357 replies to this topic

[WM Fochs]

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)
I liked the look, and feel of the new system. it took me a little time to get used to it though, a lot less than the previous 2.0. graphics looked great. i loved the way the mechs were larger so you could see what you were doing to them in the load out and cammo tabs. Menu options screen was easier to read (from being full screen) i liked the glass in cockpit look. i really enjoyed the overall appearance of the 2.0.
2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?
This evening i was able to join in groups and play with some of my team mates. The games were a blast and looked awesome the biggest problem was seeing my clan mates. they werent all on my friends list at one time. We jointly figured out about deleting some of the off line friends we could "make room" for the others.
3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?
looked good, it was nice being able to change color and modules to mechs without "un-readying" ourselves. We still need to work one a lobby system where we can change maps and mechs according to drop weights or a drop dec.

4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End?
store menus were great. i think it helped that i have been doing almost all the public tests so far (except for one) and knew how to operate them.
5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?
very easy to use, everything worked well together.

6) Any other comments or concerns?
we still need a training area were a few others can be in with you to help teach the basics more than the automation does. pop up targets or a mech range with pop ups would be VERY helpful. also a "help" tab or key to show people how to operate something in the menu system would be great. (since there are no paper printouts as to how to operate the menus.)
the graphic next to weapon readouts on range and heat might be better served on a different tab to show them and the over all mech heat and damage. (ala "Heavy Metal mech design software")
overall a much better direction for the game and system. Now if you can get all the things in you promised at start i will look at buying again. (esp the clan mechs)

[Allora]

First I'd like to give a little background. I'm a game developer. I've been in the industry for about 7 years, and have about a dozen games under my belt.

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

• I liked the snappier feel. Everything is much more responsive. Buttons actually click! (sad to say that is a plus... since the previous UI does not always work that way... )
  
• I liked that I could filter on mechs in my mechbay. It made finding the right mech much quicker.
  
• Everything looked clearer and easier to read.
  
• I liked the general placement of things, but there are many places where this isn't always true.
  
• I like being able to configure weapon groups in the menu, but it seems kinda silly to do it the same way as in game. Why not just let someone click on the groupings directly? This seems so strange to me.

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

• There is ALOT of wasted space. This causes the user to get lost really easily in the UI. Half the buttons and information don't get seen because they're spread all over the place with large gaps between useful information. For example, I was configuring my mech, hit back, and didn't get any sort of warning dialogue i was about to lose my settings. I never clicked check out cuz I never saw it. All my configurations were lost.
  
• There are simultaneously too many dialog boxes to click through, and not enough. By this I mean, there aren't "catches" for things like my problem above. When I hit back to get out of the mech configuration menu, it should have said "oh you're leaving with unsaved things! do you want to save?" On the flip side, when I add equipment to my mech there are literally 4 or 5 "ok" and "yes/no" dialogs to click through. This whole issue can be done more efficiently.
  
• Filtering. Filtering is great, and the little bit of filtering on the UI is SO useful. However. There is not enough filters. In the mech configure screen I want to filter everything. I want to be able to look at weapons and only see those i can put on my mech's body part. I want to be able to filter out equipment based on weight, slot count, type (energy, ballistic, missile, etc). I want to be able to click a button and filter out ammo that I don't have a weapon for. This shouldn't just be applied to the configuration menus though. This should be EVERYWHERE there is multiple items to select.
  
• No useful information is displayed when a mech is selected. Even with the mouse over information (useless, who cares about the pitch rates and angles, you learn those while playing). At a quick glance looking at mechs in your mech bay, you have NO idea what their loadouts are without diving into their configure screen. This info can be stuck into that mouseover about pitches and headings.
  
• Mech icons could use work. The text is so small. The whole icon could stand to be a tiny bit bigger with larger text, just so you can more easily tell which mech you want.
  
• Configuring a mech is painful. Its really hard to read equipment loadouts of each area in a mech. Its really unclear what body part you are in, what is in it, and how to add/remove items.

