yaniv

Although I'm not a big fan of symmetric design (i.e. companion for each class, quest for each companion, etc.), I vote for the new stretch goals and I will chip in in order to let the designers add the "missing parts".

I Iike to know more about the game designers thoughts. Do you think that you need to add more wilderness/companions in order to make the game complete but you don't have the budget to do that, or is it for satisfying backers request? I also would like to know, if possible, what is the current ratio between wilderness activity to town activity?

For that reason I think that placing most of the buttons and the quick slots on the bottom of the U will be a better idea (portraits on the left or right vertical bar will mostly be used for monitoring). I believe that in most cases (especially if one like to center its party on screen during combat) mouse travel from character-model to bottom-center will be shorter and additionally I find a horizontal buttons-bar to be more comfortable to use. Certainly bottom center for buttons is most convenient. Unfortunately, Josh Sawyer stated that they don't want excessive mouse travel from portraits to buttons. I don't know the exact game mechanisms but, for example, in DA the buttons are on a horizontal bar and the portraits are placed vertically. I find the DA UI during combat/exploration to be convenient and I don't remember any excessive mouse travel (on my 24" display). Another point to consider is that horizontal buttons bar enable placing a lot of quick slots that will enable direct acces and so reducing the need for pop-up menus. Maybe having mini portrait(s) on the horizontal bar in addition to large portraits on a vertical bar will make every one happy? Another option is to have compact UI (i.e. few buttons that open pop-up menus) near the vertical portraits in addition to fully or semi customize bottom-center buttons bar. I don't uderstand why sub-menus that are opened from bottom-center are more problematic then those that are opened from the right bar. Additionally, without knowing the exact game mechanisms and taking DA as an example, the bottom-center can be width enough to eliminate the need of sub-menus.

For that reason I think that placing most of the buttons and the quick slots on the bottom of the U will be a better idea (portraits on the left or right vertical bar will mostly be used for monitoring). I believe that in most cases (especially if one like to center its party on screen during combat) mouse travel from character-model to bottom-center will be shorter and additionally I find a horizontal buttons-bar to be more comfortable to use.

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/63854-ui-style-preference/page-3?do=findComment&comment=1336520

Following my suggestion. For high res image: http://46.4.209.115/PE-UI-100.jpg For clean high res image: http://46.4.209.115/PE-UI.jpg