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[In Exile]

I tend to be a very strong backer of DA2. Most of the features introduced or altered from DA:O I see as significant positives (e.g. VO, the new art style).

One major concern of mine, and one thing we have not received very much information on is how the PC version plays and more importantly handles.

By that, I mean how the UI has been altered from DA:O.

http://social.biowar...1/index/5178209

The Podcast thread has three screenshots from the current build of the inventory screen. This is something may be change prior to release; we have no idea as yet how close to completion Bioware is on this part of the game. Still, the change from the DA:O inventory is dramatic.

We have lost the open book we had with DA:O, but functionally the screen seems very similar. Since we can the quickbar below, it seems clear that this is the PC version (also, the quickbar is in, so that's pretty awesome).

As of right now, I believe the buttons in the bottom right corner represent the menu that used to be top and centre-justified in DA:O. I would wager the first two options are the character screen and the inventory, and then we likely have the journal, ability screen and menu.

So in some respects, the PC inventory and UI is safe. You can see that the console version was crucial to the development of this game, just in terms of how the abiity screen is set up to be easy to scroll around with a controller. It isn't something I mind, though it does show you where the design influence comes from.

What I don't understand though, is why all of the empty space? This menu could be cut down to the DA:O half-screen book and retain the same information. Why do we have such huge swaths of empty space?

Also, regarding the non-inventory screen (since we now lost the abiity to see part of the PC screen while opening the inventory) - have we lost the character portraints in the top-left? I'm sure the XP bar above the quicktab is gone because console players couldn't actually see how much XP they needed to level up, but have we retained our ability to poin and click on portraits to select characters? 

Overall, I think the UI will be okay for DA2. It will no doubt have a heavy console influence, but so far that seems to be just aesthetic, which is IMO good news.

EDIT:

Using newfound skills of adding images, I have added the UI images to the thread.

¸

Modifié par In Exile, 06 novembre 2010 - 08:56 .

[Mike Laidlaw]

soteria wrote...

What I don't understand though, is why all of the empty space? This menu could be cut down to the DA:O half-screen book and retain the same information. Why do we have such huge swaths of empty space?

Three possibilities come to mind. One is that companions have smaller ability trees that take up less space. Evidence to support that is Mr. Laidlaw's comment that Isabela is a dagger user--she doesn't have access to as many abilities as a PC. Another is that the screen resolution is just very high. A third is that the empty space to the right is sometimes used for information like stats about a specific ability.

Correct about the space. Swashbuckler isn't a full talent (more of a flavor for the whole tree), so it has no stamina cost, damage calculations, etc. Talents are significantly more dense, so the space is needed. We are, in fact, doing a much better job of giving hard stats in the talent descriptions than we did in Origins.

I'm guessing the far right icons on the quickbar are health and stamina potions, maybe.

Yup. Nice and fast access to them.

[Mike Laidlaw]

Andaril78 wrote...

Mike, perhaps I stole the OP:s thread now, but must ask. The stars on the left side of each equipment. For exeample, the pic on Isabela´s inventory shows an ring with two stars on the far right side of the ring- What is that? An quality marker?
I really hopes it´s so, that if I click on the ring for exeample, the stats shows up?
Or do you´ve taken away the numbers?
Hopas you understand what I means

Understand? Sure do.

The stars offer an at-a-glace indicator of the weapon, armor or item's usefulness compared to your current level. An item that used to be five stars at level one will slowly drop off to none when you're in your teens. The goal there is to make it easy to tell what's above and below the curve for your current character.

And, of course, you can either hover to get a tooltip, or use X (on consoles) to inspect the item in question to get a detailed breakdown of what properties the item has, damage it does, or whatever.

This is pretty consistent with the rest of the game. I'm a big fan of making at-a-glance information clear and easily digestible, while having another layer underneath that lets you dig deeper and get neck deep in the statistics. You'll see this approach in character creation, inventory, crafting and so on.

[Mike Laidlaw]

In Exile wrote...
I wouldn't be optimistic about that. We will get a modified console interface, no more and no less.

And the console crowd will get a modified PC interface. Everyone wins!

[Mike Laidlaw]

slimgrin wrote...

I like your philosophy on this Mike. Sounds like a nice quick way to get info about weapons and items.

Ideally, it lets you know what to sell quickly, and limits the "digging deep" for stats to stuff that's in the same star range. Playing with it here, the part I like most is that when I see a five star item, it's rather like unwrapping a gift, becuase there's always something fun inside.

And we could all use more gifts!

[Mike Laidlaw]

Martanek wrote...

If what the images show will turn out to be a final PC UI someone from Bioware must have gone insane. Could a dev explain to me why - as it was claimed some time ago - that DA2 is being made SEPARATELY for the PC and the consoles are PC gamers getting a heavily-modified console interface? Thanks in advance for your honesty. To me, this is another evidence of the PC version being under a strong influence of its console counterparts and that it essentially is a port. The PC version of DA2 definitely lies on console fundaments like ME2. Try proving me wrong Bioware.

Sure!

Quick bar across the bottom: PC only.

Little icons on the side to quickly leap into your journal or character sheet: PC only.

Floating tooltips that give you information about items without having to dig into a new window: PC only.

Talent trees being the shape they are: represents the way the talent system works. Happens to be easy to navigate with a console stick, but is even EASIER to navigate with a mouse.

Cleaner interface design: Art direction decision that has nothing, at all, to do with the platform.

[Mike Laidlaw]

slimgrin wrote...

customizable quick bar like in Origins?

