I finally had the chance to play around with the new UI on Tribble. Kudos to thomasthecat for all the work he's put in
I really like the clean look of the LCARS-inspired design - I understand that certain elements have ragged edges / poor anti-aliasing, but as other have mentioned this is meant to be a Work In Progress (WIP), and it makes sense to have rough graphics for quick prototyping. I'm sure this will be rectified in the final release.
The change in the UI during space combat is quite nice, but maybe a little too subtle - perhaps a slightly brighter shade of red?
The in-game font has sort of grown on me, although it would be nice to see a return to a true LCARS-style font.
In the loading screens for FED, I would have prefered a lighter shade of blue for the text rather than the yellow.
The only major negatives are the NPC dialogs:
Whilst the viewscreen frame for space NPC contacts are a nice touch, it's somewhat jarring to have to speak to my own Bridge Officers that way (especially those who players have technically assigned to bridge stations)
The flatter and wider aspect ratio results in just the head and neck of the NPC being visible, hiding whatever costume customisations the game or Foundry NPCs would have.
I would thus like to suggest the following improvements to the dialogs:
Both the background and the viewscreen frames should be selectively applied depending on the NPC and the player's current location:
- Player in space map, BOff aboard player's own ship: no viewscreen, animated LCARS bridge station background
- Player in space map, NPC aboard player's own ship: no viewscreen, generic starship interior background
- Player in space map, NPC NOT on player's own ship: viewscreen, faction/location specific background
- Player on ground map, BOff aboard player's own ship: no viewscreen, animated LCARS bridge station background
- Player on ground map, BOff on same ground map: no viewscreen, appropriate faction/location specific background
- Player on ground map, NPC on same ground map: no viewscreen, appropriate faction/location specific background
- Player on ground map, NPC in space: no viewscreen, appropriate faction/location specific background
I would presume this would require two additional variables for each dialog instance:
- One to toggle the viewscreen frame on or off
- One to reference an appropriate background image
Along the same lines of the previous point, if and when player customisation of ship interiors becomes a reality, perhaps the viewscreen frame could more accurately reflect on the player's ship class/decor choice? The current default is the Galaxy-class viewscreen, but BoP and Intrepid-class viewscreen choices could be nice too.
The NPC avatar could be reduced in size so that the upper torso is more visible - the extra space at the sides is, in my opinion, an acceptable compromise.
Laws of thermodynamics as applied to life: 0 - You must play the game. 1 - You can't win. 2 - You can't break even. 3 - You can't quit.
While it is very similar, the 'new' ui actually introduces a *lot* of black borders which simply aren't there with the current ui. My layout on the the tribble side is identical to my layout on holodeck, yet on tribble everything overlaps. It is unsightly and horrendous to use.
Besides, I don't even have bloom enabled
So if you add new textures over the same object makes that a new object? :rolleyes:
the current blue UI uses alot of bloom which you cant turn off in options.Go type /showfps 1 in chat then alt+f12 to remove the UI to see the difference in frames per second .Then go on tribble and do the same thing .You will see that the UI on tribble is less demanding ..that is important when you have many stuffs on the screen.
Btw they even said is a reskined UI,not new UI .Guess a Blue Volvo is not Volvo if you paint it in other colour :rolleyes:
The problem is that on the new UI a lot of the smaller buttons have had their icons changed so that the icons are almost identical. Look at the power distribution buttons in space and tell me you could tell which one is which out of the corner of your eye while in combat?
The current icons are visibly different, the new ones are not. This is what it boils down to, not colours are you seem to think.
Take a screenshot at 1.00 UI scale both tribble and holodeck at the same resolution and you will see that the power buttons have the same size and the only think bigger are borders of the power tray and some menus.
I have to agree, the new UI is absolutely hideous. It looks like it is from a game 15 years old. For the love of god please give us the option to maintain the current UI!
Wow..... I tried it today and found it was almost impossible to use. I had a very hard time reading some of the content due to the color scheme. And some of the new icons just didn't make sense.
I have to say, I -REALLY- want an option to keep the old-style UI looks. I don't care about LCARS, this new one is hideous, IMO. It looks very cartoonish and wastes metric tons of space on my screen.
