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Which UI Elements Do You Think Need Work The Most?

Which UI Elements Do You Think Need Work the Most?

  • City Banner

    Votes: 37 40.7%
  • City Screen (Yield Breakdown, Build Queue, Building Placement Tooltips, etc)

    Votes: 19 20.9%
  • Tooltips

    Votes: 27 29.7%
  • Event Highlighting (Discoveries, Celebrations, etc)

    Votes: 7 7.7%
  • Color Choices (ie, the Dark Gray Aesthetic)

    Votes: 15 16.5%
  • Readability (Fonts, Yield Icons, etc)

    Votes: 32 35.2%
  • Combat (Unit Badge HP Bar, Unit Icons, etc)

    Votes: 33 36.3%
  • Boxiness/Flatness of UI Elements (eg, Buildings, Policies, etc)

    Votes: 12 13.2%
  • Selection Highlighting and Differentiation (Techs/Civics, Pantheons, etc)

    Votes: 19 20.9%
  • Minimap (Lack of Borders, etc)

    Votes: 50 54.9%
  • More Ornamentation of UI Elements Throughout

    Votes: 15 16.5%
  • Age Start, Summary, and Transition Screens

    Votes: 11 12.1%
  • Tech Tree Icons (to Replace Generic + Symbols, etc)

    Votes: 33 36.3%
  • Game Setup (Lack of Tooltips/Explanation, Aesthetics, etc)

    Votes: 14 15.4%
  • Leader/Civs (Jersey System, Info on Uniques, etc)

    Votes: 15 16.5%
  • Fog of War Too Dark

    Votes: 7 7.7%
  • I Like The Look and Feel Overall, But *All of the Above* Needs Polish

    Votes: 8 8.8%
  • I Dislike the Look and Feel Overall - Replace the Whole Thing

    Votes: 12 13.2%
  • Other (Please Describe)

    Votes: 4 4.4%

  • Total voters
    91

Seek

Deity
Joined
Aug 7, 2010
Messages
3,669
Multiple Choice, but please limit yourself to ~3 selections. Please discuss below why you chose what you did and how you would prefer it!

~~

It here have been a lot of people criticizing the UI in Civ 7, perhaps not unjustly, but often without being specific about what they would like to change about it (more often on YouTube or Reddit than here, granted).

So I wanted to gauge the forum’s thoughts here a little more specifically to help the devs (or future modders) out with what need prioritizing ;)

  • Aesthetics: Is it the general look of the UI, or just elements that are unpolished or remind them of other, less esteemed, games? Perhaps just the dark color scheme, or the shape and size of the pop-up screens? Or something else entirely?
  • Functionality: A good UI should at the very least not hinder your gameplay, and ideally should quickly and effectively 1) relate information and 2) facilitate actions and decisions. In what ways could the UI improve in its here?
Just to keep the thread relatively focused, I’d like to limit this to visuals and usability only, and avoid the addition of functionality such as Renaming Cities, Maptacks, Nested Tooltips, Policy Card Summaries, etc. here. (I am in favor of adding all of those and more!) Similarly, I would prefer we not get into the two Leaders on screen debate, as that is well beyond the scope of the UI and will not be changing any time soon.

I’ve tried to be impartial and include everything I have seen mentioned here recently, but I’m sure there are things I missed - please don’t hesitate to say below.

[I personally really like the overall look of it, and enjoy the 19th century aesthetic (Gothic? Romantic? I’m not sure what to call it), but it’s clear some aspects are still very much a work in progress and are rather rough.]
 
For me, I chose:
  1. City Screen - I would like to not have to go through three screens to see how the city is getting its yields. Also, the overbuilding function doesn’t allow the player to choose which building to replace (and the tooltip also doesn’t reflect what yields are being lost from the old building’s removal).
  2. Event Highlighting - It’s far too difficult to see Discoveries on the map, and as far as I can tell there’s no indication at all when a Celebration is occurring. This is important functionality that is missing.
  3. More Ornamentation - The UI is gorgeous where it’s been fully decorated (the radial action wheel in the bottom right, the Leader/Civ headers), this should be prevalent throughout.
 
I was just thinking about making a similar thread so this saves me the effort, thanks. :)

To perhaps focus the thread even further, I think the overall aesthetic is unlikely to be changed and is entirely subjective anyway. Might be fun to talk about it, but it won't necessarily be useful, whereas I think it can be useful to collect specific constructive feedback on the functionality, all in one place.

