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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.
UI Tools and Functionality
ArchivedUser
Guest
Hey all! Since AoC is a video game we are limited to what we can do through the user interface of the game. As such it is important that we be able to achieve certain functionality for proper mechanics. It is obvious that some features are important outright like a map, character management, spell listings, and quest logs, but that's not what I'm here about. Those features are not often needed during combat and don't require the same quick robust interactions as other parts. I'm hoping to break down the core of what we need for fluid and immersive combat. Having experience with other MMOs, I like to have a depth of knowledge easily obtained from a glance in the heat of the moment. I'm going to go over features I'd like to see and discuss what makes for a better experience. Please understand these are concepts I appreciate and would love to hear variations as to what might work or other things I missed.
<strong>Health</strong>
The first and most basic part of any game UI is your health. This little bar ultimately determines what you are doing in game. Whether you are running straight into combat at full health, downing a potion to quickly get back into the action, or lying face down in the dirt, it all depends on health. As such this must provided extensive information. More than just see how much health I have, it is important that I can see where my health is going. From one look I should be able to tell if I am about to be healed by an ally, am going to take a huge hit from a burn, or can take no damage fro ma shield. This single bar should provide me a wealth of information quickly for the best combat experience.
<strong>Resources</strong>
Resources are how we do things in game. Wow shocker. More over, they control how we perform combat. If I have no resources all I can do is sit on my hands and wait. Resource management provides a depth to combat by being to plan ahead and predict what is to come. Whether it be through mana or a rune resource, I need to know what I'm going to spend by casting my fireball. Something along the lines of a bar darkening on what will be spent when the cast is finished or my runes glowing as they are being depleted before finishing the cast. Some sort of cause/effect indication is necessary.
Also important in this is a view of what is coming up. Are my runes almost recharged, I should be able to see a timer tick down before they refresh. Did I just drink a mana potion, the accelerated regeneration should appear on my bar so I can plan to use this extra mana without regeneration being wasted. Effective future planning makes effective combat.
<strong>Buffs, Debuffs, and Effects</strong>
As pretty much anyone can tell you, when I cast a fireball, my opponent should catch on fire. This debuff means more damage for me over time. When I'm on the other end of that fireball, you can be sure I want to know what's happening. I want to be able to count the seconds down until that burn is gonna so I no longer have to worry about becoming bacon. I don't want to have to more my cursor over the burn marker to see the time remaining, it should be clearly display above/below the icon.
Additionally, icons should be sizable and distinctive. I shouldn't have to guess which spell was just cast on me, the marker should be all the indication I need. Something that I really can't stand is tiny or stacking markers. I shouldn't be squinting to see what I have, it should be clearly displayed while also not taking up the entirety of my screen.
Buffs should function similarly to debuffs. Where they differ is through indication means. A buff could be blue or green and a debuff might be red. Properly distinguishing between these can mean not running off the edge of a cliff in a fight because your ally just gave you a speed boost; face it, we've all done it. Also of great use is the division of the two into adjacent lines so they are not mixed up or lost by a sudden flood of debuffs from a new pull.
Effects that typed should also be identifiable in these ways. That burn I have should be shown with a yellow border or tiny fire in the corner of the marker. When I an hit with a frost spell, a snowflake in the corner of the marker would indicate a frost ability present.
<strong>Enemy Information</strong>
Just as important as seeing what is happening to ourselves, is seeing how much health the enemy has left when I have just run out of mana. There are often two ways of displaying enemy information, through a target window and as a floating display over the enemy's head.
While targeting specifically may not be the name of the game for combat, being able to specifically focus my attention to an enemy, even if they are behind my back can be important. If I can see the status of the boss I'm fighting I can better react. The boss having debuffs shown while targeted means I know when to recast my fireball on the boss while I focus down trash. The boss displaying buffs lets me know when it's time to GTFO cause he is about to smash my face with full energy.
