Things that could be improved under the new UI
Thels
Member Posts: 1,422
For the record, I do think that stepping up and shaping up an old and horribly outdated UI can be a good thing, and even if not, then it's too late now to convince them to go back to 1.3. That said, I do think there is a lot of room for improvement within the new UI. So rather than yell "Go back to the way it was!", let me go through the list of things that irk me and could certainly be improved.
Character Generation:
Be consistent with capitalization! Don't spell "GENDER" in all capitals, and then only capitalize the first letter in "Appearance", if it appears in the exact same box right after. That's jarring!
What is also jarring, is the large box that pops out to select your portrait. All the other options are chosen inside the left hand panel, but the portrait pops out without a need for it. It actually fits neatly inside the left box, as you can see in the first screenshot (obviously, the box around the portrait would have to be redrawn to better fit inside), so keeping it there like all the other selections would be nice.
I only got a couple of images inside my custom portraits folder, so it's not really an issue for me, but I can imagine that if you have a lot of custom portraits, the list becomes tedious to scroll through. Having an option to pick an external portrait would be nice. You could even do both. Keep all the custom portraits in the list, but also allow people to click a button to browse for them. (And again, the text should be consistent. If the guidelines for all the other options aren't written in all caps, then the guide for portraits should not be, either! Jarring...)
Having the game recognize the L, M and S versions as three separate portraits, rather than three sizes of the same portrait, is definitely again a step back in functionality. I do understand that the devs want to make it easier for new people, wondering why their image ending on M or S didn't show up, but what about the following option?
- Images that end on M or S do not appear as portraits, if there is an image with the same name, except an L at the end of the filename. If there is no image with the same name, except an L at the end of the filename, they will appear as portraits. Images that do not end on M or S always appear as portraits, including images that end on L.
- If an image ending on L is chosen as the portrait, and there are images with the same name, except M or S at the end of the filename, then those images ending on M or S are used for the alternative sizes. If not, or if the chosen image does not end on L, the chosen image is resized to fit the alternative sizes.
When we get to the Race section, we'll get our first glimpse of the jarring new styling. I realize that you replaced BG's original stone gray and replaced it with the new bluish gray and gold, and that is fine, as long as it remains consistent. Red doesn't fit anywhere within the current style. I understand that SoD is mostly black, so yes, Red would probably fit as a nice highlight color there, but it should probably be replaced by a more golden color for BG, and silver color for BG2. Red clashes with the rest of the aesthetic!
And the layout of the text is horrible. I would really prefer for them to be buttons, rather than text, but if they need to be text, please move the text right. Having the left side of the leftmost character align with the left end of the red selection field is just plain ugly. Either center the text to the middle, or indent them with the exact same amount of pixels as there is above and below the text.
When we get to abilities, the red bar is gone. That makes sense, as you're not selecting a single entry, but are applying points to various entries. However, when we get to skills, the red bar is suddenly back! Why? You're not selecting a single proficiency, you're applying points to various proficiencies. This can be confusing to new players, as they click a proficiency, notice how it is now marked as "selected" by the red field, but still cannot press Done. The red bar should just disappear for skills selection.
This is especially true for Rogue skills, where the rex box doesn't even properly align! Just get rid of it on this page. However, it would be nice that if you clicked a Rogue skill (assuming you play a class that can assign Rogue skills), the bottom right box would provide a description of said skill.
For mage spells, it immediately selects two spells for us. That's really force feeding. It means I first have to unselect those spells, before being able to select the spells I want. Perhaps make a "Recommended" button instead, that fills out remaining spell slots with recommended choices, for those that are unsure.
There's also a bug with the Learn button. If you select a spell you have not yet learned, and click the Learn button, it'll properly change to "Unlearn" while the spell is selected, and then if you click it again, it reverts properly again. However, if you select a spell that's already selected, the checkbox remains "Learn", and doesn't change, even as you learn and unlearn the spell.
