174 replies to this topic

[pbiggz]

Niko Snow, on 28 October 2013 - 03:06 PM, said:

Please answer the following questions in your response.

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview? Please enter as many items as you wish.

2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?

3) In what ways does the UI 2.0 Preview appear to be superior to the previous UI?

4) Any new issues encountered?

5) Any other comments or concerns?

N.B. Please make sure to get your feedback in before 18:30 PDT. This will leave a half an hour after the preview ends to submit your feedback.

1) I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THE MUSIC OH MY GOD I WANT MORE. Also, it looked, FANTASTIC. With exception to the mechs which probably require DX 11 to look best it was fantastic. The art direction is excellent and the flow was miles better than the old UI. Also alot of people seem to hate the clicky sounds but i LOVE it, its like a throwback to mechwarrior 3.
2) I think while it's going in the right direction and is a massive improvement, some simplification is required to smooth things out. For example, it's much less obvious what hard points are available on the mech at first glance because those hardpoints are listed differently now. Perhaps brighter colours or bigger Icons could help in that regard. Another problem I had was the music stopped in loading screens. As they are boring, having extra music keep playing, especially music like that, would be awesome. My last issue with it was aside from being generally unfinished and therefore unstable, the music didnt always properly play.
3) Almost every way. Full screen, art quality, sound design, flow. While i agree some of it could be better, none of it is a step back.
4) Just some sound problems
5) Keep doing what you're doing. Add some more stuff to ease navigation and smooth out the graphics and it should be fantastic.

Edited by pbiggz, 29 October 2013 - 05:24 PM.

[shellashock]

I think there is a bug with the settings in the U.I 2.0 build. Every time I try to change a setting to something other then what its general setting is (changing a low texture to ultra high texture on an all low setting range for example), it will change all of the settings to whatever setting type I had set. The only exception I have seen so far is the AA setting because of its absence of setting ranges besides off and on.

Anyone else have this, or is this just a corruption issue on my end?

P.S: Because of this bug, I never got to fully test out the U.I upgrade. Only things I really noticed different were the colour skin change (which I liked) and the music which we definetly need more of. Can't wait for more.

Hopefully the released version will be able to resolve these bugs before more people have to share my problem.

Edited by shellashock, 29 October 2013 - 05:11 PM.

[Dirk Le Daring]

1- Overall feel is good, though different than what I am used to, I will adjust. This was expected.

2- Least liked function is the pop out info panels not staying. Would like to have them remain even when mouse pointer is on another section. Maybe a radio button or something to toggle such a thing could be handy.

3- Mech class grouping is GREAT, makes browsing mechs much more comfortable. The information panels are a good thing too.

4- Unowned mechs, SDR-5KC, CN9-AC, DRG-5NC, AS7-RSC, all appear in the owned list, and I do not own them.

Founders and Phoenix mechs in champion mech list. No idea if this is a bug or intentional.

After the logout freeze, and restarting a couple of times, was unable to launch into testing grounds. This came on the heels of a crash to desktop from a menu tab. (I think I was going to pilot skills)

5- Overall, this looks pretty good. The art is great, and the overall look is pretty good.

Armour adjustment was a little confusing at first.

Would like to see double-click to remove weapons and equipment, and to equip them as well.

That's about all I can think of for the moment. Thanks for the preview and great job, I really like what I have seen so far.

(On a side note, I could not apply or find upgrades, like double heat sinks. So I am assuming they are not in for the preview.)

[Flaregun]

In the skill menu make the whole bar clickable instead of just the little arrow.

If you reduced the size of the item window, you could fit all the paperdolls for the components on-screen at the same time. You could also shrink the mech model while your configuring the mech to save screen space. A full screen button to view the mech could be add later for ppl that want to really look at their mech. Especially, if you could move it in 3 dimentions instead of just rotating it.

[Daetrin Voltari]

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview? Please enter as many items as you wish.
The ability to filter and organize the mechbay is a huge plus, and that alone would be worth the upgrade. I like the inclusion of a "View Cart button, but of course it doesn't do anything yet.

2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?
​My problems were pretty much all with things that weren't implemented yet. This includes the inability to buy upgrades, lack of clarity for hardpoints and restrictions, and the inability to see mech loadouts and hardpoints without going into the loadout screen and checking each location manually.

3) In what ways does the UI 2.0 Preview appear to be superior to the previous UI?
Primarily, the ability to filter and organize my mech bay. Owning 40+ mechs makes organization a real pain in the *** right now.


4) Any new issues encountered?

A. @UI_LOGINERROR Unknown Failure when attempting to assign weapon groups to the Locust-1V

B. In "Assign Weapon Groups" Newly arm mounted machine guns on the Locust-1V appeared as torso mounted "undefined"

Problems A and B replicated on the LCT-3S, JR7-D(S), and SHD-2D2.

