Modern UI PLEASE

[Swagger.1459]

There is a lot of visual “noise” during combat that we need to focus on, and it would be nice to have less obstructing User Interface elements. Please give us a greater level of customization over the User Interface and make improvements that combat all the central screen clutter.

 

Ideas for a more modern UI....

 

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/The_Players%27_Guide_to_the_Cities/User_Interface

 

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/The_Players%27_Guide_to_the_Cities/User_Interface/Powers_Window

 

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/The_Players%27_Guide_to_the_Cities/User_Interface/Tray_Window

 

“Floating Power Trays (see below)

In the Tray Window, you will see between one and three lines of ten numbered circles. These are referred to as “power trays.”

You have a total of nine power trays, but are only able to view up to three at a time in the tray; more trays can be shown as floating trays. Each power tray is labeled 1-9 and these numbers are displayed on the left side of each power tray. You can cycle through these trays by clicking on the right or left arrows on either side of the tray numbers.

 

If you wish to change the number of trays you currently have displayed, you may do so by clicking on the arrow at the top of the Tray Window. Clicking this arrow when you have only one power tray displayed will cause a second power tray to appear. Clicking this arrow when you have two power trays displayed will cause a third power tray to appear. Finally, clicking this arrow when you have three power trays displayed will cause two of the trays to disappear, leaving only one. By default, you may also cycle through the number of visible power trays by pressing the right Alt key on your keyboard.

 

Floating power trays may also be opened by clicking the “+” at the top of the Tray Window. These trays may be placed anywhere on the screen, and their layout can be customized by right-clicking in an empty area of the tray. They may also be closed through this context menu.

 

Issue 23 introduced the server tray (sometimes referred to as the APB or “alternate power bar”), which appears at the top of the Tray Window. This tray is used to display certain Temporary Powers and Kheldian form powers. The tray cannot be customized and is hidden when not in use.

 

You can drag power icons from the Power Window to your power trays, and arrange them in whatever order you prefer. In order to remove an icon from your power tray, right click on the icon and select “Remove from Tray.” To move an icon from one slot to another, click and drag the icon to its new position. If another icon was originally in that position, the two will swap. (You may enable/disable the “Lock Powers in Tray” option in the General Miscellaneous Options to either prevent accidentally dragging power icons or allow the icons to be dragged.)

 

In addition, when you create a macro, if there is an empty slot available in one of your power trays, an icon with the macro name will appear. You may then activate the macro at any time by clicking on it. Pet command macros (for Mastermind and Lore pets) may also be dragged from the Pets Window to a tray."

 

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/The_Players%27_Guide_to_the_Cities/User_Interface/Powers_Window

 

“The Powers Window may be opened by clicking on “Powers” on the outer edge of the Tray Window or selecting “Powers” from the Menu

 

In the Powers Window, you will see all of the powers in your selected power groups. Your primary power set will be on the left and your secondary power set will be in the middle. On the right side of the window will be several sets of powers, including temporary powers, inherent powers, any power pools from which you have selected, and ancillary or patron power pools from which you have selected, and ancillary or patron power pools.

 

In each power set, any powers you have not gained through training will be shaded and powers you have taken will appear brighter. Any power you have gained through training will allow you to right click to display more information. Powers that are not automatic powers (always active) may be dragged from the Powers Window and placed in the power trays in the Tray Window.

 

This window also gives access to the Combat Attributes Window and the Incarnate Power Window."

 

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/The_Players%27_Guide_to_the_Cities/User_Interface/Options_Window#Miscellaneous_Options

 

Thank you for reading!

[Maikimaik.1974]

But... that's not how Gw2 works... you're talking about a completely different game.

[Llethander.3972]

I would love to see a UI that actually allows me to focus on what's important - my character and the combat - instead of having to diligently watch for ammo charge counters, cooldown timers, party health bars, enemy health bars/breakbars, etc... all in different locations on the screen.

 

One thing I always did when playing any other MMO - LotRo, WoW, FFXIV, ESO, etc - is centralize the most important bits of information so I don't have to keep looking around instead of paying attention to the area immediately around my character. GW2 completely removes this capability from the player. Party and Squad health bars are in the top left, personal health and skill cooldowns bottom center, enemy health and breakbar in the top center... that's a lot of unnecessary focus taken away from the most important area of the screen: the center where your character and, in most cases, your target are.

 

On a related note, I still want to see a rework of the other in-game UI elements. I remember seeing a fan-made UI rework for the inventory, character, LFG, etc (https://www.engadget.com/2015/01/21/guild-wars-2-player-redesigns-anets-ui/) that I think would be an amazing idea if implemented.

[ovinnik.9216]

My biggest gripes with the UI right now are the much too tiny and similarly coloured boon/condition icons and the crafting interface. Both regularly threaten to give me migraines -- for different reasons. However, I don't think that linking to another (in no way more modern) game's UI solves any problems, neither mine nor anybody else's.