Beauty is, as they say, in the eye of the beholder. That said, I suppose there may be someone out there who likes the new look better. But I feel it's a huge step in the wrong direction in terms not only of looks but in functionality/ergonomics. I can't see as much actual useful information on my screen due to all the needless bordering and backfilling.
1. Its too sharp, I'm not sure how to discribe it, its too easy to see pixles on the edges I think? Needs more pixels on curves. Softer edges.
The term would be "inadequate anti aliasing".
I suspect this may be intentional on the part of the devs - but only for testing purposes (it's quicker to use low-quality images to prototype UI during testing). I'm certain the final version would smooth out those ragged, pixelated edges.
Laws of thermodynamics as applied to life: 0 - You must play the game. 1 - You can't win. 2 - You can't break even. 3 - You can't quit.
I know some people like the LCARS look but frankly it makes the game feel much less modern because the "new UI" is based of a design made over 25 years ago.
IMO the design should not have been based on the old LCARS system but instead should have been what it would be if TNG was about to air its pilot episode TODAY.
The idea that new colors can be added to the new UI to make it better is flawed. The problem many people have is with the shape of the UI.
A good UI is one that nobody notices because its not in the way and does not take center stage over the game.
One of my biggest complaints of the new UI is that the icons for all our abilities and player conditions are too small and can not be made larger without making all the other "bulky" parts of the UI much much larger and that much more in the way of the view of the game. The other problem I personally have is that the UI now looks like somebody made a box and put text in it where we used to have simple outlines like what is around the health indicator during ground combat.
I know some people like the LCARS look but frankly it makes the game feel much less modern because the "new UI" is based of a design made over 25 years ago.
IMO the design should not have been based on the old LCARS system but instead should have been what it would be if TNG was about to air its pilot episode TODAY.
The idea that new colors can be added to the new UI to make it better is flawed. The problem many people have is with the shape of the UI.
A good UI is one that nobody notices because its not in the way and does not take center stage over the game.
One of my biggest complaints of the new UI is that the icons for all our abilities and player conditions are too small and can not be made larger without making all the other "bulky" parts of the UI much much larger and that much more in the way of the view of the game. The other problem I personally have is that the UI now looks like somebody made a box and put text in it where we used to have simple outlines like what is around the health indicator during ground combat.
I really thinkg someone has been playing WoW and been using Xperl a lot. There is ALOT of Xperl Style themes going on, and it's just aweful. I hated xperl in WoW and I'll hate it here
The UI is really in development in a few places but for the most part it seems relatively complete in game. The login screen however is still a bit to go, I had my shuttle displaying instead of my ship. (yea that bug rears its head once more).
As far as the in game UI goes the new one is a bit better in my opinion as its not so much same color on same color as the old one.
Bridge view screen notification is quite a bit larger, not so good when your still in a fight but its a lot nicer than the old one for nearly any other scenario.
My comments to its overall looks are the black background probably needs a bit more of a texture other wise it just seems to be really empty area on the screen and has a slightly odd feel because of that.
I have to say, I find this new UI and Color Scheme to be dreadful. It's so dark and blocky, it actually makes my eyes hurt to look at. I agree 100% with the earlier comment that it looks like it came from a 10 year old game. I wouldn't have ever thought abou TRIBBLE, but the corners of the various boxes being sharp, rather than rounded off as they are currently is more annoying than I would have ever thought it could be.
That said, some of the changes are nice like the pictures in the character pane etc. Nice to see my ship looking fully customized in the pane.
My suggestions:
1. Round a few corners off so it's easier on the mind and brighten the pallet up a bit.
2. Give some color choice options. A lot of people find the current KDF red horrifying, but I myself rather like it. Giving some options for the pallet, even if it's just two or three would make a lot of people happy.
Final comment: Personally I really like the current "Feds are Blue and KDF are Red" situation. I didn't look at the game yet from a KDF character, but I sincerely hope the UI colors are not going to be the same for all factions. I enjoy havng the overall color scheme look different when I change factions.
I really thinkg someone has been playing WoW and been using Xperl a lot. There is ALOT of Xperl Style themes going on, and it's just aweful. I hated xperl in WoW and I'll hate it here
Ive never played wow and I had to look up Xperl just to know what your were referring to.
