New HUD Feedback

[AshbyJones]

Mainly I'd like to say thank you to whoever worked to replace the HUD for this new patch--in the short time I've played with it, it seems to perform much better with fewer bugs.  Haven't seen any shaking icons or messed up text--though it did seem like some building icons were missing at the bottom.  I personally value the fixes and quality of life improvements being made much more than new features.

I'm also hopeful the new layout/design will grow on me--maybe once I can keep track of where everything's been moved to...  There's a certain logic to how things are arranged around the screen, but overall the HUD seems much less legible than before.  See the old vs. new stamina icon/animation, and the grenade one especially--maybe the new ones fit better with your aesthetic, but the old ones "worked" much better.

[RypeL]

@Handepsilonworked pretty much alone and hard on this new HUD (with concepts by Havo89). So give him and Havoc a break for trying new and ballsy stuff. Im sure babyproblems will get cured.

[isupreme]

I really like the less in your face ladder.   An interesting and consequential decision, that i hope will bear fruit.

The chat maybe is tooo diminished... idk.  maybe if i get used to looking for it down there.....

Is there a way to see my own progression... ie.  if my shots are hitting or i am just blasting air.   I used to see that on the ladder.

Very clean and open feeling.   ++

 

[Fffreak9999]

@isupreme - Merged this with a relevant feedback post. Please check before making new topics to see if there is an existing recent topic.

[Mystic~]

Does anybody have a screenshot with the old HUD placed side by side that can be compared with the new one? Thanks.

[Fffreak9999]

 

[Mystic~]

Thanks for posting a comparison, I need to play and use it more before giving feedback. Are you really based in Nottingham Fffreak? We should go for a beer or something if so.

[Fffreak9999]

Yeah, I’m from Nottingham, if I ever get round to going out with my days off then sure

 

[crazfulla]

The new Hud is a yikes from me... everything is moved around.... what was even wrong with the old one?

[Atomsk]

So far:
- I love the minimap
- I like that the scoreboard is moved behind the [TAB] key. 
- I enjoy that the view on the game itself has increased, less clutter in the way

It takes a little trouble adjusting to. what I haven't adjusted to, is that the chat and events are moved about on screen. I miss a lot of information on hectic moments because your eyes have to dart across to screen. 

As with all software, new changes always throw people off, because we're not terribly good with change. This will pass. 

MOAR HONK NEEDED. 
Also add honk to LCG. It's a walking rave tank anyway. 

[svett89]

I really like the new HUD! You did a great job with it!

I really only have 2 suggestions for improvements:

1. Would be lovely if we could see tech building status on the HUD again without having to open up the map. Perhaps the info's still there and I'm just blind?

2. I'd love it if the health section could be made slightly larger, mostly because it's now quite a bit harder to tell from the corner of your eye roughly how much health you have. This is especially important when dancing in and out of cover while tanking. The optimal solution could be to give the option of scaling the entire HUD (don't know how difficult this would be to implement, so if it's not feasible, I completely understand).

Other than those 2 points, I really like it. Now I just gotta get used to looking at the left-hand-side of the screen for chat. 🙂

Edited December 3, 2019 by svett89

[Mystic~]

So here's my first feedback.

What I like:

Hiding the score table
Replacing text labels with icons (credits, cp, vehicles, mines)
The separation of chat messages from event status updates
I think I like the kill feed positioned top right
I like the additional needles and direction markers on the new compass

What I don't like:

The previous interface looked big and friendly, easy to decipher information
Too many elements are becoming vertically stacked (compass with stats, veternacy pts and stamina above health and armour & the gun icons above the ammo gauge)
The expected or natural feeling placement of certain default items has been lost (chat messages, player and team inventory stats and kill feed)
I still prefer the round circular compass shape more
I still prefer the old circular Stamina gauge (circle bars, just looks more visually interesting)
I still prefer the weapon icon showing side by side with the ammo gauge

My recommendations:

