http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=48211597
This is how the game's GUI used to look like, and frankly I find it a lot better than the current one just because it doesn't have gradients up the buttocks. Why did OOO changed it in the 1st place?
About the old and new GUI
Mon, 02/24/2014 - 15:09
Mon, 02/24/2014 - 15:18
#2
Heart of Valor.
My guess is that they wanted SK to look more 'modern.'.
Although I miss the old GUI, I am perfectly fine with the new one. Well... Semi-new.
Mon, 02/24/2014 - 15:19
#3
Mon, 02/24/2014 - 15:44
#4
It was agreed upon in the suggestions forum that several UI features would be nice to have. As an example-
http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/48012
http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/30997
http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/34098
Several other changes were made to facilitate OOO's reconstruction of the game, as a sort of preface to the arcade redux-- which extends to the entire structure of the game. Namely, energy was hidden and removed from the game as a necessity. It was a symbol for developer greed, and it had to be removed from crafting/elevators for the game to succeed. As a first step, it was hidden in the UI.
See: http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/77721#comment-681155
Another aspect of the new UI that works well with the innovations was how modular it was. The old UI was beginning to be bogged down by new features, and the battle sprite update would have been a nightmare to code-- so the development team searched the forums and made our dreams and nightmares come true, by making an extremely ugly and generic UI to fit their needs as well as ours.
People DID ask for a new look to the UI, but they were far and few between, so it isn't so farfetched that it was our idea as well. But there was a large contingent of people that hated the new UI design upon it's release, and this contingent of people went largely unheard-- partially as a result of OOO keeping quiet about the fact that they were tera-forming their game into something new and improved.
---------I started a tangent here
Any slight indication of their plans would wreck the market for items massively. For instance, if they told us that (and this is just speculation), there was a new boss in T3 that would drop radiants and that they'd already tested it and that they were looking at either a late February or mid March release, and that this boss had new boss items that would go along with part II of the arcade redux and that this boss would be a HUGE change to the game, think of what would happen!
First off, the existence of the new boss would mean that players would have to save up sparks, sell all of their existing boss tokens, and then craft gear specifically in hopes that the boss would be a specific type. After this, they would buy up all of the 2/3* gear that would be used for the supposed boss, as that would make them a good 300% profit. Lastly, they would know not to buy Radiant Fire Crystals from the shop or farm for them, and would instead focus mainly on getting the elite orbs they need to craft new guns... specifically, any potentially overpowered variants that happen to come out.
Wouldn't that be something.
Mon, 02/24/2014 - 15:31
#5
Spiruy
>Edit: Now that I think about it, the UI was changed to better match the expected layout of an mmorpg. Transitioning to a new game is easier when you have similar interfaces in similar locations.
I guess? I mean, it's not hard to adapt for a new GUI to begin with, so the redesign wasn't really needed... And I'm more bothered with the current GUI being a gradient mess. I prefer the simpler look, as I said.
Mon, 02/24/2014 - 15:40
#6
Opinions! Opinions! Run away from the opinions!
Save for the obnoxious and large portrait in the top left corner, I'm one of those who have taken a liking to the new look.
The icons give you a better idea of what the Equipment looks like, and irrelevant information (like your total cr) is hidden until you want to see it. Everyone seems to rant and rave about reskins and laziness, but the epitome of laziness was how the old icons were just recolors of each other. Furthermore, was it really necessary to see only the first 20 pips of your teammates' health, and nothing more? It was rather annoying to judge who was missing health and actually needed the pills way back then. It's more convenient now, since you see their total health, rather than the first 20 pips. When the new UI rolled out, OOO was alluding to the removal of mist by removing the indicator that showed when your teammates are out of mist. And, energy/mist being in the bottom left corner? It was a constant reminder of how you were limited per day on how many levels you could delve without paying for CE or an Elevator Pass. A constant reminder that just drove many players away from playing.
