Lootz - sneak peak at merchant and inventory

Grim Dawn Development Updates
1

Ask and thou shalt receive, sometimes, ask too often and thou shalt be beaten!

So finally, I will, with great reluctance, show you some lootz and a bit of the UI. You will immediately notice that aside from the most horrendous designer-art buttons being blurred out (because really, they were too silly to show), there is also a bunch of other not so hot stuff going on, like other horrendous designer-art weapon swap buttons being misaligned. However, keep in mind, we’re in the middle of development.

Let us focus on the important thing, the lootz. You’ll see we’re making some progress and have a decent assortment of stuff in-game now. The diversity of loot on the merchant is a bit lower than it usually is just because this character is leveled up to where the common loot currently starts to end. Why does the merchant not sell pants? A good question… I myself have often wondered that but no answer is forthcoming.

I think this counts for at least 2, maybe 3 updates! I could have strung it out but no, I’ve dished it all out at once! BAM - inventory, lootz, merchant, HUD, new caster armorz!!! Yes, surely this counts as more then one update! :stuck_out_tongue:

Oh, also, I should mention that I’m not sure I like the skillbar layout. I’ve been wanting to change it but haven’t found the time. I think it would be best to move all the hotslot buttons together in the center and the R / L buttons to the left.

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update of the month. :slight_smile:

Nice. TQ legacy UI.

keep up the great work!

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Awesome! Thanks for the 3… 4… updates!

I know there are a lot of issues with this… and that’s understandable.

The one thing I can say already, the swords that take up 4 vertical slots, eh, I’m a pretty big believer in standardization, and I think that the inventory system would ‘stream’ better if all of those swords… axes and what not were simply 3 vertical slots. The axes with 2 horizontal slots and 3 vertical, could be reduced to 3 vertical.

If you have any daggers, it’s more understandable if they are 2 vertical slots also.

The way I see it is that those axes, swords, and what not are all one-handed weapons. It would be better for the player as a standard size in the inventory. Also, you could let daggers break that mold, but you don’t have to either, it’s certainly an aesthetic choice, but I also believe there’s a game play experience there, and inventory space of course.

Edit: I really like the styling of the windows!

Ahem, compliment, gotta get used to it. :p.

4

It is nice to see the game taking shape.

Strangely, it is the depictions of the resistances that seem a bit out of place.

I also noticed the body/armor/weapon slots are a bit too pronounced. The slots are a ui substitute for the players body. Over-emphasising or calling attention to the substitution makes it a bit more alien. It looks like a machine. It looks like you would be pulling items out of a cavity and then dropping new items in.

The inventory is fine – maybe because it is impersonal.

5

This is looking good. It’s definitely giving me post-apocalyptic vibes :slight_smile:

The info page looks a bit off though. Not the page itself (I like the background), but the content. Obviously, the text is aligned to far to the left, causing it to overlap the border.
“Amount of Damage Blocked” should probably be reduced to “Damage Blocked”, as it’s quite long.

The resistance part seems to be off with the rest of the page. That part isn’t seperated from the rest by a line. The textfield “Resistances” is not equally aligned with the rest of the page (plus it seems to have a shorter line spacing).
The resistance icons don’t seem to fit to well with the style.

And finally, the fonts used don’t seem right. Might be personal, but I’d prefer to see different fonts.

Anyway, I always have something to complain, despite that, I’m quite impressed. It seems to breathe the right atmosphere.

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Wooo!

Out of curiosity with regards to development, how far along would you guys be before deciding to lock down the UI elements? Would it be before, or during the alpha? I’m presuming it would be locked in for the beta.

If I can offer one small tidbit of criticism, it is the fact that there is a lot of grey. Sure, sure, I know Grim Dawn is meant to be grim, and what better way than to use grey. It does beat using copious amounts of brown. But is there any chance of adding a small splash of other colour within the main windows? Or will it be met with a copout of indicating that the colour of the windows is a “steel blue…?” Or would colour simply clash too much with the style?

Time for the compliments. Firstly, the skill icons down the bottom are excellent. Immediately clear and well detailed. The artist deserves a beer or two for that, even if they aren’t “polished” yet.

As for the second compliment, well, it is obvious that Crate is staffed by some of the most talented guys in the computer gaming industry and it is certainly great to see you guys didn’t slip into the fold of EA-acti-ubi game development where said talents would undoubtedly go unrecognised and left to waste away :slight_smile: Personally, I appreciate the hard work that has gone into this game.

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I think Yerky is totally right this time. The fonts seem to be boring. An unique post-apocalyptic visual true-type font would be good. And bigger, advanced design style resistance iconz would be also great.

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[post=32267]your developer sandwich[/post]:

  • Compliment: Nice!
  • Scathing criticism: You washed the gloves too hot … they shrank up. :stuck_out_tongue:
  • Compliment: I like it.
  • Inevitable question: What’s the stuff in the leftmost column in the inventory? The topmost seems to be a completed ‘charm’ (how do you call them in GD?), like to one put on the equipped shield.
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Very nice, I like the art direction. And check out the GUNZ!

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I especially like the pilgrim hat; going Solomon Kane on their asses!

The guns look good as well, especially the multi-barrel one.

11

Looking great! Love the gritty interface :smiley:

Honestly coolest image you guys have released yet! Looks like a lot more icons on the mini map for different types of NPC’s…also really like how the boots go over portions of the leg armor/pant it look really slick. Also, love the different armor/weapon models/art they look fantastic and really unique.

