PS2 User Interface Issues & Recommendations

[RNFB]

Mass Effect 3 has pretty good health and shield bar placement.

[Malorn]

Originally Posted by Lokster

These points become even more important with bigger monitors. Making elements pushed to the far bottom corners even more of a taxing eye strain to view.

Absolutely it does. If you look at my mockup, the distance difference between having the status under the crosshair area and in a corner is approximately a factor of 3 (eye needs to move 3 times further to see the data in the corner than just under)

And if it's just under the crosshair and the visual representation made a little more subtle then you shouldn't even need to shift focus and can easily see health and shield at all times using peripheral vision or at most very slight eye adjustments.

Same thing with the minimap, it is 2.5-3x closer to the focal point by being bottom-center than in a corner.

The bigger the monitor & the higher the resolution, the larger the difference becomes.

[Malorn]

Originally Posted by RNFB

Mass Effect 3 has pretty good health and shield bar placement.

That's a great example of the health & shield being in a much more visible location.

This is exactly the sort of visual representation of health & shield we need. It could be a little bit higher but you cane easily see how bottom-center is an easy focal point for health and other player status, and information that is generally good to have readily available (like a minimap).

[Hamma]

Great posts Malorn - constructive and lots of info.

[Mod]

Well broken down post.

Also, I really hate the map being in the bottom left corner in BF3 so I really hope this isn't final for PS2... or at least it is moveable so we can put it where we want to (I actually quite liked it in the top left in PS1).

[KrazeyVIII]

I like your changes, but I don't like where you've put certain things.

The squad area currently being used actually scares me a bit because it really shows that there is currently no thoughts going toward the platoon system at all, which is a major necessity in a game like this.

I would prefer the UI be 100% customizable. There should be an option somewhere to unlock your UI and move things where you want them. My preferred UI would be:

Map: Bot Left
Chat: Bot Right
Killspam: Top Left
Objectives: Top Right
XP: Bot Middle Left
Achieve: Bot Middle Right
PLATOON SCREEN: Top Middle

Health: Either where you have placed yours, a little bit higher in the middle OR like this:




When I can in a game I prefer to have my health be on the sides of my screen. In this case I would probably have HP on the left, shield on the right.

TL;DR

Give us full customization of UI.

[FastAndFree]

Being able to drag my vehicle armor "bar" near my crosshair was an awesome feature in Planetside. Too bad it was a bit too large and thus blocking more view than it should.

Thus it would be even better if it was like how World of Tanks allows you to have the reload indicator wrapped around your crosshair

I'll mock up a pic when I get home

[SGTalon]

I think that one of my favorite MMO features is the customizable UI. I know in EQ1 and EQ2 people came out with TONS of custom UI designs that showed how differently people like things.

If they made it a customizable item it could really help the game longevity and participation.

I can understand their concern with doing it right out of the gate though. Until the game stabilizes every patch that they do could break something. Now if they just made the UI elements movable and sizable it could really move in the right direction.

I loved UI mods that allowed me to stretch out health bars for me and my target to stretch across more of the screen.

I think it is critical to be able to move and customize your chat/combat spam windows. Some people want to see every hit, others only want to see when something is dead.

Some people want to see every piece of chat that goes out. others only care about group.

To try to lock down a UI can only frustrate people. I know that several people hate SWTOR because the UI is locked.

[Knocky]

They stated they wanted all kinds of alternate means of tracking PS2 Stats.

Lets us hope this translates into allowing User created UI's

[Mod]

SWTOR ... how not to do a UI in the slightest!

[FastAndFree]

These are two examples of what I would like to be able to select



Maybe if you REALLY like crap around your crosshairs you could also add magazine/total ammo count to complete the circle

[Malorn]

Reticles are great places to put that inforamtion.

Unfortunately the game has a lot of scopes and different optics for the guns, so I don't see them putting the health/shield /reload indicator on the reticle. Though I agree that really is the best design since you are always aware of exactly how much hp you have and how long a reload might take.

The next best thing would be to put the same sort of very light information just below the reticle area. It could be like the MMORPG huds where the health and shield are sort of off to the sides, or similar to mass effect. The closer to a reticle indicator the better IMO.

And still better would be a set of different health/shield/reload/ammo/ability indicators and allow us to choose from a set of different designs.

[Lokster]

@FastAndFree - I don't like information TOO CLOSE to my reticule. This causes problems when engaging at distance, as your targets are very small and you may be engaging multiple targets near one another -- potentially visibly blocking enemies with the information. Also as Malorn already stated, it would not look right with the variety of scopes, aimpoints, and iron sights that will be available. I think a solution where the important information is below or on either side of the reticule is best.

[FastAndFree]

But the best part is, if it's optional what's there to lose?

I doubt adding these into the game would add 6 months to development

[CutterJohn]

Considering in their various spiels about forgelight they reiterate its a complete mmo engine, and considering that customizable UIs are a staple of mmos, I'd bet good money on a customizable UI being there for release, or soon after.

Heck, they might already have all the API stuff ready so that people can make their own UIs, which would be killer.

Also, chat always belongs on the bottom middle/bottom left, and minimap in the upper right.