How you you like the UI?

How do feel towards BE's UI?

  • It's fine, I like it

    Votes: 9 9.0%
  • It's fine, but I have problems reading the text/icons

    Votes: 18 18.0%
  • It's not ok, but I'll try and get used to it

    Votes: 27 27.0%
  • Don't like it, I wish they applied some polish

    Votes: 46 46.0%

  • Total voters
    100

Nitrium

Chieftain
Joined
Apr 5, 2002
Messages
18
Location
Toronto, Canada
Personally, I think the font choice was a pretty bad one. In general, things are really hard to read. Not to mention the issues other people already raised about miasma in some tiles.

Also, it feels like it lacks a lot of polish, which distinguished Civ5 at release. The [X] to close in some buttons looks like it has been jammed in the buttons. The city details has elements spread out across the entire screen (and the close button is at the top right. The dialog boxes feel like they're just modal windows in a web browser (they don't have the flair and fine details that Civ5's had). The that drop shadow on the minimap at the top right... whoa. Plus, the iconography doesn't help at all.

All in all, I get that they were going for the AC vibe (and I think they nailed it music-wise), but the UI is pretty much miserable.

Anybody else feels the same?
 
Polish Benson, polish!
 
I think the icons are a big issue. I have no idea what any of them are and the monochrome nature makes them all look the same.

Additionally, some text is difficult. For example, the number on the city plates for growth/production blend in. Even population number blends in too much. Regarding the UI, nothing stands out so it's difficult to work with.
 
Functionality could be better. Is there any way to display the build menu without pressing a button after entering the city screen... Seems like a strange design decision.
 
It's not as bad as I thought. I really was worried about how monochrome it is, but in practice it hasn't been a huge problem.

It's not great though, that's for sure.
 
It's fine for me. The only problem I've had is when the text for the city edit button was too faint to read.
For the most part it's fine though, It's not intrusive, which is a problem with a lot of games, so I'm content with that aspect of it alone honestly.

Overall, it's functional. Nothing really wows me about it, but I don't have any complaints really either.. Like the first choice says, it's fine, I like it.
 
I think the UI is more attractive than functional. The monochrome, abstract icons are very non-inutitive, and the readability of many displays is low.

This. In previous Civs, icons were intuitive. Beakers were to do with research, coins were to do with money, swords for military, and so on.

This, I have no idea what anything means.
 
Technologies have no indicators what the hell are they doing unless you spend 30 seconds on reading tooltips for every icon in the branch... And then you have to compare it with other branches and leaves with completely abstract, counterintuitive, incomprehensible icons for every technology lol
 
I would've prefered if it was a bit more similair to Civ V, especially city view with production, the list of buildings and wonders and citizen management. I find unit icons and names to be confusing as well. I'm still not used to pretty much anything in the game though, so maybe it's just temporary.
 
I really hate the map. It's so transperant, I can't see ANYTHING, especially when 2 Civs with similar colors are next to each other. Absolutely useless imho, except for scrolling around.

And I miss Enhanced User Interface SO MUCH. BE feels so clunky in compassion.
 
My biggest gripe is that they seem to have purposely made it less intuitive to Civ 5. Things that we are used to being on the left are now on the right, and things that were on the top of the screen are now on the bottom. And it seems only to be this way in order to make us feel like this is a new game.

Also, it took me forever to find that little plus sign that will show me additional information screens.

And, of course, still no way to view the global politics when somebody comes to ask you to go to war or befriend them. What is it with Civ games and refusing to give the player information?
 
- No city production customization\automation.
- Queuing is more bothersome than manually assigning orders. Accessable only from city screen, not from main map.
Year 2014.
 
I think it needs much more polishing from a couple standpoints. Some things have been hidden or removed. The Unit List no longer exists, you have to use the Military Overview(in V, you could use either), there's apparently, no Avoid Growth option and a lot of the stuff is just too damn tiny when other things are too big.

From an aesthetics standpoint...I'm going to be brutally honest and say I think it looks pretty awful.

Compare how Civ V looks inside a city:
Spoiler :


To how BE looks inside a city:

Spoiler :


If you ask me from an aesthetics standpoint then Civ V's just destroys BE's. It looks so much better. Like really, grey drawings for the buildings? Really?
 
The UI is clearly "style over substance". Not a fan - espcially since it is giant on my 1440x900 window mode setting - still looking if I can reduce the size somwhere...
 
The 'look' is good enough for me, and the icons/symbols are something I'll know in time. I do have to get used to it. But then again, I do have to get used to the 'lighter' look of CFC's new skin too. ;)
The only real gripe sofar I've got is that some of the bottom right buttons (orbital view, diplomacy,...) can't be used to collapse the popup window of said menu again while others do just that.
 
I'd like to complain about the usability.

The hot keys give no regards at all to the keyboard-mouse combination play. Well, the series never really ever cared about the keyboard crowd, so I'm not surprised. It is just sad to see such a glaring mistake not only remain unattended for so many years, but actually made worse.

Just give me customizable hot keys. Seriously.

Obvious rough edges are all over the place. For example:

1. Activate an orbital unit.
2. Press 'S': orbital view automatically opens
3. Click to launch the orbital unit
4. Game does not close orbital view.

Or for example at the beginning of a game when deciding where to land, the Shift-R, Shift-G, Shift-Y hot keys don't work. Have to use the mouse to click on the mini-map icons.

Or for example the mouse cursor covering the top left-hand corner of the tooltip frame.

Or for example using the mouse to drag the map to pan the view, in one direction the view will just hit an invisible wall and can not pan over. In the other direction however it pans over fine.

The UI has so many rough edges it feels like a beta version at best.
 
Thanks, all.

I just saved fifty bucks.

I'll put up with a lot but illegible fonts and icons you can't understand? Pass.

Maybe it'll get fixed someday. A mod, perhaps.
 
The size of the citizen icons is probably the easiest fix that would improve the game for me. The way they cover up tiles yields and energy prices makes me want to just leave citizen management up to the AI.
 
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