I have been a staunch supporter both financially and during your ups and downs during development. I have to say that UI 2.0 has really disappointed me and I'm not sure how much support I am willing to give from here on in. It will depend entirely on what you do to improve the interface because quite frankly it is unusable without creating all sorts of frustration. I'm literally at a point where I feel like waiting half a year to see what you can do in the meantime so I don't have to deal with the frustrations I dealt with the first time I played using ui 2.0.
I'll try to summarize some of the issues, but feel like there are so many I just can't spend the time necessary to list them all. But I care enough about the product that I'd like to be heard.
1)Select mech screen: This should be the screen where you can automatically see your mech's build-out. In the bottom right where the current info resides, you should also list what the weapons load out is, what modules you have, how many heat sinks, what its hard points are how much ammo you have equipped AND ENGINE. similar to your previous ui.
It literally took me five minutes to find the load out of a mech because a) it was non-intuitively listed in a pop up screen that takes too long to load and b ) the font is so small, I couldn't see the info.
As an aside, I would expect that either in the home screen or the select mech screen, you could pan in 3d to see your mech the same way that world of tanks does. I have literally spent hours just checking out my tanks and admiring camo jobs which I find has been limited in MWO.
2) Mechlab: I'm sorry to say, but this is just a mess. I went from excited to beyond frustrated in about 10 minutes. Trying to change a couple load out and swap engines between mechs was much more difficult than it should be.
a) visually, I highly suggest putting the mech in the middle of the screen and using the left and right real estate for everything else. Also, I can't put a finger on it but the table that shows you your crit spaces just doesn't seem to be placed right. It would be nice to be able to click my mech to access the critical slot info too.
b ) I should be able to double click equipped items to send them back to inventory
c) I should be able to hit escape on my keyboard to go back
d) The centre torso engine screen is way too busy. I should be able to filter for what engines I own
e) you should have the amount of ammo equipped shown somewhere
f) way too many menus. The ease of use of ui 1.5 was much better and smurfy kills both in terms of usability.
g) I became super frustrated until I realized that checkout was actually "accept load out". I wasted at least 10 minutes figuring that one out.
h) you need to have a way to see current weapons load-out and modules equipped without having to click multiple menus. Give me a quick and dirty summary of what my mech has all in one place that doesn't require any clicking or digging.
i) We absolutely need to have engine equipped listed next to the weapon load out at the very least. I knew I had an xl295 engine on an unknown mech that I wanted to swap out, and I literally had to click "select mech; configure; loadout; centre torso" for each mech to find the elusive engine. I have 40 mechs and gave up after going through the click intensive process 10 times.
j) where is the option to automatically re-equip consumables?
3) I have some beefs with the friends list and create a group. Will need to be in a group match again to remember my critiques though. Off the top of my head, you need to make it that we can choose what type of match we want to play (and let us choose multiple options, not just one) and don't make me have to choose again every battle.
TL;DR I love the game and like what you have done so far (with manageable caveats). But please make the ui much more intuitive and much less deep dive clicking through menus. Make your mech load outs and modules easy to find ON THE FIRST PAGE as well as on the landing page in mechlab; select mech.
Edited to describe the click-a-thon I went through to find an equipped engine to move to another mech.
Edited by Namicus, 18 February 2014 - 12:22 PM.
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