The New Ui

Discussion in 'TSW General Discussion' started by LucasLCC, Aug 19, 2021.

  1. Tigert1966

    Tigert1966 Well-Known Member

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    I don't really mind the new UI. It’s not great but I’ll get used to it. The old one was pretty terrible as well, I don’t particularly want that back either.

    I prefer the Route selection part. I do hope they put the diorama back outside though. That was a bit of an odd decision.

    For me the driving is what matters, and that so far is a big improvement in this release, in my opinion.
     
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  2. LucasLCC

    LucasLCC Well-Known Member

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    I think this sentence sums it up. There are some nice new features, but the implementation is drastic. The old UI should have been tweaked and improved. It really is a case for change for the sake of change...
     
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  3. Clumsy Pacer

    Clumsy Pacer Well-Known Member

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    I think they decided to get rid of the flags because of the massive argument here (and probably elsewhere) over Cathcart's flag, so they probably wanted to distance themselves from it and not re-open that kettle of fish with another route.
     
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  4. Mattty May

    Mattty May Guest

    I thought the same thing. Makes sense not to get politically involved in things and the flags, especially the Saltire and Union Flag, did cause some ructions.
     
  5. LucasLCC

    LucasLCC Well-Known Member

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    I can understand wanting to get rid of the flags, however listing routes in a tiled fashion by country wouldn't be hard, and would improve things significantly.
     
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  6. Tanglebones

    Tanglebones Well-Known Member

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    Add me to the list of people not keen on the new UI. I'm very appreciative of the attempt however, it's just the execution that could stand a bit of improvement. Some thoughts, as they occur to me:

    1. I actually like the colour scheme but agree that we should have options an choices to customize our own.
    2. I really, really think they should add a filter to select by train. For example, I feel in the mood to drive a Class 43 so select train filter and choose that, and only the available routes show up, from which I choose. I can also see an 'off the rails' button I can press to bring back all the others, if I wish.
    3. I love that they added the gradient/speed/station names to the map but wholeheartedly agree it breaks the experience having to pause and memorize. Perhaps the solution is a long, narrow 'route knowledge' window like in TS2021? But optional, so we can enable or disable it, and moveable so we can place it where most convenient. Or with variable transparency?
    4. I keep seeing this mental image of a 'Training Academy' (pun intended) or similarly named option off the main menu at start. Opening it up takes you to a test track where you can select country/loco and be taken into tutorials on cold starts and shutdowns for each train, recovering from emergencies, signal explanations for the selected country, braking tutorials, and safety systems training. Perhaps even a test scenario you have to pass in order to 'graduate'. Just a thought, but a persistent one for me. Case in point, love the Boston Sprinter DLC but simply dreading having to search around and learn on my own how effectively use all the safety systems, especially with no manual published. Many person-years of developing a beautiful route, much negotiation time bringing your game onto more and more platforms to entice new users - and don't teach them about half the train functions or supply a manual. Just let them pull their hair out or have to search Youtube. Le sigh.

    Just some random ideas early in the morning as I try to convince myself to start the work computer.
     
    Last edited: Aug 20, 2021
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  7. jase_37

    jase_37 New Member

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    If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!

     
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  8. Clumsy Pacer

    Clumsy Pacer Well-Known Member

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    I will praise it for a few things I think it's done right:
    The addition of this column is very nice
    upload_2021-8-20_17-36-50.png

    The return of quit to desktop from game is also good, I do like the idea of a more visual route selection screen albeit not fantastically executed here and I personally thing it was, overall, a good idea to get shot of the flags - it was bound to cause arguments at some point, as it did with Cathcart. Otherwise... no.
     
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  9. Krazy

    Krazy Well-Known Member

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    I can just add myself to the list of people who dislike the new UI. The main menu, while I personally like the look of it, is badly organized, and is completely ruined by the driver avatar which makes scrolling through the routes look laggy. I was disgusted by the pause screen, which requires me to press even more buttons to exit to the menu. The whole pause screen in general is a lot more confusing to navigate, and no pause screen should ever be able to confuse people.

    And my goodness, selecting the trains and weather in timetable mode is completely ruined. It used to be very good-looking, having a track sitting next to a small outdoor platform, with a proper view of the train. Now we're sitting in a depressing dark station which is COVERED, so screw you if you like choosing exactly how much rain and/or clouds you want (I do this a lot). And the disgusting angle of the train, where instead of the normal 45-ish degrees that let you see the front and side of the train, now you can only see the front. So basically, you can barely see your train, and you can't see what weather you're choosing.

