User Interface Suggestions (October 2022)

Hello team!

TLDR: I wanted to start a discussion to collect and document feedback from the most recent demonstrations and media pieces, in an effort to provide an effective, enjoyable, MMORPG UX (User Experience) through a clean, clear UI (User Interface). I have mocked up some suggestions (see below)

First I wanted to say what an awesome presentation your team put together for the September 2022 showcase/dev stream. It was amazing seeing all the work on the environment, effects, animations, combat, NPCs, etc. come together! Overall, it was a great presentation, and I enjoyed the combat direction(s), personally!

Let's get to the meat of the subject: While I understand this is a work in progress, I wanted to make a couple of suggestions that may hopefully provide value to the development effort of the User Interface...

Here is what we saw:

Likes:

clean, minimalist qualities
mini-map is headed in a great direction
ability icons (in the ability bar) are unique and clear
white player name label above the player was easy to read

Opportunities to improve upon:

Dead (gray'd out NPC nameplates) are too low contrast; hard to read
Not sure if the bow icon in the avatar is a placeholder, or if that is supposed to represent the class in the final build? I prefer to have an actual representation of my avatar, otherwise, it doesn't seem necessary to have (some current titles just exclude it altogether)
hostile (red) NC nameplates/labels are too dark; low contrast; hard to read
status indicator icons seem a little too large (personal preference- I understand this might be an area where users can customize)
status icons aren't clearly indicating a buff or debuff
experience bar could be larger to indicate and encourage level progression (I love how New world did theirs)
random suggestion/thought: I LOVE how some modern FPS games have some on-screen effects/overlays (blood splatter, etc.) to indicate extremely low health. This allows users to know they are cautiously low, without having to constantly monitor the health bar in the top left corner, away from the action.

Here is what I am suggesting; ( think of it as fan art ) :

What I did:

Increase the contrast for Dead (grayed-out NPC nameplates) so they are readable, but not distracting
Full-width health bar at the top (contrasting the XP bar at the bottom) - to remove this clunky element from the top-left corner. I just think this looks cleaner and more "modern". People really like that aspect of the New World UI. Otherwise, I have an alternate (less involved implementation suggestion) below.
Moved the mana/resource bar to a central location near the player character to allow easy identification while a player focuses on their avatar (center of the screen)- I understand that the placement and style may be customizable.
Active (targeted) NPC name labels are brighter (more contrast; easier to read) with the darker shadow effect like to have elsewhere.
NPC level indicator is placed before the HP bar, instead of including it in the nameplate- so it's consistent format as your XP bar. (Level, before the life total)
Status icons clearly indicating a buff or debuff with a colored border or other effects
Status indicator icons scaled down to still be identifiable at a glance, but not consume too much screen real-estate
Hostile (red) NPC names/labels are brighter to increase contrast and make it easier to read.
Modified the active hostile NPC to be consistent with the arrow icon from the action/reticle mode. I really enjoy the simplicity of that look.
Experience bar is full-width and placed at the bottom of the screen to indicate and encourage level progression (I love how New world did theirs)
Bloody/red glowing effects to indicate low health (you decide the threshold). This allows users to know they are cautiously low, without having to constantly monitor the health bar in the top left corner, away from the action.

BONUS ROUND:
For those who don't like the full-width HP bar, here is a traditional avatar plaque (with their hp/mana pools), where i replaced the bow and arrow graphic with a(n) (animated) portrait of the player character to provide a more personalized connection to the player model/character:

...Congrats! You made it to the end of my passionate TedTalk. Again, these are just my suggestions- coming from a place of love. I am excited to see where the team takes this game and have confidence in your amazing art and design team over there. Thank you for creating the game many of us are hoping to play.

Would love to open a dialogue to see what the rest of the community would like to see!

Cheers!
-Glizzzy

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Comments

CroakerRPG

Some genuinely good edits here.

As I understand it the HUD should have full customization (they showcased resizing and recoloring of floating text in last month's stream) and your color edits should all be possible, but starting from a more clear and easy-to-use baseline - one like you've presented here - helps retain player interest.

AidanKD

Honestly, these are really good suggestions and appreciate the effort to illustrate it as well. Perhaps some of your ideas might make it to live

n3rv

Nice edits. All good suggestions imo. I do like the idea of it being customizable. This might be a good middle ground between full-on interface mods, like wow.

Daithi

The topic of UI is easy to solve they just need to give us DelvUI so we don't have to use DelvUI.

I think the level of customization that DelvUI offers should be the standard for any UI in a MMO.

