07/25/2020 - Feedback Request - Revised Interface - Test Server

[Xsyon]

I am working on revisions to the user interface. Some of these revisions are ready for testing on the Test Server.

This is a work in progress but I welcome feedback on what I've done so far.

So far:

- Instead of the Resource Panel, available resources show up as icons along the right edge of the screen. These include Scavenging, Foraging and any resources you can gather from the ground like grass, rocks and scrap materials.

- Instead of the customizable Control / Action Bar and having to drag icons from the Action Panel to the Action Bar I’ve redesigned the Action Bar. It now contains several elements:

----- The first two slots show your right and left hand weapons. The next two slots are reserved for additional combat attacks. All four of these slots will eventually be set up for special attacks. The plan is to have different types of special attacks based on the weapon type you have equipped.

----- Next is Hiding (as I didn’t have a better place to put this action and it’s unique as it’s not a resource gathering skill or craft)

----- Next are four Actions / Skills that require equipped tools. Instead of the player having to equip tools to their appropriate hand slots, the player can simply drag the desired tool for each skill to the correct slot. Once a tool is equipped, you can click the icon or hit the associated number key to run the action. The tool will automatically equip, run the action and un-equip at the end of the action. This should make these actions a lot more user friendly for new players.

The last of these actions is Hunting. This is simply a slot to place your hunting blade to be used when skinning and de-boning creatures. (I haven’t tested all the Hunting actions yet so this is something that can be tested for sure)

----- Next are your main Pack slots instead of the separate Pack Panel.

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Here are a few other changes I plan to make:

- Remove the Action Panel (with the icons for crafts and other icons that you would normally drag to the Action Bar).

- Replace it with a Crafting Panel. This will be a tabbed panel that allows you to switch between all crafts (like in many other games).

- Possibly combine the character Skill Panel and Stat Panel into one panel with tabs.

- Set up crafts to have an automatic display of available tools and materials for each item to be crafted. This would be similar to what the Pet feeding panel does.

- Put the farming Plow action as part of the Terraforming Panel instead of a separate small panel.

- Allow players to bind keys for all the action bar actions.

I'd like to know what you all think of these changes so far and I welcome suggestions for other improvements. Overall, I'm trying to streamline the interface and make it easier especially for new players.

Thanks!

[MrDDT]

I think you should split the bars up, so that players can move smaller bars/buttons around as they see fit. Having 12+ keys in a row might be good for some, others might want 4 at the bottom, 4 on the right side of the screen, 4 on the left etc.

Allow bars to be turned directions. Like the resource bar you currently have is vertical, however, people might like it horizontal again.

Can we get the stats of the items on hover in the bars if there is an item in there? ie. skinning knife QL, durability, etc.


So far I really like it and I do think it will help players do some actions.

Option to bind resources to a hot key. Like maybe resource slot 1,2,3,4 etc to H,J,K,L


In fact all hotkeys should be bindable to hot keys.

[Wyry]

This is weird ... my answer is not displayed anymore? Sorry if I post twice ... wish I could remember what I have written ...

I like the new interface very much and I fully agree to what MrDDT wrote.

1) The possibility to put the weapons directly into the slots where they stay usable without switching is definitely a big improvement. However, I have put the Santas big helper into the 2nd slot but I am unable to replace it with another weapon or to move it back into my backpack. When I first logged in to the test server today, I still had the packs window open and have put the santas big helper in the hand there instead of in the action bar. Maybe this is the reason for not being able to remove the santas big helper from slot 2 again??? It is no longer in the pouch in which I had it up to now.

2) I do not use the special attacks and would like to place the foraging and scavenging icons into slots 3 and 4 instead. But as MrDDT wrote, best option would be to make all the keys defineable by the user.

3) Foraging and Scavenging are actions for me, while grass, twigs, granite etc are resources. I therefore would prefer to have the actions split off from the resources.

Your other changes you plan to make sound very good, I am looking forward to testing them :)

[MrDDT]

This is weird ... my answer is not displayed anymore? Sorry if I post twice ... wish I could remember what I have written ...

I like the new interface very much and I fully agree to what MrDDT wrote.

1) The possibility to put the weapons directly into the slots where they stay usable without switching is definitely a big improvement. However, I have put the Santas big helper into the 2nd slot but I am unable to replace it with another weapon or to move it back into my backpack. When I first logged in to the test server today, I still had the packs window open and have put the santas big helper in the hand there instead of in the action bar. Maybe this is the reason for not being able to remove the santas big helper from slot 2 again??? It is no longer in the pouch in which I had it up to now.

2) I do not use the special attacks and would like to place the foraging and scavenging icons into slots 3 and 4 instead. But as MrDDT wrote, best option would be to make all the keys defineable by the user.

