357 replies to this topic

[Vimeous]

Screen resolution: 2560x1440

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)
- Subtly more colourful than previous UI2.0 test.
- Look and feel remains more premium than f2p norm.

2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?
- Text is still far too small for high res screens.
- All items have big buttons but the tiny text makes you reply on the image/icon. In many cases these are duplicated for items forcing you to use the text anyway.
e.g. Coolshot 6 & 9; UAV & Adv UAV; Seismic & Target Retention (?!)
- Positioning and scaling of major elements are still not right for higher res. Elements get lost at the fringes of the screen.
- The interface is significantly slower to use than the current UI. Items are more spread out - select a part of the mech to customise, add items on the other side of the screen. In short - there's too much mousing around!

3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?
- Looks simple and clear to use.
- Icon is only noticeable because it breaks the border. It would be unnoticeable if more icons were with it.

4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End?
- Menus are ok. Scale of Store Home is unfinished.

5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?
- Bolder and easier to read.

6) Any other comments or concerns?
Store
- Selecting a mech does not show specification before purchase.
- Full mech list still very difficult to take-in. As with the previous preview there is no definitions between classes on the all mechs listing. example
- Store Home is less than 1/4 of the screen real-estate on high res. example

Skills
- Skill tree cannot be selected from Pilot tree but the reverse can. UI inconsistency.

Mechlab
- Equipped area lacks virtually any visual definition between items. A coloured system like Smurfy's would be preferred.
- On mech locations with multiple lrm hardpoints but different tube numbers it would be useful to be able to force a launcher to use a specific number of tubes.
- A selected mech location does not highlight on the model. This is an ease of use issue for those who get left and right easily confused!
- When configuring a mech tonnage is the ultimate stat. However it's located in a stack of stats tucked away at the bottom of the screen. Again virtually unnoticed yet fundamental to mech building.
- Info panel just too small.
- Whether it's info overload or space for tumbleweed there is a lack of consistency.


Edited for terrible English

Edited by Vimeous, 16 January 2014 - 04:57 PM.

[Nick Drezary]

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

Stability, general look, full screen

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

Mech customization interface(it should be like it is in the current UI 1.5/smurfy, I doubt that any better customization interface is possible),
I'm playing this game over a yeast and it took me half of hour to customize just bought mech.

Paint job change process (using arrow keys to switch thru multiple colors/color types to get to the one you need is not good)

Not enough useful info on the screen.

3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?

Feels good this far, but could use option to keep chat tab constantly open

4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End?

It works.

5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?

In 3PV cross hairs are somewhere out of their place:

Rest feels fine

6)Any other comments or concerns?

Got this bug when I've bought Muromets(AC 10 barrel flees in the air):


And in general: Mech lab should be based on current 1.5 one, but provide more useful info(like heat penalties and stuff, may be some tips for the new player as well), 2.0 one is very non intuitive and can confuse even the veteran player

[Watchit]

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)
- Full screen
- Inventory tab
- Improved mech rendering
- Some of the added details to the mech overview, such as pitch/yaw/etc..

2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?
- There's no over view for the hardpoints and load out of your mech
- The slot system is confusing when you can only see one section of your mech at a time
- No way to tell total number of heatsinks
- It's hard to tell what you own and don't own, especially with the Engines
- Big icons, small text
- The lighting was a little awkward in the mechlab
- Can't select sections of the mech by clicking the actual mech anymore
- The cockpit glass was way too dirty, and it varied from mech to mech. The Battlemaster was ok, but the Dragon was unbearable
- Lack of any information on equipment/weapons, not even tonnage/slots

3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?

- It could be made to stand out a bit more
- Was a LOT less cluncky which is nice

4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End?
- I wish there was a way to organize the mechs like I can in the mechlab. By weight/cost/etc...

5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?
N/A

6) Any other comments or concerns?
I would like to see something more similar to Smurfy's mechlab. Not exactly the same of course, but something where I could see the whole of the mech rather than sections of it behind drop down menus.

edited to add info gleaned from second public test window

Edited by Watchit, 16 January 2014 - 06:12 PM.

[Impetus]

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)
Less laggy!
The mech list is nice.

2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?
#1 issue is way too many clicks to do anything at all.
#2 Make everything scale to resolution! Having important information about what I'm doing in the mech lab be hidden in what is essentially a box of fine print in the corner is not user friendly.

3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?
It's a completely separate program in itself. You can't multitask with it at all. You get to be in the mech lab or be in the social tab, there isn't a way to do both.

5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?
Didn't have time to drop.

6) Any other comments or concerns?
95% of our time out of match is going to be in the mech lab. Focus on making the mechlab smoother. Less clicks, easier to read information, more pertinent information to the mech (why can't I see what weapons my mech has unless I click configure>loadout>click on and memorize every body part tab).

Testing was too short. I'm unsure when it started, but I got on around noon mountain time. I spent an hour going through the menus then the testing ended before I could even launch a match.

Edited by Impetus, 16 January 2014 - 12:57 PM.

[Kain]

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)
- It looks prettier
- Full screen
2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?
- It is not intuitive
- The flow of user interaction is not understandable/clear
- The buttons/menus don't stand out, they don't catch you attention, all the buttons/panels blend
- Mechlab/layout is horrible, to much clicking, no clear layout/panels,, no overview, old one is better (look at smurfy)

3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?
- Nothing really impressive, just the same, but a little bit prettier

4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End?
- It is going in the right direction

5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?
- In game menus/scoreboards looks better/cleaner
- Cockpit glass is nice
6) Any other comments or concerns?
- The old/current UI is more intuitive and understandable
- I don't think UI 2.0 is an improvement from a user interaction point of view.
- My biggest concern is that UI 3.0 is needed to get a good interface.
- Hire a UX designer please!!!!

