April 3 Update - Discussion

weapon switch wheel .. very annoying for people in ld you use fast weapon switching

no vita drop .. if you have a party member without heart trinket or who is weaker / not as skilled, you'd want him to have the vita .. now if you pick one up by accident you cannot give the weaker party member the vita

gui .. i'd like to see a retro and neo option for those who dislike / like the new stuff :)

...(I thought it was cool...)

Comet, that means black eyes.

Yes, I know. :) That would be cool. They glow anyways compared to the whole face, I don't mean like PITCH black, but a really dark color other than purple or something, and for the white; Like a light gray basically.

I'm surprised you got rid of the old UI that was actually themed for the Clockworks with gears and stuff. I thought that was a pretty major thing.

I too, am not a fan of the new interface. It is inconsistent, with some edges sharp while others are rounded, and furthermore it's simply not polished. You forgot to change the top left corner for in-game windows.

I think this might be OOO worst update for the game ever because I have noticed so many complaints about the new UI features. Never have I heard so many negatives people complain about an update in this game before. Even in the forums I'm finding them around.

I mostly dislike the UI in Lockdown because I can't really see my teammates in the side with the chat in the way and for some reason I keep switching to my gun even though my next switch is supposed to be a sword (Edit: I'm not the only one who is experiencing this one). Players need to be more colored in the map by the way.

I can get used to this, but I don't think many others can. Let us find a solution.

Let's start with the good things about this update.

Monster health is a good addition. Although I'd have it limited to boss mobs, it does not get as much purpose on common monsters.
Minimap upgrades are decent, not completely necessary but somewhat handy. Being able to zoom in is cool, but I don't understand why that is only available in Haven.
Shield health being visible is kind of useful.
Activities panel is handy for easier access to general areas.
The new imagery for entering an elevator or leaving a party is pretty cool, albeit a little silly.

...And now the endless complaints.

Why does the health bar go by 30 pips, and reach gold level at 61, when the maximum health you'd ever be able to achieve is 58? And that would require you to go guardian in Lockdown, have 5* health trinkets, have ancient plate and a scarlet shield, and somehow get a vitapod from a rock jelly.

Why would anyone ever need such a huge portrait of your character in the screen at all times? Please explain to me why we are able to hide the menu tabs, which barely take any space, and yet we are not allowed to hide this gigantic pointless portrait.

In parties, I'm apparently unable to click every portrait of party members; In a three member party, I was unable to click the first party member (that isn't me), it'd just target the second party member. Additionally, there is absolutely zero indication if any party member is low on energy, and there is no way to see if someone is tabbed, if you are tabbed, or if you're tabbing anyone, besides chat messages. Why would you remove that?

If you're going to update the graphical appearance of the UI, at least do it completely. Only a few tabs are modified, meanwhile items, players and backgrounds are in a completely different art style making it clash really badly and look ridiculously ugly and unfinished. This includes Coliseum games new map icons vs normal gate icons. What was even the need to update the look to this? Some icons look fine, but for most part it simply comes off as trying way too hard to look "shiny" and "neat". The simplicity of the old UI's graphics was wonderful and unique, and proved that you didn't need to get super detailed with those things to make them look really nice.

Just what on earth led you guys to change the appearance of vials/pills/remedies to this? It looks completely out of place when carried or on the ground. It's like slapping a 2D sticker to a 3D model and expecting it to look like part of the model.

Why adapt to the generic MMO standards of name coloring, when Spiral Knights is clearly not a generic MMO? Haven instances don't hold all that many people, and with their names always displaying it's very easy to notice when a friend is around, often also because of their unique costumes. Specific name coloring was not necessary and removed another thing that made the game a bit more original compared to the generic MMO. In addition, it's awfully messy; Guildmate's guild tags are always green, while if they're friends their name is blue, and the prestige badge is the knight's main color. It becomes an ugly mess of colors mashed together. Minimap wise, the dots for people who aren't your friends/guildmates look really ugly and kind of blend with the minimap itself, making it rather confusing and just overall painful to look at.

The weapon switching function is neat, but it is completely unnecessary. Being able to see your weapon's icon change at the bottom of the screen was always enough if you wanted something to confirm what weapon you're using, and usually it's easy enough to just see the weapon in your hand. This new function covers a lot of space near your character, causing a lot of distraction from the action and sometimes hiding objects or entities relevant to the action which can be an issue. This doesn't need more than an option to disable it.

Could anyone tell me what the heck the new unbreakable blocks are supposed to be? I seriously cannot figure out. And why are they so radically different from the other blocks, looking more like a background decoration object, but instead being used together with ghost blocks, which now look completely different? And just... why was this even necessary...?

