I have suggested this in a different thread, but I thought it would be best to have it's own.
What will the UI look like on the players screen, and how will we be able to manipulate it?
Will it be 100% keyboard shortcuts to minimize the map, power bars, chat? Is there going to be anything we can't remove from the screen, such as the heatlh/energy?
I don't mind shortcuts but I just can't remember the vast amount that there are in games. So I had suggested there be an option for tabs. I had made a shrewd mock up of what it could look like:
[img=600x400]http://oi59.tinypic.com/vgh3i8.jpg[/img]
What do you think or this option, stupid or viable
I also wanted to hear others ideas on what they liked about the UI in COX and what they could do without, and any other ideas that might improve upon CoX's design
Do you think the health/energy/mana/momentum/xp should be on one line or stacked up like CoX? Should this be customizable by the player?
Should everything in the UI be customizable or should there be limits on what can and cannot be adjusted?
As a future option, what do you think of themes? Being able to download a theme that will change what your whole UI looks like, akin to what you could do with your wii
[img]http://i.ytimg.com/vi/mJ5oMzBG1ZU/hqdefault.jpg[/img].
So your menus and all your screen elements would have different outlines, outline colors, background colors, and whatever else.
The Carnival of Light in the Phoenix Rising
"We never lose our demons, we only learn to live above them." - The Ancient One
Avatar by lilshironeko
Personally I was very happy with the options and design of the UI in CoH. The only things I would do are to make sure everything was able to be moved, locked in place, have transparency adjusted, duplicated or removed entirely.
Basically give us the options to make the UI fit what we personally want to see.
I really liked that the UI elements could be freely dragged around on the fly as opposed to some games where you press a key to unlock it, turning everything into outlines which you can move and then press the key again to lock it and discover if you moved something far enough out of the way.
Another thing, and I'm not sure if it falls under UI or not, is indicators for teammates on the minimap. It was very easy to keep track of teammates in CoH. Not so much in other games. It's been so long since I've even teamed with anyone in other MMOs that I can't think, off the top of my head, what they do wrong but when I have teamed, I often felt lost trying to keep up with others.
"I don't think you understand the gravity of your situation."
I really liked that as well! I hope that they will use this feature in CoT, but to improve upon it I think it would be nice if hovered over them in the map it would give a small popup of stats. So it would say what toon, health, mana, etc. If teleport is going to be long range, you could click on their marker on the map and TP straight to them to help them
The Carnival of Light in the Phoenix Rising
"We never lose our demons, we only learn to live above them." - The Ancient One
Avatar by lilshironeko
One element I personally would like to see added is a "real" time clock for the Player's time zone, with an Alarm feature built into it which the Player can set to go off at a specific time.
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
That is one of my favorite features in WoW. Especially when new TV shows are coming on. ^_^
Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
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Be Well!
Fireheart
I rather liked CoH's UI setup. I have just one QOL request based on personal experience as a parent and pet owner. Please make the command to restore all windows easy to find for when the unthinkable happens.
I have nothing against the clock idea for CoT as Redlynne suggested but as someone who's been lucky enough to have TiVo for years I thought it was strange that some people still have to "remember" when TV shows start. I haven't really been too aware of exactly when any episodic TV show is scheduled to start or stop for years. ;)
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
I would rather this be a toggle on a "case by case basis" because there is *nothing* that annoys me more than accidentally moving stuff in my UI because I misclicked a piece that should't move.
Side note: Wildstar actually does this with its base UI, where you can choose to lock UI elements so that they only move when you hold down a modifier key, are locked in place or freely movable.
But that is just my own opinion on it.
I would call it a UI thing. So yeah, making it easy to find stuff (not just team mate though) on both the mini map and a general world map, would be useful.
Forget TV. I want to know when I have to stop playing games in time to (get ready to) go to work!
