News: Preview of Upcoming Interface Changes

[Evey]

BEFORE


AFTER

(For future reference / comment)

The before contains 3 panels with 3 different design types and I'm pretty sure you can find 10 more different design types across the various types of panels which for new players doesn't make any sense at all and it's really confusing. The fact that we got used to it doesn't mean it's OK. I'm sure no one at MA can answer why every new window came with a new design
The after image contains some common sense, some normal consistency and even if needs more work, if it brings performance benefits, it should be implemented tomorrow and I'm pretty sure around 0 people will quit over it.


What I would like to point out however, a secondary action bar would be needed, maybe on the right side because we have too many tools, armor sets, pills and ofc healing tools and weapons to fit in the action bar at the bottom.
A sidebar like on the image below (from a successful generic MMO ) would be ideal, maybe collapsible from a toggler?

 

[Katie Chalmers]

I’m just blown away that instead of using precious development resources to fix long standing bugs and finish off the half finished, seemingly abandoned content all over the place, THIS, this is what they give us?
Mono-colour health bars and hot keys we can’t drag around anymore?
Gee way to go MindArk....

 

[Mega]

I think it is safe to say these 3 interfaces wont look like this in future.

Picture uploaded for historical purposes. April 2021.

 

[djkc909]

I'm sure my opinion is unpopular but at first glance it feels like you are stripping away the Entropia personality from the UI and trying to make it look and feel generic like other games.

After reading & thinking about this -- and seeing Mega's BEFORE and AFTER pics -- I'm starting to agree... I mean, the current original UI *does* have character.. unique, gritty, nostalgic character and personality.. and with a more naturalism/naturalistic look in its colors and design.. even the text colors, along with the windows, bars, etc.. they all are reds, yellows, greens, cyan , BUT with a more ORGANIC/NATURAL HUE than the new UI. Whereas, this new, proposed (wip) UI *does* seem to be generic, uniform, and boring.

However, I can understand MA's viewpoint of wanting to update to not only a more uniform, easy-on-the-eyes, easier to navigate UI, but also getting away from the older "ugly, clunky, outdated" looking UI (relative to modern games), if not for the sake of appeal to/for new players (i.e., familiarity, and ease-of-use). Plus, the new uniform, vibrant tech colors, and technical/functional display of the new UI (a la Star Trek) *DOES* fit in with the futuristic, sci-fi, robots on alien planets, transhumanist, space themed game, yes?

But ya, the new proposed UI -- in relative comparison -- does look a bit simple and boring and generic, like some other simple basic generic MMO out there (even though EU is WAY FAR from simple!!). But even though I prefer the old classic natural-colors UI with "character" and personality, I personally really only care about FUNCTIONALITY more than AESTHETICS. I really really hope they don't remove the drag-and-drop full keyboard mapping system !!

Seems like the opinions are split 50/50 on this project -- I guess MA's gonna have to flip a coin?! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[djkc909]

What I would like to point out however, a secondary action bar would be needed, maybe on the right side because we have too many tools, armor sets, pills and ofc healing tools and weapons to fit in the action bar at the bottom.

Mining Tools, Healing Tools,, Pets, Armor sets, Pills, Weapons, and Vehicles, OH MY !!!

My keyboard is literally FULL. And I mean LITERALLY. Well, except for the right Windows key (because I have none) and the left Alt (used to ALT-TAB out of game). JUST SAY NO to Action Bars!! I'm voting to KEEP THE ALL FULL-ACTION KEYBOARD MAP.

They say that they're trying to "clean up" the screen in order to add more visible/viewable play world/game area,
yet, they're adding built-in crude HOTBARS, ON SCREEN (which are actually really already old-school in modern video games).

Dear MA - WE DO NOT WANT TO BE TIED DOWN TO ON-SCREEN "HOTBARS" !!! (only unless it's one on Rocktropia). That is all.

 

[NVE]

Hey, what direct x version game runs on?

Looks like we need better game scaling to reduce lag while 5 ppls or more play in the same square area.

Game not using the full potential of newer pc

I think we need to try the latest dx

New UI does not help much to reduce lag.