That said the problem I have with new UI is that I have to enlarge it to take up about 30-35% of my screen so the icons are big enough for me to distinguish between them. The current UI on holodeck only takes up about 25% of my screen to accomplish the same objective. That's a problem no matter how you cut it or what you call it.
Then after you get past the facts like UI footprint on the screen and identification of UI components theres a large group of people who find the new UI to look worse in their opinions. I'm one of them. So now for me not only is the UI more in the way of what I want see in the game but whats in the way looks worse to me.
So if you add new textures over the same object makes that a new object? :rolleyes:
A veiled ad-hominem. I'll ignore it.
the current blue UI uses alot of bloom which you cant turn off in options.Go type /showfps 1 in chat then alt+f12 to remove the UI to see the difference in frames per second .Then go on tribble and do the same thing .You will see that the UI on tribble is less demanding ..that is important when you have many stuffs on the screen.
For me this is false. The new UI seems to be just as demanding as the old one.
And no, I don't use bloom either. For that is out of the equation.
And YES the new UI *still* causes the same fps drop as the old one.
By the way, you mentioned that it is the same as the old UI just with changed textures. If that were the case, what is it that makes the 'new' UI so much more efficient and "less demanding" as you put it?
As far as I can tell, your assertion that the new UI is "less demanding" is a load of rot.
Btw they even said is a reskined UI,not new UI .Guess a Blue Volvo is not Volvo if you paint it in other colour :rolleyes:
The "blue volvo" analogy you use is apt, I think. Volvos of old were reliable, they worked and were fairly simple to use. Not great, but good enough for most.
The 'new' ui (I'm going to keep using that term, simply because it is easier to say new rather than whatever designation you would use. Also, it seems to aggravate members of the CDF :P) is harder to use, plain and simple. It's not as clear as the current UI.
Take a screenshot at 1.00 UI scale both tribble and holodeck at the same resolution and you will see that the power buttons have the same size and the only think bigger are borders of the power tray and some menus.
You came up with the idea, so why don't you do it?
The new buttons are visibly smaller. Not much smaller granted, but they are slightly smaller. But that wouldn't be much of a problem if the labels on them had remained the same as the ones we currently have on holodeck.
Problem is, they haven't. They have been changed so that it is much more difficult to tell which button is which at a glance.
Do you know the scaling function? Look at the button at the bottom of the general options screen.
It works, but it doesn't solve the problem of all the wasted space and useless extra borders in the new UI.
The UI elements are more or less the same size, it's just those borders which have been introduced/enlarged that are the problem. Scaling the UI down will do nothing to get rid of these extraneous areas.
That said the problem I have with new UI is that I have to enlarge it to take up about 30-35% of my screen so the icons are big enough for me to distinguish between them. The current UI on holodeck only takes up about 25% of my screen to accomplish the same objective. That's a problem no matter how you cut it or what you call it.
I can see them as well as I can see them on live.
The Icons are only a few pixels smaller then they are on live, is is really that much of a difference?
This image below is my tribble Power tray compared to Live. The difference is not that big at all, its only a few pixels.
Also I don't see what you you mean by wasted space. I'm looking at two screenshots of nearly the same thing on holodeck and tribble, the HUD seems to take up the same amount of space it did before. Any places that are taking up more space, I never used that area.
Look to the right of your boff called "alyx". What's that? Big black blob of wasted UI space.
Look at the gaps between the various buttons and gizmos. What are they? Bits of wasted space.
Look at how much wider the UI is in your tribble shot compared to your holodeck shot.
Look at the power preset buttons on tribble now, they're all far too similar to each other, where as on holodeck they are all easy to distinguish from one another at a glance.
It's quite an alarming difference even on an HD monitor like yours (and mine). What about people who have to play this game on lower res monitors like on laptops or old monitors? Just try running the game at a low res and tell me if it's still usable.
Again, I re-iterate my call for either a total rethink of this 'new' UI or at least the availability of an option to retain the current UI.
Personally, I'd prefer a total rethink of the UI from the ground up but I'd be quite happy with the ability to stay with the old UI.
Look to the right of your boff called "alyx". What's that? Big black blob of wasted UI space.
