So, at the risk of being unpopular, on the whole I like the new UI; crafting from chests is great, transferring between inventory & chests etc. is much easier too. I don't like the switch between storage & equipment slots when tapping "L2", as equipping more than one item from storage is kind of a juggling act.
There are some features which just don't work, such as the invisible buffs and the clear inventory, and I think a big reason for this (and this is just a guess) is that the testers might have been told to focus on how the update compares to the PC version, as opposed to how console players can adapt. If - IF - that is the case, I can see why, as for the past two years all they've heard from us is:
"When are we getting the PC version?
When are we getting the PC version?
When are we getting the PC version?
When are we getting the PC version?" (of which I am guilty myself).
It's also worth bearing in mind that the closer we are to the PC, the sooner we'll get future updates, which was (I think) a major reason for the console version overhaul.
So, I've come up with a few suggestions that I'm hoping
@Loki &
@ClearConscious could look at if/when they have a spare moment, and tell me/us how feasable they are. I'd also like to point out now that I have ZERO experience in programming, so I understand that while these tweaks may appear easy from the user's perspective, they might not work from the back end.
Here we go:
- While the clear inventory has caused an uproar, am I right in assuming that it was to make build mode easier to use? Given that build mode hasn't been used by many players due to items vanishing, it would have been easier to overlook the benefits of a clear inventory, such as actually being able to see what you're building. So, my suggestions are:
a) Lose the transparency of the inventory UNLESS someone clicks "R3" on an item, which will indicate to the game that they want a clear inventory until they've finished with the item, at which point the inventory turns solid again, or:
b) If that's too tricky, then maybe just change the visibility based on whether autopause is on or off.
- The tool-tip text is hiding the items in the inventory, could it be moved elsewhere, like this?:
- The crafting menu is hard to navigate as the items are always changing places due to which ingredients are available. As you know, in the previous version, we could tab through the various categories of items (such as armour¦weapons¦potions¦items), THEN scroll through the items and see each recipe and which crafting station we needed. I understand why what we have now works on the PC version, as they are playing on a machine with an open web browser, which they can operate using the same hardware as what they're playing with (KB + M), but for us I think it spoils the immersion, as we have to use another device to Google the recipe. My suggestion for this has a couple of features:
a) Bring back the categories, and hit left/right on the "R3" stick to scroll through them (they wouldn't even need visible tabs; the items below would be enough of a clue)
b) Clicking "R3" would toggle the menu between all recipes in the game, complete with crafting station, and just what is available to the player there and then
Below is an image of what I mean; obviously gold coins aren't crafted at an anvil, but it shows you what goes where:
- The guide's crafting section has two layers of text that are overlapping, making it hard to see which crafting station is needed:
Could this be rectified by doing something similar to this (again, torches don't need an anvil, it's for layout demonstration only)?:
Again, I have no experience or knowledge of coding etc. so this isn't a "why don't you just?" and more of an "is it possible?". I know that you want to make the game as close to identical as you can on all platforms, but I don't think that these suggestions are a huge step away from the parity you want, especially when you consider things like legacy world sizes and console only items (like Ocram's old drops) seem much bigger differences.
Anyway, that's enough for now; while I've tagged Loki & ClearConsious, if anyone else wants to add feedback/suggestions to these ideas, they're more than welcome.
Thanks