Forums » Suggestions
To my (admittedly very cowardly and UITish mind), the central HUD elements of the screen should contain only information that is related directly to combat. This is to ensure that the player does not need to take his eyes off the crosshair and the enemy hopelessly trying not to be close to top that crosshair even for half a second. That split second can often cost you what little health you have that originally prompted you to let your eyes wander.
The 1.7.33 update placed the sector name and monitored status directly smack dab in the central HUD elements, instead of in the upper left hand corner, where they would have fitted very nicely in with the rest, from a survalist point of view, semi-important information. (Well, with the possible exceptions of "Target:". That can sometimes be a lifesaver ;-) ).
Somewhere close to the radar would be another logical place to put this information. But *not* among the central HUD elements. It clutters up an area that should be used for combat information solely. This is also information that is usually only viewed once when entering each sector, if even that often, which makes it even less suitable for central placement.
At the same time, some vital combat information, most importantly yours and your target's health, is displayed off-center, forcing you into the paradoxal situation that when you need to check how much health you have left, you must risk losing, well, what little health you do have left.
So, I suggest that:
# The sector name and monitored/guarded information be moved either to the upper left hand corner, or pinned to the radar somehow.
# The health bars of yourself and your your currently targeted enemy be displayed among the central HUD elements, perhaps as two additional bars to either side of the energy and and speed bars, or as small, small bars beneath or above the distance-to-jump indicator. Or even above the whole central HUD display, as a 'roof' to the U created by the distance-to-jump, speed and energy bars. Well, anywhere among the central HUD elements, really, just as long as they can be seen without taking your eyes off the combat.
# A small crosshair indicator among the central HUD elements (or perhaps a change in the appearance of the targeting reticle) that shows if auto-aim is enabled. I've gone into more than one battle wondering why my shots doesn't seem to hit my enemy, before realizing that the the lead-off indicator does not turn yellow when my targeting reticle touches it...
# The distance to the target be displayed among the central HUD elements. Perhaps replacing the jump distance above the distance-to-jump bar, or, if that information is deemed important, somewhere else on the central HUD display.
(I've also gone into more than one battle wondering my shots doesn't seem to hit my enemy, just to realize that my enemy is too good for me to hit. I've been trying to come up with a HUD addition that could help me with that, one that only I would be equipped with, but so far, the only viable idea I've had is if all other players' screens have a constant 90% reduction in visiblity. But the devs never respond to my mails suggesting this, for some strange reason...)
The 1.7.33 update placed the sector name and monitored status directly smack dab in the central HUD elements, instead of in the upper left hand corner, where they would have fitted very nicely in with the rest, from a survalist point of view, semi-important information. (Well, with the possible exceptions of "Target:". That can sometimes be a lifesaver ;-) ).
Somewhere close to the radar would be another logical place to put this information. But *not* among the central HUD elements. It clutters up an area that should be used for combat information solely. This is also information that is usually only viewed once when entering each sector, if even that often, which makes it even less suitable for central placement.
At the same time, some vital combat information, most importantly yours and your target's health, is displayed off-center, forcing you into the paradoxal situation that when you need to check how much health you have left, you must risk losing, well, what little health you do have left.
So, I suggest that:
# The sector name and monitored/guarded information be moved either to the upper left hand corner, or pinned to the radar somehow.
# The health bars of yourself and your your currently targeted enemy be displayed among the central HUD elements, perhaps as two additional bars to either side of the energy and and speed bars, or as small, small bars beneath or above the distance-to-jump indicator. Or even above the whole central HUD display, as a 'roof' to the U created by the distance-to-jump, speed and energy bars. Well, anywhere among the central HUD elements, really, just as long as they can be seen without taking your eyes off the combat.
# A small crosshair indicator among the central HUD elements (or perhaps a change in the appearance of the targeting reticle) that shows if auto-aim is enabled. I've gone into more than one battle wondering why my shots doesn't seem to hit my enemy, before realizing that the the lead-off indicator does not turn yellow when my targeting reticle touches it...
