UI polish rather than redesign

[EhyehAsherEhyeh]

After recently viewing the gameplay demo (on Giant Bomb, shilling for my favourite games website: http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/quick-look-ex-pillars-of-eternity/2300-9224/), I was left with a very positive impression in general. Amongst other things, I thought they'd done a good job of the UI: the look of the game gave me the feeling of heart from the Good 'ol Days, but with some of the interaction polish of modern games.  I know there has been a lot of UI discussions, I just wanted to raise my voice to say we'd all be more pleased in the end if the UI gets the kind of attention to detail that makes you enjoy just using it, rather than worry more about whether a specific texture should be stone rather than wood. Make the animations tight, make the interactive elements snappy in their reactions, blow life into the little details without making them distracting, etc.

 

cRPGs have a (somewhat deserved) reputation for having UIs more worried about style than usability. The current state of PoE actually seems like it might be bucking that trend, and I would love to see it happen

 

P.S. not saying that style and atmosphere isn't important for the game either, there's a legitimate reason many cRPGs have that aforementioned skew, and I'm loving the feel imparted by wood and parchment in the UI now, but I feel that aspect has been well served. Doubtless there will be dissenting voices, which is why I'd like to say to the designers now: stick to your guns (or wands or flails or whatever), and buff'em to a brilliant shine