Look at the gaps between the various buttons and gizmos. What are they? Bits of wasted space.
Space that isn't even needed, at least for me. What would I put there, or even look at there? Although I agree the black spot next to Alyx is a little big.
Look at the power preset buttons on tribble now, they're all far too similar to each other, where as on holodeck they are all easy to distinguish from one another at a glance.
Maybe if you're sitting 5 feet from your monitor, I can tell the difference between them easily. Besides their position has not changed, you don't need the symbols to know what they are if you know their position on the tray, but I suppose it would be harder for people with bad eye sight or are new at the game.
What about people who have to play this game on lower res monitors like on laptops or old monitors? Just try running the game at a low res and tell me if it's still usable.
Ok I admit, I had forgotten about that, I'm not used to thinking about 4:3 or widescreen lower then 1080p.
Space that isn't even needed, at least for me. What would I put there, or even look at there? Although I agree the black spot next to Alyx is a little big.
That's the point exactly. We don't need extraneous bits of UI that is essentially useless garnish. It serves no purpose and should be binned in the name of usability, clarity and efficiency.
Oh god, now I sound like Seven of Nine
Maybe if you're sitting 5 feet from your monitor, I can tell the difference between them easily. Besides their position has not changed, you don't need the symbols to know what they are if you know their position on the tray, but I suppose it would be harder for people with bad eye sight or are new at the game.
The idea of an mmo is to get new people in. If they don't find the UI easy to use then it's another reason for them to quit.
We may know the game well enough to know which button is which, other people may struggle.
Btw, try telling the icons apart when you're in combat and can only afford enough time for a quick glance. They're similar enough that it's much easier to mistake one for another. The old ones are, as I've said a few times now, distinct from each other. They have no similarities, while the new ones have most of their space dedicated to the same thing, a big chevron with the distinguishing mark just a teeny-weeny little blip below it.
Ok I admit, I had forgotten about that, I'm not used to thinking about 4:3 or widescreen lower then 1080p.
Neither am I tbh. I only thought of it when a friend of mine tried it out on her lappy.
Her reaction was funny to watch!
"Resize" does not eliminate the wasted space. It literally just resizes the whole UI element, wasted space and all.
Actually it does in this case with the BOFF tray, I just dragged the edge from the right to the left in the HUD editor, and it removed the black space on the right.
Actually it does in this case with the BOFF tray, I just dragged the edge from the right to the left in the HUD editor, and it removed the black space on the right.
It didn't work for me or my friend, why is why I made that assertion in those terms
Likely a bug on our end then.
But still, why have the useless garnish in there anyway?
I'd like to ask, what was wrong with the old Bridge Officer tray?
The extra black space around the Bridge Officer tray is not needed. Either make the old colored background behind the officer text transparent, or leave it black. But the area outside of that is extra, and unneeded.
It didn't work for me or my friend, why is why I made that assertion in those terms
Likely a bug on our end then.
But still, why have the useless garnish in there anyway?
You were using the "F12" editor menu right? The one that makes all the menus green? You just grab the right edge and drag it. Probably take some trial and error.
Actually, its not useless, its there if you have more BOFF slots, lets say some how I had an extra Ensign Slot, it would have probably filled that spot.
On Holodeck the BOFF tray doesn't have a background, but that 'empty' area is still there, but you can't see it
I think overall the newer "black" UI is better, but it lacks the detail of some of the UI elements of the original. Your image above is a perfect example. I'll give a few suggestions:
- Move Save/Reload/Page buttons to left or right side of the main UI element
- Update Page button to actually look like the multi-Pages of the original
- Power Presets could do without the "arrow" effect on top, and a return to the double-arrow icon for "Speed"
- Make all Power levels the same color, with gradient (like the original).
- I'd suggest the Dark Blue for FED, Dark Red for KDF, Dark Green for ROM.
- Update "Engine" icon under the power bar, returning to the original icon with visible engines
- Update "Weapon" icon under the power bar, returning to the original icon
I also wonder if they're planning on changing the actual power icons to match the rest of the UI at some point? Currently they clash (at least colour wise) with the new simplified look of the LCARS UI.
