid providing information will reduce the amount of skill of the player needs, don't let the UI play the game for them, require them to internalize mechanics and learn and adapt rather than relying on UI info (supplement the gameplay).
3. Don't be so extreme in unlimiting info that it becomes too obscure, reducing outcomes down to RNG, rather than through player intentionality and the importance of player choices and skill (supplement the gameplay)
4. Have UI be relevant to what is going on, don't overload the player with unecessary information at any given time, let it be dynamic and adaptive.
5. the UI should be there to support the overall gameplay design and player experience. The player is supposed to play the game not the UI, so it should be there to help the player to do so, and not anything more or less than that. This means if you want to give player info, then minimize the friction within that communication process. Communicate that info as clearly and painless as possible, so that players can focus on the gameplay. If the info you want to communicate can be communicated more subtly and organically then that is probably the way to go, or if that info detracts from the gameplay itself, then you probably shouldn't communicate that info.
Is it possible to see our items on the UI Character window the items that we already equipped on our character itself and a button for how you are going to look with a certain item for example?
I would love to see a translation add to the chat for people who don't speak English for example or just don't feel confident enough.
I saw some quest UI windows which I like very much the only thing is that most of us are too lazy to read the whole quest and I personally prefer voice active quests I would love to hear if someone else does as well.
You guys mentioned different icons, frames, etc why should we get them all when we can actually do something like a quest or achievement to get some rare cool-looking frame or something like that?
And last would be cool if there is a system that we can turn on and off about items put on the market or very rare items that drop on another player like popping up on the screen.
First and foremost i really like the look and guess feel of your current UI stage. It looks clean, thought out, not complicated and most importantantly organised.
For me information is key in both life and gaming. When gaming i pesonally like what i would discribe a tiered information system for quests and crafting interfaces. What i mean by this is when you first open the window it is breif information but clearly shows details. Then allowing expansion of either one or two steps to increase detail and greater information for us imformation seekers....Nothing annoys me more then only simple information where you have no idea what to do / how to do something with out having to google something or having to much information at first open that you cant be bothered to read it.
The ability to modify for personal taste such as sizes and organisation i like this. Personalising my games have always been good as just like you said in game we all have our own play styles.
Please also remeber which i am sure you have the linkability of different UI windows such as crafting windows showing the required crafting item and the QTY you have already stored in either you back pack and or bank or both numbers. Further adding in potentially an in built auctioneer like wow add ons where you can see items values on markets in real time in your back pack or crafting menus is good options also as i know my mates that i have played with for close to 20yrs love these types of add ons.
Further i personally like to see history of past quests and future quests so i know what i have done and what i have left to do....as a completioniest it helps keep my OCD in check when i know what i got left to do like many others haha.
In all though until we can get our hands on it in Alpha 2 it will be difficult to give proper feedback but from what i can see and you have spoken about it already looks like you are considering or have considered what the majority of us think.
I am sure i will think of more but i am currently on night work and over tired and this is all i can think of at the moment.
Keep up the good work and I have been building a nice solid group who are keen for the game in Brisbane Australia. If we can get a Alpha 2 date in dication they will mostly all pre buy also ready to test test test.
Love the use of accordion menus. In regards to just about any of these HUD windows, mirroring what others have said: search options! Especially in Crafting Windows, Inventory and Journal.
Also, not sure where Achievements and other such windows will be accessible from but having them linked in Quest and Journal windows is always helpful.
Border windows - Love the slightly ornamental aspects, but that that the Hud in general is dark. The less is more aesthetic is wonderful and will let the real star of the game (the world behind these windows) really shine.
Gaming "online" since 1988.
The traditional way of displaying walls of quest text will turn a LOT of people off from even giving your lore/stories a chance. Try to implement a simplified UI that feeds text in smaller pieces. The best example I've seen of how this simplified approach can dramatically improve a game is in World of Warcraft. The default UI absolutely puts me to sleep before I get halfway through the dialogue. However, there is an addon called
Immersion that creates a much more compelling UX.
I'll try and break down the key reasons I believe this mod's UI is a gold standard that AoC should base their Dialogue UI off of (and perhaps even more as it's applicable to most UI pieces that involve lots of text).
Less is More
First, the dialogue window should be broken down into manageable chunks of no more than a few sentences displayed at once. This is probably the most pivotal change that will increase a player's willingness to read the dialogue. I cannot overstate how important it is to not overload the player with text (especially with today's apparent decrease in attention span). The following picture is how WoW's default UI manages quest text (this is BAD):
While this looks fine from an asthetics standpoint, it is a surefire way of getting people to stop reading. If a scroll wheel is needed when displaying quest text, then too much text is being presented at once and the player will not retain most of it.
This is much more manageable.
