Patch: Dec 22nd, major UI overhaul, bug fixes, community points

[[Y]]

Say it like it is, eth.

My only issue is with the community points. I love the idea, but I don't like the idea of having us advertise Altitude for them. I think Beagle explains it better, tho.

Community points should be earned from in-game achievements:

+1 for mega-kill x 5
+1 for killstreak 10/15/20
+1 MVP in a game
etc.

[DMCM]

I like the new layout in the menus and I love the assists column, but there's way too many information boxes popping up everywhere during the game. It's kind of annoying. So... yeah, just leaving my input here

[NomNom]

I like the new GUI but all the kill and death pop ups are too distracting and unnecessary, those boxes block half the screen lol. Also the award screen needs work, those black boxes with the extra small text look really out of place.
Lastly, it'd be awesome if we can remove the perks shown at the top left corner completely. I know what perks I'm using and I can check using tab if I ever forget, really not needed to be up there during the whole round.

[tals]

Originally Posted by NomNom

I like the new GUI but all the kill and death pop ups are too distracting and unnecessary, those boxes block half the screen lol. Also the award screen needs work, those black boxes with the extra small text look really out of place.
Lastly, it'd be awesome if we can remove the perks shown at the top left corner completely. I know what perks I'm using and I can check using tab if I ever forget, really not needed to be up there during the whole round.

All these, people are either going to love or hate. I love the pop ups but I can understand people not liking them. Maybe have an option to have small text information alerts or the popups as they are.

I like the top left corner display as well

[Pax]

I support Beagles view.

However the most irritating parts are these pop-ups. I totally liked the plain old statement of the last version, which just wrote "Pax killed ..."
Now these pop ups are really annoying, maybe Noobs may feel honored seeing that stuff, but I prefer a more subtle way.

The community points are without a disguise just a way to get more people buying the game. I totally understand that, if I would be the producer my intention would be the same. It still would be nice to get these points through other means too.

[tals]

Originally Posted by Pax

I support Beagles view.

However the most irritating parts are these pop-ups. I totally liked the plain old statement of the last version, which just wrote "Pax killed ..."
Now these pop ups are really annoying, maybe Noobs may feel honored seeing that stuff, but I prefer a more subtle way.

I don't think it has anything todo with how long you have played it I'm sure this is how MW2 does it, just looks nicer imho.

** you definitely should have the option to disable them though

[Axil]

I highly dislike the fact that it's impossible to gain community points from ingame achievements, even if it were hard to get it from ingame achievements, it would be fine.

[tgleaf]

Originally Posted by Pax

I support Beagles view.

However the most irritating parts are these pop-ups. I totally liked the plain old statement of the last version, which just wrote "Pax killed ..."
Now these pop ups are really annoying, maybe Noobs may feel honored seeing that stuff, but I prefer a more subtle way.

The community points are without a disguise just a way to get more people buying the game. I totally understand that, if I would be the producer my intention would be the same. It still would be nice to get these points through other means too.

Agree about the pop-ups. Please give us the option of disabling them and reverting to text alerts. It clutters the screen and looks cheesy. Why do I need a closeup view of my plane or other planes?

I'm not so fond of the new color scheme, but I'm sure I'll get used to it, so no big deal.

Thank you for two things: the MVP addition to the results screen is a fun stat. I hope you'll add about one second to the delay after that screen finishes rendering. With MVP added on, my attention is often there and I miss some of the other awards. I also am happy to have incrementing kick times. This has been dearly needed.

The assists column is also nice... had no idea I had so many assists. =)

Next go round, please add goal assists, as that is one final stat that would be great to see.

[Tosconi]

it's been mostly everything mentioned yet. So just a short input
I can cope (get used to) the new black/white look (although it's too dark imho)
I like the assists line, as well as the 2-3 mvp places in the end. But here I should say, that the award screen lines look pretty small, so that I have to really load my eyes to read this (plz make it bigger, otherwise I'll have to wear glasses in a couple of weeks).
I hate the new pop-ups - they're too big, too disturbing, too annoying. I'd really love the simple line to come back...if this is not to happen - then please make them smaller and with less info (I don't really care which plane killed me or perks/level - name's all what's needed).
The base hit points is a good idea - but also, please, make them smaller

[Tank]

I like everything, except the way to earn Community points. maybe you can also earn them by completing challenges with the planes, or for the amount ox xp earned.