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
I definitely wouldn't mind the option of a timer, it would happen so many times where I would look at the clock and it would be 6AM lol
Here's another question. So I'm on Paragon Chat just roaming around in the CoX world. Would you rather have a Map like CoX, or what do you think of a opaque map that goes over most of your screen? Example could be the map in Path of Exile
[img=600x400]http://i.imgur.com/6zkOb7y.png[/img]
So it's like an 3D/AR HUD of the map.
Maybe the regular map could be like CoX but you could actually buy "eye contacts" that change how the map is displayed. So there would be an option for people as to how they want the map displayed
The beauty of this is when I play Path of Exile I can have the map up like all the time and it doesn't really bother me because I can still see everything that is going on in the screen. So essentially the map could be covering the whole monitor and it wouldn't hinder you from seeing what's going on on the main screen. Where as in CoX, a lot of time I would need to make the map bigger therefore blocking what I could actually see. Such as where I was going or that thug coming over from the corner of the screen about to bash me with a golf club.
The Carnival of Light in the Phoenix Rising
"We never lose our demons, we only learn to live above them." - The Ancient One
Avatar by lilshironeko
Work? Oh yes... work. I've heard of that. That's one of those "real life" things right? ;)
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
This sounds like a good way to create some useful temp powers. Different "map powers" could not only change how you see maps but could include other effects that simulate "x-ray vision" or other super-sensory benefits that you can't get using just the default map.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
For me CoX had a very good base for how to handle the UI, especially when they introduced the "save as default" options. That is one thing that gets me a lot in many MMO's, having to set up the environment to certain degrees to what I want for each character I make, even if it's just restoring from a file. Sure, even with the different "save as default" options in CoX it wasn't 100% but it was damn close iirc.
If we are talking about just visual customization then something like EQ2's system would be as close to perfect as someone can come imo.
As for maps, I would like a fully opaque and a 50-60% opaque as standard and using the different visual modes suggested here to add additional information to the map and/or environment around you.
Save as default would be a nice option. I think it would be cool to have a 5-10 empty slots that you could load up whenever you load up your character, you could save the slots to characters so it could do it automatically. Unless it was trivial to do and you could have each character have it's own settings.
IMO opaque is the only way to go but I think options are the best, I'm sure there are people out there who would rather have a map exactly like CoX. An option they could go with is to just have a slider for the map background.
What this thread is covering is anything that appears on the player screen during game play(the chat, stats, powers, map). And then the menus, whether it be the inventory menu, or the main menu(where you would find the settings, exit, etc)
The Carnival of Light in the Phoenix Rising
"We never lose our demons, we only learn to live above them." - The Ancient One
Avatar by lilshironeko
I would rather have a map like CoX - that is hidden by default but easily available on the HUD if needed. I always found the semitransparent overlay maps in Diablo and PoE to be distracting, difficult to read, and not really all that informative other than the general shape of the game area and exit points.
One of the elements I liked in CoH was the minimap. I would like to see that improved upon though, to take into account the 3D nature fo the spaces we'll be inhabiting, if that's possible.
Some of the coX interiors were confusing to navigate and even the minimap didn't always help. That said I don't know how you'd improve on it, I just know I want it to be improved upon if possible.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
In my opinion it's pretty hard to beat the CoX UI. It was sectioned pretty well with related items often grouped into the same power tray. Trays were very customizable - you could move them, colour them, change the transparency, etc. For the most part it was very well-designed.
There ARE a few things that I think it could have used from Cryptic's later UIs designed for CO/STO/NW;
A clock showing local real-world time. A lot handier than I would have thought.
Pop-up windows instead of full alternate screens for things like your ID screen or enhancement screens.
There may be little nitpicky things that I am forgetting, but all in all I don't think it would hurt to stay close to the CoH example.
Pop ups for sure.
A clock that you can switch from "Game Time" to RL Time would be a god send. Alarm would be optional.
Alternate Maps.
I have used the "overlay" maps in some of those 3D 3rd person view games, and are okay, if there isn't too much information being tracked.
A 3D map option in the mini-map for some of those labyrinth offices/caves would be nice.
Toggles for trackers. Everything from Goals to Team Mates to Stores (just like CoX).
