GUI suggestions & feedback - Inventory, Character sheet, Journal

[Sky_walker]

It's a longer list, so I'll post it as a separate topic.

Answering:

 

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

 

No, they are not. It actually feels like the GUI designed for an old Infinity Engine games in some ways - we've really made a long way in improving GUI designs and as far as it is currently OKish... it's also needlessly tedious and doesn't always provide users with the info they need. That said though - PoE user interface is with no doubt much cleaner and more noob-friendly than say: BG, I don't want to see copying of old IE games interfaces, cause in many ways they were bad too, but I'd love if you'd take good things from them - like providing user with data he needs when he needs it, and most importantly: Good things from last 10 years of game development and design.

 

Don't be afraid to embrace the awesome improvements and progress we've made in a last decade!

 

If you are looking for some more detailed and constructive suggestions, here's the whole list, screen-by-screen for Inventory and Crafting, Character sheet, and finally: Journal.

 

Inventory

• Search functionality in Stash (text input - you start type = you start search, similar to the way it's suppose to work on Google)
• Stash sorting functionality - should change depending on a tab - sort by value, sort by different damage types or damage resistances (depending if you're in Armors/Clothing or Weapons tab), etc.
• Ability to see ALL items in your stash (this preferably should be a default view) - I'm clueless why it's not in a game. o_O
• Button to move all items from my character inventory to stash (optionally: when clicked it should change to "restore", if I drag any new item to the character inventory - restore option should disappear)
• Search functionality for my character inventories (including items they got equipped) - when searching it should switch to the character that got this item equipped and highlight it (white border, or something like this)
• Ability to view a total sum of attribute changes to my character from all of the items equipped
• In character screen when hovering two numbers in End. Hlth. and Acc. it should show a tooltip saying "current" or "maximum" to make it clear why there are two numbers over these three characteristics (for our new players out there)
• When clicking attributes in the character or inventory screen it should show a popup screen explaining the attribute (how it affects combat or dialogs)
  and possibly also: display a break-down of how this attribute is affected by the equipment you have, for example:
  D.T. - Damage Treshold <<very long description here that currently appears as a tooltip which I can't even read whole cause it goes off beyond the screen>>
  Base: 0,
  Scale Armor: +7
  ps. I added problem with tooltip as a bug report here.
• Inspect functionality in inventory screen - right now it allows you to inspect only the items. I'd expand it to explaining GUI elements:
  • Clicking an empty slot should describe it - what kind of items fit there, tell that they can be added by drag & drop from the inventory or stash, etc.
  • Clicking weapon sets should explain the whole functionality and how to swap between them in combat
  • Clicking an empty spot in your character inventory should give you an explanation how it differs from Quick Items and Stash. Same with clicking on an empty slot in Quick Items or Stash icon - obviously
  • Clicking on camping supplies should tell you stuff about using them and how to get new.
  • ps. you already have most of these descriptions in the glossary - why you refuse to make use of them with Inspect functionality is beyond my comprehension.
• Inventory screen - 3D Character model - you can rotate him/her along just one axis. Please, make it possible to rotate him on both, to see character from above and in isometric perspective.
  And if we're on that: character model rotation should NOT reset when switching between characters.
• Inventory screen - Make it clear which weapon set is selected. In the UI, don't make me guess based on a looks of the weapons!
• Add a button to go directly from the Inventory screen to the character screen of a currently selected character. And back.

 

and this:

 

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%
 

 

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Crafting screen (it's sub-screen of an Inventory)

• Text search
• Filter by types (healing potions, combat AoE potions, etc. - you get the picture)
• Possibly sorting (turn off grouping by categories, and just sort all of them) - sort by value, uses, speed, etc., a nice drop-down - these items that do not have a certain property should be at the bottom of the list, separated by a horizontal line, order doesn't matter.
• Option to show only these items that I can craft with my current items (hide everything that's grayed-out, remove categories if they are empty)
• Anyone can tell me why the heck crafting potions in a field consumes money? It makes zero sense.
• Option to compare two potions / items. When having one selected and hovering another - it should bring a tooltip with an information similar to these Hormalakh gave in a quote above.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Character sheet

