thesheeep
Arcane
I generally agree, but...For Saving Throws in BG, descriptions from Useless to Legendary. Then if you hover over them, you can see the exact numbers. That is information that while important, is not utterly crucial that you know at all times that you have a 6 in Save vs. Wand and a 7 in Save vs. Breath.
For UIs in general, I just think they need to look more interesting and game-specific. A journal for quests should look like a journal (Morrowind), but have advanced features for you to search it, make notations of your own, etc.. An inventory UI should have some flavor related to the game lore, and in an RPG should look like some RPG-thing (weathered parchment, whatever.)
Skyrim is an example of how to do a terribly unimmersive UI. Ironically, the Perk Chart is a step in the right direction, not perfect, but at least shows they almost tried to make an interesting RPG UI related to the game lore. Your UI should look less like a spreadsheet or white-on-black with boring visuals and look more like something from the actual lore of the game world you are playing in.
Finally, ELEX in terms of health bar. I use health bars over portraits in BG and I like ELEX's health bar. There is no need to know if I have 725/800 HP when a visual representation will work. It's more immersive, but also, you can make the health indicators lore-specific as well. ELEX didn't really do that, but the health bar in ELEX could easily have been some mechanical-looking thing from the Adjutor (ELEX's Pip-Boy.) Maybe the Adjutor could have a holographic indicator showing you how healthy you currently are, or some such thing. Even descriptive text would be cool IMO, as it could tell you "Emergency! Seek immediate medical attention!" or whatever. Diablo had health "bars" that looked like potion bottles, and it was pretty fitting and cool at the time (for mana especially.)
I'd like to see skill numbers start to have the same descriptive text as my saving throws example eventually. Does it matter if I have a 52 in Pick Locks, vs. a 68? Sure, a few extra chests might open, but what do those numbers actually tell me? Descriptive text saying your Pick Locks skill is "Good" would accomplish the same and be nicer to look at. And if you hover over Good, you can see the exact number in a pop-up tip, but also a description that says "You are able to pick enough locks that you'd give a halfling rogue a good run for their money" or something, again related to the game lore. See Planescape: Torment for a great example of that (character sheet scores for STR, INT, etc. have descriptions that tell you just how impressive your skills are getting, with 25 actually being Godlike, with interesting descriptions, etc..)
Why not both?
Archery:
58 - Good
Dodge:
65 - Very Good
Having only single numbers doesn't tell you how good a single value is without RTFM, but having only a visual representation in words doesn't tell you anything about the math involved in raising them.
If values are in the lower range (say 0-10), they can be represented in bars, combining both:
Archery:
|||||.....
Dodge:
||||||....
Trying to hide the math behind a game too much will only result in dumbing down, though.
Why? It is basically the most important value of most weapons (if they do not have other properties like stunning, etc).Any game that has a DPS number should be buried in the desert with that ET game. Or restricted to console.
Of course, it only makes sense if there is such a thing as varying attack speed. And I have seen it in games where there isn't, making completely redundant.