What are you all talking about like seriously

I've been playing SK for about a year and a half now and the old UI was awful, it looked absolutely boring and didn't do anything particularly well. This one takes some getting used to but what everyone seems to fail to understand is that IT'S ALMOST EXACTLY THE SAME.

The options on the top were moved to the bottom, CE is in the inventory menu now and the mission options are on the side now. That's all that's changed in the way of navigation. Yeah they moved the healthbar but it's not that big of a deal. Meanwhile they've given all of the menus eyecatching lighting and added a weapon switch wheel that REALLY helps when I lose track of what weapon I have in a big crowd. I've also been waiting for enemies to have health bars for a long time, it lets me prioritize weak targets and also gives me an idea of when I should and shouldn't attack.

They also vastly improved the attacking particles and it really has an emphasis of power now, both for hitting enemies and when enemies hit you. I love the new screens for going down and up the elevators and they finally fixed that whole not-showing-accessories-in-the-end-of-level-window thing. The new Health Capsule and Vial icons are gorgeous as well, it was a much needed improvement that I hope spreads to weapon and material icons.

The vitapod dropping thing is bad, yeah, and I hate that player names aren't colored to their color anymore, but those aren't because of the UI as a whole.

Also why is everyone complaining about the Devilite nerf, they're ridiculously overpowered and act outside of the concept that Fiends are slow attackers that deal tons of damage.

The fact is that this new HUD is much nicer to look at and gives you much more visual input, but at the same time it's not exactly right to alienate players who liked the old HUD, which is why I propose the old one would make a great "Minimalistic HUD" option for those who liked it more.

Here's my two drachmas:

I see a lot of improvements, but there seems to be nearly an equal number of steps backward as well. Everything else so far I guess I can live with on the UI, but here's the things that are not so good:

the new hit sprites and the HUD shaking animation whenever your knight gets hit, and the weapon switch graphic are all very distracting, my eyes were getting fatigued much quicker than usual. Can we have an option to turn that weapon-switch graphic off?

The new location of the health bar is a bit of a stretch. Very easy to see how much health your knight has when it's right under him. forcing me to look away from the action to the top left of the screen only puts my knight at more risk, kind of like a driver not looking at the road. Imagine if your spedometer was at the upper left of your windshield instead of right below it?

I dont know if we really need the shield bar, the orb around our knight changing color from blue down to orange was enough, and given my previous note of the health bar location change, it once again puts the Knight at more risk having to look away from the action. If you want a shield bar, have it show up just below the knight in a very similar graphic like the monster HPs. just make the bar blue & have it dissapear when we aren't using our shields.

Same logic as the previous two issues - the status count-down being at top left makes it much harder to see & keep track of. These count-downs greatly affect split-second decisions whether to use pills or status relief capsules.

The inability to drop Vitas is a bit of a heartbreak, but not being able to organize your pill & vial inventory is a big dissapointment. It's easier on the player to always count on your health pills being assigned to a specific number, and those of us who put these critical items in the same place every time count on that, as pressing the wrong button can mean the difference between getting healed, and having to spend CE to Res. Now, the only way to do that is to drop everything we currently have in our inventory and then re-pick them up in the order we want them to be in. That is a huge liability, as anyone else in the party could swipe the stuff you drop.

The graphical update of the UI is nice enough, there will be a long list of pros & cons, the above issues I list are my only grieviances worth noting.

Thanks.

@Supermallow. Are you interested to do some mock up HUD? I'm looking for someone who can draw and have knowledge on what not to do in UI design.

I think we got enough feedback here and in the testing feedback forum to consolidate into a more concrete, usable HUD layout. I think it's a good time the community move on to do their own mock up, so we can put together something that people can readily understand.

Add me on Steam.

HP and shield on haven??

http://s1353.photobucket.com/user/GalaxZe/media/2013-04-04_00001_zps5c31...

BAD

Wow, what a condescending response. Sorry if I offended you, but I assure you I AM fully 5* (aside from a few weapons I'm still tinkering with) and I have been playing SK for a while.
I'm not going to start a fight, these were MY opinions. Some people actually like the new hud and you don't have to be so rude in your response. I would respond to your comments but it's not really necessary because these are all opinions so...
But I do want to say that I do love the new pills, they actually look like pills now to me and have some good shading on them now instead of being flat colors.

were are the crowns?