[Tiamat of the Sea]

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

It's very pretty. The color scheme is pleasing and mild without being drab, the shapes of the windows in the interface are all very nice, the icons used for items in the mechlab are neat to look at and decently distinct from one another.

It is more clear from the menu names what they indicate and more of the submenus are actually submenus rather than menus that share an interface portion with another menu.

I like being able to see my 'mech currently selected at all times; it will likely help prevent instances of launching in a machine I did not intend to be piloting just because I was poking at it in the 'mechlab.

The use of icons to delineate champion and hero 'mechs is nice.

The whole thing operates more smoothly, and I am actually experiencing less lag between selection and response than I was previously.

I no longer have the annoying wait time between the UI loading and my 'mechs and skills becoming accessible- currently in UI 1.5, I have to wait as much as ten seconds after the game loads before pressing menu buttons becomes functional and my four 'quicklaunch' mechs appear in the little window in the bottom left.

The background music seems well-selected.

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

The majority of the decisions about the Mechlab.

The Interface

The entire interface gives the impression that someone thought the menus on the left were great (they are) and should be the only method of navigating anything (they shouldn't), because they're completely intuitive, fast, and easy to grasp (they aren't).

While it's great to be able to see what my 'mech looks like (and very important for things such as the SP Hunchback's missile pods or the effects of mounting certain ballistic weapons in the Shadowhawk shoulder mounts, or even just determining if I have enough missile tubes for the rack I'm using to launch as one batch or not) and even rotate the 'mech, it feels very much like this is an excellent opportunity to let players click sections of the 'mech and use it as a paperdoll to navigate loadout customization.

This has not been done, and with no paperdoll in the customization interface either, altering the loadout of your machine is now considerably more time-consuming than in UI 1.5. It is also much more difficult, as you have to memorize what you have already placed or not removed from each other location in the 'mech. The net result of this is considerably more time spent in the Mechlab with no benefit to anybody.

Since locations can only be accessed through the left side menus and the location content listings are across half the game screen from them, modifying a 'mech now involves much more looking back and forth between two more distant points, which also increases the time spent to no benefit, and increases the stressors on the player.

As a longtime player of the tabletop Battletech game and all of the Mechwarrior games with the exception of 4 and Living Legends, I would like to recommend that the interface designers take a good long look at the layout of the single-page battlemech information sheet used in the tabletop game and consider why the entire contents of the 'mech are laid out in a single 'window' on that sheet, rather than having a separate sheet for each location. Separating each location into its own game sheet is functionally what you have achieved by not only making only one location's contents manipulatable at a time but also mandating the use of the left-side menu tabs to navigat the locations of a 'mech. Given how little of the machine and how little information is accessed in this manner, I cannot imagine any player wanting to navigate customization the way it is currently laid out in UI 2.0.

The 'Vital Statistic Block'
The information concerning the current used tonnage, speed, total armor, and so on is still all packed down into the lower-right corner. Not only is the space alotted to these important quantifiers small, but it is further occupied by very long meters, forcing the text itself to be absolutely miniscule compared to the window size. This is unpleasant and inconvenient for the player, and may render the information difficult to use for those with certain forms or degrees of vision impairment.

Worsening the issue, 'Firepower' and 'Heat Management' are still part of this supposedly-vital-information block.

Firepower is basically a useless number for any character who is not alpha-striking, as it counts the total damage that the machine can deal by firing all of its weapons once and hitting (with some degree of modification for missiles concerning the number that are likely to hit a target). Any player relying on this number to determine the worth of their 'mech will naturally tend to 'boat' weapons, a tactic that you have specifically attempted to discourage through Ghost Heat, and will naturally tend to attempt to alpha strike, a tactic that you have specifically depicted as undesirable. Any player not relying on this number to determine the worth of their 'mech doesn't care about it and has no need to ever see it.

Heat Management (or Heat Efficiency in UI 1.5) is the single most opaque number depicted anywhere in this game. While all guesses concerning it suppose that it is an attempt to represent how difficult it is to avoid heat-induced shutdown, I alone have 'mechs with 1.4 or 1.5 Heat Efficiency that I still shut down in, and 'mechs with a 1.2 Heat Efficiency where I never have to worry about a heat-induced shutdown. Nobody knows what the number actually represents, because the size of the units used to measure whatever it's measuring is never explained anywhere, nor what actual numbers or assumptions this measurement or these units are based on.

Heat Management/Efficiency and Firepower do not need to be depicted anywhere, because they are functionally garbage information that does not serve any purpose nor aid the player in any way, and occupy space that would be better used making more important concerns (like 'have I used all my tonnage yet') more easily determined.

Jump distance in the Mechlab is essentially incorrect. My Quickdraw 4H is described by the 2.0 Mechlab as having a 32-meter jump capability. Considering that I have flown it across nearly two thirds of the volcano cauldron in Caustic Valley in a single leap, and on other jumps have moved forwards only by its own body thickness despite expending the entirety of its jump jet fuel, this information is obviously erroneous concerning the length of jump. Considering I have leapt it from the low ground on the Canyon map to the high ground, just under twice the 'mechs height, with fuel left over, this information is obviously erroneous concerning the height of jump. Given that the speed a 'mech is traveling at when it begins to jump has a magnifying effect on the distance jumped, it would make much more sense to depict jump measurement solely in terms of the number of jump jets- or, if you must use a derived number, the rate of vertical acceleration- than by an absolute measurement that is incorrect a considerable portion of the time.

