Probably dumb question - Will the UI get any more character to it?

[Coranhon1]

My hopes are on the modders and not on devs now
Hope the game have some success so the modders do the job for us

[Coranhon1]

@Darkness01101

@rakowozz

To me, the more focus on what’s actually going on in the game the better.

And if you’re wanting to create military units and wish to know what they’ll look like before building them, how is a simplistic gold silhouette statue icon with one, two, or three dots next to it better and easier to use than actually seeing a representation of what the unit looks like? And same for every civ, iirc

With AoE4, it feels cold and impersonal. I blindly click gold icons for units, buildings, and tech upgrades just to click them in a whack–a-mole fashion because they illuminated and I can afford them. From that perspective, I spend less time in the UI because I don’t want to sit there trying to decipher every gold icon. But yet there are other times when I spend time just trying to make sure I click a lumber camp instead of mine, and stone wall instead of wood one, etc., or to, indeed, read all about what the icon is because visually it’s not very meaningful. In all cases, it’s far less than ideal, imo

I hope they are making classic-style icons that can be enabled. Then, you can enable the modern day metro mobile phone app icons if you want, and others can have the more classic, era-immersive, civ-unique, and visually informative UI/UX

I hope the UI icons of units being created should be bigger and in the top of the screen, too hard to see now

[MinusKollege]

@Eightnon

@MinusKollege

I see people praise Craig Mullin for the concept art of AOE4. But thats honestly sth you never see ingame, is it?

The graphic style heavily leans on those concept arts and thus are very much influenced by that artist.

I had to down a starbucks soy latte with bleach and do a head stand,… but you’re right! I can totally see it now!

@Eightnon

It’s a matter of taste of course

Of course.
None of that where those nostalgic peasants come from.

[rakowozz]

@Soldeo

Why do we have to always rely on mods on something that has been done for previous iterations?

I wouldn’t even bring up modding for a matter that’s not mostly subjective. I think OP meant art and style alone, which is mostly a matter of taste. That can and will be tweaked by modders.

Actual UX interaction and quality-of-life improvements, on the other hand, NEED the developers. It’d be a shame to have to rely on modding for some features (see Drongo’s Spectator UI/UX thread).

[Eightnon]

@MinusKollege

I had to down a starbucks soy latte with bleach and do a head stand,… but you’re right! I can totally see it now!

I said graphic style, not UI style.

@MinusKollege

Of course.
None of that where those nostalgic peasants come from.

I am implying that it is a highly subjective matter.

I personally want a clean UI without clutter, without portraits where a moustache makes a different unit. This isn’t exactly a game to get nostalgic about, since it is a new game
Nostalgia doesn’t really set a standard for new gen games.

But again, this is just my opinion, nothing that can be debated.

[Soldeo]

That’s what I mean with my reply, we do NEED the developers for a better UI and UX.

[rakowozz]

Oh yea, I agree. I just meant there’s a difference between art and style (subjective), which I’m fine with – we probably disagree on that, but I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything —, and functionality. I think the main UI needs additional color coding, for instance, among other well known missing features.

I’ll maintain my stance, however, on how much better I think the icons are, compared to 90s style design.

[RodLimitless]

Personally i like the UI i dont want any extra details TBH is simple n easy

[TheHannoverfist]

let me just add…on behalf of all southpaws… the “homerow” hotkeys are pretty hostile feeling…we really need to have more flexibility

[MostDragon80736]

So lets call it AoE Disney Sequel

[Bendy52]

You would have thought that they will for sure make a dynamic UI with a backgroound to each civ just like in AOE2. but dang it… we got the simple UI, which might make u think its easy to read, yet the BS upgrades are the worst i’ve seen. really 1 pixel ish dot to represent next upgrade… who will zoom in with a binocular to see if they are on 2nd or 1st upgrade.

[ahioz9426]

I agree.

The current UI has no sense of history.

The UI of rise of nation and aoe2 changes with civilization, which undoubtedly greatly enhances the sense of immersion of the game.

[CleanNotClear]

I would also really welcome civ-specific UI, but right now the priority for devs should definitely be its functionality, which is lacking as well. But I am hoping we can get some civ-unique ui at some point in the future, maybe at least for dlc civs.

[PlumpDucklin]

Still hoping for either an updated UI where you can choose between the current one for playability or an immersive one that simply looks better…

Otherwise our hope rests on mods…

[nachocheese2054]

wouldn’t put hopes into mods seeing how most of the things people want to change are things that are locked down in both coh2 and dow3 by relic. The files from the stresstest also showed that the same system is still being used.

[ArrivedLeader22]

I don’t care about UI not having little icons around.

Felt the need to make a thread about this, as I see way too many people complaining about it. Maybe you’re not familiar with the genre, but this game is an RTS. If you want to be immersed in medieval warfare, maybe you could give the Total War series a try. That’s closer to creating medieval atmospheres and immersiveness, and there’s very little micro to stand in your way. RTS is not about watching little icons on the UI, it’s about duking it out with your opponent in a battle of speed and wits. Flavor is secondary in an RTS, so abstracting certain elements is allowed, be it UIs not having civilization-specific decorations, or gold icons like traffic signs. You are asking for the chess board to have terrains, or the rook to have coat-of-arms.