NS1 veteran feel so alone

Price

<div class="IPBDescription">NS2 has some very weird things</div>Delete me please.

Lucian

I definitely agree with all your points, the UI needs a lot more consideration.

Also what ever happened to the right/middle click menu? I hope that makes its way into NS2.

Aside from the UI, it would be nice to see some polish for the early game, ie. skulks and LMGs. I think the game would be very enjoyable even if it was limited to lesser lifeforms, LMGs, and 1 hive/command chair.

Silverwing

I agree that not being able to see some things at a glance are a bit annoying, however I have seen absolutely no indication that UWE considers it unimportant or want to leave these things out.

I think most, if not all of your concerns will be addressed as they finish up the UI.

jamieshepherd

Agree on everything here

VeNeM

yea, the colors need to be changed on the minimap as well. ALL marine items cant be green, sometimes you cant tell which is which. i mean im sure they could make something blue, purple, etc etcc..

Cerebral

Sadly, I agree as well. It's very difficult to get "at a glance" access to important information in game.

Delphic

Many good points there, I definitely can not make out my health / armour status as alien without LOOKING at the corner of my screen (as opposed to corner-of-eye seeing large changes).

Interesting seem to have managed to get Off Topic on to similar things that this thread is talking about in <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=111904" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...howtopic=111904</a>

Triggerman

All the UI and feedback stuff is something you tend to forget while developing a game, but since they have a whole bunch of other stuff that needs to be done before that (the UI we have is functional; not <i>great </i>but functional) I think we can cut them some slack on that part while they work on improving the engine and adding the necessary features for balance.

But yes there's tons of small things that needs to be adjusted, but at this point in time I think they won't even be able to use the feedback we give them.
Or well, unless you scoot your way over to GetSatisfaction so they can easily find it later instead of creating topics that will be put on the second page in a matter of days. Seriously there's been like 5-7 threads that have done just that!

Price

Here is the example what i mean, if you look at the white dot, you can't see your health on NS2, but if you did the same with the old Bar, you see it very good.

<img src="http://oi56.tinypic.com/309msuh.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://oi54.tinypic.com/2zsz12r.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

my short example for a health bar of the e.g. Aliens
<img src="http://oi54.tinypic.com/30wm2w2.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://oi56.tinypic.com/25k1nab.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
the last one remind me move of the dynamic infestation.

juice

Biggest problem with weapon switch is that you have to wait for the weapon to finish switching in order to begin changing to a different weapon. You should be able, at any time, to press a weapon key, and the animation for changing to that weapon should immediately begin.

Ex: You have shotgun, you see skulk in distance, you press 2 for pistol.
Immediately, 2 fades appear and you decide to switch back to shotgun.
But no, you have to wait for pistol animation to complete THEN you have to wait for shotgun animation to complete.

You wait TWO animations. That is bad.

peregrinus

Yea basically the UI needs to be overhaled. For me the evolve menu is the worst. I want the NS1 menu back.

PaiSand

I agree, but for the weapons you already have keys for each one, so you only need to press that key and you get the weapon in your hand.
I know, it is also for me more comfortable to use the mouse-wheel, and I love to use the middle-click to switch between current and last selected weapon, and I know this will be added at some point.
And yes, a fast switch between weapons is needed, so you don't wait for the animation to finish.

For the UI, I like the minimalistic style we have now, I can focus on the battle and not be distracted with other stuff on screen. Also, when your health is dropping much you see it reflected directly on your POV, like a red fog view, so you don't need to look at any other place to know you need health.
Like with any other game you can get used to. I already notice the tiny differences on screen when I'm losing health, and I know when my health dropped below 50% this way. I really love it.
Of course, is just me, I never look too much at the health indicator on any game, I'm used to this.

Quovatis

I hate the weapon switch delay in NS2. Like you said, there is some delay between when you used one weapon and switching to another. I don't know if this delay is intentional or not, but if so, at least take the switching input and switch weapons at the end of the delay. As is, I die a lot because the weapon/ability I thought I selected was not.

kingmob

Good Points all on the OP.
You should break them out into separate issues and push them into get satisfaction.
They all sound like technical issues that can be fixed.
I liked your points on the mini-map as well.

I disagree on argument for the old evolve menu.
This was a huge education experience for any new player.
The new evolve dialog has much more long term potential.
CS has set the standard in this area and even TF2 follows it now.
pick your choices and get back into the game.

Align

<!--quoteo(post=1815554:date=Dec 13 2010, 05:22 PM:name=Price)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Price @ Dec 13 2010, 05:22 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1815554"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><img src="http://oi56.tinypic.com/309msuh.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
While I completely agree that it's very hard to see my health status beyond alive/red/dead at the moment(and forget about armour, I didn't even know that was there until much later), what you have there is either the adrenaline or resource bar. The health in NS1 was only displayed as a number in the lower right.

Kouji_San

<!--quoteo(post=1815561:date=Dec 13 2010, 04:43 PM:name=juice)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (juice @ Dec 13 2010, 04:43 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1815561"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Biggest problem with weapon switch is that you have to wait for the weapon to finish switching in order to begin changing to a different weapon. You should be able, at any time, to press a weapon key, and the animation for changing to that weapon should immediately begin.