I think the chat messages need to go higher and just underneath the event updates
The GDI versus Nod bar with the time and points I feel should be moved from bottom middle to top middle of the screen (global game settings)
The team and player stats (credits, cp, vehicles, mines) - this was all quick and useful information to see bottom centre, per previous HUD. Can they fit on a single line, or go where the team logos are, but with the new icon format? The icons I think need to be all aligned on the same side for consistency as it makes processing the information much easier.
Keeping the Plus and Vest icons next to the Health and Armour metres - it just makes this very obvious without having to read a label.
White team chat text for the commander is not obvious enough - almost needs to be neon blue.
I still think the compass needs an outline to separate mini-map from underlying terrain background.
The Vote text doesn't need to all be in UPPERCASE and placing lots of items in [square parenthesis] I think is creating information/screen clutter.
I rarely use the square centre tiles - if they are buildings remaining, I'd rather see this information on the (M) information screen. Maybe this is clutter that could go?


There's a lot of stuff I've probably not commented on yet, but I'm presently comparing two youtube videos with current and prior HUDs.

Edited December 8, 2019 by Mystic~

[kira]

I love the new HUD , it's refreshing, simple colors and text and more.  
I prefer it from the old one.

There is something that i find hard to accept, the chat text font is too small to read,
usually while playing im trying to keep track on chat but the size is too small and the max height for the chat is also too small  - it makes the text disappaer really fast. 

I suggest lift the chat place up a bit and increase chat height and the font,

@Handepsilon

[Handepsilon]

On 12/4/2019 at 6:24 AM, Mystic~ said:

So here's my first feedback.

What I like:

Hiding the score table
Replacing text labels with icons (credits, cp, vehicles, mines)
The separation of chat messages from event status updates
I think I like the kill feed positioned top right
I like the additional needles and direction markers on the new compass

What I don't like:

The previous interface looked big and friendly, easy to decipher information
Too many elements are becoming vertically stacked (compass with stats, veternacy pts and stamina above health and armour & the gun icons above the ammo gauge)
The expected or natural feeling placement of certain default items has been lost (chat messages, player and team inventory stats and kill feed)
I still prefer the round circular compass shape more
I still prefer the old circular Stamina gauge (circle bars, just looks more visually interesting)
I still prefer the weapon icon showing side by side with the ammo gauge

My recommendations:

I think the chat messages need to go higher and just underneath the event updates
The GDI versus Nod bar with the time and points I feel should be moved from bottom middle to top middle of the screen (global game settings)
The team and player stats (credits, cp, vehicles, mines) - this was all quick and useful information to see bottom centre, per previous HUD. Can they fit on a single line, or go where the team logos are, but with the new icon format? The icons I think need to be all aligned on the same side for consistency as it makes processing the information much easier.
Keeping the Plus and Vest icons next to the Health and Armour metres - it just makes this very obvious without having to read a label.
White team chat text for the commander is not obvious enough - almost needs to be neon blue.
I still think the compass needs an outline to separate mini-map from underlying terrain background.
The Vote text doesn't need to all be in UPPERCASE and placing lots of items in [square parenthesis] I think is creating information/screen clutter.
I rarely use the square centre tiles - if they are buildings remaining, I'd rather see this information on the (M) information screen. Maybe this is clutter that could go?


There's a lot of stuff I've probably not commented on yet, but I'm presently comparing two youtube videos with current and prior HUDs.

1. I'm not sure about the Health/Armor icon. The armor icon especially, since the current one also includes the type of armor you have

2. People use the buildings icon a LOT, and it's a crucial element that needs to be shown all the time, especially because it also gives out the reddened icon indicator when the armor gets too low (can't go further than that tho, otherwise it undermines infiltrations)

3. Not sure about moving the stuffs to the top, because votes also go there, and below the votes are the Commander Text. Next to that are the EVA text (or chat, if we do move it). They'll end up too tight with each others

3 hours ago, kira said:

I love the new HUD , it's refreshing, simple colors and text and more.  
I prefer it from the old one.