I also absolutely cannot understand why you'd make us unable to drop our vitapods. Is it because some people would accidentally click on it and drop them? Because that definitely doesn't happen as often as wanting to give a party member a vitapod. There is really no reason to remove functionality over such minimal things.

Making CE/Crowns not visible at all times makes no sense. Don't want a player to focus so much on it? Then don't make energy one of the most important things in the whole game, as it is used for nearly everything, including playing the game itself! When energy is so crucial to the game and many of its features, not wanting people to focus so much on money is definitely not an excuse to remove it. There is no way that would be such a major thing.

All in all, I'd like to ask a final question: Why? Why was this whole update necessary at all? What was wrong with the old UI, what led you guys to rush the release so quickly after just setting the test server up, while this redesign is still clearly incomplete considering how it clashes so much with the old UI and yet there are tons of things which still use old UI design/style? And then pretty much removing some things, like being able to see when someone is tabbed, be it due to the UI being unfinished or a complete removal of it.

This update angers and saddens me, as I know they are not going back with it, and it will be a long, long time before everything is sorted out properly, like always. But above all, it just leaves me perplexed as to why they would do it. Three Rings has done some really silly updates/decisions before, but this UI update tops all of them.

I thought you've left?

While the nerfs to the devilites make sense if they were too difficult, please condier this as well: we need to also balance the monsters that are too easy.

Too easy monsters: Retrodes, Scuttlebots, normal Wolvers, Virulisks / Chromalisks.

Retrodes - Players are given far too much time to react to their burst attack.

Scuttlebots - Their attack does not have a large enough range. Lack a second ability.

Normal wolvers - Players are given far too much time to react to their bite. Their bite covers a small area, so a faster attack speed is necessary.

Virulisks / Chromalisks - Their second ability, invisibility, isn't far powerful enough and not used often enough.

He left the Great Text Wall of China here.

Edit:

Monsters alone may be too easy, but when they are together in a mob, then that's when they are strong. United they stand strong, alone they are powerless.

@Softhead - I have never "left" nor said I have, I simply have my periods of activity and periods of inactivity. (Currently, moderately active, although casual.) Despite the huge lack of content and disappointing updates, Spiral Knights is still an enjoyable casual game to play every now and then with friends, and there is no harm in doing so as it is free to play.

I find it kind of silly that the first thing that people say when they see me, or other players who have gotten inactive, are completely off-topic things like those.

I know Lockdown isn't the focus of the Dev's, but a lot of the endgame players spend most of their time in LD.

-I can't see how much energy I have when bribing Krogmo

- The timer covers up 25% of my shield as Guardian

- Damage effects are huge. I can't tell who hit who in a duel in LD.

- Lack of a max health indicator means I don't know when to stop healing. The % health disappears while shielding, and is too small to analyze at a glance while fighting.

Please consider fixing these? I know there are only like 7 devs on the team, but it would be greatly appreciated.

Agreed. The only good point regarding parties is that I can instantly see what negative status my allies have.

For the most part only a few things really, really bother me.

I'll start with the weapon wheel popping up each time you switch weapons. The idea really is useful. You can see which weapons are next in line or which is before it and would definitely ease getting used to having multiple weapon slots for first time slot users....but did it really have to be right at the center of the screen? I find it really obtrusive and distracting :c I would really have preferred something like that near the edges of the screen.

Secondly, there's this bug (which out of hindsight I probably should have reported in-game). You know how sometimes you want to trade/add/kick/etc someone in your party? So you scroll your cursor on top of their avatar, click on it and choose the appropriate action. Except sometimes it gets stuck on a single person. What I mean is no matter who you scroll your mouse on, it selects the same person in the party meaning you can only choose those options with that one person.

Thirdly, well....sometimes people have long names and well....people have told me my name doesn't fit in since it's too long and well....they see my name as Nexassass.........please fix it, it's really bothering me a lot D:

Finally, I want to be able to drop vitas again. No I don't do it often, there's hardly any need to, but when I do it's because I really wanna help friends out by giving them my vita who need it a whole lot more than me. Doesn't the game encourage teamwork and co-operative gameplay? :c

*raises hand*

...I like the new UI changes :3

*puts hand down*

*hides*

After finally updating with success (5 hrs total time), here are my gripes and likes (most of 'em already mentioned):

Likes:
+ Nicely designed UI for certain parts, gives a fresh look to the game, better looking than the old plain one
+ Ready Room Button
+ Monster healthbar

and that's about it for the likes.