And of course there's the red box again, and you even get a second red box inside the first one to make it look even more ugly, as it actually aligns a little bit RIGHT of the leftmost character. There really is no need for a second red box, which is even more jarring to the aesthetics than the first one is.
After selecting Gender, we're immediately taken to the portrait selection, which is called "Appearance". But when we get to the Appearance section, it's actually called "Color Choices". Wouldn't it make more sense to call the Portrait selection "Portrait", rather than "Appearance", as it's not even in the Appearance section. (One could argue why it's not in the Appearance section, though I don't mind that as much. Though it may make sense to move Gender and Portrait selection to right after the Skills, together with all the other customizations that are separate from stats.)
And the naming of "Color Choices" is also really odd. Since it's called "Choices", does that mean that I only get Choices there, and not throughout the rest of the character generation sheet? Why not just call it "Colors" for consistency sake?
When we get to the difficulty selector, our red selection field welcomes us again. Here, it's at least styled a little better, by providing spacing between the left end of the selection field and the images. However, here is also the most obvious place to ponder why exactly it's fading out towards the right. It looks really weird to me with the text basically reaching out of the selection box as the right end of the red selection is practically transparent. This whole "Fade" aesthetic is to my knowledge not used elsewhere, and should really disappear! Solid is better (in gold for BG, red for SoD, silver for BG2), but large buttons would so much better fit the aesthetic.
Also, the Back and Venture Forth buttons here aren't colored in gold, but blue, as if they cannot be clicked right now, but they can. Making them gold would once again be more aesthetically fitting!
Character Sheet:
Let's start with the question why the name is all the way in the top left, while the portrait is to the right hand side of the screen? Actually, I can quickly see why. If you go through the options, the right hand side disappears. Ok, that's fair. Still, I would prefer to see the name listed somewhere closer to the portrait, preferably directly beneath, even if that means it appears twice on the Character Sheet tab. Seems there's actually room to stretch the right hand panel a bit to make extra room for that.
Then there's Level 1 at the top. That's nice and all for single classed characters, but it would be nicer if it said like "Level 1 Thief", so you'd at least know what the XP bar is for. Also note that the XP calculation is wrong for multiclassed characters. If I play F/M/T, I need 3750 total XP to gain my first Thief levelup.
The lefthand panel is also like 2 pixels too short to fit all the text. For most characters, Biography is the bottom option, and scrolling down just moves all the text by 2 pixels, which is useless. So if your first class does not have Rogue skills or Spells, you quickly adapt to the scroll bar being pointless and never use it. But then, if you play another character, the Rogue skills and Spells are hidden there underneath the Biography entry. However, by then, you've already learned not to use the scrollbar, so you end up not noticing these new entries. By making it so that the scrollbar doesn't appear when there's no Rogue skills or Spells (again, the whole section could just be enlarged by 2 pixels), then when you get a character with Rogue skills or Spells, the scrollbar suddenly appears, making you notice that there may be something worth scrolling down for.
That said, while I appreciate that you're sorting the information in tabs, to prevent an information overload, the information is grouped extremely inconsistent, and the labels are horribly misleading. Surely, there must be a better way to reorganize the information:
- Character Sheet: Looks reasonable. I would still recommend including the name underneath the portrait, and would also recommend adding Lore and Reputation to this pane, as they seem out of place everywhere else, but feel like they would make sense here. Status Effects could probably be moved off to it's own pane, as it horribly misaligns with the ability scores, and could include some detail. Also, Strength's alignment is off. It should align with the top of the left box, and a little more to the right for spacing, as it does for most other panes.
- Class: These really are nothing but Experience bars, so why not rename this to "Experience"? Also, the alignment of the top class is off. It should align with the top of the left box, as it does for most other panes.
- Combat Stats: Looks good, except remove the double empty line above Resistances and Current Script (or add an extra line to the other stats), because consistency looks so much nicer than having different gaps for no apparent reason. Removing the blank space underneath the script so the script name aligns with the bottom of the left box when fully scrolled down would also be nice.
