Feedback: ui changes

Howdy y'all,

NOW, I know PC2 is in still in development and maybe the ui is the way it is for the Gamescom demo but I thought there could be some tweaks made before the final release. Cos there's some choices here that I don't think need to be so...in your face.

For starters have a look at the bottom of the screen.
1724277310263.png

That navy bar really does not need to be there. You could open up the view of our park a lil bit more by cutting that, bringing the white tabs down and moving the player controls to the right of the tabs.
I have no idea if this is just for the demo or if there'll be other things displayed in this bar in the final release of the game but it just seems unnecessary right now. Cut cut cut, I say.

Similarly, I cannot stop staring at this:
1724277726352.png

Planet Zoo had this neatly tucked away in the bottom left corner and I actually think it should stay there...Maybe as one of the tabs on the bottom of the screen but separated from Coasters, and when it's interacted with then maybe have it pop up there at the top and centre of the screen.
I dunno, this might be nitpicky but there just seems to be a lot of clutter in the way of the gorgeous view of the park. Get outta my face heh heh.

This one is down to convenience
1724277960093.png

What about a tab on the path tool that features all the interactable objects that are placed on paths, such as benches, bins and picnic tables etc.
I noticed that benches and bins are back in the scenery tab for PC2, which means that it went from that tab in PC1 to the facilities tab in Planet Zoo and is now back in Scenery again. That's confusing, friendos. Get them benches outta theeere x

Finally, the screen that pops up when you're choosing which ride/coaster to build is HUGE. Deary me, it takes up so much real estate on the screen. I reckon that's for the benefit of console players who are sitting on their sofa away from the TV. But on PC, I just would like less stuff getting all up in my face and suffocating me, ya know?

Thanks for reading!
 
Source: https://youtu.be/-4N5TEKh5xA?si=dxGCzE0sVdBRMWxj


Rudi went over his problems with the ui and as a viewer who is looking forward to the game, I agree with his concerns...although I will say that the Heatmaps button is looking muuuch better now it's smaller. Not sure if that's just down to a Ui scaling option in the settings of the game, like we've seen in PC1 and PZ. But that's good news.

Can I add onto this feedback though that the console edition ui needs to be changed for PC. There seems to be so much unnecessary clicking and sub menus. I had this problem with Planet Zoo when it first launched and I remember saying back then: Devs, you're gonna give me RSI with all these inputs - PLEASE.

For instance, with PC2, I don't think we need a menu where you need to click an arrow key to see more terrain types when the window could fit ALL of the terrain types on the same page. Why not let us see all of them?
Same goes for coaster construction and having to cycle through pages.

It's all designed like we've got a quick port of a console game for pc.
If you can't improve on Planet Zoo's ui, why change it? It was great as it was.

These are just extra things I wanted to add, onto everything Rudi mentioned. There are some problems here that are going to make the overall experience get bogged down with searching and sub-menus within menus that should have just had their own space to begin with (like trees, rocks, and the electrical/water facilities).
 
I just made the same post, from what I see the UI is really game breaking for the PC players and it looks more aimed for the console players.

But it works way slower from the looks of it. Especially the experienced PC users are gonna have huge trouble with it. It seems very slow and frustrating to work with.

There's still two months to go, I hope Frontier is gonna fix the UI so it works better/faster/smoother and is more similar to Planet Coaster 1. I wanted it to actually be improved compared to Planet Coaster 1, but right now I just wish it's gonna be the same. Because it looks a bit like a step backward.

I understand why they went for a more simpler design because they are planning on releasing it on console right away, but this is gonna be a huge problem for PC players.

PC players are often times more experienced with design software and a keyboard and mouse is just way faster. But this way it will feel like you are being limited.

I wanted more freedom too. Like manual input fields for stuff like angle snap and so on, but it looks like it is made for consoles and I think I speak on behalf of many PC players that this is not something that we are gonna like.
 
I just made the same post, from what I see the UI is really game breaking for the PC players and it looks more aimed for the console players.

But it works way slower from the looks of it. Especially the experienced PC users are gonna have huge trouble with it. It seems very slow and frustrating to work with.

There's still two months to go, I hope Frontier is gonna fix the UI so it works better/faster/smoother and is more similar to Planet Coaster 1. I wanted it to actually be improved compared to Planet Coaster 1, but right now I just wish it's gonna be the same. Because it looks a bit like a step backward.

I understand why they went for a more simpler design because they are planning on releasing it on console right away, but this is gonna be a huge problem for PC players.

PC players are often times more experienced with design software and a keyboard and mouse is just way faster. But this way it will feel like you are being limited.

I wanted more freedom too. Like manual input fields for stuff like angle snap and so on, but it looks like it is made for consoles and I think I speak on behalf of many PC players that this is not something that we are gonna like.

Absolutely.
Key bindings and what not shouldn't be a huge problem as I reckon we will be able to change things back to how we like them. But the actual flow of gameplay in these menus is gonna be really sluggish if it stays this way. On a controller of course you're pressing the bumper buttons to cycle through things - it needs to be the way it is. On PC we should really have minimal sub-menus/ cycling through pages.

We have a mouse and can be precise. I don't want to go to extra pages just to find the scenery item/ terrain etc that I want. All that needless extra clicking.

