Forums » Pantheon Races

User Interface Design For Your Race

    • 432 posts
    June 22, 2016 10:05 PM PDT

    Hello everyone,

     

    I wanted to see what you all felt of the idea of each race having a unique UI (User Interface)?

     

    Examples would be different shapes and designs for borders and button placements. Dwarves may have very broad square or bold-lined buttons or button trim, where-as the Elves would have very flowing and elegant design. Scar could have tattered cloth or buttons with slash marks on them. Myr could have bubbles or water/echo patterns.

     

    Here are some different UI’s that have come out in other games. Just look at the designs of the buttons themselves not necessarily the placement (though that could be fun as well)

     

    https://i.imgur.com/9IfflF3.jpg

    https://i.imgur.com/GaWNK.jpg

    http://orig13.deviantart.net/2f64/f/2007/175/9/f/graphical_user_interface_wow_by_goodestimes.png

     

    This could be a very good way to help a player get more sense of the race they are playing throughout the game no matter where they are. Think of it, you may be in a different city with different features and mobs you are fighting, but the core of your race, the designs of what you find familiar--those shapes and sizes and colors are always with you.

     

    I’ve said in another thread how important managing time and money is for a company trying to come out with a product. Pantheon doesn’t have forever to come out with their game, so it comes down to which features are important and which can be set on the back-burner.

     

    The cost of artists designing UI elements in each race can be very expensive depending upon how much effort goes into it. But I believe there are some very ‘simple’ things which can be done to achieve this.

     

    *Color pallet

    *Border design for buttons

    *An ‘art bar’ surrounding the screen

     

    These three items are a good starting point. I hope this sparks some interest in the development team.

    In a closing note, sometimes when you wear oddly matched gear or your very low level and havn’t achieved much, it honestly makes me feel a little removed from the structure of my race. I’m just a peon or clown wandering around adventuring. If I had a nice set of clothes I could look more like an adventurer, or one of my own people-that’s not always going to work out for everyone (it rarely does). If my UI screamed ‘Skar’ I would take that sense of connection with my race further regardless of my current level or items.

     

    -Todd

    • VR Staff
    • 246 posts
    June 23, 2016 10:22 AM PDT

    tehtawd said:

    Hello everyone,

     

    I wanted to see what you all felt of the idea of each race having a unique UI (User Interface)?

     

    Examples would be different shapes and designs for borders and button placements. Dwarves may have very broad square or bold-lined buttons or button trim, where-as the Elves would have very flowing and elegant design. Scar could have tattered cloth or buttons with slash marks on them. Myr could have bubbles or water/echo patterns.

     

    Here are some different UI’s that have come out in other games. Just look at the designs of the buttons themselves not necessarily the placement (though that could be fun as well)

     

    https://i.imgur.com/9IfflF3.jpg

    https://i.imgur.com/GaWNK.jpg

    http://orig13.deviantart.net/2f64/f/2007/175/9/f/graphical_user_interface_wow_by_goodestimes.png

     

    This could be a very good way to help a player get more sense of the race they are playing throughout the game no matter where they are. Think of it, you may be in a different city with different features and mobs you are fighting, but the core of your race, the designs of what you find familiar--those shapes and sizes and colors are always with you.

     

    I’ve said in another thread how important managing time and money is for a company trying to come out with a product. Pantheon doesn’t have forever to come out with their game, so it comes down to which features are important and which can be set on the back-burner.

     

    The cost of artists designing UI elements in each race can be very expensive depending upon how much effort goes into it. But I believe there are some very ‘simple’ things which can be done to achieve this.

     

    *Color pallet

    *Border design for buttons

    *An ‘art bar’ surrounding the screen

     

    These three items are a good starting point. I hope this sparks some interest in the development team.

    In a closing note, sometimes when you wear oddly matched gear or your very low level and havn’t achieved much, it honestly makes me feel a little removed from the structure of my race. I’m just a peon or clown wandering around adventuring. If I had a nice set of clothes I could look more like an adventurer, or one of my own people-that’s not always going to work out for everyone (it rarely does). If my UI screamed ‘Skar’ I would take that sense of connection with my race further regardless of my current level or items.

     

    -Todd

     

    Todd -

    This is a great question, and we've had some admittedly base level conversations about this. I, personally, would love to have an additional layer of immersion added to the something like UI. Nuances are often the rivets that hold the in-game experience together. I've touched on it in some other threads, I think, but stuff like that is quite cool, as you've done a great job of demonstrating.

    Will we do it, though? I can't say yet. I know we want to have something like that if possible. What form it may take or when it may happen we've not decided. Again (like we unfortunately have to say) time and resources will have a say to some measure.

    But it's such a good idea that I wanted to make sure you know you're seen, and that we agree.

    • 3 posts
    June 23, 2016 3:15 PM PDT

    yes this is a fantastic idea, I know its daunting for the devs however this is one of those minor things that will make the game experiance that much better. IMO

    • 279 posts
    June 26, 2016 6:54 PM PDT

    sounds cool

    • 132 posts
    July 4, 2016 10:43 PM PDT

    Will you be able to move each part of the native UI around? Brad mentioned skins etc. Does he mean something like EQinterface type thing?

    Can we at least do this: ?

     


    This post was edited by Medjai at July 4, 2016 10:44 PM PDT
    • 132 posts
    July 4, 2016 10:46 PM PDT

    My scaling is bad on that example. (above )  I just threw it together in less than a minute but you get the idea.

     And maybe be able to adjust Background opacity to see thru chat boxes, character box and spell bar.


    This post was edited by Medjai at July 4, 2016 10:49 PM PDT
    • 432 posts
    July 5, 2016 10:19 PM PDT

    Here is a better way to describe what I was saying. Look at Blizzards game called Starcraft II.  There are three different playable races. The Zerg, the Protoss and the Teran. Each have a different UI as seen below.

     

    Zerg

     

    Teran

     

    Protoss

     

    I don't know why I didn't think of using those examples in the first place.

     

    -Todd

    • 116 posts
    July 27, 2016 8:50 AM PDT

    Sounds like a cool feature, +1

    • 15 posts
    September 13, 2016 2:09 PM PDT

    I will totally love this!


    This post was edited by OldTony at September 13, 2016 2:09 PM PDT
    • 27 posts
    May 5, 2018 8:14 AM PDT

    Sounds like a cool feture for them as wants it... Personally, I keep all my toons on the most common denominator with only minor variations (my rogue needs neither spell bar nor pet window, mage needs no tomes controls

    • 14 posts
    March 1, 2019 5:27 PM PST

    This is a REALLY cool idea. Maybe have two choices... race OR class? And if you really want to go nuts, Race/Class combos. Of course the best way to do this would be to allow players to create their own.

    • 690 posts
    March 2, 2019 3:06 PM PST
    I'd like this alot. They could also consider having a basic ui option, and allow you to earn ui skins from other races, maybe for maxxing faction or something.
    • 46 posts
    March 8, 2019 1:08 PM PST

    This sounds like a really cool idea. I would be surprised if they take time away from getting the game launch ready to add a cool (but arguably unnessary) feature like this, but hopefully it would come in a patch sooner or later.