|
|
Post by Crunch on Sept 7, 2014 16:56:44 GMT -5
Also, general feedback: While all the new content updates in the near future sound very cool, I think a good hard look at the HUD aesthetics is warranted. I realize the theme of the game is somewhat retro-arcade, but I don't think that should mean the HUD can look... amateurish... [...Ood notes here]This hasn't addressed every point that Ood made in his post, but I think that his points are valid. Here is my relatively quick attempt at HUD organization, in Flash for your pleasure.
 Organizationally, I wanted to make sure that buttons and menus with similar properties were grouped. There are 5ish such groupings in the design: • Top Center ○ These are likely to be the most heavily used buttons in active gameplay (for players not using hotkeys). These buttons are important for brand-new users to see and utilize. Note, I added the "5th trigger" Rob had mentioned once before, and separated the tank menu and the origin buttons for symmetry. • Side Left ○ Pretty much an inventory grouping and hasn't been changed from Rob's organization other than the addition of coins. • Side Right ○ The stat/power-up grouping, they're all mouse-overs with the exception of the stats menu. You'll see that I added the upcoming shield item here, as well as including a space for mods. I thought about adding augs too, but figured that mods showed off my thought process better, ofc they could still be added if deemed appropriate. I'm not sure if I favor having my tank stats visible without having to go into a menu, or not, so I added the idea of a drop-down tab. You could possibly hide your tank stats if you didn't want them cluttering up your screen. • Top Left ○ I felt like this was a good area for the map info to be, so I left it. • Top Right ○ The misc menu group. Pushing them into the corner seemed like it was a decent design solution. Other than all that, I just used a generic "techy" design aesthetic to tie it all together. |
|
|
|
Post by gingerbear on Sept 7, 2014 17:23:55 GMT -5
I love it.
|
|
|
|
Post by Justin on Sept 7, 2014 20:55:35 GMT -5
A few questions I have (directed at no one in particular) after seeing your changes:
Is personal HUD customization a possibility?
In your example Crunch, it focuses my eyes on the top half of the screen, which seems to favor the rotation-based style of playing. This may be a disadvantage toward people who don't rotate as they have to keep looking at trigger cooldown time and looking back down at whatever is not at the top of the screen. Of course, the HUD has always been like this, and with auto aim that may not be as much of an issue as I'm making it seem. The point: Since this game heavily supports customization (hotkeys and rotation/movement), why not make HUD customization a thing aswell?
If there is HUD customization, what options could be changed? Would there be a bunch of defaults (ie: current one is default 1, yours is default 2, etc.) or would players be able to click and drag, resize, recolor, and add new/hide some on screen options?
Proboards allows you to change the site theme, which does the same thing. I'd name a game that allows players to do this (w/o mods) if I could remember one.
If any of this would be considered, I'd love to be able to hide some things on the HUD like the origin hotkey and the connection info (which you hid in yours and it makes the screen look a lot less sloppy). To stretch this I'd like if (using Crunch's convenient organization as perspective) menu sets are hidden/minimized unless hovered over.
Your symmetry + techy design (all blue) is eye pleasing and fits the game very well. Also, I just noticed you actually included a 'collapse tab' option. All my support are belong to you.
|
|
|
|
Post by rob on Sept 8, 2014 8:41:56 GMT -5
Looks really great! The current UI is pretty terrible. Someday we'll spend some time on it!
|
|
|
|
Post by Ood on Sept 9, 2014 22:11:39 GMT -5
That is sexy, Crunchy. I might have to come play again if that gets implemented.
@ Customization:
Having the option to make the top bar go to the bottom is a good idea, having the option to collapse specific bars is also a good idea. Ideally being able to put any button group on any side of the screen (or not at all) would be a cool option.
@ Top-default favoring rotation:
I do not rotate, it's annoying. When I actually played the game, I wasn't paying attention to cooldowns, when I wanted to re-trigger, I would simply spam that trigger hotkey until it went again. Yes, not everyone who doesn't rotate does that, but cooldown display wasn't really a big deal in my book.
|
|
zub
Courageous Tester
Posts: 42
|
Post by zub on Sept 12, 2014 9:21:28 GMT -5
Looks great, but the space wasted. I want to be aware of cooldowns and stuff, but I don't want unnecessary stuff in my tiny 800x600 viewport. Current UI is much better in this regard. I'd name a game that allows players to do this (w/o mods) if I could remember one. Ultima Online for example. You could open and close parts of UI and drag everything anywhere, including viewport. If you search for screenshots, you will notice that some of them have no UI and others have character doll, skills, spells, hp bars or all kind of bags positioned in completely different ways. |
|
|
|
Post by Duco on Sept 15, 2014 3:57:44 GMT -5
We should change the way fullscreen works, to look like the fullscreen hacks in Realm of the Mad God. Normal:  Hacked:  |
|
|
|
Post by Justin on Sept 15, 2014 16:02:53 GMT -5
We should change the way fullscreen works, to look like the fullscreen hacks in Realm of the Mad God. Although I was already pretty biased toward "oh my god why is this post relating to implementing a hack even here" I thought of a more rational response. When you zoom out, don't you notice that most of the map is unloaded besides what surrounds your tank? This is because the game does not save 'seen' areas. So, creating this 'fullscreen' effect would not accomplish anything besides creating more space and making everything on screen smaller. That fullscreen hack on realm only works because it saves tiles that you've already loaded in the client as long as you're still in the specific realm/dungeon. This game doesn't, so you'd just see the black unloaded tiles and a loaded circle around you. Unless you're just suggesting that the game's screen size be enlarged just for the sake of being enlarged, I don't know what it would accomplish. |
|
|
|
Post by Duco on Sept 17, 2014 9:22:40 GMT -5
We should change the way fullscreen works, to look like the fullscreen hacks in Realm of the Mad God. Although I was already pretty biased toward "oh my god why is this post relating to implementing a hack even here" I thought of a more rational response. When you zoom out, don't you notice that most of the map is unloaded besides what surrounds your tank? This is because the game does not save 'seen' areas. So, creating this 'fullscreen' effect would not accomplish anything besides creating more space and making everything on screen smaller. That fullscreen hack on realm only works because it saves tiles that you've already loaded in the client as long as you're still in the specific realm/dungeon. This game doesn't, so you'd just see the black unloaded tiles and a loaded circle around you. Unless you're just suggesting that the game's screen size be enlarged just for the sake of being enlarged, I don't know what it would accomplish. No it should resize differently, I don't like enlarging pixels. It works like this in a lot of games and in this game you can already zoom out, so why not? In fullscreeen you see more, and I like seeing more. EDIT: The good thing it does is change the way resizing works. The bad thing it does is keep everything loaded. I think changing the way resizing works ins't a bad thing, especially when everyone does it. |
|
♥.
