Overhaul User Interface (Tons of suggestions included)

[HyTeK]

The biggest thing missing from this excellent thread:

MULTIPLE CONCURRENT WINDOWS OPEN

How many of you have had to close out the macro editor, then close out the configuration window, open up your inventory/gear window, write down the name of the item, search on google for the name of the slot it is going in [if you forget the name], close out the gear/inventory window, go back into configuration, and back into macro, and then put in your single line?

Well for me it is more times then I care to remember and/or admit. Please include multiple windows open at the same time on the PC. As it stands now, the game should have been released on the PS3 first as that is what the UI was designed for.

[blountzoocrew]

The biggest thing missing from this excellent thread:

MULTIPLE CONCURRENT WINDOWS OPEN

How many of you have had to close out the macro editor, then close out the configuration window, open up your inventory/gear window, write down the name of the item, search on google for the name of the slot it is going in [if you forget the name], close out the gear/inventory window, go back into configuration, and back into macro, and then put in your single line?

Well for me it is more times then I care to remember and/or admit. Please include multiple windows open at the same time on the PC. As it stands now, the game should have been released on the PS3 first as that is what the UI was designed for.

^^ This has pissed me off more times than I care to count.

[Crystaline]

Made notes and wanted to make a seperate thread on the UI side, but this thread is magnificent. I'll post my notes here, really hope this threads gets picked up by the devs

Main overall problem: UI experiences a lag when loading.
Reason: Entire UI content is loaded from server in Japan. UI contents (e.g: item list) is only drawn to the screen once all items have been loaded, even the invisible items.

Solutions:
- Spread UI load over different servers worldwide, not only Japan
- Improve multithreading if possible.
- Once all the contents that are visible have been loaded, draw them to the screen and load the hidden contents (e.g: things that become visible when user moves scrollbar)

Additional solution:
- Save the UI window contents to local machine at first load (XML file with metadata and item text?). Include an ID/Boolean value in an XML file or textfile. When an UI window is opened, check the local ID/Boolean value against the server value, if it’s different load the server contents, otherwise load the locally saved contents.

Secondary Problem: UI requires a lot of steps/mouse clicks to do certain things

Examples (that should be fixed):
- When talking to the Guildleve Issuer, you need to select a type, a camp and a quest. This is fine, cramming it in one window would be overkill. The problem is, when you need to cancel the whole thing, you need to mash escape several times, once to go back to the camp selector, another to go back to the type selection. It would be better if you could just cancel the conversation in full to be back on your way (and do the Leve ^^).

- When shopping, and using your keyboard, you need to press enter to be able to modify the quantity. Why can’t you just press the right arrow on your keyboard to increment it with one, and press enter to specify an exact amount.

Additional
General Dialog boxes issues:
- Not every box has a close button, for people using mouse this can be annoying.
- Take for example the Inventory, every item, and every tab makes a clicking sound when hovering over it. This is annoying, when hovering over it the control just needs to light up so the user knows it is active. When it’s clicked, THEN there should be a sound
- Scrollbar click sound is unnecessary and annoying.

Attribute specific
- The window isn’t large enough to accommodate all the tabs. It’s annoying to have to click the arrows to move the tabs around. Can’t you just put 2 rows of tabs. In Windows, many windows are built like that
- Provide a pop-up menu when hovering over certain parts. E.g: the Skills tab shows your rank in each class, but newcomers don’t know what each icon means.

Inventory specific
- When data is displayed in list with multiple columns, the column heading don’t have a caption, which might be confusing to some. Especially in the Bazaar tab.
- Not every item needs a “sort” option when clicked. User can select “Sort” in the upper-right.
- When clicking on an item, a context menu opens with options, you can’t access any other item’s context menu unless the opened one is closed.

Gear specific
- When equipping, you need to select the slot before it gets equipped, even for equipment that only fits in one slot. If equipment fits in one slot, it should be equipped automatically.
- (optional: make equipment equipable from the Inventory)

Actions & Traits specific
- Now you need to select an empty skill slot, click on a skill in the skill list and it gets equipped. I often find myself accidentally click on a skill to equip it when a skill slot has already been assigned, overwriting that skill. Why can’t you just take the skill and drag and drop it somewhere, would be much, much easier.