Simple Navigation
The second most important thing to keep in mind is that the UI should ultimately "get out of the way" of the player. As seen in the above image, the quest dialogue is presented in three chunks shown consequtively. You navigate simply by left clicking to see the next part of the quest text. Right clicking will take you back. Once you reach the end, left clicking accepts the quest. What amazed me the first time I used this addon was that it was actually EASIER to use than the default, even though it was slimmed down.
By breaking down the UI into smaller chunks, you do create more clicks for the player, which traditionally has been frowned upon. However, I don't agree with this sentiment (and neither does Apple, whose UI is generally considered to be the most "easy to use" UI for phones). More clicks are not always worse, and in this case, it keeps the player engaged while they progress through the quest dialogue.
In this example, even the options are easy to see/select as they are detached from the dialogue UI, thus making them stand out more.
Moar Pictures
Displaying the avatar of the quest giver (even if it's static) immensely improves my immersion when reading quest text. In my opinion, it's a necessity which helps players associate characters with actions in a story. I can't tell you how many times I've read a quest and then completely missed the fact that a quest later is from the same person because there was no association between the quest text I read and the NPC giving the quest.
Even though this particular quest had no physical NPC, simply showing your own character reading reinforces the fantasy and improves the immersion level.
TLDR: Make quest dialogues more immersive by breaking down the text into navigable chunks and show the portraits of characters conversing. This will increase the retention rate of players who follow the story.
For reference, here is a video of the addon I used as a standard when writing this feedback: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwe0yZ4xdGM&t=2s
Other good games that have similar systems I think AoC should look to for reference are Guild Wars 2 and Elder Scrolls Online (New World is somewhat decent as well).
Edit: Additional Thoughts on What Makes This Dialogue UI Approach Better
After posting and reflecting on the iteration AoC had at the very beginning, another key aspect came to mind which I believe sets the Immersion addon apart from other similar implementations (such as GW2, ESO, etc). The dialogue system doesn't take up more space on the screen than needed. I sort-of touched on this in the Simple Navigation section of my post, but the fact that the information is compressed and "lightweight" fixes some of the annoyances this type of approach often yields. For example, a common complaint I've heard of GW2's dialogue system is that it gets annoying how it takes up the entire screen and takes the player out of the world while experience the dialogue. I think the original implementation that AoC had also ran into this issue.
Dislike:
Suggestion: Perhaps a stylized trash bin; a hand dropping an item (seen this before); an item cracked in half to signify destroying an item; an item partially materialized; a fire pit/ fire icon (plays into the ashes/burning motif).
Suggestion: We're poking around in a textile or leather bag. I think it would harmonious if the window itself represented that with some amount of texture.
Suggestion: Things shouldn't be too small. Remember that this game is basically set in agrarian times and things should be skewed towards a primitive aesthetic. Think chunky; sturdy; hewn from raw materials.
Suggestions: add texture or wear patterns; above suggestion applies
Keyboard shortcut: key to hide all hud so I can easily click on something.
Chat: would be great if this could be broken to a separate window so it can be on its own monitor.
Chat: my name being mentioned should cause an audio chime and highlight my name.
Comparing gear is super important. The more ways the better.
For gear description page a notes slot would be nice for planning.
We've certainly noticed the alpha-typical "place-holder" systems that were around, earlier in development. Many of us have had to point out the alpha-status to newcomers following the project.
Excellent to hear direct speech and commentary on these systems, and their intended customization-depths. Good to know that this is a priority, and that everyone working on it has gaming experience, wherein they've been looking at the opposite end of the system, like most of the rest of us have, over the last many years.
I agree with this. Blizzard has started putting out developer stuff over the past year or two, and its quite literally the most painful thing I've ever watched. It''s too polished, too scripted, and quite frankly its sterile. I enjoy how approachable Steven and the team seem to be. The team has personality and contagious excitement. I honestly think it would negatively impact their reputation of being 'made by gamers' if they went in the in the overly scripted and "professional" direction.
Feedback:
Thank you for your dedication.
I'm loving how clean and practical the UI is with all the information that I feel is important visible at first glance without me needing to scroll or open additional menus. On the quest logs and quest pop-ups I particularly like the visual diamond icons showing your progression within the quest and bonus options. I also like that the rewards are fixed at all times on the quest log and that I don't need to scroll down to see what I'm getting.
I looooove the equipment inventory attached to the character profile. I would however like the option to close/minimize the the equipment inventory for when I want to check my stats and keep my eyes on my surroundings at the same time. I'd also like to be able to expand the turntable of my character if I want a closer view my equipment or if there is an inspect other players feature, I'd like to expand their character turntable to check out their gear/costume.
On the backpack it would be great to have a tab for mounts, pets, caravans and transport (can be under one tab but I can't think of a title, misc?) etc~
I enjoyed seeing an icon for what looked like a camp location on a map ... xD
Direction = Good.
