Reduce HUD clutter

[DaveG]

1)  The HP/Mana/Stamina/etc. window is just too big, and sucks up to much of the on-screen space.  My suggestion is to get rid of the target HP bar, and simply show a small health bar under the name of characters.  The range needed for the bar to appear should be rather close.  (you have to be close enough to \"sense\" the status)

2)  The FPS, time, and other little bits of info should be moved somewhere else.  Sure, you can move the window so they\'re off-screen, but this is just a hack.

3)  The chat window can easily be flooded with battle data, and actual chat messages often get lost in the clutter.  I turn off most of the combat feedback, but even the damage reports are enough to clog things up.  Using the tabs to avoid this gets annoying, because you can only see one of the chat types at once.  (ie. say, tell, guild, group)  Simple solution:  Show damage done as a number that briefly hovers over the hit area of the target.  (lots of RPG\'s do this)  Again, you should have to be within attack range to see this.  (yours or another player\'s)

4)  Item/magic toolbelt.  It would be nice to have a \"toolbelt\" that we could drop items/spells into that would sit under the stances icons.  It would act like the shortcut window does now, but more compact and nicer looking.  (Also prevent you from having to root through your inventory screen to eat some food or use a potion.)

5)  Get rid of the \"started attacking\" messages.  I see no point to these, frankly.  If my stance on-screen changes, I\'m attacking.  I don\'t really need a written record of it.

6)  Allow the main toolbar to fade.  I think this should have the same transparency options as everything else.  You can hide it right now with a click, but an automatic fade away would be nice.


Most of these are fairly simple additions.  Anyone have any other ideas?

[Aravi]

Originally posted by DaveG
1)  The HP/Mana/Stamina/etc. window is just too big, and sucks up to much of the on-screen space.  My suggestion is to get rid of the target HP bar, and simply show a small health bar under the name of characters.  The range needed for the bar to appear should be rather close.  (you have to be close enough to \"sense\" the status)

Some good ideas, but sometimes that other information is useful. Ideally, you could hide\\show the extra information depending on if you needed it.

They could also reduce it\'s use of vertical space by placing the stance bar vertically alongside the HP info display. This would use a bit more horizontal space (but,there\'s more of that to use).

2)  The FPS, time, and other little bits of info should be moved somewhere else.  Sure, you can move the window so they\'re off-screen, but this is just a hack.

The hide\\show possibilty I mentioned above could do just that. Alternatively this information could be displayed as part of the toolbar.

3)  The chat window can easily be flooded with battle data, and actual chat messages often get lost in the clutter.  I turn off most of the combat feedback, but even the damage reports are enough to clog things up.  Using the tabs to avoid this gets annoying, because you can only see one of the chat types at once.  (ie. say, tell, guild, group)  Simple solution:  Show damage done as a number that briefly hovers over the hit area of the target.  (lots of RPG\'s do this)  Again, you should have to be within attack range to see this.  (yours or another player\'s)

Possibly, although others have argues that floating numbers harms the immersion/realism factor. It\'s an open debate whether the existing system is any better in this regard though.

4)  Item/magic toolbelt.  It would be nice to have a \"toolbelt\" that we could drop items/spells into that would sit under the stances icons.  It would act like the shortcut window does now, but more compact and nicer looking.  (Also prevent you from having to root through your inventory screen to eat some food or use a potion.)

Actually, the shortcut window allows you to create command shortcuts (eg. /Dig Gold). A quick-bar for items has not just UI but also gameplay implications.

5)  Get rid of the \"started attacking\" messages.  I see no point to these, frankly.  If my stance on-screen changes, I\'m attacking.  I don\'t really need a written record of it.

Agreed.

6)  Allow the main toolbar to fade.  I think this should have the same transparency options as everything else.  You can hide it right now with a click, but an automatic fade away would be nice.

Agreed.