I wonder is it possible to increase the number of slots for "Ground", to make it more than 8 slots?
What do you get rid of in order to do that? I can see room for more slots in the ver. 1.3 screen shot that I posted here, but I don’t know how that would work with this new layout.
The inventory screen lists 8 items for the ground loot, whereas the game window only lists 6. It would be nice if the game window shows 8 items, not 6, so these are more conform.
There should also be special care taken for item slot scrolling to make sense and for it to be consistent. Here's how it's currently inconsistent:
Quick loot: displays 10 items, one scroll advances items by 10 slots (one entire page), mouse wheel doesn't work. Inventory ground slots: displays 8 items, one scroll advances items by 8 slots (one entire page), mouse wheel doesn't work. Game window container: displays 6 items, one scroll advances items by 3 slots (one line), mouse wheel works.
Ideally, mouse scrolling should work for all three and scrolling behavior should be consistent. Maybe the game window container panel could also be extended to cover 8 slots, as @Thels said.
Then I'd say maybe the quick loot should remain its own thing (though mouse wheel scrolling should still work with it), and the inventory ground slots should be changed to vertical scrolling so it could be consistent with other similar UI elements in the main game screen.
Lots of conversation here, that's wonderful. It sounds like we're looking at ground inventory now, so I'll get a mock together for that.
It also sounds like people want to keep the iconography for the combat stats on the right-top box, which is understandable; someone also pointed out those boxes are too small to contain the numbers they're supposed to house, and I have a couple ideas for that as well.
Comparison stats in the text log is tricky; when you equip an item on top of another item, the replaced item becomes the selected item, which means that you won't see the "Your wizard spells have been disabled" message.
I've got a few things to try with regard to all of these things, so I'll throw up a few mock designs. I'll also fix the organization of the equipment slots so that it's not so distracting.
Lots of conversation here, that's wonderful. It sounds like we're looking at ground inventory now, so I'll get a mock together for that.
It also sounds like people want to keep the iconography for the combat stats on the right-top box, which is understandable; someone also pointed out those boxes are too small to contain the numbers they're supposed to house, and I have a couple ideas for that as well.
Comparison stats in the text log is tricky; when you equip an item on top of another item, the replaced item becomes the selected item, which means that you won't see the "Your wizard spells have been disabled" message.
I've got a few things to try with regard to all of these things, so I'll throw up a few mock designs. I'll also fix the organization of the equipment slots so that it's not so distracting.
I actually think the original SoD beta without the iconography/embellishments was more functional. It had enough room for the numbers to be displayed without font-size reduction and it had useful text labels. However, the fans let it be known during the SoD beta that they like the icongraphs. So, I worked within that condition.
I figure that the space to display damage needs to have enough room for 5 full characters since damage could be something like "24-34" for a 25 Strength Kensai Grand Master with a +5 two-handed sword. The HP graphic needs to be able to display 3 digits across in two rows.
Okay, first crack. Bear with me, it's...different. I'll first post the design, and then explain the changes.
Things to pay attention to: 1. The equipment slots are now more or less 1:1 to where they are in the released build. (This doesn't represent a design change, just makes it easier to ignore those slots for now.) 2. The ground inventory is now a 3x3 grid, with a scrollbar. That means you can see one additional slot, and you can scroll through it with your mouse wheel or using the scrollbar provided. It scrolls up and down just like containers on the main game screen. 3. The combat stat iconography is now indicative, displayed to the left of the stat's value, and there's an actual label above it for the player's reference. (That icon can be made smaller now that there's no number inside it.) 4. The combat stats no longer use text blocks to explain how they're calculated; instead, you're given a character-sheet-esque formula that breaks it down by the most important pieces. For instance, your AC is calculated from your Armor, your Dexterity, and any other modifiers from spells or items.
That last bit may rub people the wrong way, and that's okay. The important thing here is that it allows the item comparison to show you exactly where the changes are occurring when you pick up an item: when you select an item, if it can be equipped, it'll override the displayed values in either green (better) or red (worse).
If you want to see exactly what items are causing the modifiers you see, you can hover over the stat to get a tooltip with all that information laid out for you; this also means no scrolling through that information, because the tooltip can resize to fit the content.
