Themed ui

[Trastámara]

Hi again, 

As my first suggestion has been well seen, ill try and make a 2nd one

 

Im sure u are working in more deep and complex improvements for the game, but...what about making a new , basic,  wooden based theme for port interface? Also some iron or whatever borders for buttons would be great...

When ppl buy the game, first thing they see is those blue-gray menus, which are a bit too much simple, and first impressions are pretty important.

Just to give an example...when i was convincing my brother to buy the game (he ended up buying it), first thing he said when i first showed it to him was: 

Oh come on , i'd make that ui in few hours...and i think he wasnt rlly wrong...

I guess u could invest 1 dev evening work time and prolly get that basic wooden themed interface done...

And understand this is not a complain, im sure u are planning to do this, but it has been too much time already with the same UI, and i think that little effort would be worthy, both for the in-game feeling and player numbers. 

We dont need the final UI yet, but a more themed one.

Thank you !

Edited February 26, 2017 by Trastámara

[Tomms123]

Why put in dev hours into an UI which is going to get replaced with the final UI?

That is just a waste of time, it's better that they use the time needed to do what you proposed into finishing what they're currently doing and when all the features are in finish the UI.

[Trastámara]

7 hours ago, Tomms123 said:

Why put in dev hours into an UI which is going to get replaced with the final UI?

That is just a waste of time, it's better that they use the time needed to do what you proposed into finishing what they're currently doing and when all the features are in finish the UI.

I mean, just a small rework, wooden background image, and not much more, that would take very few time, but change the feeling a lot.

[Guest]

From what I've heard themed UIs are considered to be quite outdated and more associated with older games from around the turn of the century, whereas when used nowadays it often comes off as tacky and low production value. Got any recent examples of good use of themed UIs that you'd draw inspiration from? Ideally from similar genres since for example space-era UIs are hard to distinguish from non-themed ones.

Edited February 26, 2017 by Guest

[Trastámara]

Just done a rlly fast research, and smth like this...done with photoshop or whatever to make it look like a computer game image

 

https://www.colourbox.com/preview/3363509-grunge-wood-background-or-backdrop-with-rope-frame.jpg

 

http://gallery.yopriceville.com/Backgrounds/Wooden_Background_with_Carving#.WLNkVHMunqA

 

 

 

[Pad Seayew]

At this point not doing some UI beautification is a waste of time.  Something.  Anything. 

It's been the same for a couple years now?

[Trastámara]

I was hoping they could do smth in a few hours, but if doing this would take a lot of time, then skip it and go for final version.

[Angus McGregor]

The crap state of the UI is definitely one of the leading reasons why I've stopped playing. It doesn't take but a few hours to go into the code and change some font sizes and colors to enhance readability. I'm not looking for a 'new' UI, just tweaks to what's there so I can see it.

I often defend the devs and their efforts in other areas of the game. But if 'they' can't be bothered to put out that little bit of effort, then screw it. I'm done with perpetually squinting at the screen giving myself eyestrain and headaches.

[Trastámara]

1 minute ago, rediii said:

couple of hours or 1 day dev time isn't a realistic estimate of the needed time to make a good UI

We r not talking about a good UI, we r talking about smth but the default unity menus.

[Angus McGregor]

1 minute ago, rediii said:

Which ones do you mean that you can't read at all?

The biggest offenders are the colored text that lists the wood type, trims and regional bonuses built into a ship. I can't read 90% of that text on two different monitors.

I also struggle with the cargo, storage inventory list font size, especially the numbers. Yes I could change the resolution... at the expense of losing graphic fidelity on the best part of NA, the visuals while sailing near the coast. It's a lose/lose proposition.

[Trastámara]

4 minutes ago, rediii said:

But why should anyone put work into something that gets overhauled at a later stage anyway?

You would only have double the effort and the ressources are pretty limited already. Changes need testing with every possible resolution etc. so if you touch it you want to do a final out of it.

And TBH if i would see one of the pictures above only as a background image i would either think "wtf this game got stuck in the last 20 years" or "this is the UI ... Oh..." because it would look like a amateur did it. The same goes for another suggestion here in the forum with a example UI that looked like a world of warships made in the year 98. 

The UI at the moment shows that it is not a try to do a UI. If you look at it you think "that's functional" and that's it.

Any change of the UI would be for the people not looking in the forum like it would be a real new UI and if this looks crap they will complain about it loudly

Ok then you have a bigger resolution than me.  i can read it perfectly on 1920x1080 (on both monitors)

If its gonna take so long, then hello kitty it. But trust me, 3 years with the same UI, makes ppl think this game is in dev hell and wont have a final release.

Personally, im stopping playing again, i dont want to get burnt before the game is not close to final version / release. 

They said 30 ppl is enough for them to test what they want...but hey, we had 2k average players by this time 1 year ago. Now its barely 400.

Edited February 27, 2017 by Trastámara

[Angus McGregor]

1 minute ago, rediii said:

But why should anyone put work into something that gets overhauled at a later stage anyway?

You would only have double the effort and the ressources are pretty limited already. Changes need testing with every possible resolution etc. so if you touch it you want to do a final out of it.

And TBH if i would see one of the pictures above only as a background image i would either think "wtf this game got stuck in the last 20 years" or "this is the UI ... Oh..." because it would look like a amateur did it. The same goes for another suggestion here in the forum with a example UI that looked like a world of warships made in the year 98. 

The UI at the moment shows that it is not a try to do a UI. If you look at it you think "that's functional" and that's it.

Any change of the UI would be for the people not looking in the forum like it would be a real new UI and if this looks crap they will complain about it loudly

Ok then you have a bigger resolution than me.  i can read it perfectly on 1920x1080 (on both monitors)

You probably have better eyesight than me. 

I'm already running at less resolution than what my gaming rig is capable of. I'm playing at 1600x900 on the big monitor. My laptop is 1366x768.

Yeah -  I get that this is just a bare bones functional UI. But it isn't functional for me and I really don't have these issues with other games at higher resolutions. *shrug* I find it hard to believe I'm the only one with a problem.

[Trastámara]

2 minutes ago, rediii said:

I agree that the UI should get a overhaul soon. But if they touch it they should do it final.

That's even better, i just hope u got my point, 3 years with this default UI is too much.

[Angus McGregor]

3 hours ago, rediii said:

Maybe a driver update fixes it? Can you put a screenshot here?

Or maybe it's the contrast settings on your monitors?

Here's a screen shot of the ship trim visibility issue. It looks exactly the same on my big screen and laptop.

The only text I can read is 'Speed' under Built-In, and 'Extra Hammocks' & Charismatic Boatswain' under Installed. The rest are near invisible against that dark gray.

[Pad Seayew]

It's hard to read, that's obvious.  It's been temporary for a long time.

Nothing worth quitting the game over, I still love it, play it to the point of obsession, so they're doing something right by me.

I guess the real issue is I can't wait for them to do something, anything with the user interface.