Feedback on the new UI bars - healing is more difficult now

[Terebinthia]

I will fully admit I didnt read the last 11 pages, but I will happily admit the new UI is a complete pig to heal. I gave up and spammed healed based on rhythm and guesswork in the TOD I was in just before logging.

Too small, too info intensive to process. I am happy knowing the HPs of the people in my group (don't care about the Arti's dog, not my problem, it can take its chances along with other summons) but the bars need to be bigger and I'm a non fan of the white outline going on. Yes I know I can use a skin, but that's not precisely helpful really, is it?

[jbleargh]

Just add my cleric to the protest against new UI.

My main problem is the transparent background. In places like the Desert, Claw of Vulkor or when there is a Wall of fire, I found myself turning around trying to find a non-orange/red part of the scenery to be able to see the party's HP.

It is my first cleric... Learning to heal was already hard enough with the easier to see an more practical old UI.

I, probably, can get used to the smaller bars and I like the numbers. I am curious to know the social implications of the HP/SP transparency, but the transparent background is unacceptable.

Cogito ergo doleo

[]s


PS Installed the Blackbird skin. Very Good. Solves great part of the problems...

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php...ight=blackbird

[Flavilandile]

From another thread :
http://forums.ddo.com/showpost.php?p...1&postcount=49

Read by a dev LOUD AND CLEAR. :-)

Thanks for the very constructive feedback. We're on it!

Thread :

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=341001

[augie]

I died twice last night. Once was on a lvl 18 Warforged Sorc and another on a capped Favored Soul in quests that never happened in. It was flat out embarassing. Why? Because I moved my hit-point bar out of the way and was still used to seeing my name in the upper left of the group. But nope, that's not me. That's the second party member. Then DING. What the heck, I'm out of HP?

The UI options to toggle text size and status bar orientations back to close to what it used to be are still NOT useful. They actually spent time to create an option to show a PERCENTAGE of health and SP? Seriously?? Oh boy, I'm at 76% HP and 24% SP. I won't even get into why that's completely pointless.

Oh, I can turn off numbers altogether. Super duper. That's a fantastic option too. Thanks for that.

I've played this game since before Day 1 and only a couple things have really irked me over the years. This one is seriously taking the cake though. Absolutely unnecessary. If it's because of the little Arty doggies running around, then create a bar in addition to the current one. Maybe make it just another thin yellow bar like the Ki bar for classes that splashed monk.

No matter what options are toggled for the current UI, it makes me not even want to play. And that takes a lot. Flat out frustrating.

[danotmano1998]

There's a dev post stating that they've heard our complaints about the UI loud and clear and are looking into it...

Off the top of my head, I don't remember where, but at least they stood up and said "Yeah, we hear you".. Doesn't mean it will be fixed, but at least we know they haven't ignored it completely.

[Terebinthia]

I died twice last night. Once was on a lvl 18 Warforged Sorc and another on a capped Favored Soul in quests that never happened in. It was flat out embarassing. Why? Because I moved my hit-point bar out of the way and was still used to seeing my name in the upper left of the group. But nope, that's not me. That's the second party member. Then DING. What the heck, I'm out of HP?.

You need to tick the include me in party member list option, it's hidden about halfway down near the options you are talking about there. Weird as anything, I agree, because why on earth would you want yourself not in the party list?

[guardianx2009]

I've already repeated this in several other threads, I'll repeat again here:

GET THE NEW BLACKBIRD SKIN!
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php...ight=blackbird

Change party bars to just display % or none at all. Yes, you still won't be able to see your own HP/SP values, but it's a heck of a lot better than before.

[augie]

The Blackbird skin is nice and I may try it. I still want to see my own HP and SP values though like it was pre-U11.

I know how much my reconstruct heals for and won't bother until HP gets below a certain value. I also know how much my spells cost so when I see that I'm at 230 SP, I can say "hmm at 230, I can toss <damage spell> X more times, reconstruct and haste and still have enough spare for an emergency DD yet no prob."

Right now I either see white text with a blue background which, I believe, is where my SP bar is. Hard to tell. Or else I see a blue bar that's an inch long.

It's just the fact that of all the things in this game that still need fixing and need time spent on, they chose to completely revamp something that in no way needed it.

</sarcasm on> Oh, and thanks for getting rid of that completely pointless auto-attack button for that super handy self-portrait too. </sarcasm off>

[CrimsonSpectre]

Didn't read all of the previous posts, but from this cleric player...

1. Transparent background on health bars bad. You don't notice this too much in darker quests, but if you're trying to run something with lots of lava... Good luck seeing the health bars easily.

2. The party health bars are smaller than they should be. I preferred the original size myself, it was easier to accurately guesstimate health based on the size of the bar. Now, there are numbers and percentages, but generally you don't have time to read those - not in a raid.

3. The spacing just strikes me as odd and unnecessary. I can't think of many divines who will be actively healing the artificer pets that show up in those spaces, especially since they're not living creatures. It tends to make the party window too large. It still fits on my screen setup, but barely, and I did have to move one thing to make it fit.

4. You can't remove numbers from the party window without removing numbers from your own health bar. This is a major problem since you *need* to know how much SP you have left, so there's really only one option.

5. On a similar note, if you chose to have yourself show up on the party window, you show up there whether or not you're in a party. This doesn't really need to happen unless you party, similar to the way the previous UI was set up.

6. It's almost impossible to see who's talking with voice, or when someone DC's.

7. I honestly didn't see anything wrong with the previous UI. It worked just fine for the entire history of this game, and I would prefer it over any change to the "new" UI. If artificer pet HP is so vital, make it show up like a HP/SP/KI bar. Or just remove the KI bar from the party screen to make room for the arty pet HP, put it in orange or something. Perhaps a monk may come up with a reason, but I can't think of any need for Ki to show up in the party screen, unlike HP and SP.

