ataal

Let me start off by saying that this is exactly what I've been looking for since the newui came out.

I could never play in fullscreen mode before and since the newui came out, everyone is linking stuff and using the /trader function in bazaar and I've been jealous.

I tried that winmode version for a while until it was broken by that one patch and I have never been able to get it to work since then(even by reading the readme).

I know you're probably nearing your final decisions on a lot of the stuff here, but I'd like add to the polls on some of the issues, ie...exp bar, group bars, etc...

Group - Horizontal vs Vertical :

I play MANY different classes, I have 4 50'ish characters that I play the most, and lots of 30+ characters that I play when I just want to get away from all the /guildsay spam and stuff.

That being said, a vertical group bar is essential, nay required for a healer class. It could be argued that it's probably ideal for a main assist class also. Sometimes you need to know who is the lowest on health and that is not easily ascertained from a horizontal group bar. Granted, a necro at 40% isn't needing a heal as bad as a warrior at 50%, but you get the idea.

Another very minor point to make about it is when people in lower levels wanting to alpha loot. YES, you can figure it out with a horizontal bar, but it's much easier to do it in your head with a vertical bar.

Experience - Inventory vs Main :

I honestly could not count how many times I've wanted to 'see' the exp movement off a single kill, and actually go to my inventory screen while I'm trying to finish off the critter. The problem with this is, I've got half my screen blocked by it and I can't see well enough to watch for any adds or other important things.

Aside from that, I guess I can't come up with any other 'real' arguments for it, it's a preference, but I'd be willing to bet that the majority would like to see it in main screen.

Inventory slots available on main screen :

This one is very class specific as even you have stated that these are perfect for a bard. It may even be nice for a warrior that uses a bow to pull, but then switches it out with his goranga idol. The only other 'real' use I can see is for right-clickable items. However, my right-clickable items may be in completely different inventory/worn slots than yours, so I think that makes it very user specific.

So, my opinion? Use this space for something 'everyone' will benefit from. I'm sure you will get requests from bards, warriors, etc... later on, heck I may even want to make a donation or two for such requests.


All in all, great job. I just wanted to voice my opinion on some of this stuff since this is my first time to these boards and missed out on the progressive posts.

/bow

Keep up the great work

faBBe

hi, sorry nothing new yet as I was levelling my warrior last nite but I'vebeen doing some thinking while playing (I'm playing with the UI since a week, althoug its far from finished)

thanks for the feedback, it is far from finished although the main view and inventory will be the essential work I am doing now.. so the discussion is open and fruitful



I do agree with that, certainly it is quicker to see, and somehow last days I played with the UI, I felt that party window was eating some spaceo n the view..

will be difficult to fitvertical group bar but I will try every idea i come upon

the levels will go in thje inventory, that will free up some space for a start..




very likely, but to get the vertial group window (more important I think), I will have to move the experience to the inventory

that being said, I love the right side inventory I can switch it on and swap my gear and watch my character in external view, and the inventory does not block the view, in the new UI I always have to move it to the side when I check my 'look's

I think it will be far less an annoyance when this inventory is toggled on as it covers only one side of the view, and not in a rectangular fashion

but who knows.. once I Manage to put a vertical group window somewhere.. maybe I can move the exp bars to the left side

Another IDEA I was toying with : put the exp into a new tab of the actions window ? You could leave this tab on, although I like to have the actions window always on now ( i didnt in new UI), because I can see the refresh on abilities without using extra hotbuttons



You;re talking about my warrior right ?

imho these will be useful to most classes, at least those who need it, I prefer a general solution than making class specific versions ( time consuming)

It's great for a Bard, and for a Bard I could even use one or two more slots . For a warrior its great to swap goranga idol as yo umetioned but also to sweap main weapons, I like to swap weapins during combat often, sometimes for the proc, sometimes becuase I notice I dont taunt enough while 'practicing' and so I quickly put in a good delay weapon to raise taunt..

