Images : UI, Video : Cooldowns

[Qzipoun]

It's always been there. It's on live right now.

They just changed it from a light color to a much, much darker color. So you notice it more.

But that's the whole point, you're not SUPPOSED to notice UI, it should feel natural and fluid. Why have a dark obvious flicker on every item of every hotbar when it can be the subtle one we have now...

"Better than U11" isn't the benchmark here, that's hard to miss, it's whether it is an improvement to what we had before (i don't really think so)

[Asmodeus451]

my question is: do we see the cooldowns when pets/hires use the abilities by themselves, rather than being told to?

you know, so we can actually tell when/if they really are using them

[whitehawk74]

What is your monitor and where do you live and when will you not be home?
seriously, I want something like that. this 1280x1024 is getting old.

[Candela90]

Im sad i cant get the old ones, but happy devs listened to people and gave us something better. Maybe ill stoo having problems on my fvs ^^ Telling someone who died (sorry, i didnt see u have low hp) felt really bad xD

[Bladedge]

That is just so annoying seeing all the hot bars flash black when using a clickie or swapping out items or drinking multiple pots, even the inventory flashes black if you keep the inventory open and use something from there. Just leave it as it was before this change or make it a toggle classic or ..... This is Worst then what we have.

Don't like the lighter shade of red and blue Hp and SP numbers why not white or gold or user customizable.

The auto attack button still missing.


Nice to the names back in the bars the bars are wider and less gaps between them.. Do the HP bars change color if it is a Wizard is in pale master form?

[MyHumps]

would be nice if turbine new how to leave well enough alone. I guess that's too ****ing much to ask for.

[smatt]

I like the new UI set-up a lot... Now.... I still dont' get teh removal of the auto-attack ont he personal bar for the USELESS protrait.... Waste of however many minutes that took to code...

But this cooldown flashing thing has to go.....

Again, why change something that NOBODY is complaining about and works fine? Come on.... The slight hazing and clock style timer was easy enough to see. In fact I have NEVER heard a single person complain about this... No flashing please...

[Razcar]

The font looks smaller, and I have to strain my eyes harder to read vitals.Wish they'd put more options, and let us tweak UI to fit our needs, instead of trying and coming up with a one-size-fits-all kind of solution.
Personally, I like 11.0 UI more.

I strongly disagree. This version is so much better than the 11.0 one. Font seems the same size, but readability is vastly improved by putting names in the box instead of hovering above. Also restoring to the broader width makes healing less of a struggle.

Thanks Turbine for listening to the UI criticism.

Lol, neg rep for this?

[Khurse]

Yeah, I like the new bars, and honestly I like the darker flicker for the hotbar cooldown timers as well.

Much better than the U11.0 version imo.

[Flavilandile]

Definitely much better on the party UI. Now it seems to be usable.
Personnally I would have prefered a back to the old one, but this one seems to be usable enough.
I still find the bars too small, but that's probably because they appear to be less wide,
while the length seems to be back to the original length.

Now the gripe... Why did you change the cooldown ? it wasn't asked for and it was working fine.
While I don't find it too annoying, it's still a nuisance when you're spamming buffs or any other spells, as all your screen blinks.
That's probably going to be really annoying though when I alternate scroll heal and the various spells in a cycle...
It's almost as if you wanted to try every possible change that will make people unhappy on the UI side.
Just leave the cooldown to what are right now and stop tinkering with these things.

[Backley]

Solution for me:
Just make sure it is all skinnable and let us recolor it how we want.

The party bar background/overlay is already skinnable. Make the bars themselves skinnable too please.

And make the cooldown animation skinnable. The old Autoattack swirly button animation was skinnable (each frame), just do the same for the new darker cooldown overlay animation. And make the "metamagic/sneak attack/power attack/etc" enabling and enabled effects skinnable too.

[TheDearLeader]

Solution for me:
Just make sure it is all skinnable and let us recolor it how we want.

The party bar background/overlay is already skinnable. Make the bars themselves skinnable too please.

And make the cooldown animation skinnable. The old Autoattack swirly button animation was skinnable (each frame), just do the same for the new darker cooldown overlay animation. And make the "metamagic/sneak attack/power attack/etc" enabling and enabled effects skinnable too.

I am always a firm supporter of more customization.

[Alabore]

I strongly disagree.
This version is so much better than the 11.0 one. Font seems the same size, but readability is vastly improved by putting names in the box instead of hovering above. Also restoring to the broader width makes healing less of a struggle.

And I'll agree to disagree.
It's user interface we're talking about.
Not absolute rights or wrongs.

For me, italic font style and intruding long names make U11.1 UI less readable than U11.0.
I'm glad some guys are ok with it.
The underlying issue here is: we're not being given more options to tweak and resize UI to individual tastes and needs.

We're being fed a one-size-fits-all kind of solution.

[Razcar]

And I'll agree to disagree.
It's user interface we're talking about.
Not absolute rights or wrongs.