[STACK]

Sooooooo when am I gonna be in the credits? First ball mode, now my UI?

Originally Posted by STACK

I would like to see nice sleek, semi-transparent windows.

^^ Posted this like 3 yrs ago

[phong]

I think the UI changes are a step in the right direction, although they still need some work. I'm noticing on a small windowed res the fonts/graphics become distorted a bit and mouse-overs become unreadable.



I also think the way columns and buttons are displayed needs to change (this oval hexagonal thing needs to go).

[Kuja900]

My main three gripes so far:

1. The red screen of death blind siding me every time I die, its just not nice on the eyes.

2. The main menu has lost its charm, not a fan of the black and white thing or at least how it is currently implemented.

3. Too many popups when I'm trying to play. I find my eyes wandering and crashing there is so much crap going on in my screen.

[Flyngbanana]

Originally Posted by Kuja900

My main three gripes so far:

1. The red screen of death blind siding me every time I die, its just not nice on the eyes.

2. The main menu has lost its charm, not a fan of the black and white thing or at least how it is currently implemented.

3. Too many popups when I'm trying to play. I find my eyes wandering and crashing there is so much crap going on in my screen.

+1
These are my main gripes as well but thanks for the new content

[MonstaFondla]

UI is now more 'grown up' and I, for one, love it.
Addition of bombing and turret destruction notifications is pretty sweet. I would perhaps add a combo (x2, x3 etc.) identifier for people who have done this multiple times in one game. Let's celebrate those single-minded turret/base kamikazes!!!

My dream addition would be a selection of snapshots that collage the end game screen. Let's say four of 'em - one to illustrate the final base destruction, one to illustrate a megakill, that sort of thing. This would probably take some serious programming (and server memory usage) so it's only a pipedream.

[Massi]

First off The main screen is to dark.
Second the community points as said tons and tons of times are horrid. Having to spam a link to get points. I mean really.
Third, as I posted here http://altitudegame.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1575 my escape key doesn't work and now there is no menu button in the corner so once I'm in a server only way to get out is to restart Altitude, Not fun.

[AtomikPi]

From that image, the new UI looks great, although I haven't seen it in-game yet.

Linking decals to referrals really horrifies me. I was really hoping Altitude wouldn't go down this path.

[nesnl]

I think this has been mentioned by other people, but when I am waiting to spawn I like to watch the action and having that big red bar across the screen makes it very hard and distracting to watch. I like that you removed the whole thing that used to cover the top of the screen, but I wish the whole "press f to spawn" along with the other instructions, "e for planes" "t for teams" was more subtle and out of the way.

Also, when I log in it says "Community Points" in a window that is covering my friends list. I am not able to move that window and it seems out of place. If I click on it to try to move it, it brings me to the Community Points sections. I suggest having this window pop up below the "news and updates" window and allow the user to close it like the news and updates window.

[Kafka]

I like the shown assists and more stats shown on the end game screen, but the new menu look is just plain awful and the box that pops up in the bottom right after a kill is rather annoying.

[lamster]

Please keep the feedback coming, specific feedback like phong's post with a picture is especially helpful. This UI is a work in progress, constructive feedback is appreciated.

Regarding Community Points, the current implementation is incomplete, but I want to clear up any misconceptions about where we're going with this. The idea is to reward actions that keep Altitude's community healthy and strong. We are still working out the details for the various bonuses, but here are a couple key points:
1) The max bonus for link clicks will be relatively easy to achieve (somewhere between 10-100 clicks), we do not want, and will not reward, spamming every corner of the internets. The idea behind the personalized link is to help players share Altitude with any online communities they are involved in. Players who find Altitude from a personalized link will automatically send the referrer a friend request when they create their account, allowing referrers to organize and mentor members of their online communities. And yes, you get a small reward for sharing the link with friends (we don't want you to spam it everywhere, the max bonus will be easy to achieve through organic sharing).
2) We would would love to reward ALL types of activities that help keep Altitude's community vibrant and strong. Writing guides, making cool Altitude videos, and creating new maps are major undertakings of huge value to the community. We would like to provide major Community Point rewards (way beyond sharing a link, for example) for these outstanding contributions to the community, but obviously that's a bit harder to automate so I can't say exactly how we'll be managing that just yet.

