1095 replies to this topic

[AlmightyAeng]

It looks great, and while I am excited to finally get a glimpse of the new UI I am MUCH MORE EXCITED to see Bryan actually reading the responses to what he showed us, and responding in turn. That kind of casual dev communication (not just in pre-planned posts) is very heartening.

Suggestion: When viewing your 'mechs hardpoints, it seems to display EVERY part all at once...and it looks like a giant wall of text.

Would it be possible to include a functionality for 'rolling up' each hardpoint area like a dropdown menu? I.e., put a small yellow arrow in the corner or each part (right arm, left arm, head etc) that allowed you to hide the inner hardpoints and only displays the title of the part? It might allow us to focus on pieces a little more, and not have it look so much like information overload.

[Lostdragon]

I think you guys are headed in the right direction here, but I do have to say this looks unnecessarily complicated. I think you should try to flatten it out and streamline it a bit. Some people have mentioned the smurfy mechlab and I agree with them that it is a good place from which to draw inspiration.

Thank you for the preview, look forward to more!

[Rasc4l]

aniviron, on 08 May 2013 - 05:40 PM, said:

While I really, really like smurfy's website, I very much hope that there will be a place in UI 2.0's mechlab where we can create loadouts for mechs we don't own with gear we don't have the money for, just to see if they work.

Furthermore, in the middle of this 3rd person/console people appeasing, I sincerely hope PGI would be willing to do a favor for the more geekish by simply providing one tab in the mechlab, which would just display *NUMBERS* in a tight arrangement, not with a big console font. Especially now that the UI is going to be full screen, I'd hate to have to alt-tab to http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/ every few moments when configuring a mech, just to see what all the fantastic fracking things *really* do. Feel free to be lazy and just copy paste the format of smurfy's page, people are anyway used to it and no need to reinvent the wheel. Thus, this should be a 15-minute addition to any UI design you have and not draw your resources.

[MeatForBrains]

xengk, on 09 May 2013 - 12:14 AM, said:

Spoiler

This 2 screenshot raise a little concern in me.
From the looks of the design, it seems that whenever I want to customize a component, I have:
1. to click on "< back"
2. click a component
3. enter the customization window for that component

This add an extra step to the current flow:
1. click on a component (on the 3D mech model or the mech layout window at the bottom left)
2. enter the customization window for that component

Call me lazy, but that 1 extra click can be annoying if I am customizing a whole mech.
8 clicks (current U.I.) vs 16 clicks (U.I. 2.0)

Maybe the floating window is drag & reposition-able?
That would mitigate the extra clicks.

You are right that is absolutely horrible. You need to see the whole mech at once and make changes. Not individual pieces.

[nubcake]

Crimson Fenris, on 09 May 2013 - 05:22 AM, said:

...snip...

Exactly my thoughts right there.

The main problem with UI is not its looks, not the amount of info it displays (although it surely never hurts and I like some of new mock-ups), but having to do 158 excessive clicks or back-and-forth-menu-hopping to perform basic tasks.
It's functionality you should be after, not eye-candy.

You know why people refer so much to smurfys or use it at all? Because it only takes you 30 seconds and ~40-50 mouse clicks to mock up a completely new mech build, - while in current ingame mechlab it would take you at least 3 to 5 mins with endless hopping between individual components to review how everything works out, etc etc (if you haven't previously mocked up said build in smurfys, of course!).

So, my opinion is that you really should focus on optimizing menus and reducing the amount of useless menu-hopping that players go through.

One extra point: why do we even have "upgrades" menu with separate drag and drop functionality when in reality it all comes to 4 choices (ferro/std, endo/std, single/double, art/no art)?

Having said that, I do completely realize that it's eyecandy and cool screenshots that make new players come and try this game out, - but please please please do NOT sacrifice functionality for it.

Edited by nubcake, 10 May 2013 - 02:38 AM.

[Kitane]

Weapon group configuration:

Some mechs benefit from splitting left arm weapons and right arm weapons into separate groups (Jagers, Catapults)

If you could somehow link each row in the weapon configuration weapon with its position on the mech, it would save us time to go into battle and test it one by one.

[Trauglodyte]

It looks nice but are we going to be able to move the mechs around within the bays?

[Squigiliwams]

I think overall it looks good. I'd love to see what you do with the steam overlay style chat setup, but i assume that has faction / group stuff in there you dont want us to see yet.


I'd also like to be able to default to 'just the mechs i own'. If im going to have to click the mechlab and then filter by owned and then scroll around every time i go in thats gonna suck. What if you had a default view that just had

-- Your owned mechs, with filters (sort by skills unlocked, sort by matches played, sort by tonnage, sort by name yada yada)

and then you hit a PURCHASE button

-- Now mix in unowned mechs next to our owned ones so we can compare and contrast.


Other than that ****** love it. Cant wait to see final designs (and i love the up close and in your face view of that atlas.)

[DirePhoenix]

Overall it's pretty good.

There seems to be a lot of unused space on the left and right sides. I'm assuming these examples are showing what the main part of the screen will look like for people using the old standard aspect ratio monitors instead of the new standard widescreens. will this area be extended out to fill the rest of the screen?

