24 replies to this topic

[Fragtastic]

What happened to the mechlab UI while I was away? It is now hideous and almost unusable. There is no way that I can find to edit my loadout while also being able to see the whole loadout of the mech. I can see an overview of what my internals look like, but I can't change anything from there. The old UI wasn't great, but at least I could understand what was happening in my mech while I worked on it.

Clicking on any of the individual pieces of the mech results in a massive, terrifying field of icons that are all the same color with very similar looking images on them, the only difference being tiny text boxes on each icon.

Editing armor takes years now since you have to go to each part individually to change armor levels, and changing armor is already a bit fiddly without the extra steps. I find myself constantly going back to the overview just so I can get an idea of what's going on inside my mech after I make changes.

It is a giant mess. I know that some people have gotten used to it, and can use it just fine, but from a design standpoint it is an unwieldy **** that unnecessarily hides information from the user.

[EgoSlayer]

Welcome to last year...

Improvements in UI 2.0 are one of the "hot" items that Russ mentioned in the last town hall to get some improvements in this year. Now that the initial work on CW has shipped other items are going to start getting some attention as well.

[Thorqemada]

Mechlab 3.0 is in the planning - they understand that the workflow is bad.

Edited by Thorqemada, 13 January 2015 - 07:31 PM.

[CocoaJin]

Fragtastic, on 13 January 2015 - 07:11 PM, said:

What happened to the mechlab UI while I was away? It is now hideous and almost unusable. There is no way that I can find to edit my loadout while also being able to see the whole loadout of the mech. I can see an overview of what my internals look like, but I can't change anything from there. The old UI wasn't great, but at least I could understand what was happening in my mech while I worked on it.

Clicking on any of the individual pieces of the mech results in a massive, terrifying field of icons that are all the same color with very similar looking images on them, the only difference being tiny text boxes on each icon.

Editing armor takes years now since you have to go to each part individually to change armor levels, and changing armor is already a bit fiddly without the extra steps. I find myself constantly going back to the overview just so I can get an idea of what's going on inside my mech after I make changes.

It is a giant mess. I know that some people have gotten used to it, and can use it just fine, but from a design standpoint it is an unwieldy **** that unnecessarily hides information from the user.

You'll get used to it. It has it short comings, but within short order, you'll be able to navigate it just fine.

[Deathlike]

CocoaJin, on 13 January 2015 - 08:23 PM, said:

You'll get used to it. It has it short comings, but within short order, you'll be able to navigate it just fine.

Sure, except you have to get grumpy over memorizing it instead of the free-flow version that was 1.5 (the previous version, in Feb 2013) was a superior design.

[Karl Streiger]

Thorqemada, on 13 January 2015 - 07:30 PM, said:

Mechlab 3.0 is in the planning - they understand that the workflow is bad.

problem is the UI 3.0 will cause rage - maybe not as much if made right - but still there will be rage.
Simple because people tend to decline new things. Maybe they accept them as part of a hype - but usually - its "never" touch a running system - i didn't count how often i hit a brick wall when i tried to optimize a system or even remove mistakes - that were visible for me - but not the average user. (weird stuff)

[MikeBend]

Why cant we have mechlab that looks like smurfy page and also lists mech quirks somewhere in the corner? It is very informative and straightforward.

[William Mountbank]

I heard somewhere on the grapevine that Mechlab 3.0 would replicate some of the Smurfy design, but I could be mistaken.

[El Bandito]

Looking for modules to swap around is making me very frustrated. It is 2015 already and MWO still does not have "save loadout" function. Even MW2 back in 1997 had one!

Edited by El Bandito, 14 January 2015 - 11:16 PM.

[Thorqemada]

Honestly the UI2.0 Mechlab is in many ways worse than the old one which opens a good chance to make People happy with a better Mechlab 3.0 soon™.

Edited by Thorqemada, 14 January 2015 - 03:04 AM.