Location Selection

The side menus are nice for much of UI 2.0. They are not, however, quick, easy, and intuitive for traveling from one section of your 'mech to another. If the visual of the 'mech on the right side of the Mechlab is not usable for selecting locations to modify, please use a paperdoll somewhere or just show the entire layout somehow; as things currently stand going from changing equipment in the head to changing equipment in the right arm is a major pain in the hip actuators.

Equipment Selection

Moving on from there, we come to the equipment selection in the Mechlab.

For the most part, I like this. The tooltips are great and all, the pictures are pretty. There are, however, three major issues.

First of all, the separation of equipment into 'equipment', 'ammo', and 'weapons'.

Given that not all weapons are available for all locations, AMS and ECM are only available for certain locations, jump jets cannot be arm or head mounted, and the only remaining gear is the heat sink and the Beagle Active Probe, there is no apparent reason to separate equipment from weaponry into separate submenus for each location.

Furthermore, there is no reason to offer a player the option to mount ammunition for a weapon (or AMS) in a 'mech when the 'mech does not currently have any weapons (or AMSes) that can use that ammo. By putting a filter across ammunition much like has been placed across weapons, you could easily eliminate the ammunition submenu as well.

The set of three submenus for each location in a 'mech is absolutely not necessary and is a source of additional time spent to no gain for anyone currently.

Secondly, engines.

The work that has been put in to make the UI visually pleasing is obvious, and obviously considerable. It should definitely be appreciated. The icons are all very nice also and should also be appreciated.

When attempting to mount an engine in a 'mech, though, no player needs a list of twenty different engine ratings and then another list of the exact same engine ratings in XL variant, all with the exact same image. The entire process of scrolling back and forth to find the engine rating you need, then scrolling down to the lower half of the same listing to check on the XL engine as well is unnecessary. This whole portion of 'mech design could very easily have been its own simple submenu with a pretty little tickbox for Extralight Engine and a numbers-and-arrows assembly for the engine rating much like you are currently using in both UI 1.5 and 2.0 for armor quantity on a given location. You could even still have the icon you designed there without complicating things. Players would be able to very easily choose their engine without a surfeit of extra information and forty or sixty different copies of the same icon with slightly different numbers under it.

Finally, the icon indicators.

For the most part, your equipment icons are great. The red 'unavailable' to let a player know that they -could- have put something into a 'mech but something other than the hardpoints is preventing them is just fine.

However, there is virtually no visible differentiation from 'here's a thing you can buy to put in your 'mech' and 'here's a thing you have lying around you could put into your 'mech'. This really needs to be highlighted somehow, as purchasing an autocannon, large energy weapon, gauss rifle, or large LRM rack can be unexpectedly very hard on the wallet, particularly if you are doing edits and then intend to purchase something else with your C-bills later (only to find that you didn't have a spare LB 10-X, you bought one, and suddenly you have to either go back and revise your build or earn an extra million C-bills before doing what you were going to do- depending on whether or not you accepted the cost of modifications).

Camo Options

There's only one significant issue here I could find: it's not immediately apparent that after changing a color you need to click the 'buy now' button on the far left side of the customization screen. Twice I changed a color and then left the menus, expecting it to stick because it showed the different color, only to hit the battlefield in a 'mech with no color changed.

The Mechlab Weapon Group Screen

Again, only one caveat on the screen itself: There is no option currently available to change whether a group is 'group fire' or 'chain fire'. This seems like an oversight. Mostly an annoying one rather than a serious one, but an oversight nonetheless.

As a side note concerning weapon groups, the pre-designated weapon groups the game uses are often nonsensical- I have a Cataphract that has three medium lasers (one in one of the arms, two in the shoulders), an LB 10-X in the right torso, an ER Large Laser in the right arm, and a PPC in the left arm. Apparently the game decided that the LB 10-X should be in Weapon Group 3 with the arm-mounted Medium Laser, the ER Large Laser belonged in Weapon Group 1 with the two shoulder lasers, and the PPC should be alone in group 2. On what basis it decided this, I have no idea. Similarly, it decided that an Orion with three LRM-15s and two ER Large Lasers absolutely had to have the left torso LRM-15 on Weapon Group 5, the two arm-mounted LRM-15s in group 1 with one of the ER Large Lasers, and the other ER Large Laser (also arm mounted) in group 3. It would probably be better for everyone if weapons automatically defaulted all to Weapon Group 1 unless player-designated otherwise.

Actually Completing the Loadout

Okay, the whole thing is really pretty and there's lots of space dedicated to showing off how pretty it is. That's great. However, the final information and purchase buttons on the left side of the screen are tiny. This is not good- you want those buttons to be big and obvious- both so that people who look for them will be able to find them quickly, and so that people who won't look for them (what, I already changed the loadout, why would I have to hit another button for it to actually change?) will notice that they even exist in the first place. During the first test I didn't even notice that those were things at all, and was thus unable to customize anything. While I'll admit that sometimes I'm a bit unperceptive visually speaking, that I went through the entire two-hour test without catching the existence of those buttons is pretty significant (though I was later shown them on a video of someone else operatin the UI 2.0 test)- and you haven't changed them at all since then.


3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?

I did not get a chance to use this.

4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End?

Acceptable. Nothing stood out to me as blatantly bad other than the typical 'why don't I get told what loadout comes on this 'mech', but nothing stood out as blatantly good. I certainly can't think of any way to improve it beyond the already mentioned, though.

