129 réponses à ce sujet

[morrie23]

Before I start I should clarify that I’m going to be talking about the Xbox 360 ME2 HUD as that is the one I have most experience with. Although, things that I mention here will probably also be relevant to the PC HUD.

I don’t think the current ME2 HUD is bad per se, in fact it has some good points. I particularly like the converging
semi-circles that signify when Shepard can cast a power again, they are subtle but informative. Also the level of detail given about enemy status is good and clear. However the HUD is lacking in some areas.

Firstly, the HUD provides no indication of how strong your shields are unlike in ME1 were more segments were added to the shield bar as Shepard levelled up etc. I know this seems like a minor point, but I think that giving a graphical representation of shield strength increase added to the RPG feel of the first game. Adding segments a al ME1 would instil a sense of progression that is often missing in ME2.

Secondly, I miss the radar. I know it’s sort of there, but you have to bring up the power wheel to see it. This adds
unneeded pauses to the combat. The fact you can still access it makes me wonder why it was excluded from the HUD. Please put it back in the bottom right corner, or at least give us the option to do so.

Thirdly, the squadmate shield/health and power use status is poorly presented and lacking in detail. This is no
consistency between the graphical representation used to show Shepard’s status and the status of the rest of the squad. Also those little portraits are a bit silly IMHO, I’d much prefer text. A bit of consistency and a little more detail
would be appreciated!

Finally, the Hammerhead as no HUD! There are many thing wrong with that vehicle, but the lack of information on health is glaring. If BioWare put a vehicle in ME3, they need to implement a HUD for it.

To end, here is my idea for a more informative HUD (bare in mind I'm not a designer!):



Edited formating.

Modifié par morrie23, 12 octobre 2010 - 07:58 .

[Chugster]

yeah, i dont like the squad shield/health part of the HUD...nowhere near as good as ME1

[Mr. MannlyMan]

Also agree about the squad health icons. Shaded portraits are not as useful (health bars are much easier to read, and make it easier to track a squadmate's health).

[Vena_86]

First af all the position of and/or style of the squad member icons need to change. In ME2 it looks like their faces are actually the ass cheeks of sheppard showing through open parts on the suit.

I mean really, how could noone see that.

[Pepper4]

I like the me2 hud. it is clean and gives you more vision of the game, while giving you all the info you need.

[morrie23]

Vena_86 wrote...

First af all the position of and/or style of the squad member icons need to change. In ME2 it looks like their faces are actually the ass cheeks of sheppard showing through open parts on the suit.
I mean really, how could noone see that.

I'll never look at ME2 the same!

But I do think more can be done without taking up the screen real estate, while at the same time informing the player clearly about the party status and how Shep is progressing in terms of shield strength (more graphical representation of progress would make the game feel more like an RPG).

Modifié par morrie23, 12 octobre 2010 - 10:00 .

[Felfenix]

The HUD should look like this, but with a spreadsheet.

home.tiscali.nl/maegrim/wow/ui_raid_8-8-06.jpg

Anything less would not appease the "hardcore RPGness" of the PC crowd.

Modifié par Felfenix, 12 octobre 2010 - 10:00 .

[Sidewinder_617]

the HUD in ME2 was to the point. it should stay that way.

more informative is good but you're probably talking about better readout(missile alerts health etc.)

that's good idea but in the end you don't really need all that in the middle of a firefight-just the

relevant stuff

[Rivercurse]

edit - nevermind, misread post I quoted

Modifié par Rivercurse, 12 octobre 2010 - 10:21 .

[nepaliguru]

I'm fine with the HUD for the most part, but I also believe the squad status section could use more improvement. Nothing said what each part meant, so I didn't know what the squad status was showing until about 3 months in, when I deliberately went out of my way to study each part.

[Sith_exar_kun]

I just would have an "always on" radar, the rest is good as it is...

[Mindless_Prey]

the tiny portraits and health meters in ME2 for the squadmates were bothersome.



To be honest the ME1 meters were better.

[Joshua Regalado]

The only thing that I feel should be changed is how your squadmates health/shields and cooldown periods are represented, because yeah, like the op said that they are poorly represented. Also, in my opinion no do not bring back the radar as part of your hud, because I never really liked seeing to much hud, its distracting, and with the radar taking up a portion of the bottom right-hand screen would be bothersome to me.

