Odyssey's hideous first person HUD

[aristide torchia]

I have returned to Elite recently and while I like the new, on-foot gameplay in principle… god almighty what's up with the HUD?

That HUD goes head to head with free mobile games and playstation 1-level aesthetics.

It looks like a proof of concept someone cobbled up on the quick after remembering that the presentation day was today.
It is absolutely, positively hideous, cluttered, arcade looking, composed of shapes that don't make any sense together.

Seriously, I'm not trolling, I'm not being salty or pessimistic or any such… I guess I'm just really, really, REALLY surprised at the sight of this thing.
NOTHING really makes sense in this hud, geometry-wise.

How is it that no one seems to be remarking on this?

Has Frontier lost its original UX team?
Say what you want about the game otherwise, but the original cockpit and panels' UX was solid and very immersive, with utilitarian, convincing, consequential design.

Frontier, please consider giving this another pass at the soonest - it really is extremely jarring against the rest of the game.
At the very least allow us to turn off that minimap abomination. It's so painfully, obviously out of place.


EDIT:

To clarify: I love Elite and am having a surprisingly great time returning to Odyssey after few years.
To anyone wandering what is it that I'm rambling about here, just two quick pointers:

Look at the bottom left, at the two info boxes, both with a shaved off bottom-left corner notch and stacked atop one another.
This alone, if you understand it, tells you how much of a troubled design cycle this hud appears to have been through.
These two objects have no business being stacked upon one another, especially not with the upper one having that cut corner.

Secondly, the minimap. Everything it does could have been included within the actually neat-looking 360° navigation bar - which I'm guessing was the initial design.
The minimap looks cheap, generic and tacked on last minute to make the game appeal to casual players, all the way down to a dumb, giant 'N' sign, already communicated much more subtly via the 360° bar, hence doubling up the information but in a dumb, generic way. It feels like a marketing department enforced-decision. Been there.

 

[angusmadmac1]

It's like many things in Elite we just accept it because we like playing the game

 

[HappyMoonMonkey]

I have returned to Elite recently and while I like the new, on-foot gameplay in principle… god almighty what's up with the HUD?

That HUD goes head to head with free mobile games and playstation 1-level aesthetics.

It looks like a proof of concept someone cobbled up on the quick after remembering that the presentation day was today, but it was too late to do anything so it's a hectic mashup of free assets and cutouts from mid-90s games. It is so absolutely, positively hideous, cluttered, arcade looking, composed of shapes that don't make any sense together that it's almost funny.

Seriously, I'm not trolling, I'm not being salty or pessimistic or any such… I guess I'm just really, really, REALLY surprised at the sight of this thing.
NOTHING makes sense in this hud, design-wise.

Has Frontier lost its original UX team?
Say what you want about the game otherwise, but the original cockpit and panels' UX was solid and very immersive, with utilitarian, convincing, consequential design.

How is it that no one seems to be remarking on this?
Frontier, please consider giving this another pass at the soonest - it really is very jarring against the rest of the game.

And Christ, that radar-minimap thing…

Source: https://youtu.be/VKcAYMb5uk4?t=7

Do you have an example of what would be better?

 

[aristide torchia]

An example? Sure.

Elite Dangerous, with its ship hud and panels 'holographic' glitchy-analogue feel.

Pre-release Cyberpunk 2077 UI variants. Star Citizen. Crysis. System Shock remake.

Distribution of information. Spacing. AR-styled transparency. Style.
Better colour schemes, more harmoniously in line with the rest of the game.
Less clutter, simpler shapes that don't conflict with one another in close proximity.
Either using the 360° linear navigation or the 'N' style compass, not both.
Really, it's just an exceptionally not well-made hud design and stands out like a sore thumb.

 

[aristide torchia]

double replied, somehow.

 

[aRJay]

I didn’t think much of the HUD one way or another when it appeared a couple of years ago, after all that time I still find it acceptable. This could well be because I have the advantage of not having seen or played any of the games you mention at all and no FPS game of any sort for a decade before at least.

The bit I disliked from the start where all the fidget spinner wheel controls only one of which I found usable.

But if you are looking for outrage about Odyssey’s appearance you probably need to set your forum search to back when it launched years ago.

 

[aristide torchia]

I didn’t think much of the HUD one way or another when it appeared a couple of years ago, after all that time I still find it acceptable. This could well be because I have the advantage of not having seen or played any of the games you mention at all and no FPS game of any sort for a decade before at least.