On the flip side, I will agree that the old UI did some things right, in that you had a better idea of how much health you had when it was displayed in the bottom center, rather than top left. And even more convenient when you could see the icon for your currently equipped weapon right next to it. But I grew accustomed to that after, what, two weeks?
Mon, 02/24/2014 - 15:39
#7
Fehzor
>I do recall a thread asking for new vial designs that weren't circle icons.
I'm pretty sure it was about the in-game vials, not the icons representing them on the GUI. Guess OOO mistook that.
>But there was a large contingent of people that hated the new UI design upon it's release, and this contingent of people went largely unheard-- partially as a result of OOO keeping quiet about the fact that they were tera-forming their game into something new and improved that better fit their ideas of what it should be to the players.
I can understand that they changed the layout to do that, but I can bet it's more because of the overdesign of its look that made people hate it. If they kept the textures flat, they wouldn't recieve as much complaining.
Mon, 02/24/2014 - 16:28
#8
I love the new GUI, however there are some things I miss about the old one, namely:
• Your own avatar wasn't obnoxiously huge and didn't get in the way (for the most part).
• Your health bar was in a relevant and easy-to-locate spot, now you have to take your eyes off of what you're doing to look at it. This has substantial negative effects, even if it's just for a split second.
• The little dot the indicated how difficult a level may be with your current gear.
• Crowns were always shown, which is extremely relevant and helpful rather than going through the lagsplosion of opening up your Arsenal all the time (also energy, although this isn't as relevant anymore).
But, there was one thing I hated about the old GUI, however it was literally the only thing I hated...
• The health bar when you got lots of health pips. That killed my brain looking at it when the pips weren't the same size. #NewHealthPips4Life.
Mon, 02/24/2014 - 16:46
#9
I actually like some parts of the new UI, like how it's almost entirely collapsable. However, things like this are still a problem, as well as the fact that the new UI does not show what weapons are cursed, there is no way of seeing what weapon you have equipped without seeing it on your character itself (which at times is impossible), and the weapon selection wheel is intrusive at best.
Also @Dibs, personally I preferred the old pips because they were in groups of five, making them much easier to count. A hybrid of old and new would be best, with grouping and color coding.
Mon, 02/24/2014 - 17:19
#10
^Or we could just have no idea how much health we have at any given point. Who's up for an adventure!?!??!
Mon, 02/24/2014 - 17:44
#11
How is knowing that you have 1000 cr relevant when you're in the middle of playing the game. "Oh, I'm just going to check on my crowns while these turrets are firing at me (y)."
Even with the old UI, I seriously doubt anyone did that. The argument that "I can always see my crowns with old UI" seems so flawed.
Mon, 02/24/2014 - 18:14
#12
"Even with the old UI, I seriously doubt anyone did that."
Then you clearly never used the old UI.
Mon, 02/24/2014 - 18:33
#13
You're right. You got me. After joining in September 2011, I had already been using the new UI. I never knew the trials and tribulations of having to go way out of the way to look at a tiny number representing my total crown count while I was in the middle of bashing Gremlins and Mecha Knights alike. Nor did I ever feel the pressure of seeing that giant number in the bottom right corner, lurking, reminding me every second that I couldn't play for as long as I liked, but as long as I had Mist. The cartoony, lazily recoloured icons, all of which blended in with each other and made it seem like the game was still in beta phase, which looked like nothing more than mere placeholders, all gone in favor of these newfangled icons. It seemed like a freak of nature. It seemed impossible.
But it's true.
I never used the old UI. I was the one special person cursed with the new UI from the beginning.
Mon, 02/24/2014 - 18:37
#14
Aren't almost all my comments sarcastic?
Mon, 02/24/2014 - 19:23
#15
You are experiencing a PICNIC ERROR!
Personally, I would find myself playing this game more if I could have the old UI's style back. I just hope that they let players chose which one to run.
