10 replies to this topic

[Alistair Winter]

EDIT:

Scroll down to the next posts for some images in regards to layout. In this first post, you'll find a list of random issues and suggestions.



In no particular order. Sorry for the things that have already been brought up.

• Too many sounds. The screen is filled with different buttons to push (especially in the Select Mech screen or Warehouse) and the UI makes a little 'bweep" sound every time I hover the cursor over a button. If you move your cursor over 20 buttons, it sounds like "bweepbweepbweepbweepbweepbweepbweep" which is really, really annoying over time when you're spending hours in the Mechlab.
  
• Can't preview new mechs. When looking at mechs you want to buy in the Store, you can't see what they look like when you click on them, as you used to. A lot of people buy mechs based on looks.
  
• Please update mech stats. Firepower measured in x of 250 is a meaningless stat, because 250 doesn't give any sort of useful reference. You may as well put x of 1000. I think it would be better to just give the number without 250 as some sort of artificial ceiling.
  
  I also think that the jump distance metric is useless. What really matters is the jump height. Distance depends on speed, and few people care about the ability to make long horizontal jumps. People want to know how far up they can jump.
  
• Please reconsider the colour coding. There's just too many different colours right now, the UI doesn't look unified and coherent. The UI needs a color theme for generic buttons. Mech upgrades, weapon types in the warehouse, the 'strip mech' and 'reset mech' buttons in the lower right corner. When so many buttons have their own unique colour, it makes the whole look less visually appealing.
  
• Yellow colour coding in Warehouse is pointless. In my mind, it's just distracting to have a separate yellow color for stuff I can equip if I swap out some other stuff. Just show me what I can and cannot equip at present. White and red, although I'd prefer to replace the red with gray, to reduce the number of colours used.
  
• I miss the weapon / engine / equipment icons. All this multi-coloured text is very uninteresting and visually unappealing. Some smaller versions of the icons we had before, with better readability and colour codes, would have been preferable.

I may have more later

Edited by Alistair Winter, 08 May 2015 - 04:27 AM.

[Alistair Winter]

Apologies if double-posting is frowned upon.

Here's a suggestion for changing the Column layout in the mechlab. I feel this would be more intuitive and would speed up the process of mech building, as you wouldn't have to drag so much stuff from one side of the screen to the other.

I would also suggest that you bring back the feature from UI 1.0 that allowed players to click on a component (e.g. right torso), and then this component would be highlighted and a window would open to let you modify the loadout in this single component.

[Idalgos]

I really would like to see highlighting feature in new mechlab. When I was green, I could learn about game hitboxes and all that multiple torsos stuff just by staring at mechlab for hours. It was intuitive.

[Lily from animove]

agree with anythign except the small icons, no real icons needed tbh.

[Alistair Winter]

I've got some further suggestions, this time it's for the expanded Mechlab layout.

• Move Mech stats to the left side of the Mechlab. Easier to glance over at the side than the bottom right corner, and some of the stats (TONNAGE!!) are really important to keep an eye on when you're building mechs. In fact, the Tonnage statistic should probably be bigger and easier to read.
  
• Seperate window for all the quirks at the bottom. Quirks are a very important feature of this game and very important to keep in mind for building mechs. They shouldn't be hidden away, especially not in a tiny window you have to scroll. The Highlander has a million quirks, for example and it's hard to keep track of them.
  
• Notice I have added an extra statistic to each component. STRUCTURE. Because it would really help to know how many structure points our mechs have, yet nobody seems to have any idea. This is especially important becaaause....
  
• The UI should display our structure and armour bonus from quirks on the actual components. It's just a lot easier to keep track of and very practical. Then I'll know whether my Atlas has 100 CT armour or actually 100+20 due to quirks.
  
• You may as well get rid of the Mech stats window at the bottom right corner, in my humble opinion.

This is the PGI test version, for comparison

Spoiler

[Mark of Caine]

To add to this, it would be wonderful to see the actual numbers of the statistics instead of a very small graph with guesstimates. It's a real pain to have to build your mech, go in the testing grounds just to see what your speed is, your jump capability, the new range on your weapons, etc.


For weapons, if you insist on keeping the graphs, then have a straight line represent optimal damage, and then the falloff line to 0 damage due to maximum range. AND have the new range numbers listed, even with modules modifying the results.

[Tiamat of the Sea]

As long as you're removing or altering the Firepower stat (I'd recommend removing it entirely, it doesn't do anything worth doing), and rendering the Jump measurement either into maximum height or something else more usable, you should really consider changing the way 'heat management' is presented.

