I'm not sure why anyone would get a Thwack Hammer for practical reasons either, let alone take one into FSC. And, I'll admit, if they went back to the old UI, and took everything with it, I wouldn't mind. I like some of the changes, but the stuff I don't like outweighs it.
Personally, I don't think it's going to get better, but the Sprites are coming soon. I want to give them a chance at least.
... Need a hug?
You are right, and I am sorry that I am one of the guys doing that. Yes, it may not be the best way do to it, but it's from the heart.
EDIT: Nah, hug won't do it anymore ;) But thank you <3
Did you expect a total fix in two days? if you did, you need to reajust your perspective of this problem. This many issues can't be fixed quickly, give it some time. The 4/5 update was in to fix bugs reported by players. They will fix the bugs before the content. No one will care about the new UI not working if they can't play the game for some other reason, like it keeps spontaneously crashing.
What would be nice is a message from some OOO staff, to say what/if they plan on fixin, and an explanation for this drastic, seemingly unnecessary change. That too will probably take a few days, however, especially since it's now the weekend and the office is probably closed. They also have all this feedback to read through, filter, and process into useful information.
"I like the idea of the new UI but it was just a bit too much for me when I logged in. Aka, the surprise attack. I understand why it was brought into the game, just that the game lost its touch with the UI. I started playing since the official release of the game and really liked the setup, nice and sweet and simple. It took me a shorter time to get used to that setup than this newer one. Here's some of my opinions on the new features:
- A visible character portrait
Yes, it is nice to see your character but isn't this a bit too much? It's a bit too large and it really isn't much help too if you've seen your character already. Plus the same way of it setup with party members as well isn't a clear definition of seeing their health and who needs more help, just clutters if they look like that.
- A new way of viewing health: health pips now change from red to silver and finally gold as more health is accrued. Additionally, a percentage health display is present.
I didn't get to see the change of colors to the health pips yet since I don't pay much attention to them anymore as they are at the top of the screen, where I hardly look. I pay more attention to the bottom where it's much more easier for me to see from so that way I can tell if I need to heal or not. (Also, I like looking off to the side where you can see nearly all of your pips once you pick up a vitapod.) But the extra details and stuff to the pips, confuses me but I'm probably going to get used to that later.
- A shield power meter under health
Much like other posts which I looked at, a bit unnecessary. I like it a bit, it's just too much since you can already tell when your shield is about to break and when it isn't. And when it change places with the health bar when you switch, I started liking to see my pips again.
- A weapon selection 'wheel' that allows you to see the name and icon of your weapons
*Cries a river of tears* Well, not really but you get the point. It just clutters the screen and makes you unfocused if you're the type that changes weapons nonstop. Including times when there are enemies that have different weaknesses and you have the weapons to inflict them with it.
- A much more detailed mini map, featuring enemy locations, NPCs and more
Ehh, kinda liked it but I liked it when I got to go hunting for the enemies instead of looking at the map and easily finding them. Guess that also removes the spiraling gear around the map which makes the game more unique like that. T.T
- A new Targeting UI that displays information about whatever you are targeting. For monsters this includes health, attack types and weaknesses. Handy!
Took some time but I found out that I had to turn on auto-aim to enable the feature. Great for new comers to the game and also a bonus that I can turn it on or off whenever I want to!
- An Activities Panel that contains all the various activities that you can perform in a given zone
Guess I haven't found that one yet? Or it's still being implemented. I really want to find out though. :3
- A zoom button that allows you to zoom in when in Haven
I really liked this one. Lets me see my friends and players easier!
- A general layer of shininess across all the other interfaces
A bit too shiny? Plus, the game doesn't really have shiny stuff all around the area so it doesn't look like its part of the game.
Other Changes
- Monster and player damage flash effects have been revamped for better clarity in combat.
I could see the damage fine on my character each time she got hit but now it's too much and too shaky. Makes me loose my focus and bearing whenever I get hit now, especially by a Trojan. The monsters on the other hand... bit so-so.
- Vials and Capsule pickups have had their icons updated.
Felt sad when I saw the T1 capsules and vials. Got sadder when I saw the T3 capsules but felt a bit fine on the vials. But the color changes on those vials made it near impossible for me to identify them now. They used to have the symbol on them of what status they inflicted, but now it's all color-coded. Players who are colorblind could have a problem with that unless they adapted to it already.