There is something that i find hard to accept, the chat text font is too small to read,
usually while playing im trying to keep track on chat but the size is too small and the max height for the chat is also too small  - it makes the text disappaer really fast. 

I suggest lift the chat place up a bit and increase chat height and the font,

@Handepsilon

The chat text font is the same size and type as the original one though...

[Mystic~]

Quote

1. I'm not sure about the Health/Armor icon. The armor icon especially, since the current one also includes the type of armor you have

I like the new minimal clean look and feel and I like the armour type description, but both gauges look very similar to each other. Based on the colour system created for building armour, maybe the bottom armour gauge should be the same light blue colour? If you were to add an icon, something like a more modern shield icon would look clean and more simple than the ambiguously shaped armour vest. The cross is just so easily recognisable as a medical/health symbol and helps scan process information quicker.

If I asked for one Renegade Christmas change, it would be to move the (credits, cp, mines and vehicle stats) from above the compass and onto the bottom row again, either centre-bottom above the team logos, or either space either side at bottom centre left or bottom centre right. My eyes will do less darting around and it's easier to see missing mines, when  you can apply a buff, and so on.

I take your point about the logo bar and upper screen cluttering, maybe I'll get used to this here.

Overall I think I like many of the changes, so please take my first post as constructive feedback and not see it as a negative I dislike everything post.

[isupreme]

BTW,     It is great all the progress this game continues to make.    The new HUD included.

But i was wondering if....   In the new  Hud, ... The small squares with the building symbols could be made to show the building health status. ?

Just a color change sequence from green to red to dead.     { that's kinda a pun }

or maybe an up and down level marker.

I know they are shown on the map page, but i often do not have the freedom of time/controls to check that during an intense fight.

[Handepsilon]

Quote

The small squares with the building symbols could be made to show the building health status.

Hold up, aren't they already?

[isupreme]

Well, yes they do indicate, but only an  Alive or Dead status.   What i would was wondering was if they could be incremental.

[roweboat]

they may be too small to show that much detail.

[Handepsilon]

They could be incremental, but that kinda takes away the urgency feel. You would feel more urged to do something if an icon snaps from blue to its' contrast color rather than if the color slowly fades in

In theory, at least

[roweboat]

I vote for removing the score and player rank placement from the upper right entirely.

Sure, it is somewhat useful information, that can also be figured out fairly quickly from the TAB scoreboard menu.

 

I feel adding harvester and Tech buildings to the main HUD UI would be more vital information.

 

For me, I like the HUD to contain only information that can help make better decisions during battle. Having the score and rank is nice sure, but maybe is "information overload".

my two cents of course, new UI is great regardless 😃

[Mystic~]

I would still prefer the left screen data set (credits, cp, mines and vehicles) in the old position centre bottom, but the icons are an improvement over the old word labels.

If a player Q-Spots an enemy unit, can we have some sort of meta transparent ghost text that then appears on the screen indicating the direction of where the unit is until it becomes visible (then it disappears) and include type in the label; possible alternative to the text feed, could then potentially remove even more feed clutter

Quote

Yeaaaaah wouldn't that just create clutters all over your screen instead?

I'm thinking this would be more useful and intuitive than constantly having to scan different text feeds for everything you need to know. The compass could also include some small red arrow markers to indicate the direction of an enemy until it becomes a red dot on the compass. If it were done intelligently, a small meta label indicating type/position would not necessarily be anymore intrusive/clutter than a player name label presently is and normal spotting only allows for tracking something like 5 units presently anyway.

 

Quote

Yes, because the radio commands of 'Building needs repairs' don't really say *which* building needs repairing.

Regarding indicating a building that needs repairs, I'd prefer to see some sort of large friendly wrench icon appear and hover above a damaged building that is Q-spotted until it's repaired, even if it still remains in the feed, almost like the RTS game had. The audible portion of a radio command would be enough to make someone stick their head out of a building to see which one and there's less reading required. The main problem is having one large feed with multiple sets of information that needs to be processed, differentiating them has helped somewhat, but placement is still an issue - back to other topic thread.

