Possible Alpha-ish PoE UI screencap

[J.E. Sawyer]

The abilities pop up above the portrait row, so you select the character, move up to select the ability, and then target it (if it needs to be targeted).

[Silent Winter]

Ha, I was right about the backing panels and embellishments being added later.

 

Will character-specific action bars pop up above the other UI elements, or fill up the central space that otherwise houses the non-specific actions, or some third option?

I'd prefer them to use that central space but Josh's comment above suggests they're going to be upwards from the portraits 

It's not awkward at all to click on the portrait and move up to select an ability (since you're often going to be moving up to target the ability you just selected anyway).

 

which I guess is ok, depending on how intrusive it is into the game window.  (I dislike the UI elements overlapping into the 'gamespace' - call me weird but I like the 'control panel' to be separate from the 'world').  Having said that, I'm sure I'll get used to it.

 

Edit: Ninja'd by Josh 

(that's my second ninja'd today)

Edited April 25, 2014 by Silent Winter

[Silent Winter]

The abilities pop up above the portrait row, so you select the character, move up to select the ability, and then target it (if it needs to be targeted).

Question: Does this mean they pop up vertically or in a new horizontal row above the portrait row?  (My first imagining was the former but I'd far prefer the latter)

[J.E. Sawyer]

Horizontal above the portrait row.

[Mor]

 

I think this post address many of concerns voiced in previous pages (notably the second paragraph):

 

 

 

 

Action bars are now character-specific.  In the IE games, group and individual actions tended to share the same "line" of space, so regardless of who was selected or how many characters were selected, a decent chunk of the UI was always taken up by space reserved for those icons.  In PoE, all actions that can be performed concurrently by any number of characters have been moved to the center cluster (e.g. attack, cancel, scout, etc.).  So when you have multiple characters selected (typically while mass moving/exploring), you don't see an action bar.  As soon as you select an individual character, you will see their specific list of abilities, spells, etc.

 

Revisions to the UI were done with independent clusters of elements because it was way faster and easier to iterate in that way instead of always going back to modify backing panels. The portrait borders are thin but they aren't "wireframes" unless "wireframe" just means narrow. They're all textured and have decorative elements that overlap into the portrait space.  That said, now that we're happy with the general layout of elements, Kaz will be building (optional) solid backing panels to frame all of the components.  The backing panels will form a solid block across the bottom of the screen.  You also have the option of collapsing the central button cluster and the dialogue/combat log window so you're just left with portraits (ToEE-style).  In that mode, you can still activate/access all of the hidden actions with hotkeys.

 

All portraits have health bars.  Monks, ciphers, and chanters have an extra bottom element to their portrait frames to show their class-specific resources (wounds, focus, and phrases).  Stamina loss is displayed as red fill.  We will likely also include numbers for Stamina/Health display (it's pretty straightforward to implement that).  It's not awkward at all to click on the portrait and move up to select an ability (since you're often going to be moving up to target the ability you just selected anyway).

 

 

 

My take on things:

1.

In PoE, all actions that can be performed concurrently by any number of characters have been moved to the center cluster (e.g. attack, cancel, scout, etc.). So when you have multiple characters selected (typically while mass moving/exploring), you don't see an action bar.  As soon as you select an individual character, you will see their specific list of abilities, spells, etc.

I like this, its an elegant solution which both functional and allows us to avoid overloaded UI with way too many small and hard to decipher one from another icons that attempt to gouge out my eyes. -- Also what about that scouting action?

 

2. I like that the design offer optional UI elements that would cater to both "minimalist" and those who prefer a solid UI "IE style"

 

The abilities pop up above the portrait row, so you select the character, move up to select the ability, and then target it (if it needs to be targeted).

I have trouble to visualize this, either there will be way less abilities available to each characters than what I assumed, or it will get really crowded there.

Edited April 26, 2014 by Mor

[J.E. Sawyer]

It doesn't get crowded.  The icons fill in from left to right, starting above the left-most portrait (in this case, Eder).