I'll start: my first choice is Other. I want to know how a policy choice will affect my yields, without having to work it out. The Extended Policy Card mod does this for VI, I was really hoping to see this as standard in VII.

My second choice is minimap: where are the borders?!

That will do for now. :)
 
I suppose I'll continue my obsession for one more post and put it here: I would much prefer the UI in game to be a finished iteration of the one in this video, at the very least the city banners.
Spoiler :
received_1507947389859592.jpeg
 
I just want to comment in defense of the current mini map. I like it without the huge blob border tbh, makes settlements more prominent and I like seeing more of the landmass. I also like the current dark color scheme of the UI and don't want to see it with the blues and whites like in that video of the older UI. Now a complete revamp to be like the white marble civ 7 art would be cool but not happening.

I think the biggest issue is unit icons + hp bars
 
Multiple Choice,

Which choice includes the resource icons?

I just want to comment in defense of the current mini map. I like it without the huge blob border tbh, makes settlements more prominent and I like seeing more of the landmass. I also like the current dark color scheme of the UI and don't want to see it with the blues and whites like in that video of the older UI. [...]

I didn't really check any of the videos yet so I had to check out what people are talking about when it comes to the minimap, but I think I agree with you. It's not the easiest when you quickly want to see if there is space to settle, but aesthetically I'm completely on your side.
 
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I sincerely hope so very much that the developers actually READ every single message in this thread. And big thanks to @Seek for creating it!
 
Health bars and those turns to completion numbers on the city banners look like something from 2+ decades ago. I am hoping those were placeholders.

I personally love the darker, simpler aesthetic of the menus overall.

I prefer learning a game through tooltips. Whether they belong/fit in the game I think will depend on how simple the games vocabulary feels after learning the basics. In Old World I am always three tooltips deep and in Stellaris I am always reaching for Google to explain the games immense jargon.

The streamers kept opening menus to check things like progress to next celebration, which should be very easy to include in the top level UI.
 
I've seen multiple posts (in different threads) about before and after UI, a "beta" version and a "new" version. I don't seem to find any examples of this. Can anyone post screenshots of the two to compare?
 
I've seen multiple posts (in different threads) about before and after UI, a "beta" version and a "new" version. I don't seem to find any examples of this. Can anyone post screenshots of the two to compare?
See the video in this message about 3/4 of the way through:
I suppose I'll continue my obsession for one more post and put it here: I would much prefer the UI in game to be a finished iteration of the one in this video, at the very least the city banners.

Which choice includes the resource icons?
Arg, I knew I forgot something! Sadly it looks like I can’t add more options to the poll, I suppose it would go under “Other” :think:
 
I like the overall design concept, just want some detailed adjustments.
 
It is very flat and could use some depth, especially with the beautiful terrain as a backdrop.
Color variation could go a long way to make things instantly identifiable by category. They also lean heavy on iconography but their icons are very generic looking and could represent multiple things. I suspect much of this is placeholder so that they could do early reveal footage.

I have always preferred growth on the left of the city banner & production on the right. I would like to see this return.
 
Generally speaking, I think the UI is the fantastic in it's aesthetics. A few little tweaks, e.g. nesting, would take it to a 10/10
 
Not seeing the borders of the empires in the minimap is heartbreaking. I don't mind the just show cities as an option, but don't remove the borders. Also the unit icons look borderline WIP, they feel straight out of the 2000s.

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I don't mind the aesthetics of the basic UI, maybe controversially I like the grey with gold (makes a nice contrast to the game world), but there are areas where it could be improved (banners, hp, etc) and it is missing a lot of functionality.

I'm also unsure how important having territory shaded in in the minimap is, it's not critical information and it's nice to be able to see the terrain types clearly - a toggle to switch it on/off would be ideal imo. Settlement icons need improving tho to differentiate between capitals, cities and towns (and be hexagonal).
 
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Not seeing the borders of the empires in the minimap is heartbreaking. I don't mind the just show cities as an option, but don't remove the borders. Also the unit icons look borderline WIP, they feel straight out of the 2000s.

View attachment 715955
I had the impression that unit icons and leader heads in the menu aren’t finished. At least I hoped for this. Both are way too blurry for such a nice looking game. Seeing how much the animated leaders improved in the last months, however, I trust that the unit icons and leader heads will be improved as well. The question is: before release or after?
 
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