Thoughts on the New UI

[Hulan]

The UI doesn't really bother me, and I make somewhat of a study of such things. It may just come down to the fact that the Dev team wanted a crisp, clean feel to the UI. It is extremely difficult to make a "fantasy" feel UI without making the whole thing feel kind of muddy. Like all things dealing with visual ascetics, it's a matter of personal preference though.

I would go out on a limb and suggest that the problem you have is probably the relatively high saturation and brightness of the colors. It tends to give UIs a cool (temperature), sharp, futuristic feel even while using warm colors. I would go as far as to guarentee you that if you kept the exact same layout, shape, everything, but lowered the brightness by about 20%, and the saturation by a tick, no more than 3%, it would have a much more earthy, warm feel that you personally would find much more appealing.

Personally, I kind of like where it is right now. The Final Fantasy franchise has had plenty of entries that skirt the fantasy sci-fi line so hard that it became more than a little blurry. This isn't really one of those games, but I tend to forgive a little bit of context insensitivity for a nice bright, clean interface like this. That's very much personal preference though.

[Andrien]

advance imperial magitek technology. check
magitek robots. check
imperial magitek battle ships. check
a weaponized meteor from out of space called dalamud. check


not futuristic/sci-fi enough?

I think it is. it may not be like star trek, but it is magically advance tech.

[Lirion]

I'm not one to typically nitpick the hell out of a post, but on this subject, I must inform you that you are far from correct. COD did not set the standard for anything.

• Halo: 11/15/2001
• Medal of Honor: Frontline: 11/9/2002
• Counter Strike: 11/18/2003
• Halo 2: 11/9/2004
• Call of Duty: Finest Hour: 11/16/2004

Halo most certainly set the standard for "Xbox". Which continued onto Xbox 360. The first COD, was PC only. I never played those terrible games, so, I was not even sure what COD was first on Xbox but it appears to be Finest Hour.

Anyways, I'm not trying to be a jerk, I just can't stand by idly while someone doesn't acknowledge Halo for all it achieved.

I'm not saying Halo did nothing for the fps games but I'm talking about the button layout on the controller, most fps games after CoD4 have used the same button layout as CoD4. Aim down sight on R1, crouch/prone on circle/B and so on. Halo 1-3 as far as I know don't even have aiming down the sight. Like I said, those games have probably been a big influence in the fps area but CoD4 did pretty much set the standard for the controller layout for FPS games on console these days.

I am by no means saying that CoD reinvented FPS games.

[darkm0d]

I'm not saying Halo did nothing for the fps games but I'm talking about the button layout on the controller, most fps games after CoD4 have used the same button layout as CoD4. Aim down sight on R1, crouch/prone on circle/B and so on. Halo 1-3 as far as I know don't even have aiming down the sight. Like I said, those games have probably been a big influence in the fps area but CoD4 did pretty much set the standard for the controller layout for FPS games on console these days.

Fair enough, but I will say I don't completely consider COD/MW/BF as "FPS". They are much more war simulators.

I suppose the only axis which the topic would exist on is Iron sights.

[Mihana]

I would go out on a limb and suggest that the problem you have is probably the relatively high saturation and brightness of the colors. It tends to give UIs a cool (temperature), sharp, futuristic feel even while using warm colors. I would go as far as to guarentee you that if you kept the exact same layout, shape, everything, but lowered the brightness by about 20%, and the saturation by a tick, no more than 3%, it would have a much more earthy, warm feel that you personally would find much more appealing.

You very well could be right about that. I think what stands out the most is just the overuse of the bright orange font. Looking back even FFXI didn't have a very "fantasty-like" look to it but somehow it seemed to fit. It there's a means to modify dat files (There most likely will be.) I may see if there's a way to just modify the color tones a bit myself. That is, if there isn't a means to apply custom skins to the UI before then. Thanks, rated your post up. ^^

EDIT: By the way why is there a debate about the first FPS to exist going on here? That's fine if you want to have a discussion about that but it's getting off-topic.

[Jamison]

I think the UI brings some much needed color to the game. Everything currently is so drab and monotone, it will be nice to have the elements actually stand out from the background.

[fusional]

i'm not sure i agree that it isn't a Final Fantasy-esque UI. have you played 13 or 13-2? it's slick and funtional, not futuristic. i don't really get it. is it supposed to be more blocky?

and now for some nitpicking of my own:

lol i tried explaining that about EQ (and many many others) Vs WoW (on the wow forums). My god the flames were impressive took me a week just to stop giggling when i thought about the rage they must have had while typing..
People only remember the latest big thing or their 1st mmo/game unfortunately.

EQ UI was a complete mess of pure garbage. the two UIs aren't comparable in any way. otherwise- EQ 2 and WoW were released in the same month, and either any similarities are purely coincidental or if one copied the other it's impossible to tell which was which considering they followed similar development cycles.

if you're talking about things other than UIs in a UI thread, then i don't think it's any secret that blizzard borrowed heavily from its predecessors. i don't recall anyone ever calling it revolutionary. blizzard simply looked at what other MMOs did wrong and corrected it, and then took what they did right and raised the bar. calling WoW the 'latest big thing' does it a tremendous disservice and only serves to highlight your bias. WoW isn't the 'latest big thing'- it's the biggest thing *ever* in the MMO world. nothing has come close to it before or since, and whether you like it or not this is objectively true. mmodata.net should address any of your concerns with this statement.

people only seem to remember whatever they've seen through nostalgia goggles.

[Roaran]

UI is distracting and ugly. Why can't developers just post some concepts on here and let us do a vote or have a discussion about them. I don't think this is the UI the community would have wanted.

Also I think only the functionality of the UI should be similar to other MMOs, on every other aspect you can be different.

[fusional]

I don't think this is the UI the community would have wanted.

first: speak for yourself.
second: don't like it? mod it. that's the beauty of allowing 3rd party add-ons.

[Gokulo]

Why can't developers just post some concepts on here and let us do a vote or have a discussion about them. I don't think this is the UI the community would have wanted.

They'd be stupid to do that