357 replies to this topic

[Tustle]

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)
The expanded data on selected mechs/components in the mechlab
The inventory system
Getting to try out mechs' I don't have (Firebraaaaand~)
2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?
The slight lag when moving between tabs on the UI
No means of filtering mechs' in the shop (or I did not find it in the time I took puttering around the UI 2.0)
No information display on mechs' in the shop (or again, I did not spend enough time experimenting with the shop. Because Firebrand.)
3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?
Needs some work; apparently users are having issues using in-game chat at the start of a match?
Also, did I again not spend enough time looking around? Wasn't there supposed to be an option for voice chat? Perhaps it's user error on this part? (*cough* didn't plug in the mic and putter around *cough*)
4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End?
Mostly frustrated with the lack of information on purchaseable mechs; it was a good thing our funds aren't wholly connected to the preview because I'd be upset spending a good chunk of my C-bills on a Thunderbolt that I found I did not like.
5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?
If this question is in regards to such in-game/match interfaces as the battle map and such, then I have nothing. (didn't use the map outside of checking lance position)
6) Any other comments or concerns?[color=#959595] [/color]
[color="#959595"]The UI is looking pretty damn good, but it needs more work before it's user-friendly. [/color]
[color="#959595"]Is it difficult to move individual statistics into the client? It'd be nice to have a way to check my own stats without logging into the mwomercs.com site.[/color]
[color="#959595"]Cockpit glass took some getting used to. Nice little level of immersion for those using first person though! Does it look different for different Battlemechs? (Again, was playing with the Firebrand only. Eh heh...)[/color]

[Kalmoa]

1 - colors, police and in fact, all the interface

2 - all the little sound in the interface

3 - good

4- good

5 - I like

[Soulslave]

1)
Full screen mode

2)
Home:
the selected Mech needs to show infos (loadout, module, personal note).
A favorite mechs menu/selctor would be nice. For example 4 competive and 4 fun to play.

Mechlab:
I can't rename mechs.
The selected mech isn't showing the weapon loadout.
The selected Mech isn't showing the modules slots and and with what they are equiped anymore.
Both should be part of the info table below the 3D mech modell.

Mechlab-loadout
it's hard to find the component you want/search. The icons look almost the same and they all have the same size. Why not add to them the two restricting infos as bars. A bar for the crit slots and a bar for the tonnage the component has, so you see the more powerfull and more heavy stuff much quicker.

Mechlab-Upgrades:
There is no menu or mouse over info why some are invalid.

Weapon info:
The damage distance diagramm needs grid lines, it's almost impossible to guess the nominal and max distance
Isn't it possible to show the crit waight and $ restriction sign in the component picture instead of only invalid?

Skills-Mechtree
I miss the XP conversion.
Efficiency Multipicator isn't indicating that only the Basics are doubled on a elite or mastered mech.

To be honest, the mech configuration is no fun, it's unintuitive. The small component tables are grey in grey. Why not give the weapons the colour what the harpoints have a litlle above (yellow, orange, green)? Take mwo.smurfy-net.de or even Diablo as an example. I would defintely prefer smurfy's mech configuration over UI2.0's.

3)
Not find out how to invite friends to a group. Maybe it's necessary that the are online. i don't know.

6)
It's not possible anymore to disable the aweful depth of field effect by setting post processing to low.
... what else I miss: no group info on the Home Screen (would save a lot of clicks) and no lobby

At least cockpit glass is really nice.

[CyclonerM]

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)
Music, general art style, items icons, new social screen, dropship environment, weapon groups in the mechlab.
Little sidenote: i see with pleasure that you did not forgot to adopt the correct " 'Mech " wording

Thumbs up for the artists and engineers

But...
2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?
Again.. And Again.. The Mechlab. It is not intuitive and lacks a clickable paperdoll.

Checking the hardpoints in a certain part of the 'Mech is very uncomfortable and the tonnage number is smaller than reasonable. I need it to be relevant.