- Inventory: Why is this here, actually? Oh well, I guess it doesn't really hurt to have it here, but we should probably move it down.
- Proficiencies: Lore and Reputation are horribly out of place here. Please move them to the Character Sheet pane! Number of Attacks is also weirdly out of place here, and should be moved to the Combat Stats pane! The rest looks ok, but again, tune the bottom alignment to match the left box, just like the top alignment.
- Ability: It's a disorganized list, especially now that it is no longer on the same page as the Ability Scores themselves. I highly recommend listing the 6 ability scores here a second time, and list all the modifiers underneath the related ability score, so something like the following, obviously with the ability score numbers properly aligned. The pane could then be renamed to "Ability Scores", rather than just "Ability", which is a horrible name. If you don't want to include the scores here, then at least rename it to "Ability Modifiers"! Also, the top and bottom alignments are off again, and should once again align with the left box.
STRENGTH 14
To Hit: 0
Damage: 0
Open Doors: 14
Weight Allowance: 120
DEXTERITY 16
Missile Adjustment: +1
Reaction Adjustment: +1
CONSTITUTION 12
Hit Points/Level: 0
INTELLIGENCE 12
Highest Learnable Spell Level: 6
Max Known Spells/Level: 7
Chance to Learn Spell: 50
WISDOM 10
CHARISMA 11
Reaction: 0
- Kit Description: This doesn't just include the Kit Description, but also the Class Description, so why not call it either "Class Description" or "Class and Kit". It could also be more thorough. If I select F/M/T, it only describes the results of mixing these three classes, and not actually detail the specific classes. Why not include each class underneath?
- Stats: Uhh, ok, I guess. The boxes are one again horribly misaligned, and it would be really nice if the top and bottom would align with the top and bottom of the left menu.
- Biography: Looks good! Alignment is perfect on this one (top, bottom, left and right). Please make sure all other panes adhere to this alignment for consistency's sake. (I could live with different alignments, but please, be consistent!)
- Skills: Backstab Multiplier doesn't belong here, and should be moved to Combat Stats. The rest looks pretty good. Just fix the bottom alignment. I also do think it could do without repeating the names of the skills in caps again, but that's just minor nitpicking. Also, it's slightly inconsistent that the Proficiency pane uses + icons to show what can be expanded, and this does not.
- Spells: Like Inventory, I'm not sure we need to repeat them, but ok. Though, do add some spacing between the icon and the spell name. It looks horrible to have the letter press against the side of the icon.
The order is also a bit messy. It would be nice to rearrange them so that related entries are closer to one another, so, something like the following would be nice:
Character Sheet: Includes ability scores, lore, reputation, portrait, name, gender, race, class, alignment.
Ability Scores: Lists the ability scores again, this time including all the modifiers underneath each ability score.
Combat Stats: Lists the character's combat stats, including actions per round and backstab multiplier.
Status Effects: Lists the status effects currently in effect on the character, including a detailed description of each.
Class and Kit: Describes the character's class(es) and kit(s).
Experience: Lists the character's experience bar(s), and experience needed.
Proficiencies: Lists the character's weapon proficiencies.
Skills: Lists the character's Rogue skills (omit when the character has no rogue skills).
Spells: Lists the character's spells (omit when the character has no spells).
Inventory: Lists the character's inventory.
Biography: Lists the character's biograpgy.
Stats: Lists the character's stats.
Obviously open for discussion, but I think it's important to make sure Skills and Spells are among the top 9 entries, so they appear on first glance, which is helpful if you're used to playing a class without these entries. That said, I don't think they should move the position of other important entries, so they should be at the very bottom of those top 9 entries. Inventory, Biography and Stats seems the least useful entries in the list, so I placed them at the bottom, as you may need to scroll down to get to those entries.