Problems A and B did not appear with the BLR-1S or TDR-5S(P)

C. When adding new weapons to a mech, weapons did not appear in match unless assigned to a weapon group in the mech lab. This showed up on all 3 Locust, the Jenner D, Shadowhawk 2D2, Thunderbolt 5S(P), and Battlemaster 1S

D. Ammo depletion warning did not sound on SHD-2D2

E. View Cart does nothing.

5) Any other comments or concerns?
One feature I would really like is a way to see what mechs have what cockpit items or modules at a glance. Some of us have way too many mechs and that makes finding anything a real pain. I am a lot less likely to by additional cockpit items when I have to search 40+ mechs, one at a time. The same is true for modules, though to a lesser extent, since the current UI will at least show your modules on the mech loadout screen.

[Iron War]

Homeless Bill, on 29 October 2013 - 10:11 AM, said:

1. I like:

• Aesthetics
  
• Weapon grouping in mechlab
  
• Filters for weapon types in 'mech configuration
  
• Filters for 'mechs
  
• Fullscreen
  
• More information displayed about 'mechs

2. I dislike:

• Re-skinned old interface - would have much preferred an all-slots-at-once Smurfy's-style interface (at least as an additional option)
  
• No double clicking to remove components
  
• Weapon order - please organize it intuitively (Small Laser, Medium Laser, Large Laser, ER Large Laser, Small Pulse, Medium Pulse, Large Pulse, PPC, ERPPC) instead of alphabetically or randomly or however it's sorted now
  
• Couldn't find upgrades tab
  
• Still doesn't show missile tubes
  
• Still doesn't allow me to select which weapon goes in which hardpoint
  
• Owned filter includes trial 'mechs
  
• It's too noisy mousing over things

3. It's better because:

• It's fullscreen
  
• It looks better
  
• It has convenient filters

4. Issues I encountered:

• Crash when I tried to open a 'mech XP tree (it happened immediately after changing settings, but I didn't try again because I didn't have much time)
  
• After logging out, the Exit button on login screen caused client to hang
  
• Didn't save 'mech customization after hitting checkout
  
• Most of my 'mechs weren't there and I had Founders 'mechs for whatever reason

5. My overall impression:


I'm underwhelmed, but I'm glad it's close. Please show missile tubes and allow us to choose which hardpoint each weapon goes in.

^^^ALL OF THIS^^^

Things I would change:
1. On the Radar Chart (Its the type of chart being used) in the mech overview. The tonnage and armor distribution should be on a scale being compared to all mechs not just the maximum total of the current mech. The same way u have firepower and heat. It should be compared to the max possiblity of the heaviest(100 tons) and most armored mechs.
2. Remove tonnage from the chart stated above and replace with speed. Tonnage in that chart isnt realy needed. But u could add alot of other categories to that chart: Speed, Jump height . . .
3.Personaly I would remove the Radar chart and put in a graph of all weapons on the current mech. A weapons overview. Allowing u to see the the mechs overall damage with distance.
4. Where are the upgrades?
5. vvvTHIS PLZvvv

wickwire, on 29 October 2013 - 10:03 AM, said:

[Otto Cannon]

I'll keep it short. I liked the fact that it's fullscreen, and the larger mech models best.

I was least impressed by the main part that I use- the mechlab build interface. I found it absolutely horrible to use in the current state with no clear overall view of the mech equipment, and it desperately needs the current free tonnage and free crits to be displayed somewhere prominent in massive text.

I can see that effort has gone into including previously unavailable information such as the acceleration profiles and firing arcs, and I approve of that being visible. The new interface also has the potential to be better looking than the old one. I was impressed by the mech selection screen and the one displaying mechs for purchase. I would suggest a toggle to switch between 'all mechs you can buy', and 'all mechs you can buy that you don't have one of'. If there's no option to exclude mechs you have then 'Buy' would be less misleading than 'Unowned'.

As it is now I'd still rather use the old interface unless major changes are made to make the mechlab more user friendly. You did a good job on the original UI mechlab (apart from not showing free crits), and I'd like to see a better version of that rather than something new and inferior.

There are lots of minor issues covered by other people (such as the display order of mechs and weapons or the annoying sound effects) but these were my main impressions.

[Greeneye]

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview? Please enter as many items as you wish.
- UI is really pretty,
- color scheme much more modern and
- music

2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?
Usability is terrible.
Informations are chaotic, elements are in random places. Is hard to find something well done.


3) In what ways does the UI 2.0 Preview appear to be superior to the previous UI?
Apperance

4) Any new issues encountered?
Many bugs

5) Any other comments or concerns?

Seriously, you should not only look after the appearance but also and especially the usability.

Edited by Greeneye, 29 October 2013 - 05:21 PM.