I also miss the error messages "Too heavy" or "Not enough slots". they are quite helpful in order to try to fix your loadout.
3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?

Definitely positive. Clear, effective. The chat is nice as well. I haven't tried to invite anyone as seems someone is having issues i could not see.


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


Didn't try many Store features, but it looks a nice way to purchase MC goodies.



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

No possibility of writing in the chatbox before the countdown goes to 0.


6) Any other comments or concerns?

Mechlab, Mechlab and again Mechlab. I would willingly give you any reasonable amount of time to rework it and making it more similar to the UI 1.5 one. We definitely need hardpoints overlay and similar. I can try my builds on Smurfy but the ML is a fundamental part of the game and i see it as discouraging new players (and old as well ).

I had a chance to try only a few features (i tried many of them in the last PT) but my overall impression is: looks nice but doesn't work as well as it looks.

Edited by CyclonerM, 16 January 2014 - 12:31 PM.

[DarthPayne]

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

That it's full screen even though the potential has not been reached. At least it offers the potential to replace parts in the future without a total revamp. Besides that, I'm sorry, but I don't see any serious improvements over the old UI. At least it was very stable for me. Not a single crash, even if there were little glitches like some slide-in windows (ex. weapon specs) sometimes not appearing.

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

Just one? I think the worst in UX (user experience) was the camo spec part that provides a cumbersome gaming-console-like interface (hey, we have a mouse!) to select colors and patterns while leaving over 50% of my screen (2048x1152) empty.

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

On first sight, I don't see a considerable improvement over the old UI. The concept seems about the same, but I must admit that in the short time, I didn't spend much time there.

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

These are more of less OK. Please just sort the stuff properly.

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

Thank you for that one. I've counted at least 5 different fonts when you get into spectator mode and I'm not talking about different font sizes. That's just ugly.

Spoiler

Some texts with the new fonts don't fit into their space, like "WEAPON JAMMED".

If I ignore the fonts, not much has changed and that's mostly good. The chat still needs improvement.

6) Any other comments or concerns?

• I can't say much different compared to last time. The UI 2.0 could have used the touch of a UX expert right from the start. One of the worst mistakes is (still) the constant use of modal information dialogs that just have an OK button. That's just a no-go. Today, best practice is to make auto-disappearing info windows (fade-out for example), or you can do a slide-up on the lower right of the screen like many Windows applications do. I just hate clicking all those modal dialog boxes away. Modal dialogs ONLY for errors and confirmations, please.
  
• Settings, Graphics: I can't disable shadows and post-processing anymore which has a considerable impact on my FPS. The lowest setting is now "LOW".
  
• The loading stage after getting back from a match is still quite slow. It's horrible right now in the production version and with just a few testers in open beta, it still feels like there is room for improvement.
  
• The dirty cockpit windows: I'm going to nail my astech to a wall for not cleaning my cockpit windows. Sometimes, I couldn't even see an enemy mech, depending on where the sun came from. Get me another astech that knows how to clean windows.
  
• I'll bet that on a 2500+ pixel monitor the fonts are eventually going to be too small. You can be sure that the first guys are soon going to buy UHD monitors. I've got 2048x1152 on 23" and good eyes so I'm still in the green. But I think you're facing the same problems web designers have today with high-density screens.

I'm really sorry for being so negative. I'd really like to say more nice things but I can't.

[Brut4ce]

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)
Mechlab is full screen and the graphics look a bit better, although in low detail settings they are abysmally bad.
2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?
Everything else other than the 2 items mentioned above. Mechlab is extremelly messed up, no paper doll, no info on components, WAY too many clicks. Camo paint is too confusing with all these arrows and available colours not easily visible. When customising the loadout or putting in modules there's no checkout message, so one could launch without actually completing the purchase. I spent most part of the test just to purchase and customise 1 mech. Also when in full screen, cannot alt-tab back to windows.
3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?
What social system? it is a tiny button hardly visible on the lower right, with less functionality than the one currently present in the live branch of the game.

4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End?
Pretty icons and colours. Other than that the current store in the live branch is 100 times more user friendly.

