User Interface

[Necifer.9174]

Hello my fellow GW2 Players,

I want to talk about the UI. This game has been around since 2012 and I played it since it's first day of release, but somehow it could never sustain me for a longer period. As a PvP-Player this game provides me with tons of fun content and still I always found myself stop playing this game shortly after picking it up again. Wondering why it suddenly came to me like a revelation: The User Interface.

It is way too confusing/unclear. I never really understand what is happening in combat and I didn't really understand why. So here is the thing: I am a long time WoW Player, I had my breaks off it, too ofc - even half a year - but whenever I jumped back in, I instantly knew what was going on in Combat and could react properly. And a big reason why is the customizable UI. You can fit it to your liking and put every Information you need into the position and size most befitting to you.

This is where GW2 is lacking big time. The standard UI is plain horrible.

1. Health- and Buffbars: With the target-frame being on the top corner of your screen and your character-frame on the bottom you are forced to constantly switch ur focus between the top and bottom of your monitor.
2. Buff- and Debuff-Iconsize: The Spellbuttons are 4 times bigger than your buff and debuff icons. This is horrible. How can you srsly put in such small Icons for your Characterbuffs/debuffs? It is a pain in the ass, trying to track all of them and contributes extremely to me being unaware of what is really happening in a fight.

These are only 2 points, but they are the main reason why I can't get myself into this game for a longer period of time because it gets frustrating dying so many times because I can't comprehend the situation in combat properly. I don't want to have to get accustomed to this horrible frameplacement and the buff/debuff icons are just WAY TOO SMALL to notice them in fights. Meanwhile my Spellbuttons are huge as fk where I am only looking out for their cooldown...

Just my thoughts. I really love the gameplay of this game and the PvP-Content it brings. It pains me every time I stop playing bc of this horrible UI Design and lack of customizability.

[Randulf.7614]

The UI is apparently is not something they can easily change. I forget the details the devs went into (I’m sure the usual people will have links bookmarked to post..), but it’s pretty much impossible for them to make significant changes iirc

Personally I don’t find it that bad. I certainly prefer it’s less cluttered approach to most mmos anyway

[Necifer.9174]

I wouldn't even change that much myself either... I would just want to have the enemy healthbar close to mine and I would readjust the size of buffs/debuffs... that alone would help a lot.

[Zexanima.7851]

@Randulf.7614 said:The UI is apparently is not something they can easily change. I forget the details the devs went into (I’m sure the usual people will have links bookmarked to post..), but it’s pretty much impossible for them to make significant changes iirc

Personally I don’t find it that bad. I certainly prefer it’s less cluttered approach to most mmos anyway

Maybe they should have designed it better. This seems like a common thing Anet uses as an excuse, and it's just that. Do they, like, hardcode 95% of their stuff or something? It either means;

• It's bad/outdated code that needs to be refactored to be more modular and dynamic.
• They don't feel like spending the time/money to improve this so this is there generic excuse because most their players are not software engineers and will just take them at their word.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Or, like the Devs have stated, it's the way they want it to be. /shrug

[Zexanima.7851]

@"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:Or, like the Devs have stated, it the way they want it to be. /shrug

Me reading my boons/condi:

I feel like they don't want people to struggle to read the interface, but I guess I could be wrong.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

You'd have to ask them. Or, take their word for it.

[Trise.2865]

Why are you counting on the UI to entertain you? Is there really nothing else on screen you want to look at? are you sure?

...pocket Raptors.

[Etria.3642]

Oh to have the swtor interface...

[Erasculio.2914]

@Randulf.7614 said:The UI is apparently is not something they can easily change. I forget the details the devs went into (I’m sure the usual people will have links bookmarked to post..), but it’s pretty much impossible for them to make significant changes iirc

That's incredibly poor design :/

It's just like the old forums - it was ugly and ArenaNet knew it was ugly, but there wasn't anything they could do because they weren't anymore with the company that had created them. The solution was to lock everything and start again in a new forum.

Now, it wouldn't be so easy to just throw GW2 away, but if the game is so poorly programmed that they cannot change the UI even if they want to, well...

[Necifer.9174]

@"Trise.2865" said:Why are you counting on the UI to entertain you? Is there really nothing else on screen you want to look at? are you sure?

...pocket Raptors.

I am not counting on the UI to entertain me at all - the content itself is what entertains me. But as a PvP player with a competitive mindset the UI hinders me greatly from enjoying that said content.

Your focus usually is on the middle of the screen, where your character is located - so you can easily track area effects and positioning. But the UI is forcing you to avert your focus to the borders of your screen thanks to their positioning. That is just plain bad design and takes the joy of PvP from me. The size of the Buffs and debuffs make it hard to track them in the spur of the moment, too. Resulting in me often not knowing why my enemy was just seemingly immune to all my damage or why I died - because I couldn't track it at that specific moment.

The UI is beautiful in an artistic viewpoint, but positioning and sizes are seemingly done by someone with no idea about competitive PvP.

I mean, I am literally sitting in front of my monitor just screaming internally "WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED!? WHY DID I DIE NOW? WHY DIDN'T HE TAKE DAMAGE?" whenever I am dead... And while you - of course - could argue with "get better" which is definitely the case, the game itself should provide enough easily obtainable information to the player so that he can understand what happened and why it resulted in a win or loss. And exactly that is NOT given by the way the UI is placed and sized.

[yann.1946]

@Necifer.9174 said:

@"Trise.2865" said:Why are you counting on the UI to entertain you? Is there really nothing else on screen you want to look at? are you sure?

...pocket Raptors.

I am not counting on the UI to entertain me at all - the content itself is what entertains me. But as a PvP player with a competitive mindset the UI hinders me greatly from enjoying that said content.

Your focus usually is on the middle of the screen, where your character is located - so you can easily track area effects and positioning. But the UI is forcing you to avert your focus to the borders of your screen thanks to their positioning. That is just plain bad design and takes the joy of PvP from me. The size of the Buffs and debuffs make it hard to track them in the spur of the moment, too. Resulting in me often not knowing why my enemy was just seemingly immune to all my damage or why I died - because I couldn't track it at that specific moment.

The UI is beautiful in an artistic viewpoint, but positioning and sizes are seemingly done by someone with no idea about competitive PvP.

I mean, I am literally sitting in front of my monitor just screaming internally "WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED!? WHY DID I DIE NOW? WHY DIDN'T HE TAKE DAMAGE?" whenever I am dead... And while you - of course - could argue with "get better" which is definitely the case, the game itself should provide enough easily obtainable information to the player so that he can understand what happened and why it resulted in a win or loss. And exactly that is NOT given by the way the UI is placed and sized.

You can actually see all you're boons just by looking at you're character. I don't know about condi tho