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

• Garbage. More explanation below
  
• Why does it cover EVERYTHING. There is SO much space in the new UI that you can put your buddy list on the right side some where, embeded in a side bar, ALWAYS available for interaction. As it is now you can't really multi task with it. You are either IN it or not.
  
• Chat windows should be something that can be minimized into a dock along the bottom of the window (maybe similar to LoL but I really dislike that system too )
  
• I can't tell when i get invites. There are no notifications that I have recieved group invites or anything. Part of this is also cuz it is hidden most of the time cuz i am in mech bay, or some other thing
  
• Clicking ready is really whack. Why do I have to go into the social menu and then click read? Can't I just click a ready button? Even better have a group tab in the social side bar and have the "ready" button by your name there.

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

• Also Garbage. More below...
  
• NO FILTERING. MUST FILTER. It is REALLY hard to find the mech you want. A search option would be nice, a filter option even better. It would be cool to filter on weight class, chassis, etc.
  
• NO INFORMATION! How can I tell the mech I'm about to buy has the weapon slots I want? Does it come with double heatsinks already (this can factor into my choice since most of the time i'm too broke to afford double heatsinks off the bat) This might make the mech more appealing to buy over another. There is just so much information about a mech that is relevant, and there is NOTHING listed when you click on it. Not even the silly pitch and rotation stats are listed.
  
• When you click on a mech to buy, why doesn't the mech on the UI change to that one? I wanna see what I'm buying.

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

• Feels snappier and faster. Also seems a bit more crisper in appearance. Readable.

6) Any other comments or concerns?


There are lots of good ideas going on here, but it's just not refined. There are so many smal overlooked details, that I would say the whole UI still needs at least a few polish passes. Its going in a good direction, but the shortcomings make the current live UI superior in many ways. The scattered layout, lack of information, and general directionless design of the UI flow seems to really hurt this new UI.

Edited by Allora, 16 January 2014 - 07:13 PM.

[Yorsuga]

1) It's just so wonderful to have more of my 'mechs onscreen as I'm scrolling through the mechlab, and not having to click through them one at a time. Also, the popup showing the pitch and yaw was handy. I liked the overall presentation, colors, and feel.

2) I miss having a paper doll to click on during 'mech configuration. I was constantly getting confused on what section of the 'mech I was editing. I had a hard time finding a display of how many slots I had free, and when my configuration was done I couldn't figure out what my build was without going back in to edit it. Overall, configuring my 'mechs proved very frustrating.

3) Didn't get a chance to investigate it.

4) Store menus were nice and functional. I like how they are organized.

5) It looks slick and has a lot of visual improvements. It took me a while to figure things out though. I'm not sure if that's just because I'm used to the current set-up or not.

6) A lot of steps in the right direction... with the exception of 'mech configuration, that needs some work. I experienced more load time than the current UI, but it wasn't too bad. I'm personally just excited for when we finally get to rename 'mechs so I can give names to my phoenix collection!

Edited by Yorsuga, 16 January 2014 - 07:04 PM.

[Kael Posavatz]

Adding to what I posted earlier.

Still ambivalent about the store
I did like seeing the torso pitch/twist and similar mech data.
I liked the weapon data, drop-off in damage over range, etc.

Otherwise....I like the current iteration of the mech-lab better.
I did not see a button that would entirely strip a mec chassis.
Being able to save weapon/armor/engine, etc, configurations would be nice.

The group/social button is very innocuous compared to what we currently have.

[Obsessed One]

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

I like the visual changes, take a little to get use to compared to the current live. Game play seems better,faster however I fear it maybe due to the decreased amount of people on the public test. I like the loadout changes, some additional options for maxing, striping, armor and mech would be a bonus. The bonus MC,GXP,c-bills really allowed me to explore alot of the front-end. inventory

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

Other then the clitchs and bugs that are to be expected with previews I found the load out info a touch clutered when dealing with alot of info, such as engines. I like the organization of it and it may be due to graphics settings, however slight color chage or definitions between the panels could make areas such as engines easier on the eyes.