5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?
Same as the one currently live. Possibly a bit smoother gameplay, but not enough time to confirm it.

6) Any other comments or concerns?
Well, honestly, i like the old UI much, much more. I do not know what else to say.

[Kael Posavatz]

What is it you liked best?
I liked being able to set weapon groups inside the mech-lab. I would like this even more if there were some way to see what weapons are on which side of the mech (right vs. left). The pilot lab is different, but no worse than what we currently have

What is it you liked least?
Mech-Lab
Moving things around (for example, set armor and cost of the build) were confusing and will take some getting used to. I do not care for the icon that represent hardpoint locations. I absolutely hate that I cannot see hardpoints, initial weapon loads, slots, and such when I look at new mechs to purchase, or even that I already own. Having to keep going back to the left-hand side of the screen when refitting the mech was a pain as was having to click through weapons/equipment/etc for every component every time. I find the current setup with selecting actual parts of the mech to be much more intuitive. Also I find the UI 1.5 camo and color setup to be far easier to use.

Impressions--Social System:
Four-mans was buggy as hell. Could not get a twelve-man formed. There were people we had in-chat who said they were in game but were not on friends list and could not link up with.

Impression--Store:
I only spent a brief time here, but it seemed like everything I could do here could be done through he mech-lab. I will have to take some time in the latter test session to check this more thoroughly, but for now I question its necessity.

Impressions--In game interface:
I currently have MWO configured that I am in windowed mode when in the UI, and full-screen while in-game. I could not get this configuration duplicated.

Other comments/Concerns:
Cockpit glass looks good, I'll need to try it later with a light mech in a map with some water.
The weapons panels in the mechlab were not consistent in popping up the damage/range statistic block.
While some could, I could not text-chat in-game until the power-up sequence had begun.

I said it above, but it bears repeating. I had a hard time negotiating the new mech-lab. There was no visual-connect with various parts of the mech, configuring was needlessly repetitive, and finding required information was difficult (the mech's current weight was a tiny little number that I had to spend five minutes searching for in an out-of-the way corner of the screen, while the UI 1.5 has it as a much larger number in a prominent location). Having the equip-button on the weapons and engine was nice...when I remembered to use it which wasn't muh.

I ran this test session with three mechs I have never dropped before, and one I did.

[Farpenoodle]

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

It's nice that it pretty much works as it should now. And it does look really nice. But it still needs work. Which I'm sure you guys are aware of.

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

Quick list of things:

- Need to be able to quickly see the loadout of a selected mech. Having to click configure to check what's on the mech is really troublesome. Just a list of major components/hardpoints will do. Also worth noting that this also means a player has almost no way of knowing what they're getting on the mech when buying besides by inferring from the mech visuals and via the data that IS presented.

- Probably should show tonnage/slots on the component tiles in the mechlab. I assume this will likely be on the list view when/if implemented but it should also be on the tiles. Maybe put it the numbers in the lower left and right of the tiles like you do for engine rating which is on the top right.

- I'm assuming the camo interface is still incomplete but we need the ability to bring up a list of categories as well as an easier way to scroll through the list of colours considering how many you guys have. Also maybe an easy way to quit the camo screen without saving.

- Under inventory it'd also be pretty nice if we could see stuff that's already mounted on mechs and by extension on which which mech.

- More filters? (Light/Medium/Heavy/Heroes)

6) Any other comments or concerns?

Overall, it's pretty okay for a start as long as you guys keep building on it. Some small tweaks would make it very usable. So happy enough. Great to see the end of the great UI2.0 bottleneck. However, SMURFY STYLE LOADOUT WHEN?!

[Loc Nar]

6) Any other comments or concerns?

Yes. Analog controls have been uprooted and this is a HUGE deal for people that use them. My analog pedals have been automatically reassigned to torso x-axis and the menu will not accept analog inputs for me to rebind them. My throttle is being treated as if it did not exist.