[FXLEACH.9436]

I'd love to be able to have more control over my ui and the clutter. The mini map is too small for me and there's often way too much stuff that does not matter to me at all, taking up valuable screen space. IT would be amazing to see Arenanet bring the UI into the modern day but who knows if they will lol.

[Khailyn.6248]

I would like to see a option to show some kind of red half ring kind of in the middle of the screen when you are in an enemy aoe while in melee as many effects get drowned out by spells and effects.

[starlinvf.1358]

> @Llethander.3972 said:

> I would love to see a UI that actually allows me to focus on what's important - my character and the combat - instead of having to diligently watch for ammo charge counters, cooldown timers, party health bars, enemy health bars/breakbars, etc... all in different locations on the screen.

>

> One thing I always did when playing any other MMO - LotRo, WoW, FFXIV, ESO, etc - is centralize the most important bits of information so I don't have to keep looking around instead of paying attention to the area immediately around my character. GW2 completely removes this capability from the player. Party and Squad health bars are in the top left, personal health and skill cooldowns bottom center, enemy health and breakbar in the top center... that's a lot of unnecessary focus taken away from the most important area of the screen: the center where your character and, in most cases, your target are.

>

> On a related note, I still want to see a rework of the other in-game UI elements. I remember seeing a fan-made UI rework for the inventory, character, LFG, etc (https://www.engadget.com/2015/01/21/guild-wars-2-player-redesigns-anets-ui/) that I think would be an amazing idea if implemented.

 

In their defense, the UI ISN'T supposed to be a focus of the player, since the game is trying to use visual cues (as in character states) to convey this information to the player. This is, by far, the largest influence PvP has on the UI design... and the minimalist, peripheral design worked perfectly well in early versions of the game. Where this started to fall apart is when the game started adopting more conventional MMO game mechanics. No one cared about the status of other players, because players were largely responsible for their own self-sustain..... until Raids made healers mandatory. Not even WvW, which is a flustercluck by nature, had a need for targeted healing when group comps were based on teams of 5, and easy to keep track of.

 

The problem we have today is the culmination of them largely ignoring the carefully crafted minimalist visual designs, and instead got into a loudness war with itself, as the signal to noise ratio tanked due to the ever increasing prominence of bigger, brighter, and more eye catchy visual effects. The game got bloated, and the problem we face now is that its lead players to do the exact opposite of what they are supposed to be doing. That includes changes to the camera limits, as a band-aid fix to the more fundamental problem of FOV and the issues it created with our style of tab targeting.

Given the nature of the engine, the most realistic solution isn't to fall into a design mindset its inherently incompatible with.... and instead, overhaul the VFX/Art design standards to clear up all the visual clutter that was allowed to get out control. With the screen space and world space readable, everything would be in a much better position to address visual cues for better signal to noise ratio, and prioritizing prominence on order of situational importance. Failure to do so just curb stomps the game's strongest aspects (its well defined visual style), and ends up with a game of "play the UI" that even Korean MMOs are trying to get away from.

[zealex.9410]

> @Llethander.3972 said:

> I would love to see a UI that actually allows me to focus on what's important - my character and the combat - instead of having to diligently watch for ammo charge counters, cooldown timers, party health bars, enemy health bars/breakbars, etc... all in different locations on the screen.

>

> One thing I always did when playing any other MMO - LotRo, WoW, FFXIV, ESO, etc - is centralize the most important bits of information so I don't have to keep looking around instead of paying attention to the area immediately around my character. GW2 completely removes this capability from the player. Party and Squad health bars are in the top left, personal health and skill cooldowns bottom center, enemy health and breakbar in the top center... that's a lot of unnecessary focus taken away from the most important area of the screen: the center where your character and, in most cases, your target are.

>

> On a related note, I still want to see a rework of the other in-game UI elements. I remember seeing a fan-made UI rework for the inventory, character, LFG, etc (https://www.engadget.com/2015/01/21/guild-wars-2-player-redesigns-anets-ui/) that I think would be an amazing idea if implemented.

 

You can rp in dr for that.

[Rhanoa.3960]

This is like saying GW2 team is not doing a good enough job which is far from what I've experienced with their UI.

[Mea.5491]

The things you linked don't look modern... They look ugly and dated...

[Llethander.3972]

> @starlinvf.1358 said:

> > @Llethander.3972 said:

> > I would love to see a UI that actually allows me to focus on what's important - my character and the combat - instead of having to diligently watch for ammo charge counters, cooldown timers, party health bars, enemy health bars/breakbars, etc... all in different locations on the screen.