Also, when I was making the Retro UI mod (Which was an attempt to restore the old UI's style), I found that the game ran about 20% better. It's all those gradients which slow the game down. My computer isn't super new, but I can run the game with x8 anti-aliasing and maxed graphics and the FPS is quite good. (Though the current UI brings the FPS down doing that, though it's hard to notice.) The main noticeable thing was that the inventory would open up instantly rather than having a second of game-freeze.
(FYI, I stopped working on the Retro UI...it's hard to sustain it because it broke with every single stinking update...and it's one of my less productive projects because it warranted a ban among, other things. No, I'm not the ban-evader type and I do NOT want to lose all my fancy gear.)
@Klipik
Well...I don't mind the red-screen effects, and actually helps me because it's so eye-catching that I instantly know when I'm low on HP. I think it's easier to tell when I'm in critical condition than before.
Mon, 02/24/2014 - 20:42
#16
I turned the red screen off, because it interfered with my concentration and vision so much that it actually made me die more. I feel like that might be common, but not sure really. I didn't like it in CoD and I don't like it here.
Mon, 02/24/2014 - 20:57
#17
"I turned the red screen off, because it interfered with my concentration and vision so much that it actually made me die more."
Mon, 02/24/2014 - 22:54
#18
Am I the only one who like the actually likes the weapon wheel and new weapon icon?
That's the only thing that I like from the New UI.
Tue, 02/25/2014 - 00:15
#19
"Well...I don't mind the red-screen effects, and actually helps me because it's so eye-catching that I instantly know when I'm low on HP. I think it's easier to tell when I'm in critical condition than before."
Eye-catching for you, not for me. For some odd reason, I don't see the red flashes. I mean, I completely miss them unless I look at the edges of the screen, usually looking for the HP bar. And by the time I look at it, I'm dead...
I had to get used to the new GUI, but I still think it can be improved, eg: the giant portrait, the HP bar position, an icon showing WHICH weapon have you equipped... and a shortcut to the Gate Map.
Tue, 02/25/2014 - 05:19
#20
Some thoughts of mine
The old UI did indeed look cleaner and that was goodie. The new one brought an advantage though.
With the old UI, you had your HP bar always visible but honestly, it was hard to tell your health by looking at it because of the weird horizontal scaling of the bars. That's not the case with the new UI but on the other hand, you can keep your eyes on the HP bar as well because it's way up in the left corner as opposed to in the middle of the bottom of the screen.
Something else that would be very nice is a weapon symbol like there was in the old UI. It was vital for handling curse in LD and now you're forced to use the weapon wheel and switch weapons to tell which ones are cursed, and that's really bad.
Tue, 02/25/2014 - 05:35
#21
my 2 cents
Old UI showed when people were dead or waiting on button or waiting on elevator.
What I also despise and loathe: The 3D animation. I hated it the first time it lagged my PC and even to this day I hate it and wish there was a simple toggle option in some sort of UI menu. A lot of good suggestion were made by a lot of people (I think Fehzor linked them) and nothing was made. A lot of disapointment came from that update (a lot of people left the game sadly because it lost it's uniqueness with it)
This was the farewell party to Old UI... Were you there? And can you spot a GM? :D
IDK if we could manage to get so many knights in one place again...
Edit: Watching the old picture of SK made me realize how colorful it was before they put everyone in the radar the same color.... So many colors :O *sob*
Tue, 02/25/2014 - 05:33
#22
However, both of the health bars for me were useless because the last pip for some reason was able to stand a Lumber smash, two Kat bullets, 700 pounds of TNT, and a flying kitten who utilized cuteness to stomp its opponents.
Tue, 02/25/2014 - 11:35
#23
You are experiencing a PICNIC ERROR!
Edit: Watching the old picture of SK made me realize how colorful it was before they put everyone in the radar the same color.... So many colors :O *sob*
/yes Shamanalah
inb4 suggestions
Yeah, well, that's just like your opinion, man.
Frankly I find the new one to be a lot better. I am not OOO so I really can't answer your question.
Edit: Now that I think about it, the UI was changed to better match the expected layout of an mmorpg. Transitioning to a new game is easier when you have similar interfaces in similar locations.