User Interface (UI)

Hello,
I recently thought to myself “Man, wouldn’t it be awesome, if I didn’t have to download 30000 addons just do adjust my Hotkey bar or to be able to move my map from left to right?”
So now I am asking you, the AoC community.
Would you plead for a completely flexible interface or would it overwhelm you?
How much and what do you want to be able to change?
I also read a post about DPS meters, so… what optional element would you like to see in the AoC-UI?

Personally, I think, a DPS meter is not immersive, but addons will add it anyways, so why bother swimming against the stream? The idea that comes to my head, would be to hide a DPS meter until you come to later levels. Then you would not have to be the “best” DPS in a low-level dungeon AND you can concentrate on learning other skills.

With friendly regards,
DerToastinator

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DerToastinator

I get your viewpoint @wanderingmist but we must admit, that these icons are relevant for some people. For example, mystic touch has a duration and you would want to know if, in a fight against multiple enemies, the debuff is still ticking (as another player, the monk will always have the icon)
On the other hand, you should be able to decide, if you want to see passive buffs, like gutripper.
If you can’t see them, then you might not know if you have it even equipped or something (Azerite traits)

@arzosah
Yes… I think, big companies are relying to much on their player base. Just look at these examples:

Activision Blizzard; WoW (of course) just thinks they don’t have to do sh*t because addons exist even DBM wouldn’t be a thing, if the bosses would telegraph their attacks “properly”.
Bethesda; Elderscrolls and Fallout rely so heavily on the modding community, that their most recent game (with their “super awesome” engine and “16 times the detail”) was unplayable.

Now… I am not saying, that you shouldn’t give the community something to work.
Minecraft is a gem because it is not only in its gameplay free, but also you get the freedom to convert this game into something bigger. (Not much of a Minecraft player myself, but I can appreciate that)

@damokles
I main a blue goat huntress (Survival) and I need a few things more… like a big jumping “Serpant sting!” icon, to remind me when the poison is about to wear off

But other than that, I regularly try to think about, how to make my UI more elegant, less clustered and over all just improve here and there. I think it is part of the fun, to experiment with your UI.
Only then you can find out, what your smoothest playstyle is, I think.

georgeblack

More immersion less indicator a d number scrolls.

But I want to be able to place or resize the UI

consultant

Well in ashes we will not have a ton of abilities so UI should be manageable. But could still have quite of number of keybindings just not on a bar. Think I heard something about being able to move the UI around so think there should be the option to push a button and click through you UI and make it transperant. That way it will not interfere with things like targeting.

DerToastinator

We will see.

I think, we can all agree, we want freedom of choice, when it comes to our UI.
Lets wait, untill we see it and then further disguss this issue

Also, if anyone has furter ideas about this topic and wants to share them, be free to do so here

grisu

@wanderingmist your picture highlights how there will never be the singular perfect UI for everyone. I would rip my eyes out before I played like that and there is in my opinion no single reason to have it like that.
That said I can guess why he put it the way it is based on how it is set up and it's a very individual issue.

Viymjr

The fact Steven is a gamer is a good thing as he can appreciate the need for a decent fully customisable UI so his comments so far are very encouraging. I would like to see some options to save different UI set ups so we can switch UI quickly and efficiently depending on what we are doing.

Jjampong

toastinator wrote: »

We will see.

I think, we can all agree, we want freedom of choice, when it comes to our UI.
Lets wait, untill we see it and then further disguss this issue

Also, if anyone has furter ideas about this topic and wants to share them, be free to do so here

I wouldn't mind hearing what people here think about handholding quests. And maybe an option to turn it off or on. Although I wouldn't really call it UI customization.

Wandering Mist

muridious wrote: »

toastinator wrote: »

We will see.

I think, we can all agree, we want freedom of choice, when it comes to our UI.
Lets wait, untill we see it and then further disguss this issue

Also, if anyone has furter ideas about this topic and wants to share them, be free to do so here

I wouldn't mind hearing what people here think about handholding quests. And maybe an option to turn it off or on. Although I wouldn't really call it UI customization.

How do you define "handholding" quests?

DerToastinator

@muridious Yes, please enlighten us.
@wanderingmist If i had to guess, he is talking about things like: The map showing the area where to find the mobs you have to kill.
I that case... please dont let this be an option... i want people to have to go to other players and ask them if they have seen -insert random quest mob- and they would be like... oh yes, let me help you, dear friend (Lets hope our community is a kind one ^^)

Actually... this brings me to another question

.... let me creata a new discussion

Azryil

toastinator wrote: »

@muridious Yes, please enlighten us.
@wanderingmist If i had to guess, he is talking about things like: The map showing the area where to find the mobs you have to kill.
I that case... please dont let this be an option... i want people to have to go to other players and ask them if they have seen -insert random quest mob- and they would be like... oh yes, let me help you, dear friend (Lets hope our community is a kind one ^^)

Actually... this brings me to another question .... let me creata a new discussion

I wouldn't want quest objectives to be so vague that you have to rely on randomly stumbling on a mob or having to ask someone else who happen to stumble upon that mob. I agree that I don't want the quest tracking that most MMOs seem to have these days I don't need my map to be marked with the objective or have the mobs stick out more than normal to indicate that they are a quest objective. So long as the quest objective provides what you're looking for and a description of the sub zone to find them in.

