UI Arrangement

One persistent problem I have had with Action RPGs that use UI's similar to PoE's (Diablo 2, Titan Quest) is that the most important information tends to be flung out to the furthest ends of the screen.

For example, in the screenshot at http://pathofexile.com/gen/image/gallery/NjhfcHJldmlldy4x/3911e50d7c.jpg, what are the most important areas of the screen? The order might change depending on the situation, but the answer is always some arrangement of:

The Center (your character and immediate surroundings)
The Bottom-left corner (Your health bar and flasks)
The Bottom-right corner (Your mana bar and spells)
Top Top-center of the screen (Your target and its health bar)

The problem is only exacerbated by widescreen displays, which could put your health and mana displays physically more than a foot apart - what a strain on the player!

World of Warcraft has one of the most customizable UI's among successful games these days, and among the most successful (at the time I was playing, at least) is so-called HUD (Heads-Up Display) UI's, which bring the player's health and mana, target's health mana and name, and other relevant info right into the center of the screen. The advantages are remarkable: no more straining yourself to take in all of the relevant info, and a much easier time focusing on what's actually going on.

The HUD UI would of course require new art, but simplicity is surely the name of the game when the preferred option is to display it at around 50% opacity.

For reference, here's a fairly standard example of a WoW UI mod along these lines: http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info11167-DHUDfor4.0.html

I agree with that.
The game is still in development and i'm sure this will not be the same UI at the launch, than now. It is kinda simple right now. It will probably change before they go into close beta (0.9.X). But still good to start talking about it. :)

Yes, i really liked the customizable ui in WoW. I think every rpg should have that feature. At least for me the ui is something that is really important but unfortunately there are a lot of of games with bad ui's...

Sacred 2, just to name one, had the life bar in the top left corner of the screen. I almost never look at that place when i play such a game and there was no possibility to change anything!

"

Dr4z3r escreveu:

For reference, here's a fairly standard example of a WoW UI mod along these lines: http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info11167-DHUDfor4.0.html

All the UI in that screenshot is still shoved away in the corners. The only reason the stuff at the bottom isn't, is because it's too big to fit in a corner.

I understand the problem, im using a widescreen myself for a few years now.

ON a Normal Screen i never had any problems keeping the overview about my health/mana in most games.
But as soon as i tryed out a Widescreen i noticed that i realy start to have some problems concentrating on the center to fight and looking on the health in the corner aswell.

A Head up Display of that kind for some of the important infos wouldnt be necessary thought, but it would be damn nice to have it :)

I think the problem could be solved if each statistic is showed with a window, which you could move around wherever you like.I think they had similar system in Guild Wars, but I'm not so sure about that. Still, even if only the health and mana/skill bars could be moved, it will facilitate the whole ''looking around'' process.

Insult the UI all you like. Id like to see a drawing from someone how they think it should be. Not just an example from another game.

Ok im going to pick out bad things from that UI for a top down action rpg.

1: the health and manas in your face all the time covering action.

2: there's numbers on the center UI drawing even more attention away from the action.

3: the rest of the UI is completely pointless as this is a action RPG where you will be using 1-3 skills(however I know you were just talking about the middle).

I had this UI mod for WoW on my rogue. Yes it fits an mmo fine because your hp and mana slowly go down so you sort of need to manage it. However in a action RPG its all about the action. Your health will be rapidly going down anyway so you might as well use a charge on your potion per kill. If your health is going down so fast that you need it in the middle of the screen then something is really up.


Pretty much in conclusion.... an action game will always be more action space then UI. UIs are boring to look at compared to the fight.

Btw that Mod was only handy for rouges and it showed you combo points. Its pretty much what it was made for. Im guessing poe will have some effect or something on the character to show combo points if they have them. Like assassins kinda moves outa d2

This is how the UI in Guild Wars 2 is going to look like:



For me this is one of the nicest and cleanest standard UI's out there, I like that everything is in 1 place and under the character :)

chop half those buttons out for a action RPG and that could actually be pretty cool.

Would give it a fresh feeling

Just hope a monster doesn't come from the bottom of your screen.

I have never had a problem with the UI layout in D2 and I use a widescreen monitor. Hell, I have two widescreen monitors and I can manage some very complex RTS games spanning both screens without a problem.

If you're having trouble viewing all parts of the screen at once then you're doing it wrong. Move your face more than two inches away from the screen and see what a world of difference it can make. That's not to say that PoE's UI is perfect. It is a bit dated and could probably use some improvements. The sort of problems you're bringing are almost always due to user error. Sit back to where you can comfortably see the entire screen and you'll soon find yourself playing better.