I'm not sure I dig the new loadout screens. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think I need to have a giant picture describing every single item in the list. I'd prefer this part to be like the current loadout screens where the list is just a list (of text names of the items and maybe a small image) and have a separate "descriptor area" that shows the picture of the item. Also not digging the critical slot window covering the image of the 'mech and not highlighting the portion of the 'mech that is being altered.

[Big Giant Head]

Nice step.
Bring some animation and sound effects to the mechlab.

[Gierling]

Look at the Camo costs. Looks like they are moving to a total unlock of a pattern instead of per mech.

[Gierling]

Also, could you please consider the ability to save multiple loadouts of the same mech. So that I could have a selection for my Hunchback in its AC20 config in one box, and he same mech with an LBX10 is in another box with a different config. So I could just click on the loadout I want to take into battle and drop with it? If I drop in one loadout, It would gray out all of the loadouts which use that same mech as a "Base" as being in game. Also, if I sell a part of the loadout (making it unable to drop with it) that loadout would also be greyed out until I bought the proper parts again. Functionally something which allows us to keep a stack of parts on hand, and load them dynamically onto the mech by selecting the loadout instead of faddling in the mechbay between games.

[DirePhoenix]

80Bit, on 09 May 2013 - 06:18 AM, said:

You just blew my freaking mind. I have 2000+ matches and did not know this!

If you can scroll, there should be a scroll bar. I guess there will be soon.

You can also use your mouse scrollwheel to scroll through your current 'mechlist.

Gierling, on 09 May 2013 - 07:46 AM, said:

Look at the Camo costs. Looks like they are moving to a total unlock of a pattern instead of per mech.

Placeholders. Or did you not notice the number stats of the Large Pulse Laser are exactly the same as the regular Large Laser in the compare screen?

Edited by DirePhoenix, 09 May 2013 - 07:55 AM.

[shellashock]

this is looking great! also, I am aware that the photos are mockups, but I can't help sweating when i see the atlas with jumpjet values. I am really hoping that the jumpjet values are only there to complete the picture and to show what it would look like. Otherwise we would be seeing atlas poptarts with even more armour then highlanders. *shudder*

[CharlieBoy]

My big question has nothing to do with what I see but how I will see it. Will this be a Fullscreen, Window, or Fullscreen Windowed? Would be good to know before we streamers go live with it :-P

Other than that it looks amazing! Someone needs to buy Paul some new #2 pencils. He been working hard.

[Grandmaster Ramrod]

I know it's only a mock-up of what's to come but at first glance it looks fantastic!


Good work fellas, keep that ball rolling.

[Moku]

Everything is nice but considering you packed in everything in the current UI you can't make space for a permanent chat box and group member box in 2.0 seems strange. Sure the mech lab and all the nice item graphics stuff and comparisons is great, but seeing the social and group parts of the game is much more important. So what is the shift alt social thing?

In other words. What would make our current UI better and user friendly?

Group ready list and chat window that is VISIBLE. Not popups or tabs. We currently have to tab back and forward between mechlab or social/group tab. We don't know if the group is ready if we're tinking with our mechs or pilot skills. We have to be using voice-coms for our group members to tell us to ready up. Group chat in game is non-existant because it's a pop-up. This is all due to a bad user interface.

I don't know what the new social tab is like so we don't know if it fixes the problem.

Edited by Moku, 09 May 2013 - 08:59 AM.

[Teir Dasande]

Seems too clean and refined. I like my mechwarrior dirty, gritty, and feeling like im using old, half working tech. I never bitched about the hud bugs, i took them as my targeting computer or radar being wonky lol. Add some texture to the menus, give it some grime! These mechs have been around for aaaages, make them feel like it!

[Madw0lf]

Overall I really like it, definitely a more functional improvement.

Few things I can think of right now;
1: Increase free space, especially in the center. You could do this with a slight (5-10%) reduction in the size of the items on the right, which also increases your vertical free space in that area. Actually, looking at the screens again, there are margins around the left and right edges which are currently black, stretch the display out into there and itll be good.

2: If not outright, allow us an option (which would be persistent) to only show 'Mechs we own in the list on the right.

3: On the "Restrictions" for the weapons displays, maybe replace the graphical with the current scheme.
e.g. (in red)
"Too Heavy"
"Not Enough Slots"

Or, if there are no restrictions;
"None" in green.

4: Color coding for hardpoints.....maybe....Others have mentioned it, and I do like it, but the new version looks good too....

EDIT: Also curious about the social function, definitely like the idea of a Steam-esque overlay, Im hoping you would include something more like we currently have, and more indepth in the "Faction" tab?

Edited by Madw0lf, 09 May 2013 - 08:44 AM.

[Evax]

In sections with multiple hard points of the same type will this new UI let me keep the order I place the Items in?
i.e 3x energy and I want 3 ppcs, at the moment if I put 2 ppc at the top and add one last erppc when i save, the erppc is moved to the top of the hard point and 2 ppcs are put under it.