THAC0 and Damage are grouped by weapon (main and off-hand), so that you can see at a glance what your main weapon does, and what your off-hand weapon does.
What's missing from this is the character's Attacks Per Round. I'd like to include that separately, but there's no more space in the current block. Still working that out, but the current draft is here if people have comments on it.
N.B. This is not a promise or guarantee of implementation, just a mock design to address some of what people pointed out. It's just one of several possible directions that this screen could take.
Nice, @Dee, but the damage blocks need to be bigger. I figure that the space to display damage needs to have enough room for 5 full characters since damage could be something like "24-34" for a 25 Strength Kensai Grand Master with a +5 two-handed sword.
EDIT: Also, the HP box should be capable of showing 7 characters across (XXX/YYY) or 3 across in two rows at full font size.
At first glance, this looks like it’s heading more towards that “data base” feel that has invaded so many of the current builds screens. I’d like to see less over in that big box, not more. Are you purposing that we just getting rid of the iconic little artwork that was found around Armor Class, Hit Points, etc. entirely?
Of course it is hard to tell exactly from this mock up, but I don’t see this as going in the right direction at all.
At first glance, this looks like it’s heading more towards that “data base” feel that has invaded so many of the current builds screens. I’d like to see less over in that big box, not more. Are you purposing that we just getting rid of the iconic little artwork that was found around Armor Class, Hit Points, etc. entirely?
Of course it is hard to tell exactly from this mock up, but I don’t see this as going in the right direction at all.
I assumed that an icongraph would go in the "dark icon" spot in @Dee's mockup. It would be more like IWD2's display. And icon next to the box for the stat. That offers more flexibility for large fonts in the space next to the icon, rather than having to shrink the font to fit into the constrained space of the iconograph (as is currently done in EE v1.3 and v2.x).
As for iconograph suggestions:
AC: Shield HP: Heart THACO: Something like the BPRD logo Damage: Crossed swords.
At first glance, this looks like it’s heading more towards that “data base” feel that has invaded so many of the current builds screens. I’d like to see less over in that big box, not more. Are you purposing that we just getting rid of the iconic little artwork that was found around Armor Class, Hit Points, etc. entirely?
Of course it is hard to tell exactly from this mock up, but I don’t see this as going in the right direction at all.
I assumed that an icongraph would go in the "dark icon" spot in @Dee's mockup. It would be more like IWD2's display. And icon next to the box for the stat. That offers more flexibility for large fonts in the space next to the icon, rather than having to shrink the font to fit into the constrained space of the iconograph (as is currently done in EE v1.3 and v2.x).
He has 6 dark icon spots in the mock up. There were originally 4. This leads me to believe that he is tossing out the iconic way of doing it. Even if those 6 dark icons were to be turned into artwork, I don’t have much faith that they would be done in such a way that they would closely reflect the feel of the original games. Nothing that I have seen the EE editions do in this regards to matching the original art would lead me to believe that.
It is different - I don't hate it but I think it misses some of the subtleties of the previous versions.
I do like that there is a summary and all the multiple factors are combined but I would also not like to lose the text descriptions from previous versions and, for me at least, I like to see that Item X is providing a +1 improvement, Item Y is providing a +2 and so on. That helps me prioritise things a little.
I appreciate that by separating the icons and the text within them, you've removed the issue over font size. Good call.
I do like that you've grouped Main-Hand and Off-Hand stats. However in that kind of instance I'd prefer the alignment to be slightly tweaked:
Main Hand - THACO - Damage
Offhand - THACO - Damage
That prevents a little of the repetition.
I don't like 9-slots for the ground slots. I'd prefer 8 (2x8 for inventory, 2x4 for ground).
I that you've put the type of damage in.
All - in - all, not horrible, but different and certainly something to think about.
Comments
I can see room for more slots in the ver. 1.3 screen shot that I posted here, but I don’t know how that would work with this new layout.
Quick loot: displays 10 items, one scroll advances items by 10 slots (one entire page), mouse wheel doesn't work.
Inventory ground slots: displays 8 items, one scroll advances items by 8 slots (one entire page), mouse wheel doesn't work.
