Game News Wasteland 2 Kickstarter Update #36: Stats, Skills and Screenshots

[A user named cat]

Even AoD seems to have made that change. Granted the original version looks like something straight from an old city builder game; I think a combination of the two with the updated buttons and fonts would look great. Maybe I'm crazy.

 

[Rake]

Even AoD seems to have made that change. Granted the original version looks like something straight from an old city builder game; I think a combination of the two with the updated buttons and fonts would look great. Maybe I'm crazy.

You are not. Between the two i prefer the first, even as it is.
A combination of the two with the updated buttons and fonts would be perfect.

 

[Elhoim]

The main reason segmented GUIs are being used now is due to the huge amount of different resolutions and ratios. Back in the day, when we only had 640x480 for all computers, it was easy to design a solid GUI. If you ask me, I prefer them too in general, but doing a tailored and good looking one today for every resolution/ratio combination is a complete development mess, and in MANY cases you would end up with either a centered floating GUI, or with some repetitive tiling on the sides. Or centered with black or empty borders outside. And scaling in many cases is out of question since the results SUCK, with images being deformed and blurry/pixelized (at least in T3D).

 

[Infinitron]

Another thing about solid GUIs is that they don't look quite as good on top of 3D graphics.

 

[ghostdog]

Elhoim speaks the truth.

Though bigger fonts and maybe even a higher resolution and bigger UI for 1080p >= resolutions should be available.

 

[Elhoim]

What we did for AoD was to make 4 tailored sets on interface screens based on the height, (600 - 768 - 900 - 1080) with 4:3 ratio. So widescreen users get a lot of empty space on the sides, any resolution with height between those with empty spaces on the top and bottom.

Basically, every time we want to change something on an interface we have to do it 4 times, plus having 4 sets of image panels and buttons. Yes, a fucking mess

 

[A user named cat]

Elhoim why not initially make a widescreen-based solid UI like this for example? Especially if you prefer them as well.

(excuse the amateur quality, I just used some google image textures and did what I could with them)

Then for 4:3 resolutions and such, remove that filler piece between the dialogue and buttons. I know it's not exactly that easy but the principal seems simple enough.

 

[drae]

Sorry Phantasmal, but I still prefer the segmented UI over yours. I've said this before, but the segmented UI looks more jury-rigged and low-tech than yours so it fits the theme better. If another person is added to your squad, you can almost imagine some technicians rushing out a profile, plonking it onto the existing set-up and wiring it in using anything they can find. I love that low-tech shit. Thematically speaking, Wasteland is a game which suits a segmented UI, because a segmented UI will always pull off that hap-hazard, makeshift feeling better.

 

[A user named cat]

Well everyone has their preferences, which is why I'd like to see an option between the two different UI styles. What I've posted aren't meant to be finalized and judged as is, more like concept examples for actual graphic artists to work from. I'd love to see what they could come up with from scratch, where as I'm just messing with Photoshop.

 

[oljebox]

There's nothing quite like watching Codexers pretend to be knowledgeable about human physiology, engineering and applied physics.

As for the UI ... It looks functional. I would have preferred for the two left-most segments to be of one piece, however. Because the game world functions as a fourth, separate element, the human eye now sees four elements on the screen, and this flouts the "odd numbers > even numbers" design rule. Consolidating the two left-most UI segments would give the eye just three things to focus on: perfect.

The segmenting of the UI on the left makes it just slightly annoying to the eye, is all.

 

[ghostdog]

Well everyone has their preferences, which is why I'd like to see an option between the two different UI styles. What I've posted aren't meant to be finalized and judged as is, more like concept examples for actual graphic artists to work from. I'd love to see what they could come up with from scratch, where as I'm just messing with Photoshop.

As Elhoim said, if the UI scales for higher resolutions it will look like crap, if it doesn't scale and it's centered, it will look like the above Fallout UI. The Segmented UI is basically the same thing, but eh, segmented. Anyway, there's no way for the UI to not scale and fill the whole bottom part of the screen. (Unless you do a huge amount of work with questionable results)

And before you mention my PST UI, yes, I like how it fills the whole bottom part of the screen and yes, I've pulled some neat tricks with the dialog window which can now get much bigger (with some awesome help from taplonaplo) and yes, it looks pretty fucking sweet (if I may say so... )

BUT... It came up this way because I started from a fixed 1208x800 UI and then gradually added a shitload of things and moved to all-resolutions support. And frankly the UI is not prefect and has its share of weak points. If I did things again, I would have just centered everything, since it's the clever thing to do when you're working for multiple res support.