3) Foraging and Scavenging are actions for me, while grass, twigs, granite etc are resources. I therefore would prefer to have the actions split off from the resources.

Your other changes you plan to make sound very good, I am looking forward to testing them :)


There currently are no special attacks. So no one currently using them. I do agree we should be able to change them around how we see fit though.

[chojinuk]

I like the changes, I also fully agree with the other 2 posters.

Also I currently use Key 1 to scav with, key 5 to chop trees etc

So I STRONGLY agree with MrDDT that being to rebind those actions to keys would be a good QOL change

- because in the example of scavving with the new system it would mean constantly using the icon on the right edge of the screen instead of having it on the action bar and hence bound to a Key.

[EDIT] in the case of chop a tree i can live with it being on key 6 but id really like scav bound to a key

Great work so far though

[EDIT] again - now you have that new resource bar on the right with the 3 gathering actions.
on the Bind keys screen, - could you add those 3 actions to that screen ie Scav Forage and Resource gather so a player could assign any key
-really as exactly as MrDDT said.

[Xsyon]

I do plan to have key bindings for all the action bar slots (and I could do the same for the resources on the right side). I forgot to mention that in my initial post so I've updated it.

I can split up the action bar into: combat / skill actions / packs so that would be three bars. The xp bar would have to be separated from these.

I'll post again after I've made some changes. Thanks for the feedback!

[MrDDT]

What about the option to turn bars?

Like you now have resource bar going vertical (used to be horizontal).

[Xsyon]

On the current Test Server:

- The action bar is split into 4 bars: combat, skills, packs and resources.

- The bars can be set to horizontal or vertical through the Options panel.

- You can set the key binds for all actions through the KeyBind panel.

I'm still working on:

- Setting up more info on the tool tips for equipped tools. I may set up an option to have the full vs simple display on these.

- Finishing the combat panel. Right now since there aren't any special attacks I just set up the panel without any functionality. When finished it will have key bindings in the KeyBind panel as well.

- Clean up the Actions Panel and remove all actions that are now in the other panels (Logging, Terraforming etc.) Eventually this will be replaced by a tabbed Crafting panel.

- Finding a place for the Experience Bar. I'm thinking I can replace the Swing Power gauge to show experience and the Level Up / Stat Adjust pluses can appear in the lower right corner along with the panel commands. I may try a few options to see what looks best.

Anyways, I appreciate all further feedback on this. Originally I was going to save these changes for a future patch but as they are nearly complete I will release these changes along with Mounts in the next patch.

Thanks!

[thurgond]

Sorry for not testing earlier. I am very confused by the new interface.

There seems to be no way to assign crafting skills to a number key. I will hate having to open the Actions panel to do craft skills and a tabbed panel doesn't sound inviting. Seldom or never used functions from the Actions panel (logging, terraforming, farming (plowing not tending crops) and skinning) are now on a bar that can't be closed. Assigning number keys to these misc. actions is a total waste to me.

Number keys are now assigned to gathering actions which are not needed. The materials available for gathering change and it will be more difficult to see what number is assigned to each resource rather than clicking on the resource you want.

There are now three bars for the Packs: the old bar with 10 slots and two new five slot bars that can't be opened and closed. Guessing one of these is the combat panel.

Forage and scavenge are in two panels-- the resource panel with numbers and a separate two slot panel that actually can be opened and closed.

Assigning a tool to an action is a small improvement, but not as useful as it sounds for me. I'm not likely to do more terraforming or plowing and I regularly use three different knives on a single dead critter.

What the interface really needs is the ability to resize fonts. Don't care for these changes at all.

[Wyry]

The splitting of the bars is an improvement.

a) Today I tried to move the scavenging/foraging window around the screen. However, I was unable to move it below the red line in the screenshot.
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b) The weapon cannot be dragged to the hands icons. I had to open the inventory to put it at the correct location to be able to use it for attacks. It does not show in the hands icons either. Please see screenshot.
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[Xsyon]

Sorry for not testing earlier. I am very confused by the new interface.

I can add another bar for crafting actions with key binds. However, I do want to set up a tabbed crafting panel to be more consistent with other games. When I do that I can allow for both options (old vs new).

I do plan to set up all these bars so that players can turn them on and off and display the ones they want on at the time.

About the double panels (Packs, Resources), I'm not finished with the changes. The old Pack and Resource panels will be removed in favor of the action bars and the keys that turned on the old panels can be used to turn the bars on and off.

Yes, the bar with the hands is the combat bar.

Thanks!

