1175 replies to this topic

[Meridian]

Gunther Nhilathok, on 05 February 2014 - 09:02 AM, said:

Oh, and in response to the one question the UI asks me every time I try to do ANYTHING: YES, I'M ******* SURE I WANT TO DO WHAT I JUST TOLD YOU TO DO.

I can only assume you clicked the "Post" button three times to make certain that is what you actually wanted to post. That's what a good UI would do.

[Cyborne Elemental]

Slots aren't being calculated correctly in the mechlab.

If I leave the engine in, and start building, I run into Ghost slots and can't place weapons where I have counted and do have free slots available.

If I leave the engine out, I can occupy those previously occupied slots with the proper equipment and weapons, then drop the engine in last, it works.

Would have been useful to show the OCCUPIED/FREE slot count somewhere in the details where everything else is.

I miss the ease of the old Mechlab.

[Jean Valentine]

worst patch ever

bad overview, no faction choice

oh man if the next patch is so worse like this - time to deinstall the game

its so disappoint

[TheCaptainJZ]

Firepower is a terrible stat that really says nothing.

Instead of the alpha power of the mech, it should be more along the lines of a damage over time number.

The diamond diagram in the mouse over is also not really helpful because 1. tonnage will be maxed so that's useless to put on there. 2. Armor distribution is iffy because if you are smart you would have nearly maxed that and you can easily change that. 3. Firepower is a misleading stat. 4. Heat efficiency is a good stat, but since the others are less tell-tale, just use bars like in the old UI. It is less fuzzy.

[Kali Rinpoche]

As a whole, I like the look of the new UI.
My main issues:

1.Fix the Mechlab so the load outs are easier to see. I want an overall schematic like before as an option or at the very least, tags on the mech to take me directly to that spot. Its overly hard to see a complete view of what you have equipped. It looks like you took many of the aspects from Mechromancer (maybe you bought it?) but lacking a easy to read layout view.
2. Return the ability to see a variants load out when you go to purchase it. All you get now is a icon with the picture of the mech and have no idea what weapons are on that basic chassis.
3. Improve the filter options to exclude trial versions.
4. Fix Phoenix mechs so they show up as hero versions.
5. Allow us to filter only the components we own.
6. Group by tonnage not by Alpha/Name. Mechs of the same chassis are not grouped.

Edited by Kali Rinpoche, 05 February 2014 - 09:18 AM.

[Mordynak]

I'm slightly colourblind.... I can't for the life of me see what weapon groups I've set...

It would also be very nice to have the UI maximised to fill my screen. I liked that the old front end was windowed, but i always wished i could maximise it. And I don't mean fullscreen. I mean maximised window. So I can still read the title bar and my task bar.

An option for this would be great.

[NRP]

Overall, I like the new UI. The Inventory tab is great. I love being able to quickly filter and search for mechs. I also really love that it saves changes quicker and returns me to the mechlab quicker after a match than the old UI. The mechs look fantastic.

To be honest, the mechlab itself feels like a step backwards. While it's easy enough to reconfigure a mech (I LOVE the drop down menus for weapons/equipment/etc), I feel that some type of "paper doll" view of the overall mech is more intuitive and would better facilitate rapid prototyping and iterating of mech builds. Also, important info for mech tweaking such as free tonnage and free crit slots are either not very prominently displayed or not displayed at all. Also, very common actions like re-equipping a consumables between matches takes far too many mouse clicks and too much menu diving.

Ideally, after a match is over, I would prefer the UI to drop you back into the mechlab with your chosen mech selected and ready to reconfigure/re-equip. Also, make it possible to automatically refill consumables.

[Tenpin]

As a developer, designer, and webmaster that has worked extensively in the online gaming industry I'll give you my experienced opinion.

The UI is poorly designed from a usability standpoint. It is not intuitive any whatsoever.

While the UI itself scales to whatever full screen set up an end user has, the UI elements do not. They are fixed in size.
The rule of thumb is that if you have fixed size elements in your interface, the interface is to be fixed in size as well.

Navigation elements are scattered and inconsistent.
Labeling is, in many cases, counter intuitive.

For example, the word "owned" is wrong to use in the UI. It is being used in its present perfect tense which MUST BE PRECEDED BY "have" or "has" to give it meaning. As a stand alone, the word is pure past tense.
Use "own" or "inventory" or even nothing at all.

Flatten and mute the colors and never use white text on a yellow (or light) background ever.
You change font color on the light blue backgrounds yet you do not on the yellow. (Durp)

Every game I worked on was (of course) created by programmers and every time they devised their initial user interfaces, the UI reflected a programmer's way of organization and structure: Heavy on ordered navigation trees and the flawed assumption that end users thought the same way they did so finding things would be easy.

