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.


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.