My old school solid UI mock-up for Pillars of Eternity

[Grotesque]

 

Best viewed in it's native resolution of 1920x1080 in full screen.

 

 

Let the hate begin!

 

Edited February 14, 2015 by Rosbjerg

[Karkarov]

Of all the old school mock ups I have seen it is probably the best.  So it has that going for it.  I won't reiterate all the reasons I don't like the old school IE UI's though.

[Rostere]

It looks awesome. Only problems are that the log should be in the middle and portraits should be larger.

[Grotesque]

It looks awesome. Only problems are that the log should be in the middle and portraits should be larger.

 

I put the log on the left because I am a Sensuki fanboy. )

 

In the future I'll make a version with maximum viewable area.

I love the constrast between the UI and the forest.

 

 

Portraits could be larger than that I admit!

[Bryy]

The problem with old school UIs is that they were trying to mimic PnP in a visual medium. It just did not work. 

[Rostere]

The problem with old school UIs is that they were trying to mimic PnP in a visual medium. It just did not work. 

 

What do you mean "did not work"?

[Sensuki]

Log in the middle is actually the best position, it's just that with the PE default assets you can't make a symmetrical UI with the log in the middle.

 

My actual preference is Middle > Left > Right

Edited February 6, 2015 by Sensuki

[Adam Brennecke]

Just for fun, I want to point out some of the hell we have to go through when designing UI. Thanks for being a good sport! I encourage people to keep making mock ups because it might show something that we haven't thought of yet. If Kaz showed me this I would give him these notes to work on:

 

1. Combat log wouldn't resize properly in that position. It would quickly overlap the camp and stronghold buttons, and it would be even more problematic if you made the backing solid - probably not ideal. It might work better if you made the log look and work like BG2 and it expanded the entire length of the middle and could be resized up and down.

 

2. There's many more abilities that can be displayed that what you have room for (remember you also need to account for quick items and items that grant abilities). There's no room on the right to expand it. I'm not sure of the ability count that you need account for. First level priests have nine spells. 

 

3. Our general policy is any mock up needs to display status effects, chants, focus, wounds, animal companions, etc. These are pretty important to display on the HUD. You have the room for it, so it's not that big of a deal, but I thought I would mention it. 

 

4. You are missing the formation and stealth buttons. Again not that big of a deal since you have the space. 

 

I suggest making the portraits larger, just to see how it looks since you have the room for it, and move all of the middle elements to the left side and make them smaller. 

 

Kaz would have to show mock ups for varied resolutions include high and low res 16:9, 16:10, and 4:3 to see how things fit together. This can be a pain in the ass, but it will save hours of time down the line if he finds things don't fit in a particular resolution or aspect ratio. 

 

I really like the look of it. It's a great start, and thanks for sharing!

 

-Adam

[Sensuki]

 

 

2. There's many more abilities that can be displayed that what you have room for (remember you also need to account for quick items and items that grant abilities). There's no room on the right to expand it. I'm not sure of the ability count that you need account for. First level priests have nine spells.

This is definitely one of the things that makes it difficult to design a Pillars of Eternity UI is because of the differences between all the classes and their abilities - more abilities means more action bar slots and spells and other menus also make it a bit more complicated.

[Ashen Rohk]

You've done a really nice job there! I do like what you've done with the spells in the bottom right. Aside from that, the only thing I would say would be to make the buttons smaller to peel it back a bit more towards the edge.

[Bryy]

 

The problem with old school UIs is that they were trying to mimic PnP in a visual medium. It just did not work. 

 

What do you mean "did not work"?

 

It didn't pull off the intended result well. I respect the concept, but it's an On Paper thing.

[Sedrefilos]

It's beautiful as an old school art style and if I didn't knew what it was, I'd probably say "oh, a nice looking game from the 00's I missed!". But knowing what it is I'd say I wouldn't like it in-game. It just takes too much action space and everything looks too spread apart.

[Grotesque]

 

2. There's many more abilities that can be displayed that what you have room for (remember you also need to account for quick items and items that grant abilities). There's no room on the right to expand it. I'm not sure of the ability count that you need account for. First level priests have nine spells.

 

This is definitely one of the things that makes it difficult to design a Pillars of Eternity UI is because of the differences between all the classes and their abilities - more abilities means more action bar slots and spells and other menus also make it a bit more complicated.

 

 

 

that's why I try to find out what's the greatest common factor of all classes regarding UI spell/talents slots number before I try to make a redesign.

There are several categories the popup bar has as I understand:

 

1. Weapon preset equip  category  - 1 slot

 

2.Quick items category  - 4 or 6 slots?