I can't stress this enough. Please do not ever (no seriously, ever) ruin people's control schemes and primary means of inputs. Seriously, do not let this problem make it into production and dedicate the resources to it immediately.

Much less severe but annoying nonetheless there is also still no way to *unbind or revert to blank options in case you bind the wrong thing or some other mistake happens.

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

No beeps/clicks/clangs/bangs/crashes

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

Uprooted analog controls and clearly half baked controls menus.

Configuring loadouts is still pretty annoying and way more tedious than need be. Nearly devoid of any useful information, but chalked full of low res wireframe postage stamps of redundant gear (150 repeats of the same engine drawing instead of things like weight or even slots)

Still awkward and overly reachy and not intuitive. Took me a while to figure out just how to save my mech once I finally muddled through slightly modding a loadout, which I had to treat that like a purchase right down to the language... not very subtle.

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

There's a social system there? o_O This is a ui... not an easter egg hunt.

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

Unimpressive, but predictably more functional than most of the rest of the interface.

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

Couldn't get past the fact my controls were been uprooted and binding options are worse than current/previous iterations. Once this happens everything else is a moot point because I can't play.

6) Any other comments or concerns?

Answered first since they outweigh the rest of my impressions combined. Killing my controls reduces my remaining will to play by at least 100%. My mechpit is also a cockpit for other games too, and being able to use it with MWO is honestly the only thing retaining me as an active player.

[Hallbor]

Niko Snow, on 15 January 2014 - 10:29 AM, said:

---

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)
2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?
3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?
4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End?
5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?
6) Any other comments or concerns?

1)
-The colors and the hangar in the basic (home) tab look nice.Large good looking mech and the menu's to the side and top. Much free room and out of the way menu's.

-The ability to change different settings about my mech in the mechlab without having to save every time. I can go to upgrades and build endo steel in my mech, then go and put wepons in it, etc. And in the end i save once, practical

-The skills tab. The skill tab is probably the one thing i like the most about the new ui.
To the left options with all/light/medium/heavy/assault and in the main screen the different basic type of mech in that category. And when you klick on the little arrow it shows the different variants including some nice little pictures of them, symbols in different colors and variants owned.
There is no cluttering, everything is intuitiv and easy to find here. And you have lots of free room to see your hangar etc, and not just one big menu.

2)
- How extremely cluttered some things are. Mainly the store and Mechlab (more to the store under store)
- in the Mechlab you still can't see what your Mechs have equiped (weapons, modules, current engine) or what weapon slots the mech has. And you only see if the Mech has things like ecm equiped, not if the Mech is capably of carrying them.

3)
Not much people where online at the current time here so i can't say much. it is sad that you have to open a separate window to see the chat but with the amount of windows and information one always has i guess that can't be helped.

4)
pos:
- Showing the current sales separately and showing how much time a sale has left is quite useful for people who don't look into the hp/forum much.
-the tabs for mechs/mechbays/premium time are useful and functional

cons:
-You don't have the option to show only specific types of mechs anymore, like you did in the last version (light/med/heavy/assault/hero). At the very least you need to put that in again.
-The tab to buy Mechs is completely overloaded. As an old player who knows the Mechs i already have a hard time finding what i want, but a new player who wants to brows for the different things he can buy and get an overwiew is completely overwhelmed here.
-You also took out any kind of information about the mechs here. Not even the little "popup" from the mechlab that showed some stats is in the store anymore.

5)
it has some possibility and some things that are practical and nice to look at as well as a few additions that could prove quite useful (like the inventory) but also quite a few steps back. The entire ui looks a bit overloaded with all kinds of interfaces and dropt-down-menu's with lots of new information i.e. in the mechlab, but you toook out some of the most basic and vital things we truly NEED.

