Tim “Raskolnikov” Lang has a new dev diary out today about the changes they are making to the character panel. I don’t know about you but I really enjoy Tim’s dev diaries. They seem to really include how they came to the conclusion that they did and all the plans (even ones that didn’t work).
The goal of the character panel revamp is really simplify the look so it didn’t look so busy and pretty daunting for new players. In the current character panel everything from equipment, to skills, to mounts and housing is all lumped together in one screen. I suppose that’s very handy if you know where everything is but pretty nuts if you’re trying to figure things out.
Tim shares some early mock-ups of their designs and why some worked and some didn’t.
We really liked the idea of being able to link players to specific Cosmetic Clothing. However, we were also acutely aware of players’ complaints about some of our Store offerings being too in-your-face. So we went through a few more revisions:
When the design was shown to players on Palantir they found that the largest was the removal of so many of the options that used to be there.
Players still wanted to be able to access all of the information from the Character panel they could access previously (ie; Reputation, Housing, The War, etc).
What they developed is currently available to see on Bullroarer so I hopped on to give you some views of my little burglar. All images can be seen larger if you click on them.
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AFTER
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A much cleaner view in my opinion. Your character is the star with the stats on the side. You can expand to show all the stats.
The stats on the old Character panel were very daunting, and we knew we didn’t want to intimidate new players by immediately flooding them with information. We decided to only show the most relevant stats based on the player’s Class.
The big button in the lower right corner is called “Enhance Character” and is where links to store items are stored such as renaming your character, stat tomes, xp boosts, etc. Still easily accessible but not slapping you in the face at every turn.
On top there’s a tab for cosmetics which gives a similar large character view and easy to click big buttons to sort through your five (yes FIVE total) cosmetic outfit options.
There are now three additional Cosmetic Outfits available for purchase (the purchase is applied to your account, not per character). And the “Buy Cosmetic Clothing” button keeps the UI looking clean while giving players easier access to Cosmetic items they might be interested in.
A big thing missing that I’m sure many used the character panel for is our currency. This has been moved to the wallet. There is a button for this on the new character panel but the shortcut for this is the “B” key or click the Wallet icon on your mini-map (used to be for destiny points). This is also where your barter items are held.
My character on bullroarer doesn’t own a home and doesn’t have any hobbies but from the screenshot in the dev diary it looks like it’s all available from the character panel buttons at the bottom.
This is a pretty big change but overall I like them. I can just see them taking some time to get used to after using the old for so many years. I am happy that they are listening and trying to be more subtle but still helpful with links to the LOTRO Store. I am of course over the moon with happiness with the additional outfit slots we are getting!
February 10, 2011 at 11:56 am
I love the changes. I think the panel is much cleaner and streamlined. And extra cosmetic spots!!!
February 10, 2011 at 12:03 pm
Eeeee, more outfits!
February 10, 2011 at 12:17 pm
I’m going to be the nay-sayer. I do like the larger image, but it seems like they took out a lot of information that I often use. I do a lot of different raids and instances and will change my vitals according to how much fire, fear, shadow mitigation I need. Where is that on the new panel? Do I now have to click around to get those mitigations to show instead of it being on the main page? If so, that sucks. I liked how they had the mitigation panel set up before.
Yay for more cosmetic space – but how much is that going to cost per space? Will we be forking out 1900+ points to open those slots? If so, that’s not so cool.
I also liked being able to see how much was in her wallet just by clicking on the character panel for a quick glance before moving on to whatever else I was working on. Now, I have to click around for that or find it someplace else? Not cool with that either. Also, where are the mounts? I saw no tabs for mount storage like there is on the old version (I could have missed it, but I don’t recall seeing it).
I would have prefered if they kept the bottom half the same, but changed the alt section to the new one.
February 10, 2011 at 12:24 pm
As far as the mitigations and such, there is a checkbox at the top right of the panel that says “show all stats”. I personally agree though. While I really like the larger character screen I would have almost prefer a separate tab now that would contain all the stats on one panel.
February 10, 2011 at 12:31 pm
Wallet has a shortcut key of B. Now to see your cash you will just have to learn to push B instead of C. Agreed it will take some getting used to but it seems sensible for all currency items to be in one location.
Mounts are skills. They are located in the skill panel.
February 10, 2011 at 2:09 pm
Wallet is also available by clicking on a small round icon by your map.
February 10, 2011 at 12:42 pm
Costs, subject to change are 495TP an outfit tab, each tab is account wide. To open all 3 would cost 1485TP.
February 10, 2011 at 1:02 pm
that looks strikingly similar to the World of Warcraft character panel.
February 10, 2011 at 4:26 pm
That’s exactly what I was thinking. My very first thought was “This suddenly looks like the character panel in every other MMO I’ve ever played.”
