quality of life options

[Omnires]

This thread is just about those little things in games that are there just for the quality of life of the players.

Examples being things like:

• In-game alarm clock with multiple alarm settings for both server time and your location time. - This helps people who my lost track of time while playing and having things like clocks on their desk. By having an alarm clock built into the game as part of the HUD it can help them both in the game and out of the game by reminding them of things like meetings and appointments.
• Color blind settings. - This is something I remember that did affect a small number of players in FireFall and affected how will they could play the game because they just couldn't some colors.
• Motion sickness setting. (see video below) - This is something I remember that did affect a small number of players in FireFall and affected how they could play the game because of the physical effects it had on their bodies.

Are there any other quality of life options that you can think of add them here.

 

[Phyrak]

This thread is just about those little things in games that are there just for the quality of life of the players.

Examples being things like:

• In-game alarm clock with multiple alarm settings for both server time and your location time. - This helps people who my lost track of time while playing and having things like clocks on their desk. By having an alarm clock built into the game as part of the HUD it can help them both in the game and out of the game by reminding them of things like meetings and appointments.
• Color blind settings. - This is something I remember that did affect a small number of players in FireFall and affected how will they could play the game because they just couldn't some colors.
• Motion sickness setting. (see video below) - This is something I remember that did affect a small number of players in FireFall and affected how they could play the game because of the physical effects it had on their bodies.

Are there any other quality of life options that you can think of add them here.

These are brilliant!

In game clocks are incredibly important

Though, I do not have colour blindness - gamers who have it are deeply effected by particle effects from what I hear

So much yes to these

 

[CowedOffACliff]

Field of view slider.

Third person camera option. Third person was part of Firefall's initial appeal to me. I personally really hate the first person perspective in most games. My personal exceptions so far have been CSGO and TF2 because in those games it feels right.

No rubberbanding the camera in and out. They added this stupid function to Firefall after the big 1.6 patch or whatever it was. This made me sick to my stomach. Video games have never made me sick like that before in my life.

I greatly enjoyed how customizable the Firefall UI was. There weren't too many inane limitations on where you could drag stuff on your screen, either.

Additional item hotbars. Tera (and I guess WoW? I never played WoW) style where you can select to add X number of bars and each bar has its own set of keybindable slots. Firefall had a lot of random consumables that could never be used because there simply weren't enough hotbar slots.

 

[EvilKitten]

Additional item hotbars. Tera (and I guess WoW? I never played WoW) style where you can select to add X number of bars and each bar has its own set of keybindable slots. Firefall had a lot of random consumables that could never be used because there simply weren't enough hotbar slots.

Or better yet make the game so it doesn't ever *need* a hotbar (other than to remind you what keybind goes to what ability).

 

[Hybelkaninen]

Option to turn on/off/lower volume of specific sounds, separate sliders etc.

This was brought up in FireFall because of the "thump" sound from the Thumpers.
The frequency/tone of the sound gave some players a headache.

I "loved" the sound but my roommate almost went nuts from it...even though we were sitting in each our room.

Additional item hotbars. Tera (and I guess WoW? I never played WoW) style where you can select to add X number of bars and each bar has its own set of keybindable slots. Firefall had a lot of random consumables that could never be used because there simply weren't enough hotbar slots.

Hotbars = hotkeys !?!...yes...FireFall had a little bit of this but it was still lackluster compared to how many items that suddenly became important to use.

More to come as we see more of the game

 

[Pandagnome]

The alarm clock is a good one i certainly lose track of time when i am in the gaming world

 

[Torgue_Joey]

Option to switch between 3rd and 1st person (i prefer 3rd person, 1st person only BECAUSE VIRTUAL BOOBS)

be able to turn of DoF and other blurs. THAT SHIT HURT MY EYES.

Clock? Server time is enough. Good for in game community events and stuff lke that.

And an settings for effects, whether it shows all players ability effect or just yours. To reduce effect clutters on screen.

 

[eRuss]

Option to switch between 3rd and 1st person (i prefer 3rd person, 1st person only BECAUSE VIRTUAL BOOBS)

be able to turn of DoF and other blurs. THAT SHIT HURT MY EYES.

Clock? Server time is enough. Good for in game community events and stuff lke that.

And an settings for effects, whether it shows all players ability effect or just yours. To reduce effect clutters on screen.

