Personal Ui Feedback And Suggestions

[Se7ense7en]

Howdy.

 

I've been playing Warframe for more than 2 weeks and have formed some thoughts about game's UI. I admit that some moments may be mentioned at these forums before me, but I think its better to recall 'em. So here I go.

 

IN-BATTLE UI

 

[Major problem]: Absense of nicknames.

Its not just uncomfortable to not being able to change your nickname, its actually not safe. If your account is a hijacker's target, you are making his job easier: he's already know your account's name. Let us set our nicknames in-game. If its so hard to import the Steam ones ofcourse.

 

[Major problem]: Character's HP/Shields status.

I can't remember a single game with a health/shield display at top-right corner. I've seen top-left, bottom-right, but mostly hp status is displayed at bottom-left. There are nothing in there in Warframe, and its pretty hard for a new player to adapt. But even an expirienced gamer won't expect it to be there. I suggest moving it to where it should be: in the bottom-left corner of the screen.

 

[Major problem]: Mana ("energy") display.

One of the biggest disappointments in WF. Its SO tiny, I cant see literally nothing. My screen resolution is a standart 1024*768, I can't imagine how ppl with a larger screens recognize it. Probably microscopes? I dont wanna comment anymore about this, just treble that font size. And mind usability in future. Or at least test it before launch. And be humane in relation to people's vision. Unforgivable.

 

[Problem]: Chat.

Same as previous. I cant see what I write, I cant see what others do. Make the fonts much more noticable please.

 

[Problem]: Enemy health bar.

Its on the top. Its really not comfortable to point the target and than look up to see who am I targetting. I suggest move it closer to the cursor. Oh, should I mention that the fonts in there are tiny too?

 

[Problem]: "Scoreboard".

I suppose that piece of art, that contains player's account name and some mysterious red strip below is a "scoreborad"? Rofl. 

I've seen some nice proposals on these forums, but I suggest the next template:

avatar - nickname - class (level) - sentinel (lvl) - primary (lvl) - secondary (lvl) - melee (lvl) - artifact - latency

I need to know who I am playing with, and what should I expect from my teammates. 

 

[Problem]: Sentinel status.

You cant watch your sentinel's hp and stuff. Additional bars should be fine.

 

[Problem]: Enemy's corpses and Sonar/Enemy Radar.

They all are marked as a red dots. Same as enemies. Could we have a red crosses or at least something different?

 

[Minor problem]: Characters/weapons levels.

Banshee 25, Latron 30, what the hell is that? Sounds like a chemical elements' isotopes. Strontium-90 etc. Level 30 Latron is much better IMO, what do you think about it?

 

[Minor problem]: Melee weapon expirience.

I cant see my melee wep progress in-game. Not a big deal, but I think melee progress bar could be somehow implemented.

 

MENUS UI 

 

[Major problem]: Rough welcome.

We were thrown into tutorial without being able to configure our systems and controls. That is wrong. Let us do our changes first.

 

[Major problem]: Equipment selection.

I'm in a party of 4. 2 of us have voted for infested mission, other 2 - for a corpus mission. I have no idea what mission will we play next. Now imagine that I have a completely different layout for different factions. Should I continue? Or: I fused a mod on my alternative wep and forgot to switch it back. 

Possible solution: additional pre-mission lobby, where you could select (not modify) all the stuff you have: warframe, sentinel, weps, artifacts. I can cite Payday: The Heist lobby as an example. Its pretty comfortable, and let the player coordinate with teammates and pick most suitable stuff for the current mission. 

It will kill two birds with one stone: it will ease the Arsenal menu and let players think more strategically about their setup. Even when its not required in WF that much. And, most of all, you dont need to switch your weps hundred times after customizing it.

 

[Problem]: Mod card appearence.

I get the point of white dots at the left border of the card like in 30 hrs of gameplay or so. Some might not get it at all. I suggest there will be better if we have additional mod fusion ingame tutorial, aswell as better mod information visualisation.

 

[Problem]: Primary weapon mods.

Yeah, both rifle and shotty ones in the same place. Its a chaos in there. I suggest split them into "Primary - rifle" and "Primary - shotgun" categories.

 

 

 

 

Well, thats what I want to say about UI. For now. The whole "meditation-upon-the Solar-System" idea is fun, but there is still alot to do. 

 

Cheers, 77

Edited May 9, 2013 by Se7ense7en

[Se7ense7en]

Bump

 

And I have a question: do developers monitor this thread? Do my suggestions have a chance to be noticed by 'em?

[Gadgez]

Well, I run in 1920x1080, so I can't really speak for everyone here, but I have no problem reading chat or power levels, and I actually prefer having health in top right. Some MMOs offer UI customisation, so maybe have an option to set health corner for those who want to change it?

I like the idea of a lobby to change weapons though, maybe we could also have mod select there too, instead of having them bound to specific weapons and having to switch them every time you want to edit your loadout? Like I said, I'm not speaking for everyone, I'm just putting my own ideas down and trying to build on yours (77) in a way that can fit everyone's style, instead of forcing us one way or the other.

[Se7ense7en]

Some MMOs offer UI customisation

Well, HUD customizing would be a nice addition, but tbh I dont believe it would be implemented in a nearby future. For now I'm running into crowd to ult the sht outta enemies and find myself lacking energy pretty often. Both in-game and "regional" chats are approximately the same: very, very hard to read.

 

maybe we could also have mod select there too, instead of having them bound to specific weapons and having to switch them every time you want to edit your loadout

As for weapon selection, I mean separation between modding menu (Arsenal) and actual pre-mission equipment selection. Since you dont need to unlock all the planets with a new char, it would be fine to select all the stuff, starting from warframe and ending with artifact. One more time: it would be more tactical approach to exact mission, you can prevent class/weapon/artifact stacking this way. Some kind of a layout pre-configuration (like in Super MNC) would be fine too. You wont need to switch warframe+3 weps+sentinel+artifact all the time in that case. 

 

I've already described one of the situations in the OP, here goes another one, that happens to me relatively often: playing a mission with a shotgun, find a rifle mod in progress, finish mission, fusing rifle mod, and forget to switch to my shotty back. Ofcourse, I must be more careful with my equipment selection, but the way I describe it in a paragraph above is more comfortable, plus it will prevent situations like that. 

 

As for the same mods on different weps idea... I dont think this would be good (at least for now), just because some weps are using same mod titles with different progression, and you'll need to remember each wep's layout. 

 

I'm not speaking for everyone

Me too. Thats why I've started this topic. To share my ideas with the others, to discuss it, and, hopefully, to bring devs' attention to this ideas. So I'd like a further discussion and ideas in here, if there would be someone to discuss with.

[Gadgez]

I mentioned mods as I like to switch weapons and frames quite a lot, and I find it a pain to be constantly clicking and dragging the same mods in and out of use every time I do so. It's just a minor irk, but I thought I should maybe clarify what I was thinking of.

[Eternum]

i have the same problem too :(

[Arcrival]

I am using the ABC tabs for different load outs on 1 frame its good but with multiples meh.

 

I think think the ability to customize HUD is necessary. People like their information windows in different spots.

 

Chat window needs to be able to stay up during missions. Also set window tint or transparency and make the window a click through window. Get rid of /t to popup window. Group chat should be just hit the return key type then return to send.

 

Be able to changechat colors so you can see if you get a out of group tell or PM.

 

Group health and power status in a window that doesn't cover my chat also make the window movable I will decide where it goes thnx.

 

Tabs I would like to view mission combat logs see my performance.