The bit I disliked from the start where all the fidget spinner wheel controls only one of which I found usable.

But if you are looking for outrage about Odyssey’s appearance you probably need to set your forum search to back when it launched years ago.

Fair. Not looking for outrage, not stoking the flames, just… look, I'm a designer, I work with visuals and I'm just genuinely, utterly baffled at what I'm looking at, coming back after a few years.

It's poorly made, by any standard. Doubly so, which is the part that confuses me the most, coming from a studio and a game that have established a genuinely neat visual style all the way down to the hud and interfaces giving a nice throwback to 1970's hard sci-fi.

It's like the fps hud was designed by a completely different person in a completely different, casual game and its shockingly ugly. And you're right, the wheel control barely works with a mouse, it's an absolute chore to use.

 

[M_Biscotti]

Having played a bit of SC I was wondering what you did talk about as I didn't remember anything about a HUD when on foot so googled it and ... OK I'll keep current HUD if possible ... But I agree with you about the wheel. It's a console thing, not a PC one.

 

[angusmadmac1]

Having played a bit of SC I was wondering what you did talk about as I didn't remember anything about a HUD when on foot so googled it and ... OK I'll keep current HUD if possible ... But I agree with you about the wheel. It's a console thing, not a PC one.

Hey don't blame us. We didn't even get an invite

 

[aRJay]

Fair. Not looking for outrage, not stoking the flames, just… look, I'm a designer, I work with visuals and I'm just genuinely, utterly baffled at what I'm looking at, coming back after a few years.

It's poorly made, by any standard. Doubly so, which is the part that confuses me the most, coming from a studio and a game that have established a genuinely neat visual style all the way down to the hud and interfaces giving a nice throwback to 1970's hard sci-fi.

It's like the fps hud was designed by a completely different person in a completely different, casual game and its shockingly ugly. And you're right, the wheel control barely works with a mouse, it's an absolute chore to use.

To be fair the wheel that lets you call an Apex or your ship works pretty well and most everything on the other two (they added one when they let us emote stuff) can be bound to sensible controls though I would need to look up what they are bound to as I haven’t used them in ages.

 

[Shurimal]

The on-foot GUI is a bit... disjointed from ship HUD, but it's mostly functional. If it's not too much trouble, could you post some screenshot samples of what you find the most objectionable—I find that when it comes to discussing GUI a picture says more than a million words

For me personally the biggest problem is no overt feedback about what grenade you have readied for throw. There is a small hard to parse icon hovering next to the gun but my eyes are focussed around the crosshair so I never seem to throw the grenade I want to throw. Combined with the grenades bouncing off every surface more eagerly than Flubber it's so bad I almost never use grenades.

The radar is OP. It's simply too much of a god's eye, giving too much SA to player yet seemingly NPC-s don't have any access to it. I'd much prefer an actual map of the settlement and NPC-s shown only when spotted, scanned and within direct line of sight (future spacesuits would of course be equipped with 360° cameras, LIDAR-s, mm-wave radars and IR sensors, but thes would have limitations). Only in CZ-s the radar picture should be a complete god's eye, both belligerents would undoubtedly have surveillance drones above and complex combat information systems to feed the combatants as much information about what'where and who's who.


And that's about it. The rest of the UI is OK for me, even if not the prettiest or most cohesive. I prefer hotkeys for switching weapons/tool/consumables over menus anyway (oldskool FPS habits never die) so even the wheel menus don't bother me (and are quite usable with WASD, SHIFT and CTRL keys for navigation instead of mouse).

 

[Nowski]

I don't mind it.

 

[aristide torchia]

To any weekend designer wandering what is it that I'm rambling about here, just two pointers - I don't want to write an essay.

Look at the bottom left, at the two info boxes, both with a shaved off bottom-left corner notch and stacked atop one another.
This alone, if you understand it, tells you how much of a troubled design cycle this hud appears to have been through.
These two objects have no business being stacked upon one another, especially not with the upper one having that cut corner.

Secondly, the minimap. Everything it does could have been included within the actually neat-looking 360° navigation bar - which I'm guessing was the initial design.
The minimap looks cheap, generic and tacked on last minute to make the game appeal to casual players, all the way down to a dumb, giant 'N' sign, already communicated much more subtly via the 360° bar, hence doubling up the information but in a dumb, generic way. It feels like a marketing department enforced-decision. Been there.

