Hello, just to make sure our feedback reaches the devs I'd like to talk about the UI that was introduced in Patch 7
This is mostly my personal opinion but I've tried to put forward as many objective/descriptive arguments to keep this constructive.
Please try to do the same in the replies so that this isn't dismissed as a "I liked the old one better !" flame-fest
Without further ado, patch 7 UI :
Looks nice, is horrendous once in your hands :
- Enormous waste of space, particularly during combats, the play order and hover take up a huge amount of space on entire field of view
- Minimap, Character icon, Forced turn-based mode, flee button and party handler have the same problem
- Whatever was gained in clicks was lost five time over in mouse travel time and UI readability
- Anyone used to standard MMO UI design will click the different UI buttons, not understanding why the same panel keeps appearing
- The lack of fullscreen menu reduces the amount of slots visible and forcefully reduces the size of what is supposed to be our main character management panel
- Spell bar isn't instinctive at all, and you'll be wasting time every time you want to come back to the "Main" bar
- Submenus for spells with multiple options make you lose track of what bar your were on
- Mixing permanent actions such as jump and throw with removable ones induces confusion
- On that note, permanent actions can now be removed, which people will unintentionally do
- Passives aren't immediately visible
- New character sheet makes the model way less visible
- No more UI locks for slots
Suggestions :
Re-instate the old UI general design, keeping the following things :
- The Improvements to tooltips, turn order and party management (the latest in their old locations and their old compact form)
- The improvements to the character sheets, in the character sheet menu
Or :
- Introduce a "UI mode" switch in the settings allowing us to switch between the old UI/Suggestions above and the new one
I like function over form, and especially in a strategy game, I want to see the most field possible without the UI obstructing my sight and to have the important information and possible actions displayed in a concise and immediately understandable way
To me this is an dramatic downgrade from the previous iteration, which was clear, concise and to the point. Synthetic, in a word.
Most of the Big buttons take unnecessary space, Your own portrait is redundant with your party icon, and spellbar navigation is frustrating because you have to reach the "close" button for each spell with its own submenu
You don't know what is built-in/essential anymore and you lose quick view and access to the important interactive actions, namely your passives
Without an UI editor to change sizes, element locations and on/off display, this is a disastrous design choice.