Gripes:
- "Rehashed" event
- Abysmal GUI placement: Mugshot in top left corner is too big, shield gauge is ugly, CR/CE/Mist absent from screen, Health should be on the bottom and inventory should be at the place of health IMHO (Although it's not as bad as most say, they exagerated a tiny bit)
- Weapon switch wheel placement (Although not as disturbing as I thought)
- Tab/Party menu only works for bottom player
- Heavier loading times
- HUD Lock doesn't lock Party menu
- Shaking animation gets disrupts aim and gets disturbing when continuously hit

And I'll stop for now.

Overall, this update gets not more than 6/10 for me. Most features were bashed here on the forums, so my expectations weren't very high. But in the end, some stuff just wasn't as bad as mentioned here. Sure, the GUI can get in your way. Weapon switch wheel isn't as obstructive as most said.
My most hated feature is the GUI placement which is counter-intuitive. Health should be placed at the bottom because it's easier to keep track of what you're doing. I don't want to drag my eyes up in to the top corner, taking them away from the action. The inventory, should be above, really, it was fine where it was.

As a programmer-to-be, I can tell some stuff hasn't been finished, or you guys encountered unexpected errors. The Party Menu being a blatant example.
Anyway, OOO can't let this be. A patch is certainly due.

The ball is in your court, OOO. Your move.

The wheel is worst than that, you can't see at all if an opponent come from the right. Since we are switching almost everytime in LD, that's just horrible.

Your third buggy problem is kind of funny Nex, but I see what you mean.

I think the new UI should be removed from the game while it is being fixed that way people will stop complaining about wanting it to be fixed or removed.
This probably shouldn't have come out this early.

The wheel appears for one second. It's not big enough to completely hide anything (may have to do with resolution). Anyway, you should know when an enemy is coming from the right, there's enough space on screen

I don't kwow how you play LD, but i'm switching everytime, so that's constantly in my view. Please don't talk about this thing like that's decent...

I don't see why there are two of the same weapons in it. I have 3 weapons equipped, but I see 2 of each weapon. That's a total of 6. In Lockdown some strikers usually just switch weapon and strike without looking at what they have because they already know what it is unless it's an unexpected double change. The wheel doesn't really help me at all.

The new UI looks slick. I like the design, like the layout only partially. Partially because of the following.

Shield bar. Remove it
Healthbars on enemies. No, keep the game pure like it was.
Weaknes information on enemies. See above
Switch weapon icons next to character. It really gets in the way. Put it back down there next to the vials

Notice: I found a bug. When you preview items and click close the shop, the preview window stays and is unremovable unless you log off.

Other than that. Let me compliment the performance upgrade. Also the addition of graphical effects. Impact from hits feel more natural and nicer overall. I've seen some tweaks in the clockwork graphics. The vials look really nice. Keep that because the previous vial icons looked unnatural.

Design wise its going the right direction guys. Fix some of the layout, and keep the game pure like it was.

I feel like the new UI is taking a step backwards. The old UI was unique, compact, and simple to use/adjust to. The new UI is overly complicated, looks like something from a cheap MMO, and is incredibly annoying in many ways.

First, the pros.
-The picture of your party you see before going down a depth is pretty awesome, as is the portrait of your party when you head back up.

-Being able to hide the toolbars makes the screen seem a bit less cluttered.

-Love the birthday event, nice to let everyone get a crack at some of the best accessories in the game imo, and not have it as a CE purchase perk only.

The cons

-The weapon switch wheel, while entertaining for the first 30 seconds, quickly becomes a hassle as it covers a good portion of the screen, and makes a small sound every time you switch weapons.

-The gigantic portrait of your knight in the upper left hand corner does nothing at all. No movement, and it takes up far too much space. If you're a big enough egomaniac where you need a huge picture of your face in the corner at all times, just open up your character viewer.

-The new avatars for parties/lockdown parties are cheesy looking, and take up way too much space. Combine that with a chat box that can't be closed, and in lockdown you're unable to see the last member of your team if it's a 6v6.

-The health bar and shield bar were perfectly fine where they were, and the weapon slots were fine where they were as well. Now when i get cursed, I can't tell which weapons are cursed without consulting the gigantic wheel of fortune weapon system.

-The color-coding of names is not very useful. If you stuck the color coding system solely to the mini map it would be more useful. A small gripe, but I like being able to see people's personal colors, and not the generic white/green/blue.

-The new damage animations are flashy, but ultimately incredibly annoying, especially in PvP. If you've got a person shooting at you with an AP/sentenza, your screen is forced to have a seizure until the shooter reloads, and continues the assault on your computer screen. Unnecessary and distracting.

