Eternity Avowed - Obsidian's first person action-RPG in the Pillars of Eternity setting - coming February 18th

[Just Locus]

I remember the first UI that really induced vomit in me was Skyrim. Not only was it horrible to navigate, it also felt like the Menu of some Bluerayplayer or something.

Oblivion was way worse;

• Only 6 items are visible before you need to scroll down due to the 36 font size
• Rife with sub-menus
• No Tooltips that provide the player with helpful or useful information
• You drop items from your inventory by holding Shift + LMB, when "Shift" in the PC interface is typically used for selecting multiple things at once
• The player character taking up screen real-estate when it's space that could've been used to provide the player with more useful information.
• 8 hotkeys only compared to Morrowind's 10. Further compounded by the fact that accessing spells in Oblivion takes way longer.

 

[luj1]

Dude in Skyrim the chargen was so buggy and unresponsive because it was designed for a joypad, I wasted 20 minutes on that

 

[Just Locus]

I didn't say Skyrim's UI wasn't bad, it was very bad but it has less problems than Oblivion's UI in my opinion

 

[Cryomancer]

Other things that I don't like in this game. The lack of conjuration. No, not only summoned creatures. I liked using conjured weapons on Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim. In my last morrowind run (with hardcore mod, magicka regen mod, and vampire embrace), I played with a conjured spear against any non trivial enemy till I got the Hircine spear.

BTW, not only the UI is ugly, but I also found the graphics of this game worse than Skyrim, modded Morrowind, ESO, and Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon. But the requirements would probably be much higher. Because M$ and its studios are now full DIE diversity hire infected.

 

[Roguey]

Skeuomorphic UIs have to be designed for multiple resolutions and no one can be bothered with that especially when a console is the lead platform.

 

[Butter]

Skeuomorphic UIs have to be designed for multiple resolutions and no one can be bothered with that especially when a console is the lead platform.

Sounds like a skill issue.

 

[Roguey]

Sounds like a skill issue.

It's a "Is this worth the time spent on this?" and that's a near-universal no.

 

[Vyvian]

I wonder if the similarities with The Outer Worlds will continue and I find a sword or bow in the first area that never gets replaced the entire game.
In TOW I honestly found a gun doing the first quests and never found a better one the entire way through.

 

[Butter]

Sounds like a skill issue.

It's a "Is this worth the time spent on this?" and that's a near-universal no.

Developers used to find time for it when they had fewer people and less money. Better explanation is that the developers who make disgustingly ugly characters also have no taste when it comes to making a pleasant UI.

 

[Roguey]

Developers used to find time for it when they had fewer people and less money. Better explanation is that the developers who make disgustingly ugly characters also have no taste when it comes to making a pleasant UI.

They didn't find time for it, they just designed the UI for one particular resolution and going higher (if the game would even officially support going higher) made it look like a UI for ants.

A few devs found time for it during the Kickstarter renaissance and then dropped it for the sequels because they realized designing a UI more than once is an utter drag (and were also porting these games to consoles).

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Sounds like a skill issue.

It's a "Is this worth the time spent on this?" and that's a near-universal no.

Because of the underlying skill issue.

 

[NaturallyCarnivorousSheep]

Iirc a lot of UI design these days is outsourced to like 2 companies.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Sounds like a skill issue.

It's a "Is this worth the time spent on this?" and that's a near-universal no.

If your game has the budget for full mo-cap and voice acting for a bajillion hours of cutscenes, it can afford a decent fucking UI that costs 00.01% of that to make.

I can forgive shitty UI from Illwinter or Dwarf Fortress. Anything with 3D graphics has no excuse for wasting their funds on other shit before a good UI.

 

[Roguey]

If your game has the budget for full mo-cap and voice acting for a bajillion hours of cutscenes, it can afford a decent fucking UI that costs 00.01% of that to make.

They could do it. They choose not to. Because it's not worth it.

 

[Gargaune]

Skeuomorphic UIs have to be designed for multiple resolutions and no one can be bothered with that especially when a console is the lead platform.

Well, yeah, but that's an explanation, not an excuse. "Good is hard so we made some crap instead", well shit, let me fetch my $70!


P.S. Also, I don't really think skeumorphics is the main factor here. Just 'cause it has a skeumorphic design doesn't mean those elements have to fill the screen at different aspect ratios, you can add decorative motifs to anchored panels and most users aren't going to notice the sharpness variation from scaling. More work, sure, but it's not a huge effort for a major studio, this is more likely a deliberate artistic choice.

P.P.S. Conversely, cutting down on skeumorphics doesn't save you from having to scale the UI properly. For instance, BG3 doesn't (or didn't, last time I tried it), and the controls page didn't display a scroll bar at my 1680x1050 resolution.

 

[Roguey]

P.S. Also, I don't really think skeumorphics is the main factor here. Just 'cause it has a skeumorphic design doesn't mean those elements have to fill the screen at different aspect ratios, you can add decorative motifs to anchored panels and most users aren't going to notice the sharpness variation from scaling. More work, sure, but it's not a huge effort for a major studio, this is more likely a deliberate artistic choice.

Bioware did something like this for kotor and it was really lousy.

 

[Butter]

P.S. Also, I don't really think skeumorphics is the main factor here. Just 'cause it has a skeumorphic design doesn't mean those elements have to fill the screen at different aspect ratios, you can add decorative motifs to anchored panels and most users aren't going to notice the sharpness variation from scaling. More work, sure, but it's not a huge effort for a major studio, this is more likely a deliberate artistic choice.

Bioware did something like this for kotor and it was really lousy.

Yeah this would look much better as generics slop.

 

[Roguey]

Yeah this would look much better as generics slop.

Looks fine to me.

 

[Gargaune]

Bioware did something like this for kotor and it was really lousy.

And Beamdog's done it with their Infinity Engine EEs and it looks just fine.

 

[Roguey]

And Beamdog's done it with their Infinity Engine EEs and it looks just fine.

Beamdog's UI looks incredibly cheap.

 

[Cryomancer]

I can forgive shitty UI from Illwinter or Dwarf Fortress. Anything with 3D graphics has no excuse for wasting their funds on other shit before a good UI.

The problem is. What count as "good UI" is a matter of taste, I like more minimalist UI. Other people like more crowded UI. For eg, for some AAA studios, the UI bellow is great.

 

[Gargaune]

And Beamdog's done it with their Infinity Engine EEs and it looks just fine.

Beamdog's UI looks incredibly cheap.

Compared to?...

 

[Roguey]

Compared to?...

That does not look cheap as in tacky, no.

 

[Gargaune]

Roguey, how about this one then?

I'm still avoiding the elephant warhorse in the room for now. Though I'm actually curious whether KCD's budget would match Avowed's even when adjusting for labour cost between the Czech Republic and California.

 

[Roguey]

Though I'm actually curious whether KCD's budget would match Avowed's even when adjusting for labour cost between the Czech Republic and California.

https://wccftech.com/kingdom-come-deliverance-cost-36-m-dollars/

Obsidian was only able to make something like The Outer Worlds for that kind of money and that was with Leonard and Tim, the Czech advantage is too strong.