1175 replies to this topic

[Felbombling]

1. Even though there is a 'configure' button under each Mech, you Might want to add a Configure Mech button on the side, too.
2. Make items solid block, instead of the broken down segmented look. As stated earlier, engines and the internal heatsink indicators are not very appealing.
3. I really miss the mouse over on the Mech to show weapon, equipment and heatsink locations on the Mech.
4. Being able to search easier for modules and other items would be a plus. If you have a large inventory of Mechs, could be time consuming to perform a simple task.
5. Weapon and equipment listings in the store area, without having to mouse over the Mech, would be a plus.

I can appreciate where you are and where you are trying to get with this new UI, but look at ways to make things easier. Hunting around for information is taxing and a bother after a short while. Concentrate on some forethought. When in a screen, think about what a player would want to see automatically, not hidden to be uncovered. My first reaction in the MechLab was just that... Where are the hardpoints? What kind of hard points are they, and what does the Mech have in the first place? Mouse over this, open that... oh, here are the weapons, in small font here on the left when I mouse over this/click on that.

Good luck with the improvements that must be made soon!

[GunnyKintaro 01]

THANK YOU PGI !!!!!! love it!!!

[Ayenn]

Overall I think the UI 2.0 is a step in the right direction. The design is slick. The color palette is spot on. It feels “modern” instead of something from the early to middle 2000s. However, there are some pretty serious problems. Fortunately those problems can be resolve easily (in conception, not coding).
The biggest thing I noted right off the bat is it is as if someone ignored the visual language everyone who uses the internet has become accustomed to. I think that was the thing UI 1.5 actually got right.
Something you may also want to consider is what this inefficient UI tells your customers. It is a pretty clear signal to many that you are developing in a vacuum. It is as if you “listen” but do not actually hear what your customers are saying. Swift revision (as in before the weekend) of UI 2.0 will do your image a lot of good. Positive PR is the best!

So you understand where I am coming from, I am a UI designer and a web designer. I am coming at this from a professional angle, not a raging forum troll angle. Please understand this is a critique, not criticism. Also keep in mind this is not my total critique. If you take care of the issues I have pointed out directly the rest should fall into place nicely!
And, here we go!

Home
Select Mech

Remove this button. Moving a user to another tab in the way it does is superfluous and can be very confusing.

Inventory
Remove this section from the Home tab. Move it to the ‘Mech Lab tab. Of all the things listed in the Home tab, this is the first one that doesn’t belong.

Statistics
Remove this button until stats can be displayed within the program. I don’t have this problem (any more) but for some people “tabbing out” to a browser will lock or crash their game.

Redeem Code
Remove this button until stats can be displayed within the program. I don’t have this problem (any more) but for some people “tabbing out” to a browser will lock or crash their game.

Testing grounds
The Testing Grounds is the second thing that does not belong under the home tab. Testing Grounds should be an aspect of the “play now” tab (see the Play Now section below).

Tutorials
This is just fine here.


Mechlab (it should be Mech Lab)

Mech Lab should, upon first click have the select mech option and below that the inventory button from the current Home tab. The battle mech section of this button should be removed. Select mech serves that function already. The customization of mechs should be a button in this section as well. Bring it within configure backgrounds the money making potential of colors and patterns.
For the proposed Select Mech button, the categories are fine but the placement of the trial mechs in the owned selection is wrong headed. I can use those mechs but I do not own them. I do not want to see mechs in my owned selection I cannot modify.

Things missing from the mech listings are, as other people have pointed out, the mech paper doll with hard point placement. The card is missing the engine type/size that is currently in that mech and the current placement of weapons in the selected cassis.

In the Select ‘Mech view, allow me to organize the listing of the mechs by weight first, then chassis type (a Jester is a Catapult after all), and then alphabetical order. When it comes to selecting mechs to a purpose, having them ordered in alphabetical order and ordered with champion mechs and hero mechs first is counter intuitive. Enable the list view option.

Place the proficiency designation badge in the upper right corner of every mech. A user should not have to go surfing through several other pages to find out what their proficiency rank is when selecting a mech.

I recommend adding a “Special Edition” category to place the Founder, Phoenix, Clan Collection, and others that will follow instead of classifying them as a hero or a champion as they are actually neither type.
Configuration

Frankly, this is a hot mess! I don’t really know what to tell you. The best option I see is to make it somewhat like the 1.5 version of the mech lab customization interface. Navigating its current state is not user friendly in any way! This is quite possibly the worst part of the 2.0 revamp. Regardless of what is done with this section, adding an “Owned” filter for owned components and such would help tremendously!

I beg of you, please PLEASE leave the mech image size as it is! I love that part of it! The glory of the war machine that is a battle mech is displayed beautifully! The only thing I think should be changed in that feature is to dim the light source by about 15%. The glare off the mech paint is a little rough.