- Art for unbreakable blocks in the Clockworks has been updated.
Got in the Training Hall and cried out, "Nooooo" when I saw them. I liked them silver but I guess I can get used to that.
- A player's rank will now be shown with their name above their heads.
Not many people look at ranks, including me a bit since I don't know the rank orders. I think it's better to make haste with it gone but I'm not rushing you guys or anything!
- Items will now show a message when they cannot be picked up.
Didn't liked them as much as before back than, don't like them just the same. It's just reading but it messes with the gameplay if a player suddenly looks at the text then gets a bit distracted and gets hit or killed by an unexpected blow to the face.
- Player names are now white, green if a guildmate and blue if a friend. This color scheme is also used on the mini map.
I liked the colors, made the game feel more colorful then the plain blue colored scheme on the map. I even liked the multiple colors of players since you can distinguish players from another easier and it shows what color you have chosen to change to from your original start out point. I liked finding my friends but now it's too easy whenever they say, "Try and find me!" Please bring the colors back. T.T
- Vitapods can no longer be dropped, only replaced by superior versions.
Seeing as you can no longer tell who has the most health, how can we help each other out? Or if someone has a trinket on and they want the weaker players to pick up the first vitapod to help them, how will they tell now? It feels a bit like the teamwork of health is gone to the stars.
- Devilite difficulty has been balanced, including reducing their attack range and dodge frequency.
Don't know about this one. I'll let the other players decide.
Just some things that I think the interface should have just in case something like this happens, make a copy of the original layout and keep that as an option for players to switch to if they really dislike the new one. I'm used to the old setup, with the health, vitapods, heat, weapon wheel, and energy at the bottom of the screen, and the vials and buttons on the top with the number of crowns too. It's much harder to tell your crowns and energy if you're in Haven and you have to keep your arsenal open. And could you get the energy bars back to their original sizes and set that as an option as well, that'd be great for everyone. An option to change the UI back and forth between the old and the new."
-Blindshot
Edit: "No problem! :3" -Blindshot
Italics + normal font + no spacing between lines = hard to read
Maybe you could replace < em > with < strong >?
edit: thanks :D
the reasons have been listed over and over again and I for one have not been able to enjoy my experiences with the new UI (even ignoring its unfiished areas)
Thousands of games that I have played in my 20 years as a hardcore gamer don't mean anything. Seeing how things are supposed to be done, don't mean anything. Yep, I should readjust my perspective of this problem. The only thing keeping this game alive is the community. We stood by OOO and supported them all this time, despite some obvious bad choices. How long will you put up with this before you say enough?
I'll just go play another game, where I, or better, we, the players, mean something. And don't worry, I won't post anymore. I have seen everything that I had too, to make me realize how things work.
But hei, have fun playing SK, im sure it won't last ;)
Ok, I've managed to modified most PNG files to hurt my eyes less. I don't have much time to tweak them now, but it's nothing that can't be done...
I can't modify placement of different indicators but probably I will be able to learn how to play with health bar (and more importantly my status) out of my vision and drag&drop things up instead of more natural down...
BUT there are TWO things that I really can't modify by myself or get used to. They existed in original UI and I never knew I was using them so often until they were removed. So I beg you to re-introduce two features:
1. Indicator of equipped weapon - Troika users may not need it but when I have Nova and Umbra Drivers equipped it's crucial to know which one I'm wielding any given moment. Especially when I'm running left and my alchemer is hiding behind shield and character. As a mostly two-slot user I have no need for weapon wheel, but weapon indicator was very handy.
2. Indicator of party members mist energy
Thank you in advance.
@Daemiax:
1- I doubt you have actually played thousands of games. I can believe several hundred, maybe even over 1000, but not thousands as in 2000+.
2- I guess since you're gone, I'll just use your attitude as an example for similarly-minded people.Expecting a complete fix of the new UI in two days is not reasonable. A revert while they fixed the problems is not unreasonable, but by now it's unlikely. If you think the new UI completely killed the game in every way, then leave. You obviously don't care enough about the gameplay to stay. Yes, the change was unnecessary. Yes, it was not a good change. Yes, the game is now "harder"(in the sense that it's more broken). But that doesn't mean it can't be fixed.
This change was unexpected and drastic, and didn't go all to well. Things need to be fixed, definitely. But a pessimistic attitude about the future of the game is the last thing the community needs right now.
