Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback BG3 UI fantasy design; "Forgotten" realm?

Playing Deadfire again, and it hit me...man is that UI gorgeous. It really sucks you into the game. The maps look like maps. The spellbook IS a spell book etc...Wasn't BG1 and BG2 like this too?


I would love to see a more interesting UI design for BG3. Right now it feels like a 2021 simplified mobile app UI crossed with console controller utility...And not a UI from the "Forgotten realms" fantasy world.
Its Very bland...Has no <character>.

Is it set in stone? I haven't seen any major UI changes during the entire EA process.

I would also love the user interface to be a defining element of the game's personality.

Right now the only thing that is really beautifull and that really feel "Baldur's Gate 3 only" is the worldmap and small icons.

+1 to the OP.

+1

I certainly hope the UI is not set in stone… every character currently has a “Spellbook” section, which makes no sense for most characters.

Totally. UI which appears more hand drawn/handmade really draws you into the game world.

I actually prefer the interface to DOS2-particularly the inventory. I think/hope that the current one is still being fooled around with, since they have been tweaking it here and there. Something where you could look up creatures, places, deities, etc would be pretty neat too, like is shown with that 'Brine Imp' there.

Now that you've brought this up, the way POE2 handles personal inventory and party stash is actually pretty genius, and BG3 could only benefit from improving on that even further.

Having a smaller personal inventory could lead to being able to redesign the hotbar to split abilities and consumables into their own sections, like how POE2 handles quick items. This would also impose a limit on how many different consumables you can bring into combat, as it would be assumed that you can't touch party stash while in a combat situation.

The party stash could also benefit from being split up into equipment, consumables, and an everything else section too. Sure, you can sort the inventory on a priority basis, but it still looks like a complete mess at the end of the day.

Yeah, I hope the next updates are to the UI. For comparison the BG3 interface is mostly this...



The other interface panels (Equipment, Inventory, Spellbook) just repeat the information shown there again, but in overlay for each avatar displayed together.

Map panel looks like an enlarged minimap with a key to the lower left.



Journal panel


A bit sparse there, I thought it was more of a placeholder but it hasn't really been updated much aside from the addition of some new icons to the main hotbar and such.

I enjoy seeing more of those little embellishments like in the OP, an ornate vibe with some ephemeral and hand drawn call backs. I'd love to see a more modular design and aesthetic for the UI too. Just seems like the sort of thing we should be able to reskin and play around with a bit at this point. I can picture many different themes they might deploy to give it more character, and make a playthrough feel a bit different even down to the level of UI flair. Right now it takes up the whole screen, but doesn't make a whole lot of use of all that real estate.

This.

What is wrong about that? Its practical, clean and organized. O_o

Personaly i would 100 times rather have that than some fancy "book frame" that i have to browse for few minutes since i find spell i was looking for. :-/

Good question.

I agree. I think it looks good.

*

There are a couple of small changes I'd like to see in the way things function. 1) Auto-organizer that works better, 2) the ability to select more than one item at a time, and 3) a potion and scroll icon on the hotbar that opens up and shows all the potions and scrolls, like some of the spells currently do (Find Familiar as an example).

Other than those small things, I'm fine with it.

As far as just the aesthetic goes, I think it looks great.

The last thing I want to see is some overly-decorated, clunky system that looks try-hard and outdated.

Yup. Very poor UI design. Poor both on the aesthetic and immersion side as well as the functionality and practicality side.

Yes, PoE are very deliberately emulating Infinity Engine games. And it is a lovely touch that UI in PoE2 was redesigned to better reflect the setting.

I would praise functionality of the design, over its looks. UI art design is more of a choice, and while I appreciate aesthetic PoEs go for, it’s not a must. It is also not impossible that BG3 UI will get prettier closer to release, as art team will be able to do their magic knowing that the designs are final.

Poor transparency, clarity and functionality of BG3 UI is a bigger issue.

Man, you are really not gonna like those hotbars, that you like to defend, couple levels down the line ;-)

I doubt that ...
Especialy if my wish will be heared and they make them twice (at least) or thrice (pefferably) as big.

I thought I was fairly concise in answering the question before it was asked lol.

Suffice it to say where you see practicality, cleanliness and orginization, I see emptiness and a general lack of adornment, also a fair bit of repetition and redundancy. Who can say why you see the one and I see the other though? I'm sure it's down to taste and a differing aesthetic sensibility. Just judging from our conversations in the hotbar thread (wherever that one went) it's probably safe to say we're coming at it from rather different perspectives and it would probably take more time to unpack the Why than either of us are really willing to put in here, though I suppose I can try hehe.

There are elements in the design I do like, the little lattices around the various borders for example. Those have some nice curves tying the panels together like an Alphonse Mucha drawing or something. Some of the icons as well though they're very small, but on the whole it just doesn't grab me like I wish it did. Probably cause it's mostly a transparency.

I can imagine this presentation used for just about any RPG, which is why it doesn't feel particularly distinctive or thematic for me. Too modernist and minimalist and generic. Doesn't conjur up the Forgotten Realms or D&D vibes for me. Just feels kind of scrubbed and stripped down and utilitarian. Like the Braun kitchen appliance of UI's -too sleek and too simple, where you can't see the buttons hehe. I get it, it's just not my thing.

I don't want to be too harsh, since to me it seems very unfinished, and I don't want to pre-judge the architecture based on the scaffolding here, but still. To my way of thinking there is a difference between outdated and timeless, also empty vs elegantly reserved. I like a vingette or sketch but there's a difference between that and something that's just incomplete. I mean I could waltz into just about any space and make it look practical and clean and well organized by removing all traces of the lived-in character and simply painting the walls white, but that's kinda like redecorating and reorganizing with a wrecking ball.