5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?

It's very pretty. However, actually using it gives the impression that one or two people each had an idea and then all of them ran with those ideas as far as they could without stopping to consider that there might be parts of the interface where alternative ideas were good. This is very noteworthy with the left-side dropdown menus, which have been abused to the point that they interfere with 'mech customization by requiring that they be used instead of any alternative method.

This should really take a cue from UI 1.5, where there are multiple options (paperdoll, list, visual of the 'mech itself) for choosing which part of the machine you want to customize. The same could be applied to some extent to other parts of the interface (most notably the pilot skill screen) where maybe the dropdown menus are all great and work perfectly well- just because one option is good enough doesn't mean nobody will want a different one.

6) Any other comments or concerns?

The vast majority of the visible commentary concerning the November UI 2.0 test was concerning various issues in the Mechlab. While it is understandable that nothing was actually -broken- in the programming or interface and thus it was not the first thing worked on, that absolutely nothing has been done to or said about changing the Mechlab since then is distressing. It would probably help if you were, as a group or through a representative individual, at some point explain why this is. It wouldn't have to be a very long explanation, but some sort of actual explanation (a reason, for instance, as opposed to 'we'll look into it') would probably alleviate some concerns from the playerbase or allow you to get a better impression of why or to what degree the playerbase places value on changing the way the UI 2.0 Mechlab is used.

Also, while it's neat that you have an audio cue for when a cursor has been moved over a button, I think you may be overdoing it by having it also trigger separately for each item on the left-side menu and each individual piece of equipment the cursor moves across.

[Alkabeth]

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview?
I like the overall feel and colors of the UI.
I liked that there was more information on the screen at one time.

2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?
Being shoehorned into one persons way of viewing/building their mech:
I couldn't "sort by" anything in the main view
Can't see weapons or skills in overview window for a mech
Can't tell which I own already in 'display all' view. This isn't a 'display all' view it is a 'buy now' view. Not a filter a mode change.
Trial mechs vanish in 'display all' which is where you'd buy them in the first place.
"Owned 0" needs more diferentiation from "Owned 1".
Battlemechs inventory: can't sort on mech class.
While configuring a mech I can't see what weapons it has. Hard to tell what engines I have.

3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?
Didn't use it. I play exclusively solo.

4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End?
Awkard to find items. Just a wall of images with no visual grouping.

5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?
Settings was okish. That it doesn't seem aware of my screensize seems odd.

6) Any other comments or concerns?
Just throwing stuff in list of images isn't really a solid interface any more than throwing up a bit text list. Without visual guidance, I can't find whatever I'm looking for.

[kazlaton]

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)
Seeing all your mechs at once.

2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?
Clicking on a mech will show you a bunch of semi-useless information like pitch and yaw, but not critical information like weapons currently loaded. If you want to see what weapons a mech has loaded, you have to go into the customization.

I also hate the beep-beep-beep noises that are generated whenever you mouse passes over anything. Please include an option to turn off this fracking annoying sound.

I also dislike that it also shows all current trial mechs. Please add an "Owned mechs" tab that will show only the mechs you own, not trial mechs.

3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?
Didn't notice any major difference.

4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End?
Good.

5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?
When customizing your mech, the options to pull in are given gigantic useless icons, and ridiculously small text to try and read. Please increase the text size.

6) Any other comments or concerns?

[Gofer]

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)
> I like the font change; although it is just a bit narrow and therefore blocks daylight which allows for easy reading

> I like that the interface appears to work similarly in different fields, although there is an uneasy feeling of "not being done" as one leaves portions of the interface (i.e. - did I save that correctly?)

2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?
> The mechlab is convoluted, everything is buried with all options displayed... WHY? Really.. All those engine choices benefit us how? (weight and theoretical speed in selected chasis are not even displayed - which WOULD add functionality... but, alas) C'mon guys - What is wrong with an interface like the "smurfy mechlab"; why not do something similar if you cant - JUST leave it the way it is now, Your 2.0 interface requries too much clicking back and forth without a feel that you are finishing or closing or saving...and without knowing which empty spaces and hardpoint limitations that you're filling.. does ANYONE think thats an improvement?

> Can't see how many free crit slots I have nor hardpoints (as we can now) - it is your intention to REMOVE FUNCTIONALITY?

> Why can we not organize our mechs in the way most people think - by CHASSIS TYPES? IMPROVED FUNCTIONALITY would allow for us to move Atlas chassis together, jenner chassis together, etc. BAD CRITIQUE: the TWO sorting options that your system allows is... ALPHABETICAL? and BY SELL COST ? REALLY? WHo CARES about naming in the meta picture.. and WHO cares about what your system will arbitrarily set pricing at ? We need to easily and clealy get to our MEDIUMS (overall) .. or Shadowhawks (specifically). Current functionality is NO IMPROVEMENT and DETRIMENTAL... current interface is easier to use and understand.. THis part is a FAIL.
> POSSIBLE BUG: Trial mechs appear to be showing up in my "owned mechs"?; this is probably not intended correct? If it IS intended.. it needs NOT to be...

> The skill trees should only show you owned mechs (or at least have an option for only owned mechs).

> Didnt try mech renaming - was it there? If not... Why not.?

3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?
> I see no improved functionality. None. Social system would have to work; would allow you to find peeps, or communicate. None of that happens. Stuff gets opened, but cant close... no improvement..

4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End?
> The systems does not immediately and clearly show if you are buying with MC or C-Bills

> The system does not appear to be arranged for easy or clear purchases.

