Performance = good, UI = GARBAGE

[Babyfark McGeez]

Why SOE, oh why do you insist on changing things that worked perfectly fine? And allways making it worse in the process?
I really would like to know who looked at the simple and clear health/shield and ability indicators and thought "hey man, you know what this needs? To be less clear and visible and be more thin with some pseudo artsy indicator stuff so that players can't take a quick glance at their situation anymore."
It boggles my mind why they go out of their way and devote resources to such a change, while at the same time the hard-to-see directional arrow on the mini-map is still as useless as it allways was (atleast for me on my smallish monitor).

Atleast have the goddamn courtesy to make these new bar designs OPTIONAL, so if you were perfectly happy with the way they were you can change them back.

GAWD. Rant over.

[Timealude]

the only thing i dont like about the UI is the power and ammo bars everything else i like

[Babyfark McGeez]

Well that's fine. I don't. On my screen they're hard to see.

I'm all for adding new options. The key word being "options" here. Removing a part of the UI that was perfectly fine is just annoying.

[Carbon Copied]

Agreed - points I noted:

Icons - Doritos, names, vehicle icons: on screen when they're on the other side of the map or not in view. Fucking pointless.
Friendly names - some stay there all the time, some appear on mouse over, some not at all. Backing colour is also weird as it moves with every single little flinch and isn't even mirroring with the name it's being used as an underlay against?! Some aren't even displaying name characters correctly.
Centered HUD - whats the point in duplicating information if you're centralizing the HUD? F class ability is on the bar and on the bottom of the screen - why?
Low-res - icons look lo-res and jagged in places to me.
Cluttered - clutter clutter clutter. Look at other games on how to reduce clutter and make things more "intuitive" they don't have to immerse; just make sense and seemingly not unwieldy would be a great start.

Failing that now they've optimized the HUD just let the community do it right and start inputting their own versions with the .xml and .dds files as far superior overlays.

[Sturmhardt]

Yeah... whoever is their artguy is not really doing a great job. But the performance seems nice, I'm impressed. There are a few bugs left through, many people pop in and out of existence, but it's on the right track.

[Edfishy]

Failing that now they've optimized the HUD just let the community do it right and start inputting their own versions with the .xml and .dds files as far superior overlays.

They'd talked about that capability for some time. Personally though I love the new UI throughout the PTS testing. =\

[Phantomdestiny]

the UI HAD to be redone because it was using third party software which was awfull for performance .So they had to do it in-engine; so they did the best they could also it's way better than during testing

[Babyfark McGeez]

the UI HAD to be redone because it was using third party software which was awfull for performance .So they had to do it in-engine; so they did the best they could also it's way better than during testing

Sorry, i don't buy that. It would imply that their engine can't draw clearly visible big bars, and that's just ridiculous. Besides the old art style is still being used for hacking.

Also as mentioned in here, the clutter got increased, what's up with that? Why do i need additonal icons on my screen for friendly turrets for example?

[GreyFrog]

Actually the GUI did need to be redone to address performance issues. Don't buy it all you like, doesnt mean its not the truth. Almost everyone I talked to gained 5-10FPS simply turning the old GUI off.

IIRC it was built using flash and was a resource hog.

[camycamera]

i dont mind it at all.

and mind you, they were put in to make the game run better, the old ones made the game run worse.

[Taramafor]

I actually like the new UI. Took a bit of getting used too at first but it's easy enough to work with.

[Babyfark McGeez]

Actually the GUI did need to be redone to address performance issues. Don't buy it all you like, doesnt mean its not the truth. Almost everyone I talked to gained 5-10FPS simply turning the old GUI off.

IIRC it was built using flash and was a resource hog.

Don't get me wrong here, i'm not saying that the way they implemented the UI before was not a performance problem. But the way people argue in this thread make it sound like the actual design was the problem, not the way it was implemented.
And that would be ridiculous and is what i am not buying. The engine cannot draw more visible bars without dropping in performance? What?

And even though i didn't know the old UI was a performance problem and i understand they took the opportunity to "redesign" it, it's still garbage in my opinion and i would have appreciated atleast being able to switch back to a similar clean and easy design. Give us options, not redesigns.