I will now stop because this is off topic.
@Merethif: Modifying game files is against the ToS ;) I suggest you seriously edit that post.
@Klipik
Everyone knows I'm only joking. I couldn't do that.
I can't think of many areas where the new UI improves upon the old one.
Things I like about the new UI:
Things I don't like about the new UI:
It's funny, because I was planning to buy some energy for the Anniversary update, but this new UI makes me want to leave instead. It feels like the designers don't understand how people use their software.
I hadn't realized the Devilites were nerfed, but I'm grateful. Those guys were way too difficult relative to the other monsters.
Now on to what I think about the new UI. Simply put, I'm not a fan of it. And here's why:
1. It has things on it I don't need to see and can't get rid of. Why do I need a big picture of myself in the upper-left corner of the screen when I can already see myself in the center? Why can't I tab that off? Why do I need to see my health and shield stamina in the guild hall and Haven?
2. It's missing things I need to see. How many crowns do I have? I don't know, because none of the tabs will show it. How come I can only see my mist and energy at certain times? I used to be able to one-click to go to the Energy Depot, but I can't do that anymore??? What gives?
3. The old vial graphics were more intuitive.
I want the old UI back.
-crowns are in the inventory/arsenal bar, hotkey "i".
<(^_^)>
Because of the recent user interface update my name is too long and no longer fits in the dungeon party frames. I've noticed a lot of other players also have this issue.
Apparently it's not blindingly obvious to everyone why the new UI is terrible, so I will make a bulleted list about everything that I've noticed.
The good
- Monster health bars with the option to turn them off
- Clickable things actually have hover effects
- We can hide really obtrusive panels
- There's a scrollbar in the chat
- The advance window when you get on an elevator tells you what depth you're going to next
The I don't really care
- Monsters on the minimap
- Monster panel that pops up with information about name, damage, and weaknesses. The info is nice, the clutter not-so-nice.
The bad
SHIELD BAR
- The shield bar is ugly. Not the positioning of it, the size of it, or the fact that it's there at all. The flat blue is ugly.
- The shield bar is too big. It takes up far too much of the screen for something as unimportant as shield health.
- The fact that it changes sizes a lot and never actually gets entirely out of your way draws your eye to the bar. The information of shield health just isn't that important.
- The shield bar does not work like it should. There are a lot of creative ways to accurately display shield health that don't use a horizontal bar. These methods also take up a lot less real estate. Health is already a horizontal bar, and the juxtaposition of two bars is uninspired and hard to deal with. Brainstorm ideas include making the shield bar be a ring around the knight portrait, or a color indicator that mimics the actual color of your shield.
BUTTONS
- Buttons located at the bottom instead of the top. The bottom of the screen is a more natural location for the most important information and actions. None of the buttons do important, common, often-repeated tasks. UIs traditionally place the unimportant, lesser-used actions at the top of the screen (File, Edit, etc).
- The buttons are vertical rectangles. Traditionally, buttons are either horizontal rectangles, horizontal ellipses, or circles. Vertically-oriented buttons don't work.
- The vertical ... separators are more bewildering than they are functional. They're jarring.
- The buttons are too bright of a blue, and shiny. It doesn't fit the style of the game.
- Light blue icons on dark blue backgrounds is significantly less distinguishable at a glance than the former black on nearly-white.
- The bright white, pixelly borders of the buttons REALLY don't fit the style of the game. They actually hurt my eyes to look at.
- The balance of color depth on the arrows used to minimize panels is off. They don't look like they stand out properly, and it's inconsistent between the left and right side.
- I'm glad we can hide the buttons panels because they're really ugly, but the previous UI was much better in this regard - the buttons never got in the way AND they were always there to quickly check the social tab or mail. Now, since everything is minimized (to prevent eyestrain from the bad colors), we don't have that luxury.
WINDOWS
- The orange bar at the top of windows has a strange yellow border that doesn't fit it. Additionally, the x to close the window is inset rather than sticking out. UIs don't inset buttons unless they are currently being clicked on.
- The styling of the tabs in windows with tabs is offputting. The shadow at the bottom of the unselected tabs really bothers me. There's no reason for there to be a shadow there based on the implied lightsource that comes down from the top.
