A little unformatted list

KoruyoKoruyo AUT Join Date: 2009-06-06 Member: 67724Members, Reinforced - Shadow
edited February 2012 in NS2 General Discussion
<div class="IPBDescription">ui problems and more</div>Yesterday i ran a bit around and started thinking about stuff that bothers me about ns2. (just some small things, sure there are more and bigger ones like balance, performance etc.)

I focused on the commander expirience at first, but its also lots of other stuff:


- waypoint and waypoint path from the unit to the goal, nothing on the map/minimap(not for comms or players) or in the 3d world.(only for players yet)

- minimap gives you no overview over your units and players - its very small and lacks highlight of units and enemys.

- Every unit has Armor, but we can only see a ring of health.

- To see the health of a unit i have to select it (for the armor i need to look at this "selected unit screen" were i can only read it as text - crap)

- the bigger map should be toggle-able and if i have my mouse in the area(with something to drop, like a medpack) it should either fade out or close. (the bigger map is so much more usefull because its in the center of the screen and well bigger)

- this unit area is pretty useless because it doesnt really give you a quick overview of the structure (numbers are hard to read)

- hotkeys should be visible on the icons (not in the tooltips) and Q,W,E,R are the most important keys and should NOT be the ones for switching tabs.

- Global waypoint system - best would be if you could rightclick on empty ground and it pops up a menu, an extra tab with hotkeys is a lot slower and harder to use.

- We need to be able to unselect everything, currently there is always your last unit selected. (rightclick on empty ground clears the selection, another rightclick would open this menu for global waypoints.

- powernodes and status (empty, build, unbuild, destroyed) not easy visible for marines or commander (minimap/map)

- hotgroups size and position and amount is lacking

- upgrades in progress should get an area on the screen where i can quickly see the status and if its finished

- for a lot of upgrades it would be nice to have an icon on the screen, (as commander, armor, weapon, amount of upgrade chambers etc.) Maybe having a "tech-map" would be cool too?

- it would be interessting if you could cycle between alive players of your team with shift and control (forward and backwards)

- it would be very usefull to have a quick way to highlight the health and armor of every unit as commander. (toggle hotkey)

- it would also be extreamly awesome if you could see the amount of ammo a player has as commander

- player names could need some color highlights to mates quickly know who needs welding or heal, maybe also have a weld me/heal me button that highlights you with an icon. (any maybe it also makes gorges and other stuff visible for the player that requested it - so you have it a lot easier to find a place to heal)

- the game is lacking a lot of settings, and with server/client matching check - i hope we can still have custom crosshairs and maybe models (models might be a problem, so might need some whitelisting server stuff or so?)

- FoV playing with a 24'' 16:9 the game is kinda zoomed in for me, 10-15 more feels so much better. (e.g. 105 as marine) - this would be really <3<3<3<3<3

- multiple keybindings!!! e.g. mouse4, keybord 2 and controller X = pistol and stuff like that. (currently you can only bind 1key per action this is not cool)

- walljumping, while it is interesting, the mechanic is even more complex and harder to do than bunnyhopping. (also it can only be done right if you got 2 walls relative close to eachother)

- hotkey for some abilities as commander - medpack etc. would be awesome. (the tab stuff and unit selection is so buggy)

- fleshing out the 2 movement modifiers for each lifeform ctrl(usually crouch) and caps(usually walk) keys for every lifeform.

- the animations on health, energy, armorbars is very bad, show the current value instantly and difference to old in red - you can have animations there.

- would be cool if we could unlock and tweak ui elements position size, colors whatever ingame.

- the commander history thing is pretty useless for players, the only stuff that would be interessting is to have research bars, and if a tech structure was placed and is still unbuilt. (add this to the similar suggestion for the commander ui) - nobody needs to know that the commander dropped a medpack somwhere.

Comments

  • fanaticfanatic This post has been edited. Join Date: 2003-07-23 Member: 18377Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
    Many good observations there.