Floating bars give me more broad information of an area. When I'm fighting a pack of wolves, I should be able to see all of the burns I have on all of the wolves. These floating bars should also five me a means to target and track enemies. Smaller enemies can often get hidden by the huge boss in front of me. When this happens I now have to rely on tab targeting or get a lucky click to see where the enemy is at. These floating bars should be stackable or overlay one another in a way that gives me access to all of the enemies despite how many I have piled on my friends' corpse.
<strong>Abilities</strong>
Abilities are what we do during combat. The spells we cast and the attacks we make should have a well laid out design for easy use. Ability bars should be mapable to any key combination and should display information depending on conditions like number of charges. a nice feature that should be included is ability locking where an unlock key is required so abilities are not accidentally displaced while trying to quickly select that rat that is chewing through your new boots.
As with resources, ability displays should have a visible rolling timer to see when things will be available next. This can be accompanied by a color change to show if you have the resources to cast a spell or are too far away to cast.
<strong>Utilities</strong>
While a strong starting UI is always good, it is even better when a UI can be precisely tuned to meet the needs of an individual player. Many settings already discussed should have toggle functionality to clear away unnecessary information clutter. For additional tweaking, freedom to reposition status bars and icons means an optimal layout can be created to fit the character need or player preference.
When interacting with other players, it can be difficult to coordinate sometimes. To help resolve this, there should be world markers and symbols that can be placed on enemies or locations so that a group may visualize what needs to happen.
A note on UI modding. While MMOs like WoW allow for the writing of mods for the UI, I do not believe this to be a positive addition. Often times this means that there is less drive by the developer to create a robust UI and can cause the base UI to be unplayable without adjustments from these mods. There is also a level of information that mods try to provide that take away from the game design. Being able to track boss abilities and other events can water down a fight making it less about the planning and more about the response to mods. With thorough creation of a user interface, there shouldn't even be a question for this sort of thing. This is not to say that the developers not open up a few sources of information to allow for logging and damage ratings, but to go beyond this is damaging to the game.
If you actually made it here, thank you for taking the time to hear my thoughts. I didn't expect to write so much either. These are just concepts that I feel really help with the experience and, as the UI is our portal into the world, it should have alot of time devoted to it just as other features of the game. I'm looking forward to getting a taste of AoC and would love to discuss this topic further. If you think something I said can be expanded on or you have other ideas, please share it!
<strong>Health</strong>
The first and most basic part of any game UI is your health. This little bar ultimately determines what you are doing in game. Whether you are running straight into combat at full health, downing a potion to quickly get back into the action, or lying face down in the dirt, it all depends on health. As such this must provided extensive information. More than just see how much health I have, it is important that I can see where my health is going. From one look I should be able to tell if I am about to be healed by an ally, am going to take a huge hit from a burn, or can take no damage fro ma shield. This single bar should provide me a wealth of information quickly for the best combat experience.
<strong>Resources</strong>
Resources are how we do things in game. Wow shocker. More over, they control how we perform combat. If I have no resources all I can do is sit on my hands and wait. Resource management provides a depth to combat by being to plan ahead and predict what is to come. Whether it be through mana or a rune resource, I need to know what I'm going to spend by casting my fireball. Something along the lines of a bar darkening on what will be spent when the cast is finished or my runes glowing as they are being depleted before finishing the cast. Some sort of cause/effect indication is necessary.
Also important in this is a view of what is coming up. Are my runes almost recharged, I should be able to see a timer tick down before they refresh. Did I just drink a mana potion, the accelerated regeneration should appear on my bar so I can plan to use this extra mana without regeneration being wasted. Effective future planning makes effective combat.
<strong>Buffs, Debuffs, and Effects</strong>
As pretty much anyone can tell you, when I cast a fireball, my opponent should catch on fire. This debuff means more damage for me over time. When I'm on the other end of that fireball, you can be sure I want to know what's happening. I want to be able to count the seconds down until that burn is gonna so I no longer have to worry about becoming bacon. I don't want to have to more my cursor over the burn marker to see the time remaining, it should be clearly display above/below the icon.
