For me, UI issues are what make Card Hunter only epic, and not legendary. So I thought I'd start a thread where folks can suggest UI changes. Here are some of mine: 1) Make it easier to see each character's health: if one character is behind another character, you shouldn't have to mouse over the character in back to see its health; also, the health number beneath each character's cards should be larger and color-coded (red/yellow/green). 2) Make it easier to determine line-of-sight: right-clicking on an unoccupied square should show which other squares have line-of-sight. 3) Make it easier to know which team is which: using more easily distinguishable bases (maybe red & blue) for the characters would make MP clearer. 4) Make it easier to chat: in MP, chat messages are lost in the rest of the log, so chat should have its own frame. 5) Allow creation of friends lists & private chat to people who are online: this will be particularly helpful once there's cooperative MP. Hopefully others can use this thread to respond to my suggestions or make some of their own.
I agree with 1, 3, and 4. They are big improvement to readability and interface. For number 2, It would be nice to know all the information, but it should be a design choice from the devs. Having all these showing up can create clutter. Not knowing all the information create interesting positioning choice. (Though it is quite easy to determine line of sight by drawing a straight line between the center of each cell. And experienced players usually remember all the common spot.) For number 5, I think it's already planned/in the works since their UI suggest so. (click a player name in lobby will bring up a grayed out menu).
1. Isn't your health shown at the bottom of the screen, where your card hand is? Same for monsters, I think. 2. Agree. 3. The bases are black / white which is as contrasty as it gets. Red / Blue hits colour blind issues. 4. Agree, although I find I don't have time to chat in MP much. 5. Agree, especially when / if co-op happens.
It is, but the numbers are tiny. Given that MP is timed, it would be nice to be able to easily check health numbers with a quick glance at the bottom of the screen.
I'd always thought this would be better displayed as a health bar in that area; much easier to see at a glance than numbers. I'd never actually noticed this. I've definitely hit problems telling which is which after a whirlwind.
A health bar is actually harder to read from a UI point of view, I think. You have to a) Know what the low/high values are, b) work out what percentage of the bar is filled c) do the math; what's 75% of 27? And is it 70% or 80% as it's difficult to judge by eye in small increments? Also the original value changes with level / race / class so (b) and (c) are movable feasts . Much easier to see 24/27. I agree that it could do more to stand out.
Suggestion 6) Make it easier to select the square behind another character: particularly difficult when you're trying to stand still and your character is jumping up and down.
What about mp chat box remaining open even if you are in multiplayer keep or a shop? I think that would be cool. And then it would be implementable for them to implement an item link to chat box option for in case they start adding super rare legendary cards that people want to show off. These are so superficial that I normally wouldn't mention them, but it is a beta and BlueManchu asked for feedback. If anyone from Manchu sees this I also have to say this might be one of my all-time favorite games, by far my favorite free one.
7) Make it harder to overwrite stored parties: I have not yet accidentally overwritten a stored party, but given that I switch between two MP parties (and more campaign parties), it's probably only a matter of time. A confirmation box would be a pain, but maybe just make the store and retrieve buttons different colors & further apart?
8) Allow searching for names on the MP leaderboard. 9) When you look at the MP results list, default to looking at your own results.
