I guess it shouldn't surprise me that a change of this magnitude would be quite controversial.
Thanks for all the feedback from everyone who loves and hates the new UI. I won't go into a lengthy treatise here about why it's LCARS or why it's so flat - you'll get a dev blog on that later. Some people love it, and some people hate it. That's to be expected. But there are definitely some things that need to be addressed, so I wanted to tell you that I am reading this thread very closely and go over a few things with you.
*Snip*
Thanks again for trying things out on Tribble and giving us your feedback!
Thanks for responding. Any info you can give players on missinng icon visuals?
I can get you screens of what I am talking about if necessary but This Thread in the bug forums pretty much has exactly what I am experiencing, and it is really game breaking at this point.
I really like the new UI overall, however like many have pointed out it has a few rough edges and some windows are a tad oversized and get in the way.
Also having looked at the screen shots of the TNG and Voyager colour pallets I think there colours are a tad off when compared with the shows, though am sure you can get it right TTC as your awesome :cool:
Oh any chance of a colour pallet for Nemesis, as it was my favourite colour scheme and would match {UFP}'s website perfectly http://ufplanets.com/forum.php :cool:
Thanks again for trying things out on Tribble and giving us your feedback!
I haven't had the chance to look at it on Tribble but I like the screenshots. I'm always skeptical of attempts to make something look like LCARS and remain functional, but in this case it looks like a good balance has been struck.
I really like the new UI overall, however like many have pointed out it has a few rough edges and some windows are a tad oversized and get in the way.
Also having looked at the screen shots of the TNG and Voyager colour pallets I think there colours are a tad off when compared with the shows, though am sure you can get it right TTC as your awesome :cool:
Oh any chance of a colour pallet for Nemesis, as it was my favourite colour scheme and would match {UFP}'s website perfectly http://ufplanets.com/forum.php :cool:
I actually like the new UI. It does certainly need some tweaking here and there, but it really grew on me.
I can only agree with the dev statement: Reset the UI options to default setting and then reorganize the UI. It does look a lot better after that, though it will take a couple of minutes to set up everything.
I'm particularily fond of the new color schemes: TNG and Voyager look very elegant. It will make playing a Klingon character much more attractive to me - I never felt comfortable with the red default KDF UI.
Anyway, just wanted to thank the Devs responsible for this change. Both for actually taking the time and for responding to the criticism so openly. Classy move.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] "Sometimes you have to do things that you hate, so you can survive to fight another day."
Give us the option to change our UI. Under General, put UI Option:
In the Toolip
FED Classic (blue UI we all know and love)
KDF Classic (Red UI we all hate)
Lcars (Black Bulk UI, no ones gonna like)
THERE ARE NO DRAWBACKS FOR ADDING THIS...
Make everyone happy, let us use our own UI...
I Agree on this. And would LOVE to revert back to the Classic/Current colors. I like the UI in some places:
1) Character Creation is spot on
2) Character and Ship Sheets (3d movement/model is always nice)
3) C-Store
4) Pop-Ups like Exchange etc
I don't like it in:
Action Bars
-Ground Action Bar is way to complex, the other way was easy to see and very simple.
-Space Action Bar is just god horrible. On Power Levels 2, there are way too many colors going on, I cant tell where the normal power level is and where the added warp core is. Shield level has 2 shades of green and makes it near impossible to tell which system is offline.
The black background really makes it hard to see where your icons are. I'll admit I should know where they all are, but some times when I'm getting attacked by say the gate in ISE and cube I panic and just suddenly forget that Miracle Worker is top left next to Engineering Team 3. I don't bother reading where the icons are, I just look for the picture and the new Space UI really makes this impossible. Not to mention, you really have to shrink down the UI in order to get everything on screen neatly. Targets
Not sure if we already have the options to change this. I don't like seeing other Fed ships being Romulan Green. I Think all allies, even from KDF view, should be that nice blue we were used to, and enemies should be red...If It's Red it's dead!
Honestly, it seems to be that the UI is trying WAAAYY to hard to be Xperl
1) Bring back the rounded health bars and character info (default top-left of screen). Something about the rectangular look doesn't jive with the LCARS' more oval-like look.
2) The ship shield-facing status in space should be more elongated around the ship on each quarter, as it is on Holodeck with the current/"old" UI. Making the status bar more oblong would also bring more attention to the shield facing redistribution buttons for each facing, I think.