SongRune

The reason the health bar is in a little indicator on the side like that is because you will see a similar indicator stacked below it for each party member. This makes it easy to track the overall status of your party, rather than having to then look in a different place for your own. No comment on the other matters.

Liniker

really nice edits! this is s good post ! hopefully we will get a fully customizable UI

Diamaht

Edit: Woops this went in the wrong post lol. Deleted, sorry

Scarbeus

I prefer stuff I need to see often (health / mana of my own and my targets) abilities and cooldowns etc to be front and centre as I need to look at them often. The map can stay in the corner which is fine, other things like your xp and level aren't important and can stay in a corner.

The default GW2 UI was better that say, WoW. Sure it's a newer game but just think how many people used UI mods in WoW, by default people tended to prefer keeping their characters info easy to see.

WHIT3ROS3

Nice post, with some interesting suggestions. Although... I have to admit, most are not for me.

Rather than full name plates for NPC's I would like the option to just have a small Icon above an NPC coloured Red for hostile, Amber for defensive and Green for friendly. The name and further details can be shown once the target is either soft or hard-locked. Having big long names floating above NPCs tends to be rather cluttered and immersion breaking IMO.

I thought that the 'bow' Avatar was amazing! It's clean and crisp but also conjures up the feelings of old-school RPGs. Having your health/mana presented in this way is concise, keeps the pertinent information together and is easy to add party members below. Also, how are you supposed to display PVP combatant's information when you are fighting someone in your suggestion?

Seeing a picture of a face on the avatar is useless. Being able to see Class, secondary class, HP and Mana all in one neat package is great. Splitting up and spreading out information isn't a great idea when it comes to UI.

I also really dislike blood splatters, bullet holes, shakes and crazy "heartbeat" sounds in games used to denote health status. I find those effects to be gimmicky and annoying. They tend to grate after a short period of time once the novelty has run out. How annoying would it be to have blood splatters all over your screen in a Siege or 40-man raid?

For me, UI should embrace - Less is more. Clean, Clear and Concise.

Full-screen-length Hp and Level bars, blood splatters etc are all the opposite of that.

Apart from the NPC floating names, I thought everything we saw of the UI so far looks really good, and whilst I respect your post (really well put together and it must have taken some time) I find myself not agreeing with any of the suggestions, apart from the cleaning up of certain texts which we have been told is customizable anyway.

akabear

Never really understood why mobs need to their name and bar located at the top of the screen when targetted AND the same info above their head.

Once you have killed a mob a few times, I would like to thing the name becomes less important and you can rely on the bar at the top of the screen to remind you its name.

Player names different though.

JamesSunderland

Other than the full-width HP bar separated from the MP bar, i really liked your improvements on the UI presented, some things i feel the UI is missing are, Enemies cast bar and Enemies range information.

LordBlank

The monsters name tag was the only thing I had an issue with.

WHIT3ROS3

It might be cool if mobs had no information on them at all, until AFTER you have killed one. Then that beast's information is added to your bestiary and you could choose which info is or is not displayed.

akabear

If any help...reposted

akabear wrote: »

General feedback from the Live Stream, whilst I am aware of the intent to have the UI customizable, feedback regardless:

UI
PLAYER NAME TAG
Positioning good

Overall Scale / Length / Text size – appropriate

HP Text – this clips the boundary. Making the text smaller would make less legible. Suggest make the bars a little thicker for greater number clarity.

MOB NAME TAG
Similar comments to Player name tag

Text left justified feels a bit odd, prefer center justified

MOB TAG
Text above mob not readily legible.

Font appears to be different font to other fonts, may not be, but hard to read clearly.

Typology font sizes might need review for overall template

Might need re-work

PLAYER CHARACTER TAG
Text size / color clear – nil change required.

MINI MAP
Map
Not a fan of mini maps, would prefer nil but it is what it is.

Style an improvement from last iteration – appears promising

Dimensional proportions appear incongruous to the overall screen, this might need rework.

Compass – odd to have small and RHS of screen, would prefer centred and not map related

Mobs – nice to see on maps, prefer players not on map

Dark patch under map – not sure of purpose – perhaps reduce

SKILL BARS
Size appears a little small

If there are more skills than 6, like to see blank bars

INDIVIDUAL SKILLS – in skill bar
Reset flash on when ready, greyed when not. This does not provide an indication of reset time/duration until re-usable.

Prefer to see a dial / clock style reset where the skill is greyed out and a dial gradually colors it back to full, so you can visually see the skill refreshing.

FOLIAGE
Nice coming along. Noticed that scale of vegetation is low foliage, med trees and tall trees.
Little foliage goes over thigh height, would like to see areas of the landscape have taller scrub for both ambush and hiding capability.

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