I tend to be more forgiving of the try-hard even when I sense something is a bit overwrought, cause at least I know they really tried and put some heart into it. I prefer a Piranesi to a Picasso though, or a Repin to a Rothko for example, so I know my views are fairly antiquated. When I see a cubist slant in Piransei or a color gradient in a Repin to me it feels more powerful, because it's in service of some higher something with greater demonstrable skill in the execution (which is the meaning Ars) rather than just reveling in itself as a solipsistic abstraction. I enjoy Rodin, quite a lot actually, but I don't think he was an objectively better scultpor than Bernini, and I'm sure he'd have admitted the same. When I see the reductio in art movements I can appreciate the essentialist point being made, but I see the same essentialism in opperation in earlier or more traditional works too, just with a greater sweep and sense of purpose there. Since they hadn't given up on the figurative element yet and can still function as visual language or visual metaphor without requiring interpetation by an intermediary to explain the merits or the purpose.

That's general art talk to be sure, but I have the same views when it comes to design. I will always prefer an original typeface or something lovingly hand lettered to something typed out in arial sans-serif. I just find the UI not particularly striking right now, it feels more like a template than a finished work with a signature. Sorry if that seems harsh to whoever designed initially or for those who love it right now, but to me it seems kinda bare bones in the cabinet, whereas I was hoping for a more of a stop motion Skeleton Warrior, in a Ray Harryhausen flick, swinging a scimitar! But I'm not the easiest to please, granted hehe

I mean its not awful. Nor great.
If you asked me to draw the current inventory design, or asked how it looks like...Im at a loss. Nothing stands out. And thats the problem as I see it. Its nothing special.

Yeah I mean, there's nothing more pretentious or intractable than taste on this stuff I'm sure, and so it's hard to really make a concrete suggestion. I also agree that it's not exactly bad, just that it doesn't make a strong impression on me. Like I can close my eyes, and imagine in my head what the Baldur's Gate UI looked like. I can conjure up recollections of the iconography and the arrangement, and even some charming details right there on the periphery if I really sit with it, just a lot of little images there. For sure all the Skull and the Spellbook and the Scroll case, but also the stone or the hardwood or extraplanar vibes in it's various incarnations. It went through a decorative morph for sure, but I remember it. When I think of BG3 its more like just a grid or graph paper with everything in a box at sort of the same iconographic scale. Either the big box, or the really really small box, or plain text on a line. I guess there's an appeal to that for me too on some level. But it's just hard to put the finger on what I'd want to see.

I wish it could be modular and decorative, so one might dress up the UI like one does the character and find an organization and presentation that hums for them. It's cool that some got that already just from what we have, but I wish there was more and that it was just easier to open and navigate around. Char Sheet right now seems pretty sensibly organized and the information displayed that way is alright. The minor adornments on the borders are present but very subtle. Grouping the sections with textured or toned backgrounds might be one way to go, another might be to do the same with the trellising, like in the color or materials there. Right now it's sort of transparent glass on the dark brown/black void, but I can imagine how they might slot in parchment or carved stone or the gargoyl'ing that truly speaks to me. I hope they take it on as like a full master suite. You know cemetary wrought iron or spiderwebs or planar biomechaniod. I mean why choose one look, when there's so much they could try out? And if someone just likes the clean and gridded look they can toggle that empty or clearview.

I'd love to see Journal or an MM that almost vibes like this sometimes... shapes like that. Like 70s revival BG2 nouveau but done with some of those elements. Or like for equipment previews...

BG1 late 80s revival love too maybe, like metal and the 2 tone inks. That'd be cool.

I mean they could do a lot, even just with fonts and the font/icon scaling and background cells. What's there is actually pretty nice, but also very small, they could bring those design features more to the fore. Or using some larger shapes, or some spheres or other shapes instead of just the squares 1x1. If the info in the Char Sheet is the same, they could still do little flourish things to make opening that individual menu feel more themed. Or even in the all ups display of the gaming UI. I wish we could break it apart and move it around. Just some of the ideas to kick about for it.

I find these elements pretty strong, but the decorative aspects and icons often are so small that it's harder to really appreciate them. Maybe the boards will enlarge somewhat if I isolate them, or just to appreciate them independently...










To come back to the title of the thread, some of the realms being forgotten here are all those negative spaces between the elements. There are ways to use even very rudimentary adornment like color or texture to help define what's what and what's related. For example one can imagine among the spellbars an associated color/texture field for all spells of the same level or same school which then mirrors themes in the "spellbook menu." Perhaps the circular cut outs bridging the lattices together now then turn to glowing orbs with the associated colors. Stuff of that sort. Or perhaps the entire theme changes if one is say accessing magic via pact with some demonic or divine patron or a draconic lineage or wild style as opposed to the arcane theme. Or take that idea but maybe extend it into inventory grouping or abilities. If they start small with skins and textures that are basically bar/tab undelays they could experiment with quite a few different looks before settling on anything particular as permanent. But on just the basic level of visual orginization keying in the stuff that's related and adding borders and textures to the negative space might be nice when we enter the specific menu or integrated into an overall theme around say class or background or just setting.

Then I look at the avatar field and see the negative space there, and I think, 'this could easily be a portait in scene or like with a simple gradient, a pose designed to make it more portrait like. Perhaps with illumination designs in the margins to suggest class or background and such. And all those things could still be stripped away back down to this blanked if one wanted a more simplified version, but its easier to remove something in place than it is to conjur it up. So I hope they take it further and have a whole team working on it right now. One can wish!

I would be fine with extremely plain customizable hotbars and no decoration, spend more time looking at the game than the interface. Functional wins out over anything for me, sometimes so much time is spent making things look "pretty" that I have to study a manual to figure out what everything is. I probably started playing video games later than a lot of you though and don't have any nostalgia about the UI from older games.