Cleaner marine HUD concept

DarkOmenDarkOmen Join Date: 2002-11-05 Member: 7148Members
edited November 2013 in Modding
Hello!

I've been experimenting with ideas for a new Marine HUD layout based off what's in the game now. I'm trying to come up with a concept that shows the player more relevant information while simultaneously reducing clutter on the screen. I've made some tests in LUA and am confident that I can implement most of this myself, though I would gladly pass off the idea to someone more familiar with the game if there is interest.

How does this look to you all? I'm looking for any and all feedback as ideally it would be great to come up with a design that suits everybody - competitive and pub players alike.

WKsjHt8.jpg

Comments

  • IeptBarakatIeptBarakat The most difficult name to speak ingame. Join Date: 2009-07-10 Member: 68107Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow
    Looks pretty great. Is that a match timer in the upper right? If so, then it's my favorite hud already.

    Only gripe I have with it is I can't see the exact health/armor of the marine.
  • kalakujakalakuja Join Date: 2012-09-11 Member: 159045Members, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter
    hp and armor needs numbers. Need to know if you can take the next bite or call for med for example.
    The tech part is nice but it would be best behind map button and with numbers.
    I for one want as less as possible info on the shooting screen, rest to be accessed with the scoreboard or the map screen.
    Powerstatus can be seen from the lights, parasite from the model, no need for text. a little timer for the remaining parasite time would be awesome.
    the rt amount is kind of useless, you can open the map and see for yourself.
    The killstatus box is very good.
  • DarkOmenDarkOmen Join Date: 2002-11-05 Member: 7148Members
    edited November 2013
    Image updated.

    Thanks for the feedback, guys! Since health/armour numbers seem paramount, I've added them to the left of the bars and moved the armour/weapon icons over a bit. Parasite has been changed to a countdown timer as well. I completely agree about needing to know exact numbers.

    As for kalakuja's other points (powerstatus, tech bit on scoreboard, rt numers), I'm going to take a minute to think about these things and collect other people's opinions.

    EDIT: New update! I've removed the location power icon and added various icons from NS2. Also added a flashlight indicator (thoughts?).
  • MigeMige Join Date: 2005-03-19 Member: 45796Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    edited November 2013
    Nice HUD. That rt count is a little problematic. I don't need that (like many other comp.players) but some players want to know exact number/dots without looking the minimap.. Kill status is great! ;)
  • sushifxsushifx Join Date: 2013-03-03 Member: 183637Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited November 2013
    Looks good sofar,

    Check font size for lowe resolutions and aspect
    Check Layout Dependencies for lower Resultions specifically Aspect Ratios
    Allways snatch a 100% lit room screenshot too since you want it to be perfectly readable on all contrast situiation

    i think you could work more on the weighting on certain parts.
    atm everything is even in its attention grabbing.

    some feedback:

    - upgrades should be larger then the cooldown timer for nanoshield for example, as its more imporant, maybe consider coloring the 3 different leveltypes, 2 against 3 bars is visible, but if you want to create a more subtle infograbbing by the user other then comparing, try numbers or colors, as the human can distinkt those more easy then the bars, i know its a small detail but the summ of those make good interfaces.

    EDIT:: second thought, of the cooldown. If it is your personal nanoshield then its far more imporatnt then the upgrade level but then it should get a prominent design so you can see without conentrating to much on it
    if its the commander cooldown i dont know if the player should know it at all, since its the role of the commadner to manage it and inform players when nano is unavailable and when not.

    - Lowerbar health and armor placement is rather bad tbh. it completly blocks the lower part of your viewfrustrum,
    making it impossible to see a skulk chewing your feet or even worse when jetpacking.

    - researchbars do look good but this info shouldnt be onscreen, the way it works now with holding "J" is perfekt, since that information is temporal and doesnt deserve a permanent placement in the rines hud

    the + and - on the killstream is a nice idea but also irrelevant, the System tells you allready in a colorcode who won over whom. no need to make a redundant Information. Also would those 1px lined elements in color mostly vanish infront of the games level assets.

    Time is nice but the placement makes no sense, if there is no kill you get a clock somewhere onscreen, maybe you wanna switch it to a more solid spot.
    The clock is kinda looking like a real clock, but i guess you wanted roundtime. Maybe switch the icon to a stopwatch then.


    If you would like more feedback tell me, Interfacedesigner by job.
  • AurOn2AurOn2 COOKIES! FREEDOM, AND BISCUITS! Australia Join Date: 2012-01-13 Member: 140224Members, Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Forum staff
    edited November 2013
    enjoying neokens variant myself.
    10/10 would awesome again.
  • DarkOmenDarkOmen Join Date: 2002-11-05 Member: 7148Members
    edited November 2013
    Updated!

    @Neoken:
    Thank you! I love what you did with the information in the bottom left. It accomplishes what I was trying for with keeping all information pertaining to the player towards the bottom of the screen.

    My goal with the central bars was to give the player a good peripheral view of their health/armour so they could focus on what's happening in the center of the screen. You design shows me that this can be accomplished by simply improving the appearance of the health and armour bars rather than moving them.