[Handepsilon]

Quote

hover above a damaged building that is Q-spotted

You do realize that we'll need to look really high up to actually see the above of the building, especially when we're side by side with it?

An ideal solution would probably be flashing the building's texture, which cannot be done easily and cheaply because the buildings' texture UVs are so terribly designed that it took approximately 50 materials for every building, each damage level out of all 4 levels.

As for the idea of pointing out the general location, I still don't know about that. I mean that would've been done already because we've been using icons to point out exact location of enemies which a Commander Q-Spot

We also don't always Q-Spot for others to target. We simply notify its' existence. For instance, if there's a Mendoza inside tunnel, or if there's a Havoc up in the ledge somehow, or even more useful, if a spy or stolen vehicle was detected. Others don't really need to turn around to check what it really is or where it is

If we go with the compass idea, how would we go about noting the types? We don't have any icons yet that could be significant, and the text size for compass is already bare minimum, plus types that are close to one another might overlap with each others, not to mention that you wouldn't be able to know the exact position of the type and only its' general orientation

[Luhrian]

I like the new HUD, great job.

But as already said by others here, I'd love it if the tech building icons would come back, like in the old HUD.

The marked spot next to the mini map seems good, but a bit to the right of the Nod building icons is also a good place. To show the team, who owns the building just use the team colors as earlier. It would be a nice benefit to the qualtiy of life, I'm sick of always opening the mini map to see which tech buildings my team owns.

 

Edit: Or maybe put the Harvester Status next to the Nod building icons? 🤔

Edited January 4, 2020 by Luhrian

[Handepsilon]

I once had a Harvester status on top of the gameinfo. Got protested due to it giving too much info to players

[roweboat]

3 hours ago, Handepsilon said:

I once had a Harvester status on top of the gameinfo. Got protested due to it giving too much info to players

I mean... you are the lead HUD programmer. It should be your decision

[Handepsilon]

7 hours ago, roweboat said:

I mean... you are the lead HUD programmer. It should be your decision

Ahha, no. Sure I program the HUD, but that's like saying that vehicle programmers can do whatever they want with the vehicle, including the looks.

[roweboat]

I jest of course. I'm sure solutions to everything will be found in time 😃

[Guest Gliven]

14 hours ago, Handepsilon said:

I once had a Harvester status on top of the gameinfo. Got protested due to it giving too much info to players

You can never have too much info, i need numbers everywhere. show me all the digits!

[roweboat]

Yeah, ever see the Matrix? When Neo had all the information, he could dodge bullets and fly and stuff.

[Suspiria]

I think the new scoreboard and HUD are absolutely stunning, visually speaking.
We have a (way) more modern look now.

I DIG the following:

• the vibrant colors
• new HQ veterancy icons
• harvester with "activity" label that also disappears when ref is dead
• that there's also some white/grey font for some other values, as to ease the eyes because all those colors can overwhelm me a bit
• the weapon wheel is so pretty! it makes a real nice rounded "corner" in my screen, beautiful..
  I think this is my fav part; or maybe sec. fav after the color vibrancy

Now on the other hand, I encounter the following usability issues with the new HUD:

Spoiler

Demultiplexed logs....

Spoiler

I play on 32 inches. For every chat message, kill and game-event, I have to move my eyes aaall the way to the other part of the screen. For me this harms immersiveness significantly as now it's hard to see when someone says something about a kill or game event. By the time my eyes scan from topright to midleft and to topleft, there is already such a delay that the whole thing just feels incohesive.

With so many players, these messages and notifications are coming at a great pace and if I want to keep track of it like this it's a huge distraction of gameplay. I literally die or goof up a situation because of standing still/walking headlessly trying to check what X or Y informed about Z.