# The distance to the target be displayed among the central HUD elements. Perhaps replacing the jump distance above the distance-to-jump bar, or, if that information is deemed important, somewhere else on the central HUD display.
(I've also gone into more than one battle wondering my shots doesn't seem to hit my enemy, just to realize that my enemy is too good for me to hit. I've been trying to come up with a HUD addition that could help me with that, one that only I would be equipped with, but so far, the only viable idea I've had is if all other players' screens have a constant 90% reduction in visiblity. But the devs never respond to my mails suggesting this, for some strange reason...)
I don't know if I agree with putting the health and distance to target bars near the central hud, but I definitely agree with moving the sector information to the left hand corner. The less cluttered the area around the crosshairs is, the better. Going along with your autoaim idea, maybe something as simple as red crosshairs = aa off and white crosshairs = aa on would work.
Make it toggable, like the rest of the HUD.
Even if it were able to be toggled, there's plenty of room for it in one of the corners away from the crosshairs. Messing with the aiming area in FPS games is a bad idea.
Yep. So yes, do make it toggable, but move it off the center HUD anyways. I want to be able to see that info, not just in the middle of the screen. Making it toggable won't resolve that issue for those of us who prefer to be able to still see it.
@Ghost: The coloured crosshair idea is a great, and simple, solution. Thanks.
As for the health bars, I'd really prefer no enemy health bar at all, only visual feedback (smoke, damaged ship parts), but as long as it exist, it is good not to have to stray from the center of the screen to find them. As for your own health, it should definitively be represented somehow close to the center (although minimalistic, to, as you said, avoid messing with the aiming area too much).
@Ghost: The coloured crosshair idea is a great, and simple, solution. Thanks.
As for the health bars, I'd really prefer no enemy health bar at all, only visual feedback (smoke, damaged ship parts), but as long as it exist, it is good not to have to stray from the center of the screen to find them. As for your own health, it should definitively be represented somehow close to the center (although minimalistic, to, as you said, avoid messing with the aiming area too much).
i always wondered why such useless information like speed gets a progression bar AND number. and you and your enemies status is somewhere you would not even look at if you did not realize that there is also some inforamtion shown top right corner...
Humanbeings in countries using latin alphabet tend to read from left to right so left is the most imprtant information top left to be specific... but there is only that damn, irrelevant for combat, chat.
and so on and so on.
complainmode off / suggestionmode on
above the crosshair:
centered the number telling you your actuall speed.
left and right of it THIN line about 5 pixels high determiting distance (adjustable opacity)
No target = distance to the next big object that prevents you from jumping. Color grey
targetmode = distance to your target
Enemy color red
Friendly color green
Roid / cargo color grey
Left of the crosshair:
two lines about 1 Charater in width and about 3-5 pixels distance to each other (sure make them like the actuall quatercircles they are nice, just too big).
left bar = your health color goes from green over yellow to red.
right bar = your energy color blue
below these two lines numbers health in % and energy level
%sign below the healthbar and the first digit of the energy below the energybar
Right of the crosshair:
Enemy energy + enemy health status,
same as yours just changed in order health is always the outer one.
If enemyenergy is not a "allowed" value to be shown distance and speed would be quite intresting as well ,yes again distance then reserve the upper one only for large objects.
below the crosshair:
right to middle: Ammo left
middle to left: Target- Name, Guild, Nation, shiptype
Top left part of the screen 360 degree view in one window.
Center: in front of you
middlering left: left of you
middlering top: above you
middlering right: right of you:
middlering bottom: below you
outerring top: behind /above you
outerring left: behind left of you
... accordingly
Top right part of the screen
ship, cargo (only x/y CU), credit status, weight, + Sector map + "mini" sector infromation (colored names only but clickable whereby click = /msg playername in main chatwindow...)