Skills

Take the proficiency designation badge out of that accordion menu and replace it with a number that designates the number of chassis a user owns for that mech. Then set it so when a user opens a particular accordion the mechs that user owns should be listed at the beginning of the row in alphabetical order and then the mechs they do not own are listed after, also in alphabetical order. Leave the proficiency designation badge on the corner of that mech in that list.

The modules section should be set as a list, not rows. Rows are illegible in this case.


Store

Change “Boosters” to premium time. It is a much more friendly term.


Play now
Play now should be an actual page in the interface. Within that page there should be static selection check boxes for the game modes and team size.


Global
The information about mechs provided in the lower right side at the feet of the mechs needs a backing to it like the mech information cards as does the information at the top. That mech information should also be centered in that area as well. Another option is to remove it all together and make that info graphic a core aspect of the slide out mech information card. In fact, that is a much better idea!

The font does not work. It renders badly and its letter spacing is awful. Also, the font size needs to be increased in every part of the UI by 2 points or so.

[Abivard]

CMO Gunny Kintaro, on 04 February 2014 - 04:27 PM, said:

THANK YOU PGI !!!!!! love it!!!

You Love it?
Don't you think you should log in and see it first before you declare your love for it?

[Mokou]

There i fixed it.
Of course if i BUY something new for my LOADOUT, there must be CHECK OUT window.
Why settings and logout buttons hiding? Why no place them on one line?
Why all interface menu soooo damn small? Just for GIANTMECH entourage. Oh damn, look at size of this mech! He is bigger than "settings menu".
But changin' mech loadout =/= buy something.

Edited by Mokou, 04 February 2014 - 04:35 PM.

[UPnADAM]

Guys ultimately who gives a poo what it looks like... I know I dont. I know I'll get used to it like everyone else will. It will get better with the smurfy like add on as well. But UI 2.0 to me is more than an interface its a nexus into something else like game modes and tonnage limits... Oh and now it can't be an excuse as to what the entire engineering team is working on....just embrace and move on.

Edited by UPnADAM, 04 February 2014 - 04:31 PM.

[Corison]

Dear Lord, I know you guys are trying but on launching it my first thought was its utter trash. It doesn't scale right, and the text is very difficult to read in every setting.

The UI is not cleanly segmented, there's no intuitive flow to what's going on. To be honest it is almost like someone's home excel sheet blew up all over.

This is honestly something I would have expected early in the beta.

Please work on cleaning it up and working on the flow. a good example is the configuring the mech. Configuring the mech should be smooth intuitive experience. It needs a useful overview, quick way to add/remove weapons without digging into locations, allow the user to dig into more details if they need to.

Massive two thumbs down! Especially for a "released" product

[Meridian]

UPnADAM, on 04 February 2014 - 04:29 PM, said:

Guys ultimately who gives a poo what it looks like... I know I dont. I know I'll get used to it like everyone else will. It will get better with the smurfy like add on as well. But UI 2.0 to me is more than an interface its a nexus into something else like game modes and tonnage limits... Oh and now it can't be an excuse as to what the entire engineering team is working on....just embrace and move on.

Screw that. They spent a year and a half making things worse.

There should be an apology coming from this.

[Joe Decker]

In my Case the major Problem at the Moment : The Mechlab is not shown in full size, instead it is only a very small Part of the Launcher Window.

Edited by Joe Decker, 04 February 2014 - 04:34 PM.

[Lycrius]

Disable joystick/gamepad option.

With this much real estate I would really just want to see the whole lance ready status on the main window and use the solo "play" button to launch my group instead of having to jump in and out of the social window all the time.

With all the options scattered around like they are, different resolutions for launcher and game would be appreciated.

No smurfy like mechlab? You promised...

Can't see fitted engines anywhere I like the angles and such but I wanna know what engine I'm rocking without having to go to configure.

Escape out of menus... in case you don't know what I mean its the small key on the top left of pretty much every keyboard out there, THE BUTTON IS THERE FOR A REASON, use it please.

Filter trial out of the owned.

The little "checkout" button on the left corner is well hidden good job, now how about adding a confirmation window after trying to leave fitting/camo screens that says "cancel, discard, apply".

And like everyone else has said: disable menu beebuub sound option would be nice.

With the new font and all on some maps the objective names are little unclear (theta etc.) bold or shadow maybe?

There's probably gonna be more on this once I give it a more thorough go over but this one for starters.

[Serapth]

If we start seeing rapid iterations, like twice weekly tweaks, I am willing to live with the warts for now.

On the traditional one patch every other week update cycle... ugh, not a rosy future.

[Mokou]

Quote

http://imageshack.co...6/4712/alp3.jpg

Realy?
Damn fullsize table for ordinal engines?!
Maybe it looks better like this:

Std XL
120 120
125 125
130 130
135 135
... ...

Edited by Mokou, 04 February 2014 - 04:44 PM.