Well actually, it is not new UI, it is just new skin for the old one. The only change in the UI are the dialog boxes/viewscreens. I'd like to see improvements in more areas - exchange, mail, accolades (why are they in the mission tab?), more and more confusing beam up/exit sector dialogs, separate personal and ship dialogue etc.
New skins are not bad, has some flaws, most have been adressed here already. One more to point out - buffs are too small, and on ground in collision with other elements (in space only if you have lots of them).
I don't know how to fix it though. Seems the viewscreen-idea has maneuvered us into a deadlock. I am sure it started out as a good idea, but if these are the consequences, maybe it's not worth it.
I don't know how to fix it though. Seems the viewscreen-idea has maneuvered us into a deadlock. I am sure it started out as a good idea, but if these are the consequences, maybe it's not worth it.
You could expand the viewscreen so that it takes up the entire window except for "Collect reward" and "Back" at the bottom, and then have the options as a scrolling transparency on top of it.
When I first logged in I noticed that my tribble foundry char (Emani) was in the regular login list and not the foundry list. So I logged in with her and did the tutorial. It's cool, it's a bit glitchy, but the idea is fine.
One glitch was in when I left the B'Rel bridge the fist time. There was soemthing causing the graphics to mess up when I was walking towards the turbolift.
Another was the asteroid fields. For som reason I couldn't steer up/down properly on that map.
Except the "WArp to Qo'nos" part. The mission hung when I got to that stage and got stuck. I found myself in the exteriror of the first city with no objective to complete.
It was kinda amusing doing a mission tailored to single play with a full away team.
Then I relogged and found that Emani was now in the foundry list... bummer.
Next I swapped to my Fed Eng Drexela.
I didn't play as her for long but I noticed that the trait interface was a bit more complex than I'd thought. Also, apparently race required traits don't use slots now?
General issues:
all inventory icons are blacked out, all skill icons are blacked out, all doff pictures are blacked out. BUT if I move the item I see the old picture. This makes no sense... It's like part of the UI is in the way...
I really have to agree with the first post. The HUD seems like they took the smoothness out and wanted it to look like it was 5 years older. i feel like im playing a really old game that you laugh at with the bad graphics( which im not). Return the previous feel of the HUD
" I believe that I speak for us all sir when I say: To hell with our orders." - Lt. Cmdr. Data
I dislike that the new US takes aaway the chat box for all my chat channnels except general. Who the heck thought that'd be a good idea?
EDIT: Also the lack of polish and transparency effects. Compared to the current UI, the new one is very high contrast and very un-finished. It looks MUCH better in the menus, but for your ship status and hotbar? less so. The hud 'rearrange' boxes also don't resize with the HUD properly, so I have a lot of empty space because it won't let me place elements partially offscreen, when in fact I'm trying to move them to the edge.
I do like the curves and some of the colour, but green/orange for allies/enemies looks horrible- I'd much rather have the feddie standard blue/red for allies enemies.
The aliasing issue is pervasive on Tribble- it doesn't just affect the hud boxes, but like, also targeting boxes and target text, names, that sort of thing.
The full screen hail window autopopup is really annoying, and honestly should not function on ground because seriously wtf.
Please consider offering 'minimalist' HUD options with less wide boxes, better transparency effects, and that sort of thing- or even for a longer term goal, make the HUD software level and allow users to make their own skins for it. While not really comparable as a game, WotC's Magic The Gathering Online has had several player made skins that really fixed a lot of the issues with their major UI update during their 3.0 release that made everything three inches thicker (and looked utterly ridiculous on a lower resolution screen).
I'm hoping you guys can sidestep those issues, even though I see them already creeping in.
Actually in general the best thing you could do is let *us* customize our HUD. Make it a C-store purchase- rather than new skins, new colour options, and let *us* choose how we colour stuff. With some polish and shine (illusion of 3d rounded buttons like we have on the current Hud), or 'floating lcars' shadowing effects, I think it'd be really worthwhile.
Okay, so to sum up a lot of feelings, I am not a fan of the new HUD. I feel like I am playing a much older game. The way it looks now seems like it is years older than it really is. The roughness and the new symbols just ruin they way that the game felt. Can we all agree that this was an in-general bad move?
" I believe that I speak for us all sir when I say: To hell with our orders." - Lt. Cmdr. Data
I feel like there are a significant chunk of people who believe that "Good UI design" = "MOAR CHROME".
