Game News Wasteland 2 Kickstarter Update #31: OMG DISTRIBUTION DEAL, also new HUD screenshots

[SuicideBunny]

I do generally weight the opinion of Codex/NMA higher since I know they're critical communities whose sensibilities are very close to ours, though the same is obviously true for our own forums. But it's not the only place we get feedback from, or important to the exclusion of all others, as much as I know you guys like to think so

don't you have enough aesthetic sensibility to see for yourself that the ui is rather sucky and has no soul, even as a work in progress/concept?
hell, even those fugly yellow numbers practically scream to be red-glowing vacuum tubes.

 

[Brother None]

don't you have enough aesthetic sensibility to see for yourself that the ui is rather sucky and has no soul, even as a work in progress/concept?

I like it well enough. The buttons/icons around the weapon display probably need the most work, in general it needs a few passes, plus it'll look better once implemented in-engine. For the stage it's at (basically just a mockup), it's quite good.

"has no soul" doesn't seem like meaningful feedback to me.

 

[SuicideBunny]

too much soul:

soul:

no soul:

negative soul:


wasteland's setting is a post-apoc world with crazy 80ies science. the ui does not reflect that at all. it has a theme but it has no character and it's hard to imagine that it will change after a few pass-overs. the old ui was way better in that regard.

 

[Zed]

wasteland's setting is a post-apoc world with crazy 80ies science. the ui does not reflect that at all. it has a theme but it has no character and it's hard to imagine that it will change after a few pass-overs. the old ui was way better in that regard.

agreed. like someone said earlier, it looks like generic russian shovelware. wasteland has a unique wacky 80s/mad max feel to it. that should be used in the UI.

EDIT:
what reflects 'mad max' and can be used for UI elements?
https://www.google.se/search?q=mad+...w&biw=1280&bih=637&sei=HnPgUbbgDav34QSjqICACA
black leather, steel pipes (chromed?) that looks like it could belong in a car, oil stains, "dusty metal" (not necessarily rusted), chains, to name a few.

 

[Infinitron]

SuicideBunny It appears that "soul" is highly correlated with low-res pixel graphics.

I think you guys have just mentally associated poor games and certain styles of UI.

 

[Excidium]

I think you guys have just mentally associated poor games and certain styles of UI.

Not really, I advocate list inventories despite tards most often associating them with console games.

Granted that first UI on the list is p. fucking ugly.

 

[Rake]

SuicideBunny It appears that "soul" is highly correlated with low-res pixel graphics.

I think you guys have just mentally associated poor games and certain styles of UI.

Not always. i liked the first UI we saw in the demo better. It was still floaty and whatever, but at least it looked good and it was coherent. Something like it with the things Zed talked about in the above post would be as perfect as we can get without a solid frame UI.
The current one looks like a step back.

 

[Gakkone]

I do generally weight the opinion of Codex/NMA higher since I know they're critical communities whose sensibilities are very close to ours, though the same is obviously true for our own forums. But it's not the only place we get feedback from, or important to the exclusion of all others, as much as I know you guys like to think so

Ignore the Codex for now, people here have got too hung up on this.

 

[SuicideBunny]

It appears that "soul" is highly correlated with low-res pixel graphics.

because back then uis were made by pixel artists who tried to make them fit the style of the rest of their pixel art for the game resulting in overall higher investment. nowadays people just click some fugly flash shit together or imitate wow.
there are still some uis with soul or at least some nice qualities, but they are fairly rare.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Nah, must be just because they're "old" not because they were actually good.

 

[Infinitron]

because back then uis were made by pixel artists who tried to make them fit the style of the rest of their pixel art for the game resulting in overall higher investment. nowadays people just click some fugly flash shit together or imitate wow.

A valid argument.

Perhaps this also has to do with color. As games became more high color, it became harder to match the UI to a game's color scheme at all times. So today devs don't even try.

 

[Excidium]

wot

I don't think that's the case at all. It's just that back then large UIs were the necessity and if it's gonna be large it better look good and thematic. Later on the rule became minimalistic stuff so people stopped giving a shit so when they try to make an "old school RPG" UI this is the what we get.

 

[toro]

The UI is ugly. I can live with it but is not something I would miss. No personality, no cohesion, too much green. Fuck I miss a humongous bottom bar.

 

[Alex_Steel]

So basically...no place except for the Codex? Only on the Codex and NMA have the negative voices dominated. Anywhere else (our forums, Kickstarter comments, Facebook, NeoGAF, SA, GOG, RPGWatch, Canard PC, GameStar.de, it has been positive-to-mixed).