Inventory:
The top right section looks butt ugly when NOT dragging an item around. as there are all these empty boxes, including the header boxes! It looks quite a bit better when dragging an item around and seeing the boxes filled. While dragging, it loses that amateur look. That said, the item name, current and new texts use a type of gold that I don't notice anywhere else. It's not consistent, and should probably be converted to the same white as the rest of the text (though I really LIKE that color, and would actually be happy if all the other text is changed to match that color instead).
The information is also misleading. If I drag the quarterstaff out of my hands, it shows me current and new with the current value being the value without the quarterstaff, and the new value being the value with the quarterstaff. But I'm dragging the quarterstaff OUT of my hands, so if I was a total newbie to this game, my first train of thought would be: Hey, if I drag this silly walking stick out of my hands, the New damage is higher. Let's dump this stick!
It would be clearer if the header of one column would list the item currently equipped, and the header of the other column would list the item you're dragging around. If there is currently no item equipped, you could label it "Fist" for mainhand and "None" for any other body slot. However, my personal suggestion is still, when you mouseover an item that is currently not equipped, list the differences in the tooltip!
Finally, it would be nice if the game settings would include a couple of options that befit an era where most people have more than one monitor, as well as stream, so if at all possible, consider the following three options:
- Borderless Window: This is an option available in almost all modern games that allows you to run the game using the full screen of the monitor while following the "Windowed" mechanics, rather than the "Fullscreen" mechanics. For example, when alt-tabbing to a different application on another monitor, the game would remain visible. Currently, this requires Windowed mode, which naturally includes a window bar at the top of the screen. Though admittedly, it's not as problematic with Baldur's Gate, where you can freely resize any window, as it is with games that only run at specific resolutions.
- Lock Mouse to Window: Players that want an easier time scrolling the window could enable this option to have the mouse stuck inside the game window, whereas players that want to easily switch forth and back between the game and other windows could disable this option to easily move the mouse over to another screen and click another applicaiton.
- Sound in Background: It would be really nice if you could somehow keep the sound running when switching to another application. This is very useful for Streamers, as the Stream would lose the game sound every time they would type in the stream chat, but is also a bit jerky when I switch forth and back between Baldur's Gate and a notes window I keep about the current game.
Character Generation:
Be consistent with capitalization! Don't spell "GENDER" in all capitals, and then only capitalize the first letter in "Appearance", if it appears in the exact same box right after. That's jarring!
What is also jarring, is the large box that pops out to select your portrait. All the other options are chosen inside the left hand panel, but the portrait pops out without a need for it. It actually fits neatly inside the left box, as you can see in the first screenshot (obviously, the box around the portrait would have to be redrawn to better fit inside), so keeping it there like all the other selections would be nice.
I only got a couple of images inside my custom portraits folder, so it's not really an issue for me, but I can imagine that if you have a lot of custom portraits, the list becomes tedious to scroll through. Having an option to pick an external portrait would be nice. You could even do both. Keep all the custom portraits in the list, but also allow people to click a button to browse for them. (And again, the text should be consistent. If the guidelines for all the other options aren't written in all caps, then the guide for portraits should not be, either! Jarring...)
Having the game recognize the L, M and S versions as three separate portraits, rather than three sizes of the same portrait, is definitely again a step back in functionality. I do understand that the devs want to make it easier for new people, wondering why their image ending on M or S didn't show up, but what about the following option?
- Images that end on M or S do not appear as portraits, if there is an image with the same name, except an L at the end of the filename. If there is no image with the same name, except an L at the end of the filename, they will appear as portraits. Images that do not end on M or S always appear as portraits, including images that end on L.
- If an image ending on L is chosen as the portrait, and there are images with the same name, except M or S at the end of the filename, then those images ending on M or S are used for the alternative sizes. If not, or if the chosen image does not end on L, the chosen image is resized to fit the alternative sizes.