6) A few "suggestions" about what i believe needs to be added/changed
-first and most imprtant: add a window where we can see what hardpoints a Mech has and what it has equiped (weapons, modules, engine)

clean up the store and make it easier for people to find them. My suggestions here:
-add the option to view only assault, or all, or only hero etc(like i said under point 4
-Then in the upper window where now all Mechs are show the basic Mech (i.e.: Atlas). then when you klick on an Atlas it could show in a window directly below the current store window a one row window with the different variants of the selected Mech (here: AS7-D, D-DC, RS, etc)
You would reduce the amount of Mechs shown in the Window by a LOT and give the player a much better overview and make it much easier to find something. You would easily have the room for the second window since you could make the current store window a good deal shorter. You probably would even have enough room over to add a third window where you could display hardpoints/wepons.
All with the same amount of space and much better to find things.

- an option to find out where we have a specific module or engine would be great. I and many others have the expensive moduls and engines only 1 time but need them in have a dozen or more different Mechs.
In the currently used ui i have to select each Mech and look what it has equiped. In the new ui where even that information is missing i would have to first select and then open the configuration of every Mech to find something. I and many others will probably go crazy if we have to do that all the time when we are piloting 5 or 10 Mechs all the time (unit training, leveling, for fun, etc)
Maybe in the inventory you could ad a tab where we can see equiped items and on which mech they are, that would be really great

i hope that was all, was long enough ;-)

Edited by Hallbor, 16 January 2014 - 12:34 PM.

[Outcast1six]

I am user with a slower computer and as such play the game at the lowest settings.

Liked:
The fresh interface and look. Very slick.

The mech selection tab is great for people that have multiple mechs, way easier to select which mech you want to use.

Organizing items into categories is cool.

The extra information derived from the expanded layout.

Stats in game.

Configuring armor is easier.


Disliked:
The mechlab is hard to navigate. Paperdoll is missing. It made it easier to configure mechs.

The diminished Heat and Weight scales while configuring. These are your main criteria, they are tiny bars on the bottom of the screen.

No configuration when selecting mechs.

The complexity and "clunkiness" of the mechlab and cluttered main screen could put off newer players that aren't coming in with an understanding of how the mechs work.

Global Chat channels?

Summary:

I like the new layout for the fresh look and mech selection. While I am a battletech purist and welcome a configuration system with complexity new players might not. Configurations please, and chat.

[Altair Fenix]

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

Full screen is nice. Configuring weapon groups in lab is good.

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

Can't see quick weapons loadout or summary. AKA what is on the mech and where.

No keyboard functionality with dialog boxes. I.e. confirmation dialogs don't respond to y or n key or tab/enter keys.
Very usefull in large resolution systems so the mouse doesn't have to go all over the place.

Invalid option don't give an obvious reason why the selection is invalid. (i.e. too heavy, not enough slots, etc)

Given the current state, with a high resolution monitor I might want to use the front end in a windowed mode, but play the game in full screen.

Choosing mech paint colors was a bit strange having to click quite a bit. Using the keyboard arrow keys would be helpful.

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

Didn't seem much different than the existing except I couldn't find it at first.

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

I liked them, but trying to buy a mech, you don't see what that mech has. Why would I buy one mech vs the other? I don't want to go to an internet wiki to try and figure out what each mech has (i.e WoT).

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

Cockpit glass is very annoying. My mech techs always clean the windshield before a battle.

6) Any other comments or concerns?

Although visualy stunning, I'm very concerned over the new player (and veteran) usablity of the mech lab. Although UI 1.5 is not as pretty, the Mechlab is very intuitive and important specs and information are available "at a glance". Seems like a lot of basic mech information is not being displayed.

[a uberboy]

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

it's prettier, easier to see the mech you're building, easier to move through the shop, easier to select a mech from your garage

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

the mechlab layout is far, FAR worse than a paperdoll

it is very hard to keep a holistic impression of your build, and the stats in the lower right corner are too small & hard to see, as is the listing of currently installed equipment in the given bodypart. the center screen is being dominated too much by the selected subset of potential equipment to slot in

please, just give us the option to use a Smurphy-style paperdoll layout to build our mechs.

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

bugged / non-functional

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

improved over current UI

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

6) Any other comments or concerns?

I like the cockpit glass addition.

Edited by a uberboy, 16 January 2014 - 12:34 PM.

