The Grand New UI Thread: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

[Dogbreath]

So I wanted to consolidate all the current input on the new UI into one big thread, to help avoid duplicate posts. I will start this off, and edit the thread after every contribution. (preferably with a link to an RFE/bug report)

The Good
(stuff we like)

-I really like the DV and PV display. My only improvement would be to replace the current bars with a picture of a wooden shield and a picture of a platemail, and superimpose the stats over them. I especially like how the DV color changed with tactics settings - this is such a brilliant and simple way of displaying tactics, and is really handy, since I usually forget what my tactic are and have to check constantly.

-I like the scrolling message buffer for the most part. There are a few issues with it that have been addressed, but it speeds up the game considerably and makes for a smother, more immersive gaming experience.

The Bad
(stuff that's broken)

-Characters "swing" melee weapon and move forward when shooting missiles (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3476)
-(Not sure if TB is joking about this one) The old UI is used when commanding a monster (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3481)
-Numpad is broken in linux release (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3482)
-The targeting interface is slightly broken (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3485)
-Game takes too long to load (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3495)
-The message buffer can overlap (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3501)
-The game reverts to ASCII on first startup (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3470)
-ASCII Mouse Movement is broken (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3418)
-Wands of Monster Detection don't actually display monsters (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3513)
-The font is broken for achievements (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3515)
-There is a problem with duplicate cursors (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3527)


The Ugly
(Stuff we don't like/ideas for beautifying and enhancing the UI)

-Conversations with NPCs are easily missed in the message buffer, and seem odd. They should be replaced with a pop-up window. (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3473)
-The HUD needs to be more detailed (See conversation for http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3477)
-There should be consistent hotkeys throughout character creation process (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3497)
-System message scroll bar has poor functionality (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3507)
-There really needs to be a "notes" page (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3440)
-Change the color of the HP/PP bar in UI (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3529)
-Add mouse click functionality similar to "more" (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3498)


The Fixed
(15 bugs and counting!)

-Ctrl+nd command is broken (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3474) FIXED
-There is no way of checking your alignment in the new UI (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3475) FIXED
-Ctrl+nvs &nvm commands are broken (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3480) FIXED
-Reload prompt doesn't appear (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3484) FIXED
-Traps interfere with mouse control (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3488) FIXED
-Tooltip window won't close in ASCII (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3491) FIXED
-Back Button is incorrect displayed (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3503) FIXED
-The game freezes when you fire the last missile in your inventory (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3486) FIXED
-Level ups are sudden and jarring. There should be a splash screen (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3483) FIXED
-There needs to be a save/quit button for new players (perhaps looking like a open door graphic) (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3489) FIXED
-There needs to be a better means of displaying satiation level (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3477) FIXED
-Tooltips are confusing (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3469) FIXED
-Remove introductory message on Steam (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3502) FIXED
-You should be able to "mouseover" alignment display to see more information (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3524) -FIXED
-There is no way of checking your dungeon level in the new UI (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3478) FIXED

[Dogbreath]

Can a brother get a sticky up in here? :)

[haxot]

Also, when you mouseover your Character/Level, you get the tooltip "Character Class (L) use class ability (R) use skill"
l is look, L is literacy check
r is read, R is recipe check.

This tooltip is disconnected with reality.

[Ravenmore]

Also, when you mouseover your Character/Level, you get the tooltip "Character Class (L) use class ability (R) use skill"
l is look, L is literacy check
r is read, R is recipe check.

This tooltip is disconnected with reality.

Actually it's 100% on target :) However it signifies Left and Right mouse buttons. These will be replaced by icons to prevent confusion. Relevant issue:

http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3469

Edit: Oh, and yes, this means that some buttons have different functions depending on the mouse button clicked. Thoughts on that are also appreciated :)

Edit2: You can also use the scroll wheel when hovering over the DV window to quickly change tactics settings.

[Dogbreath]

Updated with recent bug reports. Please feel free to discuss Ui issues here. :)

[Elcs]

I miss my old bottom bar.

The clean look is great and all but I miss the clear and concise understanding of what is happening. These random little popups above my head aren't painting the picture for me... yet.

