User Tools

Site Tools


ui_proposals

Crossfire UI Proposals

As of late there seems to have be alot of discussion on IRC about how the user interface should be changed. It certainly seems many are dissatisfied with the current user interfaces and believe much better could be done, therefore I am creating this page for people to post their own UI proposals and comment on those of others. When putting things here, remember it doesn't have to be a full mockup, in fact I suggest you don't make it a full mockup, as all we're looking at for now here is a sketch for the basic UI concept would work best. When commenting on UI designs of others, remember that these are just rough sketches and that specifics such as the relative sizing of things and the number of rows in an inventory view are probably not exact. Most importantly: Have fun :-)
Alex Schultz 2007/02/25 10:17

Sketch


Created by: Lauwenmark/Gros

Author's Notes

top half: the “stats screen”, displayed by a push on a single key/button.
bottom half: the playing screen.
The text area to enter commands appears between the fastbelt and the log area, only when Enter has been pressed, and text entry is thus active. The fastbelt - numbered F1-F12 - can contain spells, inventory objects, or maybe even batches of actions (arbitrary commands, as keybindings have). They are filled by using the “stats screen”, by drag-n-dropping elements from the inv, the spell list, etc. on the Fx slots. The stats screen also displays the complete character stats, the skills/experience scores, and has an area which describes a currently selected element in one of the lists below. It is of course possible to apply, drop, or get objects from the stats screen. The objects on the floor appear on the main screen, in the bottom-right corner. Only two items visible at a time, with arrows to browse through them.

Comments

It looks like a good design to me. Some things that concern me a little, is that the inventory, spells, and skills lists on the stats screen seem to me like they might be a little bit squished. Also it might be helpful to have a floor view in the stats screen. I also think it would be a good addition, to have separate full screen views for inventory, spells, and skills, for cases where one is doing more manipulation within there instead of between the areas. — Alex Schultz 2007/02/27 11:15

I like the design. Focus should indeed be on play area, with other zones simply there when needed. Red's suggestion to have full screen / maximized for manipulation is nice. Ideally, the interface could be defined through a configuration file so it can be adjusted by players to their wish. But that may be overkill :) — Ryo Saeba 2007/06/10 03:00

Sketch


Created by: Rednaxela

Author's Notes

Here's a bit of an idea I have for one possible way to lay out a client interface, with four panels as shown, which are normally small providing a “summary” of the most important parts to be accessible, which can expand out to give full menus for things. Comments/criticisms/bashing welcome. :)

Comments

I like the idea, but there should be:

  • a way to display both ground and inventory, for fast manipulation
  • at least the last messages should be displayed, so player knows what happens (resistance change & such)

Ryo Saeba 2007/06/18 13:04

Well in terms of displaying the ground and inventory, I was thinking of having the menu (slightly misleadingly) labeled “inventory” include both of those. The last messages would indeed be displayed, as the 'tabs' would generally contain a 'summary' of their contents. Another elaboration that isn't in the design above that I was thinking about which may help with equipping, would be making fading messages of recent stat changes (not including hp, food, etc.) as they happen, in the form of an on-screen-display.

Alex Schultz 2007/06/18 13:16
ui_proposals.txt · Last modified: 2008/01/17 10:38 (external edit)