[Donas]

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)
Large 3d render of the mech that is rotatable looks great.

2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?
The basic problem I have with 2.0 in this current incarnation is that it appears to be convoluted, unintuitive, and cluttered. One aspect to this UI that is worrisome to me is that it seems to be yet another part of the game with a STEEP LEARNING CURVE. And in a game where the basic gameplay all ready has that aspect, the UI needs to be extremely simple, streamlined, and easy to use. This current version seems to be complicated, cluttered, and inconsistent with what functionality is always available where other functionality can only be accessed in one specific spot that is somewhat unintuitively hidden. The problem being that a new player, after getting frustrated with getting destroyed over and over in PUG matches doesn't have a relaxing, fun place to go do things with the game (the mechlab). I'm concerned that in this current version new players will get frustrated in-game, retire to the mechlab where they (all ready frustrated from the gameplay steep learning curve) will get frustrated even more by the difficult to manage Mechlab and ragequit, from the home screen... Not good for growth or maintenance of the game.

3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?
teensy tiny button that wold be better off labelled 'social' than a clever multi person cutout.

4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End?
If this version of the store is anywhere near being considered a completed project, it is in trouble.

1.when I select a mech that I'm looking at purchasing, there is zero useful information. Hardpoints, mouse-over display of hardpoint locations, current loadout. ( though a post above mentions an info popup,

2. When trying to select a mech to purchase, the UI doesn't display the mech. I'm left looking at the last mech in my mechbay that I clicked. This is the store. the showroom. Show me the cool robot that I'm looking at purchasing that I will never get to see in-game from the front.

3. please include the sorting functionality that the mechbay has (and even moreso that the current UI has). Sorting by premiums, weight class, chassis. Things that make it easier for me to buy. As tested today, it is more difficult for me to find what I want and buy it.

4. If players can buy mechs with the buy button, straight out of the mechlab, why is there a store? The added functionality of purchasing mechs from the mechlab is cluttering the mechlab.

5. "OWNED: 0 " Is an unintuitive labeling system when looking for mechs to purchase, especially in a game where owning duplicates of any given mech is extremely inefficient. I didnt have time to explore the mechlab in depth, but isnt there supposed to be a way of logging and switching between saved builds on a chassis as long as the required items are in inventory? That feature right there, would completely eliminate the need to have duplicates of a single variant.

Essentially, if a player gets frustrated and confused while trying to spend money on the product, they will eventually give up, and spend there money on something else, like smokes and a soda at the corner store to calm down.

5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?
didn't really have time. 2 hours is a tight window, and I spent most of it patching. my fault, but still.

6) Any other comments or concerns?
In the mechlab, please give players the ability to sort their mechs as they see fit. Whether its a filter to sort by chassis, or to put the hero mechs up top, or to be able to move the tiles around so that 'Meta' builds are all in one place, then 'pug' builds, and dump unused or testing builds down at the bottom where I don't have to bother scrolling through them. This new mechbay sorting is an improvement over the current 'scroll as the bay was filled', but not significantly yet. Its more of a different unmodifiable sorting that players will have to learn to navigate.

[Escobar]

1) has a consistent look to the rest of the application
2) has no clear task oriented flow
3) Unable to evaluate - lack of time
4) functional
5) the in game setup I found less well laid out than current production version
6) ok, I answered those first 5, so I get to go on for this last one...

The UI 2 is functionally equal to the current UI. So I am guessing that the main reason for its development is as a platform to more easily add features to come.

But for features here today, I see no benefit to UI 2. The process of selecting a mech for a mission is less clear than today. The state of readiness of consumables is even worse.

While I applaud what appears to be a dropping of the 4 mech selection limit I wonder what will stop the occasional {Dezgra} from launching 20 matches once with each of his mechs and then disconnecting each game?