- You didn't actually fix the existing UI bugs. There's one whereby having multiple panels on top of each other causes issues. Specifically, I can open my mailbox on top of the Auction House popout, but I can't open individual mails. And since I have action mapped to left click, misclicking anywhere my mailbox that isn't a button when I'm in front of the Auction House will trigger the Auction House to pop out.
- The buttons for "Mark all" and "Compose" in the mailbox are absolutely hideous. It's like the main UI buttons, except worse because there's no color contrast either. The hover effect on them is weird, too.
- Once you click Compose, the send button is similarly bad. Also, the recipient and subject lines are too far inset. It works all right on the larger box, but the styling on those narrow bars is really strange.
- When you click attach, the bubbles to attach crowns and CE to the mail have a really bright border that is hard to look at.
SOCIAL
- The groups (Friends, Guild) are really, really bright. Also causes eyestrain. Their non-hover state might be bright enough to make a decent hover state, but it's not workable the way it is now. The ... divider to separate online and offline is strange.
- When you click on "Friends Options" and "Guild Options" the header is black text on the dark blue background. If you don't want us to read the header, why is it there?
CONFIG
- The blue used in the pop-out menu goes with the buttons. But again, this doesn't really fit the subtler colors of the rest of the game.
CHARACTER
- The "Character Options" is colored in the same "hey look at me, I'm shiny!" color-scheme. It gets worse when you click on it and the dropdown is there, too.
ARSENAL
- Much like the groups in the Social window, the arsenal groups are way too bright. The border on them is strangely bright and not really suitable.
- The energy section is a significant downgrade from what we had before. Energy is a huge part of this game, and represents the primary revenue source as well. Both CE and mist are too numerical and small, and the "mist bar" nature of the mist bar has been lost.
- Crowns and CE are hidden. The idea that it creates the mindset that money is the only thing that matters in Spiral Knights and should be minimized because that's not true is... really silly. Money pretty much is the only thing that matters in Spiral Knights. Don't pretend to be a game with a variety of different "win conditions." This game is nowhere near deep enough for that, and it doesn't need to be - simplicity is part of the charm. Plus, hiding the mist bar makes it really annoying to figure out when to stop playing for the day.
- If you bring up the Energy Depot, the coloring on the dropdown is too bright. It's the same issue mentioned above for the Character window.
HEALTH
- It's in the top left, which makes paying attention to your current level of health really awkward and difficult while also watching your knight. The image Klipik keeps posting is spot on.
- It's ugly. I don't know what the goal was with this red gradient, but it would stick out like a sore thumb if the rest of the UI didn't already stick out like a sore thumb even more.
- We really do not need a percentage health, especially when it is really, really tiny. The percentage doesn't really give us any information that the bar doesn't already, and it adds pointless numbers to a game whose charm is in its lack of numbers.
- Having the displayed health always rounded to pips and half-pips was charming. Discrete units in games are very charming. Having things at the pixel level like this is significantly less charming.
- The silver (and then hypothetically gold) overlay on the health is a cool concept, but cool concepts and UI doesn't always mix. In this case it makes things harder to read AND more confusing.
GIANT KNIGHT PORTRAIT
- It takes up a lot of screen real estate. Is it really worth it?
- When you click on it, the menu headers for Friends Options and Guild Options are again really hard to read because they are dark text on a dark background. Doing either dark-on-light or light-on-dark with text is one of the most fundamental UI concepts - I really don't know why this happened.
- Having Friends Options and Guild Options when we click on our knight portrait - why? What's the point? It seems like a menu was put here just because you wanted the knight to be clickable.
MINIMAP
- The icon for my knight (whitish hollow circle with a yellow "facing" arrow) is too much visual noise. A solid dot was better - I KNOW which way I'm facing because "up" is the top of the screen, and the hollow circle is kind of pointless.
- The rainbow-colored pool of knights in Haven was charming and colorful. While the new scheme is more functional (blue for friends, green for guild), the functionality gained does not even come close to making up for the lost charm. Having a lot of dull circles is bland. Why not have the minimap mode be toggleable, defaulting to the colorful edition?
- The name of the current area is way too tiny.
KNIGHT NAMES
- Knights' names are now white. Their rank is displayed in text as a white word. The added text adds noise, and the white all over everywhere creates a carpet wherein you can't actually read ANYTHING. Personal colors on the names was a lot better, and we really don't need the ranks. To reference Nick's statement, having the ranks visible at all times creates a very linear mindset about progression.
