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[Void Angel]

The new UI is definitely an overall upgrade, and is headed in the right direction, but currently contains a lot of redundancy. Nearly anything I want to do requires extra clicks simply in order to navigate to my destination. These extra actions aren't terribly significant individually - but become annoying when taken together and repeated, over and over, during a play session. This produces a constant pressure toward discouraging people from playing the game - even though the game itself remains enjoyable. I'm certain some people don't really notice it much, but I know from Teamspeak conversations in my gaming company that some players find them mightily annoying - and a focus for their perceived grievances with other aspects of the game.

After giving it some thought, I decided to put together a list of issues and solutions that I would most like to see for the bits I find most tedious:

• Give me a way to automatically reload consumable modules, or at least a button to do it. Currently, I have to click through three options just to get to the module selection screen - or the loadout screen for that matter - much less replace and save consumables. This process breaks the rhythm of dropping into matches and is one of the most commonly-encountered frustrations I have with the UI.
  
  
  
• Combine the match start options. The most common inefficiency players encounter has to be the slightly misnamed "Play Now" button. The match start menus already remember selections from prior in that session - simply combine them into one menu, slap a fancy border around it, and call it good. This seems like a very minor annoyance, and it is - but it is present in 100% of matches, and scales up with a player's committment to the game. This is perhaps the most-often cited complaint of those who are disgruntled to some extent - and it provides an excellent foil for those players to pitch their discontent to others.
  
  
  
• Break up the Mechlab into its component functions. That tab is trying to do triple duty as a 'Mech Bay, a portal to the Mechlab, and a Mech store. This really makes it annoying whenever I want to adjust a build - it's the biggest inefficiency with the current iteration of the UI. I already have a 'Mech selected - make the Mechlab button link directly to the selected 'Mech, and simply add a Mech Bay tab that actually lets me organize my 'Mechs. As for the Store, there's already a bright yellow button at the top of the screen, and I see sale advertisements whenever I start the launcher or load into the game - trust me, I know where to go to spend money. Splitting these up would make the UI a much less overwhelming place, particularly for new players.
  
  
  
• The tiles in the UI are too small. All of the lists that come up in the UI have neat graphics attached to them, but they're so small that they all sort of blend together and you can't see all the details. Particularly when selecting Engines, or in the Store, where all the non-Hero 'Mechs are crammed together in one big window - and they're all the same dang color. This is about the smallest of the suggestions I have, but I'd like to see the 'Mech tiles take up about four times the space they do now, and a smaller increase in the size of equipment tiles - so that we can see more detail, and have space to make the titles something a little more distinctive than cramped white letters on a black background.

These first three issues in particular comprise the inefficiencies that I most notice when I play. They provide a constant downward pressure on the enjoyability of the game - and they affect everyone. Even the folks who would tell you they don't really mind are still being delayed by the extra clicks, reducing their participation in the game even if they don't register annoyance.



In particular, giving us a reload button - perhaps as part of an option bar under the currently selected 'Mech - and steamlining the launch and 'Mech customization processes with a more dedicated and steamlined interface will remove unnecessary roadblocks to enjoying and playing the game. Certainly, any reasonable person understands that the UI is a work in progress, and that resources for any given kind of programming work are limited, and that you want to avoid delaying important features in order to do work that will be later invalidated. Since these issues are negatively impacting every single player, however, I suggest you address them as soon as you possibly can.

Edited by Void Angel, 20 May 2014 - 08:58 AM.