1 Topic by pennywise

  • pennywise
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  • From: Straight outta' Manassas
  • Registered: June 26th, 2003
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Topic: UI suggestions

https://i.ibb.co/whmkLsc/fui.png

I made a quick mockup with a few notes on UI that would improve my QOL greatly.

1.  My field of vision normally exists from 2/3 of the way up the screen to the bottom when I play almost every game.  As such, I would prefer the top of the screen be reserved for options, which are used much less frequently than skills.

2.  Inventory and window management are a little brutal right now, to be perfectly honest.  The windows overlap and it becomes a game of Tetris to send a mail.  If inventory icon was always reserved to be in the bottom right and was uncoupled with the paperdoll(which should be part of player stats before inventory window imo), you really have a lot more room to mail stuff, bank, ect.

My absolutely dream would be for all the windows to pop up and automatically be aligned left to right on the screen as I opened them.

3.  Inventory is the most used icon in the options bar, it can be it's own thing.  This is the way the overwhelming majority of all mmorpgs are set up.

4 & 5.  Since inventory is moved to bottom right, you can have you active skill moved to the middle of the skills bar - i dunno, in some glass orb or something.

6.  It would be nice if health bars were more in the line of sight of the player.

7.  Chat is the greatest offender of being in the way, currently.  It's also difficult to read, at times, with a transparent background.  Would love for it to be either at the top or bottom left of the screen so it's more in line with contemporary games' chat windows.

Last edited by pennywise (March 19th, 2024 5:48 PM)

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2 Reply by bornagainfatkid

  • bornagainfatkid
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  • Registered: May 16th, 2024
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Re: UI suggestions

Agree on some QoL changes to UI, i like the update. I made little mock too. I think we agree on chat UI, it's just right int he middle of the eye focus area.

This was my idea

https://imgur.com/a/Qs4ccgn

3 Reply by Master Wu

  • Master Wu
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  • Registered: June 15th, 2003
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Re: UI suggestions

Thanks for the input.
Currently in the process of rendering high resolution GUI replacement, and I have similar opinions about the layout. I'm now at the point where making some variant renders would be pretty easy if Zer wants to implement more variation in the future.

I agree with being able to move more of the static parts of the GUI to different parts of the game screen. AND, maybe even have alternate size versions. The mini map for example you can move wherever you want, use a smaller version of it, or close it out if you don't want it open. That was the advantage of the new GUI.

Not sure I'm personally a fan of having the HP/MP/Stam bar centered like that, but there could be more flexibility in the future.

Faldon's Chat has been my biggest hangup personally. The game has always been very chatroom focused. Maybe it's part of the charm, but when we used to hit higher player populations it seemed like it was a glaring problem, along with central login points, but that's a whole separate topic. I agree, I'd like to see it a moveable window with options to change font size, and filter things you're not interested in. You can close it now at least, and there is minimized/maximized version. With the new DPI and resolution options.

As far as inventory goes, and accessing other parts of the GUI- rather than emphasizing a button for inventory, I'm a fan of hotkeys. It seems like most computer games, despite the genre or developer are converging on "wasd" home keys and other adjacent keys to open parts of the GUI. Now in Faldon I instinctively hit "i" for inventory, or "m" for map and realize it's typing in the chat bar lol.

https://wujournal.weebly.com/

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4 Reply by Joshi_Takashi

  • Joshi_Takashi
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  • Registered: May 9th, 2024
  • Posts: 7

Re: UI suggestions

The chat box and "effects chat" ( invalid target, dmg shown, clock etc) blocks 50% of your screen with this current setup. If anything is there a way to move just the to above the heal/mana/energy bars?