[MeiSooHaityu]

CocoaJin, on 13 January 2015 - 08:23 PM, said:

You'll get used to it. It has it short comings, but within short order, you'll be able to navigate it just fine.

Still, even after all this time, I still hunt for things occasionally. I still forget where to go to sell equipment and weapons. I keep forgetting it is under inventory. I used to forget where to level up modules, but I now remember that pretty well.

Overall I don't hate the U.I. 2 but I agree that is does have shortcomings.

[Curccu]

El Bandito, on 14 January 2015 - 02:53 AM, said:

Looking for modules to swap around is making my very frustrated. It is 2015 and MWO still does not have "save loadout" function. Even MW2 back in 1997 had one!

I haven't played MW2 for a while so cannot remember but is there loadout cost in MW2?


I thought it was just going to be UI 2.5 not 3

[El Bandito]

Curccu, on 14 January 2015 - 03:15 AM, said:

I haven't played MW2 for a while so cannot remember but is there loadout cost in MW2?


I thought it was just going to be UI 2.5 not 3

In MW2 and the GBL expansion you play as Clanners so there are no loadout cost. In MW2: Mercenaries expansion, there is loadout cost. Cost me huge amount of my initial fund just to remove one SRM4 and add a couple of medium lasers for my Commando.

Edited by El Bandito, 14 January 2015 - 03:39 AM.

[Curccu]

El Bandito, on 14 January 2015 - 03:39 AM, said:

In MW2 and the GBL expansion you play as Clanners so there are no loadout cost. In MW2: Mercenaries expansion, there is loadout cost. Cost me huge amount of my initial fund just to remove one SRM4 and add a couple of medium lasers for my Commando.

Yep Mercs I have played more recently and yeah one of the points in that game is getting money for your job so R&R makes sense big time

[Sarlic]

Thorqemada, on 13 January 2015 - 07:30 PM, said:

Mechlab 3.0 is in the planning - they understand that the workflow is bad.

Since when? You mean the G.U.I?

[Ziogualty]

Mechlab 2.0 is the main reason why i gradually stopped playing MWO (my last game was before summer i guess).
I still have 20millions and 1000 mc to spend. They are waiting for a new UI just like me.

Happy to hear that in 12 months or less i could try something different (praying every day it will be as close as smurfy or any other MW title as possible).

One thing is amazing: Mechs, money and gold values do not decay, so i'm not in a hurry - PGI teach me the hard way!
(Elite Dangerous, Planetside 2 and War Thunder are keeping me quite busy meanwhile).

One thing is for sure: if the UI will be much better than the actual, i'm pretty sure i will give MWO a huge second chance.

Edited by Attank, 14 January 2015 - 04:31 AM.

[Fragtastic]

Thanks for the responses all, I was unaware of Mechlab 3.0 on the way. Hopefully it will be more useable than the current offering. Honestly though, if the current lab showed the entire paper doll of the mech instead of just the part you have selected its usability would increase a hundred fold for me.

[Kyrie]

I always thought that this first pass at "UI 2.0" was a secret partnership with Lumosity, focusing on the short-term memory development of us mech designers. ;-)

[Burktross]

MikeBend, on 14 January 2015 - 01:20 AM, said:

Why cant we have mechlab that looks like smurfy page and also lists mech quirks somewhere in the corner? It is very informative and straightforward.

I'm hopin for something more like li-song mechlab, instead.
Not muuuuch different, but I like it a bit more

[LordKnightFandragon]

William Mountbank, on 14 January 2015 - 02:49 AM, said:

I heard somewhere on the grapevine that Mechlab 3.0 would replicate some of the Smurfy design, but I could be mistaken.

God, it should, complete with the lists of mechs at the top, the quickly, and easily accessible tabs for each weapon and armor, gear, w/e....

Smurfy is very fluid and easy to work with. Can throw together a company of mechs in the time it takes you to design 3 in the UI2.0