What cause big lags then more ppls play in same area ? EWE online game have much more players in same spot and have no such lags even running game on same IBM cloud service.

 

[Raffaele Meiers]

Hey, what direct x version game runs on?

Looks like we need better game scaling to reduce lag while 5 ppls or more play in the same square area.

Game not using the full potential of newer pc

I think we need to try the latest dx

New UI does not help much to reduce lag.

What cause big lags then more ppls play in same area ? EWE online game have much more players in same spot and have no such lags even running game on same IBM cloud service.

Performance gain because of uniform dialog boxes? Better get rid of your crappy programmed F function, best viewed in Argo cave. It is not the Icons on screen or different style of dialog boxes who brings FPS down, it is the crappy programmed algorithm you use to generate on the fly next target list who is the culprit(no weapon in hand -> FPS up, Weapon in hand -> FPS down ).
If you would use the time to clear such bugs out you would not have to reduce radar viewing are etc. to cover up the flaws in the programming.

Without Icons for different armor sets or icons for vehicles, pills, tools etc. it will be extremly tedious to play this game. 7 right clicks on armour part and wait until each is removed instead of one right click on icon and select unequip.

How many steps you have to go through to replace a broken L weapon while fighting a mob?
Will it be more than open inventory (1) select right section (2), press L, (3), select keyboard map (4), drag weapon to key (5) shoot while closing keyboard map, press L and I to close rest?

 

[Pi-]

.

 

[NevadaJake]

This UI setup would support my gameplay as long as I could assign the underlying key to each action-bar slot. I use nearly every key on my keyboard to play and switch between various weapons/tools frequently.

I spent time this week playing the generic game depicted in the image. In that game you cannot assign keys to each action-bar slot. They are preassigned and most require pressing a modifier key to activate. For example: CTRL + 1 to 9 to activate the actions in the second-row from the bottom.

EDIT: The generic game DOES allow you to assign any key or combination to any slot. it is a very accessible design. I hope the new Entropia UI does this as well.

If we can get multiple action bars on the bottom and side of our screen and If we can define the underlying keyboard keys to any key (or combination) assigned to each slot in each action bar then I think it will work. It won't be quite what we had before. but it will come close.

I would hope we will still be able to build icons for Armor and Clothing switching and assign them to slots.

Also, the generic game above stores all of these settings server-side so I would hope Entropia will continue to do this as well for those of us who play one multiple machines

 

[djkc909]

Look how I play the game. You guys moved the buffs icons to the top right of screen, I can't see myself liking that. For competing in mayhem for example you'll want to have fast view on your buffs so you know when its time to replinish them. I also have most of my tools that I use on my dashboard for quick changing. For tools I don't use hotkeys and I don't want to, just weapons and healing tools. I also switch sometimes instead of using the keyboard all the time. This way I can play with just the mouse or just with keyboard whenever I feel like it. I have positioned my healthbar at the place that I have best view for when I'm hunting so I can quickly fap when my hp gets low. The new dashboard is worse than current one.

The new, proposed, work-in-progress UI does seem to be a lot less DYNAMIC than the current original UI.

 

[Sub-Zero]

I think it is safe to say these 3 interfaces wont look like this in future.

Picture uploaded for historical purposes. April 2021.

I'm gonna miss the old hof board... RIP.

 

[djkc909]

THEN, there is keyboard mapping+icons. We are afraid you are taking this away. Are you? Are you really considering this?!

This question does indeed still appear to remain unanswered. Even in My's last post. (Do please correct me if I'm wrong!)

Are the {full keyboard-map, keyboard-mapping, drag-and-drop items/icons to keyboard map} and the {on-screen custom desktop icons}
--BEING REPLACE WITH--
{keyboard-bindings list under a new options menu that only maps to actions from action-library} and {fixed on-screen hotbars only} ?????

Inquiring, anxious, panicked, worried minds wish to know....

 

[Evey]

How is it confusing.... people have been easily using them for over a decade.... there is no way this is your argument for removing many valuable features that make entropia feel like entropia.