> >

> > One thing I always did when playing any other MMO - LotRo, WoW, FFXIV, ESO, etc - is centralize the most important bits of information so I don't have to keep looking around instead of paying attention to the area immediately around my character. GW2 completely removes this capability from the player. Party and Squad health bars are in the top left, personal health and skill cooldowns bottom center, enemy health and breakbar in the top center... that's a lot of unnecessary focus taken away from the most important area of the screen: the center where your character and, in most cases, your target are.

> >

> > On a related note, I still want to see a rework of the other in-game UI elements. I remember seeing a fan-made UI rework for the inventory, character, LFG, etc (https://www.engadget.com/2015/01/21/guild-wars-2-player-redesigns-anets-ui/) that I think would be an amazing idea if implemented.

>

> In their defense, the UI ISN'T supposed to be a focus of the player, since the game is trying to use visual cues (as in character states) to convey this information to the player. This is, by far, the largest influence PvP has on the UI design... and the minimalist, peripheral design worked perfectly well in early versions of the game. Where this started to fall apart is when the game started adopting more conventional MMO game mechanics. No one cared about the status of other players, because players were largely responsible for their own self-sustain..... until Raids made healers mandatory. Not even WvW, which is a flustercluck by nature, had a need for targeted healing when group comps were based on teams of 5, and easy to keep track of.

>

> The problem we have today is the culmination of them largely ignoring the carefully crafted minimalist visual designs, and instead got into a loudness war with itself, as the signal to noise ratio tanked due to the ever increasing prominence of bigger, brighter, and more eye catchy visual effects. The game got bloated, and the problem we face now is that its lead players to do the exact opposite of what they are supposed to be doing. That includes changes to the camera limits, as a band-aid fix to the more fundamental problem of FOV and the issues it created with our style of tab targeting.

> Given the nature of the engine, the most realistic solution isn't to fall into a design mindset its inherently incompatible with.... and instead, overhaul the VFX/Art design standards to clear up all the visual clutter that was allowed to get out control. With the screen space and world space readable, everything would be in a much better position to address visual cues for better signal to noise ratio, and prioritizing prominence on order of situational importance. Failure to do so just curb stomps the game's strongest aspects (its well defined visual style), and ends up with a game of "play the UI" that even Korean MMOs are trying to get away from.

 

The problem is that in GW2 the UI is still a very strong focus for players. They went minimalistic to reduce the need to focus on it but that need is still there, especially with regards to health bars and cooldowns.

 

The issue I have is with the placement of certain important UI elements. To use WoW as an example, skill proc indicators appear in the center of the screen, I typically have my health bars showing to the left of my character and the target health bars to the right of my character. Important skill cooldowns are typically right above my health bar and include a slight flash when they come off cooldown so that I can see it in my peripheral without having to shift my focus off of the thing trying to kill me. Party health is usually under my character. In other words, all important information for combat is centralized so that I can check it without having to shift my focus far from the center of the screen.

 

In GW2, however, party health is top left, my health and skill cooldowns are bottom center, enemy health is top center, and mini-map is bottom right. Some visual queues, such as important pings, are displayed on the mini map. This means that at any given time I need to look at what I'm fighting, look down to check my cooldowns, look up to check if I need to use CC, look left to see if someone's dying/downed, look back down to check my own health, look right to check for pings, look back to the center to check for AoE telegraphs, look back down to check my cooldowns...

 


 

You see my issue?

 

> @zealex.9410 said:

> > @Llethander.3972 said:

> > I would love to see a UI that actually allows me to focus on what's important - my character and the combat - instead of having to diligently watch for ammo charge counters, cooldown timers, party health bars, enemy health bars/breakbars, etc... all in different locations on the screen.

> >

> > One thing I always did when playing any other MMO - LotRo, WoW, FFXIV, ESO, etc - is centralize the most important bits of information so I don't have to keep looking around instead of paying attention to the area immediately around my character. GW2 completely removes this capability from the player. Party and Squad health bars are in the top left, personal health and skill cooldowns bottom center, enemy health and breakbar in the top center... that's a lot of unnecessary focus taken away from the most important area of the screen: the center where your character and, in most cases, your target are.

> >

> > On a related note, I still want to see a rework of the other in-game UI elements. I remember seeing a fan-made UI rework for the inventory, character, LFG, etc (https://www.engadget.com/2015/01/21/guild-wars-2-player-redesigns-anets-ui/) that I think would be an amazing idea if implemented.

>

> You can rp in dr for that.

 

Wut.

 

 

[Johnny Quantum.9704]

+1 for more customisation of user interface (turn elements off/on, re-position, re-size etc.)

 

Even older games, for example Cryptic's STO, NW and CO have far more options than the more recent GW2.

 

GW2 is such a beautiful game - shame to have so much visual noise (what I call 'screen SPAM')!

[Ayakaru.6583]

By the six **NO**..

Please.. just no..

This is a fantasy game, not a sci-fi game.

The whole rustic, painted style they have is perfect for the game. Please don’t fix what isn’t broken.