One of the ideas that i remember reading, i might have suggested it but i wont take credit yet since i dont remember, is being able to move all the UI to a second monitor.
-AlienMafia (Justice Server)
Main: Thorns 13xx Badges
One solution is to enabled each "level" in the map to have it owns map view, that you could go up and down levels on.
This means that as you go from level 1 to level 2 on a "single floor" you would see the map change between the two map screens.
The other option could be to color code each map level on a single floor and let you toggle them on/off.
And then there is just doing a 2nd mini view point of the whole level that you can zoom in/out/rotate.
All of these have their own pro and cons.
In terms of "copying a layout" from one character to another, I *personally* prefer the "copy a directory/folder over" route. This allows me to back my settings up on my own computer/share them with others/do minute fine tuning outside of the game[1].
Side note: The copying/backing of the directory is handy for me as well, with some of the games because it means that I can also transfer the addons and their settings over as well... If CoT doesn't use addons, not so much of a problem, but I would still like a "file export" option
[1] When I want to do *pixel perfect* lining up with dead centre of the screen or a UI element that I cannot do just right in game, I am fine doing that stuff outside of the game.
The way it's done in EQ2 is that it's stored in a simple text file (.ini) and every time you log in a character (not just first time) and it doesn't have such a file it will ask you if you want to copy from an existing one. This also meant that full UI mods could place non-personal files there (or you needed to copy them manually) with "defaults" that you could use, often having several of them that were "optimized" for different resolutions.
Major advantages is the ease of completely resetting those settings, just remove the file. The ability to pre-copy the settings due to the naming scheme. The ability to do a backup of those settings.
The major disadvantage is that they don't automatically transfer over between installations.
The only improvements I can see right now would be the ability to store them centrally on the games servers so that they can automatically be transferred between installations, and the ability to assign one to be automatically used as default without having to explicitly select it every time I make a toon.
Considering the need to transfer the actual UI mod itself for those files to be fully usable then having settings automatically transferred over is somewhat wasted.
One thing I would like to see in CoT is one "Character Sheet" screen, sort of combining your "Character ID" with your "Character Info" (why those two were separate in CoH I have no idea). Instead of a "Battle Cry" you could simply have a quote like "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings" or "Peace Through Tyranny" or "In darkest day, in brightest night..." etc etc etc.
That would be a *perfect* case for allowing UI mods right there.
Expanding on that: I know that one of the RP mods for Wildstar basically creates a directory of housing plots that are available for players to use for RP (the list is taken from a website). And basically it then allows all users of the addon to visit any of the listed plots for RP[1] quickly and easily.
[1] Please note: This cannot override your own plot settings, so if you set your own plot on the website as open for RP but actually keep it set as "neighbours only" ingame, then only your neighbours can enter. Private setting means only you (or room mates[2]) can use it.
[2] Room mates are automatically your alts, and those who you want to give plot editing permissions to.
This works best for floors that don't have high ceilings, bridges over huge pits, etc. And there need to be "Up" and "down" markers where you have ramps or stairs between levels.
Further, it would be helpful if the map were brightness-coded to height of the terrain. For example, a field would be dark gray, and a rock arch over it would show as light gray, even if they are considered the same "floor" because mobs on the arch can interact with those on the ground and vice versa.
If other mobs are marked on the display, they should be modified to show vertical position as needed. For example, a mob could be a dot if around the same altitude as the player, a dot with a ^ above it if above the player, or a dot with a v under it if below the player. Same for waypoints and anything else marked on the map. It's nice to not spend an hour figuring out that the mission door is in a cave directly under your feet, and you need to go a quarter mile east to find the entrance to the tunnel to get there. (Looking at you, Brickstown.)
Too many switches, honestly.
That said, the full map view should let you view all the levels and maybe let you see more than one at once. Assuming how the levels connect is important. (Oh, look, I think there's an elevator shaft there!)
I tend to get lost on those. Accidentally scrolling too far to the side and just seeing black in the window, for example.