First of all you (nor anyone in this thread) have no idea what features will be removed, if any. Many started panicking over some assumptions... and yes, consistency is a strong argument that is self explanatory and as I said, the fact that we got used to it, it doesn't mean that it's a good UI. The game needs to adapt to market and to new customers, not just the ones 'used' to something that ...works and for the sake of nostalgia should be kept. I enjoy my screenshots from 14 years ago bit I'm happy the UI has changed and excited about the UI that is about to come. It's gonna suck for a while, but we will all work with it.
Until then, make yourself heard, and wait for the video and more details before planning to sell out. Remember that with the camera update there were a lot of issues the community wanted and they added it shortly which was a great thing and where possible, they will do it again here.

 

[Ferial]

I spent time this week playing the generic game depicted in the image. In that game you cannot assign keys to each action-bar slot. They are preassigned and most require pressing a modifier key to activate. For example: CTRL + 1 to 9 to activate the actions in the second-row from the bottom.

Wait what? You can quite literally map any key, or any combination pf modifier keys + key, to any actionbar slot in that generic game.

Furthermore, you can modify that generic games interface pretty much to your liking, if you spend a bit of time.

While i'm not all that into said generic game, they have sure done a great job making sure that players can play the game the way they desire. Which is something, in my opinion, every game should strive to do

 

[Pi-]

.

 

[NevadaJake]

You can quite literally map any key, or any combination pf modifier keys + key, to any actionbar slot in that generic game.

You are right! I have been playing the generic game more tonight and discovered how to do that .

I hope MindArk follows suit allows us to map any key or item to any slot as well.

EDIT: I hope we keep the ability to move using the EasyNavigation Two Mouse Button movement option:

 

[San]

Thank you, My. That weight is given to performance above the rest is great to know.

About map sizes: I always found it annoying that you have to change the map to medium or large size for being able to get the dropdown list with the different maps at the teleporter, and afterwards having to change it back and put it back in its previous screen position manually. Over and over again. This doesn't occur so much to players who only stay on Calypso, unless they go to Thule often. On other planets where changing between maps is more common this is a real nuisance.

Solution: On the left side of the map, the locations list has "Locations" in the header, and its widget looks like it actually is a dropdown list fixed to one entry. This is useless as is. Did it never occur to anyone during various overhauls to put the choices there instead? Or now in a similar way, whatever its design will be.

About removal of features: True we don't know yet what will be affected or not and panicking in this thread is irrational to an extent. Some (or should say I, as this is subjective) are still woeful though who remember the camera & interaction update, some possibilities with the keyboard are gone and requests to re-enable them were never responded to. We don't know the outcome until release, and afterwards it's pot luck if your preferences still matter. It is natural to be anxious about that.

 

[jetsina]

About map sizes: I always found it annoying that you have to change the map to medium or large size for being able to get the dropdown list with the different maps at the teleporter, and afterwards having to change it back and put it back in its previous screen position manually. Over and over again.

Yes! However, I seem to have some kind of 'mild annoyance reset' so that my 'effing MA stupidity' activation subsides quite quickly again each time. This MIGHT NOT be the case if they screw up a much more frequent action for me (or if the number of stupid gameplay moves grows too high).

The following example is to highlight mood changes - I liked the way harvestable trees had a target ring with vicinity activation. I would peacefully move around and chop down trees: very soothing and calming if that is what I felt like doing. THEN MA changed it - no more ring and not always knowing which tree was highlighted. "F" might start me running towards a tree miles away instead of close, or towards a different tree type that I would want to use a different tool (lvl) on. So now I may get several WTF moments of my avatar stupidly doing something I didn't want it to do. Result: not relaxing anymore - I no longer harvest trees. BTW: At the start of a run I'd quickly throw up some tool icons onto screen and gradually use them up. This also gave an impression of progress - of the 'workload' I was achieving. Call it simple pleasures or whatever you like... but it's me!

My hasn't so far communicated whether such 5 ped tools can be put on the bar, nor whether these will show the info on ped remaining etc on mouseover.
It REALLY doesn't help us that you have totally noob changes in what you have presented to us so far. Solid hp bars instead of delineated, crappy icons you tell us later are just placeholders, so that loads of people mention it, and worsely may unnecessarily get a negative subconscious imprint of what to expect. We don't need unnecessary 'yuck' moments... we have enough as it is, thank you!