Because in your opinion my points are invalid.
Personally I like flashy hud better than minimalistic ones. But that's just me.

@Deepbluemist. Actually I found your opinions invalid also. I just don't have the patience to type a response to every single of your points because I think a lot of counter arguments could be found in this thread. The Health Bar relocation is a big deal and here is why.

Anyhow, I'm not trying to fight you or anything. This is SK anniversary and I should be playing SK like a happy camper I was 2 years ago. But nope. I'm stuck here helping Three Rings finding ways to fix up this HUD exactly because of the various points that you raised (except in the opposite direction).

@Eltia Doing a mockup UI isn't too hard, though to get the full best user-based UI, the way I've always done it is to do some basic user experience research. Though with the player base as hard as it is, that shouldn't be too difficult

Just because I open Party Finder, doesn't mean I want to fill the chat box with "Party Found"

@Supermallow. Alright I'm not looking for publishing papers. I just want someone who can do mock up and know what not to do in UI design.

I also believe best improvements have been brought by incompetent ones not trying to do good. Hence, my emphasis on knowledge of what not to do.

I personally think this update is the worst thing to happen to the game, I am not the only one who thinks this either my entire Guild and a good number of my friends feel the same way. We all agreed that this update only needs to keep is the Rank display, enemy radar on mini-map, enemy health bar/gauge and the new elevator screen that is it. Other than that the rest of the update just gets in the way of game play and provides blind spots, not to mention we can't drop vials/capsules or even our vitapods once we are dead like we used too before this update. Hope nobody gets offend but I though I should just share my opinion just like the creators asked. Have a nice day Spiral Knights community and God bless!
- OPN's Divine Crusader

I agree with most of this, for whatever it's worth.

I sure hope OOO is taking our feedback seriously. I haven't seen this much negative feedback since the shard bombs and now more than ever, the new content needs, I repeat, NEEDS to be optional. Sometimes simplicity is the best thing.

I liken this to using high quality vs low quality. Some like it, others can't handle it. If we were all forced to use high quality, I dare say not many of us would be playing anymore.

animation to menus is annoying

when I'm in the party menu, I can't talk to my party
can't tell party member's health
can't help party member by giving them a vitapod
(let's just kill teamwork altogether, it's not like that was what the game was about anyway)

? levels now tell you what the level is before you decide if you're going up or down. Why even bother having a ?

I want to be able to have my vials lit up (so I can SORT OF tell what they are) without having my hud unlocked which causes a ton of other problems (like opening the party options by accidentally clicking on my GIGANTIC character portrait.

Everything in the new UI is brighter and sharper than the surrounding graphics. It's distracting and not even remotely cohesive with the rest of the game. The old ui felt organic, like it was a part of the world, not a gateway keeping me from the world.

I don't need to see my health and shield while I'm in Haven/Guild Hall etc. (actually I don't want to see my shield at all) Valuable screen space is used on useless crap and things I hide, and I can't even see if I have enough crowns/mist etc. It's not displayed ANYWHERE. I get to see my health and shield somewhere they don't matter, but I don't get to see my very necessary mist/ce/cr without digging into menus.

As a side note, I believe it would be INVALUABLE to be allowed to minimize/disable ALL UI displays. I'm no longer going to rage about how much I hate the new hud, but will request that we be able to disable any interfering interface we desire.

Thank you

Well, not that I was expecting anything amazing from OOO seeing how the last 2+ years haven't been very eventful, but here is my review I guess (not that it matters):

Pros:

+ Clean UI, after you hide everything that is
+ More of a streamlined feeling
+ Weapon wheel is actually not as bad as people were making it out to be

Cons:

- Horribly executed UI idea overall
- No constant CR/CE/ME display without running around with the inventory open
- Unless you know most of the keyboard shortcuts, it's extremely annoying to navigate
- I have to open my inventory to buy CE now
- A lot of white names is annoying and hard to read
- Useless features such as zoom

There are more on the UI alone, but it's all been pretty much said already. The following is about the rest of the updates and some of my personal opinions.