Whereabouts can I find alignment at this moment in time?

[Dogbreath]

I miss my old bottom bar.

The clean look is great and all but I miss the clear and concise understanding of what is happening. These random little popups above my head aren't painting the picture for me... yet.

Whereabouts can I find alignment at this moment in time?

You can't. (see the second link (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3475) under "the bad") It's one of the improvements of the new UI - it's now impossible to know your exact alignment without reading a scroll of balance. (Unless you "cheat" and change to the old UI) You can get a vague idea by memorizing all the gods' names and using the ":g" command, but that won't tell you the important stuff. (i.e, your exact alignment) You could imagine how frustrating this will be for new players who don't even know what alignment is or how it impacts the game. Unfortunately, Team ADOM has yet to confirm this as being a bug, but maybe if enough people complain about it TB will change his mind about it. :)

[Elcs]

You can't. (see the second link (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=3475) under "the bad") It's one of the improvements of the new UI - it's now impossible to know your exact alignment without reading a scroll of balance. (Unless you "cheat" and change to the old UI) You can get a vague idea by memorizing all the gods' names and using the ":g" command, but that won't tell you the important stuff. (i.e, your exact alignment) You could imagine how frustrating this will be for new players who don't even know what alignment is or how it impacts the game. Unfortunately, Team ADOM has yet to confirm this as being a bug, but maybe if enough people complain about it TB will change his mind about it. :)

Thanks :)

Is it possible to get our bottom bar back? :P

[Soirana]

Thanks :)

Is it possible to get our bottom bar back? :P

"Ctrl"+"n" followed by "m".

as per
http://www.adom.de/forums/showthread.php/13693-Feedback-of-my-first-challenge-of-the-week?p=98393#post98393

[Blasphemous]

I think "L" and "R" for mouse buttons should be replaced with LMB and RMB - it's a standard in virtually all computer games I've been playing in recent years.
For a roguelike game that is highly reliant on keyboard, L and R are too vague and misleading when you introduce mouse support.

[Al-Khwarizmi]

"Ctrl"+"n" followed by "m".

as per
http://www.adom.de/forums/showthread.php/13693-Feedback-of-my-first-challenge-of-the-week?p=98393#post98393
A pity that getting the old info back implies disabling the multi-line message buffer.

[boat]

Jt has been updating this but I believe a big chunk of these issues have been resolved according to the bug/feature list. Is someone able to go in and update?

[Dogbreath]

Yep! :) (Sorry, been on Holiday. I'll have them updated in the next 20ish minutes)

[Dogbreath]

Ok, got all the original issues updated (most of them are now fixed), now I have to go through and add everything that's been posted since I've been gone. :)

[Dogbreath]

And going for the triple post:

It's now completely updated. I added a 4th category for the fixed bugs, as they were making the original post difficult to read. We're now at 18 open/15 fixed, which is pretty impressive. :)

[boat]

Awesome thanks for updating. Yea the adom team has been kicking butt lately. I bet a new release will be coming fast

[GordonOverkill]

Really looking forward to the next version. Just had an orcish druid starve to death without even noticing that I got hungry ;-)

[Ravenmore]

Just a heads-up: the new UI can also show your stats, just like the original one. They don't fit in the default 800x500 window, but if you enlarge it or go fullscreen Zeno's crafty magic will do its best to show as many PC stats as will fit on your screen :)

[anon123]

Two little details I noticed in ASCII R54 today, but I'm posting here because they're so small for a bug report, and Team ADOM reads this thread too:


"The weather is mild and comfortable. A slight wind is blowing" is no longer shown when you start the game, and I'd like to see it back.
When you get a prompt to confirm attacking a peaceful monster and press N, the "N" remains visible in the message area. May happen with other prompts too, didn't verify it yet.

[Al-Khwarizmi]

The new UI in tiled mode is now very nice. Again, it seems to show all the relevant information.

However, in ASCII we still have to choose... either we choose the new mode and then we don't see some very relevant information like stats or statuses like hunger, o we choose one of the old modes and then everything is fine, but we are back to the 2-line message buffer and the more prompts.