[Xsyon]

The splitting of the bars is an approvement.

a) Today I tried to move the scavenging/foraging window around the screen. However, I was unable to move it below the red line in the screenshot.

That's intentional because that action bar needs room for the additional resources (grass, scrap, etc.)


b) The weapon cannot be dragged to the hands icons. I had to open the inventory to put it at the correct location to be able to use it for attacks. It does not show in the hands icons either. Please see screenshot.


Yup, I'm not done with that action bar. (That's the combat one)

Thanks!

[MrDDT]

Sorry for not testing earlier. I am very confused by the new interface.

There seems to be no way to assign crafting skills to a number key. I will hate having to open the Actions panel to do craft skills and a tabbed panel doesn't sound inviting. Seldom or never used functions from the Actions panel (logging, terraforming, farming (plowing not tending crops) and skinning) are now on a bar that can't be closed. Assigning number keys to these misc. actions is a total waste to me.

Number keys are now assigned to gathering actions which are not needed. The materials available for gathering change and it will be more difficult to see what number is assigned to each resource rather than clicking on the resource you want.

There are now three bars for the Packs: the old bar with 10 slots and two new five slot bars that can't be opened and closed. Guessing one of these is the combat panel.

Forage and scavenge are in two panels-- the resource panel with numbers and a separate two slot panel that actually can be opened and closed.

Assigning a tool to an action is a small improvement, but not as useful as it sounds for me. I'm not likely to do more terraforming or plowing and I regularly use three different knives on a single dead critter.

What the interface really needs is the ability to resize fonts. Don't care for these changes at all.


Crafting Skills are going to be in 1 window as Xsyon said the actions window is going to be gone. (U hot key)
So instead of having 10+ hotkeys for each crafting. You will open the crafting window with 1 key, and craft anything from there.

All those functions you listed "Logging, terraforming etc" are not just hotkeys, but tool slots also. This will create a LOT less hotkeys needed as you will cut down all the crafting hotkeys to 1 key, and then you equip a tool and use that slot as a hotkey.

Needed for resources bound to a hotkey? Sure its not needed but its a quality of life thing. Right clicking all the time is not fun. So much better to use a keyboard hotkey for many of these things.

I do agree with you that people should have the option to turn off any hotbar they do not want to see like the packs window. Pretty sure the packs window (old one P hot key) is going away. One thing I like about the new hotbar is on death you don't have to open it again.

The open and closed panel is going away. Again same as packs, I think you should be allowed to turn off any window you like, however, I do like on death the new window does not close, which means I don't have to open it each time.

The 3 knives (not sure why you would use 3) doesn't matter because its still faster this way. You can easy put the knife into the skinning slot and not have to worry about reequipping weapons or having your left hand free, or changing out weapons in your right hand. So you could dual wield shovels, and skin with 3 knives and only have to change our each knife as you want to, you don't have to move the shovels.
Unlike before, you would have to kill the animal, move the shovels. Put the knife in, skin, put another knife in, skin, put another knife in, skin, then remove the knife, and put the shovels.
For almost all people, they likely wont have to move anything. They will simply kill the animal and click skin. Saving a massive amount of pain.

I totally agree with the fonts.

[thurgond]

I just want to be able to open a craft with one keystroke. I don't want both an craft bar and a craft window with tabs. If I can open a craft tab for a specific craft with a bound key, I'll be happy.

DDT, a craft window that wouldn't require at least 2 keystrokes/clicks to open a specific craft otherwise it would be a huge mess. That's what the tabs are for. I understand how marrying a tool and an action would save keystrokes, it just won't save me as many as others. I use a blade as my weapon, and I also carry a 114 quality blade I looted from the ruins of IS long ago. :rolleyes:

[MrDDT]

I just want to be able to open a craft with one keystroke. I don't want both an craft bar and a craft window with tabs. If I can open a craft tab for a specific craft with a bound key, I'll be happy.

DDT, a craft window that wouldn't require at least 2 keystrokes/clicks to open a specific craft otherwise it would be a huge mess. That's what the tabs are for. I understand how marrying a tool and an action would save keystrokes, it just won't save me as many as others. I use a blade as my weapon, and I also carry a 114 quality blade I looted from the ruins of IS long ago. :rolleyes:

I'm not sure if you understand what is going to happen.

You will have 1 key opens crafting. Then you have a list of all the recipes.

So currently if you want to make a scrappers craft knife. You click your hot key for toolcrafting. Then find the scrappers craft knife on the list. Click it. Then put the mats in it and click craft.

New system, you click the hot key for crafting. Find scrapers craft knife on the list. Click it. Then put the mats in it and click craft.

So nothing will change for you other than you only need 1 crafting hot key and not 10.