Please be more on top of your game! I know it's a big ask when dozens of people are checking your proposals, but the dozens are almost unanimous about things that you should be able to see for yourself without our help!

 

[Raffaele Meiers]

First of all you (nor anyone in this thread) have no idea what features will be removed, if any. Many started panicking over some assumptions... and yes, consistency is a strong argument that is self explanatory and as I said, the fact that we got used to it, it doesn't mean that it's a good UI. The game needs to adapt to market and to new customers, not just the ones 'used' to something that ...works and for the sake of nostalgia should be kept. I enjoy my screenshots from 14 years ago bit I'm happy the UI has changed and excited about the UI that is about to come. It's gonna suck for a while, but we will all work with it.
Until then, make yourself heard, and wait for the video and more details before planning to sell out. Remember that with the camera update there were a lot of issues the community wanted and they added it shortly which was a great thing and where possible, they will do it again here.

OK, so can you explain to me for example what benefit we have from the new design of the Profession window? Is it better to have 8 Professions displayed per page compared to the 13 with the old interface? Is less information per page really better?
What is the benefit of cutting down the horizontal space by placing the categorie switches to the left leaving much less space for the Information displayed?
Do you think it is easier readable than the old interface? Smaller text size, smaller progress bar and single color for bar, instead of a hoover over % with two decimal numbers like 23,45% replaced by a single 23% number which means once again less informations, smaller text size, smaller bar size just to have the categorie switching to the left side when it was perfectly fitting to have it at the bottom? Is change for the sake of changes really the best way forward?
Why should the HoF Window have the same look like the Profession window?
Do you really think the time of the programmers is well spent when they once again start to redo their interface when there are so many places to finally finish the started changes? F key is still bugged, not selecting all visible targets and suddenly switch to one of the ommited targets at random intervals, is still not fixed for example.
Or the many places you can get stuck in the environment and you have to T to next revival to go back to the place you where stuck.
PvP exploits ETC.

But no MA starts to use their money to change things who are not broken and still ommits to punish the exploiters and only start to work on known bugs when the whole community of EU is informed that they exist and they have to fear that instead of a selected few who profit from using this exploits they, the exploters, will loos their advantage as everyone starts to use the bug.

Will I still be abel to set my Keyboard layout like I used to have it for the last 10 years?

 

[Redone Duncan]

PLS make radar 100% blak background opaque so that its not a mess to see red dots

THIS THIS THIS plz

DRM

 

[K_rupT]

Not sure if anyone has said anything or responded but

Goodbye mininglog.

 

[Msturlese]

Seems there is a problem that come BEFORE the changes...
credibility of MA is very low in the mind of customer... before
jsut "revamping" to disputable style the interface
it would have been WAY more importanty to ask to the ppl
that use it (The playerbase) and pay for MA expenses

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE IN THE UI?

1. FILTER... there are hundreds of items in the storage, let us serach for that "oil" and present all oils that we have
2. mouseover Trade channel links and see How many of those resource we ahve if someone is buying
3. a permanent comment on the map so we can save our "points of interest" from one session to the next
4. we are getting old... or get 8k monitor... scalable UI
6. put a "condition of tool" color in the equipped tool zone... so we know how much residuar TT is has
7. put heaqling ona differetn global CD and a different slot so we can heal without stopping shooting and buffs too so we can rebuff and keep killing
8. opaque blackground without weird light effects
9. in the night it is too dark. give us a "greeny light enhancer mode" to look around in the night... i think that dailight shift is an error, i would like to see panorama all the times but the history tells 85% of ppl approved it... maybe as they see how BAD is dark in the night and how bad is to hunt on monria ppl would vote for next poll a " do you want moonlight to reduce to 50% luminosity int eh night so you can see where the hell are you going and dont get into a random tree or stone?" the answer could be itneresting

changing the design of buttons is not something we need,not before fixing the "press M over and over to allow your avatar to unstuck"... this is a soltuion from developers............................ what about fixing the problem?

please dont deploy the interface now..... go through all the suggestions and implement the more that can be done and deploy in second half.....also in 2022... but something that is needed and appreciated from the playerbase.

