I also like it overall.

Things I think:
- I like how they made the portrait functional. It has most of the things I need when I click on it. I can return to haven or invite to party easier.
- The bouncy icon effect when I get invited to a party is nice.
- I believe one reason CR CE was hidden is to promote more screenshots/ videos being posted. I have avoided posting things in the past because of the extra step of having to paint those out. so I actually favor having them hidden. It's only one key to open your inventory to see after all...
- I like that I'm not accidentally clicking on the energy tab now.
- Having the bottom of the screen clear is great.

- I think the update was made to try improve game performance. The monster health bars are now what makes enemy blips appear on the minimap. I don't want the health bars and so have to have no blips on my map. That's not cool.
- I'm still not used to the social button on the bottom. I guess I don't like those tabs there.
- The update made it harder to tell when a team member dies. Was this intentional?

Much like shard bombs, I prefer the newer one

I sense sarcasm in some of these posts @_@

My sarcast-o-meter is broken, so if this is a joke thread, forgive me. If not...

The UI and all that it encompasses (windows, buttons, etc.) by itself, LOOKS fine. Honestly if I were to see this UI anywhere else but on Spiral Knights, I would think that it's an OK looking UI.

HOWEVER. That doesn't mean that I like it on my Spiral Knights.
The old UI, the very style of it, DEFINED the look of Spiral Knights. The colors, shapes, and layout. Even the subtle gears and clockwork going on behind the UI. Plus the Energy symbol that Ian stated was important to all the Knights and was a prominent feature for them.
It was also much better designed in terms of looks and placement of the features. The new one is unintuitive and full of clutter for a plethora of reasons. Allow me to explain:

- Klip's illustrated reasoning above. The new Health bar is not in an optimal place for quick looking. We'll get used to it, but it is by no means more efficient than the old UI that kept your health and most other important info right in your field of view.

- There is a distinct feature that OOO advertises about this new UI (and for some reason people like) that blocks the CENTER OF THE SCREEN. You know, the part where you're supposed to pay attention? It's not about LD or some stupid thing about gunners, it's about BLOCKING AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE SCREEN FOR NO REASON. The weapon wheel could have been added in a dozen other places. Why not have it cycle around the portrait? Why not have it with the rest of the battle info? WHY PUT IT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SCREEN.

- More on the "wonderful" weapon wheel. You can't tell if your weapon is cursed. That is such a terrible design flaw, that I just don't have much else to say about it. It's just bad.

- The hidden Crowns and Energy. Don't like Nick's reasons for doing it. Makes it harder to quickly go down elevators and keep track of energy. Just make it a separate slide-out window from the inventory and I'd be fine with it.

- Loss of personal color on our names and on the map. That bugs everyone, so I won't expand on that.

- Elevator tab system has no visual cues at all. NONE. You can't tell if a party member needs energy, if you tabbed them, or if they tabbed you. All information is completely GONE from the party display. Good job making us work together there, OOO.

- Can't tell if your Party is dead or in "Sonic Mode." Did they really have to take away the skull? That was such a clear indicator to go help your friend.

- The horrendously ugly overlapping that occurs in LD. I don't play it at all, but looking at the screenshots... Ugh. How did a problem like that make it out of internal testing?

What you like are the new features presented by the UI.

- You can look at how pretty you are. Constantly. At all times. Yay.
- Incoming messages and requests are treated differently.

I cannot stress this enough, but both of those could have been applied to the old UI fairly simply.
If you also like the new "look" of the UI AKA the skin of it. That's fine. A lot of vets don't and we'd appreciate the option to at least go to a less garish and bright color scheme.

So. I am going to take your thread title literally.
I appreciate the old UI. Not this thing that looks like it belongs to another game.

Whilst I am also in favour of the new UI, Zopyros-Il presents valid points of concern regarding it that need to be addressed.

The health bar is out of the way. Whilst this isn't normally an issue on lower resolutions, it's really out there on higher resolutions and even still there should be an easier way to determine how your Knight is holding up lest you'll find yourself downed before you realize what's going on. I'll admit I've fallen a number of times because I struggled to keep track of my health up in the corner.

The weapon wheel isn't really as bad as people make it out to be. Sure, it's a nuisance but unless you're doing precision dodging with projectiles coming from the right and switch weapons a lot it's not really a big issue. I do agree that there could've been a better placement for it though, and we most certainly do need a clear indicator of when our wielded weapons are cursed without having to switch weapons to find out.

I also kind of agree that they could've added a hide-tab for currencies but it's not that big a deal. It shows up when it's needed and is a minor inconvenience at worst.

Really don't care for coloured names or lack thereof.

The party members tabs do need urgent work, though. Not only do they take up a lot of space (especially with how spaced out they are) but they also no longer show vital information such as whether or not they have enough energy to proceed or if they've been tabbed or not. There's also this 0% health thing going on that makes it unclear as to whether someone's truly dead or otherwise, so having a skull icon show up when they're downed would be nice.

I do like the new UI, as I've said, but it doesn't feel particularly thought out with all these flaws present. So long as they're attended to I'm all for it staying but for now it falls short of the old one.

"Looks cyber and smexy, and fresh!"

While there's nothing inherently wrong with cyberspace as a style, it's in sharp contrast with basically the game's entire art style. Spiral knights is about the Clockworks and is represented by mechanisms and gears. There's no virtual reality and digital space.

Furthermore, I don't understand the visual appeal of a UI where every single element is colored so brightly that it feels like the whole thing is trying to forcibly drill itself into your skull.

Things I like in the new UI:

1. The Colors are decent for me.
2. It might be more functional for later updates ( Eg: Sprites )
3. The mini-map is handful in some cases.
4. The Notifications are not annoying like before, but you need to get used to it for party invites.

Things I badly dislike in the new UI:

1. Screen Shaking. The worst thing. Really. Really... It is completely pointless.
2. The Portrait. What for? Is SK an FPS? I suppose not. Then remove it! It just makes the screen cluttered and sluggish.
3. Hiding the mist bar? I see what you did there OOO....
4. Health Bar is out of our eye-focus, it's tiring. Same goes for Ability Bar in Lockdown.
5. The color changes for names is stupid, STUPID. As if we don't know that X is my friend and Y is my guildie. What's left to do? How about you suggest what weapons we should use now, OOO? It makes me feel that the game is made for +3.
6. Health Bars for monsters is good, but that doesn't go for the damage type and family of each monster. It simply removes the motive to go read, and be more knowledgeable about the game through the Wiki.

What can I say... the new UI isn't a bad idea, neither it was unnecessary, but there are many more things that had the priority to be first. That's all...

Thread about that update is not listed at the top anymore. Not Sticky anymore or whatever it was before.

Yes, it's an old update, but there are 500+ posts in it. It should stay there, at least until we get some word from OOO about it. Which I don't think we ever will. My guess is they already did swept it under the rug.