Below crosshair and hud information is arrangeable space
Default:
chatwindow left
combat/eventwindow right
size and fontsize including colorpalette adjustable
can hold up to 3 chatcontainers whereby the leftone is the only one with an input field below.
each chatcontainer has it's own channel/event list
i want 100 in the middle container i check it in the middle list and uncheck it elsewhere...
i want standing messages in the main (left) chatcontainer
i uncheck it in the combat/event container (right per default) and check it at the left one...
the third is the middle one, per default not existant but suits players watching lots of channels, like guild or groupchat would fit there quite well.
below entryfield colored buttons (BUTTONS!!!! not these 2*2 pixel radio whatever you miss all the time) each for one joined channel and the serveral chats group sector guild (can be deactivated say you join 201 but don't want to post there click and drag it to the far right of the screen it will change into a tab/folder symbol and releasing the mouse then will place the "post in this channel button" in a ("joined but not contribute" folder that will be created to the far right lowest corner of the screen (if it does not exist already). clicking on the folder it will open a tab and show you the buttons for jined channel to be dragged back into the "post in these channels" line.
group display is right, below the other stuff mentioned and does not exchange already given information you got used to. it is additional information because you are not alone actually.
so your ship, your credits ... keep being top right.
Cargo is middle left of the screen below the "surrounding map/360 degree view", this time X/Y CU and icons and amounts of the cargo. not present if empty.
i like watching progress of this game but the "what kind of sector are you in actually" information i would just give an event message to be shown in the combat event window "entering Sedina K-14 (unmonitored unaligned sector)
Because this information is only usefull to newbies, after playing two weeks, you know what space you travel in.
Humanbeings in countries using latin alphabet tend to read from left to right so left is the most imprtant information top left to be specific... but there is only that damn, irrelevant for combat, chat.
and so on and so on.
complainmode off / suggestionmode on
above the crosshair:
centered the number telling you your actuall speed.
left and right of it THIN line about 5 pixels high determiting distance (adjustable opacity)
No target = distance to the next big object that prevents you from jumping. Color grey
targetmode = distance to your target
Enemy color red
Friendly color green
Roid / cargo color grey
Left of the crosshair:
two lines about 1 Charater in width and about 3-5 pixels distance to each other (sure make them like the actuall quatercircles they are nice, just too big).
left bar = your health color goes from green over yellow to red.
right bar = your energy color blue
below these two lines numbers health in % and energy level
%sign below the healthbar and the first digit of the energy below the energybar
Right of the crosshair:
Enemy energy + enemy health status,
same as yours just changed in order health is always the outer one.
If enemyenergy is not a "allowed" value to be shown distance and speed would be quite intresting as well ,yes again distance then reserve the upper one only for large objects.
below the crosshair:
right to middle: Ammo left
middle to left: Target- Name, Guild, Nation, shiptype
Top left part of the screen 360 degree view in one window.
Center: in front of you
middlering left: left of you
middlering top: above you
middlering right: right of you:
middlering bottom: below you
outerring top: behind /above you
outerring left: behind left of you
... accordingly
Top right part of the screen
ship, cargo (only x/y CU), credit status, weight, + Sector map + "mini" sector infromation (colored names only but clickable whereby click = /msg playername in main chatwindow...)
Below crosshair and hud information is arrangeable space
Default:
chatwindow left
combat/eventwindow right
size and fontsize including colorpalette adjustable
can hold up to 3 chatcontainers whereby the leftone is the only one with an input field below.
each chatcontainer has it's own channel/event list
i want 100 in the middle container i check it in the middle list and uncheck it elsewhere...
i want standing messages in the main (left) chatcontainer
i uncheck it in the combat/event container (right per default) and check it at the left one...
the third is the middle one, per default not existant but suits players watching lots of channels, like guild or groupchat would fit there quite well.
below entryfield colored buttons (BUTTONS!!!! not these 2*2 pixel radio whatever you miss all the time) each for one joined channel and the serveral chats group sector guild (can be deactivated say you join 201 but don't want to post there click and drag it to the far right of the screen it will change into a tab/folder symbol and releasing the mouse then will place the "post in this channel button" in a ("joined but not contribute" folder that will be created to the far right lowest corner of the screen (if it does not exist already). clicking on the folder it will open a tab and show you the buttons for jined channel to be dragged back into the "post in these channels" line.
group display is right, below the other stuff mentioned and does not exchange already given information you got used to. it is additional information because you are not alone actually.
so your ship, your credits ... keep being top right.