Stuff like UI settings should just get stored in an XML file. Then third parties can work out their own editors/scripts/whatever to do what they want with them.
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]
That's interesting, are they making it so that the screen can cover multiple monitors?
The Carnival of Light in the Phoenix Rising
"We never lose our demons, we only learn to live above them." - The Ancient One
Avatar by lilshironeko
Only if UE4 has that built in, IMHO.
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]
Assuming you have made the mission map already, is it possible to make a smaller version that's just semi-transparent wireframes and such, on a smaller scale, with icons showing points of interest, and then make it articulate in 3D, with the "top-down view of the currently inhabited cross-section" as the default?
One thing that would lead to is being able to see potential rooms that your character doesn't actually know are there. I guess you'd need to be able to obscure stuff with "fog of war" in 3D too.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
Instead of a Fog of War vet power, i'm starting to like the notion of a Detection Tertiary powerset.
So, you can see through walls into other rooms, as well as other things, Heat Based, Electrical, Cold, Water, or what have you.
ex:
[img]http://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2010/02/dzn_Anna-by-ZMIK-2.jpg[/img]
I personally would not be interested in multiple display of the game itself but just the UI on a second monitor with a changeable/static background for the second monitor.
The goal is to be able to clear up all clutter so that people can play the game without all the UI covering over the environment/enemies. This would a huge quality of life upgrade and will benifit the look of the game for streamers who are advertising the game for twitch and other gaming streaming services.
-AlienMafia (Justice Server)
Main: Thorns 13xx Badges
Blerf, let them F12 to hide the UI, like the rest of us.
Be Well!
Fireheart
That should be its own thing, not a replacement for the mini-map.
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]
Yea... but, I was hoping that the player could Mouse Wheel and it would gradually zoom out from Top view to Floor view! ;D
Wow, talk about disorienting. I had enough problems with the camera changing its distance repeatedly while I turned, because of varied distances to the back walls.
And remember, if the players can do this, then at some level the NPCs will be able to do it, too! I can hear the anguished cries of "cheat!" already. [Insert "why I lost Counterstrike" chart here.]
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]
Yeah, that sounds more like a temp/power to me rather than a map control. It would be a cool power though.
@AlienMafia: That brings up an interesting topic. If all menus and trays were on a whole other screen. I don't think I have seen a game that has implemented something like that. But I think I would rather enjoy something like that.
So if you walked up to a store front, instead of pulling up the virtual store front in front of your character, leave the main screen as is and have it pull up on the second screen. So if you were at the tailor you could try an outfit on and then run around the store with the it on to see if it all looks good. It wouldn't be a huge QoL upgrade but I do think it would be handy for many more purposes than that. This would also play into my theme idea, where the theme would change how the 2nd screen looks
The Carnival of Light in the Phoenix Rising
"We never lose our demons, we only learn to live above them." - The Ancient One
Avatar by lilshironeko
2nd screen opens up a lot of options but it cannot, for any reason, give too much of an advantage but just keep it to quality of life type of things (like the 2 ideas mentioned and anything similar)
-AlienMafia (Justice Server)
Main: Thorns 13xx Badges
The only game that I can think of that used a second display for something like this was Supreme Commander (a Real Time Strategy game), and it used the 2nd display for the minimap (well in this case, full screen map).
However, it did come with a (relatively) major issues, at least it was a pain for me.
Alt tabbing minimized the game on both displays. This was because of the route that the game had to go to be able to do this, which was Full Screen Exclusive mode. If you went for the "windowed" mode... no 2nd display map for you.
So to me, it looks like the only real sensible way to implement something like this would be to make it so that when you do choose this option, it just renders on the left/right hand half of the window the game world, and on the other half it would be the general "not essential" UI.
Not saying that it isn't worthwhile investigating this, just bringing up potential issues that can happen when you want to try something like this, with what other games have done previously.
Please note: I believe that this is more of a windows option than an issue with other OS's, but I don't know what issues, if there are any, that other OS's have.