5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?
> The system appears to be stable and run well; perhaps even abit faster from a framerate standpoint.
> Scrolling ingame text has same problems as current game - no option to change font color and therefore it disapears on white or yellow backgrounds... VERY POOR on the part of Devs to allow this to constantly go on without fixing ... dont understand why importantant info is not able to be visually seen and read for understanding. Also.. no scroll back function to see who died, who said something, etc.. just there and gone and the pilot remains ignorant of the unreadable data.

6) Any other comments or concerns?
> The dev's and the PR/Announcing side of the game seems to want to talk about everything as "new and shiny"; All the while the point is being missed that your user base wants functionality - this has giving us no improvement in communicating with other mech warriors, makes no improvement in FUNCTIONALITY of the mech bay garage functions, makes no improvement to the ingame player functions. I do NOT see that there is any IMPROVED fuctionality here - just months of effort to show us the same features, in a less intuitive and easy to use format... Please, dont consider this a win. It hurts to see you here. It hurts me as a user to report this to you. I'm a professional engineer by trade, I make buildings for humans to be productive in - Im obligated by law to tell the truth to clients, even when it's not what they want, to protect the public welfare.

MOST IMPORTANTLY: This UI2.0 does not improve our user experience, nor provide higher levels of functionality to your customer. How can we, the users help you understand better? What is it that you need us to say so that you believe us ? Help us help you to make this more successful.

Edited by Gofer, 16 January 2014 - 12:56 PM.

[Barantor]

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

I like the new font, the smoothness of the layout and the full screen mode of the whole backend UI.

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

No ability to see where my modules are once equipped on a mech. I have to go find them. Also the color choices for the weapon groupings for colorblind folks are not great.

3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?

Did not work for me, wasn't able to start a group due to not being able to see friends that were on.
I do believe the social button should be larger.

4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End?

Store menu is nice but I would like the option to toggle mc/cbill view before attempting purchases.

5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?

Love the new fonts and new naming, love you shortened AMS.

6) Any other comments or concerns?

No spinning of the mech in home screen is disappointing.
No indication which mech equipped modules are on.
Can't Rename mechs.
Can't organize mechs or pick favorites

[Beofryn]

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

I like the visual representation of the mechs in the skills tab. Makes it easier to remember exactly which one of my TDRs I should be working on most for XP grind. Along the same line the little symbols showing how far thru the mech skill tree you've taken that mech are nice.

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

Could not find any way to sort my mechs beside the default Hero:Champion:Others sorted by weight. I want to be able to put all my DRGs together, not have the Flame up top away from the others.

Could not see the loadout of a mech without actually selecting and going into the loadout process, then individually clicking into each separate area of the mech.

Same problem with modules. You actually made it much harder to find missing modules.

It took me quite a while to find the current tonnage of my mech while fiddling around with my build, then several more to realize I was looking at the max tonnage number instead of current. Part of this is putting it on the opposite side of the screen from what we are used to, but you also shrunk it down and put unnecesary graphics in there. Feels more cluttered for less effect.

The Inventory tab is nice, but you need it to show both Total Owned and Total Not Currently Equipped, not just Total Not Currently Equipped that you are calling Total Owned.

3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?

The little tiny button that I didn't realize was the Social system till I clicked it out of curiosity? Might need better labeling.

4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End?

Need to be able to see a mech's complete loadout before purchase. Not going to be buying any more mechs if I can't even see what hardpoints they have before purchase.

5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?

6) Any other comments or concerns?

Seriously guys, a new UI that takes several more clicks to show basic info or won't show it at all without making irreversible changes is not an improvement.

Well done in the Skills tab. This is an excellent example of giving us more info at a quick glance.

The inventory tab has potential, especially once you have it showing what mechs a particular piece of gear/module is equipped on.

[Godsbrother]

1. I like the overall look. I also liked that it felt much more responsive.
Weapon grouping in the front end is much appreciated.

2. The entire loadout section. It's confusing for a veteran, let alone for a beginner. Especially locations and armor. Really looking for something more like a TT mech sheet, smurfy, or the MWT interface. It's vitally important to easily understand where on the mech you're putting equipment. In this respect the current UI, while far from perfect, is superior to UI2.0

3. Didn't get to try the social system
4. Didn't look to hard at the stores
5. Didn't get to play a match, came in late to the test and focused on the front end.

6. Ok, in no particular order here are my notes (and sry if something was there and I just missed it)

Weapon groups: I'd like to see more exactly where a weapon is located. For grouping everything on the right or left side/arms more easily. Important for using cover effectively.

Modules/Upgrades/Weapons: INVALID ??? Why is it invalid? Costs too much? Weighs too much? Hasn't been unlocked yet? This should be obvious without having to click around and research it.

Camo: Move the color pallet off the mech. It's no good looking through all that to see if you like your color/pattern choices.
More colors choices visible at a time please.
Enable the mouse scroll wheel, clicking through all my colors is just annoying. Though would be less important if the UI could show all available colors at once

Purchasing/Previewing Mechs. HARDPOINTS? where are they? That's 3/4 of the reason for choosing any particular mech variant and I couldn't find the info

Mechbay: Leave trial mechs in their own tab separated from champion and purchased mechs. It's annoying that they show up in the other tabs with my purchased mechs. Most people are never going to use them once they've purchased and customized a few mechs of their own

Skill Tree: No info on previously owned variants. Would like to easily know which variants I've had before, if I mastered them, and the ability to exchange their excess xp for gxp if I so desire( missed chance to get that little bit more MC spent there)

Select game modes: Instead of the all or nothing approach, Any, or only one match type. It would be nice to be able to check, for example, Skirmish and Assault while leaving Conquest out. (I like conquest well enough, just an example)

[Flocus]

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)
I looked really freash and crispy and I like the design. Also the many additional information about mechs, weapons and equipment is a big plus. All-in-all it's a great improvement - you're on the right way!
2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?
I could not find an overview page where I could see the complete loadout of a mech. This is very confusing espcially as the current, "old" UI shows that information. That's a real drawback because I have a lot of mechs and need the fitted loadout to decide which mech to take.
5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?
I did not notice any major differences compared to the current UI.

