Visibility

Agreed with everything Inverse said but honestly I am really worried now about the UI, especially after seeing a post on the SEGA forums. A guy made a comment about the horizontal resource bar on the complete other side to the minimap and the lead UI designer made a response.

Response. 'This is probably the biggest change we put in, I am really hoping that the ability to quickly compare the costs of a unit/ability vs what's available will make up for the behavioral adaption required from Coh1. Give it more time.'

Does that literally mean they are leaving the resource system this way and telling us to get used to it? I can't get used to it after 50 games, whilst I learn't gridkeys very quickly and they are now confusing my CoH1 hotkeys. I just don't understand why they would split the two most basic game information sources in the game away from one another. I am honestly given up all hope on them producing a decent UI that is even comparable to the perfect UI in CoH1.

I can barely play the game for 1-2hrs because of the amount of eye strain in which I receive, due to multiple factors including colours, mini map and blizzards. Love CoH2 as a game, but the UI at this point is killing it for me beyond belief. They better fix it or I am hoping someone will eventually make a mod for it.

dude, post that in the beta forums, preferably in the thread about UI feedback...

i was telling the UI designer the same thing, but he told me that people "use it all the time [to compare the cost vs. available resources]". i have not seen a single person say "yay, the change is good" but universally a "it was better before"... the more voices the better, or we might actually really have to learn to live with it....

Hmm.. Haven't played the beta yet (I got a key from Krebs give away) but I'm not liking what I'm seeing so far... Very well written though Inverse.

Agreed on all points

Agreed with everything Inverse said but honestly I am really worried now about the UI, especially after seeing a post on the SEGA forums. A guy made a comment about the horizontal resource bar on the complete other side to the minimap and the lead UI designer made a response.

Response. 'This is probably the biggest change we put in, I am really hoping that the ability to quickly compare the costs of a unit/ability vs what's available will make up for the behavioral adaption required from Coh1. Give it more time.'

Does that literally mean they are leaving the resource system this way and telling us to get used to it? I can't get used to it after 50 games, whilst I learn't gridkeys very quickly and they are now confusing my CoH1 hotkeys. I just don't understand why they would split the two most basic game information sources in the game away from one another. I am honestly given up all hope on them producing a decent UI that is even comparable to the perfect UI in CoH1.

I can barely play the game for 1-2hrs because of the amount of eye strain in which I receive, due to multiple factors including colours, mini map and blizzards. Love CoH2 as a game, but the UI at this point is killing it for me beyond belief. They better fix it or I am hoping someone will eventually make a mod for it.

Like crawler said , pls post it to Sega forums. No idea does it help but atleast we can try. UI is horrible atm.

dude, post that in the beta forums, preferably in the thread about UI feedback...

i was telling the UI designer the same thing, but he told me that people "use it all the time [to compare the cost vs. available resources]". i have not seen a single person say "yay, the change is good" but universally a "it was better before"... the more voices the better, or we might actually really have to learn to live with it....

my bi8ggest problem is that i can't look at resources at the same time as mini map. (our eyes can only focus on 1 thing at a time.) however i do like the fact that info about the unit and its resource costs align allows me to compare and see exactly what him going to have when im done. however i feel there could be another way to do so that i don't have to look with both eyes moving in 2 different directions. i find i either have to look at my unit buildings or look at the mini map there is a better way i can think of a few options off the top of my head that would look very nice and shiny,

also the numbers are 2 damn small need to be bigger. not as bad as alpha but still to small... (sometimes i think developers are brain dead or have never played video games for more than 5 minutes at a time...)

just because something looks cool doesn't mean its functional like if a had a saw made of diamonds (solid diamonds.) it would be pretty but useless.

indicators of resources income are too small for me. In vCoH they're bigger and I prefere them to be that way.

I think that it is cool you can't see where the sniper shot from.

Just sayin.