~ Why nerf another monster? Literally nothing in this game even comes close to a challenge anymore. Don't even get me started on the new mobs were about to get either, lol.

~ Way to go on another no content "major" release. I hardly play this game anymore because I'm sick of doing all the same junk over again. RELEASE CONTENT FFS. Make new levels, monsters, weapons, and bosses. Not these dumb Danger Missions. Get back to the basics (clockworks). Do work.

~ I can't drop my vita I accidently walked over to make the game somewhat more challenging. Way to go.

This game is a joke now-a-days, lol.

Yes, it better. But still, funny. Why is everyone mentioning shield bar?! I really wonder how some of you managed to grind so far as you did.. I cannot understand how can that bar even be useful, are you tryin to tell me that in the heat of the battle, while 5 monsters are attacking you, it's easier for you to look up at that bar?! That is not logical, if anything, it's dumb. No offence, but it is.

"The weapon wheel is useful. I like knowing which weapons are next in my list."

Again.. do you even think about what weapons do you take with you? Do you have some super extra weapons slots so you can carry 10 weapons and you get confused? For the love of god, most people have 3 weapons! Is it really that hard to remember on which slot they are?

"I like how everything combat-related is on top where you'll use it, and everything non-combat-related is on the bottom, where you're not looking anyways."

If you still dont get it, Eltia shared a link about that.. Go and read it please.

"Enemy health is now displayed. It allows for better tactical decision-making."

Like everyone who mentioned this, you obviously prefer the game to be easier. Most of us don't. I believe at least 80% of players would like this game to be harder, not easier due to some visual HP bars over enemies. But hey, I can turn them off, so no problem there.

(you were asking for it..)

deepbluemist: 'Also why is everyone complaining about the Devilite nerf, they're ridiculously overpowered and act outside of the concept that Fiends are slow attackers that deal tons of damage.'

> the upgraded devilites attack extremely slow, though, just like greavers. they fit in with the pattern, in my opinion. both are incredibly fast movers with an incredibly slow chargeup time. the only reason they're overpowered is because people who don't know how to deal with them end up getting mugged and endanger the whole party. trojans don't follow this rule because they have a shield, and i never thought of them as proper fiends because they're adventurers who were lost to the clockworks.

i'm half and half on the devilite thing. i have no trouble with them alone, but people just dont know how to handle them, and that's the real danger.

i think the thing that frustrates me most with these nerfs and this UI is that all of it is like they need to hold your hand to play the game. I wouldn't mind it so much for new players, really, but it's implemented in such a way that you can never turn it off. one of my guildmates admitted to almost quitting as soon as he got to haven (prior to the mission update) because he didn't understand what to do. i understand that, but everything this update did to make things 'simpler' for the player just made it more complicated.

this game, just like most everything, is a learning process. i think a lot of long-time players feel borderline insulted that the UI has to tell you every little thing (shield gauge, percentage of HP when the bar was literally in your face and very simple to understand, how your slots are full when you go to pick up consumables, how your health is maxed out even though you have a 100% percentage AND a full HP bar) like you don't know it already. the presentation is gaudy and distracting.

also, as someone artistically inclined, i have to ask who thought it was a good idea to use all those gradients. usually i dont get up in arms about style publically because, whatever, to each their own, but fill gradients on everything makes it look like you are trying too hard to impress. It reminds me of when I was in grade school and I thought WordArt was the coolest thing to put on every single project I ever did. The best thing you could have done instead of putting in all of those NEAT TEXTURES WOW COOL was smoothing out what you already had. it clashes really, really horribly with the game.

I agree with everyone that is of the mindset that SK's biggest 'selling' point was its simplicity; the UI it had before was just fine for that. Now we have all these cumbersome details we didn't need before, and the important things, like the HP bar, crowns, and energy, are pushed off to places that hinder concentration on the targets trying to hurt your character.