For all classes in general it's great I think to have at least one bag there, to store foraged items, or to use the extra slots as an 'extension' (yo ucan open and switch weapons in the bag as well, just place the bag conveniently to the left side )

It does hoewver, take space I initially planned for the Pet Info window. This will be solved later..



Yup, this is why I am not too worried about a 'clickies' window, I'm afraid I cant make a good solution unless I would make a window with most slots, then you may as well use the inventory I think using the ionventory for that purpose is convenient enough, especially now it does not cover then center of the view

Latest thoughts..

I will remove the experience from the Main view, at least until I find another space for it. I dont think swithcing the inventory is a main gripe I have with the game, I could think of 100 other things more annoying than that

I may even have to remove the AC/ATK values to find space to fit a vertical group window in there.

I think for people who enjoys the Lore and the social side of the game more, removing the exp from the main screen will be welcomed.

The main problem I have so far with the vertical group window is the size of the gauges. Hopefully the gauge will be for a 'quick look', and the percentage will do the trade-off for the small gauge size.

PS: let me know what you think of the screenshot of the vertical group window, in the 1st post.

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"I'm not a shrimp, I'm a KING PRAWN !" -- Pepe the shrimp.

Luminea

One quick question. Have you abandoned the idea of the draped cloth for the chat area, like in the old UI. In most of the recent pic updats I have seen the grey boxes.
By the way great work. I enjoy everything about what you've done so far and plan on using it as soon as its available.
Was hoping for the hung cloth chat area as it was one of the staples of the old UI..some thing I miss..but I can't get my cake and eat it too lol
Thanks again for doing such hard work getting this ready.
WE all appreciate it
Lumi

faBBe

Luminea Thanks, well I really don't know about the chat window yet. On the recent screenshots you see what it looks like with just the default window frame changed. Hopefully the chat windows are an entirely different 'section' of the work, and thus I dont have to worry about them for now. One problem I remember though, is that every chat window has the SAME graphics. Thus, if you want to split 2 windows on the bottom there, they will both have the exact same 'parchment thing' , which may limit the options for arranging them (dependinghow the graphic peices will fit together...). Either way, I'll do my best so it blends with the rest


Today's ( little ) work

Ok.. not in mood for graphics but I have put some thought into the vertical group window..

Here's the latest plan



You can use the Alt+ P shortcut to toggle the Party window right.. there is no button on the selector window for that I'm afraid :/

When the Party Window is HIDDEN, you can see some more info that should be nice when you are soloing, HP numbers, and Experiences.

When you get into a group, switch on the party window (alt+p ) and it will overlap and hide those.

(ps : for the technically inclined.. as you enter the game by default, it appears the Party Window is always on TOP of the target / player window, thus it will work as expected if you want to leave it always on)

My thinking is that in a group you dont need to check your HP so closely and also you dont need to check the experience gain so often as it is m,uch smaller in a group situation usually.. (well myself I do check it just after 10 or so fights to get an idea how things are going..)

Hopefully this solves:
- vertical group window
- experience not on main view if you dont want it (just leave party window open)
- experience & additional info while soloing, if you want it

I hope this is good and I can go on and code that, let me know if I overlooked something :P

hochorz

...I'd use your UI if for no other reason than you use halflings in your pictures

RULEST! I tell you, RULEST!

I like the latest rendition(s)....proceed my man, proceed!!!!

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Amaprotu

Few comments:

Love this UI idea, can't wait for it to be released.

I like the idea of an extra tab with the xp / hp info, if you can fit it.
Take a look at vertUI (2 or later I think) to see how to get rid of the border around the tab pages. At least that is where I learned it from.

I am very eager to get my hands on this because it is *almost* exactly what I want.
Changes I would make:
- Move the buffs out of the side, and to the large free floating format in the old UI.
- Find a place for the vertical group window that doesn't overlap other stuff, including the open inventory.