 

[My|MindArk]

Clarification of Keybinds, Armor sets, and Action Bars and use cases

Performance
The swap we are making from singular icons to the new action bars is one area in which we have found possibilities to increase the HUD performance of the game exponentially, in several cases we were able to boost the performance for drawing the HUD on screen from a few milliseconds 1/1000th of a millisecond. This difference is something that will hopefully give everyone an increase in frames drawn per second on their screens.

Keybinds clarification
It is still possible to bind all the actions, then drag weapons, actions or tools from the inventory or action library to those bound slots. The actions can still be clicked with the mouse. The number keys 1 to 0 shown in the sneak peek image, just displays the single actionbar which that person was using at the time of the screenshot.

Bars
There is no need to switch between different bars, you can as of today have 5 bars active at the same time. Which means you can have 50 visible actions on the screen. Furthermore, you can bind the other pages with actions or weapons as well, just as before, this means you can have up to 150 current actions on your action bars. ( not only actions from the action library ) The bars are not fixed in any way, they can be bound or moved as desired.

Ease of use
A good thing to note is that we are not removing any possibilities of bindings or fixing them to any specific placements or keys, they are just assorted icons now rather than singular, set up in such a way that we have managed to make an exponential increase in performance in this area, and also made them easier to use.

Ease of use and modularity has been a key aspect we have looked into for the action bars, so that players do not need to worry about such a trivial thing as binding a key. They are still highly modifiable. The active Keyboard “sets” that were previously there, are now used as sets of action bar pages.

Loadouts
We have made Loadouts for the armor sets which can be saved in the inventory. Selecting and saving a loadout with a specific name should be only 1 click away from swapping your armor sets.


Summary
For further clarification, the action bars and keybinds will not reduce any gameplay possibilities, it should increase them, make them easier to use, and increase performance drastically.

 

[MsPudding]

Clarification of Keybinds, Armor sets, and Action Bars and use cases

Performance
The swap we are making from singular icons to the new action bars is one area in which we have found possibilities to increase the HUD performance of the game exponentially, in several cases we were able to boost the performance for drawing the HUD on screen from a few milliseconds 1/1000th of a millisecond. This difference is something that will hopefully give everyone an increase in frames drawn per second on their screens.

Keybinds clarification
It is still possible to bind all the actions, then drag weapons, actions or tools from the inventory or action library to those bound slots. The actions can still be clicked with the mouse. The number keys 1 to 0 shown in the sneak peek image, just displays the single actionbar which that person was using at the time of the screenshot.

Bars
There is no need to switch between different bars, you can as of today have 5 bars active at the same time. Which means you can have 50 visible actions on the screen. Furthermore, you can bind the other pages with actions or weapons as well, just as before, this means you can have up to 150 current actions on your action bars. ( not only actions from the action library ) The bars are not fixed in any way, they can be bound or moved as desired.

Ease of use
A good thing to note is that we are not removing any possibilities of bindings or fixing them to any specific placements or keys, they are just assorted icons now rather than singular, set up in such a way that we have managed to make an exponential increase in performance in this area, and also made them easier to use.

Ease of use and modularity has been a key aspect we have looked into for the action bars, so that players do not need to worry about such a trivial thing as binding a key. They are still highly modifiable. The active Keyboard “sets” that were previously there, are now used as sets of action bar pages.

Loadouts
We have made Loadouts for the armor sets which can be saved in the inventory. Selecting and saving a loadout with a specific name should be only 1 click away from swapping your armor sets.


Summary
For further clarification, the action bars and keybinds will not reduce any gameplay possibilities, it should increase them, make them easier to use, and increase performance drastically.

My, thank you for further clarification! I'm looking forward to the UI video next. ?

 

[Orion]

Thank you for clarification.
This declaration should have been part of the initial post...

Try to remember this for the next "we will put everything upside down"-post.

 

[Evey]

Loadouts
We have made Loadouts for the armor sets which can be saved in the inventory. Selecting and saving a loadout with a specific name should be only 1 click away from swapping your armor sets.

