AOE Visual Overlay and AOE Toggle Improvements (sample pic)

[Rentahamster]

Here's another quick UI suggestion, this time to improve the AOE mechanic in the game.


Visual mockup HERE: http://i.imgur.com/UV5EA.jpg


Problems with the current AOE toggle:

It's cumbersome to use since the only time it shows up is right before you cast a spell.

The actual "area" of effect is oftentimes hard to discern.

Solutions:

Have the AOE toggle button be present all the time, so that no matter what you are doing, pressing the 'z' hotkey toggles AOE on or off. This would help to prevent confusion.

Have a subtle graphical overlay showing the actual area of your spell.

Have additional subtargets show you clearly which other mobs are going to be hit with your AOE spell.


UPDATE:

Having a more visual indicator of AOE in the form of stances, which is basically the same function as an AOE widget in the UI, would be an interesting way to get players more involved in the actual combat instead of always having to look at the UI and chatlog.

Instead of putting "spells" into AoE mode (and asking each time), you would put your "spellcaster" into AoE mode. Almost like a stance, if you will. Disciples of Magic would have two stances, Area-Effect and Single-Target. Those stances would be controlled by Rentahamster's redesigned toggle button.

Incorporating stances is a very promising idea. Functionally it would do the same job as the AOE toggle button. If the two different stances were visually different enough, we could just eliminate the AOE toggle UI element altogether.

Now there's an idea. If your character is physically standing differently and/or wielding their weapon differently, it would give an additional visual clue as to what mode you are in ... in addition to the top of the ground around you turning red and every target in range gaining a targeting reticle.

Just off the top of my head ... Disciples of Magic in Area-Effect stance could hold their two-handed weapons horizontally, instead of vertically, with the spellcasting animation raising it over their head.