Comments on: Mass Effect: Slips, But Shows Off

By: po

po — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:01:33 +0000

Fighters are good against frigates and bombers, bombers against cruisers/capital ships/structures. Says so on the right hand panel that pops up when you want to build something.

By: Radiant

Radiant — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:56:49 +0000

I actually got really confused by the UI in Sin of a Solar Empire.
I never understood simple things like why I should build fighters rather then bombers [I don't think it was ever fully explained].

It expected me to already know the difference.

In regards to this I just think that the full UI screenshot looks really scary for me.

Have you guys seen the OG pc version of Ghost Recon?
That had a great squad control ui from snipers to heavy weapons to demo men to regular rifle men.

By: J. Prevost

J. Prevost — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:10:48 +0000

Actually, the movement commands were there in the console version, but were for the whole squad, not individual characters. They were activated using the direction pad (with the various movement commands in approximately the same layout as shown above, so you would aim at somewhere and press up on the d-pad to tell your squad to go there.)

The various icons for abilities seem confusing, I’m sure, but they’re a lot more easy to understand in the game, since you have to choose to learn the abilities before they become available to you, for the most part.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:57:40 +0000

Someone needs to point out to the people who have never played Mass Effect that this UI is not shown at all times. Battles play out in real time with you in direct control of only one character. At any point during the battle you can pause the game to bring up commands for your team (think a cross between GRAW and KOTOR). This UI is what is shown when you pause the game.

Also @James, the UI for Mass Effect was designed using radial menus for use with an analog stick. Also, the weapons and special abilities menus were actually split in to two menus that were pulled up separately. As you can also see from the shots here, there are additional movement commands for your squad members that were not present on the console.

By: Man Raised By Puffins

Man Raised By Puffins — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:25:33 +0000

@Radiant: Well for each party member you’ve got movement commands (move, attack, defend and the all important group hug ability which enhances the love by 5% for 10 seconds*) and a separate pane for weapon/skill selection. It should all fall into place when you know which icons correspond to which skills.

Also, if it works like the 360 version, then those extra icons in the first and last screens will only show up when the action is paused.

*More seriously, I think that’s the regroup command.

By: James

James — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:41:48 +0000

Wait, what was wrong with the original GUI? Shouldn’t they be streamlining the GUI for the consoles?

Aiiie!

By: Optimaximal

Optimaximal — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 11:18:18 +0000

Really, after Planescape: Torment I think I could accustom to anything.

Planescapes UI was really intuitive!
Select your character, left click on landscape to move him/her, left click on characters to talk/attack and right click on items to get a context menu to use special powahs.

You should try Baldurs Gate!

By: po

po — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 05:17:07 +0000

Ouch.

Could learn a lot from SoaSE about what makes a good HUD.

By: sigma83

sigma83 — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 03:58:39 +0000

your standard WoW UI is more complicated than this.

edit: Except for rogues =P

By: Radiant

Radiant — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 02:37:20 +0000

By: Ozzie

Ozzie — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 01:36:02 +0000

I don’t find this UI all too obvious, but it doesn’t look too bad either.
Really, after Planescape: Torment I think I could accustom to anything (it was the first RPG I played through, so there may be even worse in terms of the interface, I don’t know).

By: UncleLou

UncleLou — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:21:52 +0000

Yes, same here. Left and right obviously for commands for your party members, bottom for your character, quick slots on top, health bars on the bottom left. Could start playing this without ever having seen more than a few screenshots from the game.