It's a little bit like texting/calling behind the steering wheel. Should do one or the other, but not both at once.
So I pretty much *give up* chat, and checking who it is that I killed.
Even the silo just seems less important now.

e.g. Someone walks into a nuke crate and you say something about it.
By the time I read your message I still have to go check the event to know what it's about.
Investing 250ms to read chat while steering your tank is one thing, but now we have to monitor 2-3 places.....

Also, at >40p, the messages clear quickly that you just can't do it like: "check log-1, steer the vehicle, then check log-2, check the corner, then log-3". You can't do that. You have to check 1, 2, 3 subsequently, or else the messages have cleared and the effort that you invested reading the first is lost.

Finally there's one more effect to this:
With an all-in-one log, my brain can clearly distinguish the chronological order of events.
But with the new split system it has to actually read, process, and compare player names and then make a(n informed) guess as to the chronological order of input, thus what relates with who. This is three times more complex to process and it drives "me" (well..my brain) nuts.

Result: I give up trying to mentally multiplex these things, as not to sacrifice my (team)play performance.

Grande result: I feel (way) less "connected" with my other players AND the match.
.. I don't even know who affirmatives my request / command, or if it was for someone else.

So that's that for the logs.

Tech building icons...

Spoiler

.. relay important realtime tactical information and should be visible without having to open up the big map and then search for it. I need to know the second a silo gets capped without having to continuously monitor the event messages or overlay my FoV with the big map.

The previous silo icons that bounced/moved to the left and right were excellent imo.
They provided a nice extra stimulus to my peripheral vision that is sensitive to movement but not to detail.
So at times that I wasn't completely focused on something, it was relatively easy to notice the silo bouncing.

Perhaps people have a specific gameplay reason for not wanting this, but purely from a psychological perspective it was great how it was.

Credits specifically..

Spoiler

.. may be made to use a bigger font, and perhaps tiberium-color.
They look extremely unimportant now, while credits are quite a real thing early- and midgame.
And when I'm commander (and/or CP is maxed) I also want my CP to stand out so that it's ridiculously easy for my eyes/brain to find.

Actually, packing all those values above the minimap feels a little bit out of place to me; especially the credits are too far away from the center. They have little to do with navigation and right now it looks a little bit like a collection of unrelated data grouped into a corner.

Suggestion: Move credits more towards the center again, and let them stand out a bit more.
Vehicles and mines can be left at the minimap. (e.g. horizontally / 1 row) Something like that. (see screenshot attachment)

These values provide important gameplay functionalities and arguably may be even more important than scores and ego.
It does seem quite logical now too, but from a usability perspective this may or may not be the optimal experience.

And that's about it for my feedback on this.

These are all just my personal experience and opinion and that of others may differ.
Just giving you my data point and thank you for all the effort that is being sunk into this.

Edited January 19, 2020 by DugeHick

[Handepsilon]

Quote

I play on 32 inches. For every chat message, kill and game-event, I have to move my eyes aaall the way to the other part of the screen. For me this harms immersiveness significantly as now it's hard to see when someone says something about a kill or game event. By the time my eyes scan from topright to midleft and to topleft, there is already such a delay that the whole thing just feels incohesive.

We're putting the team chat back to the top and the death log to its' original position. It's still going to be separated from the Radio due to the constant spam that occurs a lot of times when people Q-spot things a lot (building Q Spot spam comes in mind....)

And we're also increasing the chat limit. We realized that the chat limit was too low that old chat gets removed too quickly (note : 64 is still a terrible player count, boooooo)

Quote

The previous silo icons that bounced/moved to the left and right were excellent imo.
They provided a nice extra stimulus to my peripheral vision that is sensitive to movement but not to detail.
So at times that I wasn't completely focused on something, it was relatively easy to notice the silo bouncing.

Perhaps people have a specific gameplay reason for not wanting this, but purely from a psychological perspective it was great how it was.