If this means that I can, with one click, change the plates from one armor to another, I'm in love. If I select Loadout 1 that is a set of armor (A) that has plates X on the armor B and will automatically unequip from set B and put them on set A while equipping set A, would be awesome.

OK, so can you explain to me for example what benefit we have from the new design of the Profession window?

No, I can't explain in a way your emotional bias would accept. You're obviously using the limbic system to handle this and not the prefrontal cortex - atm your brain can't make the difference between encountering a lion and MA changing the UI.
Sit down with yourself and try to accept:

1. it's happening;
2. good and constructive ideas or wishes might make it to the new UI, if you're expressing them in a proper manner.



The F selecting the mob furthest away from you is annoying me as well... and you reminded me to make a support case about it and hope it will someday be fixed.

 

[TumiTimeless]

Yay Ludwig! Yay Mindark!
You really should have a overtime bonus..
Thank you for your post(s).

 

[Raffaele Meiers]

Clarification of Keybinds, Armor sets, and Action Bars and use cases

Performance
The swap we are making from singular icons to the new action bars is one area in which we have found possibilities to increase the HUD performance of the game exponentially, in several cases we were able to boost the performance for drawing the HUD on screen from a few milliseconds 1/1000th of a millisecond. This difference is something that will hopefully give everyone an increase in frames drawn per second on their screens.

This is like saying we reduced the weight of your water bottle from 400 gramms to 360 gramms in the backpack which is 20 kg of weight.

Equip a weapon in the Argo Cave and I see my FPS drop from 60 to 9 fps when Looking ignores View is enabled.
If you disable that option it depends in what direction you turn because the super duper next target algo is bringing down the FPS even when no enemy is visible but is in the viewing angel of the avatar.

So you save some Milliseconds bychanging of the GUI when reverting the next target algo to the old one would improve the FPS by a hughe amount.

 

[Raffaele Meiers]

No, I can't explain in a way your emotional bias would accept. You're obviously using the limbic system to handle this and not the prefrontal cortex - atm your brain can't make the difference between encountering a lion and MA changing the UI.
Sit down with yourself and try to accept:

1. it's happening;
2. good and constructive ideas or wishes might make it to the new UI, if you're expressing them in a proper manner.



The F selecting the mob furthest away from you is annoying me as well... and you reminded me to make a support case about it and hope it will someday be fixed.

What has the amount of Information displayed in the profession windows to do with limbic systems or the prefrontal cortex?
Or do you mean persons using the prefrontal cortex can't process so many informations at once as a person who uses their limbic system?

Is this not a valide constructive question:
What is the benefit of cutting down the horizontal space by placing the categorie switches to the left leaving much less space for the Information displayed?

It would be, in my view, better to spend the ressources on finally iron out other well known bugs, F key, stuck in environment, bar or windows not remembering where we place them etc, which we encounter daily while using this service than to spend all this time on this changes which gives some milliseconds faster screen redrawing and changes the style of the game interaction once again for everyone.

BTW I dont think F key or to whatever it is mapped to selects the farthest away target the problem is more the one I described in my post:
F key is still bugged, not selecting all visible targets and suddenly switch to one of the ommited targets at random intervals, is still not fixed for example.

 

[Deleted member 58836]

It's truly amazing to see the amount of pessimism and misunderstanding displayed in this thread.

Development and Design of any project, let alone a 3d virtual world with a real cash economy is a massive undertaking.

Nostalgia and Tradition hold back Innovation and Progress.

Evey nailed it:

No, I can't explain in a way your emotional bias would accept. You're obviously using the limbic system to handle this and not the prefrontal cortex - atm your brain can't make the difference between encountering a lion and MA changing the UI.
Sit down with yourself and try to accept:

1. it's happening;
2. good and constructive ideas or wishes might make it to the new UI, if you're expressing them in a proper manner.

Yes, I'm off topic here in hopes to bring it back in line with reviews and constructive feedback (not whining) about the UI update instead of bickering over things you likely don't have full context on.

MindArk is working hard. They are also giving the community a great opportunity to participate. Don't fuck this up for the rest of us.