New GUI: Design & Features Discussion

[WhiteTreePaladin]

Didn't know there was another texture for bars -where is it?

I don't like the icons for attack and armor. I tried to do that but they always looked bad that small. When I made them larger, it looked like they were crammed in there.

I like the civ icon though, shouldn't be hard.

I don't mind the resources on top of the icon, but if we're doing that simply because the unit names are too long then I think our unit names are too long.

[Shield Bearer]

Hmm...I have to say, I don't like the split up GUI either :/ My eyes can't settle on one thing, they just keep moving here and there trying to figure out where things are

@Brian: What textures do you use for the health and stamina bars? I've made some nice ones in the ui/session/icons folder, why don't you check them out? Or tell me how to change them

EDIT: its art/ui/session/icons

Didn't know there was another texture for bars -where is it?

I don't like the icons for attack and armor. I tried to do that but they always looked bad that small. When I made them larger, it looked like they were crammed in there.

I like the civ icon though, shouldn't be hard.

I don't mind the resources on top of the icon, but if we're doing that simply because the unit names are too long then I think our unit names are too long.

I was thinking of something more minimal for the attack and armor sections

Yes, that's really why I'd rather not make short our unit names

[howlingflute]

I don't like the concept of resources over the picture. So here is my concept of a possible layout. I moved the icons for attack and defense to the right so it is more clear that they correspond to the stats also I made them smaller. In the space I freed up I put the gathering resource stacked on top of its number. I also kept shield bearers civ icon idea since I think thats pretty cool.

[Deiz]

I tried squeezing the resources in with the specific name, but it either made the specific name's vertical area huge, or required removing the generic name's box so the resource count could go in the vertical space between the specific and generic names. Putting the resource information on top of the portrait seems like a much better idea; it avoids mucking up the spacing for non-gatherer units.

I don't feel the player-coloured portrait border adds anything that the shading behind the player name doesn't. The overlapping portrait seems to mostly come from the earlier mock-up where the portrait was much larger, and as Pureon mentioned it currently overlaps the barter buttons in the market. At the current size (96x96px), it could fit into the pane, like so:

Everything is rather more compact, but I don't mind it (and the spacing is fairly consistent - 20px for player, 20px for generic name, 22px for specific name). I used a hero's armour stats to show that three double-digit figures fit, but just barely. It'd likely be an issue if "Attack" and "Armor" are translated. That said, there's 46px between the bottom of the statistics panel and the bottom of the stamina bar, compared to the older mock-up's 35px. That may be sufficient to allow for intelligible icons.

[kosmo]

I like this one. To the resource count: Why not switiching the stamina bar directly under the health bar, so there would be place for the resource.

Like this:

Health: 100/100

______________ (<-health bar)

______________ (<-stamina bar)

Stamina 4/20

Edited June 11, 2012 by kosmo

[Wijitmaker]

For the split vs. center preference, would it be difficult to allow the user to choose via a configuration setting?

[WhiteTreePaladin]

Barter section is already fixed. I did that yesterday.

Also, I'd really rather not have two interfaces at this point, so let's figure out what we want. Multiple interfaces might be nice at some point though.

[Pureon]

Like historic_bruno and others have said, my preference would be to stick to the center layout for now.

[Mythos_Ruler]

1. I don't like the color band around the portrait. It's overkill since we have the color band behind the player name (which looks very nice).

2. I'd say let's stick with the unified center version for now, then perhaps we can do more to make them into their own panels that can be moved wherever the player wishes (in UI setup screen). Or, the center version can have an option to be placed into the left corner. They look exactly the same, but just centered or left-justified. Then all we need is to make a version that goes into the right corner or is right-justified. It would be slightly different, as the minimap will need swapped over into the corner, but the overall layout would be the same.

[WhiteTreePaladin]

Ok, those are pretty easy to change.

[Wijitmaker]

Just had a thought (and it is probably more complicated), instead of a config setting... what if players were allowed to dock the panels wherever they chose during the game? There could be predetermined locations (bottom left, center, and right) that the panels would snap to. Just grab something representing a handle and move it to whatever configuration you choose.

[Mythos_Ruler]

Just had a thought (and it is probably more complicated), instead of a config setting... what if players were allowed to dock the panels wherever they chose during the game? There could be predetermined locations (bottom left, center, and right) that the panels would snap to. Just grab something representing a handle and move it to whatever configuration you choose.

That's kind of what I've been thinking, but I think the player should have to do this in a separate screen. I could see accidental problems arising with allowing this in-game

[WhiteTreePaladin]

We'd need a new GUI system for that.

[MishFTW]

How feasible is a new GUI system? Doesn't have to be top priority or anything but what Jason described above seems pretty wicked.

[zoot]

Totally put it out as something you "would like". As with the sound system, someone might pick it up just because they find it interesting.

[k776]

Ok, lets settle on something for Alpha 11, and then we can think about a new GUI system in the future.

@Brian: Go ahead and put the panels back together, then implement this please:

It satisfies nearly every requirement/preference for the new panel.

[Mythos_Ruler]

Ok, lets settle on something for Alpha 11, and then we can think about a new GUI system in the future.

@Brian: Go ahead and put the panels back together, then implement this please:

It satisfies nearly every requirement/preference for the new panel.

One tweak I would like to see is the Hack, Pierce, and Crush values aligning vertically. Otherwise, I am okay with this layout.

[historic_bruno]

How about something like this?

The carried resource icon overlaps the unit portrait, I don't see much problems with having it there, so correct me if I'm wrong

I just played around with the stats area, instead of text we can use icons and hence save some more space. Of course we'll need to make some optimized icons for the resolution

Another thing I did, just to beautify the area was add the civ specific emblem or shield. This would change to the respective civ of the selected unit. How feasible is that?

I reaaally like that emblem under the player name. Otherwise the only way we have to find a unit's civ is a tooltip on the player name. It's perfectly feasible if we get the sprites made (perhaps in monochrome with high contrast so they look OK under different player colors?)

[historic_bruno]

Thanks again to everyone that's helped out:

Time to ask Brian whether any of this is possible?

Let's try getting closer to this, which had a pretty good consensus a few days ago. Showing the armor/attack stats just doesn't seem feasible without throwing it all out of balance.

Basically, allocating a space just for rows of attack/armor stats gives them precedence over something else in the UI (and in a prominent location as the eye will travel from the top edge down), but they're static, precedence should be given to dynamic data like resource count, HP, XP, etc. where the user actually needs to look at the UI to see what's going on.

[k776]

How about this?

(combined the name panels, swapped food/sheild icon positions, rounded off health bars)

[Mythos_Ruler]

Pretty much this

But with Kieran's civ logo ribbon under the player name.

Let's make sure to get those graphical stat bars from the first one.

[k776]

I like the combined name though in my mockup. The generic/specific being separated in the other one looks weird.

[Mythos_Ruler]

I like the combined name though in my mockup. The generic/specific being separated in the other one looks weird.

Yeah, yours is better in that regard.

[Potter]

I like the combined name though in my mockup. The generic/specific being separated in the other one looks weird.

Agree! It looks weird...

[plumo]

I'm not really convinced with the new mockup

IMO the position of the unit icon and the unit information doesnt feel 'right'.. hard to explain. Too crowded ?