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

Unfortunitly my group wasn't on, visually its a bit nicer then the live. It would be nice to be able to monitor whats going on while doing other things. I like the hint at a transparency for the social section. I think it would ideal to see the social overlay as a transparency that allows you to see the groups chat and info while still maintaining the ability to do other things such as configure a mech.

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

I like the menu grouping, its easy, breaks the info down into smaller easy to find sections, and still allows browsing.

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

I like the visual changes to the drop. over all the in game seemed a bit; better faster, more responsive. I do however have concern this was largly due to decreased numbers in the test.

6) Any other comments or concerns?

For my first public test I enjoyed it, and it exceeded my expectations. I was hoping to see changes to the group sizings though. My group and I often find ourselves fielding numbers from 5 -8. Other then fielding 2 groups and timing launchs (suprising how often this works) we have no option to group as one. I suspect there are many groups like this who have more then 4 but less then 12 and it would be really nice to have an option for these groups to group as one.

[Xenon Codex]

Ok, overall it looks nice. Just a few things I saw that bugged me.

1)
It was a bit confusing to have to navigate back to the "Home" tab (across the top) in order to sell equipment and Battlemechs. The "Sell" option should also be available in the Mechlab while configuring a mech.

For example, if I need to sell some of my medium lasers to buy another PPC for a build I'm working on, I have to completely exit my configuration screen to do so. In the current Mechlab it is easy as pie.

2)
From the "Home" screen after logging in: The "Select Mech" button on the left and the "Mechlab" button on the top go to the same place. This is redundant! Which makes the whole menu system seem circular and confusing from the get-go.

The "Select mech" should go immediately to what is now Home->Inventory->Battlemechs. This lists all owned mechs and scrolling down through the list should display detailed information on the current loadout similar to what the current Mechlab displays so we can easily choose a mech. There should also be a "Configure" button in the detail screen (next to the "Sell"), that takes you directly to the Mechlab.

On a positive note, I do like the Inventory screens. Very simple and easy to see all my things in one place, not cluttered with pictures and text like in the Mechlab.

If you just listed the entire loadout of Battlemech's here (wepaons, modules, # heatsinks, etc.), then it would satisfy a lot of complaints.

3)
Mechlab still sucks. No other way to put it. No summary screen, no overall armour distribution screen. We've been spoiled my Smurfy's. Adapt or die PGI.

Also, concering the graphics for the items...you need to change the colors to something darker than bright white. A light gray would be fine, or a light blue, anything to differentiate the item graphics from the text as we scan a screenfull of inventory. While you're at it, make the "owned" number for items a different color also. That's all.

4)
No joystick support! I know, work in progress but seriously! I didn't even bother dropping into a match or trying Social 'cause I can't play anymore without my 'stick.

5)
Simple suggestion for the MC/C-bill and Premium time box in the lower left. It looks out of place. Would look much better if spread across the bottom as it is currently. Bottom horizontal placement seems to be a standard among games for "money" and such anyway, it's more natural to gamers.

OTHER THOUGHTS

- Cockpit glass looked ok. It's not "AWESOME" by any means, but easy to ignore and doesn't affect visibility. I don't think it really adds to the immersion because it is so subtle, and I probably wouldn't have noticed if I wasn't looking specifically for the effect. I hope it didn't take much time to implement, as I'd much rather your engineers work on more important issues.

- Other menu items looked fine by me. Pilot skills, modules, etc. No problems other than color scheme as identified above.

- I really hope this is the official feedback thread! If not, please move this post. (and identify the thread in your announcement for crying out loud!)

[ElohiemMilitant]

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

-I like the inclusion of the pitch and yaw angles of the torso and arms. listing that data is nice to know.

