IDEAS FOR RYZOM

Dear players,

I would like to collect your feedback on the user interface, so we can work at making it better.

Please reply here to let me know:

- what you like about it
- what you hate about it
- what functionalities you would like to see added.
- what functionalities you never use
- any bugs you have found

Please note that the following improvements are already under advisement so you do not need to list them again:
- scalable UI for those with poor eyesight.
- extra bags/subcomparments/other divisions to enable to group sets of items (jewels, armor)
- more exchange slots
- 2nd key for actions
- more customizable 2nd action bar

Please remember that development time is very limited, so the best suggestions are those that require little time :)

Please also limit your input to user interface related things -- for example, extra guildhall inventory slots or bulk is *not* an interface issue.

Thanks in advance for your input!

PS: For those new to Ryzom, you may not know it, but Ryzom is very right-click driven. Try rightclicking on stuff and you may be surprised :)

How about removing the doubleclick=default attack. God knows how many times i try to select a tp altar, and double click a nearby mob.

Where do I begin? :) Well, maybe with saying that reading that "under advisement" list you almost made me spill coffee in excitement.

• Wasted window space

I know looks are important but imho there's way too much screen real estate wasted in pretty much all UI elements. Windows either need strong borders or colour scheme that makes them stand out but not both. Classic example I use is comparing MS Windows and Irix(some might say pre X MacOS but that was just a rip-off) design philosophy.

• Default UI actions

Some of this is implemented on NEL layer like mentioned double-clicking objects (which I agree is double-edged sword). Would be handy if UI had some of that, like double-clicking item in inventory while exchange window is open placed that item in trade, double-clicking item in Sell window would sell it to merchants, etc. Obviously needs some consensus what does what and preferably few settings for us to tune the behavior.

• Bulk operations

OS-like functionality for multiple selection (Shift and Ctrl clicks, and Ctrl-A for select all) and then the ability to apply operation on selected set.

• More at-a-glance information

Mouse-over an item tells you basically nothing, useful information for an inventory is how much bulk is free not used even if latter helps keeping basic math brain pathways tidy, etc.

• Ability to place items on action bars

Don't think this needs an explanation.

Lastly something that is far from simple and is really just a dream, Action book. Ability for us to create action bar sets which we could then place on specific action bar. Maybe it's just me ... well, it's not as this even isn't my idea (hope you don't mind chief), but 10 bars is preciously too little. It covers melee/magic, yes. But then add harvesting and crafting.
As a sub-idea of the above, actions should have a character-wide unique identifier so if I have a spell placed on two or more bars, editing that spell on one bar should change it on all bars.

Lets not have new learned actions automatically added to action bar. I hate cleaning up my action bars everytime i learn new crafts. Perhaps a delete all actions in a bar woudl be helpfull

It would be nice with an AFK indicator in the friends and guild lists.

resizeable Guild Window show more members

display guild member last logged on date

The current interface, generally speaking, is good and mid/high quality:
- low impact on PC performances
- good level of usability/features
- quick to handle
- fast reacting
- highly configurable
- mostly modern designed windows/items

so I can tell about little bugs/improvements only and particulars I've discovered roaming around (things like "I wish to have this feature now" :)).

Bugs related
- when I switch from screen to screen (F1, F2...F4) I often find, in "alternate" ones (F2..F4, as I stay ever in F1) talk windows of older chat, left there but closed in F1. Not a big problem but sometimes annoying if one wants to use F3 (the default "uncluttered" one) to take a photo.

Screenshot related
- no way to configure the screenshot utility to auto-hide the interface... this forces me to manually switch screens to "hide" it (and macros *can't* help, for the way they work now): please add a key for "screenshot-without-interface" (but leaving the actual one, as I need to take screenshots WITH the interface also).
(don't think this is a stricht interface-related but, as it relates to screenshots, would be good also to have the ability to config/define the filename of the saved screenshot, e.g. %Y -> year, %M -> month, %m -> minutes and so on, to have some kind of "Atys_%S(%C)_%YYYY%MM%DD-%hh%mm%ss{-%ccc}" converted into "Atys_Arispotle(Elweit)_20120612-162308.jpg", the parsing code should be free to include from many opensource projects)

Map related
- no way to have the map window contents at the zame zoom level as I leave it, after I re-log-in/use a Pact... this is terribly annoying (to every time re-zoom it). :(
- separate the "Main Map" and the "mini map" views, so that they can have different zoom settings and informations displayed.
- add the possibility to color the maps in relation to the (average) mobs' levels (and any other grouped/stats info you can insert, like factioned/PvP territories, fama, etc.).