And honestly I feel sad about that. It was silly when Microsoft did it moving from Windows 2000 -> Windows XP -> Windows Vista (remember the complaining about how Windows had become fisher-price with all the colors and transparency effects?) and it's especially silly in STO because ST's user interfaces are almost entirely devoid of skeumorphism and high contrast.
In this, I think that the current UI is a decided improvement: Not only does it move more toward what a ST UI 'should' look like, but it also drops much of the window chrome that had been plaguing UI design through the 2000s.
Also, it does bring many improvements in key places where that improvement is meaningful and warranted. For example, rather than being just flat 2D images, the ships and officers in the user panel are now 3D and can be rotated and zoomed.
Just adding more shiny doesn't make a UI better.
That said, the new UI is currently extremely buggy. But from a design perspective, it's worlds better.
i wish we would have an option to use the current HUD from holodeck and the new HUD from tribble because i really hate the new one and i know many other people who agree with me.
I'd like to thank you for all your hard work. Reskinning every single UI element can't be an easy task, and the new UI definitely looks more "LCARS:y". However, there are a few concerns which I hope will be addressed pre-launch:
- BOff contacts on viewscreen. Your the Captain, aren't they sitting next to you on the bridge?
- Color Selection. DStahl suggested we'd be able to select specific colors of the UI. Will this be implemented pre-launch? Having certain pre-defined templates is nice, but I'd also like to customize the colors as I see fit. This includes the color of the targeting (green for friendly, red for enemy for example).
- What's with the thick black borders on every UI element?
Comments
Thanks for responding. Any info you can give players on missinng icon visuals?
I can get you screens of what I am talking about if necessary but This Thread in the bug forums pretty much has exactly what I am experiencing, and it is really game breaking at this point.
Also having looked at the screen shots of the TNG and Voyager colour pallets I think there colours are a tad off when compared with the shows, though am sure you can get it right TTC as your awesome :cool:
Oh any chance of a colour pallet for Nemesis, as it was my favourite colour scheme and would match {UFP}'s website perfectly http://ufplanets.com/forum.php :cool:
I haven't had the chance to look at it on Tribble but I like the screenshots. I'm always skeptical of attempts to make something look like LCARS and remain functional, but in this case it looks like a good balance has been struck.
ow that color scheme would be awesome
I can only agree with the dev statement: Reset the UI options to default setting and then reorganize the UI. It does look a lot better after that, though it will take a couple of minutes to set up everything.
I'm particularily fond of the new color schemes: TNG and Voyager look very elegant. It will make playing a Klingon character much more attractive to me - I never felt comfortable with the red default KDF UI.
Anyway, just wanted to thank the Devs responsible for this change. Both for actually taking the time and for responding to the criticism so openly. Classy move.
"Sometimes you have to do things that you hate, so you can survive to fight another day."
I Agree on this. And would LOVE to revert back to the Classic/Current colors. I like the UI in some places:
1) Character Creation is spot on
2) Character and Ship Sheets (3d movement/model is always nice)
3) C-Store
4) Pop-Ups like Exchange etc
I don't like it in:
Action Bars
-Ground Action Bar is way to complex, the other way was easy to see and very simple.
-Space Action Bar is just god horrible. On Power Levels 2, there are way too many colors going on, I cant tell where the normal power level is and where the added warp core is. Shield level has 2 shades of green and makes it near impossible to tell which system is offline.
The black background really makes it hard to see where your icons are. I'll admit I should know where they all are, but some times when I'm getting attacked by say the gate in ISE and cube I panic and just suddenly forget that Miracle Worker is top left next to Engineering Team 3. I don't bother reading where the icons are, I just look for the picture and the new Space UI really makes this impossible. Not to mention, you really have to shrink down the UI in order to get everything on screen neatly.
Targets
Not sure if we already have the options to change this. I don't like seeing other Fed ships being Romulan Green. I Think all allies, even from KDF view, should be that nice blue we were used to, and enemies should be red...If It's Red it's dead!
Honestly, it seems to be that the UI is trying WAAAYY to hard to be Xperl
2) The ship shield-facing status in space should be more elongated around the ship on each quarter, as it is on Holodeck with the current/"old" UI. Making the status bar more oblong would also bring more attention to the shield facing redistribution buttons for each facing, I think.
New skins are not bad, has some flaws, most have been adressed here already. One more to point out - buffs are too small, and on ground in collision with other elements (in space only if you have lots of them).
Oh please please please please
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
I'll go ahead and give this an upvote as well
http://i.imgur.com/oaiXhew.png
I don't know how to fix it though. Seems the viewscreen-idea has maneuvered us into a deadlock. I am sure it started out as a good idea, but if these are the consequences, maybe it's not worth it.