Map specific
- Allow player to put custom markers on the map
- Allow user to toggle Legend and location info on or off, now it’s covering a part of the map.
- (Optional: show additional information when hovering over an icon).

Additional
1/ Repair NPCs shows me 2 pages of item slots while there is much more screen space available. Isn’t it better to show only one page with all items, eventually with a scroll bar.

Something personal
I’m pretty sure many might dissagree, but I’d love to see an enemy targeting system like Final Fantasy XIII at the start of a battle. You choose a skill, a list of enemies in range comes up, enemy gets selected and the fight begins. I loved this in FFXIII, but I’m many people prefer to mash tab to cycle trough enemies.

Conclusion:
FFXIV has been around for a year and most of the UI problems were left unadressed, I can only conclude that the game has been built in a very difficult way, and the implementation of any major changes might require a lot of programming and perhaps a fundemantal underlying change of the game engine. I nevertheless hope Square has been secretly doing this.

The user interface is, no matter how you twist and turn it, the main annoyance of every FFXIV player. I’m ashamed that even after a year, the majority of the requested changes haven’t been adressed. I really hope Square Enix staff takes a good look at this thread, and ferociously works toward this.

(About me: I'm an user interface junkie with a basic knowledge about game development, though no way near MMO development. I love to create, discuss and improve user interfaces. When I create an UI for an application, I try to create lightweight UIs with a focus on the content.)

[Liniont]

I'm all for Separate UI's but being the PC version I'd like access and the ability to mix and match both. Currently I use my PS3 controller to play and I have no problem with it I don't use my mouse and I only really use my keyboard for talking. Using the D-pad isn't bad at all I can cycle through spells and actions bars fairly quickly as well as have the easy of targeting and I have my controller's mapping customized to maximize my efficiency. So if they do this I don't want to be forced to play with just keyboard and mouse when I'm already use to the way I play now.

When they port the game to PS3 I'm staying PC for the better graphics and performance but I still would like to use my set up and not be forced in to keyboard/mouse only. It also benefits me that I not only use my control set up but I also play this from the comfort of my couch or recliner on a 52" TV.

so please Yoshi-p answer there call with an option to change UI settings please don't get rid of the current set up because some of us have no problem with it.

[Soma]

I've decided to compile a list of things that I want to see happen for the user interface. These are in no way a 'priority' list, but are simply listed because I'd rather see them happen.

Develop the new PC and PS3 user interfaces completely separate. I cannot even put into words the amount of frustration and dissapointment I feel when I play a really good game that was ported over to the PC from consoles without any special UI treatment.

Part of the reason the menu sucks right now is because of PS3 controller limitations. These controllers don't have the ability to bind windows or bind functions, in fact, they cant even select skills without having to press a D pad direction several times. Not only does this make the gameplay difficult and inefficient, but it brings down the PC players as well.

The PS3 and PC user interfaces need to be mutually exclusive. Neither should be tied to each other. This does not mean that the players must play only on PC or PS3, it simply means each system will have a different UI. This is one lesson that many developers need to learn, and if SE can pull this off successfully they will greatly increase their chances of making FFXIV work well on the PS3 as well as PC.

I think SE has some good ideas for the PS3 pad, and since I don't want to play on the PS3 I am only going to focus on the PC UI overhaul.

Menu Centric vs Icon and Tooltip centric UI

The PC version of the new UI overhaul needs to strive for efficiency. What do I mean by that? Currently it takes 5 input commands to change a skill. This could be significantly reduced to 2. How you ask? Lets say I want to equip Sacrifice instead of Cure. To do this on an icon and tooltip centric UI, I would press (Ctrl+P) to open my ability book, and then drag and drop the icon of the spell to the ability bar. Incredibly simple.

This is why the current menu heavy UI is inefficient. Nearly everything about the menu system requires a drastic increase in input commands.

An icon-tooltip centric UI will also keep things a lot more organized than they are now. I would love to open up a "bag" window with my all of my non-equipped items shown in an organized fashion where i can over over them and drag and drop things. The current menu system now, although somewhat organized, is just a hassle because of scrolling through 100 items. An icon centric menu would easily handle this massive load of items easier.

Furthermore, having icons and tooltips will remove the unnecessary secondary "information window" that currently appears below the list of items.