-I like the weapon specification mouse over menu when it popped up. Listing the damage drop off in a graph is quick and intuitive to read. (Wished it worked more consistantly)

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

-Poor use of the surrounding screen in the main menu. I run the game in 1920x1080; the mech image and surrounding menus take up very little of that area that could have mech summary menus or other pertinent information that makes referencing data way faster. I feel like just expanding the center menu is a poor use of space, I think I hate to see 7 separate columns showing different mechs or weapons. A lot of the right ideas are in there they just need to be implemented in a more intuitive way.

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

-Improved, but only negligibly better . I feel like I can actually do even less than before while I'm waiting for friends to ready up. The Chat window itself is better than before. I would rate it overall subpar for a 2014 game. Warcraft, over a decade before, had a better chat system. I feel like the designers are going way out of their way to make a unique system when there were already successful styles out there.

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

It's nice to see that you can check on the price of mechs even if you don't have a free mechbay. But that is about all. The fact that the game opens up a web browser to make changes to your account is very disappointing, it certainly completes the cycle of "why bother?" when you go to purchase MC and it just takes you to the site that you already know how to get to. I surprised you can't purchase anything else from the "store" I feel like 50% of the purchasable items in the game are only available in the mechlab. I feel like the label "store" is misleading, "Mech dealership" might make more sense.

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

In a match? The same.

6) Any other comments or concerns?

I disappointed that the "Company Commander" and "Lance Commander" tactical map options haven't been expanded or improved in any way. Public matches you can't really use them to any real effect because you arn't able to quickly communicate with pub players you don't know.

[Omaximus Tseng]

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview? The cockpit glass is a nice touch, and also a nice view of your mech that you have selected on the home screen. Graphics look great , controls pretty much the same. I think it will be fine once you get used to it 2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview? The mech lab is trash, Thats my only problem. Just the fact you cant see the load-out of any of the mechs. I like to have the abilty to see what im paying for when i buy a mech 3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End? Its ok 4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End? Its ok 5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface? Had no issues with that.

[SH0GUN]

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview?
Looks great and very immersive. Full screen view of the mech was fantastic. Mechlab in particular has improved greatly in appearance and I quickly adapted to the new mech customization interface of the mechlab. With a few tweeks it will be nearly perfect.
The graphic interface that popped up for mech comparison on the home screen was a very nice touch too. I feel that graphs that show various mech attributes like torso twist rate do a much better job of getting the information across that what you get from reading a number in the patch notes.
2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?

• Same colors used over and over for the interface. Would it be possible to have a more prominent color be used for important things like XP, GXP C-Bills, etc.. so that they draw the eye?
  
• How about some sort of warning prior to drop. What I mean by this is would it be possible to include some sort of pop-up that warns you of unused module slots or mech tonnage being less than maximum when you click on Launch?
  
• Inventory screens. These seem to only show the components that were currently NOT mounted in a mech and said nothing of the dozens of items I currently own but are loaded up in one mech or another. Could we get some sort of master list too showing everything that is owned and then be able to filter it by availability? Or better yet make everything uninstalled until we click on one of our saved mech configurations prior to launch. For players like me who own dozens of chassis the task of keeping track of where everything is currently located can be overwhelming. Some help in this department would be greatly appreciated.
  
• Home screen. Loads of empty space available here. What about some sort of configuration summary window for the mech currently displayed in the background. (The one you'll be dropping with)?
  
• Mechlab. Broken record time: Smurfy has the right idea with the one-click options in the Tools section to strip mechs of equipment, armor, max armor, etc... The current system and the one proposed in UI 2.0 is tedious.

3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?
Didn't see any friends on during the test but it needs a more prominent button in the interface.

4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End?
Sorry, didn't visit this section.
5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?
I did not mind the cockpit glass as much as others did but I would mind it even less if we had actively updating cockpit screens to take our attention away from the windows. So that is why people complain about the smudginess of the windows; because they have nothing else to look at. Otherwise it was great. GJ team.
6) Any other comments or concerns?
Much improved over the current system and will get even better with our feedback.

