4saken Posted Aug 30, 2008, 11:15 pm	ok. some feedback on the new GUI. thanks much for the movable steering wheel and option to turn off the GUI animations.  :o) ok, i am still not big on a few things. 1) ammo, etc. the status bar for ammo in particular is not very intuitive. i eventually figured out red is kinda like spent ammo and yellow ammo remaining. at the very least, these two colors are too close to each other to see easily. the old system had green falling away to white (which looks "empty") and we are used to it, also this was very clear to see at a glance. i couldnt imagine trying to tell the red from yellow if i was colorblind or had a bad monitor. 2) in a similar vein i am still opposed to the color system for armor. it takes me alot more work to check my armor now as i have to carefully read all the number values (and dont even have a full number to compare to) rather than quickly glance to see "what's missing". again the shades are all very similar. a very sharp change from say blue/green/yellow/orange/red/black in strong colors might work with the current system. also IMO the display is still way too big. 3) drop down menu. the little bitty arrow or whatever doesn't look like anything i associate with a drop-down menu. perhaps a little box with the word "menu" on it? is this what we had before? or maybe even just make the button a little bigger. it doesnt exactly jump out at you. 4) inspect box. would it take a bit of work to make the simple change to the inspect thingie so that if you click anywhere on it it closes, rather than only on the little bitty X? anyway, overall i think it's a big improvement. though i do have some gripes, most of those are just simple issues i would expect in any new update of this type before the kinks are worked out. love the car pics in the loot screen. would like something similar for the weapons rather than the generic pics, though i don't know how to make such things myself or i probably would take a stab at it. anyway, 1 and 2 are the important ones. i'm sure they've cost me at least one character already... :oP anyone else wants to add feedback to this thread feel free. i'm sure some of this stuff is posted elsewhere but it's kinda scattered around now.
Capt. Zeppo Posted Aug 31, 2008, 5:06 am	Well, I THINK this is GUI related, as it never seemed to happen before: Keystrokes jumping in and out (mostly out) of the Chat screen. So, I go to type the word "and" (for instance) and suddenly my view is panning left and right. It's damn disconcerting when you go to type a comment and suddenly in the middle of a sentence your Manage screen is popping up, your view is panning, etc. At one point I typed a [space] between two words and I inadvertently submitted my orders for the turn. That darn near cost me a race. I guess that'll teach me to Text and Drive.  But, seriously; if this is GUI related it needs to be tweaked before it really messes up someone's event.
4saken Posted Aug 31, 2008, 6:33 am	yes, i think that is a change of some sort from the way it worked before. also i am wholeheartedly in favor of being able to remap the move done key away from the spacebar, as this has many times sent inadvertent done commands. maybe an option to toggle it from space to tab, for instance.
Valiance Posted Aug 31, 2008, 10:08 am	OK, finally got to have a look and here are my comments. The GUI itself is cleaner and neater and yet somehow it has managed to make the overall game seem much more overpowering. I was scared at how complicated the game was, and I know what I'm doing. Specific issues: 1) There is no consistency where the X and = signs are for the pop ups. It is on the right when items are minimised; it is in the middle for Inspect, Rankings, Cargo (the middle! wherever did that come from [maybe it's a mac thing]); there isn't one for Manage or Occupants. I think you should pick one and stick to it - it certainly doesn't make sense to me that Manage and Occupants can't be close with the mouse like the other ones are 2) The interface takes up way too much screen room. In particular, the Players box now takes up a huge amoutn of black space, even if there are only 2 of you in the event. Suggestion 1: make all the boxes see through like the chat Suggestion 2: make boxes like Player expand to the appropriate size - if there only 2 players, don't obscure the playing field with space for 10 3) Move done and Not ready are almost invisible. I would recommend making them glow like Manage and Occupants do 4) I don't appear to be able to minimise the steering wheel/speedo. I feel as if I used to be able to do this, but maybe I'm wrong. 5) The drop down arrow under the timer for the menu is tiny. I didn't see it for ages 6) The manage tab is way too intrusive. I think the size of the armour blocks is too big. I expect that I will grow to love the weapons images, but do they really need to be that big? I love the size of the Inspect box - can we get the manage box down to that size? Or at least nearer to it? The picture of my car is lovely, but it's actually bigger and more dominating than the action, which seems wrong to me 7) There are too many different bars/ways of seeing stuff. I've got a green bar, a yellow bar, a blue bar and a purple bar. At the very least, can I suggest: a) Damage is consistently a greenbar that decreases. This appears to be the case for weapons and engines. Can it be for tyres too? People? Cargo? (Can't see the interface right now, it might already be there for these) b) How about armour too? It is useful for me to see whether his armour is half what it was. I'm sure that I can learn the colours, but it's making me think more than is perhaps necessary c) Consider dots or something for ammo, so that it is clearly delineated from damage. 8) The really controversial one: i can no longer see the state of each car at a glance. I have to open 3 screens (Manage, Occupant, Cargo) which between them take up about 33% of screen space. I actually think that this is a backwards step, not a forward one. Niot sure what the solution is, other than either putting the occupants back in the vehicle in some way, which has other disadvantages. Apologies for the list, and for not mentioning some of these earlier. [Edit: moved from previous topic - damned difficult finding the right home for it]
4saken Posted Aug 31, 2008, 4:54 pm	ok, this is more of a bug than a suggestion, but the pull-down menu (the little bitty arrow) is too far to the right, so the text in the pull-down menu gets clipped. i agree with everything val said in 6 and 7. the manage tab could easily be scaled down to 66% as it is with no loss of info, the armor thingies could be smaller (and bars), the car pic could be smaller. also i think all damage stuff should be done the same way, for example, a green bar that gets eaten away. i love the idea of dots for ammo, but dont know how hard that would be to code as opposed to the reducing bar. as to (1), val, you can close the manage and occupants tab by clicking on the word like you did to open it. would be nice if the word/tab would stay in the same place so you didnt have to move your mouse to close it. an easy way to close the manage and/or occupants tab is to simpy click on your car twice. click once, all that goes away, click again and steering wheel comes back.
4saken Posted Aug 31, 2008, 4:57 pm	also, sort of related to the GUI, i have thought, and someone mentioned before, about the idea of using the "unused" screen space for people with widescreen monitors, which are much more common now. if there was option in the graphics thing to set a size like this even if it just kept the game centered and blacked out the sides it would give room for us to drag things like the steering wheel farther to the side. sorry for all the headache this is causing!
DesolatorDan Posted Aug 31, 2008, 5:53 pm	Quote: Apologies for the list Structured feedback like this is the best that can be received,
Valiance Posted Aug 31, 2008, 6:42 pm	One more: In the Players list, we show Gang names. Could we either: a) Show both b) Change the title to Gangs c) Change the names to Player names, not Gang ones