28 réponses à ce sujet

[Linkenski]

The only reason for comparing these two games made by two seperate teams is because of Frostbite, let me just make that clear. I have no facts, but I thought it could have something to do with how it's implemented.

 

Anyone else here who played DA:I notice how bad the UI was programmed? For example, if you toggle it to hide some elements, you HAD to enter combat to bring it back up, and sometimes it felt as if it would glitch and not even appear in combat, or it wouldn't show your health after a fall because it isn't combat and stuff like that.

 

Then there's the character level up screen which, if I pressed X quickly enough, I would make it zoom in as it does on a particular skill tree but then the cursor would be gone and the UI would be stuck with no option but to exit the game and start it again. There were just numerous yet seemingly basic errors that I can't believe got in, and furthermore, couldn't believe they never really patched out to make it guaranteed to be fully functional.

 

With that in mind, I really hope the Andromeda team programs their UI better. It's going to be different systems than DA:I used most likely, but UI is UI and I really hope they make it work first and foremost, and I also hope the options in the UI options menu will be satisfying and that if you choose contextual hiding of certain UI elements that they show up when appropriate and not just "you have to shoot" for example.

[Sylvius the Mad]

Even when it worked as untended, DAI's UI wasn't good. But then, BioWare hasn't made a quality UI since NWN (2002).

[rocklikeafool]

Even when it worked as untended, DAI's UI wasn't good. But then, BioWare hasn't made a quality UI since NWN (2002).

You're kidding, right? Holding up NWN's UI is like saying a turd looks good. Yes, it was good for the time, but it's downright awful now. 13 years of game development tends to have that effect on old games. 

 

DA:I's UI worked just fine. It was intuitive, easy to learn, clean, etc. It fit quite well with a Fantasy game of its type.

[Sylvius the Mad]

You're kidding, right? Holding up NWN's UI is like saying a turd looks good. Yes, it was good for the time, but it's downright awful now. 13 years of game development tends to have that effect on old games.

DA:I's UI worked just fine. It was intuitive, easy to learn, clean, etc. It fit quite well with a Fantasy game of its type.

It didn't display enough on the screen at once, and it lacked customizability.

Scrolling shouldn't be necessary.

[Enigmatick]

DA:I's UI worked just fine. It was intuitive, easy to learn, clean, etc. It fit quite well with a Fantasy game of its type.

Are we still talking about DAI here? Look at DAO or hell Bloodborne if you want a GUI that fits well with a Fantasy game on consoles.

 

DAI's looks like a user made dock replacement for OSX.

[spinachdiaper]

My only issues with DAI's IU was that it was slow from loading the characters you are trying to manage and the too many finished quests that always show recent completion when you finished them ages ago.

[KaiserShep]

I suspect it'll be very similar to ME3's interface. 

[Navasha]

DAI pretty much killed any kind of expectations for Bioware to develop a good UI anymore.   Loved the game, but seriously... As far as a PC interface is concerned they need to outsource that to some other development company that actually develops games for the PC.    They did it for Mass Effect 1 and its was a good and decent interface.  

 

User interfaces (at least PC) are definitely Bioware's Achilles heel. 

[pdusen]

DAI pretty much killed any kind of expectations for Bioware to develop a good UI anymore.   Loved the game, but seriously... As far as a PC interface is concerned they need to outsource that to some other development company that actually develops games for the PC.    They did it for Mass Effect 1 and its was a good and decent interface.  

 

User interfaces (at least PC) are definitely Bioware's Achilles heel. 

 

I would argue that ME1's interface wasn't especially good either.

[Eryri]

Yes, DA:Is UI could definitely use some improvement. Very slow navigating the inventory and switching between characters, although I was fortunate not to have any crashes that I can recall.

[Cyonan]

I've never really looked at the UI in a BioWare game and thought "Now this is an amazing example of a great UI".

 

That said, I imagine it'll probably be similar to the Mass Effect 3 UI which I found to be workable enough.

 

Just... let me rebind the damn omni-button so that I don't have half the functions in the game tied to a single key without going into the game files and doing it manually.

[AlanC9]

Are we still talking about DAI here? Look at DAO or hell Bloodborne if you want a GUI that fits well with a Fantasy game on consoles.
 
DAI's looks like a user made dock replacement for OSX.

Meh. I don't see why a computer game interface should ever look like anything but a computer game interface.

As for functionality, yeah, the character and inventory screens were just plain horrible. And hella slow on my rig. Though in fairness, my rig is below min spec.

[N7Jamaican]

Dragon Age was boring to me.

[Lee T]

User interfaces (at least PC) are definitely Bioware's Achilles heel.

I played the oldies on PC and DA/ME era on console, I can vouch from the "other side" that they don't do good console UI either.

[rocklikeafool]

Meh. I don't see why a computer game interface should ever look like anything but a computer game interface.

Exactly. And, to me, that's what DAI's UI looked like. People complaining about the UI are ridiculous. The point of UI is functionality, & (provided your PC wasn't a shitbox) the functionality was good.

 

 

As for functionality, yeah, the character and inventory screens were just plain horrible. And hella slow on my rig. Though in fairness, my rig is below min spec.

That's on you, not on the UI design.

[Dr. rotinaj]

Exactly. And, to me, that's what DAI's UI looked like. People complaining about the UI are ridiculous. The point of UI is functionality, & (provided your PC wasn't a shitbox) the functionality was good.