No information is given as to what '1' and '2' mean, so there is no way to take the decimal presented by 'Heat Management' and turn it into something useful. A percentage like Smurfy's uses (% of heat generated at full blast that is dissipated) would be immensely more useful than an obfuscatory number. It's far easier to understand what '78% Heat Efficiency' means than '.89/2 Heat Management'.

Edited by Quickdraw Crobat, 08 May 2015 - 08:06 AM.

[Alistair Winter]

Caine2112, on 08 May 2015 - 08:01 AM, said:

To add to this, it would be wonderful to see the actual numbers of the statistics instead of a very small graph with guesstimates. It's a real pain to have to build your mech, go in the testing grounds just to see what your speed is, your jump capability, the new range on your weapons, etc.
For weapons, if you insist on keeping the graphs, then have a straight line represent optimal damage, and then the falloff line to 0 damage due to maximum range. AND have the new range numbers listed, even with modules modifying the results.

I absolutely agree. I added a range section above. I was going to suggest a graph, but as you say, numbers are actually a lot more useful.

Quickdraw Crobat, on 08 May 2015 - 08:06 AM, said:

As long as you're removing or altering the Firepower stat (I'd recommend removing it entirely, it doesn't do anything worth doing), and rendering the Jump measurement either into maximum height or something else more usable, you should really consider changing the way 'heat management' is presented.

No information is given as to what '1' and '2' mean, so there is no way to take the decimal presented by 'Heat Management' and turn it into something useful. A percentage like Smurfy's uses (% of heat generated at full blast that is dissipated) would be immensely more useful than an obfuscatory number. It's far easier to understand what '78% Heat Efficiency' means than '.89/2 Heat Management'.

I absolutely agree. I suggested this here:
http://mwomercs.com/...mber-crunching/

[Alistair Winter]

Adding to my laundry-list of things I'd like to see in UI 2.5

• When the player receives new mechs / weapons / cockpit items / titles or C-bills as result of an achievement unlock or challenge reward, the UI should explain what the player has received. Ideally, it would be nice to see why you received it. For example, the UI may show that you received a free mech for completing the weekend challenge, or that you received a new title for accumulating 100 headshots.
  
• Update Mech Skill tree to show either the skill of your highest levelled mech or your lowest levelled mech. Ideally, it would be great to have a toggle for this. For example, if I have 3 mechs with Basic, Elite and Master skills, then it the list of Mechs shouldn't just show the mastery level of whichever mech is first in alphabetical order.
  
• When choosing weapon groups in the Mechlab, it would be nice to see where each individual weapon is mounted. For example, my Nova may have 14 lasers. 6 in each arm and 1 in each side torso. It's a nightmare trying to divide this into 3 different weapon groups (left arm, right arm, and both side torsos) when I can't see which weapons are mounted where.
  
• The cockpit item screen isn't very intuitive. It's not obvious that you should pick on the empty slots in the lower right corner in order to choose between standing, hanging and mounted items.
  
• It would be great to be able to see the cockpit from normal view before clicking on either standing, hanging or mounted items. I just want to see what the cockpit will look like in-game, without zooming in on specific items.
  
• In the Mechlab, "Strip mech" and "Reset mech" buttons should be more visible, not stuck in the lower right corner.
  
• It should not be possible to launch a match when your mech lacks ammo for one or more of its weapons. Who would ever want the option to do it? 99.9% of all players will be happy that it's impossible to launch without the correct ammo, to avoid stupid mistakes. Right now it's impossible to launch without weapons equipped, but it is possible to launch with a single ballistic weapon and no ammo. Makes no sense.
  
• "Max armour" button in Mechlab would be nice.
  
• It's a bit tricky to hit the "Rename mech" button. If your cursor comes in from the right side, it doesn't respond so well.
  
• When upgrading Weapon skills for Weapon modules, it would be great to have the ability to sort all weapons on the list, such as is currently possible for the "Select Mech" screen. For example:
  
  Clan / Inner Sphere button
  Ballistic / Energy / Missile / Other button
  I don't quite understand how the modules are sorted right now, because it's not according to type or alphabetical order.

Edited by Alistair Winter, 11 May 2015 - 02:15 AM.

[Tiamat of the Sea]

• Don't allow the 'mechlab to list weapons that can't be mounted on the 'mech because it hasn't got the right hardpoints.
  
• Don't allow the 'mechlab to list ammo for weapons that can't be mounted on the 'mech because it hasn't got the right hardpoints.

[Mark of Caine]

Actually, the only ammo that should ever show up is any ammo with a currently mounted weapon.

Therefore, if I have an AMS and a UAC5 currently mounted on my mech, then the only ammo I should ever see is AMS and UAC5 ammo regardless of the mech component I have selected.

Edited by Caine2112, 11 May 2015 - 08:06 AM.