    @sushifx: You're absolutely right about the upgrade bar colours as well as health/armour bar placement. Regarding nanoshield and cooldown timers, I do intend on having some other stuff happen to show the player that nanoshield is in effect, the cooldown timer was going to be a secondary indicator. Ultimately though, in this past iteration I decided to do away with most status indicators completely.

    Regarding the "requesting" indicator, I've removed it for now but I'm thinking of revisiting it later. My thought was to have that HUD element mirror the state of the message that shows up for the commander. That way, the player would know whether their request was pending and unanswered or has expired.

    A few things that I'm generally concerned about:

    MAP ASPECT RATIO
    - In my prototype, the map is exactly square which offers the player an even 360' view around their character while neither Neoken's nor UWE's does this. This was deliberate on my part because I feel that having any other shape of minimap would affect the player's ability to detect threats from certain cardinal directions.

    RT COUNT
    - Mige (and I'm sure others) complain that the RT count is problematic to have displayed on the screen. I'm not entirely sold on this as I feel that it is important to know what the commander is doing and capable of spending on at all times throughout a match. It's essentially a replacement for the little dots that appear next to your PRes in the vanilla HUD, which I would sorely miss without some kind of alternative. I moved it up towards the commander corner of the screen because having a good RT count is largely the product of having an active comm. It also relates very closely to the map in the sense that you must secure territory in order to secure RTs.

    If anyone has any further comments or ideas, please let me know! I'm open to any and all ideas, and will credit others where credit is due.

    EDIT: Removed the - and + from the killstatus area, since left it's pretty easy to read what's positive and negative when the text is left-justified anyway.
  • IeptBarakatIeptBarakat The most difficult name to speak ingame. Join Date: 2009-07-10 Member: 68107Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow
    I agree on keeping the RT count on the hud, I like to have important details like that a glance away.

    It's debatable, but at least in public games having knowledge of what the commander is dropping is important, since you don't get the same level of communication as you would a competitive game. It would be easy for players to miss the commander dropping a phasegate or an obs without communication.
  • Ghosthree3Ghosthree3 Join Date: 2010-02-13 Member: 70557Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    I like it tbh. There's really..not much I'd change about that at all. I'm sure it could use a little work I just need to figure out what it is.... Good job!
  • NeXuSNeXuS US Join Date: 2013-10-13 Member: 188681Members, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester
    Neoken wrote: »
    Looking pretty sweet. Very clean and informative. I'd use it without a doubt.
    JwCne2V.jpg

    Love this. I hope a mod like this gets made soon.
  • AurOn2AurOn2 COOKIES! FREEDOM, AND BISCUITS! Australia Join Date: 2012-01-13 Member: 140224Members, Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Forum staff
    Thing is though, would having the current status of tech's be considered as cheating? I mean, It's a clear advantage over the default hud.
  • DarkOmenDarkOmen Join Date: 2002-11-05 Member: 7148Members
    edited November 2013
    AuroN2 wrote: »
    Thing is though, would having the current status of tech's be considered as cheating? I mean, It's a clear advantage over the default hud.

    Wow, I'm getting a lot of mixed feedback on that. I've taken it out for the time being because a significant number of competitives feel that it's unneeded, and well represented by on the in-game tech tree as it is now. We could always revisit the idea down the road.

    The number one thing I'd love some feedback on is the minimap aspect ratio. In neoken's post it's wider than it is tall. However, in my first post, it's exactly square. My concern with making it wider is that it would make marines more capable of picking out targets along a map's X axis than it's Y, which I believe should be avoided.

    I've been busy with some other stuff lately, but I'll start building the HUD mod shortly, at the turn of December.
  • NeokenNeoken Bruges, Belgium Join Date: 2004-03-20 Member: 27447Members, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver, Subnautica Playtester
    The reason I made the minimap so much smaller in that mockup of mine is because I hardly use the minimap anyway. Whenever I want to see what's happening elsewhere, or when I'm trying a new map and getting lost, I just toggle the fullscreen map quickly, which provides much more information anyway. So I don't mind it being exactly square, I'd just prefer not to have it take up as much of my screen. :)

    I did like the little tech bars though. Yeah, for competitive you don't really need it, but it could be useful on pubs for field players who'd like to know what their commander is up to. :D

  • HamletHamlet Join Date: 2008-08-17 Member: 64837Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited March 2014
    As a Westerner (i.e. everyone who grew up in culture with an alphabet that is being read from left to right), the most important stuff should go in the upper left corner.

    If you want to experience your years of conditioning just fire up fraps. Fraps lets you decide in which corner you want to place the FPS counter.
    Just play around with it and try every single position. You'll find that the upper left is most irritating and will grab your attention much more than lower right.

    That's why I'd place the health bars in the upper left corner.
    The most unimportant stuff should go to the lower right.
  • GibsGibs Join Date: 2013-09-25 Member: 188455Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Diamond, Subnautica Playtester
    I just wish I could get hp, armor, ammo and energy at the center of my screen :( like in quake
  • Laosh'RaLaosh'Ra Join Date: 2011-12-09 Member: 137232Members
    looking good. imo the biggest issue about HUDs is that everyone has a different taste.
    so what i'd REALLY like to have, is a modular HUD where everyone can (de)active whatever parts they want.
    even better (but probably too much work) would be a WYSIWYG "editor" to drag&drop the components in, also moving them around and scaling them.
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