Official "Your HUD sucks and you should feel bad" Thread

devo your hud is sexy as fuck i love it. And i love you for making it

 

minimap border seems out of place

 

Teeeechincally not a part of the HUD and so will be done in a later patch.

Teeechnichally. Although I'm surprise you didn't say how out of place the squad menu is

 

I like the way the HUD is angled and also the map orientates itself based on movement, which is cool. Isn't Empires futuristic?

NS2 has a great layout too. Everything is more or so semi-transparent.

 

Yeah, a minimap that angles itself is pretty cool. It'll never happen for Empires though, our minimaps are both fucked codewise AND need to show far, far, far more information than Nuclear Dawns does. That's pretty much the reason we don't just lift the way they do things - people would be mad that they can see what leads where in district and yet have no fucking clue where the commander is or what the fuck is going on.

Also it would be a big buff to arty and fuck that.

 

I agree on the information part, however, the map/minimap icons are rather large for what they intend to represent. For example, the icon that represents you is massive. It doesn't need to be that large. NS2's layout would be better in that case. Their map/minimap has no rotation and it blends well with the HUD. It has the "feels" of a futuristic shooter. I would honestly scale the icons way down and add different color schemes depending on state.

 

This is an excellent candidate for a setting in the options menu...

 

Not if north is indicated and rotates around the map.

However Empires' map is square, a rotating square would just look weird.
So I don't think it's a good idea.

 

you're only replacing the ammo/health part of the hud? i thought it was gonna be a redo of it all?

 

Not really into the hard borders that surround the HUD elements. I liked the first new iteration (second screenshot) where as you move towards the center of the screen the border boxes around the HUD elements fade. Hard borders keep the elements constantly in my field of view when I don't need them.

 

Have patience, friend. This was a stupid amount of work as it is. More will be done but it will basically involve remaking all the menus to be way more simple and user friendly.

I have a skinny borders version but it doesn't have quite the same effect. I definitely can't do skinny borders AND a fade in, it's one or the other if either. What would be preferable?

Edit
Scratch that, I'm going to answer that question and say the real problem is big fat white lines surrounding a big fat white health bar. I'll see if I can either color the health bar or make the lines s tad thinner. Fade in won't be happening on the health and ammo bars with the new style, but the other menus is certainly will, and it'll remain in the top panels.

 

What he means is... what difference does it make if minimap code is horrible if you are redoing the hud anyway.

 

I've been told that the minimap code is up there in terms of "most fucked shit in empires", and won't be changed for a while. If it's fucked in terms of empires tier fucked, that means it would be weeks if not months of work and bugfixing, so it's best to work on other things for now that are simpler and more in your face.

It'll come though, but priorities have to be prioritised.

 

Okay, onto the first issue people had with the HUD - the outline distracts from the bar itself. It's also always bothered me that the stamina bar is green while the health bar didn't get it's own colour - so how about two birds and one stone? Nothing is final

 

Very good thus far. Here are a few points to think about. Apologies for the quality.
http://i.imgur.com/jG2dnhK.jpg

I've also attached a sample picture of NS2's Marine Infantry layout. The blend-in allows for maximum visibility of the battlefield at all times without having your vision blocked by the Interface.
http://static1.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/mig/8/5/7/4/2018574-935065_20121113_006.jpg

 

This is the thin borders test. Its hard to address everyones problems but I'm working on it.

I am way more limited in what I can do than you think - most of the code can't be changed at this point. If I make the top bars shorter, names and almost all research might not fit. Team Resources won't happen, it's a pretty clear number and I doubt anyone has ever thought it corresponds to the other team's resources. I personally wouldn't mind if it just said Res. Minimap won't happen this patch.

Still though, thanks for the feedback, thats exactly what this thread is for. I'll make the ammo panel smaller and consider changing the number width - I like big fonts and I cannot lie.

 

Doing gods work, Looks much nicer

 

I created a version which fades inwards but it might be a bit overkill. It's pretty rough because I haven't done it properly and it's just an example - thoughts?

http://imgur.com/a/uZm8Y