Gairnulf

Yeah but this filter's function will most probably be pre-set. From coding point of view the fine filter for messages means different messages will have to be categorized into more broadly or more narrowly defined groups (preferrably more narrowly defined), and then you would need a special space somewhere in the options screen where you get to configure which groups of messages should be displayed. And that's quite a bit of work & time spent on testing it after it's been written. If you have some experience with coding, sorry if I'm explaining things you already know. I think what's realistic to push for is two modes of verbosity, meaning two groups of combat messages, where one group is not displayed unless you mark a checkbox somewhere in the options.

No it won't because sometimes one attack can create five different lines. And I mean filter out messages, like I don't care that BB Fighter is healed 2 Endurance by Constant Recovery every few seconds. I don't care about reading if people are engaged - stuff like that. No it won't because sometimes one attack can create five different lines. And I mean filter out messages, like I don't care that BB Fighter is healed 2 Endurance by Constant Recovery every few seconds. I don't care about reading if people are engaged - stuff like that. Big thumbs up on that one. Much of what goes in the combat log is pointless info. And god's sake stop posting "weapon is ineffective" when your system for determining a weapon is ineffective is just whether or not it did more than 3-5 damage. Maybe I had a bad roll, maybe the mob just has a crap ton of DT, if it did damage (regardless of how little) it wasn't "ineffective", it just did crap damage. Haha, you should have seen me, I also had autopause enabled on weapon ineffective @Sensuki, then how do you think it should work - nothing but hit rolls by default? And maybe an extra-verbose mode that looks like it does currenty?

Isn't there currently a filter that filters between dialogue and combat messages? BTW, the information overload coming from many lines being outputted at once will resolve itself once combat speed gets slowed down.

I agree with you, and the same thing crossed my mind as well. In the next version I make, I'll put the buttons on the right and have the combat log in the middle. But if I could choose, my priority would be to have UI elements form a straight and uninterrupted line, with as few holes as possible. In my opinion, the space we currently have underneath the UI and between its parts is useless. BTW did you know that the 20px high strip of the screen that's visible underneath the UI is actually deliberately shaded in order to look darker, that's not due to the fog of war making it darker? I wonder why would they do that, for me these 20px are just lost screen space with nothing gained at their cost. On the plus side, I like it that they have no bars of UI elements stretching on the sides of the screen. In BGII it sometimes felt like too much screen space was being lost. It can be fixed and made more usable though. I tend to scroll up and down inside it whenever I'm not sure what's occuring in the battle.

I thought they were going to add more animations for the final release, or am I wrong? I like when the animations hook into slashes, blocks and ripostes, like in DAO, NWN, but this has its own complications.

It's currently scalabe in the game. The main problems I see with the current layout is that I have to look down and right to see the combat log, instead of just down, and also I think the portrats can be closer together and we don't need around 20px space to the bottom of the HUD. IMO the center bottom space is too important and convenient for a quick glance to be taken up by buttons for which we have shortcuts. Buttons are mostly static while the combat log updates its contents often. Maybe I'll try another version where the center buttons are on the right side and the combat log is between them and the portraits, BG style.

I agree that if we didn't need halos over characters in the old games, we can get by without them now just as well. But I'm not completely convinced they aren't an improvement.

That's because there's a lack of animation feedback. If you could see at a glance whether a character is in recovery time or not based on their current stance/animation then you wouldn't *need* a bar above their head. Yes, I also find health bars for characters superfluous because you have a portrait that displays their current health/endurance anyway. It's fine for enemies and summons etc but superfluous for party members. I thought of this as a possible counter argument as well. I guess it's a matter of preference - receiving feedback only from animations should take a little (hopefully very little) time for getting used to, but on the other hand it will concentrate the player's eyes on the characters. With the indicators it's the opposite, or at least it should be - they are a bit misleading right now, because they are of equal length but of different speed with which they shorten.

I plan to use this thread to dump all my UI ideas, suggestions, more or less polished. Isn't the best thing about being a designer, especially in games, that everyone is second-guessing you? I spent about an hour playing with the main UI today (no, really, it almost didn't feel like work ). I am trying to choose between a few different layouts that I like, and thought to share the first one with you to get more feedback. I'm pretty confident that the current UI can be significantly optimized to for better use of screen space. (BTW I fail to see why I'm limited in file size of attached picture if the forum would then resize them to be even smaller) Just to let you know if you haven't noticed, in the current version of the beta, there is one full line of space between two lines of text in the combat log. This means you can only fit two lines of text if the combat log's height is reduced to the maximum. In my example I've used a normal line height which leaves a couple of pixels between lines, much like in the text in forum posts here. Use this link to see the image in full size and avoid the forum's silly gallery plugin: http://imagizer.imageshack.us/a/img673/4474/7Bkz79.jpg

[Description of the issue] When you hide the UI (default Ctrl+H) this also hides the green lasso for making selections of units, disables the hover effect when you are hovering over units, the hover effect when a unit is selected and you hover over a door or over a container, basically disables all visual feedback for your [DETAILED list of steps to reproduce the issue AND what to look for] - Load a game - Hide the UI - Select a character by clicking on it or dragging around it - Move the character around - Try to send the character into a building or have him open a container [Expected behaviour] Only the hud and the circles under chracters should hide, the lasso and hover effects should stay when the UI is hidden (at least that's my opinion of how it should work).