It's not that. It's basically the fact that due to the changes on how building list is changed in the background and the visual change of the list itself, I don't know how to handle the tech building in the HUD and more specifically, where to put it in the first place because the original spot is filled up already

Quote

Suggestion: Move credits more towards the center again, and let them stand out a bit more.
Vehicles and mines can be left at the minimap. (e.g. horizontally / 1 row) Something like that. (see screenshot attachment)

Alignment aside (Havoc's a bit iffy even if I miss 1 pixel off the alignment lol), that spot will not work on certain aspect ratio. even in 5:4 ratio, the current spot already works terribly that I had to cook things up a bit more on that aspect..... without causing the font to be too small to see in lower res (previous iteration was TERRIBLE to look at in 800x600, and downright unreadable in my previous low end res, which is 640x480)

As a proof, here's one example relayed by a player from discord :

That being said, I also cooked up a new UI settings for the next update whenever they come around which hopefully would be able to scale the elements enough to alleviate these kinds of problem

I also realized that using Digital counter for those info is kinda terrible, because they look too thin. So I replaced them with this (visualized in Flash). Still on the same spot tho, but Havoc realigned them again and increased the size

 

[Harvester]

like the new clean looking hud but in higher resolutions, the player list "k" is unreadable tiny. not scaled as other elements do good.

[R315r4z0r]

As someone who is returning to this game after what I believe is over 2 years, I wanted to leave feedback on various aspects of the game. I know that getting into a game always requires a little bit of a learning curve as it takes a while to figure out what all the features are and how they impact the player. Since I've come back, I've played a bunch of matches for a total of a few hours. But after my time playing, one thing really stuck out to me: the HUD.

I'm going to be blunt. I don't like it. Now, I don't intend to sound like I'm insulting the people that designed it. I just want to leave honest, direct feedback that isn't misconstrued. Now, I realize that it was stated above that a new HUD update is due in the future. My feedback is based off the current live version. Also, I apologize for the wall of text.

First, an example of some frustration. I've played a handful of rounds thus far, but despite the small number, a good portion of them featured me suffering the same problem: I'm left completely oblivious to important events. There has been at least 2 rounds where I've been actively defending one front when we suddenly lose a building. Despite chat saying there is an enemy rush. Despite the radio commands to repair a structure. Everything that happens seems so sterile that it's hard to gauge the severity of what is actually happening. Maybe this has more to do with sound design than the HUD, but I feel like important information is not being relayed in a way that dictates their severity.

Here are a few points that I want to make that may explain my concerns and how the HUD plays a part.

• It is overwhelming. I played C&C Renegade religiously when I was younger, so I already have a firm grasp on how C&C mode works. This means that I'm already ahead of the curve when it comes to learning how Renegade X plays. That being said, I can only imagine that a new player, who has no previous Renegade experience, trying out this game for whatever reason would be scared away after 2 rounds. The assault of info on the HUD, paired with the voice announcements and radio commands and chat, results in utter confusion not only in what is going on in the match, but what is going on directly with the player.
   
• Too much unnecessary information. HUD, or Heads Up Display, is supposed to provide the player notification (Heads up) for relevant info that pertains to the match. But because there is just so much happening, whenever there is something important, it gets drowned out in a sea of things that are irrelevant. There are 3 separate scrolling text elements. A number of icons I'm not entirely sure what they represent. Player counts. Building icons. Progress bars. Etc. My rule of thumb here: If I can play a match effectively without knowing what certain elements of the HUD mean or know what they mean but never actually have a use for them, then they aren't necessary and don't need to be displayed full time.
   
  • Building icons are unnecessary. Yes, they provide a quick way to see which buildings each team has. But this information is only relevant in specific situations. Not something that you will need to refer to regularly enough to warrant it being on display full time. Now, one way you can improve this HUD feature is to highlight buildings that are currently under attack by making the outline of the icon pulse or flash for about 5-10 seconds after it receives damage. You can also make a separate type of highlight that is displayed when another player radios that it needs repair or, in the case of an enemy building, should be focused on.
     