Game window container: displays 6 items, one scroll advances items by 3 slots (one line), mouse wheel works.
Ideally, mouse scrolling should work for all three and scrolling behavior should be consistent. Maybe the game window container panel could also be extended to cover 8 slots, as @Thels said.
- Game Window container Inventory: display 4 items, one scroll advances inventory items by 2 slots (one line), mouse wheel works.
It also sounds like people want to keep the iconography for the combat stats on the right-top box, which is understandable; someone also pointed out those boxes are too small to contain the numbers they're supposed to house, and I have a couple ideas for that as well.
Comparison stats in the text log is tricky; when you equip an item on top of another item, the replaced item becomes the selected item, which means that you won't see the "Your wizard spells have been disabled" message.
I've got a few things to try with regard to all of these things, so I'll throw up a few mock designs. I'll also fix the organization of the equipment slots so that it's not so distracting.
The main game ground slots scroll just fine (edit - but via mousewheel only).
I don't like the big up/down arrows that are there now (On the main game ground container) so I'd agree that a scrollbar would be preferable.
EDIT - anyway, this is a side discussion again - let's go back to the inventory screen.
I figure that the space to display damage needs to have enough room for 5 full characters since damage could be something like "24-34" for a 25 Strength Kensai Grand Master with a +5 two-handed sword. The HP graphic needs to be able to display 3 digits across in two rows.
Things to pay attention to:
1. The equipment slots are now more or less 1:1 to where they are in the released build. (This doesn't represent a design change, just makes it easier to ignore those slots for now.)
2. The ground inventory is now a 3x3 grid, with a scrollbar. That means you can see one additional slot, and you can scroll through it with your mouse wheel or using the scrollbar provided. It scrolls up and down just like containers on the main game screen.
3. The combat stat iconography is now indicative, displayed to the left of the stat's value, and there's an actual label above it for the player's reference. (That icon can be made smaller now that there's no number inside it.)
4. The combat stats no longer use text blocks to explain how they're calculated; instead, you're given a character-sheet-esque formula that breaks it down by the most important pieces. For instance, your AC is calculated from your Armor, your Dexterity, and any other modifiers from spells or items.
That last bit may rub people the wrong way, and that's okay. The important thing here is that it allows the item comparison to show you exactly where the changes are occurring when you pick up an item: when you select an item, if it can be equipped, it'll override the displayed values in either green (better) or red (worse).
If you want to see exactly what items are causing the modifiers you see, you can hover over the stat to get a tooltip with all that information laid out for you; this also means no scrolling through that information, because the tooltip can resize to fit the content.
THAC0 and Damage are grouped by weapon (main and off-hand), so that you can see at a glance what your main weapon does, and what your off-hand weapon does.
What's missing from this is the character's Attacks Per Round. I'd like to include that separately, but there's no more space in the current block. Still working that out, but the current draft is here if people have comments on it.
N.B. This is not a promise or guarantee of implementation, just a mock design to address some of what people pointed out. It's just one of several possible directions that this screen could take.
EDIT: Also, the HP box should be capable of showing 7 characters across (XXX/YYY) or 3 across in two rows at full font size.
Of course it is hard to tell exactly from this mock up, but I don’t see this as going in the right direction at all.
As for iconograph suggestions:
AC: Shield
HP: Heart
THACO: Something like the BPRD logo
Damage: Crossed swords.
I do like that there is a summary and all the multiple factors are combined but I would also not like to lose the text descriptions from previous versions and, for me at least, I like to see that Item X is providing a +1 improvement, Item Y is providing a +2 and so on. That helps me prioritise things a little.
I appreciate that by separating the icons and the text within them, you've removed the issue over font size. Good call.
I do like that you've grouped Main-Hand and Off-Hand stats. However in that kind of instance I'd prefer the alignment to be slightly tweaked:
Main Hand
- THACO
- Damage
Offhand
- THACO
- Damage
That prevents a little of the repetition.
I don't like 9-slots for the ground slots. I'd prefer 8 (2x8 for inventory, 2x4 for ground).
I
All - in - all, not horrible, but different and certainly something to think about.