"I don't think you understand the gravity of your situation."
I think Eve lets you do it, although I think the background view is expanded as well.
I only had one monitor when I played it, but I read in their forums about folks who used three monitors and had all their open windows off to the sides with the center being clear.
Of course, there's a lot of empty space in Eve which keeps the graphic overhead down. That setup probably wouldn't work nearly as well in an environment like ours.
"I don't think you understand the gravity of your situation."
Hmm, yea, unfortunately I would think a system like that would not have already set up tools to accomplish it within UE4. Which would mean it would have to be constructed and tested manually which would take a lot of time. It seems like it would need a lot of programming know how which I for one do not have :(
The Carnival of Light in the Phoenix Rising
"We never lose our demons, we only learn to live above them." - The Ancient One
Avatar by lilshironeko
For Eve Online, it was the simple "Triple/double wide screen with fully movable UI". So it was rendering the game world across all of the monitors, whilst still allowing you to move the elements.
Hell, you could do this in City of Heroes if you really wanted to (even in Windowed mode). Of course, you took the required performance hit of rendering at a higher resolution.[1]
What I think AlienMafia wanted (or was at least going for) was the game world to be rendered and scaled for *one* monitor, leaving the 2nd display for everything else. Without the need of heading down the Eyefinity/custom resolution route.
If that is the case, that is harder than going the route of what pretty much every other game out there does for dual/triple screening.
[1] The wonders of setting up a custom resolution/Eyefinity/whatever Nvidia calls it.
You are correct Grangel. The game world is only on 1 screen while UI and other options can be placed on a second monitor.
I think it is well worth looking into especially with a brand new engine and newer tech
-AlienMafia (Justice Server)
Main: Thorns 13xx Badges
Afaik the only way to be able to move game elements to a second (or third of fourth or whatever) screen without "taking it over" is to make every such element an independent window (in programming terms). The coordination and communication between them would most likely be a nightmare to code due to each element being its own thread (or possibly even process).
I believe that currently, if UE4 supports it, that the most efficient way is to extend the game over all monitors you want to use but only render the "game space" on the ones you choose and use the other ones for UI elements.
I really liked the way COH handled chat. Especially the ability to have multiple windows open with different channels. I think that is pretty important for maintaining the social atmosphere of the game. It seems like current games tend to create a few dedicated channels in which to funnel all traffic. But then you get wonderful experiences like world chat and map chat. It would be nice for a coalition or guild or raid to have it's own channel in which to operate.
I had always dreamed that the chat server could be plugged into a system outside the client, like an app so I could keep in touch while at work or away from my PC. In that mindset it might be easier to integrate an existing Instant messenger program into the client, something that already hooks into an externally accessible app.
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Pretty much every single MMO that I play, the first thing that I do is split the required channels into their rightful place.
Then I go a bit further: some channels I will have in multiple tabs (whispers/guild for example) to ensure that I don't miss anything, whilst others will just be in one tab out of several (typically the global non guild tabs). And then on another tab I will have party/raid/instance/PvP chat.
Depending on the game, they may or may not allow you to have the same channel in multiple different tabs, so the ordering changes a little bit according those restrictions, but I have not seen many MMO's where you are actively prevented from reorganising the chat tabs/channels that are shown.
Side note: This does not mean that the *default* setup in those games is perfect or ideal, CIty of Heroes by default jammed everything into 2 tabs at the start if I remember correctly.. then again, I know people who just turn off the local chat and don't run any additional chat tabs, so YMMV according to personal preference.
Well, I guess my experience is a little different. It's true that many games will allow you to put chat sources into different tabs, but they wont let you monitor each tab concurrently. Currently in GW2 I have guild chat in a separate tab by itself, but if I need to monitor events I have to monitor map chat. I have another tab set up to monitor that, and also guild chat. If I'm busy doing an event it's easy to miss a statement in guild chat as it streams in with the constant deluge from map chat. So I'd have to toggle back and forth between the two. It's not terrible. But with COH I could monitor both at the same time in separate windows. That's what I'm looking for in COT (or any game really) the option to pull tabs out into new separate windows. Along with some of the other features.
