Spiral Knights - User Interface?

User Interface?

5 replies [Last post]

Wed, 08/07/2013 - 21:47

Ceore

I know I'm probably a little late on this one, but upon looking through a few of my spiral knights screenshots from a year ago... I really miss a lot about the old UI that isn't reflected in the new one. At a glance I could see:

- HP (in a convenient spot, just below my character)
- Crowns
- Energy
- Party member's HP (Not just a percentage. Why would you change this??)

Now, you have to open menus just to see your crowns/energy, there's no way to see how much HP your party members have other then the percent. (Though since all items are instanced, it doesn't really matter anymore...) and the ATROCIOUS HP bar. Your character portrait is freaking huge when your character is already the main focus, smack dab in the middle of the screen. There've been many, many times I've died simply because I just hadn't noticed I was low on HP, other then the annoying red screen, in the heat of combat glancing up towards the top left corner of the screen isn't always the most convenient thing to do... and even THEN, that awful shield bar that covers up your HP when it's up? As if the bigger then your character, color changing orb around your character wasn't enough to infer your shield's health from?

What I mean to say is... We went from a sleeker, stylized, more minimalistic UI that displayed more useful info, to a typical futuristic MMO feeling UI that takes up more space on your screen yet displays LESS information. A /choice/ between these two user interfaces would be greatly appreciated, especially considering one of the main draws of this game for me was it's art style, which ever since the UI update has lost a lot of the charm it once had.

Thu, 08/08/2013 - 05:56

Ceore

just a quick bump

Thu, 08/08/2013 - 06:29

Juances

Party member HP was kinda broken in T3 since so much health wouldn't fit.

Both new and old systems are useless in a way.

Thu, 08/08/2013 - 06:48

Warp-Master

The main thing I don't like

The main thing I don't like about the new UI is that the HP bar (and the bars of your allies) doesn't have distinct pips like it did back in the day. It ruins the illusion of a Zelda-style HP system and makes you aware of the numbers below the surface. The crown counter was a good way to keep track of how much more grinding you need to do to get that extra 100 CE. I also miss the danger indicator by the minimap; made it more obvious when it was time to cut your losses. Other than that, it doesn't seem to display any less information than the old UI did; the shield meter is helpful in its own way, and you never really needed to see your energy all the time, especially not now that mist is gone. Also, you can disable the B-B-BLOODY SCREEN (so real!) with a checkbox as of the latest patch.

I agree that having the old UI style as an option would be the best of both worlds though, but Three Rings (or Sega, it's hard to tell these days) probably considers it a waste of resources to have to maintain both UI options.

Thu, 08/08/2013 - 16:02

Ceore

one last bump, has this

one last bump, has this subject just sort of been let go?

Fri, 08/09/2013 - 01:23

Klipik-Forum

Well

We all made a huge fuss about it when it came out, myself included. I still think the core of the old layout was better, although the stuff they added on towards the end was getting kinda cluttered (missions, party finder, coliseum). The new layout is 100% worse except for the collapsible menu buttons, which could have easily been added to the old UI. And the HP bar placement is horrendous. Basically all the problems you've listed we're brought up in the April 3rd discussion thread. As for the aesthetic color change and added shininess, I don't like it but it fits the direction SK is going in marketing towards a younger, more easily awed audience. The people who will be hooked in by the promise of shiny UI, pets, and big explodey sword-gun-bombs. Coughcoughbrandishcoughcough

I haven't personally let it go, and to this day I still have problems with simply not being able to check my HP as well as I used to. I jut got my maskewraith's third ability, hexing haze, which makes the screen all purpley. That's normally not a problem, but I tend to take damage while doing it and I can't read my HP bar very well when the screen is suddenly the same color as it.

But the playerbase as a whole has gotten over it. Or quit.

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