    The phrase "If it ain't broke don't fix it" is indeed good advice. The old UI was already good, and while the new update brings some good things, mainly showing the length of timetable services, it creates more problems than it fixes, and it does sort of feel like the UI was simply changed to add a big new feature for the summer update.
     
    Last edited: Aug 20, 2021
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  10. rat7_mobile

    rat7_mobile Well-Known Member

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    I completely agree with all of you, the new UI is a bust
    The few thing that were improve, are ot even worth mentioning unfortunately because everything else is worse, which mean 90+% is worse
     
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  11. Clumsy Pacer

    Clumsy Pacer Well-Known Member

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    I stopped trusting the diarama for snow level, because Id set it to be just how I wanted it but wen i actually got into the game it was either less snowy or more snowy.
     
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  12. dhekelian

    dhekelian Well-Known Member

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    I suppose I fall into this group, I do appreciate the larger Font for the distance but am not a fan of the UI, it seems to cluttered and Awkward for me. I did prefer the old one with the flags and they could easily have got over the 'Scotland problem' by giving all the English routes an English flag and the Scot's their flag, problem solved.

    I'm not saying the old UI was perfect but it didn't hog the resources either.
     
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  13. Clumsy Pacer

    Clumsy Pacer Well-Known Member

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    menu.png
    So since a lot of the complaints have been about either the diarama, the pause screen, or the route select, I thought I'd knock this up - does anyone think this would this be a better route selection screen if they were to refine the more visual path, rather than just back to a simple list?

    Yes, I did comically extend NEC's name to show how I'd do it for a route with too long a name - also the font (Tw Cen MT Condensed) is just a font I had that looks kinda like the font they use, just imagine it with their font.

    If the icons are too small, perhaps add a "scale" option in the settings to show a 3x2 grid instead of a 4x3 one?

    Disclaimer: I'm not a UI artist, this was just an idea.
     
    Last edited: Aug 20, 2021
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  14. Lamplight

    Lamplight Well-Known Member

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  15. tallboy7648

    tallboy7648 Well-Known Member

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    That looks better tbh. Maybe dtg should hire you since their ui artist can't seem to design a good ui it seems
     
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  16. wxtr7

    wxtr7 Well-Known Member

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    If I had the time to mock something like this up, this is almost verbatim how I would've done it. Still shows all the nice trains, but shows the maximum amount of content and uses the available screen real estate. A proper UI.
     
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  17. LucasLCC

    LucasLCC Well-Known Member

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    I find it a little entertaining that the mastery section is probably the best part of the UI. Whoever designed that should have been allowed to design the full thing...
     
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  18. Jannerdunk

    Jannerdunk Well-Known Member

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    Well given that some of us have half the 4th column missing, I would say that the mastery screen is also a big fail.

    Mastery.jpg
     
  19. formulabee#1362

    formulabee#1362 Well-Known Member

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    Much better!
     
  20. davejc64

    davejc64 Well-Known Member

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    I really like the new UI.

    Just noticed there must be at least 3 threads about the UI, think the forum mods need to do a bit of merging.
     
    Last edited: Aug 21, 2021
  21. formulabee#1362

    formulabee#1362 Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, would also help if they scrapped the device subforums and replaced it with general and add device prefixes, similar to technical support sub forum
     
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  22. LucasLCC

    LucasLCC Well-Known Member

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    I didn't realise it did that! Yes, I'd agree that it's a bit of a fail in that case...
     
  23. Tomas9970

    Tomas9970 Well-Known Member

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    I think getting rid of infinite scrolling in the route selection and scenario selection screen would help a lot with relatively little effort.

    Also the characters in the route selection screen need to go. They barely render properly and that makes them pretty distracting.
     
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  24. fanta1682002

    fanta1682002 Well-Known Member

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    i very like new ui
     
  25. LWDAdnane

    LWDAdnane Well-Known Member

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    This is miles better, looks alive and refreshing instead of dull and depressing
     
  26. Clumsy Pacer

    Clumsy Pacer Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for your feedback on my mock :)

    I have a feeling the job of UI artist involves more skill than the shape tool in paint.net ;) I wouldn't know the first thing about doing it properly.
     
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  27. tallboy7648

    tallboy7648 Well-Known Member

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    lol
     

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