I dunno. The character now takes up a lot of panel real estate and I don’t think I like that. If I want to see what my character looks like I’ll check the cosmetic preview. I’d like to see an option to remove the character image completely and give the stats more prominence.
February 10, 2011 at 1:07 pm
What about the info on your house, rep, and pvp rank? And I also liked having my cash info on the character panel, just click “C” and there it is. I use “B” for my bags so I guess I’ll be changing the wallet hotkey .
Yay more outfits!
February 10, 2011 at 1:12 pm
Like I said in the post it appeared to be more buttons on Tim’s screenshots than I had. I do not own a home on Bullroarer and have never been to the moors on my level 43 but the reputation is a good question.
*pause while looking it up* /sing elevator music
February 10, 2011 at 1:17 pm
Annnd I’m back.
There is no where I can see that there is a button for War or Reputation from the new character panel. I do not know if this is just a bullroarer beta thing or intended. I could not find any short cut keys that corresponded to these 2 panels either.
Only way I could find these is by going to the little ^arrow in the main toolbar and under “Character” there was links to both panels. Housing was there too. Perhaps I’ll see if I can buy a cheapo house on BR to see if it affects the Character panel.
I hope this isn’t the end product. It seemed a kind of pain in the tookas way to find these panels.
February 10, 2011 at 2:08 pm
Thanks for the article, Goldenstar!
PS: I’ve been reliably informed by a Jewish friend that it’s spelled ‘tuchus’ and I’ve been spelling it wrong — tookus — for years. Oh well.
February 10, 2011 at 2:21 pm
Neat I learned something! Probably still going to spell it wrong but good to know
February 10, 2011 at 1:34 pm
I very much doubt that what we’re seeing right now is the end product, as everything is still in the beta stage. I think there’s going to be at least one more build update to Bullroarer before this hits the live servers (including a wipe and character copy being enabled).
Everything is in a state of flux right now. It’ll be interesting to see what they do.
February 10, 2011 at 1:56 pm
I love that they are trying to make sure everything works as well as possible, but man… my custom UI’s are gonan go screwy again! I gotta wait for them to get updated, and download them and install again. maaaan
February 10, 2011 at 1:57 pm
maybe I missed it but is there a known month when this patch is expected to go live? March/April?
February 10, 2011 at 2:22 pm
No date has been mentioned yet.
February 10, 2011 at 2:08 pm
Eh. After years of beta testing and Isengard testing, what you see on the preview server is what goes to live, with very few very small exceptions. They’ve even done the art for the new panels. That’s a pretty good indicator that it’s locked in.
They took a poll for changing LOTRO Store to Shop, Shoppe, Market, or something else. Never went anywhere. They were bombarded with negative feedback on housing. It went in just as it was. Their invite-only server is called a preview server for a reason.
TBH, my only real concern about this revamp is the apparent obsession with new players. Are they really gutting this menu and hiding away vital information that players need because new players didn’t like it? For goodness sakes, if someone gives up on the game because the Character menu was too “complicated,” they weren’t likely to stick around very long anyway. MMOs are complicated. If we wanted something simple and dumbed down, we’d be console players. ; )
I really hate when the Marketing department gets to determine ingame design. That’s what gave us the much-loathed LOTROSTOREOMGCLICKEHEEEEEEEEERE!!! buttons in the first place.
February 10, 2011 at 4:19 pm
Just want to say, totally agree. and isn’t it great that they gave us more outfit slots…..that we have to get with turbine points. Which we will then equip with stuff bought with turbine points, as cosmetic outfits & cloaks don’t seem to be added much anymore if not in the store. Heck, not much of anything seems to just be added to “regular” game content updates. Just the scenery. If I didn’t love the world I’ve been in for the last few years, I’d be switching to RIFT. No wonder Patience split.
February 10, 2011 at 10:02 pm
I don’t know. Sure there’s been a lot added that’s TP only, but even just for the last festival there was a decent amount of new cosmetic clothing. Personally I don’t really feel ripped off in that regard.
February 10, 2011 at 2:27 pm
First: The housing, hobbies and others panels we used to have on character’s panel are left unchanged. You can access them by clicking on the arrow on the extreme right of your action bar, then mousing over the Character tab on the menu. The list of all character related tabs along with the less frequent used one will is there.
I must say I have mixed feelings with this new tab. I feel they bought our approval with more cosmetic tab but ”slipped” in so many Lotro Store buttons! Also, I’m really disappointed that the wardrobe didn’t got the new bigger window. Otherwise the new layout doesn’t really ”add” anything to the game. I was hoping devs could go a little bit farther and I don’t know, have haircuts linked with outfits, new cosmetic equipments slots, etc. It’s not hard to be creative!
February 10, 2011 at 2:37 pm
I agree that the dressing room is entirely too small!
