A lot of UI improvements - documented with pics » Forum Post by Invisible

A lot of UI improvements - documented with pics

Game Options in the Custom Games Lobby, Main Menu Button, Statistics, Ingame team-menu...

By Invisible_XXV on August 9, 2009 9:02:42 PM from

So, I´ve done some pics of how some UI improvements could look like. most of them i did in a very short time, so the quality isn´t the best, but you should get the idea!

1. Game Options in the Custom Games Lobby

- i just dragged the buttons on the right a bit down.

- if you need more space you could even add a scrollbar on the right.

- Non-Standard settings are written in red to make changes visible in under 1 second.

as you can see, there is plenty of space there. maybe you could even add something usefull there

(the text should be put in a table, of course)

2. End Game Buttons

that one should not need any comment, but the first button. this one should put you in the same custom game (with same map, options, players).

3. Statistics in Custom Game Lobby:

maybe you could just link this to the pantheon page...

a small popup if you mouseover a playername.

4. Chat/Teamchat while loading a map

although loading times are pretty short, this one would help in pantheon, especially if players are dropping and the map loads some time.

teamchat would be nice to give instructions or see what characters the other ones have chosen. etc pp

maybe there should be a button to switch from normal chat to teamchat. this could be usefull in the normal custom game chat, too.

5. Ingame team-menu

That one is the most important: all your teammates in a menu on the left, with healthbar, player name and the option to cast spells on your teammates by clicking on their characters´ faces.

maybe you could add a menu-tab in the options, where you can select how to display this menu and where

+14 Karma | 31 Replies

Nice - adds to the game without being cluttered

All good ideas, however the Ingame Team-Menu needs a little work, such as the inclusion of Mana bars. It might also save space and look better if the bars were circular around the portrait of each Demigod - although that is my preference rather than a design flaw. As long as they were moveable - as the in-game chat would now spring up in the middle-ish area of the screen rather than neatly off to the side - I think they would work great.

Thanks for putting in the time to make the screenshots. I actually had a similar idea (check my post history). However, while some of these are minor improvements, I'm begging for #5, plus I'd like to see Mana as well as health because that determines if I'm going to assume assistance or retreat from my teammates. Also, I think this is a given, but the team area should also include health information of your army (if you're a general). Just an icon tinted green->red would be helpful to see health without having annoying health bars on the screen, plus the icon would be selectable for targeting. I would also like quick citadel, items, crystal icons on the mini-map (when clickable) to issue orders to quickly send a teleport command to these locations.

Depending on how it is implemented, we may see your #2 in the next significant patch. They said that they were doing tests for both replays and rematches.

Another thing I'm too lazy to get a screenshot for would be to make more columns when creating a custom game and make this viewable when looking to join the game. Otherwise, at least make the custom game description longer. It seems pointless to make a description so short when you need to include the necessary information:

Location of the host/game
Intended number of players
Desired skill of players
Premade teams

These seem like good ideas which show up in many other RTS/RPG style games. I hope some if not all make it in, in some form.

This would be sooooo nice. Good job with the pics etc Invisible that exaclty how I should think Demi should look like.

yes ... the last one is most important imo.

hes a small manipulation to that picture of how i think it may look better, But i could be wrong.

i tried to do the thumbnailing u did, but i dunno how to do it so i just provided the link above. sry for the retardedness...

thanks for the support. i agree with most of your ideas. circular health bars would look even better and a mana bar would be of help too, although i think that a mana-bar wouldn´t be necessary. it even could add more ranting, cause i imagine people screaming for heals and shields.

with army health the menu could get a bit big, especially on lower resolutions.

i think it´d be best, if there would be a tab within the options, where you could add or remove elements from the "side-menu" as i will call it from now on ^^

Well tbh all those UI changes should be made long time ago... I can't understand why don't we see eg. our team mates hp/mana in game ? Like 99% of games have this kind of info, and Demigod don't.

If they didn't do that till now, I don't see any chances they will improve UI in future. At least we will have mods, so probably we just have to wait till 1.2 patch and do some changes ourselves.

I agree, however it's not game breaking - it just requires a lot better communication between team members. And I'd probably prefer a third party solution - if I learnt anything from World of Warcraft it's that people I've never met in leaky basements who don't shower can make better UIs than people in offices who are getting paid.

The statistics should also be visible when you hover the names in Pantheon etc (when the game is trying to create a game for you).

Quoting Poul,

reply 8

Well tbh all those UI changes should be made long time ago... I can't understand why don't we see eg. our team mates hp/mana in game ? Like 99% of games have this kind of info, and Demigod don't.

If they didn't do that till now, I don't see any chances they will improve UI in future. At least we will have mods, so probably we just have to wait till 1.2 patch and do some changes ourselves.

of course i didnt invent those changes, just wanted to show what is needed imo.

Great ideas! You should contact the creators or DEMIGOD and tell them these things.

meant to say "of" Demigod...

i hope they check the forums and hopefully will read through this and get that stuff in the game.

maybe we could produce a "demigod advanced ui" mod, if those features wont get in the official version.

These are all excellant suggestions. Nice pictures and presentation +1

Nicely done, all those things would improve the game a lot.

nice!

That one is the most important: all your teammates in a menu on the left, with healthbar, player name and the option to cast spells on your teammates by clicking on their characters´ faces.

That's really what's needed