After hopping on Tribble I'm okay with the general changes. Some people will obviously oppose change, because change is bad or something.
First off, the new colors are gentler and more appealing, it also hails back to the "golden age" of Star Trek. However the UI is in need of some tweaking. The Ent-D bridge viewscreen works if you fly a ship with that bridge. However, my Sovy and Oddy would not use something that antiquated -- and I really hope the Klinks get the hexagonal or pentagonal viewscreens they're familiar with. I do also really appreciate the tone down on the reds for Klinks. However, the green is a bit odd to pair with reds, oranges, and yellows. I understand the change however. My only hope is that we can tweak the colors a bit.
SUGGESTION: Tie in, for the Federation, each Panel of the UI from Shield Distribution to Weapon Panel for more of LCARs'y feel. This may also help clear up the overlapping panels for some of us.
A tweak that has been unseen/unheard is the deal with Universal Slots. When we slot them they always appear on the far left of the BOff powers tray. What would be an improvement is them "slotting" into the correct category when we assign a BOff into them. I use a Lt. Cmdr. Engineer in my Oddy and they are separated from my Cmdr. Engineer. It would make it less of a hassle to relearn and keep track of these layouts when swapping ships to have the Universal Slots adjust per BOff assignment.
Other than that, at this time I don't have anything to add. It looks good from here, I expect the bugs to be worked out. A few more character change options would be nice (eye rotation, mouth curve, separate walk/stand animations, more stances and walks, etc.) but overall I'm okay with some changes.
After messing around with the new update for a little bit on both KDF side and Fed side (I had a character that got copied over when they update tribble with the new code)
Going into Combat on Fed side is cute with the UI changing to a Red out line.
KDF side how ever isn't even noticeable. I can kind of see it when it changes, but it's hardly discernible from the Fed side.
The UI It's self, while it does feel more streamlined in the Character info, and "Character sheet" or in some menu functions, looks absolutely Hideous in the Space/ground button section. It's even worse if you go to do something like change power settings. The old Lock buttons look almost unrecognizable as a locking mechanism to keep a power set locked while making adjustments. Things just need to be made clearer.
In the character select, there seemed to be issues with making an Alien. I was having a hard time adjusting and getting it to stay on any variation beyond it's Defaults.
Also I noticed, in the character select, when you put your mouse over the 3 different "Classes" of Engineer, Sci, or Tac, the Sci and Tac aren't exactly accurate parentheses descriptions. While on the ground a Sci can be a healer, an Engineer is hardly a tank. And these roles also change Dramatically in space. This is more of an observation. I'd almost call Engi more of a buffer/Debuffer.
You think that your beta test was bad?
Think about this: American Football has been in open beta for 144 years. ~Kotaku
I think the whole power level section thingy needs to be redesigned.In pvp people use to transfer power from wepoans to engines or shields and that box/buttons are simply to small and dont allow a easy way to change power levels (unless you keybind )
Comments
I would thus like to suggest the following improvements to the dialogs:
- Player in space map, BOff aboard player's own ship: no viewscreen, animated LCARS bridge station background
- Player in space map, NPC aboard player's own ship: no viewscreen, generic starship interior background
- Player in space map, NPC NOT on player's own ship: viewscreen, faction/location specific background
- Player on ground map, BOff aboard player's own ship: no viewscreen, animated LCARS bridge station background
- Player on ground map, BOff on same ground map: no viewscreen, appropriate faction/location specific background
- Player on ground map, NPC on same ground map: no viewscreen, appropriate faction/location specific background
- Player on ground map, NPC in space: no viewscreen, appropriate faction/location specific background
I would presume this would require two additional variables for each dialog instance:
- One to toggle the viewscreen frame on or off
- One to reference an appropriate background image
So if you add new textures over the same object makes that a new object? :rolleyes:
the current blue UI uses alot of bloom which you cant turn off in options.Go type /showfps 1 in chat then alt+f12 to remove the UI to see the difference in frames per second .Then go on tribble and do the same thing .You will see that the UI on tribble is less demanding ..that is important when you have many stuffs on the screen.
