The UI

[Malidica]

There's a bunch of blog posts about the things they're doing to the game in the next big update but no where did i notice any talk about pulling the UI out of the 90's and giving us something better then just drop down lists of text.

This is honestly the only thing that keep me from playing this game, the UI is god awful and the one thing i wish they'd do something about. Am i alone in this? Are they aware of the need to overhaul it? Do they know and don't care? Do they just disagree? Or have a missed a blog post where they talk about it?

There's a lot i love about this game and i WANT to play it again when the big update drops but i just can't spend half my playtime dealing with sub sub menus of sub menus.

[Snarbles]

its better than most grid uis imo

[BeetlePie]

Yep, the UI certainly needs some love, but at the same time I can't figure out how it could possibly be improved. It's ugly and rough but functional.

[Dankstein]

Personally I find the UI very fitting to the game's aesthetic and I've never had any issues with it's functionality.

[Malidica]

Look, i fully expected to get a few to a lot of replies from people saying they like the UI, obviously people who are of similar mind to me are not going to be hanging out in the discussion section for the game as they're off playing other games waiting for a UI update to this one, there's going to be a massive sampling bias here which is why i didn't ask if anyone disagreed with me, i KNOW there'll be plenty of folks who do, i just want to know if they're planning on doing anything about the UI and if so, where can i read about it? Or if not, have they at least mentioned it at some point? Does anyone know that? Can you direct me to anything related to it?

[BeetlePie]

Originally posted by Malidica:

i just want to know if they're planning on doing anything about the UI and if so, where can i read about it? Or if not, have they at least mentioned it at some point? Does anyone know that? Can you direct me to anything related to it?

Originally posted by Thursdoid:

As we all know, one of the weakest things about PZ is the UI. We all get on with it fine, but let’s face it: it aint a looker, and it can be a bit clunky, fiddly and slow. We’ve always said we’d give it an overhaul, but it’s always been a daunting prospect.

Since March, alongside our friends at General Arcade, we have been experimenting with some super fancy AAA high-end UI tech middleware that will make this process easier, and will make the end result better.

For the past few months we’ve been making sure that it’s compatible with the game, doesn’t negatively impact performance and will still allow for lua UI for our modders – and it has been this week that we feel comfortable enough to say out loud to each other that it’s going to work, and is safe to proceed.

So next time you see someone moaning that the PZ UI isn’t exactly glamorous – just tell them ‘they know, and it’ll take a while – but they’re working on it’. It’ll be some considerable time till we talk about this again, but we just wanted to let you know that this is another iron that we have in the fire.

Link to the post: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/108600/view/3325359222311959917?l=english

[Malidica]

Originally posted by BeetlePie:

Originally posted by Malidica:

i just want to know if they're planning on doing anything about the UI and if so, where can i read about it? Or if not, have they at least mentioned it at some point? Does anyone know that? Can you direct me to anything related to it?

Originally posted by Thursdoid:

As we all know, one of the weakest things about PZ is the UI. We all get on with it fine, but let’s face it: it aint a looker, and it can be a bit clunky, fiddly and slow. We’ve always said we’d give it an overhaul, but it’s always been a daunting prospect.

Since March, alongside our friends at General Arcade, we have been experimenting with some super fancy AAA high-end UI tech middleware that will make this process easier, and will make the end result better.

For the past few months we’ve been making sure that it’s compatible with the game, doesn’t negatively impact performance and will still allow for lua UI for our modders – and it has been this week that we feel comfortable enough to say out loud to each other that it’s going to work, and is safe to proceed.

So next time you see someone moaning that the PZ UI isn’t exactly glamorous – just tell them ‘they know, and it’ll take a while – but they’re working on it’. It’ll be some considerable time till we talk about this again, but we just wanted to let you know that this is another iron that we have in the fire.

Link to the post: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/108600/view/3325359222311959917?l=english

Thank you!

[Malidica]

So next time you see someone moaning that the PZ UI isn’t exactly glamorous – just tell them ‘they know, and it’ll take a while – but they’re working on it’. It’ll be some considerable time till we talk about this again, but we just wanted to let you know that this is another iron that we have in the fire.

This is exactly what i was asking for.

[BeetlePie]

Originally posted by Malidica:

So next time you see someone moaning that the PZ UI isn’t exactly glamorous – just tell them ‘they know, and it’ll take a while – but they’re working on it’. It’ll be some considerable time till we talk about this again, but we just wanted to let you know that this is another iron that we have in the fire.

This is exactly what i was asking for.

I laughed a little reading that fragment, considering it's exactly the same situation. I hope they're able to implement these changes for the next build, whatever they are.

[San]

Originally posted by Malidica:

Look, i fully expected to get a few to a lot of replies from people saying they like the UI, obviously people who are of similar mind to me are not going to be hanging out in the discussion section for the game as they're off playing other games waiting for a UI update to this one, there's going to be a massive sampling bias here which is why i didn't ask if anyone disagreed with me, i KNOW there'll be plenty of folks who do, i just want to know if they're planning on doing anything about the UI and if so, where can i read about it? Or if not, have they at least mentioned it at some point? Does anyone know that? Can you direct me to anything related to it?

I don't like the UI either, but I love the game nevertheless. I hope it can be improved soon.

[Kobato]

I thought Zomboid UI was bad until I played CDDA, like I literally stuck at main menu don't know how to switch tab at all

[Gena Cider]

i wonder why people dont like this game's ui and kenshi's, they're perfectly fine and nobody ever explains why they're bad outside of small text

[BeetlePie]

Originally posted by Master Exploder:

i wonder why people dont like this game's ui and kenshi's, they're perfectly fine and nobody ever explains why they're bad outside of small text

The devs pointed out the issues related to UI in the quotation I shared above. I'd say Kenshi suffers from the same kind of problems.

[Armagenesis]

Originally posted by Master Exploder:

i wonder why people dont like this game's ui and kenshi's, they're perfectly fine and nobody ever explains why they're bad outside of small text

The UI works, but as the devs themselves had mentioned, ain't the prettiest. Nor the most consistent and easiest to use IMO.

You have context menu with right click, menu windows that open up with keyboard shortcut only, menu windows/actions that can be activated with button click only, radial menus that open up with button press+hold, inventory menu that can be collapsed but not other menus.

IMO, that feels all over the place.

[Bardock]

HEY! theres a simple fix for all this btw. i cant find the source or the video but i have in the past gone into the files of the game and changed ONE LINE. idk what file it was, i dont know what line it was but it forced the game to stay in 1080 or what ever it is and it just works. so if anyone knows the file or the line to change. and again it wasnt two or more lines it was just the one line of text that changed

[Snarbles]

the workshop has some ui mods