• Statistics breakdown - let us choose if we want to see records or statistics breakdown on a right-side part of the GUI.
  • This should give you a nice set of tables, when relevant: show current, standard and base statistics. Current = all of the effects, spells and wounds + items + character, Standard = items + character, Base = character alone.
  • That should also include a table with detailed breakdown of attack from your weapons, including it's default properties and properties after applying character modifiers. Current information of "+27% action speed" is meaningless if you can't easily compare an attack speed of different characters with their current weapons.
  • Statistics breakdown should be a default view. Records are nice and all, but they do not help you with anything ahead of you!
• Tooltips on the elements. Make them more consistent. Eg. in my resolve stats I got a popup explaining concentration, but there is none for Duration (that's a duration of what? Spells? I guess, but could be potions or something very negative: attacks, as in: making them take longer). In my Intellect stat I got popup for deflection but none of Area of Effect. In Dexterity there is no popup for Action Speed. And so on, and so on.
• Active effects got no descriptions for... well... anything.
• Why some of the properties are clickabe for popup windows and some are hover tooltips? Be consistent - either everything is a popup or everything is a tooltip.
• XP bar.... Is that even a bar? Below Experience there's brown horizontal rectangle - it looks like a progress bar to the next level, but I can't see anything progressing there. Make it a proper, clear, progress bar or if it's not suppose to be one - replace it to a thin horizontal line if you need some separator in there.
• In general on a character screen I would prefer to see something information-wise more in a style of that:
  Image that forum doesn't allow me to put here
  You see all of the information in the right window? Like the actual number for your open locks skill after all the effects, actual number for your reputation, etc. My idea with tables goes further than that and shows you even more info, but this thing here is what I consider to be a bare minimum of what you should see on a character screen. Sadly PoE does not provide that, though overall - PoE character screen is much clearer and newbie-friendly - so keep that, it's a good stuff, but show us more data More data makes life easier, not more difficult, even if it might be slightly overwhelming at first.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Journal

• Text search - can be just in a titles, but still. It'd be especially useful with Glossary.
• Notes - this problem. Note the part about allowing users to select text there.
• Notes - allow us to remove them.
• Glossary - Equipment tab should contain descriptions of different types of equipment with their generic characteristics (eg. Armor tends to come in light, medium and heavy variety, describe their benefits and disadvantages, describe which types of characters should use which type of armor, etc.)
• Cyclopedia - after spotting a new type of enemy you at least should see it's name in a bestiary, just with no description. You know that they exist and what is the name - after all hovering them shows a tooltip with the name.

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I know this list is far from being complete as people gave some really decent suggestions here and there, but these are for me the most glaring issues - if anyone reading that post got anything more to add, feel free to do so.

Edited December 4, 2014 by Sky_walker

[Bester]

A big NO to 99% of the things you proposed.

 

Looks like you're a skyrim kid, no offense.

[Sky_walker]

A big NO to 99% of the things you proposed.

 

Looks like you're a skyrim kid, no offense.

Hahaha - I don't even recall Skyrim interface. I played it a little bit, but it was ~half an hour.

 

How about some constructive criticism on what's exactly is wrong with my suggestions instead of just blind dismissal? You don't want to be able to quickly find items you need now instead of looking through the entire list, one by one? All I want is a proper, fully-fledged PC-based menus instead of something that feels like a DOS-era port from the times when having drag&drop functionality with tooltips was an achievement on it's own.

Edited December 5, 2014 by Sky_walker

[Grinsevent]

@Sky_Walker

 

Hi, I'm against this "clear comparison" as I want to be able to roleplay the game... And they promised they wouldn't give us some "+1 sword, then +2 Sword) ... I prefer to take this Shining sword which allows me to burn my foes etc... 

 

On another ground, I think that the character sheet should be easily reached through inventory too (like double clicking one of our character => character sheet => lvl up possible... 

[Sky_walker]

@Sky_Walker

 

Hi, I'm against this "clear comparison" as I want to be able to roleplay the game... And they promised they wouldn't give us some "+1 sword, then +2 Sword) ... I prefer to take this Shining sword which allows me to burn my foes etc...