[Lephys]

^ It seems as though the action bar only pops up on an individual character-selection basis, Mor. Meaning, there's no worry of "encroaching" on another character's "above-my-potrait" space, since you're only ever going to see one action bar at a time.

[Silent Winter]

Horizontal above the portrait row.

Awesome - now I'm imagining it correctly, it looks perfectly fine

[curryinahurry]

It doesn't get crowded.  The icons fill in from left to right, starting above the left-most portrait (in this case, Eder).

 

Are there sub-menus or do spells, abilities, etc. just continue to run horizontally towards right?  If there are sub-menus, do they form a second row above the first row of primary abilities?

Edited April 26, 2014 by curryinahurry

[Hormalakh]

Good. As long as there is a solid UI, I'll be happy.

Edited April 26, 2014 by Hormalakh

[Karkarov]

Action bars are now character-specific.  In the IE games, group and individual actions tended to share the same "line" of space, so regardless of who was selected or how many characters were selected, a decent chunk of the UI was always taken up by space reserved for those icons.  In PoE, all actions that can be performed concurrently by any number of characters have been moved to the center cluster (e.g. attack, cancel, scout, etc.).  So when you have multiple characters selected (typically while mass moving/exploring), you don't see an action bar.  As soon as you select an individual character, you will see their specific list of abilities, spells, etc.

One word.  Awesome.  I am thoroughly happy to see this post and hear that Obsidian is going with a forward thinking UI that utilizes modern design without losing functionality while also minimizing lost screen real estate.  Especially since it will be mostly modular and allow for those who want those art panels to have them. Excellent news, seriously no real words for how excited I am to see that post.

[Sensuki]

Horizontal above the portrait row.

 

I am happy about the solution with the optional solid background as that solves both issues for solid and minimalist crowds. Will the action bar icons have some sort of fancy border around each button? even if just a gold or copper border?

 

 

 

 

**** off Infinitron.

Lol, I see the RPG Codex mentality slipping in the Obsidian forums.

We are actually both from there, and were having a discussion about it over there. So a cheeky snipe on here results in a cheeky reply.

Edited April 26, 2014 by Sensuki

[IndiraLightfoot]

Action bars are now character-specific.  In the IE games, group and individual actions tended to share the same "line" of space, so regardless of who was selected or how many characters were selected, a decent chunk of the UI was always taken up by space reserved for those icons.  In PoE, all actions that can be performed concurrently by any number of characters have been moved to the center cluster (e.g. attack, cancel, scout, etc.).  So when you have multiple characters selected (typically while mass moving/exploring), you don't see an action bar.  As soon as you select an individual character, you will see their specific list of abilities, spells, etc.

 

Revisions to the UI were done with independent clusters of elements because it was way faster and easier to iterate in that way instead of always going back to modify backing panels. The portrait borders are thin but they aren't "wireframes" unless "wireframe" just means narrow. They're all textured and have decorative elements that overlap into the portrait space.  That said, now that we're happy with the general layout of elements, Kaz will be building (optional) solid backing panels to frame all of the components.  The backing panels will form a solid block across the bottom of the screen.  You also have the option of collapsing the central button cluster and the dialogue/combat log window so you're just left with portraits (ToEE-style).  In that mode, you can still activate/access all of the hidden actions with hotkeys.

 

All portraits have health bars.  Monks, ciphers, and chanters have an extra bottom element to their portrait frames to show their class-specific resources (wounds, focus, and phrases).  Stamina loss is displayed as red fill.  We will likely also include numbers for Stamina/Health display (it's pretty straightforward to implement that).  It's not awkward at all to click on the portrait and move up to select an ability (since you're often going to be moving up to target the ability you just selected anyway).

This is just excellent!!!

 

Ha, I was right about the backing panels and embellishments being added later.

 

 

Me too (and it makes so much sense - in this way, most peeps should be happy).

 

The abilities pop up above the portrait row, so you select the character, move up to select the ability, and then target it (if it needs to be targeted).

Great for visibility and minimal mouse movements. Clever choice, once again!