- Friends and guildies show up in full blue and full green. Do I need to stress how ugly this looks? It takes the majority of the color away from a person, and the guildie green is a little too much on the radioactive side.
- This is all a definite downgrade, and one of the bigger issues that stands out in "we changed it for the sake of change!" It's also one of the biggest places that the cuteness and charm was removed from the game.
TASKS
- The right side of the screen is not entirely intuitive when trying to actually open the Missions window. This is a minor gripe, but I question the need to place things there.
- The Missions window left panel is really orange, and it's ugly. In addition to the big Supply Depot button, it's pretty clear that they are trying to stress the Supply Depot. They apparently want knights to buy CE and use it to purchase items there instead of crafting. Wasn't crafting supposed to be one of the core game mechanics?
COMBAT
- Even though the weapon select wheel only appears for one second at a time, that is still too long - it should probably go away immediately when the new weapon is selected. It gets in the way and causes visual clutter. It's also very much a "hey, look at me!!" The UI has a lot of that, and that's sort of bad design. A UI should get out of your way when you don't want it, not repeatedly pop in your face. It's really bothersome when I'm trying to fight something on the right side of the screen.
- There's no longer an icon for which weapon you have currently equipped. I used that a lot, and not having it there is annoying.
- Vitapods can't be dropped. This kind of gets in the way when you're trying to give someone else your vitapod.
- We can't drop pickups when dead. It was neat that we could drop health caps for people who need to revive us, and it really should be left that way.
- The "type effective" and "neutral damage" effects (bright yellow and bright blue) are overexaggerated. It's just too much and needs to be dialed back.
- The screen really does not need to shake when we take damage. It's another "cool, but decreases usability" feature.
- The vial icons are way inferior to what we had before. You want things to be distinguishable at a glance, and these are significantly less so. In this case, you could probably have the best of both worlds if you designed something with more color variance between vials.
- The bubbles for vial and vitapod slots are, like everything else in the UI, too shiny. They're painful to look at.
- While it's nice that the advance window shows what depth we're going to next, it's also really in-your-face.
CONCLUSION
There's a sharp reduction in cuteness and charm. The old buttons, the pips in the health bar, colorful knight names, the more colorful vial icons, etc, were all more charming than what we have now. The visual style is and has always been this game's strongest positive, so to water that down with a UI that is quite honestly just trying way too hard is a very bad decision. In particular, the color decisions for knights' names is very, very poor - this is one case where form over function does not apply.
The color selection is really poor overall. Everything pops out and wants you to look at it all the time, and the bright colors are in sharp contrast to the rest of the game. Spiral Knights used to be easy on the eyes. Things were colorful but soothingly so. With the new UI, the game is now very hard on the eyes. Playing this game can no longer be something I do when I want to relax.
When people describe a UI with one of the terms that generally is the highest compliment for a UI - "slick" - they mean that things are subtle, you only see what you need to see, what you do need to see is easy to read when you want to read it, and every functional unit in the UI is quickly and easily distinguishable from one another. This UI fails on pretty much all of those counts. Things stand out when they don't need to, there's a lot of clutter, what we actually want to see is hard to read, and the functional units of the UI are hard to tell apart.
I cannot stress enough how bad the shield bar is. Rethink it, you can probably convey that same information much better, but a flatly colored blue bar spanning most of the top of the screen is really, really bad. It's not -terrible- when it's shorter, but with 5* shields it's like MS Paint took over the top of the screen.
This UI violates so many basic design principles, takes what was previously a relaxing, charming game and makes it noisy and boring, and downgrades the previous UI in nearly every way. Combine that with how hastily it was put out and the general lack of concern for the community's involvement in making such a dramatic change, and I think the fact that I'm honestly just really angry about this is pretty much entirely justified.
The visuals of this UI really do give me a headache when playing (eye strain -> headache). I don't want to quit, but I can't realistically play a game that makes my eyes and head hurt.
Even more frustrating is the fact that I can't realistically expect the devs to actually read any of this feedback. The GMs said earlier in this thread that they read and compiled feedback prior to that point, but I suspect anything anyone's said afterward isn't going to get anywhere. But this is direct feedback, straight from the players. The GMs shouldn't be responsible for filtering it, analyzing it, and passing it up to "their masters." Whoever is responsible for designing the UI should be reading every single post in this thread as part of their job, and judging by the track record with player feedback, I am almost positive that they aren't.
