Rebuilding the CK HUD

[fallen]

Team: I am starting the process of re-building the Cyber Knights HUD. Primarily, it is a beautification process, but it is also the right time (and the last time for a while) to change the display, add or remove widgets, and change the organization.

Cyber Knights is always played in landscape mode.
Where do you like to have the buttons and sliders?
What items are missing? What stats would you like to see? What other types of notification do you need?

[grävling]

I want my exhaustion level (Sharp and Alert/ Tired/ Dog-Tired) visible on the screen.
I want the HP and MP bars to be larger, like they were. What we have now still hurts my eyes. I don't need the HP and MP labels, but if others do, well, there is on my screen at any rate 3 bars worth of unused screen real-estate below the HP MP and above the 'out of ammo' box.

I would like it if the out of ammo box indicated how low you were in each of the 3 types of ammo.

I miss the 'world with 4 quadrants' around the CK's face. I'd like it to return, though I suppose others found it confusing. In the same vein, I have no problems with clicking on the flag for the faction that controls the region to get to the politics screen for all factions, but maybe others do not discover this?

It would be nice if instead of Heat/Zone Rep we could have 3 bands
NBZ Heat
Zone Heat
Zone Rep

If Y and XP were combined into the same strip that would free up one strip's worth of room for the extra heat strip.

I'd like a notification if one of my jobs is due in 4 or fewer hours.

I'd like more space between the gun/computer/continue walking icons.

I'd like a way to tell that the zone is locked down, or that the phones do not work if you end up with any extra real estate. These are 'good to have' rather than 'wants' though.

Ideally it woudl bne nice if we could do away with the slider altogether and just use standard pinch-zoom gestures. In the absense of that, I would rather have the slider on the far right hand side, as I am right handed. Lefties probably want it exactly where it is.

[fallen]

grävling - thanks for all the suggestions! Some great new items to consider as we balance the size of the HUD and what it can and can't contain. A better (and wider-reaching) set of notifications will really help the game play, since so much is going on, you really want to know!

[anvil]

I second her suggestions. I am left handed, and she is correct
the locked down is new, perhaps a CK's hacking level could overcome this. but notification is still needed. perhaps having this check could be a player choice. perhaps having a positive and negative reward would be cool. If successful, he overcomes the lockdown, and gains experience, If fails, increase heat and or increase chance of bad encounter. Perhaps it could tie into the hackers screen with the timer.

[fallen]

anvil - i think the place in the Rumors / Conflicts / Lockdown system that we need to work most on right now is the notifications and making it clear when / how they are affecting the Zone, Faction, Shop, or Matrix Host. Its a really powerful system churning in the background... now we just need to shine some light on it!

[waaade]

All excellent suggestions, gravling!

What I'd like most is some indication of which zones are locked down and some visual indication of where a job will require me to travel before I accept it (though that second bit might fall outside the scope of the work you're referencing here.)

[vindalloo]

It would also be nice to see how much ammo you have per ammo type.
If my team is using Pistol & Auto ammo and just pistol is running low you dont get a notification.
This i would like to see.

[fallen]

vindalloo - great one. We've had a lot of requests for showing the low ammo warning on all three types, but maybe a small counter is just best for each.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback!

[grävling]

I think 3 counters would be great.

[anaxis]

Instead of always being shot & executed upon surrender with the xp loss that comes with death, I'd like to see a process not unlike ST; ie if your rep isn't too negative, you get imprisoned and lose time & yen, instead of xp.

And instead of a graphic of your bloody corpse, maybe one of a very unhappy CK behind some laser bars.

Aside from that, an ammo counter and exhaustion meter would be quite nifty. otherwise the current hud works for me.
Edit: are there plans for the "being followed" icon? Maybe by tapping it, it'll provide an option to try and lose the tail after the initial encounter?

[fallen]

anaxis - this is a feature set we are planning which we have termed "alternate combat resolutions" which will give you more ways out (bribe, negotiate, surrender) and allow you to avoid combat (and suffer the consequences) if it simply isn't your thing or its you unlucky day.

Being Followed will definitely stay in the HUD, I'm not sure about plans to allow you to try to resolve it. It's an under-appreciated cause of a lot of trouble.

[ncaoa]

Would imprisonment vary depending on faction, Rep with other factions and current conflicts? Is a Cyberkights computer completely secure or could the faction upload negative programs while you are in their custody. Such as sabotaging implants or a gps traker that prevents heat ruduction unless removed?

[fallen]

ncaoa - all good questions we will work on considering as we get to implementing this feature. It is a ways down the road.

[Cory Trese]

We actually already have a status and a half completed system to represent being Captured by a Faction. The plans so far have it mostly revolving around Runners and Allies being Captured and then rescued by the Cyber Knight.

One of the end game goals for CK is to match ST in the number and variety of "self directed" missions which allow the player to balance risk/reward without the game giving out a Contract.

[vindroid]

About the outcomes thing, can you add more details to it? I never knew about the different outcomes depending on your standing situation until I read the forums. I think the ones in ST were pretty vague. It's kinda hard to explain since I havent played in a while, just started playing CK and ST again a couple days ago. Something like,

"You were defeated in combat and were handed over by the independent pirates to the Thulun and were executed for your crimes against the Thulun" or something.

I think that's my beef with ST and CK. I guess I can read the manual but I feel that the game just shows the start and the outcome, not enough text about the process. Just simple explanatory texts would do imo. I'm pretty sure I'm being very unclear but...yeah. I'll play some more and see if I can explain better. Been putting off CK due to the unbearably slow movement speed but I see that that's resolved now.

Edit: I just played for a bit just now, outside. I had trouble figuring out if enemies still had turns in the current round and where I am in the current round. How turns are calculated are based on the initiative of everyone who has AP above 2 right? If I may suggest, there should be an indicator on each sprite to tell that a character cannot move anymore in this round, like the small "E" icon on most japanese srpgs. That or character sprites darkening out.

I'd also like to suggest a cybernetic implant on the eyes or something that lets you see the remaining APs of each unit (attached to each of them) to help you calculate your moves more easily.