[Straker]

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview?
The ability to filter my mechs. I own every mech, and finding them in the current UI can be very difficult.

2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?
It seems to lack many features that I was hoping for. The biggest being the ability to easily find your equipment. For example, let's say I want to find my XL 250 engine. Under the current system and this preview, I will need to click through every single one of my 106 mechs to find that engine. I should be able to go to an owned engine tab and click on XL 250 and see what mech it is in. That is the number one thing I was hoping for.

3) In what ways does the UI 2.0 Preview appear to be superior to the previous UI?
Filtering Mechs. That was all I really liked.

4) Any new issues encountered?
I dislike the full screen mech lab. I play using NVIDIA surround across 3 monitors in game. This is AWESOME in game. However, out of game, I like to have multiple things up while I tinker in the mech lab. For example I can have TS on one screen, Smurfy on the other, and MWO on the 3rd. Please give us an option to select screen resolution for the mech lab and a seperate one for the game.

5) Any other comments or concerns?
I'm a little disappointed, as long as this has been in development, I was hoping it would be further along.

[Phoenix Branson]

1.) I like:

• Full-screen
  
• Mech Filters
  
• Weapon Grouping
  
• Mech Info
  
• Mech Model

2.) I dislike:

• Needs more immersion
  
• Mousing over things is too noisy
  
• No double clicking to remove components

3.) It's better because:

• Full-screen
  
• Aesthetics
  
• Solid Design

4.) Issues I encountered:

• Front End crashed a few times

5.) Any other comments or suggestions:


It is imperative to have an overall screen where a player can see everything equipped on the BattleMech. This will make the Mechlab easier for new players and veterans alike. A must have feature!


I suggest adding a technician working at the background terminal. This will reinforce the sense of scale. Furthermore, change "Play Now" to "Deploy" or "Launch." This is a military based game. Lastly, add a small digital clock to the new UI. This will help with late night gaming sessions.


Show 'Mech Biographies that would give a description, along with history , lore and capabilities.

Add a button that would show off Alex's orthographic projections in-game (e.g. schematic button).

Edited by Maverick01, 29 October 2013 - 06:00 PM.

[Ellen Ripley]

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview? Please enter as many items as you wish.
- The ability to organize mechs.

2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?
- feels way to counterintuitive and pieced together aka. not very userfriendly.
- it takes a lot longer to actually build a new Mech than it does with th current version of the Mechlab, partially because one has to remember what is equipped in the other sections of the Mech, as there is not complete overview where all Mechsections are visible at one glance
- players new to the IP / game still will have a hard time getting the hang of it


3) In what ways does the UI 2.0 Preview appear to be superior to the previous UI?
- Loading times are way shorter.
- more information available (mechstats etc.)

4) Any new issues encountered?

5) Any other comments or concerns?
- the Mechlab is a core feature of this game, almost as imortant as the battlefield action itself. more effort needs to be spend on fixing the problems mentioned under 2) in regard to the Mechlab
Most important is that you add some sort of overview where one can see everything that is equipped / build into the Mech at one glance, much like Smurfy's does it, or as shown on this picture:


smaller things I noticed / think would be good to change:
- can't set a weapongroup to chainfire in the Mechlab
- Artemis should be in a category with DHS/endo/ferro not with ECM/AMS
- Beagle should be listed in the ECM/AMS category as well
- one picture for standard, and one for XL engines is enough, for the rest of the engines make a list as in the current mechlab (noone wants to stare at a hundred identical engine pictures, it takes up too much space as well)
- ballistic weapon color needs to be a clear yellow, not that strange almost orange color being used atm
- equipping something should also work by double-clicking on said item's picture
- need to be able to see the amount of (double) heatsinks currently equipped on the Mech in the stats-overview not just the heat efficiency

Edited by Ellen Ripley, 29 October 2013 - 05:30 PM.

[vectorpirate]

1) Likes

• graphics are nice
  
• graphs with info about mechs

2) Dislikes

• too much clicking, not enough shortcuts
  
• the owned/unowned filter
  
• no sorting options
  
• weapon and mech stats as fractions (Just give a value, saying that the PPC is 10 heat is just as meaningful as saying it is 10 heat out of 20 because they are relative to each other, not to 20.)
  
• please don't make us click on the drop-down arrows, the whole row would be better

3) Superiority to old UI

• full screen
  
• more info

4) New bugs

• main screen did not expand to show pilot tree options sometimes
  
• training grounds launched me into a different map than the one selected, did not get to test it enough to see if there was a pattern
  
• when it got stuck after clicking "Checkout" the new weapons were bought but the loadout had reverted back to the original
  
• after clicking the scroll down arrow a bunch on the pilot tree page it got stuck (continued trying to scroll down without my input and contrary to my input), then the client crashed

5) Comments

• it looks good but you have a while to go yet
  
• please spend some time fleshing-out the mouse and keyboard interfaces before releasing it
  
• I would prefer a single list of every mech (or sorted, or categorized, whatever) with a checkmark or something to show which mechs are owned rather than separating them into owned and unowned

[DrXitomatl]

1.) I like the bigger images of the mechs! The music is a nice touch, too.

