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#1
12-23-2009, 01:40 AM
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Patch: Dec 22nd, major UI overhaul, bug fixes, community points
We've performed a major overhaul of the UI, so we may have broken a few things here and there, and there are probably a few places that could use some additional tweaking. Let us know what you think and where we need to make additional improvements.
================================================== =============== December 22nd, 2009 Added framework for "Community Points" system under "Main Menu -> Hangar Deck" Community Points are still a work in progress, you can earn points by following the directions in the Hangar Deck but there's nothing to spend them on yet. Community Points will be used to unlock plane skins and custom emblems; share Altitude with friends to earn Community Points. Added option "Auto-Detect Bind IP and Restart" for users experiencing frequent disconnects due to multiple internet connections on one machine Added network option (config/options.xml: networkOptions ... bindIp) to manually bind a specific IP address New skin for all UI elements Added "Assists" column to scoreboard (gray, in between kills and deaths) Added current "Map" display to scoreboard Added "killed by" plane box; take a closer look at whoever shoots you down Added "you killed" plane box to bottom right Added "server message" info box to top right, shows every bomb hit, and exactly how much damage (%) it inflicted Camera text now shows toggle mode hotkey ("Free Camera: C") and fades after 1 second Reworked Respawn UI for better clarity and full-screen spectating Reworked Award Screen for better clarity and additional info (Team MVPs, top 3 in FFA) Updated above-plane HUD (energy meter next to throttle to reinforce afterburner/energy connection, segments for contrast and to help learn energy costs of weapons) Improved menu navigation for gamepad users: Move up/down/left/right using the Axis and POV directional pad Click buttons by pressing FirePrimary/FireSecondary/UsePowerup Change window focus (e.g. between ServerList and MainMenu) by pressing ChangePlane/ChangeTeam Tab cycle component focus by pressing Scoreboard Cancel by pressing Escape Added "disable controller support" option to Options -> Controls Added infractions to kick command (a player gains an infraction each time he is kicked from a server, each infraction expires after 24 hours) Kick times now scale with infractions (2 min, 10 min, 30 min, 60 min, 120 min) to prevent problematic players from continuously rejoining 
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#3
12-23-2009, 06:20 AM
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Looks fantastic and feels great!
Can't wait to see how it all meshes together through play. You've really outdone it this time =D Great work!
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#4
12-23-2009, 06:32 AM
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the black and white skin gives me a headache
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#6
12-23-2009, 06:37 AM
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Not a fan.
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#8
12-23-2009, 06:58 AM
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New Colour Scheme
Not sure if I like it as much as the old one
 The old one was garish but this just seems a little dark. Like the menu options, just not sure I like the colour or the arrow for selecting an item on the leftTals p.s great idea re free play till 25th
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#9
12-23-2009, 07:00 AM
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I like the new UI, I kinda still miss the old one since I'm used to it but it will pass. The award screen revamp is awesome. Oh and I agree with Kuja those little splash screens with your kill should be optional either image or text. All in all a very nice patch, looking forward to see custom decals
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#10
12-23-2009, 07:06 AM
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I like everything so far. Very good improvements.
Here are my issues thus far: I have had a bunch of people ask me how to earn community points and what they do. I don't think it's clear enough in game that you should click the link inside the Community Tab in order to be redirected to that webpage that explains it. When I earned a point and the system recognized it I was in the middle of a game and all the sudden a huge window popped up in my screen that seemed to talk up half of the entire playing field jsut to say "YOU HAVE EARNED 1 POINT." I found it distracting and it was pretty bad for playing because I couldn't see anything. Maybe make that wait until you are dead before it pops up? I appreciate that you are trying to create a better UI when we are playing with the whole throttle, energy, health thing. But honestly, for people who have played it creates a major headache each time you change this. The last time you changed it was when we had the powerup / vitals in the bottom right corner of the map and then you changed to the current system. I wish you would just let us customize it in game. Maybe have an option that we can arrange the bars how we want above the plane?
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#11
12-23-2009, 07:08 AM
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Really not liking the in game UI. I don't know what happened with health / energy / speed but I think the health and energy changed. Perhaps a color changed too.