There is no reduction with UI 2 in the amount of time and effort spent within mechlab. A real improvement would have been the ability to define a set of favorite loadouts and thus avoid throwing the user to the lab just to reconfigure for a match. The lab to me should be just that, the place to go to tweak a mech and its there that I need all the fancy displays and graphs. But once I have a happy configuration I want to be able to select it. I don't want to have to rebuild it. And I should be able to reapply consumables at the touch of a button, not 5.

To sum up (and I wont go on as I am not convinced that my opinions are either shared or read), the UI 2 looks and acts like a classic developer approach - make everything available on screen and ask the user what he wants to see, as opposed to making less available 90% of the time and asking the user what he wants to actually do.

I for one hope that UI 2 remains in development for a long time to come. Unless of course calling UI 2 done frees up resources to CW, in which case I don't care if its a frigging console application for UI 2, I say ship it and move on to something which materially enhances the game.

I will try again in the PM session, maybe I am just angry that the patch notes, and the talk of 'social' aspects and the ability to create and launch a group of 1 pilot led me to expect the ability to coordinate and launch a 4 on 4, or 1 on 1 match. That's just my bad overreaching read of vague patch notes, and my own fault, but I was mightily disappointed.

[Desintegrator]

There are so many things, which need a massive improvement and have been mentioned in the other posts,
but one thing which i really missed is the following...

In the "old User Interface" i need exactly two mouse-clicks to have a complete overview over a mech !
This takes about one second to have all the information about a single mech.

For example, i make the following two clicks in the old interface after logging in:
1. click -> Mechlab
2. click -> Raven 3L

What do i see after two clicks and 1 second:

1. I see ALL the hardpoints of the Mech (3 energy, 2 missile, 1 AMS, 1 ECM
2. I see ALL equipped modules (4 different modules, with their exact name)
3. I see ALL the mounted equipment (290 XL engine, 3 Med Laser, 2 Streaks, 1 ECM, 12 Double heatsinks)
4. I see the remaining free slots...

and so on, and so on...

That's what i see after two clicks and 1 second after having access to my Mechlab !

Just try this with the new interface !

Maybe nobody need's that kind of overview over hardpoints and weapons, but i find it quiet useful.
It's good, it's fast, it's complete. The right information, to start a game with the 3rd click.

[Therrinian]

1. Organizing mechs is so much easier
The new UI is esthetically pleasing.

2. Inability to over view hardpoints, and engine mass.
example: looking for a mech with 6 energy hardpoints... does one have to look at all components of all mechs individually and make an spreadsheet?

in the mechbay almost half of you screen is take up by your mech, we can turn it but not click to select components (as was possible in UI1.5), UI1.5 also had a paperdoll to select components. Both methods of component selection are more intuitive than the drop down menus in 2.0.

Unintitive ammo/equipment placement
Instead of clicking an ammo tab and putting ammo in the correct components one now needs to click the ammo tab every time we select a component, many more clicks to achieve the same thing. Could be achieved by dragging from the ammo tab to components on the mech animation on the right side by 66% less clicking.

Bby default exclude ammo types that have no weapons to use it mounted.
a strip mech or max armor button would be worth its weight in gold.

Mechbay should have a list of number of available crit slots.

engine tonnage should be displayed... we are spammed with drawings of dozens of engines with their rating and price. please add (popup menu?) speed in selected mech normal and with speed tweak, mass, and number of heatsinks.

No keyboard functionality in dialog boxes

3. Could be more prominent.


4. Store system is does not display hardpoints, yet this is what we use to chose chasis.


5. In game options interface on 1440p are SO small and not centered. I had to read very small writing in the top left corner while 90% of the screen was dark.



6. As you change the resolution the text size changes, how ever there is a limit to how small everything should appear. At the maximum resolution menus became an eyestrain.
Please add a UI scale slider.

In game my frame rate is considerably lower
"Effects" and "Post processing" had separate settings now many more seems to be bounded together under effects like depth of field.

I still want some of the effects but not the fps heavy post processing. Turning post processing to low does not seem to help

The mech animation in the mechbay is probably based on the settings for the game itself.
yet it is hardly moving. To have the fights at a good fps requires very different settings than one single mech standing still, for mechbay I would want higher res textures, and better shadows, without taxing the 24 mech mayhem.