Now... That said, I do like the ability to see party members maximum HP/SP. Yeah, I know there were some complaints about griefing, but... I don't. Maybe I have too much faith in the community, but I don't see it as an issue. I took someone with ~130ish HP at level 16, walked them through getting to Rainbow in the Dark, and took them through it. Only time they died was when, guess what, I couldn't see the change in their health bar against the background. If anything, I find it helps to know how durable people are with a glance at the start of the quest. Only quest I would almost always decline someone based on displayed HP would be ToD, simply because of the raid mechanics and the 22% HP gain on death. Otherwise, I'll try to work with people. To be honest though, I don't care if there's an ability to not show them. Go for it, options are good.

In the meantime, I'm using the Blackbird UI, which at least solves problem #1. I'd suggest it to any divine players out there who are struggling with the new interface.

[FrancisP.Fancypants]

Had to unexpectedly solo-heal a TS on my level 8 bard today- I didn't plan for to and it would've been a lot less pleasant had I not been in a good group.

That's just bragging though.

Honestly, I can deal with the small size and to a degree the name thing (i.e. I see a red bar and I throw a cure, I don't care whose bar it is). But the block itself kills me, and I've had to adjust the map and the main menu bar to compensate since I keep all my buffs/weapons/pots/heals and any other non-offensive stuff hotbarred on the left side of the screen*.

So in addition to adjusting the bars themselves so they can be seen, how about making the whole block shrinkable? The same way the chat box is collapsible, being able to shrink the space inbetween the HP bars until they touch or spread them out a little would go a long way. Or maybe having several options for setups at least.


*I'm old and stubborn, and I'm not moving my hotbars. I like em where they are. Get off my lawn.

[pocki666]

i believe to satisfy everyone's needs it would be best to make the party bars customizable.

-) add another section to the menu (Bars configuration)
-) let the player configure width and height (with minimum values - in pixels)
-) let the player configure blank space between bars (in pixels)
-) add customization to bars (opacity of empty bars, display of hp and sp in points, percent, x of y, or missing hp)
-) add an icon for fortification display (no display below 50%, half a shield at 50%, full shield at 100% - ignoring buffs like recklessness, and an on/off toggle)
-) add a toggle for displaying only hp for classes without sp or ki
-) add a toggle for not displaying ki-bars at all
-) add a toggle for turning off pets in the party interface

make these options also available for player bars and target bars where applicable.

i would like to see some other things like resists, fom or death ward on players also, but i've got no good idea how to incorporate that into the ui.

[Fundamental]

Healed a Hard shroud with a noob group and wiped.
Normally I sleep tru that, couldn't see people on the bars when I found them everyone was dead. :P
Couldn't see heals landing properly.
Etc etc.

/Signed

Afterisoul - 3500 SP Classic Healer FvS on Ghallanda. (Shout out to my fellow Ghalandians!)

[PyrrhusPyro]

A new UI setting to add the function key name at the end of the player's bar:

 -- -------
|  |       |  F1
 -- -------

 -- -------
|  |       |  F2
 -- -------

 -- -------
|  |       |  F3
 -- -------

etc.

So I can easily see which function key to hit for healing a party member.

Especially helpful in 12-man raids

And I apologize if someone else already posted this...I didn't have time to read all the posts in this thread.

[TimoteoDeLani]

The primary suggestion (and the one I prefer) is to put the F1-F12 keys (or whatever is assigned) over the top of the class icon. The class icon would still be sufficiently visible unless you did something like "Alt-Ctrl-Shift-1" ...

+-----+-------------------------------------+
|F1   |                                     |
|     +-------------------------------------+
|     |                                     |
+-----+-------------------------------------+

+-----+-------------------------------------+
|F2   |                                     |
|     +-------------------------------------+
|     |                                     |
+-----+-------------------------------------+

[die]

This new UI sucks. SUCKS. Like healers don't already have enough hotbars to work with, now my screen is utterly cramped due to the new party UI.

Before you suggest that I keymap stuff, the game reverts all my key bindings to default every time I log. I need to be able to click on the **** I want to use/heal/buff with.

It was fine the way it was, now it looks utterly ridiculous and is completely unusable. I'm really ready to quit this game...

dont let the door hit ya.....

[smatt]

I will admit that the changes with U-11 did improve the new thing that is the party UI....

But.....

It's pretty clear someone somewhere is stuck ont his new look UI which is in my opinion far inferiro to the old pre U-11 one. The only thing that is better is the option to see the actual numbers for those that are still keen on playing 8 year old "I'll show you mine, if you show me your's games" Otherwise it's still uglier, harder to see, and less functional than pre U-11...

That being said, since it's clear SOMEONE in Dev land is in love with this piece of ugly art....

#1 It could still be smaller, remove the fancy gold trim rings around the class icons.... That would make it about the size vertically, of the old UI.... We really don't need fancy little gold doily type rings around such a thing do we?

Or

#1.1 Make it a resizable window... "Gasp"

#2 Remove Artificers from ga... OK that's not goign to happen...

#3 Redesign SP bar so that it splits with KI bar when appropriate.

#4 Give oiption to make OLD size of individual bar, now VERY large to old size

#5 Give option to replace STUPID portrait, that we can remove now, with AUTO-ATTACK. Madfloyd (Or perhaps new UI Dev person) why did you think people wanted to see a picture of themselves all the time? Surely, you're not THAT vain are you?

#6 No last names EVER in the party UI.... Totally 100% unneccesary.


It's better than it was.. But I'm going to bet you will find a vast majority of players that still think the old pre- U-11one was universally better...