Cargo is middle left of the screen below the "surrounding map/360 degree view", this time X/Y CU and icons and amounts of the cargo. not present if empty.
i like watching progress of this game but the "what kind of sector are you in actually" information i would just give an event message to be shown in the combat event window "entering Sedina K-14 (unmonitored unaligned sector)
Because this information is only usefull to newbies, after playing two weeks, you know what space you travel in.
I agree, current HUD's design is not effective. I will not add another variant of placing it's elements in other order, I think devs have got the idea.
But if you liked my suggestion with displaying players' names over ships, maybe health bar could be displayed near it. Of course both should be togglable with one keypress
But if you liked my suggestion with displaying players' names over ships, maybe health bar could be displayed near it. Of course both should be togglable with one keypress
Some information I'd like to see (not near the central crosshairs, but possibly where the current target info is), is a summary of faction information. Currently, you have to switch to the PDA to find this out.
What might be interesting to also have, is what effect killing the target will have on your own faction standings, modified according to where you are. So attacking a Serco who is admired by Serco, hated by Itani and neutral in UIT space will show different values depending on whether you're in Serco monitored or Itani monitored for example.
All it needs to show is, whether you'll gain standing, lose standing or lose lots of standing, maybe for the top three factions which will be affected. To be honest, I've never fully understood how/when faction standing is affected (I know there are problems with it at the moment). Whether this sort of information will be more or less useful when the new faction system comes into play I don't know.
What might be interesting to also have, is what effect killing the target will have on your own faction standings, modified according to where you are. So attacking a Serco who is admired by Serco, hated by Itani and neutral in UIT space will show different values depending on whether you're in Serco monitored or Itani monitored for example.
All it needs to show is, whether you'll gain standing, lose standing or lose lots of standing, maybe for the top three factions which will be affected. To be honest, I've never fully understood how/when faction standing is affected (I know there are problems with it at the moment). Whether this sort of information will be more or less useful when the new faction system comes into play I don't know.
Jeez, wall of text. Make some mockups so my feeble mind can understand.
(I do like the <alignment><monitered status> bit being in the center of my HUD though, if only because it tells me when it's okay to crack people open. >_>)
(I do like the <alignment><monitered status> bit being in the center of my HUD though, if only because it tells me when it's okay to crack people open. >_>)
God damn, does that come in handy.
Hehe.
What steve said: Shaded needs to create some mock-ups. It would probably be pretty interesting, perhaps even enlightening, but I'm short on time.
I like Ion's idea about the health bars being close to the distance meter bar.
What steve said: Shaded needs to create some mock-ups. It would probably be pretty interesting, perhaps even enlightening, but I'm short on time.
I like Ion's idea about the health bars being close to the distance meter bar.
you want me to draw a screenshot?
or what do you mean with "mock-up"?
well no photoshop or stuff at home and my employer doesn't want me to draw stuff not related to work, i guess...
so what were you not able to understand, read it, grab a pencil and paper and draw it roughly and you'll get the idea...
small thin lines, much free space, without disturbing HUD elements.
And the hud elements present easy to recognize and understand.
those meters for speed and energy or distance are way to big already...
or what do you mean with "mock-up"?
well no photoshop or stuff at home and my employer doesn't want me to draw stuff not related to work, i guess...
so what were you not able to understand, read it, grab a pencil and paper and draw it roughly and you'll get the idea...
small thin lines, much free space, without disturbing HUD elements.
And the hud elements present easy to recognize and understand.
those meters for speed and energy or distance are way to big already...
