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

[Hassat Hunter]

one reason

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF4pmJTX39E#t=48

where possible, one click anything

Yeah, I have no idea what I should learn of this. You link specifically to some skills being talked about, namely reducing weapon slot change penalty or so. What does that have to do with seeing both hands vs. only seeing main hand weapon (of which I prefer #1).

???

[illathid]

 

one reason

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF4pmJTX39E#t=48

where possible, one click anything

Yeah, I have no idea what I should learn of this. You link specifically to some skills being talked about, namely reducing weapon slot change penalty or so. What does that have to do with seeing both hands vs. only seeing main hand weapon (of which I prefer #1).

???

 

 

I'm assuming it's becuase you couldn't fit all 4 possible weapon slots if you showed both hands, thus meaning you'd need to click twice to switch to slot 3 or 4.

[Grotesque]

 

 

one reason

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF4pmJTX39E#t=48

where possible, one click anything

Yeah, I have no idea what I should learn of this. You link specifically to some skills being talked about, namely reducing weapon slot change penalty or so. What does that have to do with seeing both hands vs. only seeing main hand weapon (of which I prefer #1).

???

 

 

I'm assuming it's becuase you couldn't fit all 4 possible weapon slots if you showed both hands, thus meaning you'd need to click twice to switch to slot 3 or 4.

 

Exactly. And that character build relies on having four guns ready for firing quickly.  If you have all weapon sets slots displayed it's easier to access them.

Edited February 20, 2015 by Grotesque

[illathid]

A possible way to get around this would be to place the icons on top of each other. So if you're weilding sword it would look like an X. Would probably be hassel to code though.

[Hassat Hunter]

That sounds like a good solution if possible. I also thought about that, but it may make weapons difficult to make out if they have a similar color to the shield behind them then.

Also; how likely is it a player actually gains 3 weapon slots, let stand 4?

[Grotesque]

 

someone made a mockup.  I like the second variation

[illathid]

Yeah, I agree the second version is better.

[Falkon Swiftblade]

what are the roman numerals for? Might not be needed, unless it's hot keyable. Also, can you post how it would look with the smaller square with a lighter bg color or darker. I feel like it could use slightly more contrast in the boxes to distinguish the bigger box and smaller one because the hierarchy is lost. The main weapon should be seen first, then the second, and the bounding box should be third. I know it's tricky cause the art and icon's they've shared so far, but ideally the bg would probably look more like this forum bg with the lighter colored icons for the weapons and stuff on top to give the best contrast for easy finding quickly. In game those are kinda small. 

[Stun]

what are the roman numerals for?

Weapon set 1, 2, 3, 4. Aside from hotkeys, there is an alternative to having all of them be visible on the game screen at once.

 

Go look at how IWD2 did it. Only 1 weapon set on the bar at any time, but if you right-click on it, you can switch to any of the others on the fly.

 

This might be the solution to the potential issue of a 5th weapon set gained via feats, btw.

Edited February 22, 2015 by Stun

[Falkon Swiftblade]

holy crap weapon sets, I didn't know that was a feature, and in other games typically it's like 2 sets max so that's kinda awesome actually!

[Grotesque]

I tried fraps but to no avail.

What else can I use to make a screenshot of the mouse pointer ingame?

 

EDIT: make a movie

Edited February 23, 2015 by Grotesque

[Headbomb]

Couple of remarks

1) I'm going to join in on those saying the rest button shouldn't be anywhere near the select all button. The select all is fine at the bottom right. Rest being next to it is a big no. Move it to the left side of things, close to the stronghold and other low-usage button. Best place to have it really would be to use the big camping supplies icon already present, and not have another button for it.

2) I'm a big fan of the one line combat log spanning the whole window rather than just a little chunk in the middle. But this is YMMV stuff. If you're going to keep it in the middle however, put the bubble/crosswords icon on the inside of the combat log, so you can make the combat log flush with other nearby borders.

3) I see the UI mockup is designed around 6 characters. Wiki (http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Party) says that their might be temporary companions on top of these six. May or may not be an issue.

4) Icon height variation (the X, attack, and stealth buttons) is ugh. They should be of flush with the border.

5) Weapon set variant number 2 is better. Main hand in front, off hand in medallion. This is particularly handy if you have 2 same weapons.

 

Also I agree a million times with however said that weapon slots should be linked. Having the same weapon (or shield) in multiple sets would be supremely handy.

Edited February 23, 2015 by Headbomb

[Grotesque]

 

A little animation with the pressing of stealth button

[Grotesque]

Chanter to wizard transition from the edit chants/grimoire UI  

 

 

 

(please ignore the weapons sets and quick items slots remaining unchanged)

Edited February 23, 2015 by Grotesque

[ryukenden]

I like your latest mockup a lot Grotesque. I only hope that the official version would take some hints from this mockup and make changes to help make the modded ui possible.