-All in all, the new UI seems cheap and overused. The new boxes and graphics used in the UI seem like they should be part of a concept of a game, not the finished product released to the public. I personally hope that if OOO insists on the new UI being used, they at least have an option to use the old UI, or to remove/hide certain parts of the new UI. Or a combination of the two perhaps.

Please please PLEASE heed the suggestions of many of the players and try to reach an agreement that works for all parties involved. This hastily put out UI does not satisfy, yet alone make me want to play for continued periods of time.

The old UI was simple and everyone was used to it because we have had it for 2 years, with a few added things to it.

The new UI is a bit more advanced, but it clutters up parts of the screen like the health bar when not in the clockworks or the coliseum as well as the shield bar.

Most people want to always see their crystal/mist energy as well as their crowns. I don't understand why the character option was added in the character view since it's basically the same thing but with another click.

+1 for Soli

I'd also like to point out the fact that, before the update, I kept my graphics' settings on "Low" because I wanted a clean screen and a fluent and smooth game.
Now even if I am on "Low" my screen is filled with effects, stuff blowing up here and there, giant numbers popping up...

I haven't too many complaints about this new HUD, I love the poses, and the new zoom feature in haven giving a more personal feel to my playing. The hideable option boxes are useful if you don't want your screen cluttered, but making everything shiney doesn't excuse the following:

• The fact that the health and shield gauge are taking up valuable screen space outside of combat.
• It also appears that you cannot tell if an ally is waiting at the lift. Return that indicator, and while you're at it, do it for the party button.
• Edit:Targeting health was not shown at certain times during event mission.
• The shield gauge is rather redundant since the shield health is confirmed by the shield's color
• Finally, I was told by a friend when he was trying to inspect other party members in mission, it always went straight to me, my picture remaining highlighted even when the mouse was above the other knight's picture.

Edit: I'd appreciate it if crowns and CE remain visible at all times like before and add the zoom feature in guild halls. I thank you for the fact the numbers on the energy gauge aren't as big anymore.
Moar editz: Thanks for adding the option to return to the ready room, I've always wanted that. Legitimately I really did.

The rest I could do without more or less,it is much appreciated regardless. INB4 "Ermahgurd, change it back"- Oh wait...

Does that mean i'm gonna get 1 frame per second on vana fight with 25 fire floor and smash animation and 2 slag guard rushing and 3 needle animation and 4 player in 1 room and 53 hearts on thw floor and 6 1 heart on the floor?

/exploding 2001 laptop

so everything gets polished out and made to be the best it can be! welp I hope the battlesprites update comes with a few fixes is all.

EDIT: so yea now you can't leave the "preview" mode in stores joy.

Okay, OOO. I just don't get it. You have plenty of people saying that this is bad, but you just don't seem to care.

I gave you a fair chance with this, too. I saw the original screenshot and I thought, "This doesn't look good from what I'm seeing, but I'm not going to complain about it now. I'll give it time. I'll play around with it. I'll wait and see if they fix some of the blatant errors I see."

But it came out exactly the same with all the mistakes several people had already mentioned. Eury, you told us to wait until we got the chance to play with it and that people don't normally like new stuff. I wanted to like this update. I thought it might be a chance for OOO to come out with something fresh that would show all the doubters (including myself) that they could do something good with this. I really did. But I just can't bring myself to like it. But I'm not just going to tell you, "DONT LIEK OMG BURN IT BCUZ I DUN LIEK IT!!11!1one!" No. I'm going to explain to you why I don't like it and maybe, just maybe, you'll see it from a player's point-of-view. Of course, that's probably just more wishful thinking.

First, I'm going to talk about the one basic property any good UI should have: unobtrusiveness. A good UI should be barely noticeable. The player should be able to interact with the game without even having to think about how to navigate the UI. It should be intuitive. The old one accomplished that with its simplicity. It seems to me (no accusations, though) that whoever designed this new UI wanted people to be noticing it all the time, but they didn't even bother finishing it (I'll talk more about the later). The big image of the player blocks out much of the upper left corner and in the clockworks, I had to strain my eyes to see my allies' health bars due to the darker color. This wasn't as much of a problem in the old UI because all the player icons were tucked neatly into small rectangles that told you everything you needed to know at a glance, the way an intuitive UI should.

So I've outlined a few of the functionality issues, now let me get into aesthetics. Put simply, it looks unfinished. It doesn't fit the feel of the game as much as the old one did, and the gradient effects look like they were part of a slacker's school Photoshop project. And having only most things with gradients just lends to that poorly-done look. It doesn't make the game look better; it makes the game look worse.