Keep up the good work.

faBBe

lol hochorz wait for next screenie I 'll put my main on it then :P suffice to say she's a warrior halfling

Amaprotu I dont plan to put the buffs onthe main view, but this will be something real easy to change for those who want, at the moment you'd have to put the window fade to 0 percent, sizable and just move it, and make the target window taller to fill in the space on the right, so maybe a 'mod' later



Im not sure what you mean, when the inventory is toggled on, it will be on top of the group window. Unless of course you toggle the Party Window while the inventoryshows but I think those overlap issues are really minor and wont happen unless you try to. The idea is when the inventory is on it exactly overlaps the target / player/ group windows, clicks do not go through empty spaces either, thus while inventory shows yo ucan still see the player window for example, but can not click it and so the inventory stays on top.

phineas101

Lookin good man. I must say, this has got to be the best UI I have seen yet. What about all the new windows i.e. Raid, Bazaar, Trader? Do you plan on making these anything special? Or just leave them alone.

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faBBe

All the windows that were in the old UI will have special treatment.. as they need to 'fit' in the left side of the viewport, those are Track, Loot, Give, Bank, Shop, .. from the top of my head.

Some popular new windows like the Bazaar and Trader will most likely get a little treatment.

Most other new windows do not respect the background texture specified in the XML, and more unnerving.. they continue to fade out ! Those will not be a great sight, but they will blend with the rest hopefully. (PS: the Actions Tabs are an example : the ACtions WIndow itself can be set to opaque, but the tabs inside will continue to fade out, also the texture for the tabs inside can not be controlled).

Progress

I have programmed the last concept screenshot

Sadly, this is what it looks like when Party Window is on and you are not grouped, and you are a pure melee : mana 0 %, and lots of 0's in the party window. Yuk. VI really need to add numbers that dont show when the gauge doesnt show.

EDIT: for pure melee there is no mana percentage actually, since I 'll have to do a pure melee version anyway for technical reasons.



I dont want to bother them now.. but I'm hoping when this is finished and working well, that they will havea a look at it and maybe improve the XML a little bit.

Amaprotu

If the buffs aren't taking up space on the right side, and I don't really need or want to see the 'main' window all the time, then it should be possible to move things around so when the inventory is open it doesn't overlap the group window. That is what I meant.

But really it is a magnificent work you have done.

faBBe

This is the latest

INVENTORY WINDOW

concept.

I'm halfway done converting it to XML, with the part hanging over the viewport to be finished.

Somehow I dont like the inventory hanging on the top border of the view, so I put it in the middle of the right side..

I think the position of the Done, Destroy and Auto Equip areas is crucial... but I don't have any better ideas now, it really need some play testing (for Beta phase).. there will be one revision probably after some good playtesting.

Let me know if you see something right now that's worth modifying.

Amaprotu

Very impressive.

My only concern is that the done and destroy buttons are too close to each other. I would suggest swapping them with the Skills / AA buttons, and maybe even seperating them (done lined up with the left, under the plat, and destroy on the right, under the copper).

I might also suggest combining the weight box and auto equip box to give a larger auto equip area. Don't really know about that though without some play testing.

faBBe

Amaprotu good point about the done & destroy, and great idea for the auto equip, it is fairly 'logical' to drop items on the weight box, if they come from the bankor a loot window you effectively increase the weight :P

Working on that today, whatever the result will be done for until Beta phase then but I think you poiinted the major corrections

PS: just working on it, and I realized I also need to make the Done button smaller, as it was in old UI, this makes it quickly differentiable from the other 3 buttons as well.

faBBe

There's the INVENTORY in game.

SCREENSHOT 1024x768 actual resolution.

I don't know why I'm not really happy with it yet, maybe it's too low and I need to move it up.

Maybe yo ucan spot something I didnt ?

Game play wise it's certainly much better with the Done button at the bottom, it'd be better to move the Done button in the sidebar though.

I have to update like 70 coordinates in the XML just to move the whole thing up or down.. dont feel like doing that now :P