Secondly, I don't know of many games that allow you to create your own channel. Which was nice. You could keep track of all your friends no matter what SG or coalition they were in, because those channels weren't dependent on your characters affiliations.
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The splitting apart of chat windows, at least in the games that I have played, has been pretty much "standard". World of Warcraft, Wildstar, The Secret World, Eve Online and Rift.
Strangely enough, with the exception of Eve Online, these are all games that also allow addons to add additional functionality (MSN chat capability for World of Warcraft was one addon), so even if the base UI didn't allow something (because the developers didn't think about it, because they felt it wasn't worth the effort implementing something like that, or because they just didn't want to do it[1])
And I know that World of Warcraft, Wildstar, The Secret World and Eve Online also allowed the creation of custom chat channels (of one form or another).
Side note: Neverwinter/Champions Online/Star Trek Online have their cross game chat, and you can also (apparently at one point, not sure if able to now) use an external chat client to communicate with your friends/global chat channels as well whilst out of game.
[1] One example for me that springs to mind is the"Killroy" chat addon for Wildstar. It enhances the base chat client with changable fonts, RP chat filter and formatting (different font/color as needed), as well as the ability to more finely tune the range filter (along with occlusion blocking of chat as well[2]). Oh and the ability to highlight your character name/alias as well.
[2] If the person is on the other side of a wall in an open zone, you will NOT see the chat from them. Yes, this is an RP thing (welcome to RP tagging of chat)... and I can see as to why the developers might have decided to NOT implement this themselves.
That is interesting, I've been under the impression that COH was one of a select few to have such a robust chat system. It seems that is only true of the limited number of games I've played. Hopefully COT follows suit with such a flexible chat system.
Another thing I've been thinking about is controller support and integration with the UI. In COH you have power bars and you could have 10? of them each with 10 slots. Most people opted to not have all 10 on screen at once but I was a victim of having as many as 4 on screen at a time. I always wondered how you could play a game with a controller. You'd have to have a 50 button controller with joysticks for movement and camera. (I admit that I never tried to play with a controller.)
I thought a reasonable solution would be to create a control that would allow you to navigate through the powers in a cyclical fashion. The UI would feature a slot machine style display, a "power wheel," that would rotate 3 or 5 powers into view at a given time. The center power would be highlighted and activated with a trigger control or face button (user configurable of course) A second button would control shifting the "power wheel" to highlight a new power. So for two power wheels with 10 powers each you need 6 buttons. If you take a standard Xbox controller you can easily do that. You could do that with the arrow keys and left and right trigger, or two face buttons. For each power wheel you could use a 4th button to toggle between a series of wheels reducing the number of buttons required to access 100 powers to just 4. Activate, scroll+, scroll-, and toggle. That would be incredibly overwhelming, but a new character would only need one power wheel for 10 powers, that would be easy to manage. As they grow they could add complexity. That and a character might only actively use 1 or two of these wheels at a time. While passives and toggles are switched to 3rd and 4th wheels.
TL:DR The UI could have a unique display style to better accommodate a play style that includes use of a controller.
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I just got on paragon chat and I think it's cool to be able to go through paragon chat with a separate xmpp client. Hopefully CoT can do something like this but have it be in an app. I would love to be able to have access to the chat outside of the game. Especially for the Supergroup. It could be a case where you can send a Help request to "In Game" players and a Hep request to "All". So even people in the supergroup who aren't playing and have the app can get alerts.
I do think it is good to have chat be allowable to go into separate windows.