Originally Posted by tgleaf

Agree about the pop-ups. Please give us the option of disabling them and reverting to text alerts.

You can revert to text alerts by editing your ~Altitude/config/options.xml
Change:
showKillPopups="true" showExpLog="false"
to
showKillPopups="false" showExpLog="true"

[lamster]

Originally Posted by nesnl

I think this has been mentioned by other people, but when I am waiting to spawn I like to watch the action and having that big red bar across the screen makes it very hard and distracting to watch.

The idea was to make it much easier to spectate! The red UI blocking the top 15% of the screen is gone now. You can easily dismiss the new red strip, either by tapping Tab to show the scoreboard or pressing F to confirm your desire to respawn (maybe you're playing 1DM where this isn't quite as clear, but F still works). In the next patch it'll also auto-minimize if you're chatting.

[tyr]

As many other people, the red bar is kinda annoying but I guess I can get used to it.
What really bother me though is that I don't see when I get an assist anymore. Or maybe I'm missing something but I think I looked everywhere and I don't see it. It's really something helpful, at least for me. I sometime count how many xp I have during that life for veteran bar optimization, and not being able to see when I get an assist obviously totally prevents from doing it anymore.

[nesnl]

Originally Posted by tyr

As many other people, the red bar is kinda annoying but I guess I can get used to it.
What really bother me though is that I don't see when I get an assist anymore. Or maybe I'm missing something but I think I looked everywhere and I don't see it. It's really something helpful, at least for me. I sometime count how many xp I have during that life for veteran bar optimization, and not being able to see when I get an assist obviously totally prevents from doing it anymore.

Another thing about the assists is that it gives you an indication of when someone dies, which is very helpful in an overall game sense. If I am attacking someone and they go off screen and then it pops up a second later that I got an assist it helps me keep mental track of who is alive, dead, smoking, respawning, etc.

[nobodyhome]

Originally Posted by lamster

The idea was to make it much easier to spectate! The red UI blocking the top 15% of the screen is gone now. You can easily dismiss the new red strip, either by tapping Tab to show the scoreboard or pressing F to confirm your desire to respawn (maybe you're playing 1DM where this isn't quite as clear, but F still works). In the next patch it'll also auto-minimize if you're chatting.

I actually don't think the red bar is very annoying at all, because most of the time when I die I insta-press f, so it automatically minimizes to the top left. However, I can see instances where it might be a problem, such as when you want to just watch the game without actually changing your team to "spectate" (rare, but it happens). In that case there isn't quite a way to minimize the red bar without having an imminent respawn.

[Jacques Strap]

I liked this update, although there were some things that I think did not help the game.

New UI:
It seems bad now, but people will get used to it. The black menus and buttons don't really blend well with the colorful planes and maps. The red glowing stripes in the chat box hurt my eyes.

Pop up kill notifications:
Very distracting. Many people don't like them. I am very glad that they can be turned off.

Community points:
This was a great idea, but I'd rather get points by doing things in the game than spamming a link all over the Internets. I would also like to know what kinds of skins there will be, if there will be other things to buy, and when the skins will be
available.

Also, I allowed my FaceBook account to publish Altitude messages to get the 100 community points, but it has been 3 hours and I still haven't got the points yet. Is this a glitch?

[spc]

Originally Posted by eth

-
- 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 love this update i agree about the base damage units used cause it is confusing and maybe the award screen should have a background that relates to the UI but that is about all. overall this update made everything better. thx!

[Sarah Palin]

Lam, thanks very much for giving us the option to go back to the old kill log. It was working fine for me (in fact I used to watch that and the red exxes to develop "battlespace sense").

If you could at some point upload the old sound folder in an update, twould be awesome. Even if we have to mess with the XML to redirect to that folder. It's only a few megs and it's still your intellectual property I assume.