Either way it's really confusing and I'm unsure why this was a needed change. I imagine after a couple hours I'll get used to it but I don't see why I'd have to spend the time to re-figure out where health / other things are. As a color blind person I rely on position rather than color to figure out these things and right now this is horribly inconvenient to me. Furthermore, the popping up of stuff blocks parts of the screen more often than I'd like. Perhaps these things could be more subtle with the way they're done. I also dislike the new menu. It's too black and dark for my taste. The old menu had a warm and altitude like feel - this one is just meh. Edit: I also dislike the small letters at the end screen. It's hard to read and just kind of bleh looking. The 2 mvp's is cool but the whole end just looks bad. Last edited by mikesol; 12-23-2009 at 07:13 AM.
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#12
12-23-2009, 07:22 AM
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I don't see the reason why the bars needed to be changed i found them perfect the way they are. Also from reading what Mike said you should look into having colorblind mode add something like small hp/spd/en or something next to the bars. I agree with Maimers idea to just let us be able to switch the configs ourselves.
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#14
12-23-2009, 07:31 AM
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On a side note it might be nice to change the entire UI and make a number system. Like in the top left have like:
100% HP or 250 HP. 100% Energy or 120 Energy. 100% Speed or 15 m/s. Also, as far as the dividing of the bars. I can't see that since colors blend together for me. Things have to have more definition for me to be able to notice them although I do appreciate the thought of trying to redo that part.
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#15
12-23-2009, 07:39 AM
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Quote:
Somewhat similar note: I somehow feel that there is somewhat of an aversion to putting numbers into altitude. You guys seem to refuse to show numerical base hp remaining, and now that base damage hits are shown on screen (which I appreciate a lot), they're expressed in percentages rather than in the hard damage that is shown on the awards screen (this is actually confusing because it doesn't say that you do damage explicitly in percentages, and when you see that you've only gotten one hit for "31 dmg" during the game but the awards screen says you did 1500 dmg, that confuses people). I mean I know that you want to keep a "simple" feel to altitude and not put numbers everywhere, but putting percentages as opposed to straight up damage is kinda overdoing it. If it's really that important to keep it simple, put in two modes or something: default UI with base hits not even saying damage done (just "full hit" and "partial hit"), and then put hardcore UI with lotsa numbers. As for other UI, I like the new darker menu style, but it kinda clashes with the background a lot (maybe change it to something darker like middleground instead of lost city), and the altitude logo on top right looks misplaced (I know that it was moved cause of the new menu, but it doesn't look right). Also, the tick marks on the energy bar is somewhat distracting (it just sorta looks like my screen has scratches on it). Contributing to this problem is the fact that the energy bar is the only thing with tick marks. If you guys absolutely want tick marks (which I don't think is really that great), then you might want to consider putting them on health and throttle too.
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#16
12-23-2009, 07:39 AM
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New UI (black + white) - I hate it, its ugly and what's more important unreadable. Old-red was not too preetty but was a lot better.
Menu on-hover arrows - are ugly too. You killed, killed by, bombed base - these windows are too distracting, the appear in many different places (I cannot ignore one part of the screen by not looking there). They are too colorfull, too big. Pls make an option to disable them, some (prob. beginners) may like this, but I'm advanced player and this distracts me a lot. "Base destroyed" window - shouldn't it be on center of the screen, it is GAME OVER, not "a kill"? Plane edit menu - have background of buttons been in color of the powerup (red, green, blue? now all are red with lines). Summary screen has more info - I need to get used to read it quickly
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#20
12-23-2009, 08:37 AM
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Quote:
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#21
12-23-2009, 08:41 AM
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I don't hate the new look at all. I did like the last more "childish" look, but this "cool" look is ok too.
EDIT: But I love the fact that the red hud from top is gone! The thing I hate on this though, is that when I once died, there popped that thing saying I've got 0 community points. I know I've got 0. I know what they are for, and I know I'll never have any. I don't even care I don't have any. I'm not in steam, not in facebook, and I'm definitely not going to spam forums with my referring link. I hate seeing those everywhere. Why is there no other ways of getting COMMUNITY points? {ball/*} is creating a nice guide for ball, that should be worth some. People are managing clans, creating guides, reporting bugs and such, and spamming is the thing you want to reward us with skins and emblems? Puh-leeez...