The Carnival of Light in the Phoenix Rising
"We never lose our demons, we only learn to live above them." - The Ancient One
Avatar by lilshironeko
So it would could potentially have a layout that looks like this(I know the elements look awful, but I'm talking about just the layout)
[img]http://s11.postimg.org/9rpbw66ib/Example_of_second_screen.jpg[/img]
It could have something akin to Windows 8/10 start menu, where you can have each element be fully customizable(adjustable in size and position as well as what elements are on the screen all the time and which aren't)
So if you want your inventory up all the time this can be done. Or whatever is most important to the player
The Carnival of Light in the Phoenix Rising
"We never lose our demons, we only learn to live above them." - The Ancient One
Avatar by lilshironeko
Given that the UE4 editor makes very heavy use of dockable windows and will quite cheerfully let you drag them out of the "main" window to drop them on another monitor -- or in fact multiple other monitors -- I would hope that they won't do something so utterly broken as "failing to keep that feature working".
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and multipurpose sheep
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CoT has been dogfooding on XMPP since sometime a bit before the KS, unless my memory is way off. Specifically because the known examples of other games allowing external clients all appear to be XMPP based, meaning folks who want to use the feature would (in theory) find it familiar territory.
As for separate windows, if it isn't in the main client the very first UI mod I will be coding is a way to have multiple *separate* chat windows, each with their own set of tabs *and each with their own input*. The number of times I have had to repeat myself in CO (or had to on CoH/CoV) because I didn't have the right channel selected when I entered a reply to one of the 4-5 channels scrolling by in the tab is... well, let's just say that I've had twenty years of practice at *not* screwing it up, and I still regularly give up after the dozenth or so time of doing it in a single evening, on CO.
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[color=#ff0000]Developer Emeritus[/color]
and multipurpose sheep
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
This is very much the sort of thing that works great if done as a mod, but has a very nasty tendency to bias gameplay mechanics if it is on the core dev team to support it, unfortunately. The results show very clearing in CO's casual requirement of blocking in the middle of other actions, moving around while doing other things, and the need to have immediate tactical responses -- all of which happen to be fairly straightforward and standard things that controllers make easy, and that are difficult (or for a non-trivial number of people, impossible) to manage with a keyboard. I would say 'and mouse', but generally the mouse is required for other things; trying to find and hit a power selection with a mouse pointer in the heat of battle is often harder than the keyboard approach. :P
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[color=#ff0000]Developer Emeritus[/color]
and multipurpose sheep
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
Thought I would duplicate this here since it is very relevant([url=http://cityoftitans.com/forum/case-mod-support]Source[/url])
The Carnival of Light in the Phoenix Rising
"We never lose our demons, we only learn to live above them." - The Ancient One
Avatar by lilshironeko
So is this something that can be easily ported to an app on a phone or is it something that is secluded to just the PC?
I have also been one to type "wrong channel" alot xD
The Carnival of Light in the Phoenix Rising
"We never lose our demons, we only learn to live above them." - The Ancient One
Avatar by lilshironeko
[URL=http://s105.photobucket.com/user/fireheart5150/media/Stuff/City%20of%20Heroes%20UI_zpsztz4gaqj.jpg.html][IMG]http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m207/fireheart5150/Stuff/th_City%20of%20Heroes%20UI_zpsztz4gaqj.jpg[/IMG][/URL] Here's what I have in Paragon Chat. Three separate chat areas, each taking different information and each one with internal tabs that can filter for different channels. This was native to CoH and I've never considered this inadequate.
Be Well!
Fireheart
Actually an interesting question. UE4 mods appear to be platform-specific, for the ones that are compiled (content-only mods are, well, content only, and thus don't depend on any platform-specific stuff). However, most mods are simple enough code that even if the creator doesn't have access to, say, an Android or iOS build environment, they can probably find someone who does and is willing to compile release versions.
Slightly more interesting, actually, is what UE4 is going to do about mods on iOS in general, given the Apple store, Unreal Marketplace, and various other factors. But that's one of those things where "time will tell".
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[color=#ff0000]Developer Emeritus[/color]
and multipurpose sheep
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
Clarification: any mod which doesn't add *new code* would be platform-independent. And that actually covers a whole lot; folks are releasing entire *games* that use nothing but the core Unreal Engine.
