Interview Interview with Swen Vincke at PC Gamer

[Perkel]

My gripes with UI:

- Lack of tetris inventory. All items are 1 slot and you can't see shit. Two handers look like one handers only small items like scrolls and ingredients looks ok.
- It would be lovely for example to name one box Ingredients and that box would auto fill with ingredients. Next box name scrolls and it would fill with scrolls. Next one food and it would fill with food.
- log box is shitty. Sure it is customizable but it doesn't stick to place where i place it upon load. So upon load it is again in middle of right screen fucking around. So i swithch it off. That log box reminds me of shitty NWN1/2 UI all customizable but eveything doesn't fit.

 

[Metro]

Tetris inventory sucks balls. They just need better sorting options.

 

[PowerTorment]

No way to repair equipped gear / no repair all button

That only applies until you find a repair hammer. Put it on on the action bar and you can two
click repair stuff.

 

[Excidium]

No way to repair equipped gear / no repair all button

That only applies until you find a repair hammer. Put it on on the action bar and you can two
click repair stuff.

Don't you need blacksmith for it?

 

[cvv]

- Lack of tetris inventory. All items are 1 slot and you can't see shit.

Can't open multiple inventory screens at once / tiny inventory area

This.

Generally, smallish or tiny UIs. A problem that is metastasizing through the PC-only games lately. Damned devs forgetting normal gaming folks aren't sitting two inches from their 3200x2160 monitors like they're while designing the stupid thing.

Larian is not as terrible as Paradox in that respect but I still have to strain myself a bit while playing. Seems like today there's only the choice between big, blocky, ugly idiot UI designed for consoles (DA2) or a mess of 2px UI elements designed for spergs with ashtrays for spectacles.

Really hoping for some mods.

Is the UI customization? I would assume it is probably XMI or something like that.

On Larian's mod subforum, people in the know are saying the UI can't be modded.

Oh ffs.

 

[groke]

ITT: people griping about able-visioned privilege.

 

[PowerTorment]

No way to repair equipped gear / no repair all button

That only applies until you find a repair hammer. Put it on on the action bar and you can two
click repair stuff.

Don't you need blacksmith for it?

No, you don't need a blacksmith. You just need the blacksmith skill, so put the repair hammer on action bar of a char that has that skill.

From page 35:

"
Weapons and armour both lose some of their durability upon being hit or
hitting something else. It is important to keep repairing your equipment
if you want the pieces to last. In order to repair items, you will need the
Blacksmith ability and a repair hammer.
"

 

[Tigranes]

Right click item, 'blacksmithimg', done. If you have hammer.

 

[PowerTorment]

Right click item, 'blacksmithimg', done. If you have hammer.

Except that only works if it is the same person that has the hammer and has the thing to repair. Toolbar trick works across characters. That way only one character needs a hammer and blacksmith skill.

 

[Arkeus]

Except that only works if it is the same person that has the hammer and has the thing to repair. Toolbar trick works across characters. That way only one character needs a hammer and blacksmith skill.

And, well, would you look at that! Jahan comes with a blacksmith skill.

 

[Fireblade]

Right click item, 'blacksmithimg', done. If you have hammer.

Except that only works if it is the same person that has the hammer and has the thing to repair. Toolbar trick works across characters. That way only one character needs a hammer and blacksmith skill.

You can actually do it entirely through inventory, without hotbar usage: open the inventory of both your blacksmith and your guy who has something that needs repairing (right-clicking portraits is the fastest way IMO). "Use" the hammer out of the blacksmith's inventory, and then click on something in the other guy's inventory (it can even be equipped). The blacksmith will run over to the other guy and perform the repair.

 

[Loriac]

The worst problem I'm finding with the UI is the lack of a hotkey to switch hotbars, and additionally the limit of 3 hotbars only.

All the other UI shortcomings are irritating perhaps but not overly problematic in my view.

 

[Perkel]

you can also use K and select spell/skill from that list and use it. It has use and remove button.

 

[Roguey]

With all that early access you'd think they would have fixed their usability issues. Even inXile did that to some degree. Oh well, it is Larian.

 

[Loriac]

you can also use K and select spell/skill from that list and use it. It has use and remove button.

True, but you still have to navigate the tabs in the skills menu to get to the skill you want.

