Localize the Old UI already

Bubbles - Morai

It's been two years since the release of the Genesis expansion that added in our current emerald UI. This addition meant an overhaul in the UI system (changing from one style of files to .xml files) and the feature that allows you to change ui while in game.

This feature was disabled in game for our version, but is still accessible via the systemsettings ini file and has been approved by frankie over two years ago.

To clarify, pwcn has buttons in their game settings menu in game that allows you to switch from the old ui to the emerald ui and back. There is also a skin change button at the character list screen.

Why is this an issue?
You can't change back to the emerald ui while in game (adding this button back in game would eliminate the need for ini editting).
The text is displaced to a point where some words simply don't show up, or they clash in with other parts of the ui (there is too many instances of this to list, but one big example I can think of is the cash shop simply being too small to show items with long names and the actual descriptions of the items)(another would be the nearby players menu (the "t" button) does not show any of the classes to filter by).
The numbers are missing on the hotkey bars, thus you kind of have to guess which icon is set for which button.
There are references to features that were disabled in our version but enabled in pwcn (for example, references to their in game IE browser, the radio links, the perfect points system, the exp limits they have for people who play too long).

For as long as the old ui is present and is ok to use, it should really be fixed up so it does more than solve a few issues for some people. It should be fully functional so that anyone can enjoy it.

As a final note, I'm not going to list every single issue with the old ui because there's simply too many to list. There are issues starting with character generation, to the messages you see while entering the game, to the various windows that you use in game such as character info, bag, npc shop list, cash shop, pet bag/summon/skill page, craft windows, event cash shop, auction house, gold buying/selling, genie stats/affinities/exp windows, etc...

The majority of the issues are mostly aesthetic, but things like missing words makes it hard to figure out which button does what or being able to see the full description on things.

Someone at wanmei simply needs to spend time on this and either look into how the old ui was done before the genesis expansion, or just overhaul the whole ui.

genotypist

But Bubbles, we don't support that UI anymore. At some point in the past, an executive decision was made to only support one UI (the current one) at a time to ensure that we're not doubling up on UI bugs.

Why do you want that UI so badly? It's quite frankly pretty garish.

bluestuffzzz

genotypist wrote: »

But Bubbles, we don't support that UI anymore. At some point in the past, an executive decision was made to only support one UI (the current one) at a time to ensure that we're not doubling up on UI bugs.

Why do you want that UI so badly? It's quite frankly pretty garish.

The old UI serves as many things, even though it may look ugly in comparison to the new UI. Firstly, you have the 1.3.6 nostalgia effect of the original game, which is always a plus. There's also a smaller squad list, and the corner's of all bars (HP, MP, etc) aren't rounded, so it shows a more accurate display.

It's understandable that it isn't supported anymore, though. Still, from an older player's view, it has merit.

Bubbles - Morai

genotypist wrote: »

But Bubbles, we don't support that UI anymore. At some point in the past, an executive decision was made to only support one UI (the current one) at a time to ensure that we're not doubling up on UI bugs.

Why do you want that UI so badly? It's quite frankly pretty garish.

Genotypist, you and the rest of pwe may not favor that ui, but wanmei still has plenty of support for it, especially for the pwcn. Even if pwi and pwcn are two separate entities, wanmei is still putting in enough localization into the old ui to a point where it's very much current . It has support for all the features that it originally didn't have before the genesis expansion(it has a meditation window, nation wars windows, etc). Naturally, this is because pwcn actively still uses the ui. However, we have received all of the updates, despite the fact the old ui isn't supposed to be supported for us.

What needs to be done is mostly rearrangement with a few window tweaks. The only thing is that due to the english language taking up more space than a few chinese characters would (like two chinese characters compared to 20 english characters), a few tweaks means a few tweaks to practically every window or box of text in game.
The old ui is otherwise fine, if it's salvageable, why not use it?

It may seem lack luster, but you have understand like what bluestuffzzz said, there's a nostalgia effect to it.

It's alsomuch more compact, thus giving more room for people who have smaller resolutions. There are people who play pwi with antiquated systems, a ui system that was designed with them in mind would really help them out.
Ask anyone who tries to click in the upper right section of the client window on lower resolutions. They'll give you plenty of complaints of how they can't click to move to a spot because the bar to the left of the minimap has an invisible block big enough to stop them.

I would think for as long as pwi is playable on older rigs, you might as well have the ui that'll properly support them.
You'd win the hearts of some older players back if you advertise the ability to use the old ui. As for newcomers, you could advertise that pwi will have the unique function of ui switching.

genotypist

Hrmm, I hear you.

I'll point out though that our parent company supporting the old UI does not invalidate my point that by supporting 2 UIs, PWI would have to double up on our work.

The reason for this is simple: after the translation from Chinese script to English alphabets, the UI will invariably break in a wide array of places. A single word in English is quite long when compared to fully-formed Chinese characters.

And since the old UI and the new UI aren't the same size, it's not as simple as having our team bug one issue for both UIs. It would literally double the workload we devote to UI.