Wandering Mist

@toastinator if you expect players to get through without minimap indicators that's fine, but then you need another method to guide players. For example, if you give players directions like "go South West of here to find your target" then you need to give players a compass to use to navigate.

One thing that really annoyed me in WoW was when the quest text said "West of this location" and it was totally wrong.

T Elf

I remember in Alpha 0 there was a compass indicator, and there was a quest giving you directions like @wanderingmist described.

Azryil

For the most part I think WoW did an ok job at describing where you needed to go for a quest objective before the implemented all the hand holding in Cata. through BC and Wrath I never felt I needed quest tracking addons to be able to find my objectives in a reasonable amount of time assuming I took the time to read the quest text.

beltarlitz

damokles wrote: »

I was thinking the same exact thing when the Topic of UI was spoken Lol. freaking old school WoW and the bazzilions of UI Add-ons xD

Jjampong

wanderingmist wrote: »

muridious wrote: »

toastinator wrote: »

We will see.

I think, we can all agree, we want freedom of choice, when it comes to our UI.
Lets wait, untill we see it and then further disguss this issue

Also, if anyone has furter ideas about this topic and wants to share them, be free to do so here

I wouldn't mind hearing what people here think about handholding quests. And maybe an option to turn it off or on. Although I wouldn't really call it UI customization.

How do you define "handholding" quests?

@toastinator @wanderingmist I guess a quest that tells you exactly where to go either by quest marker or text. As opposed to having to figure it out with just basic directions (west, north-east near the village). Or the minimap just showing exactly what area a resource or monster is located.

I think you should discover these things by interacting with the world and / or other players.

Sorry for the late response.... I've been getting 502 errors on the forums lately for some reason

Wandering Mist

muridious wrote: »

wanderingmist wrote: »

muridious wrote: »

toastinator wrote: »

We will see.

I think, we can all agree, we want freedom of choice, when it comes to our UI.
Lets wait, untill we see it and then further disguss this issue

Also, if anyone has furter ideas about this topic and wants to share them, be free to do so here

I wouldn't mind hearing what people here think about handholding quests. And maybe an option to turn it off or on. Although I wouldn't really call it UI customization.

How do you define "handholding" quests?

@toastinator @wanderingmist I guess a quest that tells you exactly where to go either by quest marker or text. As opposed to having to figure it out with just basic directions (west, north-east near the village). Or the minimap just showing exactly what area a resource or monster is located.

I think you should discover these things by interacting with the world and / or other players.

Sorry for the late response.... I've been getting 502 errors on the forums lately for some reason

Ok, I see where you are getting at here and agree somewhat. A lot of it comes down to what you want the focus to be on, and how you plan to challenge the player. If the focus is on exploration with the incentive to discover hidden things, etc then the quests should reflect that. It would be very weird and immersion-breaking if you were told that you were exploring an unexplored new land and yet knew exactly where to go to complete your quest.

On the other hand if the focus of the gameplay is more on overcoming difficult enemies, then giving vague directions on top of that will just be needlessly frustrating. In that scenario it makes more sense to give more accurate directions and it allows the player to focus more on the difficult combat than on finding their way around.

Ori and the Blind Forest is a perfect example of this. In that game, you have a very detailed map that becomes more visible over time, and your core objective is always shown on the map. This may seem like handholding until you realise that without those markers, you would just wander around aimlessly not knowing what to do or where to go. This is a problem because of the way the game blocks off areas of the map until you unlock the relevant ability to overcome it. The challenge the focus of the game is on getting through the puzzles and traps to reach your objective, rather than figuring it all out on your own.

jinxthegamer

MMORPGs should have by default UI customization on the level of ElvUI from WoW.

Blackhearted

I dont think we need quest indicators in game as that would lead to too easy design.
Leaving dots out of map will lead to players going as far as they can and only googling things when theyre stuck.

I hope we will get the possibility to scale, hide and move every single window on our screen.

Damokles

jinxthegamer wrote: »

MMORPGs should have by default UI customization on the level of ElvUI from WoW.

Yes please! XD

jinxthegamer

blackhearted wrote: »

I dont think we need quest indicators in game as that would lead to too easy design.
Leaving dots out of map will lead to players going as far as they can and only googling things when theyre stuck.

I hope we will get the possibility to scale, hide and move every single window on our screen.

If it was up to me I would design "lego" UI meaning you get sets of hotbars in which every slot can be snapped from any side with a different slot. This way players can build their own hotbars which have a custom shape.
Ofc. all windows on the screen can be moved.

For the map, I would give people a blank piece of paper with drawing accessories so people would need to draw their own maps as they discover the world

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