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TFL BigBANGtheory
Join Date 02/2007
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Best UI ever?

July 9, 2008 2:36:25 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

To balance various critisims over the past year I would like to throw out the possibility into the community that SoaSE has one of the best User Interfaces of any game ever...

Agree or Disagree?

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eatcrayons
Join Date 07/2008
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Reply #1 July 9, 2008 3:50:24 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
The learning curve isn't too bad, but once I knew the basics, I found that most of the commands I was after were three or four clicks away. Seems like that could have been reduced.

I'm sure once I take the time to learn the hotkeys things will be better, but I can't say best UI ever on this one.
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Legolan
Join Date 06/2008
+1
Reply #2 July 9, 2008 4:05:57 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
It may not be the best, but it is certainly very good at the least. I for one have yet to have a single instance where the UI was either "in the way" or didn't allow me to easily do what I wanted. Overall I find it pretty intuitive and it certainly fulfills the required usability needed for the game.
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Kitkun
Join Date 06/2008
+175
Reply #3 July 9, 2008 10:56:56 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
It's excellent. It's also getting better in 1.1.
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WHIPperSNAPper2008
Join Date 03/2008
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Reply #4 July 10, 2008 7:53:27 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
It's not bad, but I wouldn't call it best. The Sins online multiplayer user interface is severely lacking, but functional.

Based on the limited number of games that I have played, I nominate Unreal Tournament 2004 as a candidate for "best user interface". (Ironically, after doing such a great job with the UT 2004 user interface, Epic Games consolized UT3, making it a candidate for "worst user interface".)
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Fishbreath
Join Date 02/2007
+7
Reply #5 July 10, 2008 8:05:50 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Online matchmaking, while important, is really a very small part of the interface for an RTS. I'll grant I haven't played online yet (cough) but it would have to be basically unusable for me to knock the whole game's interface based on it alone.
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FrostMage
Join Date 06/2008
+5
Reply #6 July 10, 2008 8:40:08 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
It gets in the way of all the cool screenshots that I want to take. Unless I missed something and you can hide it completely?

...anyone?

-FM
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Sakhari
Join Date 03/2006
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Reply #7 July 10, 2008 8:50:52 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums
Best ever? Based on what criteria? Sure, it's functional but I don't see anything particularly amazing about it.

For overall utility, I'd just as soon give that award to Supreme Commander (especially when using two monitors).
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Fishbreath
Join Date 02/2007
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Reply #8 July 10, 2008 12:14:01 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
It gets in the way of all the cool screenshots that I want to take. Unless I missed something and you can hide it completely? ...anyone?-FM


Cinematic mode, for one. For interface hiding, it's one of the following options (I'm at work, and don't remember offhand)
1. Has to be bound in-game
2. Ctrl+Alt+Z
3. Ctrl+Shift+Z
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BHunterSEAL
Join Date 11/2006
+1
Reply #9 July 10, 2008 12:52:00 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
The dynamic zoom is incredible. It makes a minimap unneccessary and allows the bottom left (or right) corner of the screen to be freed up. I think this game has the best UI I've ever seen, especially for an RTS, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it the best ever.
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FrostMage
Join Date 06/2008
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Reply #10 July 10, 2008 12:54:49 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
It gets in the way of all the cool screenshots that I want to take. Unless I missed something and you can hide it completely? ...anyone?-FM


Cinematic mode, for one. For interface hiding, it's one of the following options (I'm at work, and don't remember offhand)1. Has to be bound in-game2. Ctrl+Alt+Z3. Ctrl+Shift+Z


Thanks! I'll be sure to check that out. I'd love to get some great shots for wallpaper making.
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kryo
Join Date 05/2003
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Reply #11 July 10, 2008 1:02:33 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
It gets in the way of all the cool screenshots that I want to take. Unless I missed something and you can hide it completely?


Ctrl+Shift+Z toggles the UI.
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Fishbreath
Join Date 02/2007
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Reply #12 July 10, 2008 1:29:39 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Knew it was one of those!
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psychoak
Join Date 07/2007
+225
Reply #13 July 10, 2008 9:00:58 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Does boxed sex count?

When describing how easy it was to manage your entire empire from the tree, that was the response I got from a tbs player that hates the late game slowdown.
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