The direction you take this game art-wise is your decision*; but providing options to people who want to stay with old versions doesn't impede gameplay and is a nice gesture.

*EDIT: and it seems a bunch of people like it, so maybe you're onto something.

[Evan20000]

Originally Posted by Jacques Strap

Also, I allowed my FaceBook account to publish Altitude messages to get the 100 community points, but it has been 3 hours and I still haven't got the points yet. Is this a glitch?

Same. I set my FB to publish last night and I haven't recieved my points.

[Ajuk999]

Great Job Karl and Eric, I love it!
It is no more a cartoonish game interface but a high-tec sci-fi look. Thanks, I love all of the new improvements you guys have made, looking forward to the new ones!

[DiogenesDog]

Could someone maybe post a couple screens of the new UI? I'm super curious, but I'm on vacation so I won't have Alt available until the 31st.

[innerlyte]

Before I get into my gripes with the latest update, I'd like to say thanks (Lam and Karl) for the work you guys put into it. We, the Altitude community, certainly appreciate your effort no matter how much we complain

Here are the positives:
>> I like how you got rid of the top HUD when spectating. I always had problems viewing action in the upper section of a map with the old UI.

>> The new UI theme is certainly slicker than the old one. It makes the game feel more lightweight.

>> Bomb alerts are great.

>> Awards screen is a step in the right direction.

Now, the negatives:
>> The new UI feels kind of dark and monochromatic. It doesn't complement the overall feel of the game as well as the old UI. I may just have to become more accustomed to it.

>> The red animated selection arrow used on the main (left) menu looks kind of cruddy. It has a weird shape and the animation seems kind of arbitrary.

>> There may be an XML fix for this, but I would like to see the fps/ping display back in game. I've been having connection issues lately (Comcast, not you guys) and would like to be able to see my ping without pressing tab.

>> Switching planes has become slightly more difficult. You have to remember to press "e" to do so.

>> I don't like the picture alerts for kills, so thank you for the XML fix (haven't tried it yet). With the default set-up, when you kill multiple people within a short time period, only one can be displayed at a time. This is kind of annoying if you miss one. Also, friend alerts (signing on and off, etc) appear in the same area. I noticed one would obscure the other at times.

>> I agree with Tyr. I like having assist alerts. It lets me know if I even hit someone (it helps with playing adjustments). I can't remember my assist numbers throughout the game and press tab to see.

>> I have pop-ups disabled, but I got a Community Points pop-up in game. Not sure how to disable that.

>> Still not sure how I feel about the perks at the top left. I don't really need to know what I'm using after playing that set-up for a while.

>> The red options bar/span is so-so, but it doesn't seem to go with the UI. Maybe switching that to the transparent black would look better.

>> The awards screen still needs some work. The stats boxes don't really mesh well with the background. Perhaps the BG needs to be redesigned too.

Additional suggestions:
>> This doesn't have to do with the latest update, but I don't like the "Now Playing" friend alert. I don't really need to know every time someone joins a game. One thing you could add is the name of the server in that pop-up. I don't like having to go to my friends list and then hover over the left portion to see what server they are in.

>> On a related note (and has been mentioned before), it would be nice to see who is in a server before joining.

>> One more thing. Perhaps opening up UI design to the Altitude community (selectively) would be nice. Maimer and I have experience in webdesign, and I'm guessing UI design is not unlike CSS in terms of piecing things together. I'm sure there are more competent programmers out there as well. Just a thought

[DiogenesDog]

Thanks, Tals.

[Vi*]

(didn't read the thread)

I think the new interface is a big improvement. Good update. The only thing I don't like is the big red bar across your screen that says "press f to spawn" or whatever. It looks annoying and cluttery, and it kills obs mode. Maybe make it immediately scoot to the upper left like it would if you had pressed F, only it'd still say the original message.

[[Y]]

Because I forgot to do so before

THANK YOU LAM/KARL

Despite our negative feedback, all of us appreciate all the effort you guys put into Altitude. =)

[pig_bomb]

Love the update.

[akuralyronat]

Hey thanks for the tip on how to change the pop ups. I switched back to text and I feel like 90% better about the new UI already. Feel like I actually know what's going on again.