So something like extended chat UI options would quite probably *not* require multiple platforms, as long as it could be done using the existing Slate / UMG / etc. primitives, and the chat system were to be exposed to blueprints. And I can't imagine any obvious reason, offhand, why it wouldn't be -- since the *main* chat UI should probably be built in the same manner.
Something like SpacemousePro support, on the other hand, would definitely be platform-linked, since it would have to be interacting with hardware drivers.
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[color=#ff0000]Developer Emeritus[/color]
and multipurpose sheep
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
Also, I'd really really like it if the Chat system supported Nested / Indented replies, one level?
Think how Facebook does their nesting, but have the Message being Replied to Collapsed by default. Only if you Click Expand arrow doe it show original message.
I sometimes have to GUESS whos replying to what user chat message. So much wasted time. :/ Instead just click on the players Name on the Left to the message and choose Reply from the dropdown. ;)
Granted, people can be just as lazy as me, and not bother using the Reply feature. If there was a keyboard shortcut like Backspace or Backslash that would automatically reply to the very last Message, that would be nice too. And, if you're too slow in hitting Backslash before the next message appears in the chat log, you can use the Up Arrow to select the previous message above it. ;D
My bet is that they'll allow mods and treat them as in-app purchases. The question is how much they'll allow the mods to do. (Did Apple ever allow a SCUMM VM port?)
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]
Here's what I'm hoping for:
1) Multiple onscreen command bars that can be dragged around where I want them NOT just one bar that I can switch to different levels to see other buttons.
2) the Ability to drag powers, actions, and clickable items to where I want them on the command bars
Seriously I don't want to need more than about 8 keyboard buttons, because I really can't type without looking at the keyboard, so too many keybinds make the game unplayable. and keys to the right of the #5 require me to take my right hand off the mouse or lose my left hand's position on the QWES keys AAAA!
3) QWES ! At least as an option. I hate WASD.
4) a mini map like the maps in Zelda that show the explored areas of the level you're on (Not some confusing multi level overlap that makes it impossible to see where you are or how to get anywhere) and the ability to switch which level I'm viewing manually.
5) A minimap that has icons for certain features like doors, switches etc.
6) A minimap that teleporting characters can click on to teleport instantly to any explored location.
7) I want to be able to play the game in a window as well as full screen that way I can do stuff in other windows when I'm waiting on my friends, (or when my wife just wants to use the internet real quick to look something up) and I can use the clock on the taskbar. I never do anything fullscreen if I have a choice and I HATE it when I don't have a choice.
8) If I ever have abilities on my taskbar that have a limited number of uses, I'd like the icon to include a number that counts down as I use it.
9) I'd like to be able to toggle mouse look on and off because it's useful sometimes but I'd dig my eyes out if It was always on.
10) I'd like command bars for my pets, sidekick and hirelings that I can drag where I want them.
11) I'd like to be able to switch the command bars to vertical or horizontal, for improved customization. I like vertical bars near the sides of the screen and horizontal bars near the top and bottom.
12) The buttons should be big enough to see clearly and click easily but not so big that when All of my command bars are set I can't see anything else. Maybe allow us to scale them ourselves if that's not too much trouble.
13) Some menus need to be the flyout type. e.g. chat options, map options, emotes, store, help, set up and game options etc...
14) The chat windows in COH were perfect no need to change a thing.
15) telepathic interface as soon as the tech can support it.
16) A butler to bring me Diet Mountain Dew while I play.
17) $7,000 a week from Publisher's Clearinghouse
18) All the powers of my favorite toon available in real life
19) a 3D printer that..... oh sorry getting off topic.
Is that doable?
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse/pub/3185/Crusader-Game-Books
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC48O9dPcNVdeyNM4efAvX6w/videos?view_as=subscriber
Maybe.
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]
[IMG]http://i60.tinypic.com/34qmjnt.jpg[/IMG]
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse/pub/3185/Crusader-Game-Books
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC48O9dPcNVdeyNM4efAvX6w/videos?view_as=subscriber