  • The team names, their icons, their score and their player count are 100% unnecessary. There is no situation in game where having a quick glance at the number of players on the teams or the amount of points the team, as a whole, has accumulated is going to be relevant to your round. If you want this information for whatever reason, that's why the scoreboard menu exists or why the extended score card element exists (the one you can pop up on the right side of the screen).
     
  • The veterancy meter doesn't seem necessary. It's the sort of information that falls into the category of 'Good to know, but does that help me?' I'm not opposed to keeping it on the HUD, but it has a more prominent location in the face of other, more relevant info, like credit count. I really think it should be moved off towards one side in order to give more space for the stamina meter or credit count.
     
  • The vehicle count and mine count don't need to be on the HUD for all players. The mine count could be part of some separate extended HUD element (like the score card that you can toggle). But, in general, it is only really useful to players who are actually laying mines. So why not only have it displayed when a player is using a character that has proximity mines? Likewise, the vehicle count doesn't need to be on the HUD. You can keep that inside of the purchase terminal menu because that is the only time you're ever going to need to refer to it.
     
• Relevant info is hidden. I mentioned in the previous subpoint about how the veterancy meter is given more attention than more relevant info like credits.
  • Every game, I spend way too much time looking around the HUD just to check on my credit count. I know the information is there, but I can't for the life of me remember where it is. And I believe it is because it is listed in a group of other information that is presented in a similar style. It's like reading a word in a paragraph of a book, looking up, then looking back down again and trying to find where you left off. Credits are too important to hide on the side of the screen in a tiny font. It should be right smack in the center, where the match timer is located or at least large and eye catching somewhere along the bottom edge of the screen, where it's off on its own with nothing else to obscure it.
     
  • Health and ammo are very hard to keep track of. When fighting another player, your eyes are on the cursor in the center of the screen. Having the health and ammo info literally in the furthest possible locations from the center of the screen make is irritatingly difficult to keep track of. I find myself randomly dying because I don't realize how fast my health drops. I also find myself reloading too frequently because I don't realize I still have over 60 rounds in my weapon. The original Renegade got around this by having temporary HUD elements pop up near your cursor that made them easier to see. Your ammo would appear to the right of your cursor after firing your weapon, while your health would appear to the left after taking damage. These elements would remain there for about 5 seconds before fading away.
    • Here is an example of what it looked like in Renegade:
      • 
         
    • Here is an example of what it could look like in Renegade X:
      • 
    • Obviously you could tweak it however you see fit. Each element would ideally change color (white -> yellow -> red) based on severity. Also, if either element is red, IE: close to 0, then they would persist on the screen without fading until the player fixes it (either by reloading or healing up or getting a refill)
    • The Stamina meter can also be reworked to appear in this way. It's current location doesn't really aid in its usefulness since I still find myself doing guesswork as to how long I can run for even though all I have to do is shift my eyes to the corner of the screen. If you make it a 'phantom' HUD element that appears near the center cursor then you could eliminate it entirely from its current position.
       
  • I have a hard time distinguishing between the different scrolling text elements. Whether it be for radio commands, kill feed messages or actual player messages; they all blend together for me despite each one being fairly different from one another. I often catch myself looking in the wrong spot for text information and by the time I find it, it scrolls past. It was mentioned above that this is going to be addressed by combining the chat and kill logs. However, I think it should be the other way. Keep the kill log separate but combine the radio and chat. The reason I say that is because those two things provide the same potential information. If someone wants to say to defend the base, they can type it in chat or use the radio command. Having it both in the same location is very useful. Imagine a player that isn't playing with any sound. Seeing the chat in one spot and the radio in another makes it hard to distinguish what is going on. Spam is not a valid reason to separate these two elements because doing so actively makes it harder to follow what is happening in game.

 

Okay, so, I apologize for the wall of text. I'm pretty sure I got everything I wanted to say. If I remember something I'll make a follow up post. Again, if I came off as confrontational, I apologize, that was not my intention. I'm only trying to leave clear constructive feedback.

Thank you for taking the time to read through my feedback.