[Hassat Hunter]

So, I guess there will be no optional L-shaped UI for people like me who prefer that.

Hopefully we can mod it in relatively fast though...

 

And the 'slide out to save space... so far I see 2 extra icons (and no space for more (EDIT: Well, maybe 2 more on the other side. So really does only fit people without bar, since that space is usually covered anyway)... that doesn't really bode too well for character specials, or is really that much 'saved space' if not always shown... :?

Edited April 26, 2014 by Hassat Hunter

[Karranthain]

Revisions to the UI were done with independent clusters of elements because it was way faster and easier to iterate in that way instead of always going back to modify backing panels. The portrait borders are thin but they aren't "wireframes" unless "wireframe" just means narrow. They're all textured and have decorative elements that overlap into the portrait space.  That said, now that we're happy with the general layout of elements, Kaz will be building (optional) solid backing panels to frame all of the components.  The backing panels will form a solid block across the bottom of the screen.  You also have the option of collapsing the central button cluster and the dialogue/combat log window so you're just left with portraits (ToEE-style).  In that mode, you can still activate/access all of the hidden actions with hotkeys.

 

That sounds like a reasonable compromise.

 

[WorstUsernameEver]

Stamina loss is displayed as red fill.

That's an old-school element that I could have done without. Maybe it'll work fine with the color schemes for the portraits you've done in-house, but there's potential for it not reading well with custom ones. It certainly didn't work perfectly in the IE games. Is there the option to turn on some kind of number indicators over the portraits?

[Mor]

^ It seems as though the action bar only pops up on an individual character-selection basis, Mor. Meaning, there's no worry of "encroaching" on another character's "above-my-potrait" space, since you're only ever going to see one action bar at a time.

The way I understood it the action bar is the always visible middle element of the UI, which content will depend on whether you selected an individual character or group. While the abilities bar will pop up separately "above the portrait row". But you right since its individual character-selection basis, the way Josh described, it will work.

 

I am happy about this, because with many of the community UI design suggestions I always felt like the portraits, abilities and characters status effects got cramped into a very tiny spot and thus had to be downscaled to fit. Here they have all the space they need to use clear, stylized and most importantly easily decipherable icons at a glance (as opposed to tiny icons that except for color scheme clues, hover tool being the only way to figure it out)

 

EDIT:

Btw, I recently decided looked up what other things has been done on the UI and feedback front. Here is entry that might not be 100% on topic but interesting nevertheless (found at SA paywall):

 

"From the character sheet, you can directly access an in-game summary of the rules (this appeared in the IE games as an "Information" button). You will learn information about enemies as you fight them. I don't just mean that in the obvious sense, but almost all creatures will have a cyclopedia entry. The more of these creatures you fight, the more information gets filled in about them. Once you know the standard defenses of a creature, those default values appear on their tooltips (in grey) until you attack them and learn the actual value.

 

In the combat log and character sheet, we will also be supporting brief/verbose outputs of formulae. Hovering over an entry will always give a verbose breakdown of what's going on."

Edited April 26, 2014 by Mor

[Haerski]

Will it be possible to move those individual elements around on screen or do we have other options regarding the UI placement? For example can I move portraits on a vertical column on either side of the screen and can I change size of UI elements? Design sounds nice as it is and option to have solid background surely makes lot of people happy, but more options are always more options.

[sesobebo]

Stamina loss is displayed as red fill.

 

{: ?

[Hormalakh]

 

Stamina loss is displayed as red fill.

 

{: ?

 

never seen all of those before. this wouldn't be possible because they would have to do that with all of their portraits, not just one and it's just going to be hell.

[sesobebo]

i know, i know... ):

[JFSOCC]

 

 

Stamina loss is displayed as red fill.

 

{: ?

 

never seen all of those before. this wouldn't be possible because they would have to do that with all of their portraits, not just one and it's just going to be hell.

 

not just that but you're going to be able to use your own portraits, I doubt most players would have several similar images for different states of their... I dunno, night elf mage?