You must be talking about a different game, cause the one I played already has all of this: +7 Damage Treshold Scale Armor is not something I made up, it's right there in the game.

 

Only problem is that to get anything relevant in a bigger scope you need to jump between items back and forth comparing the stats. I just would like to have the whole process simplified. I wouldn't mind to have it as an optional feature - something you can turn off/on if you don't like it or do like it, but keep in mind that all of the Infnity Engine games had combat based very much on numbers and in many ways they had this numbers served to the user when he needed them - something PoE also doesn't do forcing players into digging through the menus and/or doing maths on paper to actually get the information. And since the IE era we've moved far ahead making interfaces even more friendly and quicker.

 

IMHO graphical user interface should do everything to help users immerse themselves in the game world, not be an obstacle forcing me to jump back and forth between the items to do a basic comparsion.

[morhilane]

 

@Sky_Walker

 

Hi, I'm against this "clear comparison" as I want to be able to roleplay the game... And they promised they wouldn't give us some "+1 sword, then +2 Sword) ... I prefer to take this Shining sword which allows me to burn my foes etc...

You must be talking about a different game, cause the one I played already has all of this: +7 Damage Treshold Scale Armor is not something I made up, it's right there in the game.

 

That 7 Damage Threshold isn't the same thing as a +2 Sword. Scale armor base DT is always 7.

 

All scale armors will provide a base DT of 7, the only thing that can improve that value is a quality enchantment (remembering that Fine <  Exceptional  < Superb is not that hard) or a damage type specific DT increase, but that's mostly useful to fill a weakness (and it might not stack with the quality enchantment anyway).

[Bester]

How about some constructive criticism on what's exactly is wrong with my suggestions instead of just blind dismissal?

 

 

Meh. Maybe if some of these features risk making it into the game, I'll voice my concern with more enthusiasm. Right now, just not worth it.

[Bester]

Ok, suffice to say, it's just one of these things... like saying... why do I have to play for 2 hours to kill the boss? Just spawn the boss in front of me and make him a 1hp creature.

 

You'll disagree, but whatever. Inventory management in a certain form is part of the things that create immersion.

[Sky_walker]

Ok, suffice to say, it's just one of these things... like saying... why do I have to play for 2 hours to kill the boss? Just spawn the boss in front of me and make him a 1hp creature.

I have no idea what are you talking about. Nothing I suggested here got anything to deal with combat difficulty. And if you're saying that speding your time on digging through menus is a good thing than I respectfully disagree.

 

You'll disagree, but whatever. Inventory management in a certain form is part of the things that create immersion.

No dobut about it. That's why GUI should allow you to focus on a storyline and the game itself. Not on clicking through several lists to finally dig out this one thing that you need.

 

 

 

@Sky_Walker

 

Hi, I'm against this "clear comparison" as I want to be able to roleplay the game... And they promised they wouldn't give us some "+1 sword, then +2 Sword) ... I prefer to take this Shining sword which allows me to burn my foes etc...

You must be talking about a different game, cause the one I played already has all of this: +7 Damage Treshold Scale Armor is not something I made up, it's right there in the game.

 

That 7 Damage Threshold isn't the same thing as a +2 Sword. Scale armor base DT is always 7.

 

All scale armors will provide a base DT of 7, the only thing that can improve that value is a quality enchantment (remembering that Fine <  Exceptional  < Superb is not that hard) or a damage type specific DT increase, but that's mostly useful to fill a weakness (and it might not stack with the quality enchantment anyway).

Yea, that's why this information should be clearly seved to the user instead of being hidden under toolips forcing you to jump from one item to another in order to compare all of the stats and all the informations you mentioned here. As I said - I'm perfectly cool with making that optional. But I'm not cool with forcing users to dig through the menus to get basic informations. I don't want any "+2 sword" - all I want is better presentation of what already is in the game.

 

But ok, now that we've discoussed this one (if you'll push it - two) point on my list - there's 28 other ideas remaining.

Edited December 5, 2014 by Sky_walker