Edited February 14, 2020 by R315r4z0r

[isupreme]

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Maybe this has more to do with sound design

Quite possibly.   I would like to hear a sound notification when there is a poll to elect commander.

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• Building icons are unnecessary. Yes, they provide a quick way to see which buildings each team has. But this information is only relevant in specific situations. Not something that you will need to refer to regularly enough to warrant it being on display full time. Now, one way you can improve this HUD feature is to highlight buildings that are currently under attack by making the outline of the icon pulse or flash for about 5-10 seconds after it receives damage.

Yes yes  yes.   The building icons need to somehow reflect damage and situation.

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, their score and their player count are 100% unnecessary.

I disagree on this one.    it is helpful to me to be able to see the team count and scores.    Same comment for vehicle count and mines.

I feel mine count is vitally necessary to the whole team at all times, and vehicle count helps me know when i can get a vehicle while continuing to play on.

 

Thank you for the clear and well thought out posting. 

[R315r4z0r]

54 minutes ago, isupreme said:

I disagree on this one.    it is helpful to me to be able to see the team count and scores.    Same comment for vehicle count and mines.

I feel mine count is vitally necessary to the whole team at all times, and vehicle count helps me know when i can get a vehicle while continuing to play on.

I didn't say they weren't useful. Please understand, I'm not trying to say there isn't a purpose for having the information. What I'm saying is that the information isn't important enough that it needs to be displayed constantly. The number of players on your team is no where near as important as your health bar or your credits.

It isn't the type of information that you need to have available at all moments of a match. Nor will you ever need it on a moment's notice. If you start taking damage or your base gets under attack, knowing the enemy's score or player count is unnecessary information. The only time you're ever going to have a use for that information is when you aren't in need of any other information. Therefore you can store it in a sub menu or HUD extension.

When I played the original Renegade, I made good use of the score list on the right side of the screen. I used it to identify which players were attacking or repairing a building since you could track an individual player's score in real time as things happened in game. I could also view score jumps of an individual player to deduce when my base was under attack without me actually having to be there. So knowing an individual player's score was far more useful than knowing the entire team's cumulative score.

The bottom line is that there are more important elements of the HUD that should have precedence over something like score and player count. I don't mean to say they don't have a use being on the HUD, rather they aren't vital enough to warrant them along side more important info. The goal is to remove clutter, and if some info isn't vitally important that you could need at any second, then it doesn't need to be there. That is what sub menus are for.

Edited February 14, 2020 by R315r4z0r

[Madkill40]

On 2/14/2020 at 1:07 AM, R315r4z0r said:

So why not only have it displayed when a player is using a character that has proximity mines? Likewise, the vehicle count doesn't need to be on the HUD. You can keep that inside of the purchase terminal menu because that is the only time you're ever going to need to refer to it.

This would cause dissarray if the entire team can't quickly tell how many mines are placed especially.

 

Other than that, the oldRen-style  pop-up of ammo/health/stamina would be good

[R315r4z0r]

On 2/14/2020 at 8:27 PM, Madkill40 said:

This would cause dissarray if the entire team can't quickly tell how many mines are placed especially.

That's only theoretical. There would need to be an actual gameplay test to verify this. I am highly skeptical and hypothesize that less than 30% of players actually pay attention to it. Note: despite the fact that that counter exists, players still manage to overmine anyway. That means in order for the counter to work, a player needs to understand what it represents. If they don't understand, then having it on the HUD is wasteful. If they do understand, then they will know how to access the information regardless of how it is presented. Bottom line: in both cases, it has no real benefit being on the HUD.

Don't confuse useful information with priority information. Just because info is useful doesn't mean it belongs on the HUD.

CP, veterancy meter, player counts, team scores, vehicle count, mine count, and even building icons (in their current state) can all be relegated to the K menu without there being any loss of information or game flow.

Edited February 16, 2020 by R315r4z0r

[NodSaibot]

The next update will include few changes to the HUD. We appreciate all feedback, I will lock the topic and if needed we can make another for the HUD after the next patch.