The New HUD

peregrinus

<div class="IPBDescription">From build 201</div>Cap'd from the live stream <a href="http://www.twitch.tv/naturalselection2" target="_blank">http://www.twitch.tv/naturalselection2</a>

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rantology

I liked the old one better.... had less distracting fluff/ giant bars and was easier to get info at a glance from. What is all that static/ line stuff on the mini map? I rather liked having that quarter of my screen :/

Wheeee

would be nice if the atrium power lost notifications were a little less obstructive...but i really like the gritty and minimalist theme.

Imbalanxd

The marines shouldn't get power lost notifications. They don't have omnipotent knowledge of the map, the commander should need to relay such information.

killer monkey

Well...its perfect only improvement would be to make it more blue and less scan lines from the minimap

peregrinus

The static lines are a stylistic thing I guess, and they give it a degree of transparency.

They should change the upgrade and chat icons to fit the new style.

And this green splat for 'You Are Dead' is confusing. The Alien one seems to always be green, but the marine one is red when you die, then turns green when you start to spawn. It's the cartoon style of the blood splatter I don't like. It doesn't fit any of the other art work.

I think you're right about the messages. It's fun when the commander tells you what happened and you all have to rush through the phase gate not knowing exactly what to expect.

off topic: Jet Pack is now 10 res.

hit321

The screen "YOU ARE DEAD", remeber Left 4 Dead game.
The idea appears good, but need changes.

I liked the old HUD too. I think that some junction of the both HUD will be better.

MuYeah

I like it!

e: the blood might be a bit much

peregrinus

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/c4uOO.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

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ham

They're making the HUD shiny for PAX. Expect a new main menu too.

internetexplorer

Here are my thoughts on it (and a little <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=115580&hl=" target="_blank">self-promotion</a>)
<ul><li>Health/armor need to not be in a corner</li><li>Why do we have bars AND numbers for health/armor? It's a waste of screen real estate, and nobody has the time to focus on the bars changing in the far corners of their screen</li><li>"Power node died" messages should not exist. If the point is for players to know when other rooms are being attacked, the game already tells you that with sounds/map cues/teammates talking. The message is right next to the crosshair, which is the one place you NEVER add things on a HUD.</li><li>On the same topic: it's good to poke and prod players in the right directions (the way the Battlefield games do), but NS already has its own way of doing that: relevant sounds and detailed minimaps. There's absolutely no need to add tons more information to the HUD.</li><li>We discussed this on stream a bit: it would be nice to see more HUD elements on the marine's arms (like health, armor, upgrade levels...). It creates immersion when you lose sight of them for sprinting/changing weapons, and it frees up screen real estate to see the pretty game world!</li><li>Customizability of the HUD goes a long way with a game that's full of diehard FPS players. I'd really love it if someday NS2 has something like <a href="http://visualhud.pk69.com/" target="_blank">this</a></li></ul>

IeptBarakat

Not a fan of the new minimap. The zooming in the minimap when commands are given is nauseating, and the wonderful pixelart icons were replaced with boring triangles. It would be cool if you pressed the minimap button and the one on the hud expanded/grew to a bigger map on the screen. With a legend to the right for players to know whats what.

And the new marine hud is too gray now, not enough cool blue like before.

Other than that it's pretty awesome.

Gadx

Alien hud is nice and clean. Health read out is sorta hard to read. Not sure about that.

Marine hud is a little to shiny and clunky. Mini map is too huge. Power is out across the screen will get annoying. The commander should be telling marines about it if it is important anyways.

nUfl0w

I like the new marine hud, I only have on point I dislike which I already disliked in the old one.
Why do you put the banner, autohelp, whatever in the middle of the screen? I see that you made it kind of transparent to account for that but its still distracting. Especially for players with lower resolutions this is a problem. Why dont you just put them on the bottom line of the screen or something. Somewhere were someone that wants to read them can read them and someone that wants to kill that skulk can kill that skulk.

bLink`

I like the alien hud a lot, but not sure about marines. As the other stated, the mini-map looks big. Other than that it's really nice.

PsiWarp

As said before, need more blue on the new Marine HUD; it feels odd looking at it with attack & armor upgrades on the side.

Alien HUD's improved graphics are good, just need smaller numbers for HP/AP and we're set (or increase the circle's size)

noncomposmentis

I like it. Good job to whoever is responsible (i've forgotten). The alien health is a little difficult to read.