The new design is linear, alright, but in a bad way. you focus on attacking instead of SURVIVAL, which i thought was the point of the game. attacking instead of surviving was how i started to play, too, i noticed, and that really bothered me that i was so easily caught into that web, as well as knowing that newer players were going to be introduced and encouraged to that way of thinking, however subtle it may be. Spiral Knights was never about that, not for me, and having that taken away from me is kind of upsetting. DPS and efficiency comes later. that's what i feel, anyway.

TL;DR:

- Please stop trying to hold every player's hand. It's okay if we need it at first, but it's like we're handcuffed to these tutorials and tips.
- We don't need all the repetition (i.e. being told about your health in more ways than one all at the same time. Make the different viewings optional?)
- The new UI is potentially inaccessible and distracting during battle. be it because it's too large, or too flashy, it's just not good.
- another thing i didnt mention: i think this new UI is so heavy it's making people lag, even though just mentioning this is gonna make me sound like a dick, lmao. it's something i have to mention though, because even with my beast of a computer that can run assassin's creed 3 on high quality EVERYTHING i started lagging down in FSC, so i dont know how other players with older, less equipped computers are handling it :$

I honestly have to say that the old HUB shouldn't have been majorly changed like it has been now, yes the Zoom and I think the weapon wheel is a useless feature. Like I mentioned before I understand it is designed for minors but it should be the minors job to actually learn the game play and how all the keys/hot keys work instead of being lazy and just want to jump into action and beg for stuff (I know this due to past gaming history and a few friends). Take time to read stuff and learn how to play the game and a little of the story behind it so the game play can be awesome!

+1 Eltia
- OPN's Divine Crusader

Whatever happened to "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication"? Giant health bars. Monster health. Boss health. Shield bar. A giant mugshot of our knight taking up the top left. The crowns and ce being hidden. Menu buttons moved to other locations in the UI they have no business being at. Player health bar at the top left out of view when you are focusing on the middle of the screen.. oh and its acting all "shiny" with the silver and gold pips.

I could keep going on but why did we need any of this stuff? Why did we need any of it at all? I can't think of a single reason we needed these things. The shield aura when shielding was easy enough to read. If it was anything below blue you might want to stop shielding.

Yellow = Caution
Orange = ???

and if by some luck you actually saw Red.. red was obviously Danger.

You know.. I don't even want to talk about this anymore. The new UI has too many problems compared to the old simple UI that had everything we needed already.

Although I like the new HUD, I liked the old one better. I miss being able to see how many crowns I have without having to open up my inventory. The "Proceed?" screen is kinda' cool, but the elevator buttons made much more sense in that context. Speaking of buttons, it's nice to see shiny, new versions of otherwise unchanged buttons. Still feels like SK, but looks better. I'm not sure about the new icons for useable items, though. It's hard to tell the difference between normal and super vials, and some of the icons weren't changed at all, and look really out of place. Being able to see enemy health is the best thing that has ever happened to this game. The Devilite nerf did almost nothing, as far as I can tell. They still kill me easily every time I get anywhere near them, and it's really quite frustrating. Though, I should add that I was (barely) able to get through a Tier 2 mission alone for the first time in what seemed like forever yesterday, so that's always good. Also, in response to Stwhitestorm, I'm pretty sure the majority of players are over 18...

I fear tdlob left at the right time.
I also hope I can see reason to log in tonight.

I liked the UI when it was flattened and the vials and capsules are looking awefull.You want A feedback so here it is

Dear OOO, I am Rewolverine, and i hvae been playing this game of yours since 2011 and i have to admit that the updates couldnt suck more, the game is not fun any more, i mean it is fun but the new UI has made my SK experince suck.I liked it when there were tortodrones,when the cr and ce would be right up on the screen,when devilites forced me to revive, when i was mad at jellies...To be continued, my mom is getting angry at me.

I have enjoy the latest design in Spiral Knight but I prefer old design.

But some new designs can maintain, like:

1) Weapons Changing in Icons. (It was totally refreshing. Very nice)

2) Monsters HP bar sure is nice but it can design better.

3) Shield Bar are nice too but still the same. The design can make more nicer like abit 3D feel and make it short a bit, It too long

Others can maintain to normal like before.