Time = money, and I have neither...
ok not beautyfull but here is a rough ... whatever...
http://www.innovative-usability.com/mockup.jpg
it was just layed above a screenshot as you might have guessed...
now read the text again and hopefully you will find everything except the chatstufff i did not have the time for that.
but tendency is clear in a combat situation all that counts is the information around the crosshair all the other stuff ist elsewhere on the screen.
the mousepointer top right corner actually selected my target...
and yes the hud should have some opacity which i did not edit into. it also got a bit big, but well ...
in general smaller font but important information closer to the crosshair.
http://www.innovative-usability.com/mockup.jpg
it was just layed above a screenshot as you might have guessed...
now read the text again and hopefully you will find everything except the chatstufff i did not have the time for that.
but tendency is clear in a combat situation all that counts is the information around the crosshair all the other stuff ist elsewhere on the screen.
the mousepointer top right corner actually selected my target...
and yes the hud should have some opacity which i did not edit into. it also got a bit big, but well ...
in general smaller font but important information closer to the crosshair.
i expect some comments...
Key lime pie is not for everyone.
I don't like the radar overlaid on itself. I often often often in furballs rely on left-radar-right-radar glances to determine which direction to move my ship in. The two radars slapped on top of each other would confuse me to no end(And I'd die, which would make me sad.) And on that note, I expect my radar to be on the lower side of the screen. I don't know why, but I've never seen anything different.
Ammo near the center of the HUD also seems like it would be annoying- and unnecessary clutter for energy users. Ammo doesn't disappear fast enough in a fight(or shouldn't) to need to be in the center of your view. (For note, I fly sunflares or iceflares nearly exclusively)
Target distance is placed well, but I don't like having two readouts being the same- might confuse new players who thing they mean different things.
Their name/guild/alignment is something that only needs to be looked at once before a fight. I don't think that should be in the center either.
Is that an enemy energy bar, or a redundant energy bar on the right? Either way- it's either something we shouldn't know, or redundant and should be removed.
Health bars near the center is cool, but having a big bright green arc in the center of my view is distracting. Green is the first color the human eye picks up, and unless on the fringe of view, it ends up drawing attention towards it and getting the pilot killed.
The blue energy bar to the left needs to be balanced out somehow, but not by a redundant one. Perhaps make it beneath the crosshairs and change in size similar to the distance meter.
The toplist in the upper-right is an interesting idea, but it might end up making the HUD too cluttered anyway.
Why do you need the navmap on the HUD?
Also- why do you need two personal health-readouts?
Your own speed doesn't seem like an important statistic to me, mostly I rely on how the enemy is moving in relation to me instead of some arbitrary number I can barely wrap my head around anyway. Also, a constantly changing number front and center will constantly grab for attention, as well as overshadow the much smaller(and much more important) distance sidebar(Redundant interface bits and twiddles are death, pretend it's back to one sidebar like it should be).
Overall, I like on this layout:
-Toplist on HUD. Might work, but I don't think there's room. Cool feature, but 'u' isn't far away and recent lua addons make it sort of useless.
-Enemy health bar and ship health near center of the screen, as long as it isn't a garish green.
-Target distance above crosshairs
Things I don't like:
-Everything else
Edit: As a personal tidbit, I'd like to be able to animate the HUD so that information is in the center for as long as it is important and relevant, and then it slides off to the side for later reference when its time in the spotlight is up. And having the interface element positions changeable to my liking, and being able to reposition them and make lua scripts to control the elements themselves, etc etc.
Ammo near the center of the HUD also seems like it would be annoying- and unnecessary clutter for energy users. Ammo doesn't disappear fast enough in a fight(or shouldn't) to need to be in the center of your view. (For note, I fly sunflares or iceflares nearly exclusively)
Target distance is placed well, but I don't like having two readouts being the same- might confuse new players who thing they mean different things.
Their name/guild/alignment is something that only needs to be looked at once before a fight. I don't think that should be in the center either.
Is that an enemy energy bar, or a redundant energy bar on the right? Either way- it's either something we shouldn't know, or redundant and should be removed.
Health bars near the center is cool, but having a big bright green arc in the center of my view is distracting. Green is the first color the human eye picks up, and unless on the fringe of view, it ends up drawing attention towards it and getting the pilot killed.
The blue energy bar to the left needs to be balanced out somehow, but not by a redundant one. Perhaps make it beneath the crosshairs and change in size similar to the distance meter.
The toplist in the upper-right is an interesting idea, but it might end up making the HUD too cluttered anyway.