That said, I'll talk to my bosses and see what we can do about this. Absolutely no promises.

Porkfruit - Lost City

Another thing about the old interface, a major reason many people prefer the old UI over the new is because you can't click the background of the upper right corner of the screen. It is VERY annoying.

A fix would encourage more to use the UI that is being "supported". Currently this is of such scale that gameplay is affected greatly by it and for many people who engage in pvp the old UI is indubitably the more advantageous one.

XsugarlipsX - Sanctuary

i'd have to agree about letting us pick which UI we like better!! i find the old UI much better, not to mention you don't miss on clicking skills, new UI you do due to the spaces now!

Sirkura - Raging Tide

Porkfruit - Lost City wrote: »

Another thing about the old interface, a major reason many people prefer the old UI over the new is because you can't click the background of the upper right corner of the screen. It is VERY annoying.

A fix would encourage more to use the UI that is being "supported". Currently this is of such scale that gameplay is affected greatly by it and for many people who engage in pvp the old UI is indubitably the more advantageous one.

this +1! in the corner where the mini map is you can not click the empty space below it unless u hide the map. Also the new quest track list, while i love that it has current and obtainable quests, its a <female dog> to minimize/drag around. at the very least those should be fixed with the new UI.

another thing is you can now drag the tracklist off screen completely. instead of the top bar staying afloat (so to speak) against the edge of the screen keeping it from getting lost.

Blue__Lycan - Sanctuary

Just want to show my support for this by saying I've been using this UI for the past year since it was approved for the following reasons:
-My Genie skills fit at the bottom by my skillbars again.
-Easier on the eyes
-Easier to see invites, etc.
-Obviously the nostalgia effect.
-Squad list being much much smaller without the ugliness of the Emerald one
-Squad list, Minimap, etc. etc. invisible UI not getting in the way of other windows I.E. Skillbars
-Minimap cords. bar being a normal size.

Bhavyy - Raging Tide

genotypist wrote: »

Hrmm, I hear you.

I'll point out though that our parent company supporting the old UI does not invalidate my point that by supporting 2 UIs, PWI would have to double up on our work.

Double nothing is still zero.

Azura - Lost City

I like the new interface, and I imagine why PWI only wants to support one.

Desdi - Sanctuary

Maybe they should just make a new UI b:surrender but we'd have to request that from Wanmei/PWCN.

I agree that the one we have currently is very annoying. It has a lot of "invisible boxes" that makes it hard to select things, drag things around etc. There's also some space between the hot key bar boxes and sometimes you accidentally click in-between them and end up running instead of clicking the skill.

I don't like the old UI much but I agree that it was much more practical and worked much better overall for the reasons stated in other posts.

I can also see why PWE would avoid working with two UIs. I don't know how hard it is to maintain two UI but I think the team over here at PWE may be too small (compared to Wanmei) or inexperienced or just don't want to take unnecessary extra load of work.

Deadalus - Harshlands

Bhavyy - Raging Tide wrote: »

Double nothing is still zero.

Wow, do you really think, that the UI transletes itself? useless comment is useless.

I like the new UI to be honest, the old one is very ugly but i do agree, that having an option in two UI's would be a great idea.

Nothing important, but maybe someday

Bubbles - Morai

Azura - Lost City wrote: »

I like the new interface, and I imagine why PWI only wants to support one.

I like the old interface, and I don't imagine why PWE only wants to support one.

Deadalus - Harshlands wrote: »

Wow, do you really think, that the UI transletes itself? useless comment is useless.

I like the new UI to be honest, the old one is very ugly but i do agree, that having an option in two UI's would be a great idea.

Nothing important, but maybe someday

The old ui is already translated, it needs to be properly localized (as in the ui being enlarged to fit all the english characters) so it looks like as it should.

PWE would not be fixing it. It would be the devs at Wanmei that would be fixing this.

Why Genotypist even made that statement is beyond me, as far as I'm concerned PWE's job to is handle anything that doesn't involve editing game files.

TCHP - Lost City

Since PWI does not want to support this old UI, They should make it open source for player to play whit it and submit there own solution to the game development team.

instead of having a close mid, they could have the community input there solution at very low price. ( like if they like the fix, they could give the person a demon/sage card has a reward )

Making this game even more fun cause people could use it more on older PC for a longer time.

To be honest, I love the old UI to. I would switch to it any time if it was supported.

Psytrac - Dreamweaver

genotypist wrote: »

But Bubbles, we don't support that UI anymore. At some point in the past, an executive decision was made to only support one UI (the current one) at a time to ensure that we're not doubling up on UI bugs.

Why do you want that UI so badly? It's quite frankly pretty garish.

most of the "Emerald" UI bugs do NOT exist in the classic UI. in fact, the same bugs that appear in PWI appear in W2I with the Emerald UI so there's no "doubling up bugs" in fact, the Classic UI works perfectly, except for the "squad/common/trade" tabs