It would be nice if we could get a mode with ASCII, new message buffer *and* rich HUD.

[BenMathiesen]

I have a couple of suggestions based on a few hours of play in R55, too minor to count as bugs/features:

The Frost Bolt spell looks too much like a lightning bolt. I think it would be better if it used the fire bolt shape but with a different palette.

There is no satiation display--I notice when I get hungry but not when I'm satiated or bloated (aside from reading the message after eating, but it would be nice to be able to look it up)

It would be nice to be able to choose the font face and size of the scrolling message area. I find the serif hard to read; I'd like to change it to san-serif bold personally, but that's a personal thing. I couldn't find an option for this in the NotEye menus.

Casting a spell over an animated water tile noticably slows the spell animation too.

[aerol]

Make classic interface (Ctrl-n m) available in config (http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=4168)

[Norgath]

Hello, I really like that you have resumed progress on ADOM and am much appreciative. Thank you, it's a magnificent game.

The first thing I noticed with the new UI is that it likes to crash, lol: When the pop-up asks if you want to place an item you puck up to be placed in your ammunition slot, on the tooltip when the pic of the monster is clicked, the message from the food vendor "Isn't that nice?" or something to that effect. Possibly more but I turned these messages of to progress.

Some UI specific things I'd like to mention. Customization of the right-click; creating a white-list of what may appear when right-clicked, when acceptable. Currently I noticed when something is right-clicked a specific menu appears at different times, i.e. the difference between clicking on the PC and NPC, different options are available. I would really like to be able to modify this list myself. An example, currently I can't "t"arget and enemy or door(even if I have a Huge Rock at the ready), and I would like to remove some options from when I click my PC to stream-line game play("@") as it feels like clutter on my screen.
The tool-tip on the mouse-over is nice but it really gets in the way, a lot, especially since the monster-icon crashes the game when it's clicked. I would have liked to disable this but I find it hard to find this option, which will lead me to another point in a moment. To fix this may I suggest that the information be placed in a static or fixable location on the screen. Although the information is excellent, being directly over the object adds clutter to the combat area and can be distracting.

The options for this game are myriad, and frankly staggering, not that that's a bad thing. It's just that with so much customization, fluidity and clarity of information is more important than usual. An example of this is the FAQ itself. Currently the format is setup: Q, Q, Q, Q, then A, A, A, A,. I've found the standard Q,A; Q,A; Q,A; Q,A;, is superior as it allows for the writers themselves to more easily reference the question as the answer is being written and leaves less room for error. Much like the auto-pick-up, where do I put it? It's been a while since I played and now I have to research this, again, lol. The reason I bring this up here is that I would like to be able to adjust all these possibilities through the UI, somehow. The most simple way I can think of is; while the game is running, within options, using a white-list of acceptable files to choose from, open "X.NOE", save the text file, and forcing a restart if needed. There are more attractive options for this, but this would be a quick and dirty fix to get people fiddling with the files without having to navigate their OS. On a side note, the process of consolidation of information should help with progress in future endeavors.
Lastly, and finally, and this is probably on a list already, is the UI is unadjustable and only works in 'tiles' mode. Can it be detached to point of calling it regardless of visual mode?

[Kelibath]

I've got some old and some new notes based on my brief dalliance with this latest beta, but since they're not all UI-related I've posted them in a seperate thread. If you're interested, see it here:

http://www.adom.de/forums/showthread.php/15167-New-Beta-Bugs-Notes-and-Suggestions-for-Dev-Team

[Ravenmore]

I wonder if Dogbreath would be interested in updating his original post ;)

[grobblewobble]

Just a heads-up: the new UI can also show your stats, just like the original one. They don't fit in the default 800x500 window, but if you enlarge it or go fullscreen Zeno's crafty magic will do its best to show as many PC stats as will fit on your screen :)

Is there any way to view your alignment on a 1024x768 resolution? It seems not to fit. I can just barely see all of my stats, so alignment is probably supposed to be shown to the right of them?

If it is possible to disable the stats from being shown, so that there is room for displaying alignment, that would be great. Or any other solution.