Why do you need the navmap on the HUD?
Also- why do you need two personal health-readouts?
Your own speed doesn't seem like an important statistic to me, mostly I rely on how the enemy is moving in relation to me instead of some arbitrary number I can barely wrap my head around anyway. Also, a constantly changing number front and center will constantly grab for attention, as well as overshadow the much smaller(and much more important) distance sidebar(Redundant interface bits and twiddles are death, pretend it's back to one sidebar like it should be).
Overall, I like on this layout:
-Toplist on HUD. Might work, but I don't think there's room. Cool feature, but 'u' isn't far away and recent lua addons make it sort of useless.
-Enemy health bar and ship health near center of the screen, as long as it isn't a garish green.
-Target distance above crosshairs
Things I don't like:
-Everything else
Edit: As a personal tidbit, I'd like to be able to animate the HUD so that information is in the center for as long as it is important and relevant, and then it slides off to the side for later reference when its time in the spotlight is up. And having the interface element positions changeable to my liking, and being able to reposition them and make lua scripts to control the elements themselves, etc etc.
you did read the text?
1. the radar is not overlaid it is a single spheric view in the only way all other huds expirienced in my gameplay life (which is kinda long meanwhile) makes sense.
you would not have to move left - right it is all in that thing.
What you call "left" is the front till the middle of the red zone (which is just there to show that this is the area for left right above below)
"right" would be from the middle of the red zone to the edge of the circle. which is the reason for putting it into one single spheric view you don't have to wander the screen entirley from left to right just to switch from target to chaser ... you see them all in one view.
colors: again did you read the text? 1. the opacitty is missing.
2. if it is not green anymore something must have gone wrong (only applies for the left side of course)
turn ist 20% alpha and it would work great also some seperation is missing.
but as long as it shows the health bars i would not care if green or magenta or grey i picked green because for this demonstration i am actually at 100% health 50 would be yellow and 0 red.
speed and distance: give you that. speed could also be where ammo is shown and the distance text where the speed is....
enemy energy bar: did you read the text? (*sighs*)
if the enemyenergy is not of our concern then make it distance to the target 0-500 and leave the upper for big objects.
i need the nav map on the hud because it annoyes me constantly to recheck if i need to go to the wormwhole or away from it... and because i want to set course quickly to escape maybe.
it is one personal health readout the other is the target.
guess which is which.
size of the hud is not perfect actually, i just did some quick pathes and pasted them in as grfx, done. it is just to catch the idea, should be a bit smaller though...
1. the radar is not overlaid it is a single spheric view in the only way all other huds expirienced in my gameplay life (which is kinda long meanwhile) makes sense.
you would not have to move left - right it is all in that thing.
What you call "left" is the front till the middle of the red zone (which is just there to show that this is the area for left right above below)
"right" would be from the middle of the red zone to the edge of the circle. which is the reason for putting it into one single spheric view you don't have to wander the screen entirley from left to right just to switch from target to chaser ... you see them all in one view.
colors: again did you read the text? 1. the opacitty is missing.
2. if it is not green anymore something must have gone wrong (only applies for the left side of course)
turn ist 20% alpha and it would work great also some seperation is missing.
but as long as it shows the health bars i would not care if green or magenta or grey i picked green because for this demonstration i am actually at 100% health 50 would be yellow and 0 red.
speed and distance: give you that. speed could also be where ammo is shown and the distance text where the speed is....
enemy energy bar: did you read the text? (*sighs*)
if the enemyenergy is not of our concern then make it distance to the target 0-500 and leave the upper for big objects.
i need the nav map on the hud because it annoyes me constantly to recheck if i need to go to the wormwhole or away from it... and because i want to set course quickly to escape maybe.
it is one personal health readout the other is the target.
guess which is which.
size of the hud is not perfect actually, i just did some quick pathes and pasted them in as grfx, done. it is just to catch the idea, should be a bit smaller though...
dead thread now? any dev note?
*shamelessly bumbing mine and Shaded's ideas*
Devs, did you ever see this?
Devs, did you ever see this?