Feedback Corner: The User Interface

Announcements
22

Thank you very much for the centered main UI (health/mana/skills)!
Everything looks very nice now. Also the settings themselves look very interesting and helpful (especially move to attack and and affix dots).

23

This looks amazing. Can’t wait for the new update!

24

Oh definitely, please. When using Torch of the Pontifex, I’ve filled my entire screen several times when I pop a pack. Even just having a counter of total minions of that type would be nice

25

Good Stuff!

1 Like
26

I noticed that images 1, 3, and 4 in post #18 were 404ing.

I’ve restored them, though I can’t say for certain whether they are still in their original order.

27

Here are some of my opinions for the UI:

Character Sheet:
I think this is fine and shows things clearly. My personal Quality-of-Life (QoL) thoughts for reducing clutter and make things a little more obvious would be having what is shown either:

  1. Customizable
  2. Display those stats modified by gear/items/passives/etc.
    • Keeping the standard defense stats

Shield / Health / Action Bar / Mana
This default look is fine, and reminds of the many other ARPGs that I have played. Some of my suggestions are:

  1. For wider displays: have this placed in the center of the screen by default
  2. Give an option for no fluff/fancy borders
  3. Nice-to-Haves (NtH):
    • Drag-and-drop anywhere on screen (include a reset option)
      • Either as a whole or individual parts/groups
    • Size scale for this part of the UI
    • Limited scripting API so users can make other renditions
      • I’m partial to LUA as I would definitely change this to be more action oriented, meaning:
        • Buttons at bottom of screen with hotkeys inside the button, not underneath
        • Shield/Health/Mana as a smaller, combined to a single grouping, and located near the character

Menu Buttons
They look nicer than they originally did but still think they seem a little odd. He’s what I’m not keen on:

  1. Metal button border (MBB) lights up with mouse over and darkens with mouse down.
    • Would think the purple [albeit matte] gemstone (PGB) is the ‘button’ portion and it just doesn’t seem correct
  2. The default button lighting does not match between the PGB portion and the MBB
    • PGB light source is from top-center
      • With a top-center light source coming from a point:
        • Horizontally centered
        • In front of
        • Vertically above
    • MBB light source is from direct-center
      • With a direct-center light source coming from a point:
        • Horizontally centered
        • In front of
        • Vertically centered
  3. Reverting to the default color for button press is so 90’s

I do have suggestions to fix this haphazard button! The simplest solution would be to change the light source to be the same for both the MBB and the PGB (either direct-center OR top-center). And only light up the PGB not the MBB with mouse over.

For a slightly more complex but better looking solution, I will break this into 3 states:

  1. Default Button
    • MBB
      • Keep the current, even with it’s direct-center light source
    • PGB
      • Change the material from matte to be a little glossier: think gemstone just don’t go full gloss since I understand dark-n-gritty is what your going for
      • Keep the current semi-translucent effect
      • Change the light source to be direct-center but with an intensity more akin the the MBB
  2. Mouse Over Button
    • MBB
      • Change to a purple light source that is at the gemstone’s true-center
        • The shadow on the left/right sides should get illuminated by this as opposed to a similar direct-center light source
    • PGB
      • Add a purple light source in the true-center of the gemstone
        • aka, the new light source for the above MBB
  3. Mouse Down Button
    • MBB & PGB
      • Reduce the purple light source down to 25-50% intensity of the Mouse Over state.

To clarify the true-center is a light source coming from a point

  • Horizontally centered
  • Inside the gemstone
  • Vertically centered

For bonus points, on the slightly more complex button suggestion, have the light source not be simply static but follow the mouse relative to the gemstone.

If this makes no sense I’m sure I could whip up a WPF example.