[JD R]

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

The inventory, Menu and the new Mech Models.

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

Mechlab can’t even find the hardpoint list, the organisation of the Mechs I got nearly 100 Mechs so I don’t have a clear view of the Mechs, no part View of the UI I like the small Ui1.5 because I can work on the Desktop and see what happens in the Mechlab, too small symbols for tonnage CB, MC Mechbays.

3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?
Looks fine, the social button needs to be in a different color but its ok.

4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End?
There is a deficit of a clear structure it’s like you get all items thrown into you view and you can’t see what you are searching for.

5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?
Good job.

6) Any other comments or concerns?
If the Mechlab stays in this condition you will get a real big shitstorm

[Daggett]

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

• Visual Style
  
• Additional visual Information like torso twist and such. Really great stuff.
  
• Fullscreen

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

• ​Too small fonts in many areas, very hard to read
  
• Many Information areas are too near the edges of the screen, making them hard to see. Especially in conjunction with the small fonts. I suggest adding a 'safe area' around the screen edges where no information is displayed.
  
• The mech configuration is a usability nightmare. Information is segmented into many different sections and therefore hard to grasp at a glance. Also way too many clicks are needed. As many others already said, the smurfy layout is way better. It managed to fit everything needed on one single page without confusing the user. With UI 2.0 i feel confused even with less information displayed.
  
  Also why is it not at least jumping directly to loadout when i click 'configure'?
  
• When selecting a mech for playing i'm really missing information about it's loadout. With 20+ mechs in my bays i can't remember the loadout of each. I need to configure it and click through every section to see what it's carrying. That's almost a dozen unnecessary clicks.

3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?

Almost nonexistent because of the following:

• The button to see you friend list is way too small, almost hidden.
  
• You seem to heavily underestimate the importance of a permanent chat-window.
  Good social games confront their players with the chat immediately and tread it like an integral part of the game, of cause while giving the option to hide it. This way those games encourage their players to talk to each other.
  You do the exact opposite by initially hiding the chat and requiring users to actively activate it.
  
• You even have no global or faction chat. How do you think players are supposed to form lances if they can't ask in the chat for new teammates? Additionally a global chat would probably reduce the amount of Forum threads by allowing players to ask simple questions in the chat instead of spamming the forum.
  
• My friends are not testing UI 2.0 so i was unable to initiate a private chat. But i'm quite sure it works like in current UI and forces the players to choose between having the chat open OR using the mechbay instead of allowing them to do both simultaneously. Which is bad for socialising. BTW: With a global chat i could have asked someone to test this with me

4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End?

• Works for me, but by putting mech bay and premium time purchase into the store, you increased the number of clicks needed to purchase one of those. You should at least consider a shortcut to the shop for those things.

5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?

• It felt like you changed the fonts. If true, then keep 'em. They are really nice and crisp.

Edited by Daggett, 16 January 2014 - 01:07 PM.

[That Guy]

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)
high res full screen, good potential in future. it works. there is going to be epic amounts of crying over the fact that UI2.0 isnt the same as the current system, but once you get use to to its just fine. once some of the below issues get ironed out that is...

2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?
The Mech skin and painter. seriously i screamed "WHAT THE ****" when i got into that thing. really? this is a PC game, we have MICE. we dont need that console scroll through everything type menu. seriously a nice LIST of things would be nice. a LIST that we can scroll though and CLICK on with our MICE. the thing we WANT, not everything else but the damn thing that we want. what happened to that whole a "more unified UI experience" with 2.0? lists of things on everything else, but suddenly this scroll-y {Scrap}? make it GONE
Lack of mech info, both in mechlab and in the store. need to know what weapons it has, modules, and hardpoints. this need to be put in.
please dont even bother releasing UI2 with out these things

3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?
forgot about it, will check back later

edit: round two:
now that i have had a chance to mess with the social, it seems to be even less functional than our current UI. there is no messaging a player who is offline (and messages that were send disappear after going into a match), or in a match, and there seems to be no way to get some ones attention, even lacking the little blinking light indicating an invite or chat message. so i am not going to bother expanding on this because its quite clear this is just non-functional place-holder stuff for the time being. RIGHT...?

4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End?
I generally liked the store, but the lack of any sort features (light, medium, hero, all etc) or the missing mech info was a real pain.
additionally the way the store defaults to purchasing with MC is extremely annoying (and i made that mistake once, though luckily with the play money), please have the default payment be via CBills
also, the # owned icon in the store is nice, but it is confusing. only display that (owned #) if you own the mech, not for all the other mechs that you do not own. it will make navigation easier because of less clutter

and please have the info popout in the store like in the ML, and have it show weapons and hardpoints?

