Patch - march 31st - miscellaneous UI stuff, lots of bug fixes

[lamster]

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March 31st, 2009

Changed HUD -- throttle/health/energy are now above your plane, active perks in the bottom right
goals: make it easy to find your plane in a crowd, increase accessibility of HUD bars

Added Logo Screen and Title Music (will solicit feedback on music options soon)

Added Tip System

Added "Color Blind Mode" under Options->Graphics -- overrides team colors to Red/Blue

Added initial "Stats" UI -- see how many hours you've played (in game, non-idle) since we added the experience system

Rearranged unlock levels so that the red perks are more evenly spaced (in general: reds unlock earlier, blue/greens slightly later than before)

Miranda-Reverse
increased cooldown 10% (0.6 -> 0.66 seconds)

Miranda-Red "Time Anchor"
anchor is now always the same length, not dependent on speed (cannot activate until base length achieved)
anchor jumping now resets Miranda's speed
fixed bug that could cause Miranda to point the wrong direction after anchor jumping

(Cosmetic) Changed Miranda afterburner-teleport energy indicator so that it's more obvious when the energy is consumed, and replaced afterburner flames with (placeholder) charge indicator

Lots of bug fixes

[DiogenesDog]

Awesome patch! Amazing how much all these little things do to make the game feel more polished. I especially like the Miranda charge thing, that's slick.

The HUD change is weird for me, though. On one hand, it's butt ugly. on the other hand, it's definitely better for gameplay. Wish there was a solution that would work great for both.

[Triped]

My only complaint's that I expect the health bar to be above everything else. I'm used to it now, though.

[Karl]

Originally Posted by Triped

My only complaint's that I expect the health bar to be above everything else. I'm used to it now, though.

we sorted them in order of importance when in combat. More important is closer to the plane.

[argonide]

I dislike the new hud, I rarely looked at the hud as it was, so this one feels quite annoying since its a lot of cluttered info around the plane that serves no purpose. This is easily my least favorite hud change, I hope this changes back soon or includes an option to turn the hud off(like capturemode true used to do). I'm not sure why you guys keep messing around with the hud... I haven't seen any posts on the forum saying that the hud was confusing.

[TheCapedAvenger]

I like the new HUD, but the blue bar should be lighter. It can be hard to distinguish the current blue from black.

[nesnl]

Comments thus far:

New HUD: Not a fan as it just adds to screen clutter that I think is not needed. If you are looking for a way to simply make it easier for people to identify their plane (which only really became an issue with the goon servers) then I suggest just looking for a different way. I have to agree with Argonide here in that no one was complaining about the old HUD, so why change it? If you are looking for ways to help people distinguish their plane then I suggest going with something more subtle. How about letting people select their own plane color (even if its different from their own teams) or allow them to change the color of their display name on the screen (just on theirs not for everyone)? If you plan on leaving this new style HUD, I suggest just having an option to allow people to select what kind of HUD they want.

Tip System - A+++++ on this one. Will really help new players learn the little tricks of the game.

Stats Page - I am a big fan of this. Would be nice if you also included a total Kills and total Deaths and then calculated the total K/D ratio (for all 5 planes combined). Also, I am not sure how much information you track but it would be cool if you could have a list of like the Top 5 Most Killed Players and Top 5 Players that Kill You (like specific names). Also, although this isn't directly tied to this topic, but I think when you release the game you should reset all the stats and put everyone back to level 1.

Miranda Reverse Change - I can already notice a difference and I already don't like it. I never thought the movement abilities were imbalanced with Miranda. I thought it was fine as it was before.

Time Anchor - Already like the change thus far from the limited time I have had to use it. Seems muuuch more intuitive than before, however the length of the anchor might seem a bit short from my initial impression. How did you decide on a length? I may support a slight lengthening of the anchor line after more testing.

Overall nice update. I like the opening screen. Please tell me the implementation of Team Death Match is next on the list.

[Vi*]

My first instinct was to hate the new HUD, but I love it in the end. Also like the tips. Haven't played enough to notice most of the other stuff, but awesome title music!

[DiogenesDog]

Just to give one dissenting voice - I find it quite handy to have my health and energy in front of my eyes at all times. It genuinely helps with ammo management and makes me less likely to steal health packs from allies instinctively when I don't really need them.

I also think the "no one was complaining about it" argument is pretty silly. No one ever complains about UI stuff (or even gameplay, for that matter) unless it's blatantly broken, but that doesn't mean it can't be improved.

I do wonder though if the throttle needs to be on top of your plane. Throwing it up along the side of the screen might be okay since you always have the engine sound feedback available. But I think dif options just need to be experimented with.

But yeah. basically, ignore these whores and keep experimenting. even if you don't find a better option, it'll still be the right decision.

[Pillars]

Originally Posted by DiogenesDog

Just to give one dissenting voice - I find it quite handy to have my health and energy in front of my eyes at all times. It genuinely helps with ammo management and makes me less likely to steal health packs from allies instinctively when I don't really need them.

Not sure how I feel about the UI change yet, need to get more comfortable with their location first.

I also think the "no one was complaining about it" argument is pretty silly. No one ever complains about UI stuff (or even gameplay, for that matter) unless it's blatantly broken, but that doesn't mean it can't be improved.

Agreed.

I do wonder though if the throttle needs to be on top of your plane. Throwing it up along the side of the screen might be okay since you always have the engine sound feedback available. But I think dif options just need to be experimented with.