Btw they even said is a reskined UI,not new UI .Guess a Blue Volvo is not Volvo if you paint it in other colour :rolleyes:
Take a screenshot at 1.00 UI scale both tribble and holodeck at the same resolution and you will see that the power buttons have the same size and the only think bigger are borders of the power tray and some menus.
Wow..... I tried it today and found it was almost impossible to use. I had a very hard time reading some of the content due to the color scheme. And some of the new icons just didn't make sense.
Beauty is, as they say, in the eye of the beholder. That said, I suppose there may be someone out there who likes the new look better. But I feel it's a huge step in the wrong direction in terms not only of looks but in functionality/ergonomics. I can't see as much actual useful information on my screen due to all the needless bordering and backfilling.
1. Its too sharp, I'm not sure how to discribe it, its too easy to see pixles on the edges I think? Needs more pixels on curves. Softer edges.
2. Default blue colour scheme is too dark. Voyager and the TNG colour schemes are fine, but the default Blue is too dark.
The term would be "inadequate anti aliasing".
I suspect this may be intentional on the part of the devs - but only for testing purposes (it's quicker to use low-quality images to prototype UI during testing). I'm certain the final version would smooth out those ragged, pixelated edges.
IMO the design should not have been based on the old LCARS system but instead should have been what it would be if TNG was about to air its pilot episode TODAY.
The idea that new colors can be added to the new UI to make it better is flawed. The problem many people have is with the shape of the UI.
A good UI is one that nobody notices because its not in the way and does not take center stage over the game.
One of my biggest complaints of the new UI is that the icons for all our abilities and player conditions are too small and can not be made larger without making all the other "bulky" parts of the UI much much larger and that much more in the way of the view of the game. The other problem I personally have is that the UI now looks like somebody made a box and put text in it where we used to have simple outlines like what is around the health indicator during ground combat.
I really thinkg someone has been playing WoW and been using Xperl a lot. There is ALOT of Xperl Style themes going on, and it's just aweful. I hated xperl in WoW and I'll hate it here
As far as the in game UI goes the new one is a bit better in my opinion as its not so much same color on same color as the old one.
Bridge view screen notification is quite a bit larger, not so good when your still in a fight but its a lot nicer than the old one for nearly any other scenario.
My comments to its overall looks are the black background probably needs a bit more of a texture other wise it just seems to be really empty area on the screen and has a slightly odd feel because of that.
That said, some of the changes are nice like the pictures in the character pane etc. Nice to see my ship looking fully customized in the pane.
My suggestions:
1. Round a few corners off so it's easier on the mind and brighten the pallet up a bit.
2. Give some color choice options. A lot of people find the current KDF red horrifying, but I myself rather like it. Giving some options for the pallet, even if it's just two or three would make a lot of people happy.
Final comment: Personally I really like the current "Feds are Blue and KDF are Red" situation. I didn't look at the game yet from a KDF character, but I sincerely hope the UI colors are not going to be the same for all factions. I enjoy havng the overall color scheme look different when I change factions.
Ive never played wow and I had to look up Xperl just to know what your were referring to.
That said the problem I have with new UI is that I have to enlarge it to take up about 30-35% of my screen so the icons are big enough for me to distinguish between them. The current UI on holodeck only takes up about 25% of my screen to accomplish the same objective. That's a problem no matter how you cut it or what you call it.
Then after you get past the facts like UI footprint on the screen and identification of UI components theres a large group of people who find the new UI to look worse in their opinions. I'm one of them. So now for me not only is the UI more in the way of what I want see in the game but whats in the way looks worse to me.
A veiled ad-hominem. I'll ignore it.
For me this is false. The new UI seems to be just as demanding as the old one.
And no, I don't use bloom either. For that is out of the equation.
And YES the new UI *still* causes the same fps drop as the old one.
By the way, you mentioned that it is the same as the old UI just with changed textures. If that were the case, what is it that makes the 'new' UI so much more efficient and "less demanding" as you put it?
As far as I can tell, your assertion that the new UI is "less demanding" is a load of rot.
The "blue volvo" analogy you use is apt, I think. Volvos of old were reliable, they worked and were fairly simple to use. Not great, but good enough for most.
The 'new' ui (I'm going to keep using that term, simply because it is easier to say new rather than whatever designation you would use. Also, it seems to aggravate members of the CDF :P) is harder to use, plain and simple. It's not as clear as the current UI.