Even the equipment wheel pops up in a place that conflicts with everything else. I sense things were different once then too many cooks came and forced someone's hand.

 

[vanFace]

Has Frontier lost its original UX team?
Say what you want about the game otherwise, but the original cockpit and panels' UX was solid and very immersive, with utilitarian, convincing, consequential design.

How is it that no one seems to be remarking on this?
Frontier, please consider giving this another pass at the soonest - it really is very jarring against the rest of the game.

They pretty much lost their original team, yes.
As for FDev giving that another pass... I guess this will happen when hell froze over.

 

[aristide torchia]

They pretty much lost their original team, yes.
As for FDev giving that another pass... I guess this will happen when hell froze over.

That's a shame. Even if they allowed that utterly idiotic, tacked-on minimap to be turned off in settings would satisfy me.
I'm not exaggerating when I say it is ruining the otherwise fun on-foot experience for me. It's so obvious it's painful.

 

[vanFace]

I'm not exaggerating when I say it is ruining the otherwise fun on-foot experience for me. It's so obvious it's painful.

Well, I have to admit that this is the least pain-point I have with Odyssey. If it's really your only complaint, consider yourself lucky and enjoy the rest.

 

[aristide torchia]

Well, I have to admit that this is the least pain-point I have with Odyssey. If it's really your only complaint, consider yourself lucky and enjoy the rest.

I only just started, so all ahead of me yet.
I love Elite, for all it's dumb decisions, so it's painful to be stuck with such obvious red flags right in my face whenever I disembark.

 

[aRJay]

That's a shame. Even if they allowed that utterly idiotic, tacked-on minimap to be turned off in settings would satisfy me.
I'm not exaggerating when I say it is ruining the otherwise fun on-foot experience for me. It's so obvious it's painful.

There is a third party ap called EDHM-UI which basically allows the user to adjust colours, brightness and sometimes transparency of how various bits of the HUD displays appear on your monitor. There is a section in that for the on foot HUD though I have to say I have not played with that section but that might be able to at least make things less noticeable.

I know it is not a fix but it could be a pretty good band aid.

 

[metatheurgist]

To any weekend designer wandering what is it that I'm rambling about here, just two pointers - I don't want to write an essay.

Look at the bottom left, at the two info boxes, both with a shaved off bottom-left corner notch and stacked atop one another.
This alone, if you understand it, tells you how much of a troubled design cycle this hud appears to have been through.
These two objects have no business being stacked upon one another, especially not with the upper one having that cut corner.

Secondly, the minimap. Everything it does could have been included within the actually neat-looking 360° navigation bar - which I'm guessing was the initial design.
The minimap looks cheap, generic and tacked on last minute to make the game appeal to casual players, all the way down to a dumb, giant 'N' sign, already communicated much more subtly via the 360° bar, hence doubling up the information but in a dumb, generic way. It feels like a marketing department enforced-decision. Been there.

Even the equipment wheel pops up in a place that conflicts with everything else. I sense things were different once then too many cooks came and forced someone's hand.

You really need to post pics about what you mean. I agree the minimap looks like butt but I disagree the compass ring would replace it. The compass ring doesn't tell me who's coming up behind me in a good way, it would also be harder to see the weapon arc. The most disappointing thing about the minimap is that they already have a similar display that can show the relative heights of stuff for space but they forgot how to do it for foot.

 

[aristide torchia]

You really need to post pics about what you mean. I agree the minimap looks like butt but I disagree the compass ring would replace it. The compass ring doesn't tell me who's coming up behind me in a good way, it would also be harder to see the weapon arc. The most disappointing thing about the minimap is that they already have a similar display that can show the relative heights of stuff for space but they forgot how to do it for foot.

Nah, I don't - you just need to read the two lines I wrote and look at the bottom left of the screen

There's the form and there's the function, but for what its worth, I guarantee you that if that minimap wasn't there you'd enjoy the gameplay just as much and then some, precisely because you don't magically know where everyone is at any given time and because you would start to actually take the world in - looking out for enemies, resources, terminals and such. Your immersion and enjoyment would go through the roof.

It's the old rockstar games curse - big immersive world yet gameplay reduced to constantly looking at a that little acursed minimap. It became almost obligatory in games because it's easy (and quite lazy) to design games around it, and because gamers got conditioned into believing that not having it is a bad thing.