 

With that said , I like to make a few suggestions on the current UI:

• The combat log and conversation log needs to share a common location, bottom center.  
• It makes transitioning from Conversation Menu into Head-up Display(I think its called HUD. Its where you see all the portraits, spells, combat log and stuff) more seamless.
• The eye naturally like to look there. From my experience, I'm more focus when entering a battle if the combat log in the the bottom center. 
• Just like IE system, it expands when entering a Conversation. see gif below

Edited February 24, 2015 by ryukenden

[Grotesque]

 

Latest iteration with

- linked weapons sets slots

- character perma-death art

- custom formations popup window

- camp button, action buttons & money counter reallocation 

 

 

full 1920x1080 resolution here:

Edited February 24, 2015 by Grotesque

[ISC]

Now we're talking!

[PrimeHydra]

I like the separation of spells into per-encounter and per-day rows. Other than that I actually prefer your OP version because it's more balanced (the buttons on the left balance the portraits on the right, whereas the latest iteration feels a little too "right-heavy"). That's a nitpick though, this is some really nice work.

[Grotesque]

 Other than that I actually prefer your OP version because it's more balanced (the buttons on the left balance the portraits on the right, whereas the latest iteration feels a little too "right-heavy"). That's a nitpick though, this is some really nice work.

 

Now when I look at my first mock-up I think to myself,

 

"God, this is awful! "

[PrimeHydra]

Now when I look at my first mock-up I think to myself,

 

"God, this is awful! "

 

Your newer ones are probably more useful--but the original one takes me right back to 1998, in a good way!

 

At any rate, I hope OBSIDZ considers separating per-day from per-encounter abilities and spells like your interface so nicely does.,

[Headbomb]

Nice. Very nice. The only (major) remark I made that wasn't addressed is "If you're going to keep it in the middle however, put the bubble/crosswords icon on the inside of the combat log, so you can make the combat log flush with other nearby borders."

 

Everything else is *bang on*.

Edited February 25, 2015 by Headbomb

[Darkpriest]

I have something I need to get off my chest. People keep mentioning "THAC0" and "Lower AC is better?".

 

Baldur's Gate was released in 1998, when I was 12 years old. It blew my mind and I had literally zero experience with PnP, Dungeons & Dragons or the Forgotten Realms, and understanding the basics of THAC0 (which I to this day call "Taco", because I had no idea it meant "To-Hit Armour-Class Zero") and that lower AC was better was never a problem for me. I was 12 years old and although I surely understood english better than most of my peers, we're still talking elementary-grade second language.

 

I have no idea why people keep citing these things as issues. Yeah, it struck me as odd for about 3 seconds, and then I never once did think of it again. Now, in my later years, I've understood that these things are apparently huge clusterfudges in PnP D&D 2nd Ed., but in the IE games, it's all handled under the hood, and really, I have a much harder time wrapping my head around why this would be an "issue" to people, rather than just concluding that "Yup, negative AC is good, it counts downwards, go figure."

 

People seem to think that you need some kind of intimate knowledge of the game, know the 2nd Ed. rules and so on and so forth to play BG1, and yeah, I'm sure it helps a bit, but it is in no way or fashion a necessity. You throw a fireball, it explodes, you equip better armour, you get harder to hit (actually, that was way more odd to me, that AC was a simple matter of getting hit or not, no soak or anything).

 

I would argue that the 3.5 Ed. games requires far more knowledge beforehand, because there are far more rules going on "under the hood" that is in your face, what with the Feats and the "only every other ability score point matters" and so on, but it has the benefit of making those things known to the player; but in BG1/2, you didn't need to know those things to figure it out, but somehow every 3.5 Ed. game character turns into a spreadsheet when mapping out a character's life.

 

Now, I'm not hating on editions here, in the end I know a lot more of 3.5 Ed. than 2nd Ed. even though I've played a mountain more CRPG 2nd Ed. than anything else. But goddamn, THAC0/Negative AC is not a hard thing to grasp in the context of a computer game, it's so ridiculously easy even a child would get it. I know, I used to be one!

 

Thac0 and Ac were easy for me to get into but damn I was confused by the spell vs saving throws system and what affects what... the 3.x sysyem of IWD 2 and NWN was much better in that regard.

[Grotesque]

 

Action recovery bars integrated within the portraits

 

 

full resolution

[Grotesque]

Nice. Very nice. The only (major) remark I made that wasn't addressed is "If you're going to keep it in the middle however, put the bubble/crosswords icon on the inside of the combat log, so you can make the combat log flush with other nearby borders."

 

" [...] the log is a bit depressed so that the conversation and fight log tabs would not pop out and intrude the view area. also it gives a nice effect of variation by breaking the line and giving a larger view area on the vertical axis in the center of the screen where it counts most.  And considering the log's height is to be player customed, you can bring it at any height you want, pixel by pixel. "

[Headbomb]

Yeah, but if you bring those tabs in, then it becomes possible to have it flush with everything, without the tabs sticking out. Or having to indent things in further.