[GreyFrog]

Ah yes, agreed.

[GeoGnome]

I like the new UI.

Really isn't that bad of a change IMO.

[Hamma]

Someone should post a screenshot.. ;)

[ChipMHazard]

I'm willing to accept that they can't go back to the old HUD style, but I still don't buy that they are forced to use this new art style they have going. I get that they want it to look more futuristic, but I would still have preferred a more simple look for the bars.

[Babyfark McGeez]

Yeah, two simple bars (doesn't need to be default, just as an option) is all i'm asking for.
On that note, i would also like to have the ability as a bar somewhere instead of it being circular (but that's just my personal preference - with the old UI the circular thing was ok, well, atleast visible).

As a funny sidenote, i noticed yesterday that the symbolic cloak lines on the icon that is placed within the actual cloak-ability indicator are thicker than the actual indicator line itself. Jeezas.

[VikingKong]

It's a lot more readable than it was on the PTS, but it's still too obtrusive and more then a little ugly. I like my HUDs to look like HUDs, not a 90s forum signature.

[Oty]

I dont agree, I find the new HUD more attractive to look at. The color scheme is nice and I like the reload circle more in this color than before. The bumps on the health/shield bars look good aswell. I read this thread before I played the update and had pessimistic expectations but were positively surprised! :)

[OCNSethy]

The new HUD is growing on me and like Oty, the bumps on the H/S bars are a nice touch.

Ive never run with a centred HUD, I found it too distracting from the start.

[BRUTALPLAYS]

Other then the useless clutter (360 degree view of ALL friendly vehicles withing 9999999999m, turrets, too many doritos, etc.), I like the new UI.

[OCNSethy]

Other then the useless clutter (360 degree view of ALL friendly vehicles withing 9999999999m), I like the new UI.

hehe... there is that :)

[Bags]

it's so bad no one can even screenshot it

[RSphil]

i like the reload part but the rest is too in my face. its distracting and blocks out parts of my view which in battle is not good. if they toned it down or made it more transparent it would be better.

[BRUTALPLAYS]

I think it would be cool to give players a check off list of things that they can choose to see. For example: I dont care about friendly vehicles or enineer turret placement, and showing me every single turret/vehicle on the map is useless (to me). So, if given the option I would un check those things. Some people may want to see where friendly vehicles and turrets are placed, so they would have them checked.

I would like to see some customization options with the new UI. Also, I use centralized HUD...so why then do I see the non-centralized stuff on screen (like the ability meter at the bottom) when I have centralized HUD turned on? It only contibutes to the useless (to me) clutter.

[Ghoest9]

There should be a more basic, simple and usable option.

real HUDs are always designed for simplicity readability and minimalism - not for artsy style

[Bags]

Well, performance seems better, but the gameplay is still horrible whoever-sees-whoever first wins crap. It feels even faster now; did they up damage or lower shields globally?

UI didn't really bother me because I either instantly killed them or them me.

[ChipMHazard]

Well, performance seems better, but the gameplay is still horrible whoever-sees-whoever first wins crap. It feels even faster now; did they up damage or lower shields globally?


Nope, but I've noticed something along those lines as well. Might be a mix of more people having a better performance (Allowing them to perform better) and the servers have had some issues lately (Two days ago Miller was so laggy that it took about a second to get a hit registration). Might of course go back to the old issue with the servers not being able to handle the sheer amount of players.

[Meatball Mobeus]

It took be a minute or two to get use to. But I actually really like it.

[Babyfark McGeez]

I got used to it now too, but i still don't like it that much.
And the screen clutter with all these turrets and stuff is also an unnecessary nuisance.

I just wish we would have more options when it comes to the UI. Don't force me to one single design and let me decide what i want to see and what i don't want to see.

[oldivonboldi]

Hi, i'm 50 years old so please speak loud and slow ok. Is the servers down everywhere or only on my side in south africa? It says server locked..:cry::cry:

[Babyfark McGeez]

They JUST went up again it seems. And this is not the right thread to ask about servers. :p