What is "intuitive" for a programmer is not intuitive for most other people. For a programmer, ordered functionality is typically the only goal and that's fine. DESIGNERS must take their work and make it usable and have the cajones to do so.
It does not appear that this happened in the case of UI 2.0.

1. Go back to a (smaller) windowed UI or redesign the whole thing to scale properly
2. Redo your colors. You are bordering on pastels and the gradients are distracting. Flatten them.
3. The words "Easy", "At a Glance", "Muted" should be your mantra.

[Scendore]

Honestly it’s mind boggling as to some of the new UI 2.0 changes. It’s counter intuitive and now requires additional clicks to get something done. It doesn’t follow any basic User Experience thought process what so ever.
Why now 2 clicks to launch?
Why does the whole UI become unusable when chatting?
From a skin perspective it is nicer looking but not practical in anyway
Obvious short cuts were taken. Do you really need to display EVERY engine in a massive page when selecting?
I’m not even including the bugs but it’s clear there wasn’t a lot of thought put into this effort. The goal of the UI is to make things easy to configure and setup. Can you guys put some thought into simple things like clearing all the modules from the mech or min armor/ max armor? Your inventory page is okay but do I have to really scroll through all my mechs to find stuff?
If this is a sign of things to come when CW shows up this thing is doomed.

[ThePonyBoy]

The new UI is visually OK and a step forward BUT:

Its functionality is a total slap in the face of all users. I don´t even know what to begin with. After trying it out and testing everything during the last hour there are so many things that simply annoy me and that would have been so easy to do better. This is REALLY disappointing. I know that changes and hotfixes are promised to come quickly. I HOPE SO. If the UI stays that way it´s a pain to change loadouts etc. and no fun to play the game. Please hurry guys. Losing fun of the game.

A very irritated and disapointed PonyBoy

[Rawyn]

Tenpin, on 05 February 2014 - 09:24 AM, said:

For example, the word "owned" is wrong to use in the UI. It is being used in its present perfect tense which MUST BE PRECEDED BY "have" or "has" to give it meaning. As a stand alone, the word is pure past tense.
Use "own" or "inventory" or even nothing at all.

English may not be my primary language, but what about passive form "to be owned by s,o." ?

[Agamemnon78]

I got no idea of the built-in engine TYPE before I buy the mech and even with my owned Mechs, I got to ask the technician to look under the bonnet to tell me what engine I have, lol...

[That Dawg]

The new interface is getting beat up on facebook.
and I agree, the biggest slap...a checkout to save your work?
why not some shopping cart and a dog wagging a tail?
pfffffffft

[aseth]

It would be *really* nice if the Inventory screens could be set to show stuff that's equipped in mechs and let me pull them out.

One of the major un-fun minigames I play is "Where's the Module", as well as (ever since I got a buttload of fast 55 ton mechs) "Where's the XL360 Engine?".

I'd even use it to pull cockpit items out of wherever they are, if I could.

I'd also like to make trial mechs not show up in my list. I have a truly stupid number of mechs, I don't need them. I'd also like to be able to ready up for a match (in a group) from the main screen.

[That Dawg]

Can't visit what previous mechs I've owned and researched?

Still DX9

three screens ..no..just no, horrid

[Cyborne Elemental]

I hate to say it, but it reminds me of the lame interfaces that most console games use.

First time I heard the sound effects, I thought I was using a PlayStation.

[Knight_Invictus]

Overall the new UI 2.0 is very good. Graphics and mech viewing is outstanding.

Looking forward to Smurfy like capability for configuring mechs - this is urgently needed.

Thanks to the Devs for all their hard work, keep it up!

[Shamous13]

Mister D, on 05 February 2014 - 09:42 AM, said:

I hate to say it, but it reminds me of the lame interfaces that most console games use.

First time I heard the sound effects, I thought I was using a PlayStation.

I Agree with you 100% humm..... do I hear a port happening?

[FactorlanP]

Mister D, on 05 February 2014 - 09:42 AM, said:

First time I heard the sound effects, I thought I was using a PlayStation.

Nah... It's obviously XBox1 that they are designing for...

[Ezekyle Faustus]

Is anyone else having problems connecting to matches? It keeps throwing me back into the mech lab when I try to connect to a match. Now my mech sits in a match without a driver while I am stuck in the mech lab perpetually. I don't know how the hell this UI managed to do it, but it has screwed everyone royally. I'm not sure why I even bothered paying you all for this.