2.) Suggestions for improvements

--GENERAL: Sort mechs in all menus in order of weight, then alphabetically for equal weight mechs. Heroes go at the end of the list of mechs of that chassis.

--GRAPHIC DESIGN: The little MC icon below mechs was not pleasant/barely legible because the bright yellow and white combo are too both quite bright. Choose colors with more contrast.

--SKILL TREES: I want to be able to open to open the skill tree for a specific mech variant by clicking anywhere in it's name bar. I don't want to have to go over to the little triangle at the right end of the bar

--SCREEN RESOLUTION: I run a triple monitor setup with 3 1080p monitors. I didn't like running in my maximum resolution because the bezels of my monitors get in the way. I want a small window for the user interface but all three monitors when I am in a match. That's what I currently get, but I couldn't make that happen with UI2.0. As Straker said,

Straker, on 29 October 2013 - 05:19 PM, said:

Please give us an option to select screen resolution for the mech lab and a seperate one for the game.

--MECHLAB: what happened to being able to click on the part of the mech you want to change? Bring that back!

--MECHLAB: I want to be able to remove things from the mech by double clicking and add things by double clicking

--MECHLAB: Remove the "Invalid" text from the red items that cannot be added. Just making the icon background red is sufficient to make me aware that the item is not a valid selection. Seeing the word "INVALID" so many times is aesthetically very displeasing.

--But most of all, this:

Ellen Ripley, on 29 October 2013 - 05:23 PM, said:

Most important is that you add some sort of overview where one can see everything that is equipped / build into the Mech at one glance, much like Smurfy's does it, or as shown on this picture:

Edited by Xitomatl, 29 October 2013 - 05:45 PM.

[drizz786]

Hi, spare a thought for those of us that run high res, i run 2560x1440 text almost needs a magnifying glass (sore eyes within minutes). But colours and layout are very nice. There seems to be alot missing, shs to dhs??? So good start but seriously think about a smurfy collaboration, i think bits of that site could be worked in nicely and without to much hassel. Any stability issues i found were already known, so keep up the good work

Edited by drizz786, 29 October 2013 - 05:34 PM.

[Xenon Codex]

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview? Please enter as many items as you wish.

• Smooth interface
  
• Catchy music
  
• Mechbay has some sort options
  
• Fullscreen mode
  
• Nice mech graphics

2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?

I'm going to keep this focused on my main design complaints due to the fact that it is an alpha and I know a lot of things are broken or not working yet.

What I liked least concerned primarily the MechLab:
Key information for designing a balanced mech is not present, or hard to find. In short, without these key items, creating and modifying mechs is HARD WORK and NOT FUN.

• No overview of what's currently equipped, so it requires lots of clicking and remembering. My brain hurts already just thinking about it. So does my mouse finger. Please make it simpler.
  
• No "remaining tonnage" value so I know at a glance what I have left without having to do math.
  
• No equipped ammo types and total quantity values. Did I add SRM ammo, if so, how much?
  
• Didn't see remaining free slots (may have missed it though so it wasn't obvious, make it obvious)
  
• No indication of missile tubes per hardpoint. (long time request)
  
• No way to specify hardpoint location for missiles. I want to place the LRM10 in the 10 tube launcher, not the 5 tube launcher. Another long time request.
  
• No overall view of armor values to make adjustments. Changing armor on a per-location basis is tedious.
  
• No visual indication of location hitboxes on the 3D model. This is very important for determining proper armor values.

What I liked 2nd least:
The Mechbay icons give no information on my mechs. Ideally I want a "detailed list" view that shows the weapons, engine, and modules equipped at the very least. Equipment and modules are expensive, so please make it easy for us to see at a quick glance where our important stuff is.

Better yet, make it so that if I own an XL350, even if it's installed in another mech, have it ripped from that mech and put in the one I'm building. Pop up a warning that this component will be removed. In that case, I don't care to know where it's at, just that I have one purchased already. You can then make the Mechbay "list view" a bit simpler.

I did see the icons in the upper left that look like standard "icon view" and "list view" options, so at least I know your planning on it. Thanks!

3) In what ways does the UI 2.0 Preview appear to be superior to the previous UI?
Ability to re-arrange and sort mechs in the Mechbay.
Seemed a bit more responsive.

4) Any new issues encountered?
Didn't save my mech loadout a few times.

5) Any other comments or concerns?

Just small stuff I know you fix.