I do generally weight the opinion of Codex/NMA higher since I know they're critical communities whose sensibilities are very close to ours, though the same is obviously true for our own forums. But it's not the only place we get feedback from, or important to the exclusion of all others, as much as I know you guys like to think so

Well, there you go.

 

[boltrek]

A whole lot of inconsistent whining. What are InXile hoping for, the fans to design the UI for them?

Jesus, just design the UI, be done with it, and if some people complain about it when the game is out (it's inevitable) then tough titties, they can wait for mods. I'm waiting for InXile just stop asking for input, and just use the updates to TELL the backers of the progress they have made. The reality is someone is always gonna complain, they need to ignore the noise from the spergs on NMA and the Codex and take some leadership and just make the game.

I find the whole idea of "fan input" for Kickstarter games stupid. It's awkward and inconsistent, it's divisive to the backers because it lets the fags get the idea that their ideas are worth a damn, that they are now super game designers and not just numbnuts who used 15$ from mommy to pledge on Kickstarter, and then when they put their dumb ideas up on forums other fans get annoyed because they think that idea is stupid and are worried the devs might actually listen to it.

 

[A user named cat]

So uh, what was wrong with the old HUD? Why break what wasn't broken? New UI looks substantially worse. I see an NBA shot clock, a stick of ram and fax paper with giant fonts. Great, how cohesive.

If you want to give them some UI advice, show them the picture from below and say, "Put this back, make the HUD elements a bit smaller, find a better font and leave it the alone. Thanks."

 

[Excidium]

The old UI is just too flat, which is what I think they were trying to fix with all the backgrounds connecting the modular bits but in the process made it uglier.

 

[Infinitron]

Phantasmal They made it non-cohesive on purpose. It's not supposed to be cohesive.

 

[Excidium]

Phantasmal They made it non-cohesive on purpose. It's not supposed to be cohesive.

Why would they do that though. I guess they went for the makeshift theme but instead of post apocalyptic RPG UI they did an electronics course RPG UI.

 

[codexian reject]

I like portraits in the middle, it fills the gap and is more ergonomic - less mouse travel.
Keep portraits in the middle, just makes both bars on the same side of the portrait and separate individual portraits panels more.

Sheet of paper from dot printer is kind of cool thematically, rangers are remnants of government – bureaucracy. In practice the huge bright sheet of paper just stand out too much.
Poorly shopped photo of a RAM stick looks extremely cheap and amateurish, also makes icons on quick bar hard to recognise.

I like some colour in the item picture, green would turn boring quickly and stands out too much.
So, I like new layout, but aesthetics in the old hud were better, just make it a bit sharper and more detailed.

 

[Dexter]

Regarding the UI, personally I prefer a minimalistic one like for instance ToEE had it with less decorative elements and more functionality (other than the order sequence for battles at the top):

I'd rather see more of the game itself than have it cluttered with UI elements.
Imo that's one of the crimes commited by the Baldur's Gate saga:

They could have reduced that UI to a single small bar at the bottom or similar (like Fallout or Icewind Dale II).

What cluttered UI taking a lot of space always reminds me of is games like Ultima Underworld where the actual "game space" was only a tiny bit in the middle and the UI was always present and about 3/4 of the screen and I can't say I liked that even back in the day:

If not minimal it should be at least coherent like the Fallout 1/2 UI, the momentary UI ignores almost every rule of symmetry (UI elements should generally be and end "on the same lines") and coherent art style in favor of an incoherent mess.

Although they could have made it even better by bringing some order on the right side:

The previous UI they had shown off was better in that sense.

Compare it to the symmetry in the new Wasteland thing and it looks like it was designed by a total amateur and was thrown together quickly:

 

[Infinitron]

Underworld's UI was like that because computers of the time had trouble displaying the world in a larger window

 

[Curious_Tongue]

Is Dexter just an autistic fuck? Or is there something wrong with me for not caring about the symmetry of Fallout's UI?

 

[Dexter]

Underworld's UI was like that because computers of the time had trouble displaying the world in a larger window

It (Ultima Underworld II) came out the same year as Doom:

Is Dexter just an autistic fuck? Or is there something wrong with me for not caring about the symmetry of Fallout's UI?

You might not "care" about it, but that is a large part of what makes it look better to a lot of people or what makes websites look good instead of clusterfucky and all over the place, you'd know if you took a few design courses. xD

 

[Curious_Tongue]

You might not "care" about it, but that is a large part of what makes it look better to a lot of people or what makes websites look good instead of clusterfucky and all over the place, you'd know if you took a few design courses. xD

Arguing that a UI is a clusterfuck because it's not symmetrical comes across as arguing that a poem is no good because it doesn't rhyme.