5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?
I liked the presentation and the more obvious buttons for tutorials and testing grounds (rather than that drop down menu). however when launching the pop up to select mode is kind of annoying (just another needless button press). maybe bring back the drop down menu for mission type like it is currently in the UI1.5

6) Any other comments or concerns?
-no double click to remove equipment from a mech.
-no ability to click the mech model to select the component we want (A, L, L/R/C Torso etc).
-when changing body parts in the mechlab its annoying that the menu dropdown selection defaults back to the item at the top of the list rather than what was selected previously, so if i was putting ammo in one torso and switch to the other torso to put more ammo, the weapon or equipment tab is opened, and i have to reselect ammo to continue on, adding in a few more unnessessary clicks. change it so what ever type of drop down you had open (Weapons, equipment, ammo), it stays open when you switch to a new body part. if that location dosnt have any of that type (weapons or engines), then it can default back to the top of the list
-allow us to view the mech XP efficiency trees on mechs that we do not currently own, but already have XP on. i want to know which mechs i played long ago and how much XP i have on them, and where it was spent, or how far i have to go etc.
-seriouly get rid of that awful mech painter. what were you all thinking? that preview pic on bryans twitter from a month ago had me worried, but seriously? its still like that? rip that out and build a new one. delay UI2 if need be

Edited by That Guy, 16 January 2014 - 06:08 PM.

[Nightcrept]

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)
The graphics looked very sharp and really popped




2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?
Very confusing and counter intuitive.




3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?
Didn't use it.





4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End?
Owned mechs need to say unowned unless it is owned.Or be a different color backround so red backround for unowned blue for owned and gold for selected.

Wow...confusing. Mechs need sorted by weight and hero-champion-regular.

Discriptions and basic layouts needed.





5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?
Everything except the mechbay area etc seemed fine. The user interface and all the menus was a mess though.

My in game experience was good and actually seemed a bit sharper graphics wise then normal.




6) Any other comments or concerns?
I found no way to have a set group of pre-loaded mechs that I could quickly switch to and from like the four we currently have on our home screens.
The menus are extremely disorienting especially the load out section.
I found the mech bay defaulting to the all owned mechs tab to be very very annoying.



Edit: After my lengthier play time tonight these are my additional thoughts.



Skills page

DEfault tab needs to be on light instead of all.
Move the all tab to the end of the list. It's just far too confusing to see everything at once.



Pilot trees.

Better discriptions.




Mech lab
Save or cancel options....everywhere please.


MOve the all tab to last position.
Seperate the mechs in the weight tabs by type like in the skills tab.


Loadout tab

Wow a mess. Seriously confusing.
No mech overview of the loadout.
Hard to understand.
Hardpoints are listed?
How do you see the slots available.
Needs paper doll display like ui1.5 added to rotating mech for easier understanding.


Modules tab

Need discriptions




Home tab

Selecting a mech is long and hard.

Mechs need sorted by type and have their basic stats, weapons grouping etc listed.




Bugs

Mech got stuck in game. Had to log out and back in to clear.

Edited by Nightcrept, 16 January 2014 - 05:48 PM.

[Trip Hammer]

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

• Overall look is nice and initial ability to find what I need is decent. (As an experienced player)
  
• Amount of data on the screen is a little overwhelming at first but after getting used to what I'm seeing its nice
  
• Full screen
  
• The ability to configure my weapons prior to entering a match (but I would like to know, when a weapon is in an arm or torso, which side it is in)
  
• Filters are good as well
  
• Inventory system

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

• Lost the ability to see where all of a mechs hard points are without first going into each section. (This is a step back honestly)
  
• Would like to see some kind of hover hint when mousing over the Hard Point symbols for new players
  
• Still no strip button for mechs in the Mechlab
  
• I DO NOT like being forced to leave the loadout tab so that I can add modules or purchase mech upgrades. This should all be under the loadout section for easier access
  
• Over all the old mechlab is better in my opinion

3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?

• I didn't have enough time to really look this over

4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End?

• Nothing exciting here. Its functional but meh.

5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?

• Didnt get a chance to look at this as it crashed the game when I tried to launch.

6) Any other comments or concerns?

• Overall I liked the amount of information you are providing, however I think that the use of space is klunky and poorly implemented where new players are concerned. As a first impression of a game I think this could be very daunting. As a comparison when first playing EVE online its all a bit much to take in but they have over the years really polished off the New Player experience by explaining what everything is and how to use it. There is nothing here, YET, to offset that.
  
• I'm still not impressed with how you are implementing the mechlab and once again from a new player standpoint I think it is way to busy, divided and there is too much back and fourth when trying to kit out a mech.

[Doctor Proctor]

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

*The new colors and less bulky look are nice.

*The ability to filter out and look at subcategories for a lot of things is nice, especially in the mechbay portion of the UI.

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

*The ability to skip the intro splashscreen with spacebar seems to be disabled. Having to watch that EVERY TIME I boot the client will get old very fast.

*I run this game on laptop with a GT540M with 1GB of VRAM and a 2.2GHz Core i7 processor. While I get that this is not the most powerful computer, it usually displays my mechs in the mechbay reasonably well. With the new UI 2.0 models though, everything looks muddy and blurry. I can barely tell what colors are present or what camo is on a mech due to how terrible it looks.

*The layout of mechs in the mechbay is a bit confusing. I would much prefer if, for example, all of my Jenners were in one line/group, and all of my Locusts were in another. As it was, it displayed the Locust 1V(P) separately from the other Locusts, then a few of the Jenners, then a Trial Spider (even though I don't technically "own" that mech) and then another Jenner IIRC. This made it difficult to weed through some of the mess and find the appropriate chassis and variant that I was looking for. If all variants of a chassis were grouped together with some kind of separator, or alternatively if there was another series of dropdowns below the weight class selector for individual chassis, then this would be a lot cleaner.