Edited by Therrinian, 16 January 2014 - 12:38 PM.

[Horus Heresy]

I've played for over a year and never posted on the forums, but after looking at the UI2.0 preview I feel the need to, because it is just so AWFUL when compared to the current UI, and it is certainly not what I would expect after months of dedicated work from PGI. The current UI is just fine and LOOKS so much better than the new UI. All the old one needs are a few tweaks, like you could put a drop down box under "owned mechs" that has them grouped by weight class, bam, there you go, you've got everything the new UI has to offer with none of the bugs.

[August55]

1) What is it that you like about the UI 2.0 Preview? (Please enter as many items as you wish.
Full screen mechlab looks purdy and it looks like a step in the right direction.

2) What do you like least about the UI 2.0 Preview?
See here.
3) What are your impressions of the Social system in the Front-End?
Did not test. Will investigate for Afternoon test.
4) What are your impressions of the Store menus in the Front-End?
The mech filter appeared to be missing in the Store menu but in the mechlab menu it was there. Quite strange.
5) What are your impressions of the in-game interface?
There are some improvements with the font, but they need to be consistent. See the link above for more info.
6) Any other comments or concerns?
I agree with Loc Nar's bit about the throttle controls. Please improve them so use people with advanced joystick setups (Like my Saitek x52) can set up the controls as efficiently as possible.

Edited by August55, 16 January 2014 - 12:37 PM.

[Felicitatem Parco]

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

• The new Mechlab brings the Mech model up in our faces, which gives the Mech a more commanding screen presence. This shifts the visual appearance and the immersion of the Mechlab away from that of a programmer's tool to more of a virtual mechanical hangar bay.
  
• Mech agility properties are nice to see when hovering the mouse over their Mechlab icon.

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

• *** I have absolutely no idea what's mounted on any of my Mechs. There are no lists/tables that show Mechs' loadouts.
  
• Upon entering the Mechlab "loadout" screen, I am presented with a HUGE mass of red icons that makes me feel like I just entered the wrong password three times on a secure military bunker access terminal. It's unpleasant to see all of the INVALID engine icons that are present by default whenever you initially view a Mech that has an engine.
  
• The Mechlab's buttons and information windows are so spread-out that my eyes (and mouse) have to constantly move from one side of my monitor entirely to the other for every single little modification I want to make. I tried to reconfigure my Hunchback-4P but found myself spending so much time clicking back and forth on the extreme right and left sides of my screen that I eventually just gave up.
  
• There is no "Paper Doll" for me to click on to go between bodyparts, instead I have to choose bodyparts from a list of very plain font that does not lend to any intuitiveness.
  
• Weapon/Item details do not appear when you hover the mouse over the weapons, themselves, as installed on your Mech.
  
• Mech agility details (quirks) do not appear when you hover the mouse over their in-store icon.

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

• I did not attempt to group-up, but the social icon was too small, hard to find, and is not labeled as a functional button in the game interface.

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

• Mech quirks did not appear in the in-store interface when hovering the mouse over new potential Mechs, and I have no idea what they are equipped with.

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

• I did not have time to perform a live drop.

6) Any other comments or concerns?

• I do appreciate the use of individual weapon and item Icons in the Mechlab and store, but there is a problem with the repeated display of identical engine icons. It does make sense to have different laser and PPC Icons when listing all the different kinds of energy weapons for sale, but showing the exact same engine icon a million times in a huge grid is visually daunting and makes engine choice difficult and unpleasant. The engines' rating value should be more "present" than a picture of some engine illustration from a BattleTech table-top rules manual repeated over and over again.
  
• The little grid of information at the bottom-right of the Mechlab should be much, much bigger, and NEEDS to include Mech loadout including weapons and engine. The Mechlab is currently in what I consider to be an "unusable" state due to the lack of loadout information.

Edited by Prosperity Park, 16 January 2014 - 12:39 PM.