Actionbars related
- "oriented" windows (like actionbars) can be designed to "re-orient" themselves if placed near an horizontal or vertical side of the screen, so that one can place them in the 4 sides instead of 2 (when at the corner, they should mantain the previous orientation).
- have the time indications, in mm' ss" and in sss" (e.g. "1' 20" (80 sec)"), for time-related actions, as they now appear like "mm' ss"" in same places and "sss sec" in some others.

- *MOVE* the "quit from team" item *AWAY* from the "Quarter" item, in right-click contestual menus, please. :D
(hint: leave a totally blank row under the "Quarter" item) ;)
(related: add a key to "quarter>all" to avoid to be forced to use the mouse, which some times is a pain in the ass, generally speaking: all mouse-related functions should have a keyboard counterpart)

Cam related
- cam vertical auto-leveling (configurable also in reaction time): when running up/down a hill it's ever a problem to get the proper (vertical) angle of view.
(really good, indeed, the auto-cam on target when fighting :))
- glance left/right without being forced to look the same direction of the target we're following, when actively using the mouse (or keys) to turn the cam around: option to re-snap-to-the-follower in configuration, after the mouse/key action ended (optimum: add a configurable time/delay before auto-return to follower).
- option to "see the toon when in 1.st view" so that this viewmode can be usable to journey around too (the view should be like the ones of most other MMORPGs: hands/weapons).
- (I'm not completely sure but found very useful in other places) the way to have an "external view" of another toon/target: using e.g. ctrl+leftmousebutton the "center point" of the cam should (temporary) become the pointed-to-object and, moving the mouse, one can pan/circle around it, zooming in/out with ctrl+alt+leftmousebutton so that one can take good screenshots of many environment/toons particular, or can see how another toon see you, not possible with the current cam handling (every time centered on own toon).
This only for a limited range (e.g. if the target or the toon moves, have an out-of-range of 50-100 m passing which the cam's focus return on the own toon).

Radar related
- may define different colors for mobs: herbs, carnivores, plants, kitins, ...
- may define (slightly) different sizes for radar dots, depending on some (selectable/config) criteria: type (herbs, carnivores, plants, ...), mobs' levels, aggro-on-you, named, boss, ...
- may the points of mobs/NPCs chasing you blink
- may exclude some elements from radar (e.g. mission givers) and may include other elements (e.g. landmarks)
- add the Guild selection as targets (even in-region only, if this can impair server performances) for online ones, the same way of the Team one.

Target related
- add some configurable informations on mouseover to the mobs/NPCs/objects:
-- level information to the mobs on mouseover (configurable), not name only.
-- fame information to the NPCs on mouseover (configurable: number or color)
-- neutral/factioned info to the object which can be related to (e.g. teleports) on mouseover.
-- type (herb, carnivore, kitin, etc.) information to the mob on mouseover
-- aggro/not aggro
- for all the above items: add the information in a compact form (icon) also, when the item is a selected target (e.g. homins have the guild sign, targets can have an icon with the related information)

Chat related
- add a new "Talk window" where to collect all talks in the current UI, with tabs which blinks if the content change. The talk tabs should be right-clickable to undock, like the inventory windows (to get the nowadays behaviour, if one prefer).
- Add Config flag to have a "single compact Talk window" (default) or multiple windows on the screen (like now)
- Add a Config flag to have the Talk window's tabs vertically placed (so, not like the Chat window's ones).

I apologyze if some of the upper features are already present in the UI but, after a month in Atys, I've not discovered them.

Sure :-)

I was talking about the "tell windows" (or "PM windows") scattered all around the screen when players sends you a private message via /tell.
If possible, I wish to have a config flag to "collect" them into a single "Talk box" exactly the same way as the Chat box is, with tabs reporting the (part of the) name of the player which is chatting with me.
If possible, tabs should blink (or change color, or whatever) to mean the corresponding player sent a message.
Anyone don't likes this compact format can still use the scattered one, not flagging the related config choice.

And now... the usual ASCIIart simulation :-D

.---------x.------------x.----------x.----***---x.---------------------.
<Vourac ! Bittyma.. ! Gasket ! Sywindt !.........................>
!-----------'--------------'-----------'...............'----------------------!
![02:00] may you better explain your forum proposal,.....!
! telling us if you mean the ChatBox or... ........................!
![02:03] sure, let me take the time to run into a safe ......!
! place and I'll do :-) ........................................................!
'----------------------------------------------------------- -------------'

