[FOR CA] Would you like to have authentic UI back to Rome II ?

[Vilkas09]

Rome II has many strange game design decisions and one of them is new ugly UI style which completely ruins atmosphere and immersion. In Shogun 2 we had beautiful menu with japanese art motifs. Looked very good and was very intuitive with colorful pictures. Now we have some generic modern style ugly user interface that reminds Apple-Android-Microsoft products. All this in the game about ancient times. WTF?! Really. I understand that the work of art designers is not cheap, but why the hell game with 40% bigger budget has cheap ugly ui?

The most important part is that one forum member discovered that beautiful ui is actually present in game files which means that CA can bring it back to the game. What do you think about it? ^Poll ^


Original message:

After Mike CA mentioned additional work on Rome 2 UI I thought I would try to come up with best of worst scenario, where they keep same visuals (ugly black placeholder blocks), but just try to tidy it up a bit. As I started my work on screenshot from game in image editor, I noticed that existing graphical blocks are build with some greater idea behind them. So I went on and looked what has been shipped with the game (in data files). What I found surprised me (well, to some extent, because I've seen pre-alpha screenshots and part of what is seen there can be found in Rome 2 files).

I must say, CA designers/artists have done a great work! I sure hope Mike CA was thinking about bringing total GUI overhaul, because letting this stuff go to waste would be shame.

Long story short, I used images in data files and came up with something like this.

First thing we notice when we load up Rome 2 is loading screen. It's nothing special, but still, it's nice loading bar.



Default view on campaign map.



View of selected army and active unit list. General's block is same thing as minimap, because there are no art files of what can be seen on pre-alpha screenies (arc).



By no means I'm saying this is how it should look, my skill with stuff like this is limited, all I did was put together art'sy stuff CA has made. I just want to show that there might be something great happening for us in near future.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...gem-Rome-2-GUI

[theteapot]

The guy in

[The_Dude]

Rome II has many strange game design decisions and one of them is new ugly UI style which completely ruins atmosphere and immersion.

personal flavour, for me it doesnt affect atmosphere and immersion one bit.

In Shogun 2 we had beautiful menu with japanese art motifs. Looked very good and was very intuitive with colorful pictures.

being intuitive and looking good are two completely different things. you may claim that you think the new UI is ugly, thats fine, but intuitive it definitely is.

Now we have some generic modern style ugly user interface that reminds Apple-Android-Microsoft products.

yeah...thats funny considering that the 3 you mention LOOK COMPLETELY DIFFERENT:

metro: http://www.computerworld.com/common/...ows8/Metro.jpg
ios: http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/...6/ios7html.jpg
droid: http://www.android.com/images/restricted-profiles.png

so, please, do go on and explain to me how that looks even remotely similar to the rome-ui:

http://media1.gameinformer.com/image...I/review03.jpg

[Sabre120]

I like the current UI, I much prefer it to the original Rome, my God that was hideous.

[Rittsy]

How about they patch the game so more people can play it first before arguing about aesthetics.

[Dago Red]

YES.

I don't want a smoked Lucite panel from a spaceship's command center in my classical antiquity game. It was a choice that defies reason. Not only are they ugly as hell to look at, especially on the giant "control large army" unit card panel and faction screen, but they are buggy as hell.

PS.
Somewhere along the way I heard someone say that unit card sizes scale down depending on the size of the army. THAT is a much better solution than doubling the unit card window/panel size in battles. The damn thing obscures a huge amount of screen real estate.

[Castel]

Love the UI. You can find everything quickly, it's clear and easy to use.

[Sharpe]

I do actually prefer that one.

Maybe they could have the option of switching through UI's. Loads of games used to have the feature, even ones like Need for Speed.

[Love Mountain]

I absolutely hate the UI. That said, it's okay for others to like it. Preference. It's one of the many mistakes in my opinion, but a tiny one in the face of so many others.

[Greve Af Göteborg]

The modern style UI works for Civ 5 because it actually goes from the stone age to the future. Rome 2 is only focused on the ancient era, so there's no excuse to have a modern style UI.

[ShadowMassa]

The UI appearance on Rome II is inferior compared to previous games. I was expecting better, it was another let down of the many already..