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News: Preview of Upcoming Interface Changes

NevadaJake said:
Will we still be able to configure our hotkeys?
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Not only hotkeys configurable, but will we be able to put the icons where we want on screen?

Plus, one of the reasons I've got lower resolution again now apart from fps is to be able to more easily monitor the health bars of an MS. I want to be able to see fractions of an hp bar without straining my eyes!
Others have asked about being able to tell how far avatar hp is from full. Pls keep the vertical lines and a clear 100% point visible!

So far our comments have been pretty similar and virtually unanimous. Have you intentionally put in stuff to show us that you know we will disapprove of, or are you so wide off the mark again by accident? (Almost sorry for asking, but you know how it is....)
 
mastermesh said:
Also make each armor piece in all armor sets same size in inventory. Annoying as hell when helmets for some parts are bigger than others, etc.

Also make ALL ITEMS DRAGABLE IN ALL INTERFACES. Annoying as hell that little stuff like tomtebloss gets stuck inside of a shopkeeper or inventory box until you put a bigger item in there to drag with it.

Also, while at fixing the UI for God's sake fix the chat. Annoying that if you have more than one screen of chats channels you've opted in to you cannot scroll to them since the stupid UI only lets you see one screen and does not scroll.
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Did I mention a complete overhaul is needed - yes I did!!

jetsina said:
So far our comments have been pretty similar and virtually unanimous. Have you intentionally put in stuff to show us that you know we will disapprove of, or are you so wide off the mark again by accident? (Almost sorry for asking, but you know how it is....)
Click to expand...

Right!! And if it's true they just want us to go away - why fook around - get it over with!! Fix it right or don't bother FFS
 
Much has been said by others so I won't put the long version here:

Likes:
  • unified UI (finally!): However, there is no picture of the Auction House, which is one of the very few things in the game that still has the same layout as 15 years ago
  • it brings freshness
  • you seem to stay away from a flood of pastel-colours
  • the FPS at the bottom should make it easier to see the cave-bug
  • the unmovable message and friend list icons on either side are gone
  • the clock! (in case it really is a clock and shows MA/UTC-time)
Dislikes:
  • the fonts are too small
  • I can't read the tracked mission (could be a low quality of the screenshots, though)
  • everything is too small at the bottom
  • way too much transparency in chat, tracked missions, radar, action bar and status bar. And please don't make the listed loot in the top left corner even more transparent than it is.
  • the buffs still are greenish? Also the magentaish buttons look like enemies of the UI.
  • missing group separator in the PEDs, skill points, ammo/shot quantity and coordinates (and probably everywhere else). That's a big point (or comma), BTW.
  • the condition bar is now single-coloured, which makes it hard to see the percentage of how broken an item is
  • the group icons in the inventory are weird, they are the only black&white ones and the Dollar-sign really is sort of inappropriate
  • I can't guess how scrollbars will feel, but they need to be a bit wider than what we have now
  • where did the cardinal directions in the radar go??? As if we never cared where North was...
  • I will never understand why the download status at the top of the map has to be there in such a prominent spot
  • less professions per page in the profession window
  • I'm not able to tell, but will we see the finer grained percentage in the profession window when hovering over a bar? I hope so!
  • we will lose the keyboard-window to throw items and actions on
  • the UI doesn't seem to have been tested with smaller screens (e.g., older laptops or old monitors) so we may lose a view players
  • most streamers will hate it as you can't seem to reposition some of the UI-elements
Overall:
  • it has been said so many times that there are many veterans with 15+ years experience in the game. Guess what, we don't get younger, so please respect that and don't design a UI that requires perfect eye-sight and perfectly fine motor skills. The "F"-key doesn't solve everything.
  • where can I hide the global-notification now? Currently it sits behind the tracked mission and the skill progress window.

Bertha Bot said:
has been made more similar to familiar MMO conventions
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So you are saying that it'll be easier for us to switch to other games or rather to that new game that is in beta? I don't understand this. EU is EU and IMHO it's not good to try hard to be like others. EU isn't like others. EU is EU. And I'm not even asking for a beer shipment on Calypso any more... ;)
 
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Why do we need transparent windows when opening inventory , skill windows etc .. . We are opening these windows for a purpose , which is to see the information. Make them with contrast and scaleable.