You could expand the viewscreen so that it takes up the entire window except for "Collect reward" and "Back" at the bottom, and then have the options as a scrolling transparency on top of it.
One glitch was in when I left the B'Rel bridge the fist time. There was soemthing causing the graphics to mess up when I was walking towards the turbolift.
Another was the asteroid fields. For som reason I couldn't steer up/down properly on that map.
Except the "WArp to Qo'nos" part. The mission hung when I got to that stage and got stuck. I found myself in the exteriror of the first city with no objective to complete.
It was kinda amusing doing a mission tailored to single play with a full away team.
Then I relogged and found that Emani was now in the foundry list... bummer.
Next I swapped to my Fed Eng Drexela.
I didn't play as her for long but I noticed that the trait interface was a bit more complex than I'd thought. Also, apparently race required traits don't use slots now?
General issues:
all inventory icons are blacked out, all skill icons are blacked out, all doff pictures are blacked out. BUT if I move the item I see the old picture. This makes no sense... It's like part of the UI is in the way...
My character Tsin'xing
EDIT: Also the lack of polish and transparency effects. Compared to the current UI, the new one is very high contrast and very un-finished. It looks MUCH better in the menus, but for your ship status and hotbar? less so. The hud 'rearrange' boxes also don't resize with the HUD properly, so I have a lot of empty space because it won't let me place elements partially offscreen, when in fact I'm trying to move them to the edge.
I do like the curves and some of the colour, but green/orange for allies/enemies looks horrible- I'd much rather have the feddie standard blue/red for allies enemies.
The aliasing issue is pervasive on Tribble- it doesn't just affect the hud boxes, but like, also targeting boxes and target text, names, that sort of thing.
The full screen hail window autopopup is really annoying, and honestly should not function on ground because seriously wtf.
Please consider offering 'minimalist' HUD options with less wide boxes, better transparency effects, and that sort of thing- or even for a longer term goal, make the HUD software level and allow users to make their own skins for it. While not really comparable as a game, WotC's Magic The Gathering Online has had several player made skins that really fixed a lot of the issues with their major UI update during their 3.0 release that made everything three inches thicker (and looked utterly ridiculous on a lower resolution screen).
I'm hoping you guys can sidestep those issues, even though I see them already creeping in.
Actually in general the best thing you could do is let *us* customize our HUD. Make it a C-store purchase- rather than new skins, new colour options, and let *us* choose how we colour stuff. With some polish and shine (illusion of 3d rounded buttons like we have on the current Hud), or 'floating lcars' shadowing effects, I think it'd be really worthwhile.
Given that the new UI is a significant improvement over the old, I would say that it is moving forward.
You're the kind of person who judges a UI based on how much chrome it has.
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=598141
Anyways I love the HUD, especially if you're using the Voyager or TNG style
http://i.minus.com/i0r9kfF4GlXgu.jpg
And honestly I feel sad about that. It was silly when Microsoft did it moving from Windows 2000 -> Windows XP -> Windows Vista (remember the complaining about how Windows had become fisher-price with all the colors and transparency effects?) and it's especially silly in STO because ST's user interfaces are almost entirely devoid of skeumorphism and high contrast.
In this, I think that the current UI is a decided improvement: Not only does it move more toward what a ST UI 'should' look like, but it also drops much of the window chrome that had been plaguing UI design through the 2000s.
Also, it does bring many improvements in key places where that improvement is meaningful and warranted. For example, rather than being just flat 2D images, the ships and officers in the user panel are now 3D and can be rotated and zoomed.
Just adding more shiny doesn't make a UI better.
That said, the new UI is currently extremely buggy. But from a design perspective, it's worlds better.
I'd like to thank you for all your hard work. Reskinning every single UI element can't be an easy task, and the new UI definitely looks more "LCARS:y". However, there are a few concerns which I hope will be addressed pre-launch:
- BOff contacts on viewscreen. Your the Captain, aren't they sitting next to you on the bridge?
- Color Selection. DStahl suggested we'd be able to select specific colors of the UI. Will this be implemented pre-launch? Having certain pre-defined templates is nice, but I'd also like to customize the colors as I see fit. This includes the color of the targeting (green for friendly, red for enemy for example).
- What's with the thick black borders on every UI element?
What happened to moving EV suits to a separate slot instead of swapping Armor? Is that going to happen a later season?