I just played my first non-Caketastrophe mission since the UI update, and I found something else I don't like. I miss being able to say I wanted to go up or down on the lift. I don't like that my options now are "Advance Now" or "Quit Expedition." The Clockworks are for (in the eyes of a knight, not necessarily a player) diving for information and resources and returning to Haven. It's a continuing effort, back and forth. I liked feeling like a miner going up and down before- I don't like that now if I want to go up it feels like I'm quitting early? If you don't want to put the old arrows back, maybe "Return to Haven" instead.
Mrtortoise has a good point. And while the shininess doesn't particularly bother me, it really doesn't go with the aesthetic of the game- there's not really a whole lot in it that IS shiny. Some stuff sparkles but that's about it.
I feel u sister, dont worry I feel the same way I am terribly disappointed in them as well. I really hope you are not going to quit the game though, atleast wait it out? You might have the same mind set as me, you love this game too much so give it one last chance I guess?
Again I feel you and do not blame you for raging.. I am trying to control myself as well. Come to me if u need some Wuv.
Also Goofio.. same here I wanted to buy some good stuffz in SK for its anniversary but what do they give us? -.- a grind event that makes the sprinkle aura and its fellow prismatic party accessories become worthless -.- in rarity...
Also.. thanks Reqy those representations of how crappy the new UI is and how messy it makes the screen is a good argument to make, I hope they change it back asap..
Those people saying that its great that the new UI makes unnecessary panels go away.... guess wat there were NO UNNECESSARY PANELS to begin with, with the old UI!!!! Even when the stupid panels are hidden, the stupid chat still covers up almost all the names of the players of the party.. I can hardly read the chat and almost never read the names/health of my party members other than the top 2. Then again their freaking names are cut off so I can't tell who they are for sure till I scroll over all the members of my party.. SIGH.
Move down healh bar, i have no time to look at it, also it has small font, very small font. And it's harder to see that i am loosing health with that splashes.
Thank you very well written and thought out post which said exactly what I was about to write but better. I think you spoke on behalf of most of us.
If you haven't read this you're doing it wrong. [Please be careful of your language, including in URLs that you post. Thanks!]
It carefully, easily, and bluntly sums up this update, though I'd like to add that the buttons are extremely ugly, the shapes, shininess, and colors are terrible. While I may have not written the contents of that link, I wholly agree.
I'm just taking other people's words, but this particular post deserves a medal and a thorough read from the devs. http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/77805?page=2#comment-681977.
I noticed that Shield health changed size when I swapped shields, but given that this is based off the Proto and Volcanic Plate shields, I have to ask, does the size of the bar change if you swap out, say, a 5* plate shield for the Barbarous Thorn shield or Omega Shell? And, if so, by how much?
Dear SK,
in my opinion you have the wrong focus. Nobody wanted to have a new UI. The old one worked as well (or even better). It is just a question of taste.
Everybody is asking for more Bosses, stories, More citys (not just Haven), maybe a worldmap around haven where you can walk...
...But nobody needs that new Interface.
There are four things, that I definitely dislike about it:
1) The quickslots for the phioles: With the old UI I could choose where to put them. Even if I had only one pill, I could put him into slot 4. With the new UI I can put him only in slot 4 when I have all other slots filled. You should change that back.
2) I am searching the whole time for my energy- and the crownbar. It should be visible all the time, so that you can plan how much depth you can go with it, and when it is the next time to change crowns into crystalenergy. You should also change this back.
3) I would like to drop the Vitapod again.
4) Last thing, that I dislike: I cannot see exactly who is the groupleader in a fight, because I always come on top of the partymembers.
But there is also two points, that I like about new update:
1) the life-energy-bar of the enemys. You can calculate better how much hits you need.
2) The new minimap is also helpful sometimes to see the enemys earlier.
Well I don't always complain but...
Isn't it a little bit too cluttered?
I really appreciate all your work and I am pretty sure that I am able to get used to the new UI .. but but ... I can't see who's attacking me from my left side.
/sadface
(Apologies if anyone has already posted exact/similar thoughts)
There might be some functions the new interface is supposed to use, mainly those involving Battle Sprites. Obviously, we don't have them yet, so I can't say much more than that.