For me, italic font style and intruding long names make U11.1 UI less readable than U11.0.
I'm glad some guys are ok with it.
The underlying issue here is: we're not being given more options to tweak and resize UI to individual tastes and needs.

We're being fed a one-size-fits-all kind of solution.

Of course there are absolute right and wrongs in UI design. It is not only about different shades of a colour, it's about ease of use - or the opposite.

If they decided to bring back the Autoattack button, but put it in the middle of the screen, a non-movable 500x 500 pixels block blinking red and yellow, would you say that that UI decision was only a matter of taste? Yes, an extreme and silly example, but it is to show that UI's are not about making things look pretty.


One absolute rule in UI design is that an interface should be helpful and easy to use. The party bar in 11.0 didn't live up to that, compared to it's predecessor:

• Shrinking the HP bars made it harder to use for healers, since they had a smaller gauge to react to and much smaller resolution for making quick healing decisions
• Making the bars transparent meant you couldn't read the current red bar's position when the background was a similar colour
• Putting the names floating above the bar, with no contrasting background meant that it was hard to read them when the background was a similar colour
• If there is something more important on the screen - usually the 3D action in our case - an UI element should not be too intrusive. The 11.0 party bar was huge.

Is it perfect in 11.1? No. And I agree with you that the font is a bit too small for large resolutions. They should make a couple more sizes to choose from, e.g. "small, medium, large". But it is - in a pure ease of use context - better than 11.0.


And as far as I can see there are no italics in there.

[Alabore]

Of course there are absolute right and wrongs in UI design.

I am inclined to disagree.
There is well-designed and functional UI.
Absolutely good UI?
No, not sure.
No matter how well designed, some users will find it bad, for a reason or another.
There is always an exception that makes even good UI less effective.

I - for one - was happy with U11.0 UI.
I can't real analog bars, so I was happy with vital numbers.
Last time I checked on Lamannia, vitals were being shown in Italics.
Maybe they changed it again - but long names do intrude on numbers, especially with percentages on.

I'm glad most of you guys like U11.1 UI tweaks.
I'm not too happy about them.
I'll try and stress my point again: there is no such thing as a perfect UI.
That's why most games allow players to customise UI to a greater or lesser extent.
DDO could use some extra polish and options, UI-wise.

[azrael4h]

The screenshots didn't show it, but are the bars' backgrounds translucent? I have trouble telling who needs what as the clear background after the bar starts dropping makes it difficult to see in many areas.

[TheDearLeader]

The screenshots didn't show it, but are the bars' backgrounds translucent? I have trouble telling who needs what as the clear background after the bar starts dropping makes it difficult to see in many areas.

Actually, the screenshot does. Notice under the Non-Blue-Bar Hirelings, and myself, that there's Black where the SP bar should have been. That Black color is a "backing" behind the HP - so no, not Transparent backgrounds anymore.

[smatt]

As far as I can see the new UI, 11.1 that is, is FAR superior to the 11.0 UI... But still the OLD UI pre-11.0 was FAR better still.... They should'e scrapped teh whole new UI, gon eback to the older one, added the options.... There done...

The new size +300 personal bar with stupid useless portrait = useless as well.

But at least it appears to be much more useful from a heals perspective, at least this one. My other classes didn't since the party UI plays such a small roll in their active game play.... Alas it seems the DDO team at this point has decided that new and OK, is better than old and very good.... Again, ego gets in the way of good design... Seems kind of like the Abbot raid to me..... In a way... Dev ego got in the way of the fact taht the quest was poorly thought and and poorly designed, and was left to rot.... Hey, sometimes even well meaning design changes are flops, it happens... I've borked so many things in design and implentation wise in MY jobs-profesions over the years.... This (the party UI) was one of those types, and it's only 2/3rds of the way back to being the very nice functional one it was prior to U-11. But again, I guess new and OK, is better than new and ****, but not as good as old and very good


And to the OP... LOL of course there are rules to good UI design... You are correct taht no UI will be great for all, but you shoot for good for the vast majority. It was too hard to read quikly, eithe rto large or to small at differnt screen resolutions. It was poorly designed and poorly implemented. Going into exactly why has been done 100 times over in the various threads on this subject....

[BadBuy]

I must admit that I haven't tried the new UI on Lamm, but what I see in the screen shots worries me. Having the names overlapping the bars looks bad and it seems to make it harder to check everyone's HP at a glance. I really hope this is not as bad as it looks or it is a selectable variantion, because now it seems worse than the U11 UI.

[Backley]

Having the names overlapping the bars looks bad and it seems to make it harder to check everyone's HP at a glance. I really hope this is not as bad as it looks or it is a selectable variantion, because now it seems worse than the U11 UI.

The pre-U11 UI that most liked better than the U11 UI had the names over the HP bar, in a larger font than pictured and a little higher. Here is a screenshot with my UI skin on the old UI.

I think the new U11p1 UI looks great in that regard: slightly smaller font for the names, with them moved down into the blue bar a bit, should make the top of the HP bar more noticeable at a glance.

Still wish the HP bar was full-height for characters with no use for the SP/KI bar.