*The complaint above applies to many things in general in UI 2.0. While the different subgroups help, it would also just clear a lot of things up if various items were grouped together using either different lines or some sort of separator border to make them stand apart.

*Too many important things, such as the current tonnage of your mech when in the loadout section, are relegated to the bottom right corner. This can make them hard to see at times, although that might be partially due to the small font. In the current UI all of the overview info, mech portrait and part list are essentially in a row across your screen. In UI 2.0 there's a lot more of searching around all corners of the screen to find what you're looking for, which can be a bit tiring.

3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?

*The social system seemed to work just fine, but again, relegating it to a bottom corner can make it easily overlooked. I didn't have anyone send me test invites in game, but I know that in the current UI I've overlooked some before because there's no good notifications system (or if there is, it was obscured by my taskbar because I can't fullscreen or resize the current one to better fit my screen and resolution). A popup saying you have new invites/invites that were accepted, or simply causing the social icon to blink would help with that a lot for those of us who don't check it constantly on our own.

4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End?

*The store seemed okay, except that again, the sort of hodge podge way that mechs are grouped can make it difficult to browse through it.

5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?

*Unfortunately, I played around in the mech bay for too long and didn’t get to launch, so I have no opinion on changes to the in game UI.

6) Any other comments or concerns?

*I’m assuming that the mech skills section was not fully implemented in this preview, because it was acting rather strangely. All skills would say “Unlocked”, even on mechs that I knew I hadn’t mastered. Unless I missed an option to purchase the next tier, which should have been possible to do with all the GXP available.

[Bootsock]

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview?

The overall look and presentation are much improved and look far better generally, it actually appears on the face of things to be a much more professional and appealing product to use.

Decent performance in game on Crimson Strait showed me around 84FPS in game which was pretty decent (although highlighted that my 'Vsync' setting from last time must have become unchecked).

Cockpit glass was good to see finally.


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

In the limited time I had to test, I couldn't find a way to window just the front screen UI. This feature is important to me because I often am doing other things on the PC between games too.

The UI workflow is seriously unintuitive and baffling.

As an experienced 'Mechwarrior' even I'm confused with the layout and some of the design decisions just seem plain odd. As a new user I can't imagine how they would get on with using it, for example I quickly asked someone who'd not seen it before what they though and they didn't even have a clue what was going on.

Some simple examples from 'Mechlab':


Why can't I click an arm [on the selected 'mech which appears on-screen to the right] to configure an arm? This is not-welcoming or intuitive, and makes me wonder as a user why the mech is even appearing on screen in the first place when I've selected it.

Why are weapons items and slots not clearly colour coded* to assist picking what goes where? If there's a ballistic weapon slot and a ballistic weapon, why aren't these clearly colour coded* the same so I'm drawn to them? This would massively help new users particularly. Also, what's wrong with the straw man, why re-invent the wheel when it's not needed? We use the straw man in game to show armour so it's familiar to the user, so why not use it in the UI too but just bigger and optimised to show criticals? (*Clearly colour coded as in Energy is blue, Ballistic is red, missiles are yellow, etc.)

When something is already equipped on a 'mech (e.g. LLAS in a selected arm), why is there simply no little 'x' (the common computer language for close or remove) next to equipped items to indicate I can quickly remove by clicking it rather than having to drag and drop them into nothing?

Available item icons are huge compared to tiny little slots to equip them to (e.g. the icon for 'machine gun' is roughly the same size as all the slots available on the selected location.

When using mech-lab, the 'mech image on right changes. When using pilot skills, this remains on the last mech selected on mech-lab. Why not update this to be what I'm clicking on in pilot skills when I've gone to that menu?

Also, in 'mechlab' it would make far more sense having the items on the right pane (e.g. 'mech name, hard-points, speed, structure, heat-sinks, etc.) all aligned right so they aren't covered up by pop-ups from the large left to centre pane (e.g. the information pop-up with all the pitch, yaw, etc.).


3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?

I actually nearly missed it hiding down in the bottom left. It was OK to adequate, although in-built social features are often wasted on me using a PC game - if I want to be social I'll simply go on whatever relevant website I need, or just pick up the phone. If it was aimed at something like a PSN or Xbox Live game, social facilities would need to be a lot better. No one in my friends was online so testing was limited on this.


4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End?

Functional enough, but there's no apparent scaling or resolution optimisation, so all the store was squashed up to about 2/3 available screen space into four windows, as a result two of these had horizontal scroll bars leading to lots of wasted screen space and unnecessary scrolling.


5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?

The in game interface looked great when I got into a game, generally seemed to do the same thing as before, but more polished and appealing in appearance.


6) Any other comments or concerns?

Filters are clunky, tabs could be better and quicker e.g. just a row rather than drop downs in the same location e.g. "ALL | Owned | Unowned (or Store?)" - default should be 'owned' too, not 'all' because this is misleading as to just how many 'mechs I own. Other filters which would be useful are missing for example I don't really need to see a list of dozens of engines I can't use or don't own, filters here would be useful e.g. "All | Owned | Unowned | Valid | Invalid"

Finally, I don't understand the need to keep the top-bar other than for 'launch', just get rid and incorporate with the left bar, using expanding sections to vastly simplify navigation rather than swapping between using the top and side bars to navigate. e.g.

Home
Mechlab
Skills
Faction
Store (selected item expands to show...)
- Battlemechs
- Mechbay
- Boosters

^ This makes far more sense to me.

Hope the feedback helps and good luck getting UI 2.0 out of the door.

Edited by Bootsock, 16 January 2014 - 01:06 PM.