February 10, 2011 at 2:35 pm
It really does look like they were checking out the newest version of the WoW character panel – the layout is very, very similar including the organization of item slots (with a couple of exceptions), the positioning of the wallet at the bottom right, the way the stats are arranged in the right-hand pane…
I don’t like it, from these screenies – there’s really nothing wrong with the char panes now, in my opinion. Plus, maybe I’m biased in my preference to get -away- from WoW-like things when I come to LOTRO, since I play both.
February 10, 2011 at 3:45 pm
The panel is bad. For the first, I dont see the point, why the armour pieces have to put onto each other… The list of the stat is a new feature like the new homepage of Youtube… pointless and impenetrable. This’ my opinion sorry. On the other hand the wallet and the additional cosmetics are great!
February 10, 2011 at 4:27 pm
Can we have an old panel as an UI option ? I guess not – Don’t like the new one – Will take a lot of time to get used to it..
February 10, 2011 at 5:11 pm
Hmm. Did I miss where they put the show/hide for items in the new panel? It was quite handy before with the little eye next to the pieces.
Other than that, I don’t mind most of the changes, but I did like the equipment layout more as it had been rather than the new “two columns of doom” design.
February 10, 2011 at 5:13 pm
Never mind. I see it is all on the outfits tab now. I guess I’d need to go there, then, even if just showing the normal equipment.
February 10, 2011 at 6:21 pm
Please tell me the Titles section now has a search box…
February 10, 2011 at 6:27 pm
The title panel doesn’t look any different to me.
February 10, 2011 at 6:53 pm
What bother me here is that panel revamps means doubble size.
I’m still just using a 22″ wide screen, not a 42″ screen. Panels like the crafting end up covering the progress bar and other frames you’d like to see.
If there would have been a checkbox on the bottom left side that would hide/show the right side of the panel (ie you could make the crafting panel to just show the list of crafting options by just checking that box) I would be fully satisfied with that panel revamp.
February 10, 2011 at 8:23 pm
You should throw that up in the feedback thread. It is a good suggestion.
February 10, 2011 at 10:01 pm
I guess I’m one of the few people who doesn’t do a bunch of other things while in these panels. The current one is already pretty sizable. I’m running at 1920×1080 and it still takes up a good portion of my screen…
So even currently, it’s not like I’m running around doing important battles while switching into the character panel. The only stuff I do while in it is character related… even at this size you can tell if you’re being hit by visual or sound.
Either way, I would prefer that some of this stuff could slide in and out as suggested by AsH.
February 11, 2011 at 3:21 am
Anyone else notice the “waist” slot int he cosmetic panel? Cosmetic belts? Might as well throw in belts as an 8th armor piece too.
February 11, 2011 at 9:15 am
It’s not a cosmetic slot for your waist. Those buttons on top are zoom in panels. I have no idea why you would have a need to zoom in on your waist but like Strunto says below, we’ve always had this feature
February 11, 2011 at 9:04 am
I think there’s always been a button to zoom onto the characters midsection. It just has a name now. (I’m not really sure what purpose this zoom served, as the Head button showed the upper torso section.)
I haven’t tried it out yet, but I’m a little afraid of the changes. I check my reputation stats A LOT. It’s become a bit of an obsession, especially as I grind my alts toward a reputation horse. I’m just not satisfied with 100 morale mounts anymore.
Spoiled so quickly.
Anyway, it sounds like checking rep on a frequent basis could quicly become a pain. I don’t like that.
February 11, 2011 at 9:20 am
A dev diary recording how they’d tried so hard NOT to copy WoW’s character panel, to no avail? It’d be a fun read if only they’ve wrote it that way; because as you can see from the end result: That’s exactly what this is all about.
They didn’t even try to make it look better…
February 11, 2011 at 10:25 am
Does anyone know what the purple gem next to the coins in the wallet image are for?
February 11, 2011 at 2:53 pm
I’m becoming annoyed by the ever-increasing size of the UI. It seems like every time a panel goes under the knife, it comes back taking up 33% more of the screen.
February 21, 2011 at 10:41 pm
Liking the new and larger character view. I never could understand why inspecting other characters showed them as larger than your own in the relevant window.
What I don’t like is the new arrangement of icons. It DOES make sense to have the armour together and the jewellery together, but it’s looking very WoW now in its arrangement. It also takes up much more space on screen. Plus, how do you tell which jewellery spot is which? Easy to tell when they’re side by side that left is left and right is right (You know, because just clicking from inventory automatically equips on the left), but not so much when they’re stacked. There also seems to be some of the stat information missing which I use. Why can’t I see my currency here?
Sure, now you can see currency by clicking on the barter wallet icon on the map (will the barter wallet be working properly now and taking all the tokens it’s meant to rather than leaving some skirmish marks in inventory?), but where is the Destiny icon now?
BTW Bullroarer is obviously open – will the EU one be open at any point for us to have a go and make reports?