[Rebellion Beta Feedback] Interface Issues

from Stardock Forums

Hey!

First off, awesome game!  I love it so far, and I can't wait to see the end product!  I really think this is going to be an incredible game =)

I just played my first Rebellion game, and the first major annoyance I experienced was with the UI for the research tree.  A few things:

  1. Unless you click on the Research button, and then click through each of the individual trees, and in each tree look for the *slightly* blooming button, you will not know what is currently being researched.
  2. If you have multiple things queued up for research, you have no idea what order they are queued in.
  3. On high-resolution screens, it is very difficult to see the tiny little grey triangle in the bottom left that indicates that something has already been researched.
  4. The greying-out of the tech buttons doesn't at all clarify if you can't research something because you lack resources, or if you need more research stations.
  5. Lastly, some of the buttons are so dark / grey, they look like they are constantly grayed out!

Some ideas for fixing this that would be really, really nice:

  • For #1-#2, if you could just show a small queue of the queued research items, for military and civilian, on the main HUD, that would be awesome.  It wouldn't take much screen real-estate (just use the buttons that are in the tech tree as little icons).  This is how the Homeworld games did it, and it was very, very useful.
  • For #3, if you could just put a green alpha over, or a check mark, or something over the tech buttons other than the tiny little triangle, it would be far more visible.  I think it would be nice if players can open the tech tree, and immediately parse where they are.  Most other games with tech trees achieve this easily - look at Civ, Blizzard games, anything.
  • For #4 - You are already displaying icons over build items in the main HUD bar that indicate why you cannot build something (resources, logistics / tactical slots).  Why not do the same thing for the tech tree?
  • For #5 - If #3 gets changed, this will no longer be an issue.

Issues regarding the primary interface:

  • When you zoom way out, all you can see over your ships is your emblem, overlaid all over itself.  This is really unhelpful - you can convey the same information simply with color.  Why not give us icons to show us ship type, in the color of the player?  Seeing a huge cloud of my emblem totally doesn't help me organize anything.
  • There is no reason not to constantly display the infocard of the active planet / structure / ship.  At the very least, give us the option to enable that. I am playing on a wide resolution screen, and after I have selected something, trying to center my mouse over that unit's particular icon just to see the infocard is not only difficult, but obnoxious.  If I have selected a unit, why not just pop up the info card?  That will also make it easier to know that you have indeed selected the right unit, instead of trying to parse that info out of the empire tree.

Even if you don't want to make all of these the default mode, it would be great to at least have the option of enabling it!

The game is amazing. Thanks so much for doing a beta! =)

7,166 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

To your first complaint, mousing over the research button will show you both what is currently being researched and it's progress and what's queued up behind it.

As for knowing if you need more research stations, again, mousing over the desired research will give you the information you need. The background of the tech trees also changes colour as you gain more research stations to show what you can and cannot research. I'm fairly sure stuff you've already researched "pops" out more and has a border around it, and as you progress, you should probably know what you have researched anyway.

Also, if you have an object selected, all you have to do to bring up the infocard is mouse over the big picture of it in the bottom centre of your screen.

As for seeing emblem instead of ship type... I don't think I've ever had that problem, at least not noticably, I'm going to have to go and fiddle with game options to see if you've enabled something, I normally see a distinct icon for each ship type.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

In response to primary interface issue 1) this may be a bug you've encountered. When zooming out to view the gravity well, as I assume is what you are talking about, each ship type should be colour coded to faction and have it's own specific icon. Same thing for structures. The only object inside the gravity well to have the faction symbol on it should be the planet. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

When you zoom way out, all you can see over your ships is your emblem, overlaid all over itself. This is really unhelpful - you can convey the same information simply with color. Why not give us icons to show us ship type, in the color of the player? Seeing a huge cloud of my emblem totally doesn't help me organize anything.
End of quote

Your solution can be a problem in multiplayer when the color show is not the player color but the team color... it will become impossible to know if it is one of your ship or a ship from a team mate... it is why the emblem of your faction is useful...

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Edit: Argh, tried to respond to everything in-line, but I can't make the forum software do what I want it to.  Some quotes are block quotes, others are direct quotes.  Sorry, everyone. 

To your first complaint, mousing over the research button will show you both what is currently being researched and it's progress and what's queued up behind it.

As for knowing if you need more research stations, again, mousing over the desired research will give you the information you need. The background of the tech trees also changes colour as you gain more research stations to show what you can and cannot research. I'm fairly sure stuff you've already researched "pops" out more and has a border around it, and as you progress, you should probably know what you have researched anyway.

Ah!  Interesting that I didn't notice that.  I'll have to go back into the game and make sure that is working for me.  Regardless, I would love to see that become part of the actual HUD, though, without a mouse-over.  It wouldn't take much screen real-estate.

Also, if you have an object selected, all you have to do to bring up the infocard is mouse over the big picture of it in the bottom centre of your screen.

Okay, so that's a bigger target for the mouse-over, but still requires a mouse-over.  If I have already selected something, I would prefer to have the information immediately available without further navigation.  There's no reason to add extra steps between the player and relevant information!

As for seeing emblem instead of ship type... I don't think I've ever had that problem, at least not noticably, I'm going to have to go and fiddle with game options to see if you've enabled something, I normally see a distinct icon for each ship type.

Quoting pinback87, reply 2
In response to primary interface issue 1) this may be a bug you've encountered. When zooming out to view the gravity well, as I assume is what you are talking about, each ship type should be colour coded to faction and have it's own specific icon. Same thing for structures. The only object inside the gravity well to have the faction symbol on it should be the planet. Correct me if I'm wrong though.
End of pinback87's quote

Hrm, yeah, all I see is my faction's emblem - not icons for the ship types.  I wonder if this is indeed a bug, then?

Quoting Thoumsin, reply 3

When you zoom way out, all you can see over your ships is your emblem, overlaid all over itself. This is really unhelpful - you can convey the same information simply with color. Why not give us icons to show us ship type, in the color of the player? Seeing a huge cloud of my emblem totally doesn't help me organize anything.

Your solution can be a problem in multiplayer when the color show is not the player color but the team color... it will become impossible to know if it is one of your ship or a ship from a team mate... it is why the emblem of your faction is useful...
End of Thoumsin's quote

I understand your concern, but I think there must be a way to achieve both.  Maybe have two rings, one with team color, one with faction color; or maybe include the faction emblem, but just make it a very small icon off-set from the ship-type icon.

Either way, right now all I see is a cloud of faction emblems, which doesn't tell me anything other than that I've got a bunch of something in that general vicinity - this is next to useless when your empire has grown.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting HokieTux, reply 4
Hrm, yeah, all I see is my faction's emblem - not icons for the ship types.  I wonder if this is indeed a bug, then?
End of HokieTux's quote
Could you maybe post a screenshot of one of your gravity wells here? If I can have a look at it I might be able to tell if it is indeed a bug or that certain UI elements are disabled in your Options menu for some reason.