Please, OOO, listen to your fans on this one. As far as I can see, most of us just don't like it. I could list more issues, but I don't have the time or energy right now. (Speaking of no Energy...) Like I said, I gave it a good chance and I was disappointed. You can do better. I know you can do better. I just hope you take the time to accept more people's constructive criticism. It honestly makes me sad that you just kind of brushed off the people who had complaints about it with what was essentially saying, "you just don't like it 'cause it's new!" You shouldn't have to learn the interface or get used to it.

That is all.

Theres a bug where if you try and preview something on your knight it makes it so you can't close the character tab and if you try to close out, logoff, or travel anywhere else it freezes Spiral Knights. I'm also posting this in the Technical Dificulties/Bugs page in the forums but i would think i would let you people know. Now i've only tried to do this with biscotti so i dont know if its for every preview option or not.

+1 for everyone who dislikes the new GUI. And from what I have read. Everybody gets one! Hooray!

I play on 1680*1050. The wheel is small.

Also, I play this game for PvE and coop no PvP

OOO its lucky.. because they dont have a similar rival game.. because if they mean to have a rival MMo game similar to spiral knight i would bet they would start to make an effort to keep the game attractive, fresh and fun.. but since they dont have rivals they can do lazy updates and call it "new" without hear their customers. oh well i just hope someday a new MMo with similar Spiral Knights traits pops up and give it try.

Because honestly i dont understand why the "need" to make a new UI with useless feature like the BIG PORTRAIT OF OUR KNIGHTS in our party and the display of our health and shield bar in have and the removal of useful information from the UI like CE/CR or even party info...

Oh well lets see what we going to have...as "next updates"

@Three Rings: [This is a constructive comment]

First off, I'd like to begin by acknowledging your hard work by saying thank you. I know you guys have been working on this hard and I don't think anyone has noticed that.

Second, the UI is a major pain. I like the design of it and all but there are some key aspects that I would love to see removed completely:

- The wheel of your weapons when you switch
- The need to go to your arsenal to view your crowns, CE and mist.
- The hideous(sorry) mini map with all the grey blobs in haven. (Re-think this or color it better, make it attractive!)
- The bottom bar, atleast tweak it. (I understand you give the option to remove it from the screen but the chat doesn't go along well with it)

Some things I would like tweaked or added:

+ The old crowns, CE, mist feature where you can see them at all times.
+ OPTIONS! Add options to disable SOME specific UI features. (Note to all commenters and readers; I'm not asking for the old UI)
+ Make the chat bigger and tweak the bottom bar so it can go on the side again.

Third, I love the anniversary event, great job again. It'd be great to see you guys interact a bit more with us or give out some free codes for everyone via twitter.

SO, I MUST BE THE ONLY PERSON TO LIKE THIS REDESIGN FOR THE MOST PART

I wil admit, I'm not quite a fan of the Name Color Changes, the Cr/Me/Ce not being readily seeable, or the new icons for stuff, but other than that, I kinda like it.

STILL, DUNNO WHY EVERYBODY GOT THEIR JIMMIES IN A KNOT

Opinions are like [buckets].

Everybody has one.

Tell me when an admin replies, I'll be crying in a corner.

For the most part a nice UI update giving us a fresh look, nothing we won't get used to over time :)

But..

Why are we shown our health and our shield's health in Haven, seems a waste of space.
Shield health in general seems redundant when you already had a great system of representing it. We don't need to know exactly when usually shields break in 1, 2, 3 or 4 hits. The coloured scheme suited this fine.

I don't see what practical purpose having the portrait of ourselves in the top left corner serves.

I don't see any point in hiding our CE and cr. Now it take 1 click instead of a glance to check it, and 2 clicks instead of 1 to access CE market.

I understand if you want us to play the game instead of thinking about our CE and cr all the time, but when they are important info for us to play the game I don't see the point in hiding it from us, especially when it took up so little room before.

I mostly like the functional updates of it.
The chat, I admit does look a bit silly. I'm fine with it, but I understand why people don't like it.
The health and shield does look silly outside of Levels.
The clashing UI colors are, in fact the thing, thinking about it, that do bug me the most. Perhaps if the work on it a bit more, this won't be an issue anymore.

Other than some minor complaints, yes, I am content with it. Especially since I usually play it on a small resolution, so having so much stuff clutter my vision was...unfavorable.

Overall, there are some things about the new UI that I do like, and others that I don't.