We don't need a HUGE pause/unpause icon to flash across the middle of the screen.

This'll be the third Planet game. We know what's what, in regards to how the game works. You're right, it does feel like a step backwards.
 
I hope we won't get "console ui" and "constole control" on PC. A lot of creators already discussed that on Youtube. I prefer PC controls like we had in Planco 1 with some improvements for Planco 2. What I have seen on Youtube with having troubles placing paths and coasters is a gamebreaker for me. I hope Frontier will think about it again.
 
I hope we won't get "console ui" and "constole control" on PC. A lot of creators already discussed that on Youtube. I prefer PC controls like we had in Planco 1 with some improvements for Planco 2. What I have seen on Youtube with having troubles placing paths and coasters is a gamebreaker for me. I hope Frontier will think about it again.
That's just it, absolutely, console players are getting an improved version of something they're used to. Pc players are being forced to adapt to console version ui on their platform. You expect improvements when it comes to a sequel. This is the third Planet game and the ui imo seems the worst (on pc)
 
It's all designed like we've got a quick port of a console game for pc.
If you can't improve on Planet Zoo's ui, why change it? It was great as it was.
Absolutely agree with this post. Especially this bit! I'm struggling to believe they've gone from the wonderful and aesthetically pleasing Planet Zoo UI to what we've seen so far on this game. It looks like a giant step back. The whole design language is more cartoony, child-like, 'cheap'er. I KNOW you can do better Frontier, as we've seen in Planet Coaster 1 and Planet Zoo, please assess the UI. We all want this game to be as amazing as it can as the UI is a huge part as it's what we interact with to play the game.
 
I honetly think its a by product of having to make a console and pc version of the game at once, Frontier are PC at heart and possibly know PC architecture better than console. So to me it would make sense they built the game on PC but started right away with implimenting the console menus etc. Once the game is done, they can port it to console and then add and impliment the PC controls and menus. It means they dont have to be working on 2 or even 3 different builds on the game. And with their experiance on PC development, i cant see it taking long to finish up the PC side of thing once the console ports are finished.
 
UI design just did a huge step backwards since a few years. Like in games, or even operating systems. Back in the Windows XP era UI and stuff was still thought about. Now a days everything is dumbed down for some reason and in my eyes even Windows 10 is already too stupid. "I want to find a file, oh sorry can't do that let's use Bing to search the web instead!" I really wish they would still design PC games to have PC interface. You know like designer software or other creative software. But now everything has to be I dont know how to explain it... Shiny or simplified, but it doesn't make it more simple, it makes it more frustrating to work with. As if developers assume everyone now a days is dumb and stupid. But you become dumb and stupid from being forced to use these new type of UI's in games and on operating systems.

I don't know why they choose to do this. If anything, making UI more advanced at least forces people to use their brain and develop themselves. Kids these days don't even understand how a basic file- and folder system with structure works. And instead of just teaching people how to use it, they just try to make shiny buttons so they don't have to bother.

Few years ago, anyone with a windows XP desktop computer could still figure out how to install photoshop and use it. Good luck trying to explain that to a 14 year old in this day and age.

For Frontier it's probably like a math question. What do we think is worse? Adults with experience complaining about our UI, or stupid kids complaining about our UI. And whatever the outcome is of this math problem is what they decide to go with. But I think they should also have like a moral obligation to at least make things a little less simple to at least trigger people to use their brain and creativity and learn how designer software works.
 
I honetly think its a by product of having to make a console and pc version of the game at once, Frontier are PC at heart and possibly know PC architecture better than console. So to me it would make sense they built the game on PC but started right away with implimenting the console menus etc. Once the game is done, they can port it to console and then add and impliment the PC controls and menus. It means they dont have to be working on 2 or even 3 different builds on the game. And with their experiance on PC development, i cant see it taking long to finish up the PC side of thing once the console ports are finished.
I hope you're right! This would be so un-Frontier otherwise
 
Now that I've got the game in my hands, I gotta say...
I hate the player experience with this ui. It's dreadful. The workflow is painful. The needless menus within menus. Having such a clear and easy to read version of this in Planet Zoo and turning it into this? Naaah, I don't get it.

I hope I'm not sounding too dramatic. Because I do truly mean this after hours with the game: I want Frontier to do a complete do-over of the ui and how we navigate menus. Start from scratch and use what you came up with in Planet Zoo as a template.
 
They should have kept the ui from planet zoo
Yes. I'd give a lot to have the true and trusted UI of PZ in PC2. Would make everything instant more enjoyable.
And while they are at it they could bring back the multi-recolr tool and right click to delete path.
And just don't make me need to click 100 times more...
 
Now that I've got the game in my hands, I gotta say...
I hate the player experience with this ui. It's dreadful. The workflow is painful. The needless menus within menus. Having such a clear and easy to read version of this in Planet Zoo and turning it into this? Naaah, I don't get it.

I hope I'm not sounding too dramatic. Because I do truly mean this after hours with the game: I want Frontier to do a complete do-over of the ui and how we navigate menus. Start from scratch and use what you came up with in Planet Zoo as a template.
This. I beg them to use Planet Zoo as a template and adapt it for planet coaster 2. What we have for this is a disaster, a chore, and makes it completely unenjoyable. The people who made this can't have played a planet game ever.
 
Back
Top Bottom