Wilson

<!--quoteo(post=1915691:date=Mar 21 2012, 02:31 AM:name=internetexplorer)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (internetexplorer @ Mar 21 2012, 02:31 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1915691"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->[*]Health/armor need to not be in a corner
[*]Why do we have bars AND numbers for health/armor? It's a waste of screen real estate, and nobody has the time to focus on the bars changing in the far corners of their screen<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

I disagree. Health and armour are now in the same place on both teams. It's also easy to see out of the corner of your eye. CS:Go has a very similar setup with both meters and numbers. Perhaps the meters are a little too long, but much better than the short fat ones before. They had it like this months ago and it worked fine then.

Overall I like the new hud elements. Very good for a first pass and much better than before. I have criticisms of course, I think the scanlines on the minimap are a bit overpowering. I also don't like how the waypoints animate right over the screen. It's good for getting your attention but I have a feeling it will annoy me more.

Zek

Alien health has always been hard to read really and it still is. Personally I feel that the rings don't contribute anything, they're much too difficult to read at a glance(especially with both health and armor) so I've always just phased them out. I would rather have bars.

{GGs} Chicken

My opinions:


Mini-Map is HUGE, lose a lot of screen real estate there.

Power Node going down notification imo is a completely bad idea. Takes away from someone pulling a ninja, or working together to bring a tech point or fortified room down when marines are preoccupied with something else.

If you look at the picture showing the PG being built, it shows 85% and the welder says 72%.

The whole "you are dead" screen doesn't really fit this game.

I don't mind the new marine hp/armor bars but the numbers seem small and not easy to see in some instances. Bright pink/purple font, or much bigger font would be nice.

Skie

Work in progress, as many things are that you may see in:
a) Beta
b) Playtest of a beta

Raza.

Looks like an improvement overall.

Criticism:
The minimap scanlines seem too strong and they blend in with the level outlines.
Do we really need the "You are dead" message? Shouldn't players realize that without reading a text?

Oh, and the "banner messages" are exactly what I expected them to be: in the way.

ÒŗăNģё

Is this serious? I'm sorry but this is horrific. Just more distracting information to get in the way of actual game play, I really hope this will be worked on further.

Khyron

<!--quoteo(post=1915690:date=Mar 21 2012, 01:31 PM:name=hampton)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (hampton @ Mar 21 2012, 01:31 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1915690"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->They're making the HUD shiny for PAX. Expect a new main menu too.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah, that makes sense. I too freaked out about the power node notification but I'm sure it's not final.

I'm also a bit over the knee jerk reactions, like we saw with the skulk movement thread which appeared about 45 seconds after b200 went live or the Onos underpowered thread that happened on the gorilla launch day... You can't develop a careful, considered opinion in such a short time frame.

It's a beta; we should be accepting to change, give it a chance, maybe *gasp* change your play style AND wait for the community to do the same.

If something remains a problem after multiple builds then there's cause for concern. The rush to first post is just a bit gen z ADHD...

zastels

Just a suggestion, but it would be cool if the hud had depth and was slanted on the sides to make it seem like it was being projected onto the marines visor.

<a href="http://guide2games.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/republic-commando-2.jpg" target="_blank">http://guide2games.org/wp-content/uploads/...-commando-2.jpg</a>

Like that

Wheeee

wtb high-contrast colors on important things like health and armor.

Gravity Grave

It feels really unnatural to me to have health and armor in the bottom left.

fmpone

<!--quoteo(post=1915783:date=Mar 21 2012, 03:02 AM:name=Gravity Grave)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Gravity Grave @ Mar 21 2012, 03:02 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1915783"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->It feels really unnatural to me to have health and armor in the bottom left.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

+1 mate, +1

zastels

<!--quoteo(post=1915783:date=Mar 21 2012, 03:02 AM:name=Gravity Grave)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Gravity Grave @ Mar 21 2012, 03:02 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1915783"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->It feels really unnatural to me to have health and armor in the bottom left.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

I agree : /

What other game has it on the left?

swalk

I don't like the new kill messages, the old ones was much nicer.
Also, I really dislike the HUGE texts that appear in the middle of the screen.
Stuff like: INFANTRY PORTAL UNDER ATTACK
Move them to the buttom/top of the screen!

endar

I didnt see it mentioned, are the health/armour updates instant? Or still delayed.