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after seeing the UI for the “followers” in D3

this looks positively professional and ready to go

I am not liking the new D3 look at all.
I had no problem with it until yesterday when they released the followers video.
but now ?

D3 looks too much like WOW and GrimDawn is looking SO MUCH better

I am so psyched for this game

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All hail Crate and Medierra, they have listened to our pleas of despair!

http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2001

I love the UI and the armor icons (and paperdoll) but I have a question or two;

  1. The text - is it place holder or what? It seems off in the HP bar which kinda bothers me. It’s not a huge issue but it does look a bit too big or something.

  2. I see skills on the bottom… icons are pretty nice and unique, but something else I noticed that intrigues me… 1,2,3,4,5 - L, R - 6,7,8,9,0. No doubt L and R are left and right MB, what reason did you guys do this? It is a good idea, I’m just curious.

  3. On the left of the skill bar, the two arrows pointing up and down, this is the skillbar hot swap?

4)Like others have asked, what are those objects in your inventory? Crafting ingredients?

  1. I see the shield you have has a + on it, like in TQ when you enchanted an item, it looked the same. Do you guys plan to change this? (if you CAN change it that is…)
    Anyway. I love the minimap, it looks great. And the HP bar section, I see a clock!
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Awesome, thanks a lot medierra. This is really quite a ton of new stuff you gave us this months. :wink:

Anyway criticism!

  1. I really like the textures and the overall looks of the inventory and the ui and everything.

  2. Minor things so far that I don’t like. The first one is the fonts used for the hp/energy in the top-left corner. It looks like a placeholder and I kind of hope that it is exactly that. If not…implement a slider so we can change the fonts? xD jk

  3. As I said I like the textures and backgrounds in the inventory however in the Info Page it makes the numbers for HP and Energy a bit hard to read.

  4. The icons for the resistances: Fire, Ice and Lightning look a bit…too bright and simple, especially the one for Fire looks like it was made with powerpoint. I don’t want to offend someone but if you compare it with the Icon for Poison (it looks great) you see a huge difference.

  5. The UI, as good as it looks, appears to be a bit…mixed up? The buttons are spread all over it, maybe skills should be on one side and the other buttons on the other? Like in TQ. (I know you said that yourself but I wanted to give feedback to your thought).

  6. Size of the shoulderpats…they are 2x2 while bodyarmor is 2x3. Do you see what I am thinking? They are HUGE in the inventory just like the shields. Maybe you can adjust that, it looks a bit irritating to me at least.

This all is nitpicking and pretty minor stuff, don’t get me wrong. Everything already looks very good and playable as it is but well…I thought I’d share my thoughts. :stuck_out_tongue:

@items: I think some looks like scrapmetal, it appears to be stacked? Then we can see salt, potions, energypotions (I like that they are green and not the typical royal-blue). Those rocks look like they are gems or something? They appear to be of varied quality, with the topmost being of highest quality.
That one thing with 5 stacks, looks like a radioactive starfish? oO

15

Lots of questions! Can’t get to them all now but ill try to answer a few.

Font - I agree it looks bad at larger sizes and we’ll look into getting something else eventually. We’re currently using it because it is free. :wink: You wouldn’t believe how damn expensive it is to license a good font.

The objects on the left are both crafting ingredients and charms. Some are only ingredients but others can be used as either.

I see the shield you have has a + on it, like in TQ when you enchanted an item, it looked the same. Do you guys plan to change this? (if you CAN change it that is…)

Hah yeah, it does look the same but it is actually new art. I couldn’t think of what else to do for it so I just recreated it. I’ll probably try to get one of the artists to come up with something better.

On the left of the skill bar, the two arrows pointing up and down, this is the skillbar hot swap?

Yeah, that is some fancy designer UI art where I just drew arrows as stand-in buttons. The merchant icons are equally silly at the moment.

I think I definitely want to re-arrange the HUD, I really don’t like having the hotslot buttons separated but there are other things I need to finish before I do another pass on that.

Size of the shoulderpats…they are 2x2 while bodyarmor is 2x3. Do you see what I am thinking? They are HUGE in the inventory just like the shields. Maybe you can adjust that, it looks a bit irritating to me at least.

This is just one of the imperfections of grid style inventory that we have to deal with. In terms of size relation, shoulders should really probably be about 1/3 or 1/4 the size of full torso armor, however, due to their shape, they also need a square box. Of course, we can’t just make a square box 1/3 the size, we’re stuck using grid units. A 2x1 box would be too narrow or too short, a 1x1 shoulder piece would be way too small, and… well anyone think a 3 unit L-shape is a good idea? :stuck_out_tongue: So, we’re sort of stuck with 2x2. It isn’t perfect but all systems have their drawbacks and I think this is one of the least offensive.

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Nice update folks, thank you.

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Inventory tetris?

You’ll need to make items rotateable though.

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All things considered I’d say I’d just run with the shoulder pieces that size. The alternative is making grid space smaller, which I suppose technically you could do, but that’d be a lot of reworking of the way the inventory system works to really make the most out of that kind of change.

Actually…I guess another alternative is to make the inventory art for chest pieces be bundled or folded up rather than spread out like they’re on a hangar.

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Excitement is mounting!

  1. I love the fact that the clock survived. With the new icon, maybe more people will figure out that it is actually there.

  2. What exactly does the 5 hot-key do, the action on the right or on the left?

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Looks quite good! I dig the aesthetic used. I think equipment looks quite good as well.

Am I the only person who sees two buttons with a 5 on them? There’s the one with the downward chevrons and the one with the bloody blade…am I crazy?