Make a map that is scaleable that remembers its last size position , and one with pinned markers that don't show in my field of vision on the game screen unless i choose.

Mouse over vehicle currently gives tons of information , but does not show how much fuel is in the vehicle.

Love the clock

Action Library already has a search

Could care less which icons are used in inventory windows , as long as they are consistent.

Entropia caters to a much older average player than most mmo's and maybe that is one reason Mindark has decided on the changes shown. Lets be clear , older people generally have incomes greater than children. But older people also know what they want when it comes to common sense controls and do not like to change for sake of changing. Give us common sense controls that are scaleable and please do not get distracted from working to balance the game correctly and making support work for the players.

Do not become other mmo's , stay Entropia and allow others to follow.
 
From first glance.
First picture, my first pecs. Will post more tomorrow about rest of UI.
Text looks too bold and not very readable. The best readable text in this game currently imo is the top of PM window where the avatar name is displayed.
index.php

Use that as a base. Currently and in this new UI design you put dark blue as the avatar name in chat windows, when the UI is transparent it becomes very unreadable. Use same color white as top of the PM in all chat windows. I would prefer this font in PM window vs this new one.
New dashboard:
There's no need to have such a giant long healthbar. Also take this opportunity to display (with option to turn off) proper current accurate health numbers. So it should show 301/301 health if my current health is full and as it goes down it will update that number in real time. Would be cool to have these numbers displayed for mobs as well.
Tool usage bar, it makes more sense to move it below the tool usage bar so make it trade place with the healthbar. Size wise in length its good, unlike the healthbar.
New radar. I hope it has opacity settings so the dots can become more visible I'm having trouble seeing that stray red dot in the first circle to the north. Make sure to add icons so that it can be displayed when you're in normal pvp, lootable pvp, no vehicle zone etc.
Bullet icon. Don't see a reason for making a new one (its meh too), just take the universal ammo icon and paste it there.
Mob triangle target seems off, its not positioned in middle of the healthbar? How can you see if its actually locked into that target. Hard to tell from the picture.
Tracked missions UI. Bad font and very bad visibility.
New placement of buffs, make that shit movable and resize able don't force us to have our game UI the way you want, give us options! Also would make sense to redesign the buffs icons to be align with the new UI icons.
 
We may need to reach out to @My|MindArk on Discord to provide feedback.

I was told I she asked us to message her my feedback directly. Here is her Discord ID: MyAnt#8937
 
Hello!

Thanks for providing us an opportunity to help shape the game from a development and design perspective!

We could use more of this type of Participant Input and I've also created an idea to help further that:

Suggestion: - Allow Participants to Submit Project Proposals as Deeds on the Entropia Exchange

Hi! I have a lot of ideas and I just can't figure out where or how to properly communicate them. Perhaps this is me learning. Not long ago, I had a number of ideas about how to improve Entropia Universe and reached out wanting to touch base with someone at MindArk to float a few of them as they...
www.planetcalypsoforum.com www.planetcalypsoforum.com

Anyhow... :D

I had a look at the screenshots and have come up with this analysis:

Image 1:
new-ui-2.jpg


I've taken the liberty of breaking this image up into 4 sections which represent the 4 quadrants that I typically look at things on a screen and color coded each element present to talk more about them here.

I want to preface this with a simple UI design concept that has been gaining popularity and has been mentioned many times in this thread already is to:

Give every element (denoted by the colored boxes) the ability to be Resized & Removed.​

It's scalable. You never again have to worry about sizing and placement and can focus more on design and functionality.

Let's assume that the above is implemented and all we now have to worry about is the design and functionality and have a look at the various elements on screen:

The Buff Indicator Icons:
  • These are useless on their own. I RARELY ever look at them unless to see the clock timer timing out or when I'm trying to create a buff combo. It's mostly useless information any other time.
  • Make room for these in the Blue element representing information directly related to my Avatar, except, make them collapsible so I can click on them to expand a list of all the buffs I have so that it doesn't take up screen space.
  • If they are resizable and removable then it doesn't really matter where they are shown though :)
Tracked Missions:
  • This is fine for me as long as it can be resized, moved and removed.
The Chatbox:
  • There's opportunity here to make some further adjustments such as:
    • Adding a Color Picker to the channel color choices instead of pre-selected colors.
    • Adding more default universal chat tabs alongside those already there:
      • General Chat
      • Trade Chat
    • Adding the Channel Commands to a selectable list instead of mIRC 1994 style would be great. Give channel owners/mods more control.
    • Re-enable Proximity Voice Chat where you can speak out of your Avatars Mouth like Grand Theft Auto 5 so that we can really get into the Avatar Experience.
The Menu:
  • A few things can be done here:
    • Make the menu collapsible into a single hamburger menu.
    • Make the Icons more distinct for what they're for (What are all of those anyway? Is the Rubik's Cube inventory? ...and the sun?)
    • Cut out the leftover part of the bar at the bottom unless you plan to make that area some sort of "Ticker" so we can subscribe to events (like Globals over 100ped or when Wave Spawns are started).
Item Loadout:
  • This is a welcome addition to the UI!
  • It helps me remember what I have on what key and lets me quickly switch that to a new layout.
Information Bar:
  • Another great addition, especially including Frames Per Second! I was always curious what it was at some times but was too lazy to install third party software to check it!
  • This should also be something that can be collapsed.
  • The more you remove the need for 3rd party software (like LBML, Fast Trade, EntropiaLife, EntropiaWiki) the more time I can spend inside Entropia looking at this information, being immersed in my Avatar itself instead of trying to deal with making information easier to access that is right there in front of me except no simple way to handle the data. Adding LBML to the Radar/Map, a Mining Codex or a layer on map to see where I have found claims, ability in private trade to set prices of individual items thus allowing private sale data to be tracked alongside auction data, showing me in Codex what Globals I've got on those specific mobs, What loot I've got from those mobs, a link to a layer on map showing where I've Globalled on those mobs, my stats like Total Damage to mobs, Total Damage taken, Total PED value of loot returned from mob and the same for weapon information so you can compare what weapons may be better to use, what armor, etc... Get all of that sort of information info Entropia or at least give us somewhere to edit this information into our own Avatar Codex/Logbook/Weapon details instead of unorganized notes :)
The Radar:
  • I'm so happy that this minimalist approach to the radar has been adopted. Another good design approach is to create everything very minamilist and allow the user to add and customize on top of that how they wish.
  • One thing I would like to see on the Radar is the addition of distance to the circles to help me easily see how far I am from something without needed a Team Target to know.
  • This would also benefit from what has already been mentioned but a slide bar to let me choose the transparency. Sometimes I want it transparent and other times I do not.
Loadout & Health Bar:
  • I like that this has been made transparent but I do not like the big ol' useless ammo icon in the middle of it.
  • Underneath the Weapon Name the bar could act like a "Weapon Health" bar so we can see when the weapon is going to break. This bar would include any attachments thus if an attachment is going to break the bar would be near empty because the weapon becomes unusable in that state until you detach the attachment... which could have an option to be removed automatically and not interrupt shooting like Enhancers do when they go from 1 to 0 in that slot.
  • You could also include a flashing indicator when an enhancer slot is about to reach 0 so we know to check it out. It doesn't have to be a prominent alert.
  • What is the light blue part? Mind Essence? EDIT: Realized it's the reload bar, showing ME would be cool too.
  • What about adding an indicator showing the % value of your armor so you know why you're suddenly taking more damage with Unlimited Armor and when your Limited Armor is about to break.
I believe I've covered just about everything in this first screenshot.

A major concern of mine is the ability to turn off every element EXCEPT my Health Bar so I can go 1v1 against mobs without any other distractions :)

To be continued...
 
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Bones said:
Why do we need transparent windows when opening inventory , skill windows etc .. . We are opening these windows for a purpose , which is to see the information. Make them with contrast and scaleable.

Make a map that is scaleable that remembers its last size position , and one with pinned markers that don't show in my field of vision on the game screen unless i choose.



Love the clock


Do not become other mmo's , stay Entropia and allow others to follow.
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This! all of your suggestions were great but these are spot on!
 
Icons on the Information panel still have the old look, wrong palette and does no longer match the new style.
Icons on the Inventory panel look bad in my opinion, but perhaps use letters? E(conomy) C(lothes) A(rmour) W(eapons) T(ools) M(aterials) R(esouses) B(lueprints) ..