Consistent design language. Would have been nice to click through some of these menus In-game (although I appreciate you might not feel ready for that yet) I enjoyed the Stream's format. Having a developer/designer on to talk through the process and choices etc was great. Colby did an excellent job of articulating himself. It would be nice to see more of this going forward.
What are your favorite UI elements that you would like us to incorporate? Please provide examples when applicable.
One of my favorite MMORPGs is Albion Online and the team over at Sandbox does some great things with their UI (and some not-so-great
Here are some Mount Icons from Melissa Müller over at SBI.
And some "Avalonian" Type Gear, Tools, and Consumables.
I love the vibrancy of these Icons, the layered approach with the central image slightly overlapping the border to create a 3-dimensional sense is really successful. The border (and the Icon itself) communicates so much to the player "at a glance".
Albion has pretty consistent color coding. With each Icon Tier being the same. (Tier 4 is blue, Tier 5 is red for example) So you know exactly which tier it is by its color. The top left of the icon (In roman numerals) also shows the Tier (Albion has 8 Tiers); Top right shows a player's spec (out of a potential 120) for gear and weapons. The bottom right shows the stack amount (and the small circle around that shows the percentage durability of that item). There are 4 small diamonds along the bottom that fill to show the level of enchantment (Albion has unenchanted (No Glow) and 4 levels of enchantment (Green, Blue, Purple, Gold) and finally, the material of the border itself shows the Item quality (Normal, Good, Outstanding, Excellent and Masterpiece)
All of that information is gleaned from a 2-second glance at the icon.
A final image for my little Albion Love letter is a shot of what you see on a kill screen. I think it works in communicating all the pertinent information. Who did what, wearing what, etc. Again, the icons really "pop", are vibrant and aesthetically pleasing.
I do like what we have seen so far but I do feel like some of the icons and stuff is just a little "flat" and could use a bit more punch. I don't think Ashes should emulate this kind of style, but I think they are good examples of top-quality icon work that works thematically as well as artistically and practically.
Is there anything, in particular, you’re excited or concerned about regarding what was shown with the UI Progress and Processes?
I'm patiently waiting to see exactly how the customization will work. So for a bit of fun (and hope
I'd love for collapsable windows. Allowing for the UI to melt away at times and to be very minimal, like this.
You still have your Health, Mana and abilities, but the rest is given over to pure environment. With any and all information just a quick mini black hamburger click to expand, ala ; this.
With this, the Character menu expands from the top right and has additional hidden panels that can be expanded to its bottom and left, like this.
The Quest Journal is expandable from the left hamburger (or also right) like this.
With a secondary expandable panel that shows like this.
Some pure personal wish-listing, but I do think the concepts could be a good addition, with windows and menus being able to be dynamically scaled and using panels and drop-downs to allow players to choose just how much info they want on screen at any one time. I have other thoughts on other UI-related (Guild finders, Market UI) but this post is already way too long. So I'll wrap it up. Keep up the good work!
its good looking unless the same icons are used in an diffrent color for some other abilitys.
and the icon must have a visual recognition of the executed skill( so not every sklill is an swordslice with an diffrend direction and some other colors or every healer skill is some white/holy shining button.
What are your favorite UI elements that you would like us to incorporate? Please provide examples when applicable.
i would like to see a fully customizable the chat window like:
Background transparesy
text color
Size of Text and the Chatwindow
position of that chatwindow
Transparenzy of the minimap if this is big enough
and objekts shown (settings on the regular map)
Also an expandable Hotbar for your common Skills, mounts/pets, potions/Food and spezial abilitys like teleport or maybe some common emotes
as an healer i need an clear raidparty visual to maybe cross heal a Player in an other party without knowing his very position
Also an optional button on my target thats shows this Target (if the Boss changes to some random player)
different background colors for every class (icons are maybe to small)
to lock all settings so you didnt change anything by mistake
maybe you could create a seed that include all your settings (Skills, party and averything) that can be postet and votet on this forum (for easy sharing)
Thank you!
Cheers all.
It will be beneficial for everyone - especially summoners who might have multiple summons in a fight.
I would like to share my opinion on the backpack and would love to hear your take on it.
In my mind, due to my previous gaming experiences, backpacks are more like a unique "item" with its own and well-separated button and unique interface. It is probably the most watched window in a MMORPG, as interactions with loot and items happen there; it is mostly open on a gathering session, etc.
In the showcase, the backpack was presented as a random button somewhere in the middle of the right corner micromenu and also its window followed the general submenu design and layout direction.
For me a more different or maybe "baggish" design or frame would be preferable. Something unique, not just a general submenu window design.
Also, I think the main function of the bag was not dominant enough. The item grid should be a bigger part of the window. Smaller bezels between the sides of the window and the grid would be more pleasing to my eyes.