[Nemesis Duck]

Here's my feedback:

- I like the new UI and think it's a marked improvement over the old one.
- I love the accurate display of mech heights and being able to compare their sizes.
- Full screen, the new UI runs my GPU at ~80% with fans ablaze. It would be nice if this can be tamed.
- Some choppiness when switching views, my FPS would drop to 9 when switching from mechlab to skills and 14 switching from skills to mechlab.
- There are side out modals that appear when you hover over certain things. I think globally all slide outs should appear at least 0.5 seconds faster.
- The Home screen is empty, as well as Configure's home screen. These should contain something like ...
- No overview of all weapons the selected mech has installed. A summary view is definitely needed.
- In the loadout selection, I love the armour being right there, but this entire modal should be pushed to the top, just below the mech's name, instead of being center aligned.
- Additional to this same modal, the squares that are half coloured that represent the total number of weapons of a type that may be installed in the selected component, a user should be able to drag the square off, which immediately reappears but has the effect of removing all weapons (maybe ammo too) of that type from the selected component.
- In the inventory view, add a sort by type or category, which could be useful for the weapon and battlemech lists.

[Harbinger Prime]

Firstly 2 hours is not enough time to truly evaluate 2.0 that being said Thank you for having the full screen.

The new garage interface took some time to figure out but I would have to play with it more to determine if it is better than the old one.

The store has a problem in that it does not show what the Mech's are loaded out with, so you do not know what you are buying until it is bought.

I would like to know why time was wasted on the glass and you still can not change the HUD colors, the yellow still gets washed out on some maps making targeting difficult.

Hopefully you will have more time to evaluate it and be able to be more constructive with our comments.

Edited by Harbinger Prime, 16 January 2014 - 07:55 PM.

[SnowdogJJJ]

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)
Anything new is nice, full screen was good. Can't say much more and be positive

2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?
No overall view of my load out, I could not see what was equipped at a glance

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

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

5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?
In game, cockpit glass ok ok, but a distraction

6) Any other comments or concerns?
IMO the UI is poorly laid out, but you knew that.. As if no thought went into it, and I am hoping that is completely wrong on my part. It feels like a 1st draft, pre Alfa and that just can be true.. So maybe it's just me

We all wish you the best of luck and hope it gets better over time, you get so many thing right how can you have this so wrong?

[Syrkres]

Try this again...
To qualify I have been a software developer 25+ years, and work on front end systems (business apps), so I expect a few things to work.

Fonts: Everywhere FONTS are the worst! Can't ready half the stuff. Settings 1280x720



Social: Where or where are my friends... How do I find social... Make group would be nice... oh there it his three small heads at the bottom with no indicator, no text popup, nothing... thought it was background clutter.

Now that I found social, tried making a group, could see where to invite anyone, or accept an invitation. Oh well, how do I get out.... had to kill client to exit.

After I restarted a guilding dropped in chat and mentioned "X", couldn't find it for a long time - too hard to see.

Group invites, half members online are not visible, Invites people sent me did not get.

Finally got invite from one, barely could read it, accepted, now I select my mech, now where do I ready up... oh had to go back to social to ready up.

People that are online are not showing up in social, also sending a friend invite does not seem to work, sent multiple and got several (never saw them).

Player was out of match (in mech lab) but still showed as "deployed" on my screen for group.



Settings: Let me set to display my founders tag, went back to check to see if it stuck (unlike the current game) and hey where did my option to show/hide my founders tag?
Set my video up to 1920x1080 and fonts were clearer but still too thin. A guildie tried to set it to 1920x1080 to get the better fonts and it pushed his off the edge of the screen so he couldn't reset it.

Video, set my options (brightness and gamma) up, noticed there was no indicator of what my actual settings was, just a value of 1.

None of the settings adjusted, all seemed to stay at a setting of 1.




Mech Lab: Can't see loadout of mech before you buy one. Could not easily see mech layout without going into config. In current mech lab I can see all what my mech has, which modules, weapons, etc, now I can't see any of that, big backward step.