You came up with the idea, so why don't you do it?
The new buttons are visibly smaller. Not much smaller granted, but they are slightly smaller. But that wouldn't be much of a problem if the labels on them had remained the same as the ones we currently have on holodeck.
Problem is, they haven't. They have been changed so that it is much more difficult to tell which button is which at a glance.
It works, but it doesn't solve the problem of all the wasted space and useless extra borders in the new UI.
The UI elements are more or less the same size, it's just those borders which have been introduced/enlarged that are the problem. Scaling the UI down will do nothing to get rid of these extraneous areas.
I can see them as well as I can see them on live.
The Icons are only a few pixels smaller then they are on live, is is really that much of a difference?
This image below is my tribble Power tray compared to Live. The difference is not that big at all, its only a few pixels.
http://i.minus.com/ijDyRORzRXYKg.jpg
Anyways, as for the wasted space,
Unless you're not referring to those icons.
Also I don't see what you you mean by wasted space. I'm looking at two screenshots of nearly the same thing on holodeck and tribble, the HUD seems to take up the same amount of space it did before. Any places that are taking up more space, I never used that area.
Here is my HUD on tribble: http://i.minus.com/ibsitFuxgyFCIt.jpg
And Holodeck: http://i.minus.com/ibrWKfe8gbzgcw.jpg
Doesn't seems to be taking up any more space then normal. Put them side by side in a tab and switch between them repeatedly.
Look at the gaps between the various buttons and gizmos. What are they? Bits of wasted space.
Look at how much wider the UI is in your tribble shot compared to your holodeck shot.
Look at the power preset buttons on tribble now, they're all far too similar to each other, where as on holodeck they are all easy to distinguish from one another at a glance.
It's quite an alarming difference even on an HD monitor like yours (and mine). What about people who have to play this game on lower res monitors like on laptops or old monitors? Just try running the game at a low res and tell me if it's still usable.
Again, I re-iterate my call for either a total rethink of this 'new' UI or at least the availability of an option to retain the current UI.
Personally, I'd prefer a total rethink of the UI from the ground up but I'd be quite happy with the ability to stay with the old UI.
Space that isn't even needed, at least for me. What would I put there, or even look at there? Although I agree the black spot next to Alyx is a little big.
Maybe if you're sitting 5 feet from your monitor, I can tell the difference between them easily. Besides their position has not changed, you don't need the symbols to know what they are if you know their position on the tray, but I suppose it would be harder for people with bad eye sight or are new at the game.
Ok I admit, I had forgotten about that, I'm not used to thinking about 4:3 or widescreen lower then 1080p.
I had that big bit of wasted space there too, until I hit F12 and resized the BOFF window so there wasn't.
Commanding Officer: Captain Pyotr Ramonovich Amosov
Dedication Plaque: "Nil Intentatum Reliquit"
That's the point exactly. We don't need extraneous bits of UI that is essentially useless garnish. It serves no purpose and should be binned in the name of usability, clarity and efficiency.
Oh god, now I sound like Seven of Nine
The idea of an mmo is to get new people in. If they don't find the UI easy to use then it's another reason for them to quit.
We may know the game well enough to know which button is which, other people may struggle.
Btw, try telling the icons apart when you're in combat and can only afford enough time for a quick glance. They're similar enough that it's much easier to mistake one for another. The old ones are, as I've said a few times now, distinct from each other. They have no similarities, while the new ones have most of their space dedicated to the same thing, a big chevron with the distinguishing mark just a teeny-weeny little blip below it.
Neither am I tbh. I only thought of it when a friend of mine tried it out on her lappy.
Her reaction was funny to watch!
"Resize" does not eliminate the wasted space. It literally just resizes the whole UI element, wasted space and all.
When will people get this into their heads?
Actually it does in this case with the BOFF tray, I just dragged the edge from the right to the left in the HUD editor, and it removed the black space on the right.
http://i.minus.com/ib1aPtq6EV0bdA.jpg
It didn't work for me or my friend, why is why I made that assertion in those terms
Likely a bug on our end then.
But still, why have the useless garnish in there anyway?