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#22
12-23-2009, 08:44 AM
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Heh, I saw the patch notes and was about to say "Wow, it's great to see devleopers that listen to the community and their requests". Looked great on paper, stuff people had been asking for like the assists column, and wow, custom skins for these mysterious new community points!
Good thing I actually went in and tried it out. I hate to be one of those guys who complains about change but, well, yeah, I'm going to be, because ignoring the eye-straining new colour scheme, the pop ups are supremely annoying.  Pretty much sums up my thoughts on that. Seriously, the less intrusive the UI, the better, but even if you're going to take up screen space, having stuff popping in and out is just annoying at its most basic level. Anyway, the bar thing doesn't seem huge, if you're going to change it back, it doesn't even matter, but even if you don't I can't see it taking a long time to get used to, although I don't think it needed to be changed. The segments thing is interesting, although it'd be nice to be an option to have segmented or not as there's something I just don't like about it personally. Having little segments kind of dumbs down energy estimation to the point that I couldn't really do it as well on my quick playtest, as odd as that sounds. But that's just familiarisation and not a big deal. Anyway, the big thing that disappoints me about this update is the Community Points. In the notes, the skins thing looked great. "Holy jumping ****crepes" I screamed, "Skins and decals are finally coming!" I figured the Community Points would be a fun new thing to accumulate. As in, you'd do achievements for them, or you'd get them for bombing enemy bases and helping your team, or for coming first in matches. Then I actually, you know, clicked on the Community Points page. So, you took something everybody's wanted for a while, skins and decals, and you dangle it in front of our noses saying "if you want it, get your friends to buy Altitude by spamming those referral links everybody on the internet loves and respects!" What The **** So we whore ourselves out as viral marketers to pay for our dirty customization habit? Sorry guys, I didn't think this was that kind of game, and I didn't think you were that kind of developer. Let me know when the microtransactions are coming so I can get ready to stop playing. I'd rather not be around when I die and a giant flashing pop-up slides into place advertising the Fierce Tiger Biplane (Sponsored by Mountain Dew™) skin for $1.50. Anyway, I hate to be that guy who complains about updates. I'm not trying to be ungrateful for the work you guys are doing on the game, its just, I don't think this is the way to go. At least, I really hope it isn't.
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#23
12-23-2009, 08:44 AM
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This is graphically a step in the wrong direction. Similar to the last update where the sounds were "updated" to be more sci-fi. I don't know why the Devs think this will make Alti more popular. Look at your own Steam advertising. Alti is a retro steampunk dogfight game. Not LAZOR SPAECE BATTLES 4000.
The global alert when a base or turret is hit is the only step forward in this update. The rest of the popups are busy, annoying and not even useful. You get a popup if you crashed. You know, to let you know that you crashed.... A lot of players are still waiting for you to provide that "Old Sounds" option. I expect you will get a lot of players requesting "Old UI" or at least an option to turn off the death popups. Aside from not counting your assists, the old UI was perfectly serviceable. No update needed.
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#24
12-23-2009, 08:48 AM
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Quote:
 Anyway, I agree about the community points thing. I was expecting to get points from completing challenges and stuff. What about getting a skin for passing 1 Million XP? Or getting a 30 kill streak in an all level 60 server? I think these remarkable achievements should be what gives us skins, not advertising. Just my 2 cents.
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#26
12-23-2009, 08:52 AM
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Bagels, shame on you for even mentioning microtransactions. No need to give them ideas...
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#27
12-23-2009, 08:55 AM
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And yeah, its disappointing because I'm not going to want any skins if its this advertising crap. Flying around with a skin on would just make me feel dirty if that's how you get them.
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#28
12-23-2009, 09:01 AM
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You know there are plenty of flash games that are played sick amounts, just because there are achievements there that you just neeeeed to achieve.
Making some cool achievements ingame would be sweet. Like that 1Million exp, sick killstreak, hattrick in ball, 1000 wallkills and such, and those would give us skins and whatever. Happy players are good advertisers and achievements get players in that fuzzy warm state... And call that referralthing off, now if you don't think you need the bad kind of advertisement. I'll never play gladiator, for example, just because there are sick amounts of fake links that lead to someones referral page there, in addition to those totally sick amounts of "hey there is this cool game, join and play http://referral" messages in forums... I so hate those.
