UI 3.0 Design Suggestions

[Kao]

Well I really not sure we can do proper stuff using timers, timers are quite hazardous things in multiplayer, correct me if I'm wrong @Kevsoft .
The popup in itself is very easy to do.
But yeah indeed, seeing the impact of a raid with this would be super cool.
Let's see what Kev has to say.

[n0el]

I’d like to see a visualization you can turn on that shows the difference in resource income between the two players. This is great feature of the obs UI in sc2, and would be even better here because of tp income, and other things that contribute to gather rate more than just number of vils.

[Kevsoft]

Well I really not sure we can do proper stuff using timers, timers are quite hazardous things in multiplayer, correct me if I'm wrong @Kevsoft .

Timers are safe to use as long as gametime is used. Gametime and update length are synced between players.

[deleted_user]

Well I really not sure we can do proper stuff using timers, timers are quite hazardous things in multiplayer, correct me if I'm wrong @Kevsoft .

Timers are safe to use as long as gametime is used. Gametime and update length are synced between players.

Genius

[deleted_user]

Kevsoft is a bull.

[deleted_user]

I’d like to see a visualization you can turn on that shows the difference in resource income between the two players. This is great feature of the obs UI in sc2, and would be even better here because of tp income, and other things that contribute to gather rate more than just number of vils.

Isn't this the purpose of "score?"

[harcha]

SirCallens the genius. However it would be nice to split eco score and military score! It would also be nice to hide the P3 and P4 observers from the scoreboard.

[deleted_user]

Kevsoft is a bull.

This is a cuckold joke.

[Riotcoke]

Kevsoft is a bull.

This is a cuckold joke.

Thank you for explaining your genius

[Mitoe]

I’d like to see a visualization you can turn on that shows the difference in resource income between the two players. This is great feature of the obs UI in sc2, and would be even better here because of tp income, and other things that contribute to gather rate more than just number of vils.

Isn't this the purpose of "score?"

I think Noel is talking specifically about income--resources per minute(?).

In SC2 you can see how many minerals/gas players are receiving per minute, and it can give you a better idea of how far ahead, behind, even, etc. players are regardless of how many workers they have.

[HeadKilla]

In Fantasy Football there is a meter that shows % chance of victory for each player that updates as the games are being played. Be cool to have something like that in AOE3.

[harcha]

Yes again, Mitoe with the correction. I think SirCallen was still thinking of xp bar suggestion from previous page made by HUMMAN.

[I_HaRRiiSoN_I]

In Fantasy Football there is a meter that shows % chance of victory for each player that updates as the games are being played. Be cool to have something like that in AOE3.

How on earth would you even calculate that let alone be accurate as well as accounting for errors, lack of APM in late game to play perfectly etc. Although i guess suggestions and crazy ideas are encouraged this is a little too crazy.

The only possible way I would see would add another AI machine into the game where it would evaluate a position based on machine learning of 10,000 odd games. not really a feasible suggestion for a small game and no financial incentive for the developers.

[HeadKilla]

In Fantasy Football there is a meter that shows % chance of victory for each player that updates as the games are being played. Be cool to have something like that in AOE3.

How on earth would you even calculate that let alone be accurate as well as accounting for errors, lack of APM in late game to play perfectly etc. Although i guess suggestions and crazy ideas are encouraged this is a little too crazy.

The only possible way I would see would add another AI machine into the game where it would evaluate a position based on machine learning of 10,000 odd games. not really a feasible suggestion for a small game and no financial incentive for the developers.

Yup, he asked for crazy ideas and this is sure one of those.

[n0el]

I’d like to see a visualization you can turn on that shows the difference in resource income between the two players. This is great feature of the obs UI in sc2, and would be even better here because of tp income, and other things that contribute to gather rate more than just number of vils.

Isn't this the purpose of "score?"

No, because score is a total measurement. What I am proposing is an instant measure at a moment in time.

[bwinner]

There is something I though several times would be really useful when I obs a game :
Is it possible to get the same fog of war as 1 specific player ? Because in the end when we get the fog of war of both, we don't really care, it's always to guess what only one of them sees, so it would be great to have that if it's possible.

[edeholland]

I would like to see units in queue and techs being researched being permanently on the screen on the left and right, so that the bottom of the UI can be used for other information. Changing UI tab is time-consuming and distracting so I try to avoid that.

Alternatively, a hotkey to select another UI tab would be nice to have. Or is that already implemented without me knowing?

[Interjection]

@Aizamk & @Development Team

Despite feeling like I’ve only just mastered navigating the current version, I’m very excited for an upgrade and have lots of feedback! I’ll make a few different posts on a few different topics to make getting my thoughts out more bite-sized

Economic Graphs


In addition to Economic Unit Population & Recalculated, I’d also like to cycle through the following displayed as graphs

• Total resources gathered
• Resources gathered in the last e.g., 60 seconds (displayed as a moving total)
• OR: Average income per second (calculated from the above)

The final two would render identical graphs... but resources per second might be easier to display and to interpret. The current ‘Recalculated Eco Pop’ is a great way to assess theoretical eco potential, but these additions would be useful ‘snapshots’ into the reality of a game. I chose 60 seconds because AoE3 is a fast paced game where your actions need to pay off quickly… also, when casting you’re usually focused on what’s happening ‘NOW’. Having multiple time options would be useful though.