I can't remember the last time I've utilized the visual representation of my plane's throttle. There's always enough other data around [plane speed, facing and engine noise] to let the player know what's going on. I'd personally prefer seeing the health bar on top, followed by energy, followed by [if still deemed necessary] throttle. Throttle is probably more important for newer players, but I'd rather see the UI cater to intermediate - advanced players [at least in terms of hours played] since that's where all players will eventually end up.

[Triped]

Health is the only important bar for me. I know how much energy I have because I know what I just did. I know my speed because I can see how fast I'm going. (Exception for weird maps, but those aren't fun no matter what the HUD looks like.)

I really like health near the plane during bomb runs. I don't have to keep an eye on the corner of the screen to know when I have to drop the bomb or fail. Still fail a lot, though.

And most importantly the perks are on the screen at all times. That's really helpful for those of us who random, especially in FFA or when the enemy's flying in with a bomb in TBD.

[Ferret]

This is probably the worst ui the game has ever had, compounded by the fact that I can't even turn it off with capture mode. I don't want bars over my plane, I don't want a power up over my plane, I don't want to be forced to receive information when I don't want it. Also, nothing important ever happens in the bottom right corner of my screen. You probably know this since you put the perks down there, which by the way what the **** is up with that. I need to have my perks constantly displayed in case I forget what I'm using? If for some reason, god only knows why, someone wants to know what perks they have they can press tab and look. Yes people who play fully random might need to check what perks they have. They press tab and check. They aren't changing.

Anyway, the bottom right of the screen is not an important place. Above my plane? Where I try to skim through edges and avoid bullets and catch bombs and not be shot? Yea I don't need that to look like the ****ing displaying on a stereo with all these fun colored bars shooting up and down. I used to play WoW with an extreme cluttered interface because it was a group of 40 people and sometimes I couldn't tell much of what was going on in the game. I feel the same level of ridiculous clutter now with having exp bars/stars, my health power and energy and power up all floating around above my head, which also leaves me with no idea of where I am relative to any ceiling or the top of any passage I'm going through. If you're going to force this ugly atrocity and not give any options on where to put the ui then at least let me turn it off because I'd really prefer to have nothing over this.

[lamster]

Not hiding the UI bars in captureMode was an oversight, that will be corrected in the next patch.

I'm happy to support a few different UI options (bare/captureMode, bottom right, above plane, etc) but for now we're trying to find the best default UI configuration. Once we've settled on a good default we'll add more customization options so everyone can go back to their favorite.

Please keep the UI feedback coming. Personally, I quite often find the improved accessibility of over-plane HUD handy (even though I've memorized energy/throttle/damage like most long time players) and the extra clutter only occasionally annoying game-play wise (but ugly always). The overall effect seems to be very positive for new players, as it helps with finding ones own plane, learning the energy usage of weapons, health restoration, etc.

Right now I'm thinking that something like the current over-plane implementation will end up as the default so if anyone has ideas on improving it (aesthetically or informationally) please post your thoughts. For those who don't like the over-plane HUD, let me know which HUDs you'd like to see as alternative options in the future.

[Pillars]

Originally Posted by Ferret

This is probably the worst ui the game has ever had, compounded by the fact that I can't even turn it off with capture mode. I don't want bars over my plane, I don't want a power up over my plane, I don't want to be forced to receive information when I don't want it. Also, nothing important ever happens in the bottom right corner of my screen. You probably know this since you put the perks down there, which by the way what the **** is up with that. I need to have my perks constantly displayed in case I forget what I'm using? If for some reason, god only knows why, someone wants to know what perks they have they can press tab and look. Yes people who play fully random might need to check what perks they have. They press tab and check. They aren't changing.

Anyway, the bottom right of the screen is not an important place. Above my plane? Where I try to skim through edges and avoid bullets and catch bombs and not be shot? Yea I don't need that to look like the ****ing displaying on a stereo with all these fun colored bars shooting up and down. I used to play WoW with an extreme cluttered interface because it was a group of 40 people and sometimes I couldn't tell much of what was going on in the game. I feel the same level of ridiculous clutter now with having exp bars/stars, my health power and energy and power up all floating around above my head, which also leaves me with no idea of where I am relative to any ceiling or the top of any passage I'm going through. If you're going to force this ugly atrocity and not give any options on where to put the ui then at least let me turn it off because I'd really prefer to have nothing over this.

Geez. Give Lamster / Karl a break? Good feedback, but seemingly pointless anger?

[argonide]

Originally Posted by Pillars

seemingly pointless anger

That about sums up the internet personality ferret has ferreted out for himself.

[Ferret]

Originally Posted by Pillars

Geez. Give Lamster / Karl a break? Good feedback, but seemingly pointless anger?

There was a month or so when city was being butchered with random changes and it didn't stop until I swore at Karl at repeatedly, then everything was fixed. Conditioning?

[tmm3k]

In maps with low tunnels, like lostcity, removing the UI from down there actually does help.

[Ferret]

Here, I think I remember needing pictures to explain things to you

[tmm3k]

I'm speaking more of Lost City, where I've frequently had blind spots because of either the HUD or the kill messages. I can't see someone coming until they've already seen me and fired off several shots. The tunnel in Middlegrounds is too big for the HUD to make any difference, though.

And if you'd argue that the lower tunnel in Lost City isn't an important part of the map then welp.

Edit: though I must say that is a very nice screenshot.

[DiogenesDog]

I will say this: although I don't agree with him, Ferret's posts are 500x more entertaining than anyone else's in this thread.

[Spirtz]

what about just taking part of the top screen and dedicating it to these bars. it would make the playing screen a little smaller but would take out all blind spots (except chat)