Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about Phase II and Phase III testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about Phase II and Phase III testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Artisan UI suggestion
thermalx
Member, Alpha Two
I've been taking a break for over a month now and just came back to see some changes. I noticed that the Artisan UI is still being iterated on in it's current format. I know it's a work in progress and far from the final product, but I'm not a fan of the drop down style approach currently implemented. It is very inefficient with space - there is a lot of negative space currently - and it is unpleasant to navigate. I made a quick and simple mock-up of what I think addresses some shortcomings with the current implementation.
Here is why I think this approach is better:
- Much more space efficient. The drop down menu area is reduced to the minimum necessary size for text and icon, leaving the rest of the window space free to use however desired;
- Additional space adds creative options for background artwork unique to each profession (as shown in the example image);
- More space allows for much more information to be added to each recipe without intruding on the amount of items visible in the drop down menu. Ex. Displaying full details of the crafted item (with weapons, etc.); many more recipe ingredients with clear indications of units required without cluttering the drop down list, etc.;
- Better overall visual clarity of recipe details, including items required & currently in inventory. Visual indicator if units in inventory match required for recipe;
- There is now space for more UI driven systems through the use of sliders, buttons, bars, etc.;
- Expanded possibility to use visual indicators for quality of ingredients and output.
The current implementation of the leveling / ranking progress isn't intuitive to new players. When I first started, I had no idea when I would progress to the next rank. I saw the NPC so I knew I had to go there eventually, but I couldn't find an indicator in-game of a level milestone for rank progression. So I added them both in the drop down menu and under the profession name. Reading "Novice 1/10" makes it intuitive to me that at level 10 I max out Novice rank. I think any indicator for max level per rank is a must, otherwise people have to look it up on the wiki like I had to.
I think that's about it. All in all, more space in the artisan window to get more creative and detailed with recipe information is a big upgrade in my opinion, not to mention a big boost to visual clarity as things are bigger and easier to read. I hope this will be considered. I'm also curious if other people think this improves some of the UI shortcomings. All the best to the dev team and I hope things go in the right direction.
A short word on the economic situation. In my opinion, if you're looking for inspiration for balancing a player driven economy, I'd like to suggest to look at Eve-online. I know a lot of folks here came from there and I think we can all agree that even though Eve has suffered with it's p2w additions, it still has an incredible player driven economy - one of, if not still the best out there.
Here is why I think this approach is better:
- Much more space efficient. The drop down menu area is reduced to the minimum necessary size for text and icon, leaving the rest of the window space free to use however desired;
- Additional space adds creative options for background artwork unique to each profession (as shown in the example image);
- More space allows for much more information to be added to each recipe without intruding on the amount of items visible in the drop down menu. Ex. Displaying full details of the crafted item (with weapons, etc.); many more recipe ingredients with clear indications of units required without cluttering the drop down list, etc.;
- Better overall visual clarity of recipe details, including items required & currently in inventory. Visual indicator if units in inventory match required for recipe;
- There is now space for more UI driven systems through the use of sliders, buttons, bars, etc.;
- Expanded possibility to use visual indicators for quality of ingredients and output.
The current implementation of the leveling / ranking progress isn't intuitive to new players. When I first started, I had no idea when I would progress to the next rank. I saw the NPC so I knew I had to go there eventually, but I couldn't find an indicator in-game of a level milestone for rank progression. So I added them both in the drop down menu and under the profession name. Reading "Novice 1/10" makes it intuitive to me that at level 10 I max out Novice rank. I think any indicator for max level per rank is a must, otherwise people have to look it up on the wiki like I had to.
I think that's about it. All in all, more space in the artisan window to get more creative and detailed with recipe information is a big upgrade in my opinion, not to mention a big boost to visual clarity as things are bigger and easier to read. I hope this will be considered. I'm also curious if other people think this improves some of the UI shortcomings. All the best to the dev team and I hope things go in the right direction.
A short word on the economic situation. In my opinion, if you're looking for inspiration for balancing a player driven economy, I'd like to suggest to look at Eve-online. I know a lot of folks here came from there and I think we can all agree that even though Eve has suffered with it's p2w additions, it still has an incredible player driven economy - one of, if not still the best out there.
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