When we get to the Race section, we'll get our first glimpse of the jarring new styling. I realize that you replaced BG's original stone gray and replaced it with the new bluish gray and gold, and that is fine, as long as it remains consistent. Red doesn't fit anywhere within the current style. I understand that SoD is mostly black, so yes, Red would probably fit as a nice highlight color there, but it should probably be replaced by a more golden color for BG, and silver color for BG2. Red clashes with the rest of the aesthetic!
And the layout of the text is horrible. I would really prefer for them to be buttons, rather than text, but if they need to be text, please move the text right. Having the left side of the leftmost character align with the left end of the red selection field is just plain ugly. Either center the text to the middle, or indent them with the exact same amount of pixels as there is above and below the text.
When we get to abilities, the red bar is gone. That makes sense, as you're not selecting a single entry, but are applying points to various entries. However, when we get to skills, the red bar is suddenly back! Why? You're not selecting a single proficiency, you're applying points to various proficiencies. This can be confusing to new players, as they click a proficiency, notice how it is now marked as "selected" by the red field, but still cannot press Done. The red bar should just disappear for skills selection.
This is especially true for Rogue skills, where the rex box doesn't even properly align! Just get rid of it on this page. However, it would be nice that if you clicked a Rogue skill (assuming you play a class that can assign Rogue skills), the bottom right box would provide a description of said skill.
For mage spells, it immediately selects two spells for us. That's really force feeding. It means I first have to unselect those spells, before being able to select the spells I want. Perhaps make a "Recommended" button instead, that fills out remaining spell slots with recommended choices, for those that are unsure.
There's also a bug with the Learn button. If you select a spell you have not yet learned, and click the Learn button, it'll properly change to "Unlearn" while the spell is selected, and then if you click it again, it reverts properly again. However, if you select a spell that's already selected, the checkbox remains "Learn", and doesn't change, even as you learn and unlearn the spell.
And of course there's the red box again, and you even get a second red box inside the first one to make it look even more ugly, as it actually aligns a little bit RIGHT of the leftmost character. There really is no need for a second red box, which is even more jarring to the aesthetics than the first one is.
After selecting Gender, we're immediately taken to the portrait selection, which is called "Appearance". But when we get to the Appearance section, it's actually called "Color Choices". Wouldn't it make more sense to call the Portrait selection "Portrait", rather than "Appearance", as it's not even in the Appearance section. (One could argue why it's not in the Appearance section, though I don't mind that as much. Though it may make sense to move Gender and Portrait selection to right after the Skills, together with all the other customizations that are separate from stats.)
And the naming of "Color Choices" is also really odd. Since it's called "Choices", does that mean that I only get Choices there, and not throughout the rest of the character generation sheet? Why not just call it "Colors" for consistency sake?
When we get to the difficulty selector, our red selection field welcomes us again. Here, it's at least styled a little better, by providing spacing between the left end of the selection field and the images. However, here is also the most obvious place to ponder why exactly it's fading out towards the right. It looks really weird to me with the text basically reaching out of the selection box as the right end of the red selection is practically transparent. This whole "Fade" aesthetic is to my knowledge not used elsewhere, and should really disappear! Solid is better (in gold for BG, red for SoD, silver for BG2), but large buttons would so much better fit the aesthetic.
Also, the Back and Venture Forth buttons here aren't colored in gold, but blue, as if they cannot be clicked right now, but they can. Making them gold would once again be more aesthetically fitting!
Character Sheet:
Let's start with the question why the name is all the way in the top left, while the portrait is to the right hand side of the screen? Actually, I can quickly see why. If you go through the options, the right hand side disappears. Ok, that's fair. Still, I would prefer to see the name listed somewhere closer to the portrait, preferably directly beneath, even if that means it appears twice on the Character Sheet tab. Seems there's actually room to stretch the right hand panel a bit to make extra room for that.
Then there's Level 1 at the top. That's nice and all for single classed characters, but it would be nicer if it said like "Level 1 Thief", so you'd at least know what the XP bar is for. Also note that the XP calculation is wrong for multiclassed characters. If I play F/M/T, I need 3750 total XP to gain my first Thief levelup.