Really? I found this to be one of the most annoying battle music tracks in the BG series. Or actually games. After the second battle with this piece i turned of the music until I was out of the dungeon... Frankly so did I while I was playing it years ago. I find my taste has changed now though.

Attaching this here because I hit the 1MB of attachments limit in the previous post. MIssing Hour - DyrfordRuins 7865397.zip

You can see what I mean on the screenshots. The "Last Modified" timestamp on my autosave savegame is 14:26:38 which on the load screen is shown as "2:6 PM". I also have a Dyford Ruins savegame dated 14:28:02 which in the game is shown as "2:8 PM", which leads me to think only the second digit from the minutes is displayed. On the other hand, there are savegames with times displayed correctly. In others either the hour or the "A" or "P" is missing. I can't catch the pattern here. Missing A or P - DyrfordVillage 7629963.zip

This happened when I attempted to load a game. The savegame is attached as well, in case you need it too, in addition to the crash report. f88f548cdcbe44229c71e64bee59973a DyrfordRuins 7865397.zip 2014-11-02_142340.zip

The IE games have a thing called "Speed Factor" which kind of doubles as Initiative, it adds a delay to when characters start to attack. I see. But I guess the delay is still within the limits of the current round? I don't think recovery timers are vital, but they make combat more convenient to follow, for me at least. They could do away with the health meters above characters, but then we would just have to hover over a character's head every time we want to get an idea of how much health they have left. The health bars save us this hovering. Combat is probably the most commented topic, so I'd be very surprised if they are not considering changes.

It's teeming with insects, that's for sure

I agree such a feature shouldn't be necessary. I was surprised when I found out about it, but it was really useful in my first couple of battles yesterday, when I was still figuring out what happens. I have almost cleared the Dyrford ruins today, almost without resorting to it.

Something went wrong with the shadow here. I'm not sure but it could have to do with me using the "shimmying across the chasm" option, I think it caused the area to load again. Or it may happen at game load.

[Description of the issue] In the mill, I only hear the sound of the wheels if they are they are visble on the screen. Move away a little and they're completely mute. [DETAILED list of steps to reproduce the issue AND what to look for] - Enter the mill in Dyrford village - Center the water wheel on the screen. You should hear the sound of it rolling. - Center the two men on the other side of the mill area on the screen, leaving the wheel offscreen Result: The sound of the water wheel stops completely [Expected behaviour] The sound of the water wheel should be audible, maybe a little more quiet.

In the Journal, in the "Stronghold" article in the Glossary, the word "will" is mistakenly linked to the article about the Will attribute.

[Description of the issue] If you have scrolled one shopkeep's list of items to the bottom, the next shopkeep you trade with will also have his items scrolled to the bottom. [DETAILED list of steps to reproduce the issue AND what to look for] - Open trade interface with a trader. - Scroll down some. No need to buy anything. - Exit the trade interface by clicking the X button. - Go to another trader and trade with them. Result: - The second trader's trade interface is scrolled to where you left the first one. [Expected behaviour] The second trader's trade interface should be scrolled to the top. [Other remarks / Comments] I know the whole trade interface is a mess right now, but I guess you have it in mind to rework it, so I'm not going to post all the issues I've found there.

[Description of the issue] Trying to open a container with multiple characters selected will send the character that's closest to the container to try to open it. [DETAILED list of steps to reproduce the issue AND what to look for] Test case: - Select multiple characters - Click on a container Result: - The character closest to the container goes and opens it. [Expected behaviour] - The character with the leftmost selected portrait should go and open it. Sorry if it's a known issue.

[Description of the issue] I can still spot dead enemies. I can tell because of the message and autopause in the game log. [DETAILED list of steps to reproduce the issue AND what to look for] After you've killed an enemy, and are out of combat, go away from the area of the dead enemy so that the FOW covers it, and then return so that you see its corpse again. Enable auto pause on enemy sighted to make the issue easier to spot. The game should autopause when the dead enemy is within view of the party. [Expected behaviour] Nothing should happen. [Other remarks / Comments] Exiting and reentering the area doesn't get rid of the issue.

To reproduce, minimize the central bar, then stretch the combat log, and then click the button to restore the central bar. Sorry if it's a known issue.

Upon trying to exit the Dyrford ruins I got a black screen with an ingame mouse pointer and no disk activity for a couple of minutes. Savegame attached. Upon restarting the game, Dyrford Crossing loaded normally (from the attached savegame) and it was daytime, which was also shown on the savegame preview thumbnail in the Load Game screen. I went to Dyrford, sold some items, rested at the inn and upon trying to go back into the Dyrford ruins, I had another hanging up - no disk activity for about a minute. I alt-tabbed and saw a modal window with the contents: The game crashed. The crash report folder named "2014-11-02_011932" next to game executable. It would be great if you'd send it to the developer of the game! So, I'm sending it. Good luck! autosave.zip 2014-11-02_011932.zip