Ex: You have shotgun, you see skulk in distance, you press 2 for pistol.
Immediately, 2 fades appear and you decide to switch back to shotgun.
But no, you have to wait for pistol animation to complete THEN you have to wait for shotgun animation to complete.

You wait TWO animations. That is bad.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Maybe we can research a quick draw holster for the marines. Seriously though it is a valid point.

The Op is a good bag of info for things that have to be addressed, I hope the eyes of the devs will spot this one.

Price

whops its a long time ago, <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns/static/comm_manual/images/alienHudClassic.jpg" target="_blank">you are right</a> but anyway if your health is very low, you see your health is going red and you can see that from the center
Whatever i would like to see a healthbar like in my example.
The ressources are not that important anymore, maybe the ressources are like how the health was in ns1.
You know, i figure out, if you play, you want see your health, so as a alien you think like "oh noe my half health is gone, i need to take cover".
Not it is like "oh my health is low, i should....*dead*" the time to see your health takes to much because its so tiny.
If you can see your health from center, it would help a lot.

Kouji_San

Try playing in a window where the health indicators go invisible when you're not taking damage

Align

They do that in fullscreen too...

PaiSand

I was thinking on this.
A good way to do it is adding different styles of HUD, so you can see a full sized HUD or a minimalistic HUD like now. You chose how and what to see on the HUD.
Then you can add a hotkey to change between every style.

Kouji_San

<!--quoteo(post=1815632:date=Dec 13 2010, 08:12 PM:name=Align)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Align @ Dec 13 2010, 08:12 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1815632"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->They do that in fullscreen too...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Ah so it is a feature and not a bug, I guess?

VeNeM

theyre supposed to go invisible when youre not takign damage, no idea why they want to go that route though.

ScardyBob

Agree with op.

The NS1 HUD is one thing I'd like to see them transfer over to NS2. It was both minimal but informative.

Also, the commander minimap is pretty bad at the moment. I pretty much only use it to quickly move to the other side of a map. I especially dislike how events are shown on the map via a decreasing radius circle. When something happens, I want to know where it happens on the minimap immediately, not after a watching delayed reverse ping icon animation.

1ERASER1

Good points by OP.

Also great points in adding res nodes current / available and ips to the HUD.

Harimau

Yeah, as I mentioned in that other thread, we should have certain information like: Res nodes capped / available, Tech points current / available, and number of IPs; all on the HUD. Maybe some other relevant information. And you could go with a very minimalist approach: an icon representing each set of data, each with a number either beside the icon, or superimposed on top.
e.g. [icon]6/10
or [6/10] (icon in the background)

I agree with the commander minimap thing as well, the NS2 one, which kind of takes a 'photographic' approach, has too much visual noise; the NS1 minimap is very clean and minimalistic, and you can see the layout of the map exactly, kind of like floor plans rather than a satellite snapshot. For a full screen map, the snapshot method would be no problem because the visual noise is less pronounced, but when it's miniaturised and shoved in the corner, it's hard to see anything that's happening.

tk-421

<!--quoteo(post=1815658:date=Dec 13 2010, 12:37 PM:name=ScardyBob)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ScardyBob @ Dec 13 2010, 12:37 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1815658"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I especially dislike how events are shown on the map via a decreasing radius circle. When something happens, I want to know where it happens on the minimap immediately, not after a watching delayed reverse ping icon animation.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Absolutely agree, hopefully it gets changed somewhere down the line. I actually started a thread about this in the Ideas subforum a while back.

<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=111378&hl=ping" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...378&hl=ping</a>

Squeal_Like_A_Pig

<!--quoteo(post=1815774:date=Dec 14 2010, 03:24 AM:name=Harimau)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Harimau @ Dec 14 2010, 03:24 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1815774"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I agree with the commander minimap thing as well, the NS2 one, which kind of takes a 'photographic' approach, has too much visual noise; the NS1 minimap is very clean and minimalistic, and you can see the layout of the map exactly, kind of like floor plans rather than a satellite snapshot. For a full screen map, the snapshot method would be no problem because the visual noise is less pronounced, but when it's miniaturised and shoved in the corner, it's hard to see anything that's happening.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The commander minimap is being reworked as we speak. Its going to get visually simplified, and be closer to the Ns1 minimap, and overall hopefully become much more useful and informative.

Also some discussion going on about bringing the full screen minimap back as well, though that would probably come later.

--Cory

tk-421

<!--quoteo(post=1815799:date=Dec 13 2010, 09:29 PM:name=Squeal_Like_A_Pig)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Squeal_Like_A_Pig @ Dec 13 2010, 09:29 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1815799"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The commander minimap is being reworked as we speak. Its going to get visually simplified, and be closer to the Ns1 minimap, and overall hopefully become much more useful and informative.

Also some discussion going on about bringing the full screen minimap back as well, though that would probably come later.

--Cory<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Thanks for chiming in Cory, always appreciate that you guys are reading and commenting on these threads...

tyrael64

I really miss the map, I'm lost.
most of all do not know where are the colleagues, and the waypoints of the commander