Over all I really like the new look. My suggestion is it looks allot like you based too much on the old panels, and hence allot of old crap gets copied - Don't do that, start on a fresh sheet when designing.
 
Power said:
  • The more you remove the need for 3rd party software (like LBML, Fast Trade, EntropiaLife, EntropiaWiki)
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I am concerned this might be putting the cart before the horse though with that idea. Updating the UI actually makes it so tools like LBML do not work, at least temporarily, before removing the need, but it's possible the changes might not be compatible at all. There's work going on to update LBML when more info comes out of course, but that's if it's relatively easy to just retool what LBML uses to search for the finder UI or the claim deed info. The information bar actually will work really well in that regard for lat/lon coordinates if it is locked in place and cannot be resized compared to the current radar situation. The transparency of the new information bar might actually make LBML have more issues if a sticky note can't be put behind it though, which is one of the workarounds for issues with that in the current radar. If the opaqueness can be dialed up for that information bar, that will actually be an improvement.

That's part of the issue making everything scalable/transparent can introduce though. The image/text recognition gets trickier when everyone has potentially different sized windows (e.g., current hurdles recognizing the radar/coordinates in LBML). I'm concerned (though hopeful for now) that scalability could break essentially volunteer tools by the community through essentially eliminating easier workarounds.

So, it's just a reminder to folks that the less standardized parts of the UI are, the harder it is for some third-party tools to work or be updated correctly. We'll see how things go and what needs to be adapted to, but it's not always so cut and dry. I'm not opposed to scalability myself overall, but I am anticipating headaches when that happens.
 
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Inventory icons aren't intuitive enough. Text readability is an issue in some cases...
 
Promise us that chat size will save when adjusted.

Looks clean and sci-fi enough. Little text and contrast enough to be well seen can be a problem, just test it in various monitores sizes and in various games situation like lots of sun or dark night.


Can't wait to see it implemented. GL!
 
Angel O2 Mercer said:
We will not be able to put any icon wherever we want anymore? Please tell me I'm wrong @Ludvig|MindArk...
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I would like to know the answer to this as well please and thank you.
Since I am an iPad / Remote Desktop / clicker / bad player, I would like to be prepared to adapt my play style.
If I can at least move the action bar, that will be nice.
I’ll post a screen dump later.
 
I am not saying the UI doesn't need updating. But the upcoming changes also affect gameplay. It is not just a cosmetic change.

The biggest losses with this new UI change will be the lack of control and customization we have enjoyed for so many years. I love the drag and drop interface for keyboard shortcuts and adding buttons anywhere I want on screen.

The bottom line to me is that Entropia Universe is a deep and complex game. It needs a flexible and customizable UI. We all have our own unique setups and playstyles. One size does not fit all here.


I really liked this feature, I know many will miss it:
NEDEQCG.png



I will miss the ability to do this:
VNORWrC.png



What was wrong with this? It's compact, looks sci-fi:
oQeWl6P.png



Why do this? :unsure:
wE3kQiH.png
 
Bertha Bot said:
Preview of Upcoming Interface Changes


The sneak-peek of the upcoming interface changes will be split into two parts. The first part features screenshots, and the second a video.

MindArk would like to remind everyone that these previews represent a work-in-progress, and are not the final version of the interface changes. Therefore, we welcome opinions and feedback from the community to help us refine everything.

Feedback can be shared in this on PlanetCalypsoForum.com, or by contacting Community Relations Manager MyAnt on the Entropia Universe Discord: https://discord.gg/9YhKpFaF5C.





The screenshot above displays new HUD elements. At the bottom of the screen there is a new infobar panel that houses icons that previously crowded the screen. We have also included other information there, and compacted it down towards the bottom of the screen to remove it from the normal eye-level view. The small white icons at the bottom left of the bar provide quick access to the most commonly used menus, such as Options, Message Center, and more.

The bottom-middle of the screen shows the new Dashboard, where avatar health, current equipped weapon/tool, ammunition type, and cooldowns are displayed. We have moved the buff icons away from the Dashboard and placed them in the top right corner of the screen to reduce information overload.

The Tracked Missions panel at the top-right has also been improved. Our goal is for it to be as unobtrusive as possible, while maintaining readability and immersion. It can also be fully minimized, if desired.