Additionally, icons should be sizable and distinctive. I shouldn't have to guess which spell was just cast on me, the marker should be all the indication I need. Something that I really can't stand is tiny or stacking markers. I shouldn't be squinting to see what I have, it should be clearly displayed while also not taking up the entirety of my screen.
Buffs should function similarly to debuffs. Where they differ is through indication means. A buff could be blue or green and a debuff might be red. Properly distinguishing between these can mean not running off the edge of a cliff in a fight because your ally just gave you a speed boost; face it, we've all done it. Also of great use is the division of the two into adjacent lines so they are not mixed up or lost by a sudden flood of debuffs from a new pull.
Effects that typed should also be identifiable in these ways. That burn I have should be shown with a yellow border or tiny fire in the corner of the marker. When I an hit with a frost spell, a snowflake in the corner of the marker would indicate a frost ability present.
<strong>Enemy Information</strong>
Just as important as seeing what is happening to ourselves, is seeing how much health the enemy has left when I have just run out of mana. There are often two ways of displaying enemy information, through a target window and as a floating display over the enemy's head.
While targeting specifically may not be the name of the game for combat, being able to specifically focus my attention to an enemy, even if they are behind my back can be important. If I can see the status of the boss I'm fighting I can better react. The boss having debuffs shown while targeted means I know when to recast my fireball on the boss while I focus down trash. The boss displaying buffs lets me know when it's time to GTFO cause he is about to smash my face with full energy.
Floating bars give me more broad information of an area. When I'm fighting a pack of wolves, I should be able to see all of the burns I have on all of the wolves. These floating bars should also five me a means to target and track enemies. Smaller enemies can often get hidden by the huge boss in front of me. When this happens I now have to rely on tab targeting or get a lucky click to see where the enemy is at. These floating bars should be stackable or overlay one another in a way that gives me access to all of the enemies despite how many I have piled on my friends' corpse.
<strong>Abilities</strong>
Abilities are what we do during combat. The spells we cast and the attacks we make should have a well laid out design for easy use. Ability bars should be mapable to any key combination and should display information depending on conditions like number of charges. a nice feature that should be included is ability locking where an unlock key is required so abilities are not accidentally displaced while trying to quickly select that rat that is chewing through your new boots.
As with resources, ability displays should have a visible rolling timer to see when things will be available next. This can be accompanied by a color change to show if you have the resources to cast a spell or are too far away to cast.
<strong>Utilities</strong>
While a strong starting UI is always good, it is even better when a UI can be precisely tuned to meet the needs of an individual player. Many settings already discussed should have toggle functionality to clear away unnecessary information clutter. For additional tweaking, freedom to reposition status bars and icons means an optimal layout can be created to fit the character need or player preference.
When interacting with other players, it can be difficult to coordinate sometimes. To help resolve this, there should be world markers and symbols that can be placed on enemies or locations so that a group may visualize what needs to happen.
A note on UI modding. While MMOs like WoW allow for the writing of mods for the UI, I do not believe this to be a positive addition. Often times this means that there is less drive by the developer to create a robust UI and can cause the base UI to be unplayable without adjustments from these mods. There is also a level of information that mods try to provide that take away from the game design. Being able to track boss abilities and other events can water down a fight making it less about the planning and more about the response to mods. With thorough creation of a user interface, there shouldn't even be a question for this sort of thing. This is not to say that the developers not open up a few sources of information to allow for logging and damage ratings, but to go beyond this is damaging to the game.
If you actually made it here, thank you for taking the time to hear my thoughts. I didn't expect to write so much either. These are just concepts that I feel really help with the experience and, as the UI is our portal into the world, it should have alot of time devoted to it just as other features of the game. I'm looking forward to getting a taste of AoC and would love to discuss this topic further. If you think something I said can be expanded on or you have other ideas, please share it!
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