Were the inventory, character sheet, and journal interfaces clear and easy to understand/use?

I generally use Baldur's Gate II as a source of reference. Item descriptions there had Statistics above the description, but that's not much of a concern for me. What I find confusing is the layout/arrangement of items' special properties. I think the current convention in PoE makes statistics difficult to read or to scan through quickly, and also wastes screen space. You can see an example in the screenshot. I'd remove the headings "Athletic:" and "Of Dexterity:", remove the indentation of the property values and list only the property values under a single heading like "Statistics", together with Value. On a sidenote, I'm not sure if "Value" is needed at all, and I'm positive players know that the "item type" would be "head", so I'd do away with this part completely.

 

See the attached mockup and judge for yourself which is better.

 

To anyone from Obsidian who might read this: I hope changes are made in the direction of making item statistics easier to glance through. I believe such changes are needed.

I concur. I think there are quite a few places where there is too much redundant information (combat log) given and other places where not enough information is given (inventory screens, grimoire, etc).

Furthermore, I really like what you guys did with the inventory and how you can compare what you have equipped with the item that you're looking at, at a glance.

However, it would be nice to have any additional bonuses also mentioned in that "at a glance" box. Bonuses to DT, stats, attributes, skills can be written at the bottom of every box.

For example, (the colors would be toggleable with colorblind mode where light blue would become green)

Night-Runner

(Equipped)
Medium Armor
DT: 8+2 (Fine); +4 Slash/-4 Corrode
DR: 15%; +8% Slash/-7% Corrode
Recovery Speed: -30%
+2 Stealth, +1 Resolve

Plate Armor
Heavy Armor

DT: 12; +6 Slash/-6 Shock
DR: 28%; +14% Slash/-14% Corrode
Recovery Speed: -50%
 

Edited December 1, 201411 yr by Hormalakh

Oops: it should be:

 

Plate Armor
Heavy Armor

DT: 12; +6 Slash/-6 Shock
DR: 28%; +14% Slash/-14% Shock
Recovery Speed: -50%

 

I would also like to advocate for presenting the comparison information the way I have presented it (with bonuses and maluses for the different types and color changes) for the item descriptions as well.

 

I believe it is easier to quickly identify changes in DT and DR when presented this way as it quickly identifies which specific conditions (slash and shock) change the armor values and by how much (+ or -).

 

Furthermore, the color changes allow plyers to quickly identify the information that they are looking for.

Hormalakh: I had exactly the same suggestion like two months ago, and then peeps bashed me for suggesting an ARPG-feature, heh!

 

Well, +1 from me.

Item descriptions do need a lot of work, and since v333 all text for the game (font kerning and everything) is completely wonky, with randomly strange sized and blurred characters.

Thanks for opening this thread. Yes item description need a lot of work.

 

The good news is that it's one of those things where we can reasonably hope that our suggestions will actually be implemented

 

(as opposed to other things like, ahem, engagement)

Yes, I totally agree here.  I found those screens very confusing.

 

I suspect the 'prettiness' of this will happen near the end of the beta process, at the same time as content veracity.

I hope

Yes, I totally agree here. I found those screens very confusing.

 

I suspect the 'prettiness' of this will happen near the end of the beta process, at the same time as content veracity.

I hope it does, but I thought I should give my input, just so if it doesn't I'll know I've raised the question. In a few hours I'll be rolling a thread about the combat/message log, which I think could be greatly improved.

Edited December 3, 201411 yr by Gairnulf

The combat message log occupies so much screen real estate, I don't use it.  When you change screen resolution, which I tried to get games to load after a few saves, it would take up most of the screen, since it did not seem to resize to the new screen size at all.  The mac build is impossible to play after one or two saves.  It just keeps crashing.  I very much would like to play the beta, but I've not gotten very far in it yet due to this issue.  So for me, the 'prettiness' of the UI is the least of the beta's issues.

 

My number one issue for the mac build is lack of suitable stability in order to actually play the game.  It is silly to even have a mac build that is this unstable.

Edited December 3, 201411 yr by RoughOne

The combat message log occupies so much screen real estate, I don't use it.  When you change screen resolution, which I tried to get games to load after a few saves, it would take up most of the screen, since it did not seem to resize to the new screen size at all.  The mac build is impossible to play after one or two saves.  It just keeps crashing.  I very much would like to play the beta, but I've not gotten very far in it yet due to this issue.  So for me, the 'prettiness' of the UI is the least of the beta's issues.

 

My number one issue for the mac build is lack of suitable stability in order to actually play the game.  It is silly to even have a mac build that is this unstable.

Strange, for me it wasn't big enough, but fortunately it's adjustable. The main problem with the combat log right now is that it doesn't use space economically, much like the description window, and in the space it uses, it doesn't organize typography in an easy-to-read-"diagonally" way Add to that the wrong choice of colors and font, and there is almost nothing that works well with it. My post about it is up: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/69603-what-does-the-combat-log-lack/

 

Stability issues made me decide to wait for the next version of the BB when it was still in 333, and I'm on Windows, so I know how you feel. At least you can be sure they'll fix this eventually, they can't release an unstable game for one of the big operating systems.

Edited December 3, 201411 yr by Gairnulf

Furthermore, I really like what you guys did with the inventory and how you can compare what you have equipped with the item that you're looking at, at a glance.

 

However, it would be nice to have any additional bonuses also mentioned in that "at a glance" box. Bonuses to DT, stats, attributes, skills can be written at the bottom of every box.

 

For example, (the colors would be toggleable with colorblind mode where light blue would become green)

 

Night-Runner

(Equipped)

Medium Armor

DT: 8+2 (Fine); +4 Slash/-4 Corrode

DR: 15%; +8% Slash/-7% Corrode

Recovery Speed: -30%

+2 Stealth, +1 Resolve

 

Plate Armor

Heavy Armor

DT: 12; +6 Slash/-6 Shock

DR: 28%; +14% Slash/-14% Corrode

Recovery Speed: -50%

 

 

This.

 

 

Current inventory and it's management isn't really as intuitive as it could. I wouldn't use Bladur's Gate 2 inventory as a prime example, as it really tended to be needlessly tedious at some points but at a very least it provided you with the information you needed about the items - something PoE seems to be lacking.

Edited December 4, 201411 yr by Sky_walker

BMac and I will be making a pass on the layout of stats in items and spells.  There's still a lot of strange formatting and redundant or irrelevant information.

 

Given the breadth of statistics that can appear on the page, it's a relatively tricky thing to do procedurally.

Oh my, Sir Josh Sawyer people !

Oh my, Sir Josh Sawyer people !

 

He's actually pretty active in the forums, especially the beta forums.