Can we count on Siege of Dragonspear 1.3?
Sophiel777
Member Posts: 54
I get that the money already has been made and there's basicaly no reason why beamdog overlords would want to do that.
Many fans of the series don't agree with current, underdeveloped UI.
The one from 1.3 had, despite visual improvements, unique RPG theme you could immerse yourself into.
Current one is just too plain and generic.
Many fans of the series don't agree with current, underdeveloped UI.
The one from 1.3 had, despite visual improvements, unique RPG theme you could immerse yourself into.
Current one is just too plain and generic.
2
Comments
If the GUI is all you're disagreeing with however, take a look at this forum's UI Modding section.
@Pecca 's Dragonspear UI++ mod is especially well received amongst players.
There is no conceivable way, SoD will ever be downgraded into v1.3. But it is within the realm of possibility to have the UI pretty much exactly the same as it was in v1.3 (modders could do lets say 95% of it, but some things would have to be done by developers).
They simply will not go back to 1.3. It's going backwards, not forth. They have zero reason to go that way. Actually recreating the 1.3 UI again from scratch in, say, version 2.5, will be a LOT less work than actually reverting to 1.3 and making that SOD compatible.
Thus, asking to revert to 1.3 is a waste of energy. They will never do that.
However, asking to change/alter/improve the UI the way it is right now into something more thematic or fitting or user friendly is something they may listen to!
So, rather than asking "Please go back to 1.3!", tell them WHAT you don't like about the current UI, and how you'd rather see that.
Current one is just too plain and generic.
...is a personal opinion, still valid, but hard to quantify. What made it more immersive? What could be changed to make the new UI less generic (aside from the current UI being reverted) ? Etc...
It's the same complaint that the OP has made in three posts since April - I know this because my sister-in-law is called Sophie L and I have thought "Oh wow, is she playing BG now?" each time she posts.
The engine-side UI changes won't be reverted; the new system is more robust and easier to manipulate, both for us and for modders. But that doesn't mean the UI itself can't be improved! My suggestion is to make specific comments on the things you don't like and why. I'm reading most (if not all) of these posts, so anything you as players can offer in the way of concrete feedback will help guide the development team when deciding whether and where to make changes.
I read a post a while ago which pointed out many of these things very well. Among other things I remember he mentioned scroll bars being everywhere and screen real estate being used in a really inefficient way. I'll just put a link in here if I find the post.
For example, I really don't like the huge gap between the Stores at the top of the screen and the Store window selector at the bottom of the screen. If I wasn't able to run modded UI's, like the one Pecca made, then I'd definitely have searched for or started a thread explaining how it's bad, make a screenshot or two on how it looks better, and ask if others feel the same to get more support.
The devs will NOT go back to 1.3, ever. However, if you have specific pointers of what is bad about the current UI and/or how to improve it, and formulate that clearly, the devs WILL consider that, and maybe implement it, depending on how wanted the specific change is, and how much work it would be to implement.
Heck, a lot about the 2.0 UI is based on user feedback during the 2.0 beta. When the beta deadline was approaching, and they realized that the UI they had been working on was just really not what the playerbase wanted, they made a bunch of changes based on examples by users on how things could look better. And they never said the current UI is final (they actually hinted that they were looking to polish it up some more down the line, but didn't have time to get a proper UI ready in time for the 2.0 release, which at that time was required for the SOD release).
The 2.0 patch in general was a good thing. The UI they slapped on top of that was a bit of a rushjob and could use improvements here and there, but I'm hoping that the larger gap before the 2.4 release indicates there'll be some solid UI upgrades in there.
As an example:
In the original Journal, I didn't like that all the entries were written out longform, so that I had to scroll through a giant list to get to the quest I needed help with.
In the new Journal, I like that the entries can be collapsed (it makes it easier to find the entry I need), but I don't like that it sits off to the side instead of being centered in the middle of the screen, because I like having everything directly in front of me when I open a menu.
Does that help?
Also, can we have optional skin colours please? I know it sounds really petty, but I thought what the guys did with the base game Enhanced Edition, kind of a mixture between SoA and a more modern version of the granite-y look was really easy on the eyes. I know it's a matter of taste but the SoD black skin is just so garish and tacky to me. It hurts my eyes. Alternatively, maybe I should look into a mod... does anyone have any suggestions? I've never actually used mods, ever.
I personally don't like the four quick save slots. In my opinion there should be one quick save slot; that's what it's for. If you want additional saves, do additional saves. It's a personal bugbear though and I think this one's going to stay in because other people like this feature. I suppose I'll just have to live with it.
The way the journal updates flash at the top of the screen irritates me, and at first I was like 'yeah I know stop spoon feeding me?!' But I kind of had a little think and I realise that this is probably to assist new players and it's not a huge deal. Maybe we could have the option to turn it off.
The information in the character sheet is taking some real getting used to. As @dib mentioned, there are way too many segments of text and scroll bars. It sends me a bit snow-blind. Again I appreciate some people prefer this over the 'one long scrollbar' which was not ideal either. Maybe this could be tidied up and streamlined a bit?
And as @Fardragon pointed out, I think a bit of it is a reluctance to change. Baldur's Gate is a retro game. I suppose in the quest for improving it I have a little bit of a fear that it's going to be turned into something unrecognisable. I think one of the things I loved about the game was that it was never perfect to begin with (baked bean cobblestones, anyone)?
OPTIONS > GAMEPLAY > FEEDBACK > VISUAL FEEDBACK > JOURNAL POPUPS ON/OFF
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/59771/rant-sad-state-of-the-ui-and-the-ees-in-general/p1
For the love of... please give me the option to have the old dialog box, with just one scrollbar back.
Edit: Is this the post you were referring to @dib ?
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/49757/mod-to-have-only-1-quicksave#latest
sometimes you just gotta let go.
If enough people pick up the EE editions wanting to revisit an old classic, and are not happy with the product, it can potentially have a negative effect on the sale of future titles. These are the first products to be release by this new company. I would think that customer feedback would be very important to them.