When I was in mech lab and filtered to "Owned" it still showed Trial Mech as a "Buy" mech. I was filtering to "OWNED" not TRIAL.

When I switched/filtered to "Display all, I couldnt tell which ones I currently owned and which ones I didn't. Everyone was buy, yes I may want to buy a second chasis of a mech, but it should still show me which ones I currently own and which I do not.

Once I readied up, even if I went into Mech lab and pulled a piece of equipment off, it did not unready me.

Also to exit mech lab without saving, you have to move to up top and "Back" (not 100% clear) where as If I want to save mech I click BUY. There should be a cancel at the bottom next to buy.

Click on mech sections would be nice rather than having to drill down through different menu systems.

Also having to drag item off seems unatural.

Finding where to Change armor was extremely hard.

When I made no changes I hit "Checkout" and it didn't save it. tried again and didn't save - kept me in mech lab, only then did I realize I had to click back.



Skills: When you drill down into a mech (which I like) when I click on the mech nothing happens. took sevearl tries before I noticed the "mech tree". Why can I click on Mech and it does nothing?



Launch: When I go to launch I see the different modes have check boxes (NOT RADIO) so I assumed I could check multiple - only reason for check boxes. But I could not.

Once we got ready and deployed only the leader deployed, the other 2 of us were left at "ready". I was not on the "Social screen".

We formed a group this time we couldn't find other players, so we went to reform group. He left group - and it did not remove him from group. and I did not become leader, I had to leave group.

Can't type before a match starts.


Game Play: well last match (gave up after it) everyone seemed out of sync. Could see people running around, but when I shot at them nothing hit (lasers). People were dying and I shot at the range I could see fire coming from (no mech though) and it registered hits. When I had a mech locked I would fire my SSRM2 point blank and no registered hits.

[Mawai]

Dear PGI,

I will attempt to make this feedback clear and concise. The following comments cover the Mechlab, Pilot lab and some store functionality. The servers went down before I could test further.

Summary: Overall the UI has a much nicer look and feel than the previous version. However, there are many usability elements that are not well designed or laid out that significantly detract from the overall user experience.


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

- The overall look and feel is nicer.
- The choices of colours and screen elements are generally good.


2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?
I have some detailed impressions and comments.

Mechlab

1) When you mouse over your available mechs it brings up an information screen showing turning radius at speed and other charts. If you click on and select the mech it lists tonnage/firepower etc at the bottom right of the left pane. HOWEVER, it does not display critical information like engine, modules and weapons equipped. When you are surveying your mechs this is critical information ... especially if you are looking for a particular weapon, module or engine to transfer to another mech.

2) Mech configure screen. The initial impression of the mech configure screen is confusing and cluttered. When I click to configure a mech ... it comes up with the Center torso equipment selected which displays several pages of "invalid" engines. The page should show the maximum engine rating that can be fitted and have a check box to display or not display items that won't fit (those currently labelled "invalid".)

3) When changing the contents of a mech section ... the selector is on the left of the screen ... but the mech section that is being adjusted appears on the right with all of the equipment/weapon screen stuffed in between. It would be more intuitive if the display of the mech section contents was adjacent to the selector.

4) Adjusting armor one mech section at a time is frustrating, slow and inconvenient. There should be a separate panel to allow allocation and distribution of armor to all mech sections at the same time.

5) Hardpoints are identified by colour coded icons. These icons aren't as obvious as they could be ... e.g. AMS hardpoint icon. In addition, clicking on the hardpoint on the right should switch the equipment panel to the associated weapon selection panel. Finally, the colours chosen to identify the hard points themselves could cause issues for people who are colour blind since you have chosen red/orange/green which are colours that can often be an issue for colour blind people.

6) The pictures on the equipment page are huge compared to the text descibing what the item is and it's cost. As pretty as the pictures are, people can not identify the item and its cost from the pictures. The text should be larger and pictures smaller. In addition, there should be a check box to leave the graphic out entirely and have a text only list that will take up far less screen space.