[The Spamming Troll]

heres my idea on the HUD.....



eliminate it.



health is regenerative so i dont need a bar that says im full health especially with the fat that when im about to die, im not looking at my health bar, im looking at the HUGE RED VEINS across my entire screen.



ammo can easily be shown on your weapons.



i dont need to know if my squadmates are alive or dead or getting shot at by a little picture on my butt. i can use my eyes as see if wrex is in somones grill, or lieing dead on the floor.



having a minimap is nice, but it makes the game easier, like blind firing in gears. i consider it cheap.



tho i do like your image of the HUD. i would add an option to have the HUD be visable or hiden like dead space. i have a feeling 90% of the players wouldnt want the HUD.

[Top55]

I like OP's layout except maybe not blue background for the health. Other than that it's good though.

[Foolsfolly]

Health bar's unneeded. Camera shake, red lines of death, and seeing when shields kick on and off on your character more than tell you how you're doing in the health department. The only reason I'd want the health bar back is if they get rid of health regeneration. If we loose that then I need to know how much health I have, exactly. Otherwise, it's unneeded clutter on the screen. Most games have lost the health bar in recent years because of this.



I'd like the radar back too. It gave tactical data near immediately and it's missed. I dislike opening up the radial menu to see the radar.



Squad health is shown at the bottom of the screen. If it's not then they're fully healed. If it's white they still have shield, and if it's red they're near death. Considering the speed at which they regen health this is enough of an indication.



The Hammerhead's lack of a HUD isn't it's problem. It's problem is that it's a fast, hit and run vehicle that can't ram enemies without doing damage to itself. Which means the best way to play the Hammerhead is as a long distance cannon, like the old Howitzer. Get superior ground out of the enemy's range and shell them from distance with inaccurate attacks. It's counter to the Hammerhead's speed and jumping abilities.



They needed to retool the Hammerhead a bit more.

[uberdowzen]

morrie23 wrote...

Before I start I should clarify that I’m going to be talking about the Xbox 360 ME2 HUD as that is the one I have most experience with. Although, things that I mention here will probably also be relevant to the PC HUD.

I don’t think the current ME2 HUD is bad per se, in fact it has some good points. I particularly like the converging
semi-circles that signify when Shepard can cast a power again, they are subtle but informative. Also the level of detail given about enemy status is good and clear. However the HUD is lacking in some areas.

Firstly, the HUD provides no indication of how strong your shields are unlike in ME1 were more segments were added to the shield bar as Shepard levelled up etc. I know this seems like a minor point, but I think that giving a graphical representation of shield strength increase added to the RPG feel of the first game. Adding segments a al ME1 would instil a sense of progression that is often missing in ME2.

OK so after a quick look at the Mass Effect wiki, I'm pretty sure your shields don't actually become more powerful as your character develops in ME2. Your health increases but, unless you health increasing affects you shields as well, I'm pretty sure they're constant throughout the game.

Secondly, I miss the radar. I know it’s sort of there, but you have to bring up the power wheel to see it. This adds
unneeded pauses to the combat. The fact you can still access it makes me wonder why it was excluded from the HUD. Please put it back in the bottom right corner, or at least give us the option to do so.

Agree. It's useless in ME2.

Thirdly, the squadmate shield/health and power use status is poorly presented and lacking in detail. This is no
consistency between the graphical representation used to show Shepard’s status and the status of the rest of the squad. Also those little portraits are a bit silly IMHO, I’d much prefer text. A bit of consistency and a little more detail
would be appreciated!

I'm sure the current system is very informative...I just have no idea what any of it means. Can someone help me out? I've narrowed it down to the big part at the top represents shields and the bottom might be health? Agree.

Disagree on the text though. I suspect (I'm no expert though) that your brain registers faces more quickly than text. Even in ME1 you're going more by the shape of the text rather than the actual name.

Finally, the Hammerhead as no HUD! There are many thing wrong with that vehicle, but the lack of information on health is glaring. If BioWare put a vehicle in ME3, they need to implement a HUD for it.

Afraid I have to disagree here. The only thing the interface would show would be health, which is really easy to gauge from the frantic beeping and the large amounts of smoke coming out of the engine. And personally if you can replace the HUD with visual queues (show don't tell) then I'm happy.

To end, here is my idea for a more informative HUD (bare in mind I'm not a designer!):



Edited formating.

Firstly, OMG!!!! I forgot how much better the blue interface looked. That's the only thing I want them to bring back from ME1.

I like your interface design. The only issue I have is that the status panel is on the left rather than the centre. Now I know that your interface would look weird with that part in the centre but I generally think it was a good idea on Bioware's part. It means you only need to glance down to check you stats which I kinda feel is required with ME2's more frantic gameplay. I don't know really.