General: The shiny new look is interesting. I don't hate it, or even particularly dislike it, but it will take a little bit of getting used to; it's a bit like playing a totally different game. I suppose my biggest concern is that the size of some of the new stuff (especially the portrait/health/shield area) takes up a lot of space for those playing with a smaller screen (try it out on a 13" laptop and see how much play space you get). I'm not a fan of the new icons for vials; they don't really seem to match all of the other icons in the game. I also wish that our health and shield didn't show up in Haven (or we could toggle whether they did), and that we could see our cr/ce without having our arsenal open or an opportunity to spend on the screen. The always-there knight portrait seems rather excessively large; I know what I look like. I really like the new "end of mission" portraits, though, and the menus look very nice and clean. I also like the dynamic new "end of floor" graphics. The ability to zoom in on Haven is cool, and being able to return to the ready room is appreciated; it's a good place to be when you need to step away from a bit.

Vitapods: I dislike that I can no longer drop them. Sometimes I may run over one by accident or be joined by another knight partway through a level and want to give the larger vitapod away, especially as I generally play with two penta-heart pendants. I don't necessarily need the extra life, but the person I'm running with may. Being able to drop your vitapod for a teammate is one of the ways to encourage good team play and helping out newbies, and it would be nice if it was possible again.

Weapon Wheel: I have a tendency to lose where I'm at while switching between four weapons, so I do like it. However, I don't much care for not having my current weapon displayed anywhere, so that I will (presumably) have to actually switch between weapons to see whether my current weapon is cursed without trying out an attack.

Mini-Map: I miss the gear and the colored dots in Haven; gears are a pretty iconic part of the SK "look", almost as much as the spiral motif, and all the white dots make it look rather bland up there. I do like the directionality of our knight's dot, though, and the monster locators.... also that drones only show up when attackable. It makes it seem like they're essentially traps most of the time.

Menus: Needing to pop up the activity menu to respond to a trade request is a tad irritating, as is needing to have the arsenal open to see how much cr/ce you have (as I've already stated). I like that you can toggle whether most of the menus are visible, but the chat floating in the air above the empty space when you have them toggled away looks a little weird to me. I like the vials at the bottom of the screen so that I don't accidentally throw my window around when I'm in a hurry to drop something. It would be nice if the party icons in the Clockworks indicated who was the leader, as well.

Clockworks: I like the new unbreakable blocks, although I'm trying to remember which blocks they are replacing. I was all excited thinking there was a new type of unbreakable block while on the testing server yesterday. I also like the new hit animation, although I've heard mixed reviews of it from others. The enemy health bars are nice (although I haven't checked to see whether bosses have them yet), and the monster profile that appears for targeted or nearby monsters will be helpful for those newbies that didn't pay much attention during the starter missions, I think. It's also nice to see the actual names of the various monsters and their statused versions outside the wiki.

I was so shocked to find out how easy it is to kill monsters during clockworks runs. Using a combuster it takes 2 hits to kill a gun puppy when before it took about 2 full combos. I also find that the health bar is quite annoying in LD because I have to constantly look at the top right corner to see my health. But over all i think OOO did a good job on this new update but if they could just tweak somethings it would be better.

I'm iffy on this new UI.

I felt it was a necessity to be able to immediately see energy and mist on hand and it's a little inconvenient if I have to open the arsenal just to do so. Doing away with personal-colored names and opting instead for color-coded player names according to guild/friend status seems counterintuitive and redundant (and in that vein, making players all the same color on the mini-map is a no-no). The chat log being shifted up rustles my jims something fierce. Being unable to drop vitas and being unable to move pills/vials in the belt are annoying (I usually like to leave bigger vitas for other players in the party if I happen to pick them up by accident).

Ok, also, I don't like the new vial/pill look. I don't like the Devilite nerf (PLEASE stop nerfing, buff those enemies). The elevator ascent thingy is quite intrusive in many, many ways. I feel as if screaming out the weakness in the enemy info is just condescending, and that the enemy info could be done better. The player status could stand to be shrunken down a tad.

And the event was recycled. Why.

I did like the new ascent picture though.

I'm sure I had many more gripes with this update, but they escape the mind at the moment.

Oh right. The weapon wheel wasn't very well executed either.