[Lohn]

I have a feature suggestion that might benefit some players. I often put my windows in certain spots and leave them open (INV to the side, skills window in the top corner, etc) and sometimes when in a rush and dragging say your cart out of your hands, dropping your bag or moving items between windows I accidentally drag the whole window - I'd love it if a lock feature could be implemented to toggle locking a window in place so it can't be moved like other games have (maybe a different name/icon since a lock is used for permissions in inventories right now, next to stack) otherwise maybe making windows only be dragged at the top, and not via just anywhere. I'd love to hear how others feel about this. It's just something I thought might go well with these new UI changes! I'm loving the updates, thanks for your work Xsyon. :)

[Xsyon]

The Test Server is up with further revisions to the interface:

1) The keybind panel is redone with additional keys. Players will be able to bind keys to all crafts for now in addition to the skills and resources.

2) By default the game resolution will be set to a larger scale based on your current screen resolution (instead of the default of 1024x768).

3) Tools in the Skills Action Bar display full tool tip info. I will set up a switch to turn this on and off for players that want a simpler display (Logging - Tool Name for example).

4) I replaced the Actions panel with a Crafts Action Bar. This can be set horizontal or vertical like the other action bars. Eventually I will set up an improved tabbed Craft panel and allow this Action Bar as an option for those that prefer this style.

5) You can drag and drop weapons from the Combat Action Bar. I will set up special attacks from this bar in a near future patch.

6) The swing power gauge is now used for XP. I think this works ok for now. The other option would be to have the XP bar look similar to what it was but in its own panel. With all the separated Action Bars though I think the gauge may be best.

7) The Level Up / Stat Adjust plus buttons appear attached to the main control icons (Skills, Stats, etc.)

I think this is ready for a public patch but welcome all feedback and will fix any important issues first.

Thanks!

Note: About locking panels as requested above, setting panels so that their handles are just at the top is probably the best solution for that problem. Some panels, like the Action Bars I am setting up would be dragged by selecting between icons though unless I made explicit visible handles for the panels.

[Lohn]

Note: About locking panels as requested above, setting panels so that their handles are just at the top is probably the best solution for that problem. Some panels, like the Action Bars I am setting up would be dragged by selecting between icons though unless I made explicit visible handles for the panels.

So the newer windows are dragged via the top bars only, with some exceptions like the action bars? :) If so, that's perfect. I mainly had issues with the current (soon to be old) packs window or inventories when miss-clicking and dragging an empty spot instead of my items. Thanks for the reply and thanks for all your hard work on the UI and pets.

[Lohn]

Sorry for double post, but I just thought of something. Instead of putting the farming Plow action as part of the Terraforming Panel instead of a separate small panel, why not add buttons for the watering, clearing weeds, clearing pests, and fertilizing options and putting them in the farming skill panel? It would save on the user right-clicking so much and make farming easier on the hands and less tedious and less painful due to repetitive motions. I wish I had thought to suggest this sooner, since you've put so much work into everything already.

[Xsyon]

A new build is on the Test Server.

With this build the main Panels called from the Command Icons (Skills, Stats, Inventory, Pets, Social, Tribe) can be dragged only by the top bar.

I've put the request for Farming changes on my list. Makes sense but is too complicated for this next patch.

Thanks!

[thurgond]

Thanks for the changes to the interface will allow me to use the same keystrokes I've used for years. Thanks for the changes.

A tabbed crafting panel with each craft under different skills could be an improvement. A panel with the schemes for all crafts in one big list like DDT expects would be one jumbled mess for new characters and get worse as a character gets inspires.

Under key binds, there are options for eat and drink. Tried to set up drink to a key, but could not get it to work. Guessing this is something for the future.

[MrDDT]

Few things I saw about the UI.

Love the changes thank you.

1)Pouches and Bins/Packs are still moving by not using the top bar. Can we fix this?

2)The pack/bin slot on the bottom interface packs bar does not allow you to put a bin/pack there from a cart/container/building. You have to hit I to open inventory, then drag it to the pack/bin slot.

[Xsyon]

The Test Server is up with some interface changes:

1) Packs, pouches and bins should be dragged only by the top bar now instead of the entire panel.

2) You should be able to drag pouches and packs to the Packs Action Bar.

Answers to Questions

1) Yes, the 'eat' and 'drink' key binds are for future use. I intend to add eat and drink icons to the Skills action bar, after the Hunting icon. I plan to set an optional setting to turn these on and off for players that don't want them on. You'll be able to drag a food item and water skin item to these icons and assign hot keys to them.

I think that's it!

[MrDDT]

Anything more we should test?

Packs and pouches only moved by the top bar is working.

You can drag pouches and packs to the packs actions bar.