I agree

 

[Nunaden]

Well.... Crosshair options!
like using custom crosshairs and disabling it, also increasing the size and changing the colour. That was something i liked bout Cube 2. You could completely customise your crosshair. And since i play MUCH Hardmode in Contract Wars i already prefer heaving no crosshair unless it are really pinpoint guns or guns that got just a very small spray radius .... or with which you cant aim down teh sight....
And i hope we won't get that FF-"aiming down the sight" shit.... you had to use the crosshair 'Cause they screwed up the "down the sight" part... *facepalm* I want a clear ironsight with attachments and im happy. I think you can understand why i want real ironsights...

 

[ApisLove]

If there is two clocks and alarm system, I think the local time should be easy to distinguish from the server time. I don't want to be getting confused.

I like the idea, though.

 

[Torgue_Joey]

Well.... Crosshair options!
like using custom crosshairs and disabling it, also increasing the size and changing the colour. That was something i liked bout Cube 2. You could completely customise your crosshair. And since i play MUCH Hardmode in Contract Wars i already prefer heaving no crosshair unless it are really pinpoint guns or guns that got just a very small spray radius .... or with which you cant aim down teh sight....
And i hope we won't get that FF-"aiming down the sight" shit.... you had to use the crosshair 'Cause they screwed up the "down the sight" part... *facepalm* I want a clear ironsight with attachments and im happy. I think you can understand why i want real ironsights...

⬆️THIS!⬆️

AN ORANGE NUCLEAR SYMBOL AS CROSSHAIR

 

[Daynen]

Many of these concerns can be solved efficiently by a subtractive design mindset. There are a ton of UI elements and visual settings we're all familiar with from the last decade of gaming, but some of them may not be necessary if the game is designed mindfully. The "more hotbars" request, for example, I can refute outright; if we need more than 5 or 6 shortcut buttons for our everyday functions, there's an issue. We don't need a game where there are twenty different buttons in a typical battle; we can trim that down to buttons having more uses than the other way around.

Overall, however, I again espouse the idea of subtractive design and clutter reduction. Any element of the UI needs to have a fade out option so that anything that's not being active at that moment--say, a full lifebar when you're nowhere near combat, or a jumpjet gauge when you're not even walking, let alone flying--should simply fade from the screen until it's needed. This clears the hud for you to see the actual game and world, rather than filling your screen with hud elements that are serving no purpose and taking up space. I see it done with chat windows quite regularly these days; it simply needs to be applied to more hud elements.

 

[EvilKitten]

Alas @Daynen I only have one like to give...you would think that an evil kitten should have more.

 

[Torgue_Joey]

Many of these concerns can be solved efficiently by a subtractive design mindset. There are a ton of UI elements and visual settings we're all familiar with from the last decade of gaming, but some of them may not be necessary if the game is designed mindfully. The "more hotbars" request, for example, I can refute outright; if we need more than 5 or 6 shortcut buttons for our everyday functions, there's an issue. We don't need a game where there are twenty different buttons in a typical battle; we can trim that down to buttons having more uses than the other way around.

Overall, however, I again espouse the idea of subtractive design and clutter reduction. Any element of the UI needs to have a fade out option so that anything that's not being active at that moment--say, a full lifebar when you're nowhere near combat, or a jumpjet gauge when you're not even walking, let alone flying--should simply fade from the screen until it's needed. This clears the hud for you to see the actual game and world, rather than filling your screen with hud elements that are serving no purpose and taking up space. I see it done with chat windows quite regularly these days; it simply needs to be applied to more hud elements.

The good old days, WHERE WE ONLY NEEDED 2 "HOT KEYS"
HEALTH AND MANA POTION

Fade out option are good, though i have health and energy visible at all times, but gauge bar would be nice to have faded away when not in use.

AND CHAT BUBBLES OVER HEAD SHOULD ONLY APPEAR IN LOCAL AND TEAM CHAT. FOR IMMERSION REASON

 

[Daynen]

The good old days, WHERE WE ONLY NEEDED 2 "HOT KEYS"
HEALTH AND MANA POTION

Fade out option are good, though i have health and energy visible at all times, but gauge bar would be nice to have faded away when not in use.