This screenshot shows the improved Item Information panel, along with the new Inventory panel, featuring more modern, minimalist icons and styles for the windows. We made an effort to employ a color scheme that works well in both daytime and nighttime lighting, so that the windows are always visible and readable. We have also made minor changes to the layouts to improve usability and navigation.





A good example is the new Action Library. This is an improved version of the previous “Action Book” with a more minimalist style and some added features, such as direct keybindings and an improved overview of both keys and actions. All Actions are searchable, to more easily find the action you are looking for. Once an action has been located, it can be directly dragged onto the Action Bar while in edit mode.

The design of Action Bar interface has been made more similar to familiar MMO conventions, with different pages of modifiable actions that can be dragged to the Action Bar, which can also be moved and locked to ensure it is not accidentally altered.





This last screenshot provides a sneak-peek at some of the redesigned panels mentioned earlier, such as Options, Skills, and others. We have added new tabs, buttons, backgrounds, fonts and colors, synthesizing the combined look of the UI to further consolidate the overall look and feel of the interface as a whole.



Disclaimer: This is a work-in progress and not the final version.

Originally Posted Here
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That bomb, in the inventory to show you that you are on the "weapons" tab....


No. Just no. Come on, really... A bomb?







Otherwise, at first glance, looks good.
 
Overall I think it looks really nice, very different and will take some getting used too for sure.

The only question or suggestion I would add is the ability to still move around all the different assets. if I'd want the bottom bar at the top for example, or my health/reload/info panel at another location and resize the Radar is also an important feature for me. (Looking at the pictures I would imagine it is possible tho).

First look is very possitive for me atleast.
 
I appreciate the work to make it sleeker and more "modern". New is always good and love seeing the possitive feed back from us all.

Now lets work on some things we been saying for a while little by little and win the hearts MA! ;D

~Claw Bump~
 
Great stuff!
- I like the layout and colors, good for sci-fi setting (or even better, custom colors of box borders etc)
- icons should be addressed >(why a nuke? put a rifle there instead, or pistol), and I don't understand any of the icons below the nuke
- please make items searchable in inventory! Filters, filters, filters please
- make it possible to label inventory containers, so we know what's in them by mouse-over, instead of opening/closing 100 of 'em. Make items in containers filterable.

TL;DR - Good shit, MA! But make search filters - everywhere!
 
And while you are at it..... Make auction browsable from EVERYWHERE! This is supposed to be a Sci-Fi and we cannot go online to browse Auctions?
If you feel a need for us to go to a Auctioneer to Sell or Pickup Items so be it, but FFS let us place bids and browse "online".
 
ye...could also be a portable auc terminal which is crafted.....like the others
(but pls not with sweat usage then in the bp)
 

Here are some nice pointers.
 
NevadaJake said:
What was wrong with this? It's compact, looks sci-fi:
oQeWl6P.png
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Exactly!!! Great little snip of what is fine as it is and shouldn't be changed, and certainly not worsened...
MA, you write so matter-of-factly that you've moved this and that here and there. Apart from this (welcomed) chance to tell you matter-of-factly what we think about that, where will we have positional options? Why don't you come out and say if you are planning to have things as hard-placed as your OP text suggests?
Even just on the buffs, which I mostly ignore because I know what I have, the timer function is certainly very useful. The one that I most definitely do NOT want to have miles away from my hp bar is my adj resto heal chip (buff) icon, as this 30s healing is integral to my 'state of health'.
Not everyone uses one, ofc, but do you really want players who do use them to be getting negative impulses every 30s or even more often than that because they have to check in TWO places for their health status?

Oh MA, you have a whole year to prepare for a fun April Fools joke: say you have developed a new plane cockpit for pilots and show us the screenie of what instruments are where!!! ;)
 
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A face lift is needed...

Keep it minimal, I like it!
 
NevadaJake said:
We may need to reach out to @My|MindArk on Discord to provide feedback.

I was told I she asked us to message her my feedback directly. Here is her Discord ID: MyAnt#8937
Click to expand...
False but also true. As stated in the BUZZ post:

" Feedback can be shared in this on PlanetCalypsoForum.com, or by contacting Community Relations Manager MyAnt on the Entropia Universe Discord"
Either here on this thread or on Discord is fine, I'm reading both. :)
 
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