The extra black space around the Bridge Officer tray is not needed. Either make the old colored background behind the officer text transparent, or leave it black. But the area outside of that is extra, and unneeded.
Looking at http://i7.minus.com/ibsitFuxgyFCIt.jpg I notice the same extraneous blackness around the "Low Level Interaction" buttons.
You were using the "F12" editor menu right? The one that makes all the menus green? You just grab the right edge and drag it. Probably take some trial and error.
Actually, its not useless, its there if you have more BOFF slots, lets say some how I had an extra Ensign Slot, it would have probably filled that spot.
On Holodeck the BOFF tray doesn't have a background, but that 'empty' area is still there, but you can't see it
http://i.imgur.com/PEBip5i.png
EPS-GUI scoreboard
Hope it helps.
I think overall the newer "black" UI is better, but it lacks the detail of some of the UI elements of the original. Your image above is a perfect example. I'll give a few suggestions:
- Move Save/Reload/Page buttons to left or right side of the main UI element
- Update Page button to actually look like the multi-Pages of the original
- Power Presets could do without the "arrow" effect on top, and a return to the double-arrow icon for "Speed"
- Make all Power levels the same color, with gradient (like the original).
- I'd suggest the Dark Blue for FED, Dark Red for KDF, Dark Green for ROM.
- Update "Engine" icon under the power bar, returning to the original icon with visible engines
- Update "Weapon" icon under the power bar, returning to the original icon
Commanding Officer: Captain Pyotr Ramonovich Amosov
Dedication Plaque: "Nil Intentatum Reliquit"
First off, the new colors are gentler and more appealing, it also hails back to the "golden age" of Star Trek. However the UI is in need of some tweaking. The Ent-D bridge viewscreen works if you fly a ship with that bridge. However, my Sovy and Oddy would not use something that antiquated -- and I really hope the Klinks get the hexagonal or pentagonal viewscreens they're familiar with. I do also really appreciate the tone down on the reds for Klinks. However, the green is a bit odd to pair with reds, oranges, and yellows. I understand the change however. My only hope is that we can tweak the colors a bit.
SUGGESTION: Tie in, for the Federation, each Panel of the UI from Shield Distribution to Weapon Panel for more of LCARs'y feel. This may also help clear up the overlapping panels for some of us.
A tweak that has been unseen/unheard is the deal with Universal Slots. When we slot them they always appear on the far left of the BOff powers tray. What would be an improvement is them "slotting" into the correct category when we assign a BOff into them. I use a Lt. Cmdr. Engineer in my Oddy and they are separated from my Cmdr. Engineer. It would make it less of a hassle to relearn and keep track of these layouts when swapping ships to have the Universal Slots adjust per BOff assignment.
Other than that, at this time I don't have anything to add. It looks good from here, I expect the bugs to be worked out. A few more character change options would be nice (eye rotation, mouth curve, separate walk/stand animations, more stances and walks, etc.) but overall I'm okay with some changes.
Going into Combat on Fed side is cute with the UI changing to a Red out line.
KDF side how ever isn't even noticeable. I can kind of see it when it changes, but it's hardly discernible from the Fed side.
The UI It's self, while it does feel more streamlined in the Character info, and "Character sheet" or in some menu functions, looks absolutely Hideous in the Space/ground button section. It's even worse if you go to do something like change power settings. The old Lock buttons look almost unrecognizable as a locking mechanism to keep a power set locked while making adjustments. Things just need to be made clearer.
In the character select, there seemed to be issues with making an Alien. I was having a hard time adjusting and getting it to stay on any variation beyond it's Defaults.
Also I noticed, in the character select, when you put your mouse over the 3 different "Classes" of Engineer, Sci, or Tac, the Sci and Tac aren't exactly accurate parentheses descriptions. While on the ground a Sci can be a healer, an Engineer is hardly a tank. And these roles also change Dramatically in space. This is more of an observation. I'd almost call Engi more of a buffer/Debuffer.
Think about this:
American Football has been in open beta for 144 years. ~Kotaku
I think the whole power level section thingy needs to be redesigned.In pvp people use to transfer power from wepoans to engines or shields and that box/buttons are simply to small and dont allow a easy way to change power levels (unless you keybind )