 

[Rake]

Well everyone has their preferences, which is why I'd like to see an option between the two different UI styles. What I've posted aren't meant to be finalized and judged as is, more like concept examples for actual graphic artists to work from. I'd love to see what they could come up with from scratch, where as I'm just messing with Photoshop.

As Elhoim said, if the UI scales for higher resolutions it will look like crap, if it doesn't scale and it's centered, it will look like the above Fallout UI. The Segmented UI is basically the same thing, but eh, segmented. Anyway, there's no way for the UI to not scale and fill the whole bottom part of the screen. (Unless you do a huge amount of work with questionable results)

And before you mention my PST UI, yes, I like how it fills the whole bottom part of the screen and yes, I've pulled some neat tricks with the dialog window which can now get much bigger (with some awesome help from taplonaplo) and yes, it looks pretty fucking sweet (if I may say so... )

BUT... It came up this way because I started from a fixed 1208x800 UI and then gradually added a shitload of things and moved to all-resolutions support. And frankly the UI is not prefect and has its share of weak points. If I did things again, I would have just centered everything, since it's the clever thing to do when you're working for multiple res support.

How about design the UI for highest resolution and then downscale it? I think PE will do it that way or something similar.

 

[Surf Solar]

Well everyone has their preferences, which is why I'd like to see an option between the two different UI styles. What I've posted aren't meant to be finalized and judged as is, more like concept examples for actual graphic artists to work from. I'd love to see what they could come up with from scratch, where as I'm just messing with Photoshop.

As Elhoim said, if the UI scales for higher resolutions it will look like crap, if it doesn't scale and it's centered, it will look like the above Fallout UI. The Segmented UI is basically the same thing, but eh, segmented. Anyway, there's no way for the UI to not scale and fill the whole bottom part of the screen. (Unless you do a huge amount of work with questionable results)

And before you mention my PST UI, yes, I like how it fills the whole bottom part of the screen and yes, I've pulled some neat tricks with the dialog window which can now get much bigger (with some awesome help from taplonaplo) and yes, it looks pretty fucking sweet (if I may say so... )

BUT... It came up this way because I started from a fixed 1208x800 UI and then gradually added a shitload of things and moved to all-resolutions support. And frankly the UI is not prefect and has its share of weak points. If I did things again, I would have just centered everything, since it's the clever thing to do when you're working for multiple res support.

Your UI is super awesome, only thing I dislike is the "Planescape:Torment" logo in the bottom bar.

 

[ghostdog]

Surf Solar :Yeah that logo kinda bugs me too, it's a remnant of the first version.

Rake : Hmm, I didn't know PE was going to design a High res UI and then downscale it... Could work.

 

[A user named cat]

And before you mention my PST UI, yes, I like how it fills the whole bottom part of the screen and yes, I've pulled some neat tricks with the dialog window which can now get much bigger (with some awesome help from taplonaplo) and yes, it looks pretty fucking sweet (if I may say so... )

Hah, that's funny. I didn't even realize you were the same ghostdog who made that widescreen UI. I must've missed when it was posted here and had gotten it off another site. I agree with Surf, you did a good job on it.

Has there been any official screenshots of PE's interface yet? The downscaling idea is basically what I've been saying. Start with a solid UI at say 2440p resolution and work down from there. I don't see what the problem is, just requires a little more elbow grease.

 

[crawlkill]

there was a City of Heroes instanced map I particularly hated that was a 3D sewage treatment-esque pipe maze like that first screenshot, so my opinion on it being meh is invalid. second one is gorgeous, though. boo for oxford comma in both writeups! still, they seem nicely florid and menacing, seems like a good fit.

And before you mention my PST UI

I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that author is lurking around here, but great job, man, discovering that inspired my most recent PST playthrough and my first one in many years