If I had to choose the most important things to change about the update, it would be these:

• Please let me see my energy and crowns. Please. :]

• Please make the weapon wheel less obstructive. I know this is a feature more ingrained in the UI so probably a change won't happen. Even so, my opinion must be heard, and the weapon wheel just hurts.... PvP and PvE. :|

• Please remove the...dare I say explosive hit animations. I.e. the particles that appear when someone hits something (sword on enemy, sword on player, etc.). It's extremely distracting and honestly so flashy that I keep wanting to impulsively blink every time I hit something. No like. :[

Good things:
Going back to the Ready Room – It's nice to get away from all that guild/rank/name text all over my screen (see bad things below).
Mission report portraits – Looks really nice. Great job!
Haven zoom – It is what it is. Although really... what's the point??

Bad things (not already stated above):
Health – ...I wish the health was in a more noticeable place. Keeping track of my health is hugely important and changes the way I do battle. Having to look so far away causes me much issue. I suppose this isn't a huge thing, but it still bugs me A LOT. Also, If I have over 30 pips of health, I still want to see it. I have a problem with pre-update being able to see all my health and post-update not being able to see it. That's definitely a step backwards. Also... can we see all of our allies's health too please?
Gear stats – The little pips look really blocky and the pips describing 5* gear often envelop the words [i.e. normal, elemental, speed] identifying them.
Profile/health/shield display – Unless we're getting our wish of a Trojan attack on Haven or something, I see absolutely no point of this outside of actual gameplay. Also, as many have said, I know what I look like, and the portrait doesn't even get it right – my com unit and sunglasses don't show in the portrait.
Not being able to drop Vitapods – I don't necessarily want to repeat what everyone else has said, but I think that's saying something: this is a problem. I wanna help out my smaller friends by giving them Vitas. I want to save time (and still eliminate the possibility of hearts on the prize wheel) when exiting Vanaduke by just tossing my Vita on the floor.
Mini-Map – As many have said, I feel like the new HUD overhaul completely changed to tone of the game. It went from an almost "survivor"-like, rusty, metallic kind of game (emphasized in the level textures, buttons, menus, and even the prize wheel texture), to a sleek, modern, "I-want-to-press-the-pretty-buttons-even-though-I-already-know-what-they-do" feel which seems inappropriate for the game I love. Moreover, I know who's in my guild or my friends list from their names – I don't need them color coded. May I please see the personal colors again? Haven isn't the same without all that color. :3
Menus (or lack thereof) – Again, because it's so important to me, please let me see my energy and crowns. I track my progress and keep myself from overplaying this game by monitoring my stash. No stash means both no good way to track my progress as I play (good payout run? bad payout run?) and also no way to monitor how much I've played (once I've seen my crowns fluctuate about 1000 in either direction, I know I've played enough LD for the day and should get to more productive things). Also, as others have said, being able to respond to invites and trade requests and whatnot would be nicer if done in one click rather than two.
Unbreakable blocks – ...why did something that worked perfectly fine have to be changed? Now those things look like multicolored tire axles with the tire rubber stripped off... that's the best I could think of. But seriously, ...I don't understand why. Why change something perfectly fine? What are those things even supposed to be?! >_<
And last but not least, SEE THE FIRST THREE THINGS AGAIN. They are important.

Other than all that.... good job on the update. I'm not necessarily averse to change – I want to accept it as much as possible. However, some of what I've listed here is more than nit-picky. It's actually functionally a problem. It keeps me from enjoying the game or helping other people or being efficient or not getting seizures more than pre-update. So yeah... a lot of what went into this is good, but a good bit of it is hard to use as well. Remember... if it ain't broken, it don't need fixin'. I don't think anyone ever said, "My energy and crowns are ugly. Get rid of them." :c

Okay, I understand what your going for. Here are my ideas of a comprimise. I won't get rid of anything, just make it more out of the way and/or sleeker for everyone.
1: Reduce screen shake's notability, It's really annoying with statuses.
2: The picture, I'm not really irked by it, but since others are, lets add to the functionality.
a: Make the knight smaller in the picture and add a blue background.
b: Make the scroll-y weapon wheel-y thing nestled right on it's borders. Not really Irked about it either though.
c: You know that blue background? Make THAT the shield health bar, and get rid of the current one. It'll turn grey as damage is taken.
3: You can keep the CR in it's current place, no where wrong with this, and they do have a reason for it. http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/77721#comment-681155 However, have your energy should always be there, so you can put in up with the picture too, in a circle around it, or just place it in the bottom right like it was, pushed up a little when you slide the things out.
4: Put colors back in names, and mark friends/guildies with a star next to their name and a star as their circle on map.
5: Add gears back to the UI. You can't really have any reason to get rid of these.
6: If you don't like my picture idea (#2, if you for some reason didn't read it), then make a transparent circle under you at all times showing your shield health and weapons.
7: Different color themes with an option to change between them, with an old color scheme option.
Will be back to post more later.