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#29
12-23-2009, 09:50 AM
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Hate to post just to complain, but I gotta say that the new UI is a huge distraction for me. I was totally satisfied with the original UI, and this new one is just bothersome. The transparency and animation effects make it feel too chaotic and unclear, I feel like I never know where to look for the information I want. I miss having just a simple text line telling me what just happened, the new pop-ups are maddening. That, and it seems like all the text disappears quicker, so I never catch what just happened. It doesn't seem to fit with the game at all, I feel like I'm playing Altitude through a third party game lobby program or something. Is there any way you can add the option to go back to the classic UI? I know some people like the new one, but it's just not doing it for me. A choice of UI skins would be... well, choice.
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#31
12-23-2009, 10:22 AM
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another minor thing that might be confusing for newer players. when you kill planes/hitbases/hitturrets, a yellow +10/30 or whatever pops up. It used to be that there was a little message on the bottom of the screen that told you that the +10 meant 10 xp gained. now there is no such message--newer players are left wondering what those +numbers mean.
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#32
12-23-2009, 10:24 AM
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#33
12-23-2009, 11:00 AM
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Riiight, my opinions...
The new menu, while supremely spiffy, doesn't fit the style of either the game or the background. It's too sleek and future-y, IMO. I don't mind the "you killed xxx" boxes that pop up, and the base damage/turret destroyed ones are cool. They are rather big, though. Similarly, I don't mind that you moved our current perk lineup to the top-left as opposed to bottom right, and the streamlining of everything into that little red bar from the giant HUD is quite well done. I just think the UI needs to be more WWI/WWII with a hint of steampunkishness about it. Many thanks for updating the end of game scores and whatnot, but the text is plain and dull. Be cheerful, it's meant to be celebrating the best players in the match. With regards to this community thingy, I say meh. I don't do facebook and I don't know what a steam valve is or how to play games with it, so that's me at a disadvantage. That being said, I have no reservations about passing on the link to my interweb minions (friends). I do, however, think that these points for skins, etc (that I really want and support), could be earned by doing altitude things, and not just linkspamming the internet to death. That being said, the whole community idea is a good one, it's just not suited for me. So yeah, a few complaints, but you can't please us all. Good work nonetheless.
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#34
12-23-2009, 11:03 AM
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The basic gameplay is still fantastic, but artistically, Altitude is becoming an ugly mish-mash of confused styles and losing its charm.
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#35
12-23-2009, 12:11 PM
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I think the update is awesome, are there other ways to get community points planned? I've already introduced altitude to my friends and the 3 that were interested have bought accounts... I don't like the idea of spamming the link around or spamming my facebook to get new content :\
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#37
12-23-2009, 12:41 PM
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this is so good. everyone wanted this for a while. keep up the good work and let's hope more people join the community!
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#39
12-23-2009, 12:51 PM
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I'm gonna read this thread but I just wanted to say THANK YOU! This is like my best christmas present for sure lol. Screw you naysayers the new GUI looks amazing!
edit: Thoughts: - The whole retro vs sci-fi is kinda dumb at this point.. can't we just embrace that it's a bit of both? - The thin black lines going up the left menu are detrimental to the feel, because they make it look a lot more cluttered than it really is. I'd suggest just changing it to a regular, transparent black. - The left hover's could use some work.. at the moment, it doesn't look too good, since the colors/shapes blend together and it looks somewhat random. - Right hover's have 2 highlight stages, I'd suggest cutting the one that blinks in the center - it contributes only to a cluttered feel. 1 highlight is enough! - The base health bars still have the old UI feel, should be updated to new. - Getting points for spamming referral links is(as other players have said) a fairly bad idea.. it should at least be complemented by getting points from 1mill xp, megakill x10 and stuff like that. - The kill/death boxes should probably be smaller, since they take up a lot of space atm. As king! says, there's a lot of animation going on that can be confusing. Maybe it's just something to get used to though. - Base damage doesn't make a whole lot of sense - when you get a hit, you get 30-38 damage, but in the award screen it says something like 6500 base damage(for full). I whined a lot but don't take it wrong - I still ****ing love this! Last edited by eth; 12-23-2009 at 01:24 PM.
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#40
12-23-2009, 12:59 PM
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Quote:
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Linear Mode