 

3. Chants category - 4 slots?

 

4. Chanter/wizard/priest  spell level category - 8 maximum slots?  (I don't know how many spells tiers are for each class besides wizard who has VIII I guess)

 

5. Talents category - ??? slots

 

6.Edit grimoire/chants category - 1 slot

 

I would appreciate if you can shed some light on this (I guess you tried all classes)

[Falkon Swiftblade]

just out of curiosity, why not go with a spherical hud similar to temple of elemental evil? I think one of the issues that people are facing is the shear amount of choices, and the fact that you have to keep clicking all over the map on targets and on your player or portrait or enemies for micromanagement. To me, it would make a lot more sense to keep everything centered around the battlefield. If I click on my hero, it should pop up a semi transparent circle of choices to buff myself or whatever skill that would be a passive non combative skill for example. This may have a second or 3rd tier associated based upon small tabs, such as level one or level three for example. Then for attacking it might work similarly, if I'm going to cast fireball for example, since it's a combat related skill, when I right click on the target it brings up a combat related ui to choose what spell I want to use. When I finally left click the mouse it activates the spell and I can quickly move my mouse to choose a new target instead of moving it all over the screen. The ui I'm mentioning shouldn't be any more obtrusive because it's case sensitive, when I need it it pops up, when I click off the character or monster it goes away. I don't have access to the game files to create a decent mock up of what I'm saying, but I suspect it would look something like this, except it wouldn't need text descriptions, it would use the icon's that are already present, and the icon's might not need to be as large.





On topic though, overall, Adam brought up almost everything I was thinking, but I do think of the one's shared so far aesthetically I think your's is very nice.

Edited February 6, 2015 by Falkon Swiftblade

[archangel979]

I like that mockup except it is a bit too big. It covers too much of game area. If it was made for efficient I would probably use it over the PoE default one. Oh and combat log in the middle please :D

[Karkarov]

 

2. There's many more abilities that can be displayed that what you have room for (remember you also need to account for quick items and items that grant abilities). There's no room on the right to expand it. I'm not sure of the ability count that you need account for. First level priests have nine spells.

This is definitely one of the things that makes it difficult to design a Pillars of Eternity UI is because of the differences between all the classes and their abilities - more abilities means more action bar slots and spells and other menus also make it a bit more complicated.

That's why my original oft despised UI's did what the actual Pillar's UI does.  Has the bars pop out the top of the party bar.  That way there is always room.  You guys better be careful.  You guys keep posting this UI's you make me do another mock up again .

Edited February 6, 2015 by Karkarov

[Sensuki]

I already know what I want to be able to do for the UI in this game. Splitting of the central bar (so you can move the clock, menu sections) will do me.

[GreyFox]

That is definitely the best old school looking UI so nice job there.

 

It would have to be a bit more functional like Adam was saying but yea it could definitely work.

[TrueMenace]

One thing I want the most is that the combat log needs to be in the middle like BG...really annoys me that it's in the corner........WHY OBSIDAN WHY

[Grotesque]

 

Does anybody have this picture in 1920x1080 resolution?

 

I want to use those icons indicated by the red arrow.

Or someone know where are those icons from?

[Hassat Hunter]

I would best prefer something like Grotesque posted... of course it will look better if actually made than that mockup (we need vertical portraits, not those blocks).

Just like the current HUD pops up stuff above, here it can just pop to the right (or left if you use the bar right).

Bonus points for sliding out with a proper looking background

[Grotesque]

I would best prefer something like Grotesque posted... of course it will look better if actually made than that mockup (we need vertical portraits, not those blocks).

Just like the current HUD pops up stuff above, here it can just pop to the right (or left if you use the bar right).

Bonus points for sliding out with a proper looking background

 

 

I'm in the process of redesigning my mockup with lots of improvements!

 

Is the wikia up to date? There it says priests and wizards have access up to level 6 spells but the grimoire shows up to level 10 .

 

How many abilities a maximum leveled character would have and what class?

[Sensuki]

6 in PE, 10 in future installments, I believe.

[Marky]

Really nice mock-up. They way you framed it at the top is especially awesome.

I suggest putting gems on the left, bottom and right panels, so one can click on the gems and drag the panels into different sizes. Kind of like how in Baldur's gate, you could click on the side button to make the log taller.

Edited February 7, 2015 by Marky

[Grotesque]

Really nice mock-up. They way you framed it at the top is especially awesome.

I suggest putting gems on the left, bottom and right panels, so one can click on the gems and drag the panels into different sizes. Kind of like how in Baldur's gate, you could click on the side button to make the log taller.

My new design has lots of gems. Maybe too much! )