[MUD-Dev] expansion packs

[kressilac at insightbb.com]

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Note: This message was written via the list web archives.  There is
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Original message: http://www.kanga.nu/archives/MUD-Dev-L/2002Q4/msg00506.php

On Tue, 10 Dec 2002 19:47:43 -0800
"Marc Fielding" <fielding at computer.org> wrote:

> [Daniel Harman]
 
>> How do they keep releasing games that have a worse interface than
>> the one a 3 year old game shipped with? It beggars belief. Do the
>> people designing these games even play them in anger?
  
>> My tolerance for elementary omissions is now approaching zero - I
>> won't be hanging on three months whilst they fix these things. I
>> suspect others feel similar.

> Perhaps in 5 to 10 years, if interface development has stabilized,
> we'll see an "IEEE Standard for MMOG User Interfaces." Games that
> adhere to it would be allowed to put a little IEEE logo on their
> boxes...right next to the Surgeon General's warning: "MMOGs are
> addictive and not for the morally impressionable! Play at your own
> risk."

AC2 could have benefited from something like this.  The interface
has some major glaring problems from a usability standpoint.  Things
that force you to ask yourself, "Why the hell would they do this?"

For instance:

  The inventory screen is fixed in position and is an "always on
  top" window.  Its position is in the bottom right hand portion of
  the screen and covers a good amount of a 1024x768 screen.  Two
  problems arise from this.  One, if you enlarge your chat window
  then bring up the inventory window, you'll click through the
  inventory window into the chat window causing the chat window to
  scroll up as you interact with the inventory window.  The bigger
  problem is that the examine screen is on the opposite corner of
  the screen and it too is fixed and on top.  When I am working with
  my inventory, my eyes are on the right hand side of the screen.
  It takes effort and is horribly slow to have to shift focus from
  one side of the screen to the next when inspecting inventory
  items.

  Another glaring issue compounds the inventory problem.  Errors
  reported back from the game when interacting with an object in
  inventory are sometimes reported at the TOP of the screen.  Now my
  eyes are going all over the screen to get the information that I
  need when interacting with my inventory.  Right for the icon, left
  for its stats, top for errors when using the item and sometimes
  bottom-center to see messages in the chat window when interaction
  is successful.

  The last glaring problem I saw was the targeting system.  Coming
  out of the human training zone, there is a place where the tunnel
  ends and your staring at a monster across an open area.  You hit
  your backspace key to target thinking that because your character
  is looking at the monster that's what your targeting.  The
  targeting system targets the mob that is closer to you but behind
  an object and out of your general viewing area.  To me, that
  completely disobeyed my order and breaks immersion while I figure
  out what the UI decided I need to be doing instead.  I expected
  the mob I could see to get targeted, not something I had no idea
  was there.  As a result, I multiple pulled a few times when
  targeting with the keyboard.  Oh did, I mention that the "~" is
  the attack button and the target button is "BACKSPACE".  These two
  complimenting functions couldn't be mapped further away from one
  another.  Thankfully that bone-headed mapping error can be fixed
  by mapping your own keys.(I think)

There were other minor bugs like mobs stuck on geometry.  Some
ranged attacks did not correspond with the target indicator meaning
I was firing arrows to the left or right of the target.  Some sort
of miss syndrome where if you lost sight of the mob but it was still
in range you automatically started missing all the time.  Oh and the
fact that buildings couldn't be entered is rather annoying and
breaks immersion considerably.

A couple of things that I did think were innovative was the
animations for looting, the head animations actually moving towards
what you were interacting with and the targeting indicator for
targets that moved off screen.(ala and EA sports games)

Overall, I was impressed with AC2's graphics.  Their game-play was
actually "fun" once you were beyond the UI. (I remember saying the
same thing about EQ though) The landscape vistas are simply amazing.
Only AO can compete in this regard IMHO.  Glaring UI problems, lack
of significant launch populations, and a "fun" but shallow game-play
mechanic will cause me to not buy the game or subscribe.  Glad I got
to try it before I plunked down 50 bucks.

Derek

ps If there are ways around any of the above issues, they were not
immediately apparent to either me or my friend and that in and of
itself could be considered a usability problem.


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