As you can see:
1) I'm talking with Vourac, Bittymacod, Gasket and... you ;)
2) in the example, our conversation is shown
3) your tab is marked as "GM chat" (the 3 ***) to gain relevance, so that I can give it priority
4) I even received new message from Bittymacod awaiting for me in his tab, which got reddish
5) the other 2 conversations have yet read "old" messages
6) if more other players send me a /tell, I can have a number of opened chats bigger than the main box itself, adding left/right arrows to slide the tabs OR even the ability to auto-re-sort them on the arrival time of the last message criteria (e.g. the tab of the window with the most recent message arrived will automatically be placed to the left, and so on): [v] auto-sort blink tabs to the left.
7) each window can be individually closed, clicking on the [x] in the upper-right side of the tab (or in a [x] into the chat window itself, where Devs will think is better to place it)
8) each window can be undocked on-the-fly, right-clicking its tab (like the way you can do with Chat box and Inventory)
9) if you right-click the header of the window when it's undocked it docks (if the TalkBox facility is enabled).
10) in config, if you flag the [v] compact Talk box, you can also flag [v] open new /tell(s) directly in the box: if you don't flag it, new PM windows will open right now and you have to right-click them to collect into TalkBox.
11) you should be able to define the "active tab color" as well as the "inactive tab color", "blinking tab color" (and other like "CSR tab color" etc.), "inbound text color" and "outbound text color" (with defaults like the nowadays settings).
12) tabs should be configured to disappear when the corresponding player logs-off (link now the PM window disappear too) or to remain, to be manually closed, to better read the text left into history: [v] auto-close tab if other player goes offline.

I just single-click and right click to get the pact. Piece of cake. A lot of people like dbl-click to default attack, dig, etc.

Colored radar -- I'd just like to see the enemy show up as red in the radar at OP battles! Everything else is over-simplifying (even though I'd love to be able to see those bloody lurking CUTES!!).

Sending a mail to Elweit did remind me of one thing I would like to see implemented in the various chat functions.

How many times have you seen a chat line in Team or a personal tell, or even Uni that looks like this:

Username says:3411111wwww
Username says:Need a rez in xxxx

Currently we have the option that Enter either does or does not exit a chatbox. We have the option to exit a chatbox with the Esc key, but if we hit it again, we end up closing the chatbox. We can enter the chatbox by left-clicking on the data-entry part of the box. We can change from one box to another by the same means. I would like to see us be able to exit any chatbox by left-clicking on the general scene. (In addition to the current methods.)

There -- a completely interface related request.

-- Bittty

One thing I haven't seen anyone mention is a bug I often encounter with the radar.

When you set the radar to anything but north, for example target (what I usually use), and then change zones, relogg or teleport it will randomly change back to the default north setting.

I haven't been able to narrow it down to exactly when this occurs, but it occurs way more often on my main character than on my alt. It's no biggie, but would definately be nice if it could be fixed. All the times I have tped, targeted a KP to check the distance only to have to right click my radar->set to target to even get going.

- what you like about it
I love the background changes between night and day. Such a minor detail, but it adds a lot. The artistic borders are also a nice touch. The interface is very clean for the most part. Being able to filter inventory is very useful as well.

- what you hate about it
Chat focus. I can't count the number of times I've filled my chat input with wwwwwwwww and 1122222222 because of how sticky the chat input is. As far as I can find, the only thing that seems to break out of it is hitting Esc (or Enter, but half the time I already have stuff sitting in the input box, so that's rarely an option). I'd much prefer it to break out of the chat input if you click anywhere outside the chat window.

- what functionalities you would like to see added.
I think this has already been mentioned, but I'd like to see OS-style shift- and ctrl clicking to select multiple objects in your inventory. Especially in regards to merchants - right now it can take several minutes to clear my inventory after a long trek. Being able to shift-click a large portion of my items and then right-click to move them to my packer or sell them to the merchant would be wonderful.

It would also be nice to have a check-box to auto-Take All at the end of foraging. This would be especially helpful at later levels when you're trying to clear a number of nodes before they disappear.

Finally, I find the action bar icons to be lacking in terms of diversity. I usually have a number of icons on any given bar that are only distinguishable due to the three or four letters it shows from the name. It would be extremely helpful to have larger number of assignable icons for our stanzas so that we can more easily differentiate between them at a glance.

- what functionalities you never use
I haven't been playing very long, so I'm not really sure. So far the only thing I never use is the pvp toggle. :)

- any bugs you have found
The only bug I've noticed so far is that when mousing over the various icons on a foraging node, the popup text doesn't always seem to correspond to the correct pointer position - it's like the pointer is registering as being higher than it actually is (IE I'll have my mouse over the stability icon, but it'll pop up the text for the Local Kami Tolerance instead. It doesn't happen all the time, and seems to be affected by how far your camera is zoomed out as well.