    <!--quoteo(post=1900681:date=Feb 7 2012, 05:45 PM:name=Koruyo)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Koruyo @ Feb 7 2012, 05:45 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1900681"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->- walljumping, while it is interesting, the mechanic is even more complex and harder to do than bunnyhopping. (also it can only be done right if you got 2 walls relative close to eachother)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    I wouldn't call it complex, but it's difficult to use and finicky.
  • elodeaelodea Editlodea Join Date: 2009-06-20 Member: 67877Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    - Commander history needs to show scans.

    - the secret to walljump is jumping where the wall meets the floor (not actually off the walls) and timing your jumps to the spring mechanic.
  • SkieSkie Skulk Progenitor Join Date: 2003-10-18 Member: 21766Members, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Shadow
    - It's confusing that the marine team's upgrades still show up on the right side of the screen even when the arms lab has been destroyed.

    Walljumping indeed is a bit finicky. It's easy enough to get a mediocre speed boost by just jumping off every other wall you come across. To get to speed 11+ and keep it is... too hard to do in the heat of the battle or when you need to actually get quickly somewhere. Or I guess it comes in months'/years' practise.
  • KoruyoKoruyo AUT Join Date: 2009-06-06 Member: 67724Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited February 2012
    <!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->- the secret to walljump is jumping where the wall meets the floor (not actually off the walls) and timing your jumps to the spring mechanic.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Enable the skulk speedmeter. (skulk_client.lua or so)

    Try 2 walls parallel to eachother... you jump on one wall and then to the other wall with perfect timing and angle - now you can get 12-13 speed(13 is max) for as long as you walk on this wall, you are also able to leave the wall (slows you down a bit on ground) and get back on another wall (magically speeds you up again) - its really strange and rarely works.

    So i end up only jumping every other wall every now and then - but without the use of the speedmeter it gets quite a bit harder to time. (you can look the skulk tounge as reference for the blue bar though) and depending on the map you wont even see much more then 9-10 speed.
  • SkieSkie Skulk Progenitor Join Date: 2003-10-18 Member: 21766Members, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Shadow
    It would probably be easier if the levels weren't so complex in the way the hallways are built. Mapmaking has come a long way since eclipse times. It's really kinda fun to just jump around in ns_eclipse, as well as ns2_eclipse.
  • elodeaelodea Editlodea Join Date: 2009-06-20 Member: 67877Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    <!--quoteo(post=1900711:date=Feb 8 2012, 05:57 AM:name=Koruyo)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Koruyo @ Feb 8 2012, 05:57 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1900711"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Enable the skulk speedmeter. (skulk_client.lua or so)

    Try 2 walls parallel to eachother... you jump on one wall and then to the other wall with perfect timing and angle - now you can get 12-13 speed(13 is max) for as long as you walk on this wall, you are also able to leave the wall (slows you down a bit on ground) and get back on another wall (magically speeds you up again) - its really strange and rarely works.

    So i end up only jumping every other wall every now and then - but without the use of the speedmeter it gets quite a bit harder to time. (you can look the skulk tounge as reference for the blue bar though) and depending on the map you wont even see much more then 9-10 speed.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    ah, ive had that happen before, assumed it was a bug and so never tried to reproduce that speed boost. Interesting.
    I dno, i was just talking a reliable and easy way to get speed boosts from wall jump in combat.
  • KoruyoKoruyo AUT Join Date: 2009-06-06 Member: 67724Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited February 2012
    I really hope that FoV will be a clientside setting soon... it really makes me sad to have 16:9 monitor atm.

    Also its makes me sad how important the commander is(or should be), and how it has gotten the least love in usability.
    A big difference to normal rts is, that its really important to also talk and listen to your team while you do your stuff - which is very overwhelming especially because the ui doesnt really want to help you get information fast and easy.
  • KoruyoKoruyo AUT Join Date: 2009-06-06 Member: 67724Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    Another thing i dont understand, our models cast shadows but we cant see it. (only enemys or other players can, or if you enable thirdperson view with cheats)
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