It seems there's a duel going on between the retro and the sci-fi feel of the game. Old against new. Steampunk versus Star Wars. Biplane versus Miranda. It's dramatic, it's engaging... It is Altitude.

Also I wanted to say thank you for all the hard work you guys do on the game. My first post was all whining, but I was simply disgruntled at having something come between me and dogfighting goodness. This game is amazing, and I love that you guys listen to your fans.

[Pieface]

I know there have been mixed feelings about the new UI, but in general I think it's an improvement.

Things I love:

• The new UI. I really like the new feel to all the menus and everything.
• The popup showing when the base has been damaged.
• Kicks scaling with time and new infractions that keep track of this.
• The new information provided in the award screen.
• Respawn UI bar works much better now for spectating and doesn't take up useful space.

Things I think could use a bit of reworking:

• Now that the windows are transparent, they seem to blend together almost too easily. I think you should make the Patch window a bit more opaque to separate it from the friends list, and similarly make the Autoconnect window more opaque to separate it from the server list.
• While I like the idea and the implementing of the popup windows, I think they take up too much room. I also don't really need to see the perk setup of the plane I just killed. I think it would be great to have those windows show up, but maybe just show the player's name and plane without the perks so as to minimize the space it takes up.
• Similarly, I feel that the base hit and other such popup windows could be made slightly smaller so that they are less intrusive. I like the idea but I think it could be implemented a bit better.
• Why do we need a global popup saying that a player has destroyed a turret? Seems pretty unnecessary imo and just wastes space while encouraging newer players to kamikaze at turrets in order to get recognized.
• Totally agree with Tyr on the assist text line. While it's nice that the tab screen is now tracking assists, it really helps to be able to tell when a player you hit has died in-game.
• I know everyone's been saying this, but the Community Points system really needs to be figured out better. I'd love to see community points awarded for creating an official map, writing a good guide, etc. Not sure how this could be worked out at the moment but it seems that there should be another way to unlock skins without having to post links everywhere or bother your friends about it (the friends of mine who would be interested I've already told in person, and not by posting links on their personal web pages).
• Even if you keep the Community Points system as it is now, I do think that the CP window on the main Altitude home page could be reworked. For those who are focused on points, they know where to look for them. For those who aren't going to bother posting links around in order to unlock new skins/emblems, this window is really annoying and is inconveniently located. I'd love to see it moved to another part of the screen or optimally an option to disable it showing up in the first place.
• Respawn bar takes a while to minimize and is a bit annoying. I'd support having the bar minimize after just a couple of seconds, but show all the options in the upper left instead of the current "Press F to Spawn"
• I agree that the new award animations at the end of each match don't really fit in, I think some text changes, text enlargements, and general styling could be improved a bit here.

Sorry for the wall of text, but I hope that feedback helps a bit when considering how to move forward from here.

[volatile]

Love the game, thanks for the continued work on it.

The popups for kills are very distracting. How about allowing these to be turned off/on in the options?

Regarding the menu colors... I like the new one... I liked the old one... how about allowing users to customize the color scheme? Like 2-3 main colors. You can have a default (for whatever you prefer), a classic (for the last one... the red), and custom ones.

Can you tell I like options?

How about allowing users to force team/enemy colors in TDM? I personally find it annoying to re-adjust each map.


Well I got tons more suggestions, etc, but I'll pace myself... lol.

[nesnl]

Just gonna save lamster some time because he has said this three times already and people post without reading the thread:

IF YOU WANT TO REMOVE THE POP-UPS FOR KILLS DO THIS:

You can revert to text alerts by editing your ~Altitude/config/options.xml
Change:
showKillPopups="true" showExpLog="false"
to
showKillPopups="false" showExpLog="true"

IF YOU WANT TO FORCE COLORS IN GAME DO THIS:

Go to Options in game and select the Graphics tab and then check the box that says "Color Blind Mode" This will force the planes to be red/blue no matter what map or what mode or what server you are on.

[bong]

love this! but still need time to get used to. oh btw, can u put the ping indicator back? they used to be on bottom left corner. Thx