 

 

There were no tooltips, no drag to select multiple companions, basically every menu wasted screen space, excessive scrolling was required in menus. Just take a look at DAI's crafting system because you'll end up going through a lot of bad menus. The UI was mostly made for controllers seated a few metres from a television, there is poor functionality on PC.

[rashie]

As far as inventory management goes if we get loot again, bioware needs to take some serious inspiration from how many mmo's builds them, cause in them its all about functionality and efficiency rather than just looking flashy. When converting that into a console friendly ui, something like the diablo 3 console interface is also brilliant.

[Deebo305]

I played the oldies on PC and DA/ME era on console, I can vouch from the "other side" that they don't do good console UI either.

I feel UI always comes down to personal preference, some prefer lots of shorrtcut while other prefer it tucked away and not cluttering the screen. Its one of those thing where you adapt to it or call trash and playable. For example take DA2 for instance, I loved its UI and grid like menus but other call it a horrrid change from Origins box/chart menus

 

So there is no real solution for this, atleast not one that will please everyone

[rocklikeafool]

There were no tooltips, no drag to select multiple companions, basically every menu wasted screen space, excessive scrolling was required in menus. Just take a look at DAI's crafting system because you'll end up going through a lot of bad menus. The UI was mostly made for controllers seated a few metres from a television, there is poor functionality on PC.

Worked just fine for me, on PC. It's not the fault of the devs that you wanted some special cookie-cutter "PC functionality"...which is a meaningless phrase that basically means "make it how I like it".

[elrofrost]

Worked just fine for me, on PC. It's not the fault of the devs that you wanted some special cookie-cutter "PC functionality"...which is a meaningless phrase that basically means "make it how I like it".

Yes it worked. Barely. But even simple things, like the ability to buy items in bulk wasn't available. And you STILL have to click to loot everything - no loot-all hotkey? A bunch of little nags which everyone hates. Bethesda is getting the same criticism for the FO4 PC UI - which is just as bad as the DAI PC UI. But FO4 will be modded soon enough.

 

I hope the dev's take the time to make a PC based UI. I'm tired of this one-size fits all crap. 

[RoboticWater]

Worked just fine for me, on PC. It's not the fault of the devs that you wanted some special cookie-cutter "PC functionality"...which is a meaningless phrase that basically means "make it how I like it".

Not really...

 

PC functionality basically refers to the way in which a keyboard and mouse interact with a user interface. Consider the potion equip screen: when you select a potion from your stash, the 3 slots on your personal inventory enlarge and move towards the center of the screen. On consoles, this makes sense, as selecting a potion locks you into the personal inventory slots and the enlargement makes viewing the slots easier. But with the PC's drag and drop functionality, I'm annoyed because my dragging trajectory is now totally off. This is a very simple problem that could be solved easily by just disabling an animation.

 

In general, console UIs are segmented and enlarge as much information as possible. This is because console users generally sit farther away from their screens, so designers make everything bigger and thus have to sequester more information to sub menus. PC users sit closer and are used to using our mouse and keyboards to navigate web pages and other applications, we expect our other interfaces to work similarly. Thus tool-tips, greater information density, and fairly static layouts are ideal for PC interfaces.

 

Also, "make it how I like it," is not only a perfectly meaningful phrase, it's the very basis of UX. The only reason we have design conventions is through years of analyzing how users interact with interfaces. There's not really a formula to UI design, mainly because it's subject to the volatile expectations of the user.

[Wulfram]

I'm not all that picky about the UI. Just give me more quick keys than ME2 and ME3.

[Linkenski]

I suspect it'll be very similar to ME3's interface. 

In design, sure, but I do fear DA:I's ui was as bad as it was because Bioware had trouble with frostbite (or they didn't even notice half the issues).

 

Speaking of which, I saw a live-stream pre-launch of DA:I on their Twitch channel where the war-table music was playing in Skyhold -- a thing that stayed in the final product and wasn't patched until months later. The bug happened when you fast-traveled from the war-table and upon returning to Skyhold the variable to play the war-table music still hadn't been toggled off. It was programmed so that pressing "exit war-table" is what turned off the music. That is just so amateur. Of course this is just programming related, not UI.

 

...But on the topic of UI again, it REALLY annoyed me how when getting an ability it would be autoslotted to your spell-bar in the next free slot, but there was no "unsign ability" option, so if I wanted to move Earthstriking Shake to the Circle button, but it had already been slotted to Square, then I would have two slots with the same ability. Then once I got the rest of the abilities I would need to manually place it because of that extra ability slot... and why the hell can I even have the same ability on several buttons? Why doesn't it just move it? It's not broken and it's nothing more than nitpicky, but c'mon, it was counter-intuitive.

[Lebanese Dude]

I don't think BioWare has ever had a perfect UI. There's always something missing. That's the case in any game I play though. It's funny.

 

I get accustomed to any single one pretty quickly, but there's always something that's irritating. I suppose it's subjective.

 

My favorite UI has got to be ME3's. Dragon Age UIs have always been a little messy unless modded.

 

At least DAI's UI was visually stunning. That helped distract me from its less favorable issues.

[Sylvius the Mad]

I've never really looked at the UI in a BioWare game and thought "Now this is an amazing example of a great UI".

NWN.

Just... let me rebind the damn omni-button so that I don't have half the functions in the game tied to a single key without going into the game files and doing it manually.

This.

Not just rebinding, but uncoupling.