i don't know how the previous version of the ui looked but if these are supposed to show 'improvements' then my god it must have been distilled eye cancer
It looks abit messy and cluttered Vince, but I like the improvements. It does need to be cleaned up alot and sleekend up
Suggestions are welcome.
I'm terrible at this stuff, but a few things that jump out to me:
(1) I think the window in the lower-left corner looks wrong to me. The single thing that annoys me the most is the scroll bar because it looks like a Windows preset. I'm not really big on "immersion," but I do think a game should feel like its own fun, contained space, rather than an extension of OS/enterprise software, and the scroll bar interferes with that. Further, I find it distracting that I can't tell where the UI stops at the background begins. The way in which the UI elements seem to "float" over the background rather than having their own weight again feels more like enterprise software (in this case, Photoshop / Paint.NET tool windows). If you compare it to the FO UI, which is clearly an inspiration, FO's is very solid, it looks bolted onto the bottom of the screen. I prefer that approach even if it takes up a bit more real estate.
(2) It's a small matter, but I really strongly dislike the THAC0-style approach to to-hit rolls. This is an old point that someone else made years ago, but it is a problem when every other roll you want to go high, but on this one, you want to go low. IMO, it would be much more satisfying to see: "Graze 34, Hit 44, Crit 94. Rolled 98."
(3) The use of blue color is inconsistent. For "[REGULAR SHOT] - [Critical Hit!]" and "Rolled 2," the blue appears to be signifying that it was a critical hit (that is what blue is on the target wheel, I guess). But then when calculating damage, blue seems to indicate the opponent's defense roll. By contrast, red on the target wheel signifies a hit, but red is the color you use for the damage and THAC0 rolls, even when the THAC0 roll was a critical hit. Moreover, even on the color wheel itself, it's very weird that the colors are in non-spectrum order and, to some extent, don't track our normal color usage. The spectrum runs Blue->Green->Yellow->Red. The wheel, in contrast, runs Green->Yellow->Red->Blue. The result is that it's not clear that Blue is the best, as opposed to worst, result. In fact, it's counter-intuitive. That is amplified by the fact that if you think of the wheel as a spinner dial (or a clock), the results run Best->Worst->Okay->Good. Very weird IMO. Whether you use my count-up or your THAC0 count down, the results should be arranged spatially as if it were a spin -- so in my version, it would go Miss->Graze->Hit->Critical, with the better spin getting you farther along the wheel. In your approach, it would go Critical->Hit->Graze->Miss, with a smaller spin being better. But in neither approach should it be like it is here. The spin always should start at 12 o'clock. Furthermore, most players (I think?) would consider a green result good and a red result bad. But here, a red result is good (though not as good as blue) whereas a green result is bad.
(4) The 56% is a little confusing IMO, especially when there is a 66% chance of at least grazing. You might just drop the percent, since you have the wheel for the same info, and move the damage range into the middle of the wheel.
(5) If you are going to duplicate the damage range in both the tooltip and the UI bar, and if you are going to show the target's armor, why not at least have the tooltip damage range take the armor into account? IMO, you might also want to include the action point cost in the tool-tip when you're going to shoot, as that seems relevant information there.
(6) I'm also not sure the text ordering is right. I think I'd like it more, and find it more logical, if it went: "[REGULAR SHOT] - Titus critically hit Looter! (Rolled 98: Graze 34, Hit 44,
Crit 94.) Looter takes 14 points of ballistic damage. (Rolled 13*1.25 - body armor 2 = 14.)"
(7) I would not have any elements extend above the top line, the way the top of Titus's head and status current do. Better to have a clear delineation between UI and field of play. Similarly, it feels off to me that the shield is shorter and that the UI eventually just stops on the far right. I'm a little confused as to what's going on with the double weapons, too -- can you hold a rifle and pistol at the same time?
(8) AP is potentially very relevant but it's very obscure right now.
(9) Not entirely sure what the + energy on ending turn conveys, because I don't see energy being counted anywhere else.
(10) I think it's needlessly confusing that the ammo icon is three bullets, but that doesn't necessarily tell the player how many bullets he has in the gun. I'm sure I'm an idiot, but at first I read that as three bullets in the clip, and then a number of clips. You might just say "4/6 Ammo."
Hope that's helpful.