Some QoL Improvements:
-Default to ‘Recalculated Eco Pop’ so I can’t forget to click it
-Rename it to something like ‘Current Economic Potential’
-Include stagecoach TPs
-Is it possible to auto calculate the effect of upgrades? Eco theory doesn’t sound too hard, but something like steel traps which affects a specific resource might be.

[Riotcoke]

I would like to see units in queue and techs being researched being permanently on the screen on the left and right, so that the bottom of the UI can be used for other information. Changing UI tab is time-consuming and distracting so I try to avoid that.

Alternatively, a hotkey to select another UI tab would be nice to have. Or is that already implemented without me knowing?

Something that might be nice to add onto that would be the ability to switch between a casting a normal config e.g I have different sound levels and scroll speed from when I'm playing, would also make sense in regards to changing hotkeys maybe?

[Interjection]

^

Yes! Also a button to reset the camera to the default position

[Riotcoke]

Honestly would be amazing if it switched automatically when you're in OBS mode

[Interjection]

Military Graphs:
Similar to my above post, in addition to military unit population I’d also like to be able to cycle through the following displayed as graphs

• The total resource value of each players current military units
• The total resource value of all military units lost
• The resource value of military units lost in the last e.g., 60 seconds (moving total)

These additions would make assessing a good or bad ‘trade’ much easier! However, they aren’t all that more useful for assessing military strength (as they don’t account for upgrades). A simple way to display this would be a ‘total unit HP’ graph. Whilst this isn’t perfect, it would display the 20% HP increase when veteran hussar gets done - unlike what we have now.

This has issues too though as uhlans and other low HP units e.g., falconets would be horrifically underrepresented. Similar to the Eco Graph, I’m wondering if we need a ‘Recalculated Military Unit Value’ which would functionally be the units resource/score value multiplied by upgrades e.g.,

Recaled Military Example:

• 10 musks = 1000 resource or 10 score (let’s use the smaller number for simplicity)
• This would display on the graph as 10 points
• Veteran Musketeers gets researched, increasing stats by 20%
• 10 musks would now display as 12 points [10*1.2]
  NOTE: Upgrades that only increase one stat (e.g., colonial cards) would be half as valuable in the calculation.
• Colonial Musketeer Attack gets shipped, increasing attack by 15%
• 10 musks with both these upgrades would now be displayed as 12.75 [10*1.275]
• The UI could round the figure

[dansil92]

Military pop as it stands now always has some issues- natives dont have any influence (26 rattan shipment has 0 impact despite the power spike it represents) but outlaws distort the graph heavily (5 renegados lol). I think interjections suggestions above seem logical if they could be implemented

[Riotcoke]

Military Graphs:
Similar to my above post, I’d also like to be able to cycle through the following displayed as graphs

• The total resource value of each players current military units
• The total resource value of all military units lost
• The resource value of military units lost in the last e.g., 60 seconds (moving total)

These additions would make assessing a good or bad ‘trade’ much easier! However, they aren’t all that more useful for assessing military strength (as they don’t account for upgrades). A simple way to display this would be a ‘total unit HP’ graph. Whilst this isn’t perfect, it would display the 20% HP increase when veteran hussar gets done - unlike what we have now.

This has issues too though as uhlans and other low HP units e.g., falconets would be horrifically underrepresented. Similar to the Eco Graph, I’m wondering if we need a ‘Recalculated Military Unit Population’ which would functionally be the units resource/score value multiplied by upgrades e.g.,

Recaled Military Example:

• 10 musks = 1000 resource or 10 score (let’s use the smaller number for simplicity)
• This would display on the graph as 10 points
• Veteran Musketeers gets researched, increasing stats by 20%
• 10 musks would now display as 12 points [10*1.2]
  NOTE: Upgrades that only increase one stat (e.g., colonial cards) would be half as valuable in the calculation.
• Colonial Musketeer Attack gets shipped, increasing attack by 15%
• 10 musks with both these upgrades would now be displayed as 12.75 [10*1.275]
• The UI could round the figure

Even though this is a good idea I honestly don't like it, it will end up skewing the graph massively when the change isn't really representative of x. For example the change in hp from the colonial British card is 30 (or 15 percent) but makes a far smaller difference in musk wars than the damage card (23 to 26) so you just get the same problem as you have now. Imo it's sort of the job of the caster to explain the difference an up makes rather than have the UI give a skewed idea of it that ultimately just makes it more confusing

[Interjection]

I can see that some upgrades are less effective than others, but I still think this would be an objectively more accurate overall representation of military strength than unit population is. So I don't think it would make things more confusing at all, especially if I was a new player dipping into some AoE3 streams when DE gets launched.

We have recalculated eco pop which everyone seems to think that's an improvement on normal eco pop. I don't see why this would be any different. Nobody is arguing it's the job of the caster to point out banks, TPs & market upgrades are also generating income. It seems pretty universally desired that these things should be auto-calculated.