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After watching the demo video the only thing I didn't like was the conversation interface.

Generally it looks very good but I think it is way too big. It takes up half of the screen and the text never uses all of the space.

I think it really looks odd if most of the space in this window is not used. It looks... empty and seems to be a waste of space.

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I don't know, the Conv. UI looks fine to me, although, perhaps the descriptive text should be in a different colour so as to stand out from the talking text. And also, if different PCs will be able to initiate dialogue with NPCs, shouldn't the respective portrait also show on the UI, so as to indicate who is talking to who? Might be confusing at times to not see who is doing the talking. Other than that, I find the UI to be good, having it large and with space makes the reading easy, but if the frame become very crammed up and tight it might be a possibility that the reading becomes disturbed, hampering the flow of read. A good dedicated reading space is good for the eyes.

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Just to voice possibly the last remaining contrary opinion, I think it looks just fine as-is, even without color coded NPC names. In fact, I'd rather not see those, either. Different colors (and thus contrasts with the background) can be quite jarring. Won't complain (much?) if it does make it in, though.

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It already does stand out.

 

Ah, yes, a bit darker/lighter version of brown compared to the brown that you normally get for NPCs talking...

 

It stands out a bit, but the contrast is still minimal.

 

I think that's largely dependent on your monitor. If you're using a 6-bit TN LCD panel then yeah, the colors will probably look very similar because those screens can only display 262,000 colors natively (and fake the rest using dithering), whereas PLS, IPS and IGZO panels (as well as CRTs) can all do 8-bit colors at least (16.7 million colors).

 

I'm using a 22" CRT at the moment because I've been playing the vanilla IE games recently and the conversation colors are all pretty much perfect for a full color palette.

 

Obsidian seem to all use 24" Dell IPS screens at work.

 

The brown chosen for NPC names is very readable. Even if they don't use clothing colors they should have some different colors to distinguish between different types of NPCs. I think Icewind Dale 2 used a light blue for NPCs and a different color for PC units (something like that anyway).

Edited by Sensuki
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Josh Sawyer has repeatedly said he will not sacrifice functionality for nostalgia, but I too was surprised that the dialogue box is so Old Skool. It just confused me a little.

 

The conversation UI could take up the entire screen and you wouldn't technically be losing any functionality since the game is paused.  I can sort of understand having a more minimal dialogue UI in a game where conversations happen in real-time and you might want to do other things concurrently, but it doesn't apply for PoE.

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I think the conversation UI is great in almost every possible way; it looks great and has a nice, soothing library feel to it, it is concise but still has enough padding to keep the text separated from the game world, possible/impossible conversation checks are clearly differentiated but at the same time not jarringly so, and the same goes for NPC name vs. NPC speech vs. player responses, the fact that the camera moves to focus on the active speaker as well as the prominent placement of the portrait makes it abundantly clear when someone else is speaking and who that someone might be, and, lastly, the text is crisp and the text background is muted. 

 

Slightly tweak the contrast between the description and the speech text to make it less straining on the eyes, and it'd be a clear 10/10 in my book.

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This statement is false.

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Josh Sawyer has repeatedly said he will not sacrifice functionality for nostalgia, but I too was surprised that the dialogue box is so Old Skool. It just confused me a little.

 

The conversation UI could take up the entire screen and you wouldn't technically be losing any functionality since the game is paused.  I can sort of understand having a more minimal dialogue UI in a game where conversations happen in real-time and you might want to do other things concurrently, but it doesn't apply for PoE.

 

Yeap, that.  I am the much hated champion of the minimalist UI mockup wars of olden times and even I will tell you when you are paused in conversation you need a bigger convo box.  When the action starts (and that additional view space is needed) the convo UI won't be there anymore.

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After watching the demo video the only thing I didn't like was the conversation interface.

Generally it looks very good but I think it is way too big. It takes up half of the screen and the text never uses all of the space.

I think it really looks odd if most of the space in this window is not used. It looks... empty and seems to be a waste of space.

 

Like this, you mean?

 

161gojo.jpg

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The upper cammera being centered on the speaking character and the POV panning/jolting between speakers is part of the IE feel.

 

The height of it is fine, it still gives a good view of the scene.

 

One thing that was not demonstrated is scrolling up in the dialogue window - hopefully that's in.

Edited by Sensuki
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