[Terror_K]

Agreed. The ME2 HUD was god-awful. I remember people saying that prior to release and devs popping in and saying "don't worry, the HUD hasn't been finalised yet" and then, lo and behold, the game comes out with the same crappy, useless HUD.

It was a clear case of "fixing" something that wasn't even broken in the first place; there was nothing wrong with ME1's HUD at all. It was great.

Modifié par Terror_K, 13 octobre 2010 - 04:40 .

[Felfenix]

The Spamming Troll wrote...

heres my idea on the HUD.....

eliminate it.

health is regenerative so i dont need a bar that says im full health especially with the fat that when im about to die, im not looking at my health bar, im looking at the HUGE RED VEINS across my entire screen.

ammo can easily be shown on your weapons.

i dont need to know if my squadmates are alive or dead or getting shot at by a little picture on my butt. i can use my eyes as see if wrex is in somones grill, or lieing dead on the floor.

having a minimap is nice, but it makes the game easier, like blind firing in gears. i consider it cheap.

Agreed, and as far as the map... Well... if you get lost in either Mass Effect game, then you need a helmet, not a minimap.

[kalle90]

You forgot the missing squadmate stance icon. It was good I knew if my squadmates were holding position or following me. In ME2 my tactics sometimes go to hell when my squadmates just start to follow me although I told them to hold and when I notice it I'm already flanked from all sides



Otherwise: This ME1 vs ME2 would easily be solved with Gameplay/Graphic options. Detailed/Clean HUD



And while at it make regenerating health and finite ammo options too

[morrie23]

uberdowzen wrote...
OK so after a quick look at the Mass Effect wiki, I'm pretty sure your shields don't actually become more powerful as your character develops in ME2. Your health increases but, unless you health increasing affects you shields as well, I'm pretty sure they're constant throughout the game.

I'm pretty sure different armour and upgrades increase shield strength in ME2 (e.g. some armour says +10% shield etc), and it's true the shield strength increases with health. I would just like the HUD to convey these increases/improvements graphically. It adds a sense of progression. At the moment the shield bar doesn't give you any idea what the overall strength of your shield is and you need to take it on faith that the armour and upgrades you've got are actually having an effect.


Also, I too prefered the blue interface, not a fan of the brown/orange combo.

[uzivatel]

I already got used to the ME2 interface. It may not be perfect, but I dont think they should change it in every game.

There are few tweaks they could do. I would like the gui to disappear while out of combat (could be toggled by, say, LS), the party shield/health thing could use few colours to be easier to use and the red injury thing effect around the screen should be replaced by something else (good old black and white? blur? some other effect?).
That said, if they keep the current GUI, I am going to be fine.

Modifié par uzivatel, 13 octobre 2010 - 09:23 .

[sinosleep]

Invasive HUDS are going the way of the dodo. Games like Dead Space and the Fight Night series have cleared the way for more cinematic, less "gamey" HUDS and the industry has jumped on the bandwagon big time. If anything expect an even less obvious HUD for ME 3.

Not saying you have to like it, but it's clearly the route the industry is going in.

Modifié par sinosleep, 13 octobre 2010 - 11:12 .

[Terror_K]

sinosleep wrote...

Invasive HUDS are going the way of the dodo. Games like Dead Space and the Fight Night series have cleared the way for more cinematic, less "gamey" HUDS and the industry has jumped on the bandwagon big time. If anything expect an even less obvious HUD for ME 3.

Not saying you have to like it, but it's clearly the route the industry is going in.

I personally don't like it, because I think they've taken it too far. I'm not against the concept, but too many games these days don't provide all the minimum necessary info to the player any more like they once did. There's quite a few games where the simplest thing like an on-screen map/radar is gone and means I have to rely on a silly arrow on-screen or have to keep flicking to the separate map screen just to know where I want to go (Brutal Legend springs to mind as being particularly bad for this).

Just like one can have an overly complex HUD, one can also go too far the other way and not provide enough info to the player, in which case you go from "minimalist HUD" (which is ideal) to "beyond minimalist HUD" whereby they give you the minimal info you need, and then remove even more. ME2 crossed this line, as well as also having a poorly designed and unclear HUD on top of it all. It's another case of games being dumbed-down as a whole and the industry oversimplifying and overstreamlining things, which ME2 is overall a victim of. I don't like the trend... it may work for simpler games, but with RPGs I expect a bit more info on screen, and expect it to be better presented. As far as I was concerned, ME1 had it pretty much dead-on, both it terms of the amount of info presented and in the manner it was presented. With ME2 I'm not given enough and what's there is weird and confusing.