[Master Maniac]

Graphically speaking, the new User Interface is very slick - the colors are appealing, the transitions from one menu to another are nice. The font is quite readable, which is a refreshing break from the usual "hard-edged, smeary techno-futuristic" fare.

Negatively, the mech overview pop-up contains too much useless minutia at a glance, and not enough of what we need. It's stupid - positively stupid - that the engine type is not listed, nor are the number and location of installed heatsinks. The amount of information provided - and the means of accessing that information - actually constitutes a step backward from the "original" UI.

The fact that the shop provides no means of reading technical information about prospective 'Mech purchases, and that the only way to get this information is to go to the *MECHLAB* of all places and select a "purchasable" filter, is inexcusably bad. As far as equipping 'Mechs at the loadout screen is concerned - OH BOY, I really don't want to get into that, honestly. The skeleton of what we have so long been used to is right there, practically unchanged from its previous iteration, with no "improvements" whatsoever. Only now, that old interface is crowded with distracting icons anywhere and everywhere which serve absolutely no purpose whatsoever. Why should I have to click a menu button to cycle from body part to body part, when in the original UI, all I had to do was click a paper doll, or on the 3d model itself?

*sigh*

Way, way too much mouse acrobatics. Too much time spent moving the cursor around. Assigning armor values is a pain. Swapping engines between chassis requires about 50 percent more clicks than before. Skills, modules, and equipment lists are eye-bleedingly painful rows and rows of identical icons, with comparatively tiny text that one must strain to read. I would prefer a straight-up *list* to this silly, "smartphone" inspired graphical mess.

Sorry to be negative, devs. I hate to be. But for the most part, I'd say that this is shameful for a years' worth of design. There is too much wrong at even a basic level for anyone to be able to realistically claim that this is the lynchpin for future content delivery.

EDIT : And how can I forget the "Checkout" button? That's right. "Checkout." Not "Save Loadout" or "Apply Settings," but FREAKING "CHECKOUT."

Also, it probably doesn't help my feelings towards this catastrophe of a revamp that I'm currently unable to play due to the system perpetually thinking I'm in a match.

THUMBS DOWN.

Edited by Master Maniac, 04 February 2014 - 04:52 PM.

[AEgg]

Overall, the new UI looks good.

I get the distinct impression that buttons and font don't scale with resolution. Things are small enough at 1920x1200, I'd hate to see what happens in a few weeks when I'm playing at 2560x1440.

The only annoyances I've run into so far:
Lack of an "overall loadout" displayed while editing a mech (though you had to go back to the overview for this in UI 1.0 anyway, so not a huge deal)

Font ingame is stretched weird. Looks like it's always drawn at 16:9 and then stretched out to 16:10 in-game, resulting in stretched letters and aliasing.

[East Indy]

Hey, guys. Two quick suggestions, the first I'm sure you've heard a lot.

1) I have to hunt for some information, like the number of heat sinks.

2) Differentiate between invalid equipment and valid-but-unequipped/unowned. Color is probably easiest.

[Alopex]

I figure that there's little reason in making this a long post. Quite simply, I much preferred the usability of the old user interface.
Despite PGI's best efforts, this new system is unintuitive and the best of times (inventory), and inferior to it's predecessor at the worst (mechlab).

[tucsonspeed6]

Galenit, on 04 February 2014 - 04:15 PM, said:

Sorry guys,
but this looks like your kids worked on this after school for one week.
Thats nothing i would expect from a team working more then 1,5 years on it.

But it blends perfect in the most of you work until now ...
... but you hold your deadline this time.

If this is something you can be proud of i dont want to say.

Edit: NOPE

I couldn't even try to come up with a more exaggerated satire of the type of QQ response the NOPE crowd would come up with.

[Karl Carver]

Bront, on 04 February 2014 - 03:47 PM, said:

So the game doesn't like Windowed Full Screen anymore?

Sorry , i hadnt found the options to set it to on.
Yes you can via settings set it to full windowed and it works

Or use Alt + Enter

[Herger]

this update has not fixed the disappearing founders tag problem. this update is the LOLZ one thing it has done is that it shows PGI will not fix even something as simple as the founders tag and yet they say this U.I. is glorious. wow entertainment gold.

[DeathlyEyes]

[color=#959595]I completely understand what UI 2.0 was suppose to be. The whole idea behind UI 2.0 was reworking how the UI worked from a backend standpoint. Making easier to change how different screen functions and adding functionality. Now what I don't understand is why were drastic changes made to how it looked while taking away core functionality of how things work. People don't really like unnecessary changes and they especially hate loss of functionality. If adding things to this new modular system is so much easier then I expect UI to be fixed rather shortly since that was the point of the changes made. My suggestion would be to revert UI 2.0's actual look and functionality to a layout identical or extremely similar to the old UI. I don't understand why this would be difficult. [/color]