7) As mentioned in other feedback. A double click to add and remove items from the mech would be very useful ... in addition to the current drag functionality. IF the specific critical slots assigned to an item made a difference or if order or placement mattered then you would need the drag and drop ... since these are irrelevant, the double click to add/remove makes sense.

8) Need a strip fitting button to completely remove all items from a chassis.

9) When adding and removing items, a key element is the current tonnage. However, this is only displayed in a small font on the lower right in the mech summary with the orange bar chart. The mech tonnage needs to be in a larger font and more prominently displayed since it is used all the time while fitting.

10) It wasn't obvious that "Check out" was the button to press to save your configuration. Check out implies "pay" and many times when you modify your mech there is nothing to pay. "Save" or "Save Config" would be much more intuitive and it would be followed up the confirmation dialog if you have to pay anyway.

Pilot Lab

1) Experience acquired on mechs you don't currently own is NOT displayed. The pilot lab needs to display ALL your experience on all mechs whether you own the chassis or not. Perhaps highlight the background of mechs you currently own.

Store

1) The screen to buy a battlemech needs to allow sorting by weight class at least. At the present time it is just a wall of mechs that you need to search through to find what you want.

2) When buying mechs that are available for either Cbills or MC ... the DEFAULT should be set to Cbills (unless the player has insufficient Cbills). I played around with buying a mech and had to switch from MC to cbills ... this default setting is just going to result in my work for your customer service department when people make mistakes.

3) There was a bug in mech purchase. I bought 4 extra mech bays to play around with which appeared to work. I then bought a Golden Boy and a Grid Iron Limited Edition to see what would happen. The screen showed 1 owned of each of these. However, when I went back to the Mechlab and looked at the hero mech tab ... only the Golden Boy had been added to the hero mechs ... the Grid Iron could not be found.


3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?
Not tested. Test session time window too small.

4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End?
Not tested. Test session time window too small.

5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?
Not tested. Test session time window too small.

6) Any other comments or concerns?

Overall the UI looks nicer, however, there are many usability and layout issues which make the new UI much less effective, fun and intuitive than it could and should be. In all likelihood bug fixing and stability have been the highest priority issues followed by making sure that the basic functionality is available in some form. I think they are achieving these basic goals but in order to entice and retain players who are less experienced with the game ... the UI really needs to be more streamlined and polished than its current state.

[Buso Senshi Zelazny]

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

I like the style and crispness the UI has. It feels much cleaner, and more modern.

2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?
My least favorite part was the Mechlab. There was single spot where I could see the information about everything that was on my Mech. The table showing the speed, tonnage, firepower, and heat efficiency was much too small and tucked away in the bottom of the screen where you hardly noticed. The information on the right side of the screen in the current Mechlab was nonexistent, and that is the truly important information to know (weapons, engine, heatsinks, modules, etc). Also, the list of components is a huge waste of space. The icons don’t add anything useful, and just make the list take up way more room than it needs too. I would revert that back to the drop-down style lists that we have now, cut that section in half vertically, move the display of the Mech more towards the middle, and then move the Mech Summary to fill the entire right side.

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

It would be nice if it didn’t lock out the rest of the screen. Other than that, all it needs to do is let me add friends and Join/Create groups.

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

I didn’t use the store.

• What are your impressions of the in-game interface?

I didn’t like that the fonts were smaller. They were crisper, but caused more strain on the eyes. It would be nice if they would scale up with the screen resolution.
6) Any other comments or concerns?
I could live with everything as it is right now except the Mechlab. It was confusing and difficult to navigate compared to our current Mechlab or Smurfy’s. The customization is already daunting for new players, the UI should help alleviate that, not make it worse.

[Traceroute]

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

Weapon groups in the mechlab!