Something I threw together to have a visual of my thoughts: http://i.imgur.com/IdiUqY2.jpg

UI
-Nobody needs the picture. Get rid of it
-The color scheme is harsh on the eyes, stick to the old one.
-Rectangular buttons are ugly, make them cute round icons again
-Shield bar is near-useless, the colorful sphere was a great indicator
-Make the crown/energy display available outside of the inventory like before
*It's also incredibly bland compared to before
-I didn't include the weapon scroll, but I think it's obvious that needs to go as well.
-No more rainbows in Haven D:

Game mechanics
-Vitapods and vials are absolutely atrocious
-Screen shake is laggy and distracting, nobody's benefiting from this

If you guys were trying to make buttons that stand out a little bit more (Not as flat looking), you're going about it wrong. The Achievement Screen is a perfect example of buttons that stand out without being distracting. You guys don't need to outline EVERY SINGLE BUTTON, we have eyes; we can see.

1. This new update is great, I like the health bars, I like the event, but what I don't like is is about how I can't see my crowns.
2. Keep the health bar on the bottom of the screen! Most SK players do relatively well if they see the hp bar on the bottom of the screen and the vials on
the top
3. Make a GUI Editor! It's better to have people edit their own HUD to make the Spiral Knight comfortable. This will help in various ways.

If you can give players these things, then they will sure to be happy.

For the most part this is a really good update, and certainly fitting for the anniversary! I really like how easy it is to hide things now, it really removes a lot of clutter when I'm in missions! (Or it would, if I didn't keep opening the arsenal to check my energy.) ;)

My only complaints are things we can't see: energy/crowns, our teammates' total health, how many empty hearts we have over 30. (I do also wish the consumables would move back to the top, since downward vision is so limited that area would be usefull for aiming. That's more of personal preference, though.) Hopefully some of these will be easy to fix, and I look forward to seeing what's in store for year 3!

For people who don't know, you can disable the rank display by going to Options > Chat. Uncheck the box that says Display Rank. I have done that and suddenly Haven looks so much cleaner. (Thanks to a Jempire member who I couldn't recall his name for pointing this out.)

You can also disable the enemies' health bar by going to Options > Gameplay. To disable the enemies' status windows, disable Auto Target in Options > Control.

The mug shot corruption bug when you alt-tab out of full screen mode appears to be gone. If you still experience that problem, try to do a clean reboot of your machine.

Is it just me or this humongous Health bar turns out to be not as effective as the old, modest one? I kept getting hit but yet I'm less aware of where my Health are. I think after two years our brain have already been wired to detect changes in the bottom centre of the screen. And when we detect no such changes (because that's where the utility belts are now), we just assume everything are OK (which aren't).

I'm fine with this update. I notice you've removed mist energy from the general HUD. Please put it back. Crowns and CE can stay hidden, mist can most certainly not.

Everything else I'm mostly okay with, either because of me running the game at 1080p so any elements that appear too large don't really block much for me, or because I don't exploit weapon-switching and as such I find the weapon wheel more "entirely useless" than "distracting". I know I suggested a weapon wheel thing, but not in this manner.

If it were up to me, I'd have each weapon show up on diamond-shaped thingy that would basically replace the character portrait. Such a system is used in a game I would award Best Use of a HUD In The History of Videogames: Metroid Prime. Here's a picture. You can see what i mean about the diamond-shaped thing in the bottom left, where it's used for visors; and in the bottom right, where it's used for weapons. Since SK has a total of 4 weapon slots, that'd work out great.

Another complaint I have is that the health bar is far too huge. It's not in the way or anything, but it's just too huge to read. Try opening a text editor. Type something in font size 72, and then type the same in font size, uh, 16. Which one does your mind filter out as noise and which one do you automatically focus on? Back with the old UI, I never used the health display at the bottom. It was huge and flashy and had this weird distortion effect so it was hard to get an accurate reading on your health with it. This is a failing for a health bar. What I instead used was the health indicator on your list of party members. If I was low on health and needed healing, that's where I'd find that out from. I propose that you remove the entire new health bar and just have us use the same one as the rest of the party has. Failing that, make the current health bar about 1/2 or maybe 1/4 of its current size.

I'm a fan of the new colouring thing for names. All the jerks I don't care about are white, people I know are either blue or green and I can tell where they are right away. Personal colours still apply to them in clockworks, which is also great.

The new shield bar is ugly, but I like that it's there. You can very exactly measure a shield's health against another's with it and I can't wait to do lots and lots of damage-related science using that bar. Thanks!