 

[Shannow]

Lets just say that repairing stuff is perfectly viable as it is now. Still I'd prefer a simple icon that automatically repairs all repairable items with your party's highest blacksmith skill. The whole inventory, skill and skillbar management needs some tweaking.
Crafting should also be completely redone in an additional crafting window. This should require knowing the recipes, having the materials, the skill (and access to furnaces, anvils etc if required). While the current crafting could also work without recipes perhaps with higher skill requirements.
I just think that Larian (and probably many of their fans) are very attached to the way stuff works now and I doubt they'll change it. Cause of immersion or sumtin.

The great thing about Div:OS is that your can criticise it all day and it's still a very good game

 

[Dr Schultz]

Considering the drop-in/drop-out multiplayer thing, the U.I. is a freakin miracle. I've played tons of entirely single player RPGs with shittier interfaces, and I'm not talking about Bioware crap, I'm talking about serious stuff. Complaining about the U.I. in Original Sin is moronic even here. You wanna complain about something? Complain about the totally out of place itemization system.

 

[Broseph]

Considering the drop-in/drop-out multiplayer thing, the U.I. is a freakin miracle. I've played tons of entirely single player RPGs with shittier interfaces, and I'm not talking about Bioware crap, I'm talking about serious stuff. Complaining about the U.I. in Original Sin is moronic even here.

Uh no, it's not. "I've seen worse" is not an excuse for lacking common sense conveniences.

You wanna complain about something? Complain about the totally out of place itemization system.

Fits in with their Diablo clone roots

 

[Korron]

Ya as much as I'm enjoying the game, interacting with the controls is obtuse: only 360 degree camera rotation in battlemode which often fixes itself behind crappy leaf textures so I have to zoom in, some doors are hard to see because of angles, poor inventory sorting, weird character portrait dragging to separate characters, a lot of hotkey functions I expect like escape closing windows not there, and shit inventory management. I hope they fix it because it hampers their otherwise great game.

 

[Tigranes]

Escape works. Check the settings.

 

[jiujitsu]

This game is super fun. I love the combat. I can get slaughtered 10 times in a row in the same encounter and change tactics/positions slightly and come out on top. Too fun.

 

[Dr Schultz]

Considering the drop-in/drop-out multiplayer thing, the U.I. is a freakin miracle. I've played tons of entirely single player RPGs with shittier interfaces, and I'm not talking about Bioware crap, I'm talking about serious stuff. Complaining about the U.I. in Original Sin is moronic even here.

Uh no, it's not. "I've seen worse" is not an excuse for lacking common sense conveniences.

Well, tons of so called masterpieces (starting from Ultima V and continuing with basically any decent RPG I've ever played) lack common sense in a more striking way when it comes to the UI part. And they don't even have to work in multi-player.

You wanna complain about something? Complain about the totally out of place itemization system.

Fits in with their Diablo clone roots

Sadly Original Sin is nothing like a Diablo clone.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

The co-op focus has definitely made the game worse for me. I think the reason party and inventory management is such a pain is because they thought two people would be playing and organising their own stuff. Trying to sort out character's hotbars and inventories by clicking on the character portrait, then finding that same character in the inventory menu, is fucking ridiculous. Why couldn't they just copy every other party-based RPG that ever existed?

I've mentioned randomised loot in the other thread, but this isn't bothering me too much right now. Sure, I'm coming across a load of shit loot like bows that give +1 constitution but I seem to be getting along in combat ok.

I can understand why a lot of Codexers like this game, but for a story & dialoguefag like myself, there's not enough motivation for me to really get invested in it. I'll keep playing for sure but I'm not excited every time I load the game, I just think "Here we go again". I'm holding out for Wasteland 2, Age of Decadence, Pillars of Eternity and Torment: Tides of Numenara.

 

[Zed]

Ya as much as I'm enjoying the game, interacting with the controls is obtuse: only 360 degree camera rotation in battlemode which often fixes itself behind crappy leaf textures so I have to zoom in, some doors are hard to see because of angles, poor inventory sorting, weird character portrait dragging to separate characters, a lot of hotkey functions I expect like escape closing windows not there, and shit inventory management. I hope they fix it because it hampers their otherwise great game.

My top control annoyance is when they have more than 9 dialogue options and you have to scroll down to close the conversation, because obviously there's no 10, 11, 12 etc. hotkey.

 

[Volrath]

The co-op focus has definitely made the game worse for me. I think the reason party and inventory management is such a pain is because they thought two people would be playing and organising their own stuff. Trying to sort out character's hotbars and inventories by clicking on the character portrait, then finding that same character in the inventory menu, is fucking ridiculous. Why couldn't they just copy every other party-based RPG that ever existed?

Just right click on a portrait.