+1 to the first post

I very much so feel the same way. The UI needs tweaking, especially the stuff that's going on on the upper right hand. Feels like somebody put a disco up there, and it's really confusing. I also agree on the visual feedback aspect (I'd add mortars to that).
However - you have to realized that most of us here have been playing CoH1 for SEVEN years now. We are so used to that old design, that it is hard to adapt to anything new. I too feel lost on the battlefield, but it's because I have no fucking clue what to build, how strong each unit is, I have no concept of timings, unit speed, etc. All this stuff WILL come with lots of practice, and you will likely get a much better grip of the game. I feel the blizzard very much plays into this as well. Yes, it slows down the gameplay, but I feel with more experience, one could pull off some pretty cool maneuvers during the blizzards.
tldr; I totally agree on UI and visibility, but give your (muscle)memory some time to understand the game better.

However - you have to realized that most of us here have been playing CoH1 for SEVEN years now. We are so used to that old design, that it is hard to adapt to anything new. I too feel lost on the battlefield, but it's because I have no fucking clue what to build, how strong each unit is, I have no concept of timings, unit speed, etc. All this stuff WILL come with lots of practice, and you will likely get a much better grip of the game.

That's not the point is trying to make. Ofcourse we have to learn the new units/maps etc etc. But the problem atm is. We have no clue what is going on. Units die without you knowing what hit/shot at them. In vCoH, if you were looking on the left side of Ango you could always hear a mine go off/mg fire or whatever. In CoH2, if you're not looking at a certain unit you'll lose it. And even if you do look at it, you can't see bullets, tankshells etc. I don't know why they changed it, but it's bad. It's impossible to play properly, because you can't keep track of what's happening.

Agree 100% with everything Inverse has pointed out.

Everything seems too small in CoH2 and lacking a distinctive, clearly visible outline. I would like to see all units outlined in black just to see what it looks like.

The UI is the biggest steaming pile of shit I have ever come across in an RTS. I would go as far as to say, the lead UI designer should be stood down and a replacement found ASAP, as it is obvious to me and a lot of other people he doesn't have a clear grasp of what is required for a good RTS UI. I mean for christ's sake, copy and paste the UI from vCoH and then IMPROVE on it, don't try and re-ivent the fucking wheel or anything because you don't need to!!

Here's a few hot tips Relic - Increase the fucking size of everything for starters, then make everything more visible, and tell us what the fuck is going on in the game. Then after that the person who decided to implement blizzards needs to give themselves an uppercut and remove them from automatch.

No disrespect to Relic Devs intended, but for the love of god listen to your community.

Made a post, once again in the UI thread but I feel it will fall on deaf ears.

I actually laugh at the fact that user called Robo came up with the art for a more clean, simple and ergonomic UI for CoH2 in the space of two weeks than what Relic has done in months. If they do respond in acknowledgement of these pressing issues or show their changes in the next 2-3 weeks, honestly I've lost all hope in having a game which is not hindered by a flawed UI system.

I just can't believe that the rest of the devs looked at that UI and thought: 'Yes, this is perfect'. They are supposed to be the professionals here. But as Stephenn said, I saw someone come up with a much better looking UI he made in just a few days

I agree with the feeling you mention Inverse.
I feel totally no control over CoH2.

Nevertheless, it is a bit unfair to compare that feeling to a new game. The question should rather be, how much in control of CoH2 will you fell compared to CoH1 in a year or two.

This does not counter most of your visibility arguments. But still, I keep asking myself what some more time in CoH2 will make us feel like.
Just a thought.

FFS there is no excuse about the state of the minimap. Those stupid transparent shields??? There isn't even an icon on the HUD WTF?!

Awesome thread. Hope Relic reads this one. Browsing the beta forums sometimes makes me want to beat my head against the desk.

@amonsot - you mean tactical map?

@thrill - Yes, excuse me I am blinded by rage. numpad 0 for extra clarification.

FFS there is no excuse about the state of the minimap. Those stupid transparent shields??? There isn't even an icon on the HUD WTF?!

Yeah there isn't a button for it on the HUD. And I know why.. It's because they don't want you to see it Only if you know the hotkey ^^

Agreed with everything you had to say Inverse, and blizzards really needs to be taken out of automatch.
Everytime a blizzard arrives i just want to leave the game because during the blizzard it feels like the game turns on its slow-motion mode and it just makes the game more boring. I don't like it one bit.