Cockpit glass is gorgeous

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

The mechlab requires very long mouse movements to work with loadouts. I think the placing of items in the middle of the screen with small text and repetitive art makes it very hard to make changes, especially since the mech summary is at the very bottom right in small print. I would much prefer that the hardpoint counters have text again, the summary is at the bottom left, and the item table is to the right. (Select body segment > current loadout > items available for purchase.)

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

I didn't notice a significant change.

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

I didn't spend any time in the store.

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

The game itself seems clearer and the fonts bolder. I like it.

6) Any other comments or concerns?

Please make the loadout screen less painful. It's very cumbersome on a 24" monitor.

Edited by Traceroute, 16 January 2014 - 07:45 PM.

[Marvin Martian]

1) Prettier interface, looks nicer, better render of my mech, fullscreen front end
2) Can't see hardpoints or loadouts of mechs without purchasing them and then customizing them
3) Didn't use it in front-end. I have no friends
4) I like the current store more than the new store other than being able to see my potential mech rendered. I do like the info displayed if you hover over a mech icon (the different stats and quirks of the mech). I wish it showed the hardpoints and weapons loadout prior to purchase. I also wish it gave a loadout of the mech like in the current UI, without having to look at every part of your mech in customization.
5) Chat was bugged. I couldn't communicate in the launch screen.
6) Graphics seemed much better in game. I liked the cockpit glass as well. I had very good matches. I don't know if matchmaking was better or just better players using the test server.

[Gladewolf]

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview? (Please enter as many items as you wish.) -loved the way it looked polished. Good secondary information available on mechs ...twist speed, heat efficiency, etc. Sort by weight class what nice. Loved the inventory.
2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview? - No description of weapons, equipment and modules available for mechs selected, without opening up the mech and checking location by location.
3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End? - What social system?
4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End? - Need type and locations
5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface? - As a retired Aircraft Mechanic, I would have beaten my troops to death for leaving the cockpit glass filthy like that, but I think I saw something about the effect being more pronounced on some maps, it was horrible on River City.
6) Any other comments or concerns? - I still suck piloting assault mechs...nothing you can do about that

[Rovertoo]

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

I like the way the Mechs are displayed on the right, the smooth looks overall are stunning!

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

I am afraid it's the same issue as last test, with the Mechlab being far too 'closed up' and hides too much information in different tabs. It either needs to be all displayed in a manner similar to Smurfy (as has been mentioned many times) or the components need to be accessable by clicking on the Mech's limbs and pieces, much like it is now.

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

Great! Smoother than they are now, for sure!

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

As the case is for many of the menus, it looks wonderful!

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

Very smooth!

6) Any other comments or concerns?

My only concern is that the new UI may be more difficult to navigate with so many buttons, most specifically noting on the Mechlab.

[RMR]

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

The game looked cleaner, In match and in the Mech bay. Things looked much nicer.

In game it was crystal clear (minus the haze on the cockpit glass and in the zoom which I could take or leave) and it all seemed to run smoother.

I like the full screen Mech bay.

I also like the opening more.

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

The Mech shop was a bit cumbersome. It made it very hard to see (if you could see it at all) to tell what weapons and hard points mechs had.

The organization of the mechs was a bit odd as well.

I didn't like the zoom haze but i understand what you are going for with it. So i can live with it.

The load out screen was a little harder to get used to then the previous version but its not terrible. Just needs to be reorganized a bit and I think it will be wonderful.

I do wish there was a clear mech option that would make it easier to strip and refit the mechs.

And I also would like the option to save multiple loadouts for the same mech. So I can jump back and forth depending on my needs.

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

I did not really interact with other players other than in game.

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

As I said I liked the look of it just needs a few tweaks listed above.

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

Seemed much smoother and worked well for me.

6) Any other comments or concerns?

Thanks for allowing me to test this out and give my feedback on it. Please listen to us (the players) as much as you are able and I think this game could be around for a long time.

Will there ever be a single player portion to the game and or will the testing grounds every have targets that fight back?