Health bar and Shield in Haven; Remember the primary reason the Gremlins created the Twins? Perhaps there's going to be a siege in Haven? (We already had a tough enemy in Moorcroft).
Devilite nerf; I hated these guys, and it has to be said again; it was obvious they were too powerful compared to the other enemies. While I know people didn't agree to it (mainly the hardcore players, by the looks of things), but there are still at least two difficult enemies; you have that, at least.
Overall though, I don't think this new UI is actually useful in any shape way or form, especially compared to the last one. While it's good to try new things (within reason), a massive outcry like this from the community can only say one thing.
I like some of the things this UI update brought, but I don't actually care if they rollback to the old UI. I imagine a lot of people are swallowing their distaste right now to fight Creep Cakes and then leave, while some of the more hopeful of us may stay to see the Battle Sprites release (I imagine it's going to be on the 17th this month) and then decide if it's worth leaving.
I think one of the other meanings of the word forum is complaining.
Oh, just remembered something else- the new flash color for when I'm getting hit is a bit too bright, what was wrong with the one before? I haven't minded the change to the enemy ones, but the specific red of the player one is a bit excessive: I never had a question of when I was getting hit before. Maybe add a slider in the game options eventually where we can tone down specific effects? Would probably also help with people who have trouble getting their game to run nicely.
I just want to drop my little petition here. This is in regards to a fully customizable UI. Please sign it if you agree with what I have to say.
Cheers,
-Bulby
I feel like this has been mentioned at least once before, but if a party member has insufficient energy to continue and gets on the elevator, you can't do anything to help him/her, as the character portraits are not accessible.
I've already stated that i find the UI unattractive, but after spending time with it in game, i also find it obtrusive and somewhat unintuitive.
I hate to pile on, but it's a mess. The update as a whole is a mess.
As far as i'm concerned, nerfing the Devilites (the last interesting, common enemy in the game) is an unforgivable move.
What's next? An auto-pilot mode like in the New Super Mario Bros? /Shrug
Kalaina-Elderfall pretty much summed up my general thoughts of the UI, but I also want to chip in my two cents.
My issue is with the feature when the screen shakes when taking damage. It's not bad by itself, but when multiple game windows are up (playing with alts) the shaking screen in another window will send the mouse in a random direction on the main window. This becomes really disorienting in combat especially on hazardous maps.
If this feature could be brought back a bit (or even removed) it would relieve this issue.
Why is everything being so dumbed down.. its unforgivable unless t4 is coming out..
to put it simply this update was in my eyes so pathetic that i haven't played since the morning after it came out, believe me; i tried giving it a chance but this ain't spiral knights so until further notice i've decided to quit, not going to make a big deal out of this but it's obvious what this companies direction is and it's one of their impending doom IMO.
anyways, wake me up when the ui doesn't look like a fisher price set
Let's make it happen!
Anyway, I assume all of the files for icons and such are simple images. I wonder how hard it'd be to modify those images...
What I like:
The screen is definitely much more open and sleeker, I like this although it'll take my eyes some time to adjust to it
Everything is shiny, I like shiny things!
Being able to zoom in is neat, and the map looks like it'll be more helpful in finding places for new players
What I don't like:
The various menus feel like they're just strewn around the screen at random.
The shield meters location makes it distracting, but hard to make any use of (it also seems extraneous when the existing way to show shield health is front and center so it doesn't try to pull your eyes off the action but it still accurately reflects how it's holding up)
HP meter is way outside of my focus zone (the shield meter is too), so while it's visible, it's not visible in a way that I am able to process the information in it.
Capsules/Vials/ect no longer match the art style, they're very bland looking now, whereas before they were much more iconic and fit within the style of the game.
I'm pretty meh on the portrait, it seems relatively pointless, but maybe it will have a purpose later. Can't comment on much else. I think it'd be nice if we could simply drag and drop the different elements of the GUI as we see fit. Then you don't have to worry about trying to please people with the placement of UI layout because everyone can just create whatever works best for them.
Edit: Also, it'd be nice if we could see our energy without having to open up the arsenal at least when one is in the clockworks, that is a piece of information that you want to be able to see while on the run.
