New Screenies at Gamespot

UI thoughts.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/sinsofasolarempire/index.html
from Sins Forums
Hey guys. We've all been waiting to have a peek at the UI, even though it's in the early phases, and it's shown off quite promintently in some new screenies over at GameSpot (see the external link at the bottom of this post). So let's hear the reaction you've been waiting so long to deliver.

Looks pretty nifty as far as I'm concerned. Some of the unit stats that pop up might not be especially useful for players in-game... but they might just be in there for debugging. Some of the graphics look like they aren't fully polished yet, but that's not really surprising... you don't exactly polish the graphics first, now do you.

Of course, being the media hungry being that I am, I'd really like to see a gameplay preview showing the UI in action, namely how it can be used to manage combat across multiple theaters/systems, whatever you want to call them. It's pretty obvious that the mechanics of the Empire Tree are going to be the meat and potatos of this game, so I am (and I suspect others are ) really interested in how this is going to work.

So, I'd like to add in a question to go with your reaction: How do you think it's going to feel to manage your empire?
7,982 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
one word... EASY hehe thats my guess.
A ingame movie where we can see it in action would be nice, as we would be able to see how it works.

But on some of the images the laser fire looks weird. But as you said, it will come later, as this is still pre-alpha.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
The UI looks pretty good. The sidebar menu already looks easy.
The graphics on those screenshots look a lot worse than they did before though. I am hoping the litle blue/red lines are orders, not weapons
Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

You are seeing much of the HUD stuff. For example, the red lines are for attack orders, blue lines are for phase jump orders and green is for movement. The skin shown is for the TEC. I'll talk more about specific elements in the future.

EDIT: the unit stat stuff that pops up is an optional toggle, or can be activated with a hotkey.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
You had me worried there for a second. Will there be anykind of cinematic mode or quick way to toggle off the UI to watch fleet battles?
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
i definately like the screenies... but i am sorta nervous about the left panel... since it seems like in the right kind of background it would be tough to see... well i have faith...
i also like how this game actually looks 3d
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
You are seeing much of the HUD stuff. For example, the red lines are for attack orders, blue lines are for phase jump orders and green is for movement. The skin shown is for the TEC. I'll talk more about specific elements in the future.


Ah, cool. I find that kind of arrangement gives me a readily digestible impression of what my ships are up to.

W.R.T. the unit stats... So you're planning to keep all that info in there? Cool.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
Nice. I like what I see, just remember that a smaller, cleaner, simpler UI is better than a big clunky one. Especially I like the ones that you can force to stay hidden or force to stay open or can be "smart". Options are important...
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
I’m also having some worries about the ease of distinguishing the current symbology and SITREP(?) list from potential bright situations in the background. Maybe, we need an optional SITREP window-style akin to the unit profile window, maybe a semi-transparent dark-colored background similar to Homeworld 2’s interface, and-or a shadow behind all those items.
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
Hmm, of course, looking into the sun is not very usefull, but you can tilt the camera a few degrees and problem solved.

I think that greyed-out bars will severly detract from the visuals
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
I would rather have a functional and easily comprehendible interface for the majority of situations, which should include the majority of environment backgrounds, not just those that are dark. Right now, the act of having to plant one’s head into their monitor to get a close-up of barely comprehendible information or symbology isn’t healthy or reasonable.

The problem can be easily remedied by color abstracting the symbology and other SITEREP information with shadows, darker colored borders, and-or more color in the symbology to make them stand out more. For instance, they added a several pixel shadow to the text and so on to resolve similar problems; it just needs to be done with the rest of the symbology.