The lefthand panel is also like 2 pixels too short to fit all the text. For most characters, Biography is the bottom option, and scrolling down just moves all the text by 2 pixels, which is useless. So if your first class does not have Rogue skills or Spells, you quickly adapt to the scroll bar being pointless and never use it. But then, if you play another character, the Rogue skills and Spells are hidden there underneath the Biography entry. However, by then, you've already learned not to use the scrollbar, so you end up not noticing these new entries. By making it so that the scrollbar doesn't appear when there's no Rogue skills or Spells (again, the whole section could just be enlarged by 2 pixels), then when you get a character with Rogue skills or Spells, the scrollbar suddenly appears, making you notice that there may be something worth scrolling down for.
That said, while I appreciate that you're sorting the information in tabs, to prevent an information overload, the information is grouped extremely inconsistent, and the labels are horribly misleading. Surely, there must be a better way to reorganize the information:
- Character Sheet: Looks reasonable. I would still recommend including the name underneath the portrait, and would also recommend adding Lore and Reputation to this pane, as they seem out of place everywhere else, but feel like they would make sense here. Status Effects could probably be moved off to it's own pane, as it horribly misaligns with the ability scores, and could include some detail. Also, Strength's alignment is off. It should align with the top of the left box, and a little more to the right for spacing, as it does for most other panes.
- Class: These really are nothing but Experience bars, so why not rename this to "Experience"? Also, the alignment of the top class is off. It should align with the top of the left box, as it does for most other panes.
- Combat Stats: Looks good, except remove the double empty line above Resistances and Current Script (or add an extra line to the other stats), because consistency looks so much nicer than having different gaps for no apparent reason. Removing the blank space underneath the script so the script name aligns with the bottom of the left box when fully scrolled down would also be nice.
- Inventory: Why is this here, actually? Oh well, I guess it doesn't really hurt to have it here, but we should probably move it down.
- Proficiencies: Lore and Reputation are horribly out of place here. Please move them to the Character Sheet pane! Number of Attacks is also weirdly out of place here, and should be moved to the Combat Stats pane! The rest looks ok, but again, tune the bottom alignment to match the left box, just like the top alignment.
- Ability: It's a disorganized list, especially now that it is no longer on the same page as the Ability Scores themselves. I highly recommend listing the 6 ability scores here a second time, and list all the modifiers underneath the related ability score, so something like the following, obviously with the ability score numbers properly aligned. The pane could then be renamed to "Ability Scores", rather than just "Ability", which is a horrible name. If you don't want to include the scores here, then at least rename it to "Ability Modifiers"! Also, the top and bottom alignments are off again, and should once again align with the left box.
STRENGTH 14
To Hit: 0
Damage: 0
Open Doors: 14
Weight Allowance: 120
DEXTERITY 16
Missile Adjustment: +1
Reaction Adjustment: +1
CONSTITUTION 12
Hit Points/Level: 0
INTELLIGENCE 12
Highest Learnable Spell Level: 6
Max Known Spells/Level: 7
Chance to Learn Spell: 50
WISDOM 10
CHARISMA 11
Reaction: 0
- Kit Description: This doesn't just include the Kit Description, but also the Class Description, so why not call it either "Class Description" or "Class and Kit". It could also be more thorough. If I select F/M/T, it only describes the results of mixing these three classes, and not actually detail the specific classes. Why not include each class underneath?
- Stats: Uhh, ok, I guess. The boxes are one again horribly misaligned, and it would be really nice if the top and bottom would align with the top and bottom of the left menu.
- Biography: Looks good! Alignment is perfect on this one (top, bottom, left and right). Please make sure all other panes adhere to this alignment for consistency's sake. (I could live with different alignments, but please, be consistent!)