AND CHAT BUBBLES OVER HEAD SHOULD ONLY APPEAR IN LOCAL AND TEAM CHAT. FOR IMMERSION REASON

See this is my point though: such hud elements should only be visible when they are updating (taking damage, running low on ammo, managing jet gauge, etc.) but fade and get out of the way when they're static. When they're not tracking any changes, they're taking up space we can reclaim. Now, granted, there may be times when you just want to glance at them for reference or comparison or something; in such a case, I'd suggest a toggle button, much like "mouselook mode" in some games. In this situation, the elements would fade normally, but at a button, you could pop them all up just to remind yourself or compare gear, then another press and they're back to their unobtrusive fade.

It would feel similar to the "disable UI" key that games have to facilitate screenshots, but more element-specific; this would be the default state rather than, say, an F12 function.

 

[Nunaden]

See this is my point though: such hud elements should only be visible when they are updating (taking damage, running low on ammo, managing jet gauge, etc.) but fade and get out of the way when they're static. When they're not tracking any changes, they're taking up space we can reclaim. Now, granted, there may be times when you just want to glance at them for reference or comparison or something; in such a case, I'd suggest a toggle button, much like "mouselook mode" in some games. In this situation, the elements would fade normally, but at a button, you could pop them all up just to remind yourself or compare gear, then another press and they're back to their unobtrusive fade.

It would feel similar to the "disable UI" key that games have to facilitate screenshots, but more element-specific; this would be the default state rather than, say, an F12 function.

dis-/enabling hud is a nice idea. And pretty nice for hardcore challenges xD
We should also get an option menu for it that gives us teh ability to say what gets toggled and what not.

 

[Daynen]

dis-/enabling hud is a nice idea. And pretty nice for hardcore challenges xD
We should also get an option menu for it that gives us teh ability to say what gets toggled and what not.

Even better: HUD functionality can be tied to to your frame's computer system and it's physical condition, leading to a variety in HUD types...and possible malfunctions when damaged. You want immersion? See how immersive it feels to see your ammo count come across your hud as a scrambled mess because your computer's damaged. THEN you'll find out just how good you are...

Of course, with such dangers comes the possibility of further customization to adapt. Redundant computer systems, better bulkhead reinforcement, or lower-tech means of tracking things that can malfunction--there's a variety of solutions to this, all of them contributing to the "horizontal" nature of gear swapping while adding functionality AND challenge at once. Want more detailed info? Get a better AI--but be careful, it loses integrity easily. Need more dependability instead of a scan of the enemy's favorite breakfast food? Get a simpler, more rugged system that holds up under fire better. This would diversify our roles and builds in a wonderful way, while allowing the devs to design much more intriguing situations that can challenge us in new and intelligent ways; it also gives us the possibility of scarier, more worrisome scenarios that lead to exciting moments in gameplay.

 

[Vladplaya]

Extensive graphics options that allow to turn off junk like motion blur, and bloom. I don't know why developers use those, UE4 games are specially guilty of it. I wish those features would be off by default, as I yet to play a single game where I was like "wow this intense bloom and ridicules motion blur is really making my experience with this game better", never ever I thought that. If there are games that benefit from those two effects, I would love to know what those are.

 

[Torgue_Joey]

Extensive graphics options that allow to turn off junk like motion blur, and bloom. I don't know why developers use those, UE4 games are specially guilty of it. I wish those features would be off by default, as I yet to play a single game where I was like "wow this intense bloom and ridicules motion blur is really making my experience with this game better", never ever I thought that. If there are games that benefit from those two effects, I would love to know what those are.

Indeed, never understood it either. In real life i do see bloom effect from direct sun light impact (depending on surfaces) but in game it's exaggerated/ridiculous. Never experienced motion blur, NOT EVEN AT 320 KM/H (about 200 mph)

 

[EvilKitten]

I think a simple hotkey that shows all HUD elements when pressed and then fades things back out when unpressed would be sufficient. Use that for a quick reminder of your quest and such. I think the only HUD elements that should always be on would be a minimap with compass, and groupmates icons when grouped. You don't even need an HP bar for your teammates, simply add border around their icon that changes colour from green down to red, flashing when they drop below say 20% HP. For those who are colorblind perhaps an alternate toggle that changes the opacity of the icon in a clockwork pattern, again with flashing border when they drop below 20% HP.