Ayup. So long as you're playing on PC. Console players have the same battle menu / radial menu interface they had in Origins.

[Mike Laidlaw]

tmp7704 wrote...

Dave of Canada wrote...

I don't know if I should be happy or not. I hated using abilities in the radial but I can see worse alternatives.

It seems that you can have commonly used abilties assigned to gamepad buttons though, unless that was in DAO too?

That was in DA:O, yes.

Functionally, the GUIs are pretty much identical, compared platform to platform. They just look different.

[Mike Laidlaw]

Icinix wrote...
I LOVE THE NEW PC GUI SCREENS!!!!

I shall pass that on to the people responsible!

And note for posterity that this day was the day we proved that one man's "have they gone insane?" is another man's "Oh hell yes!"

[Mike Laidlaw]

slimgrin wrote...

Actually, hotkeys, yes. Will we be able to map hotkeys?

Yes.

In origins it was so nice to just hit 1-4 on the keyboard for the dialog responses.

Mmm hmm. Oh, and thank Mr. Gaider and a man named Paul for it, they pitched the idea of keeing numbers mapped to the dialog wheel to me.

Anyway, enough on this thread from me. For the most part, DA2 is nigh-identical when it comes to the way the interface behaves.

[Mike Laidlaw]

In Exile wrote...

MerinTB wrote...

Despite all my insanity, some PC gameplay video could bring me back over to the dark side (or back to the light side, depending on which side I'm currently on, as obviously THAT MUST BE the right side. )

I think, with what we've seen of the UI, that there are very good reasons to think that DA2 will be flashy but like DA:O under the hood, so to speak.

*Steeples fingers*

And you all thought I was lying to you. I've never seen a reason flashy couldn't co-exist with stats. Look at professional sports. Stats on performance up the wazoo, yet some damn flashy moves.

And yes, I'm aware stats in sports are reactive, not predictive like they are in an RPG, but still, the metaphor holds...sorta...ish.

[Mike Laidlaw]

TheConfidenceMan wrote...

Not sure I get this. Do party members have fewer upgrade abilities than Hawke, like ME2?

Not really. Every character has a number of skill trees to choose from, and followers have one that's "follower specific." You don't need to buy from it, if you don't want to, but they have some fun stuff.

[Mike Laidlaw]

Brockololly wrote...
So does that mean you couldn't respec Isabela out of her Swashbuckler tree? And is it like one tree for mage, rogue, warrior, plus one companion/Hawke specific one, plus ones for different specializations?

Well, you can't make the pirate into a not-pirate, if that's what you're asking.

And no, it's more trees than that. I mean, really, followup to DA:O, here. Despite everyone's predictions, it's not like we were going to have 3 spells.

I don't feel like detailing them, but by way of example, "Creation" has its own tree. Heal's one of the spells in it.

Like...like....say it with me now...Origins!

Jeez. Someone jumps in combat, and suddenly some people assume cheeseburgers aren't delicious and hats are wearing people. It's a topsy-turvy world!

Modifié par Mike Laidlaw, 07 novembre 2010 - 05:58 .

[Mike Laidlaw]

Sylvius the Mad wrote...

Ideally, yes, but practically this will only be true if you tell us how those star values are calculated.  Otherwise, how can we trust them?

You can't. You can't trust anyone. Luckily, it's clear that you don't need stars.

And what if we're looking for a specific benefit?  Reducing the quality of a piece of a equipment to a single number seems pointless.

Is it? You have the ability to go through the stat of every thing in every store and every piece of equipment in your inventory. So you have lost not one iota of functionality there.

But you now have a thing in place that suggests, that, just perhaps, that armor you were wearing at the beginning of the game isn't good enough for you at this later point in the game. What's pointless about that?

That it's simple? That it does some of the work for you? That you already know that, because that's how it always works?

Have you considered that it might, just maybe, help someone who has never played an RPG before understand the concepts of equipment and stats at a high level, and then encourage them to go a little deeper into the stats themselves and maybe start to love a genre for which you apparently have so much passion? That, maybe, just maybe, they might become an RPG fan that helps keep the genre alive, and maybe, just maybe, even more robust than it is today because it's got a larger fan base than it currently does?

I have rarely disagreed with you more, Sylvius. Feeling that features that add entry-level usability without taking away hardcore functionaly are "pointless," by my reckoning, is a sentiment that will kill RPGs.

[Mike Laidlaw]

slimgrin wrote...

Uh-oh, Laidlaw has the gloves off.

Just for one post. I'm happy to indulge a lot of flak over stuff that's changed, but when a feature is added that I believe benefits a very large swath of people, and it's then denounced as useless for reasons that essentially boil down to "I wouldn't use that," I find it, frankly, inconsiderate.

It's like saying that you never use holding right and left mouse down together to run, and you have no intention of using it, so that feature is useless. Meanwhile there's someone out there who only has use of one hand who relys on that exact control scheme for something as fundamental as locomotion.

[Mike Laidlaw]

Upsettingshorts wrote...
Let me guess, it's almost exactly like that.  Sometimes a 2.5/5 star player is more useful in a specific system than a 3/5 star player in my experience - in DA:2 perhaps a 2 star crushing weapon is better against skeletons than a 4 star piercing weapon. Bad assistant managers can give misleading evaluations, and in Football Manager that's working as intended for obvious reasons - but Pat Rice is pretty good, and I expect the evaluation system in DA:2 is meant to be more objective. 

Pretty much hit it on the head. Properties are assigned values. Add the values of all properties on the items together, then compare to a rough target number for the character's current level. If higher, go above three stars. If lower, go below.