Now that this thread is 11 pages deep I'm not sure anyone at Three Rings will read this but I wanted to add my opinion that this new UI is a step backwards. Most of my criticism has already been said multiple times. The one thing I didn't see is I'm not sure you can still see when you have party members waiting at an elevator. I also get nervous every time I see the advance party popup that I'm accidentally going to exit the party instead of going down because of where my cursor might be. (old interface had a much bigger width between the two options)
I would suggest rolling back this update and then carefully selecting the good features for redeployment. Many of the good features are ones that include the option to turn them off and on.
After 5 days there are only 2 threads in General Discussion that have more replies.
The The Best Lockdown Players and 10 things about SK started by Nick.
The next closest is the 5/7/2011 discussion thread
The 5/17/2011 discussion concerns the auction house and binding of 4*+ crafting.
After 5 days the 5/17/2011 only had 460 compared to 545 in this thread.
In total the 5/17/2011 discussion only had 477 posts with Eury being 478 locking the thread after less than a month of discussion.
This thread has surpassed it by over 60 in only 5 days.
The overwhelming majority of posts here, simply put, state that ooo got it wrong when giving players a re-work of something that was not broken.
I know nobody likes to be informed that they got something wrong, but please Nick and others realize this happens in life.
Fix some of these clutter and convenience issues please.
Happy Hunting,
-A
> Currently, when you shield, the health bar becomes very small and percentage disappears due to shield bar overlapping. This makes it difficult to see how much health we have when shielding and draws attention away from the combat.
The things I dont mention here I think were ok content.
List of bad things with the update:
- One cannot see if a party member is dead or alive for sure.
- -||- on the elevator or not
- The wheel showing weapons when you switch them is only taking up space. Also, it should only be for players that use "next/previous weapon". Since I use specific keys for weapon 1, 2, 3 and 4 this was and still is a pain.
- I liked how you could see your cr and ce all the time. But i get that this solves the problem of covering it in videos.
- The button that brings up friends/guild members list is no longer worth having. i used to press it alot. now i have to force myself to use F6.
@Theirillusion: "The button that brings up friends/guild members list is no longer worth having. i used to press it alot. now i have to force myself to use F6."
What do you mean by this? It hasn't changed much... and you an always reassign it to another key if you don't like F6...? (Spot on with the rest of it though, especially the first two- really kills teamwork.)
@Acck : Since this thread is about to rival the most posted on threads ever, I think I will add my two cents to this in the hopes of getting some attention and action by the developers.
I have spoken to multiple long time pay to play knights who have quit or are quitting unless something is done. The issues everyone have raised are the same:
1. Put the health / status bar back in our field of vision, not out of our field of vision stuck in the left corner.
2. Put the CE / crowns back on the main screen. If some people in the past complained about it being there, make the menu hideable.
3. Remove the weapon indicator in the middle of the screen. This is unnecessary.
4. Remove the shield health bar or make it much smaller. Also, leave it the same size when you shield so it does not block your health bar.
5. Allow players to know how much health other members of their party have. Percentages do not do this.
6. Allow players to know if members of their party are dead or on an elevator.
7. Allow vitapods to be dropped.
8. Remove the large picture of your knight in the top left. This is unneccesary and will add screen room for the CE to be put back on.
I believe I have covered just about all the issues my guild has with the new UI. I am not particularly a fan of the new style of vials, blocks, vitapods, ect but we can live with that stuff. Please take this into consideration.
Also, please think about allowing more time to test new content in the future.
Thank you
I keep hearing "I want to drop my vitapods". I agree that they should be a help, but Little-Juances has a point about the prize wheel...unless it doesn't care about if you have full health and can still give you a heart. It should be possible to drop vitapods, not just for strategy purposes, but to share. At least it should be possible to give/trade vitapods between party members.
Also, I personally liked seeing the exact pips of the other players, and it would be a nice addition to let us know how much of that health is "natural" and how much is added due to vitapods. Showing pips allows heart delegation to be much easier (you can't do that with percentages, although you can still show them), and connecting to the vitapods, using an extreme and unlikely circumstance, the following. What if a 5-pip kight and a 10-pip knight travel together, and there is only one vitapod? If the 10-pip picks it up, then there's a HUGE difference in health. The 5-pip would want/need it to be on the same level, and right now, the 10-pip can't drop it-or even see that the 5-pip needs it more.
I would like it if you made the stated changes.
Sorry, just get tired of seeing the same hate posts over, and over. Not saying it's anyone in particular, it's just that the hate posts add up over time.