- Skills: Backstab Multiplier doesn't belong here, and should be moved to Combat Stats. The rest looks pretty good. Just fix the bottom alignment. I also do think it could do without repeating the names of the skills in caps again, but that's just minor nitpicking. Also, it's slightly inconsistent that the Proficiency pane uses + icons to show what can be expanded, and this does not.
- Spells: Like Inventory, I'm not sure we need to repeat them, but ok. Though, do add some spacing between the icon and the spell name. It looks horrible to have the letter press against the side of the icon.
The order is also a bit messy. It would be nice to rearrange them so that related entries are closer to one another, so, something like the following would be nice:
Character Sheet: Includes ability scores, lore, reputation, portrait, name, gender, race, class, alignment.
Ability Scores: Lists the ability scores again, this time including all the modifiers underneath each ability score.
Combat Stats: Lists the character's combat stats, including actions per round and backstab multiplier.
Status Effects: Lists the status effects currently in effect on the character, including a detailed description of each.
Class and Kit: Describes the character's class(es) and kit(s).
Experience: Lists the character's experience bar(s), and experience needed.
Proficiencies: Lists the character's weapon proficiencies.
Skills: Lists the character's Rogue skills (omit when the character has no rogue skills).
Spells: Lists the character's spells (omit when the character has no spells).
Inventory: Lists the character's inventory.
Biography: Lists the character's biograpgy.
Stats: Lists the character's stats.
Obviously open for discussion, but I think it's important to make sure Skills and Spells are among the top 9 entries, so they appear on first glance, which is helpful if you're used to playing a class without these entries. That said, I don't think they should move the position of other important entries, so they should be at the very bottom of those top 9 entries. Inventory, Biography and Stats seems the least useful entries in the list, so I placed them at the bottom, as you may need to scroll down to get to those entries.
Inventory:
The top right section looks butt ugly when NOT dragging an item around. as there are all these empty boxes, including the header boxes! It looks quite a bit better when dragging an item around and seeing the boxes filled. While dragging, it loses that amateur look. That said, the item name, current and new texts use a type of gold that I don't notice anywhere else. It's not consistent, and should probably be converted to the same white as the rest of the text (though I really LIKE that color, and would actually be happy if all the other text is changed to match that color instead).
The information is also misleading. If I drag the quarterstaff out of my hands, it shows me current and new with the current value being the value without the quarterstaff, and the new value being the value with the quarterstaff. But I'm dragging the quarterstaff OUT of my hands, so if I was a total newbie to this game, my first train of thought would be: Hey, if I drag this silly walking stick out of my hands, the New damage is higher. Let's dump this stick!
It would be clearer if the header of one column would list the item currently equipped, and the header of the other column would list the item you're dragging around. If there is currently no item equipped, you could label it "Fist" for mainhand and "None" for any other body slot. However, my personal suggestion is still, when you mouseover an item that is currently not equipped, list the differences in the tooltip!
Finally, it would be nice if the game settings would include a couple of options that befit an era where most people have more than one monitor, as well as stream, so if at all possible, consider the following three options:
- Borderless Window: This is an option available in almost all modern games that allows you to run the game using the full screen of the monitor while following the "Windowed" mechanics, rather than the "Fullscreen" mechanics. For example, when alt-tabbing to a different application on another monitor, the game would remain visible. Currently, this requires Windowed mode, which naturally includes a window bar at the top of the screen. Though admittedly, it's not as problematic with Baldur's Gate, where you can freely resize any window, as it is with games that only run at specific resolutions.
- Lock Mouse to Window: Players that want an easier time scrolling the window could enable this option to have the mouse stuck inside the game window, whereas players that want to easily switch forth and back between the game and other windows could disable this option to easily move the mouse over to another screen and click another applicaiton.
- Sound in Background: It would be really nice if you could somehow keep the sound running when switching to another application. This is very useful for Streamers, as the Stream would lose the game sound every time they would type in the stream chat, but is also a bit jerky when I switch forth and back between Baldur's Gate and a notes window I keep about the current game.
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This report I just made should interest you.