Lastly, a menu centric icon requires a lot of reading and not a lot of quick identification features. An icon centric tooltip allows players to hone in on unique icons for easy access.

If the above section about menu centric vs icon and tooltip centric UI is difficult to understand... just go play World of Warcraft. Everything about their item management is perfect.

Commands

Commands make life easier. If I want to go up with someone and trade them an item, just let me target them and type /trade or right click on their body and have a small menu that allows me to "Chat, Trade, Check, Browse, Invite to Party, Invite to Linkshell, Kick from Party, Kick from Linkshell."

I have no idea why these commands don't exist to begin with, but they need to be implemented. I understand /check is in the game, but it should be on a right click menu as well. This right clicking should also apply to the party names and the target frame.

Fade In/Out Animations

The fade in/out animations for the menu's need to vanish or significantly speed up to less than 1/10th of a second. They take up unnecessary time that doesn't make the game seem more polished or unique.

Hovering over buffs and debuffs should reveal tooltip information
When I hover over a buff or debuff icon, I want a tooltip that tells me exactly what it is doing. I don't want to have to 'select' the debuff.

Multiple action/spell bars need to be available to turn on and off.
Multiple action bars need to be activated. Currently having to press down on the arrow keys to select a different spell is incredibly inefficient. We're going to the whole "input command vs efficiency" issue here again. Simply have the ability to have 4+ bars able to be toggled that you can drag and drop skills on. Furthermore, each slot should be able to be customized to any keybind for easy activation without excessive mouse clicking.

Addon Development
One of the most significant improvements you can do is allow players to develop their own addons (that don't alter the game in a bad way). Once you see what creative people come up with, you have the right to alter that addon and implement it into the game itself to make it better and officially supported.

Targeting and Camera
I'd prefer not to have some sort of 'lock' on a monster. I want to click from monster to monster and then to person back to monster with ease. This means increasing the distance I can click on a monster, as well as fixing the issue with name plates, and removing the obscene 'lock' issue. Furthermore, the camera needs to be independent of character movement. I want to be able to swing my camera in a full 360 degrees and leave it at any position I choose even while running. The current "follow character while moving" doesn't suffice.

Equipping skills and gear should not stop my character running.
I probably don't need to explain this one.


Linkshell/Guild Administration
The Linkshell/Guild Administration needs a huge overhaul as well. We need to be able to kick and invite people to linkshells from whatever location they are at. Furthermore, there need to be different ranks with different functions. Ie: some ranks can invite, some ranks can kick, some ranks can silence spamming, etc.

Also, there needs to be some type of recruitment UI window to see who is looking for a linkshell. This should show each job level and the main language, as well as a "casual/moderate/hardcore" tag for what person/linkshell is looking for.

Linkshell descriptions should also have casual/moderate/hardcore tag, along with a short description of what they look for in new members.

The maximum number of members in a linkshell needs to be uncapped.

Linkshell chat should be as easy as typing /ls1 /ls2 /ls3 /ls4 instead of having to switch the linkshell each time you want to talk.

Looking for group/party
There needs to be a fully functioning LFG/LFP system. Should show vital information such as available jobs, rank, language.

Casting spells should not require pressing the skill number and then enter -- also AOE toggle
Casting spells shouldn't require pressing enter! Furthermore, just make separate spells that are AOE and adjust the SP accordingly or make it if say... Water is equipped, Watera doesn't cost anything to equip.

Increase the amount of slots available for trading items.

You should be able to type while crafting.
Currently every time you perform a new crafting function, the chat resets and you can't effectively type. Needs to be fixed to where you can continue typing past pressing a crafting function.

Client side UI
Everything is sent to your servers in Japan. For players outside of Japan, that causes lag. Not just "occasional lag" it causes HUGE AMOUNTS OF FRUSTRATION. The UI must be developed and run client side!

Finally, your servers should be located around the world and not 100% in Japan.

yes yes and yes!!! pc ui!! not old clunky 2005 ui. this is supposed to be cutting edge pc game

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffeat...3028/lightbox/

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sun2SCeSgv...00/RIFT+UI.png

[Chain]

I think they should move away from console development for MMOs anyways, anyone prepared for the ps3 limitations in 5 years?

Please give PC users the ability to hot-key actions, such as opening inventory or friends list.

[Ekko]

Yes /10chars