I'm new to the game. The UI is... unintuitive and unclear.

[estevan]

Am I allowed to say the UI is a big mess or is that either A) stating the obvious or B) an annoying comment to make? I'm reading through the wiki on how to play and I'm immediately asking myself, "Why?" Why did they place these game options over here next to these others? What relationship do they have? Whey did they squeeze those buttons there? It's all very strange to me.


This game should be a series of named tabs with named sub-tabs and categories at minimum. That approach won't be perfect but it would better clarify concepts and mechanics. Etc.


Anyway, I do UI design. I should make a concept design as an exercise.

[Ficelle]

Well, i disagree totally ;D

Given the amount of informations there is, i find the UI quite impressive
Everything is one or two clicks away at most with no annoying scrolling

Of course, im used to Paradox games, so, it helps probably

[Isiloni]

With 14hs of gameplay you will never fully understand the UI in a such complex game.

I accept that is a little bit unintuitive, but not unclear, you have all the information you want if you know where to look for it

[kaiyl_kariashi]

because they tried that in EU2 and it was ♥♥♥♥. Absolute ♥♥♥♥.

Eu3 tried to improve on it but was also kind of meh, IMO.


This is the most refined and easy to use interface of any paradox title.

And I don't see what the problem is. All of the tabs are organized by function.

Government stuff is on the government tab. economy stuff is in the economy tab. Society stuff is in the society tab, all the message options are next to the message box, etc.


like-wise the short-cut menu was even changed recently to make sorting of provinces to perform actions even more straight forward.

[Mod Games]

idk your point but improvement must be awesome
like
different music, sound, voice on each area.

[equinox1911]

It's both, but not for reasons you might imagine.
It is unintuitive because of the amount of information it conveys and the fact that quite a lot of that had been added in the last four years of continues development.
It is unclear to you because you do not understand the game, that's it.
All relevant information (ledger excluded) is a maximum of one hotkey (f1-f8+x), one click and hovering over the right part away.

Clearly the UI design has not accessibility as it's first concern, it is is more driven by a prosumer pov that trades it for efficient workflow when the ui is known.

It's not perfect but it works. In one thing you are right, for beginners learning the UI is pretty much the same as learning the game.

[Ransom_Romanus]

The UI in EU4 is a lot less complicated than the UI is in CK2. Take a little time and familiarize yourself with the UI in EU4 and you should find it's not complicated at all.

[runequester]

Paradox interfaces are always a mess of tiny buttons, obscure functions, poorly explained rules and half-implemented ideas.

It's part of the charm ;-)

[estevan]

Originally posted by equinox1911:

It's both, but not for reasons you might imagine.
It is unintuitive because of the amount of information it conveys and the fact that quite a lot of that had been added in the last four years of continues development.
It is unclear to you because you do not understand the game, that's it.
All relevant information (ledger excluded) is a maximum of one hotkey (f1-f8+x), one click and hovering over the right part away.

Clearly the UI design has not accessibility as it's first concern, it is is more driven by a prosumer pov that trades it for efficient workflow when the ui is known.

It's not perfect but it works. In one thing you are right, for beginners learning the UI is pretty much the same as learning the game.

That sounds like the right assessment. Definitely looks as though long term planning didn't foresee where the UI would go and so it grew outside the confines of the original vision. Personally I would prefer a nice cold, sterile interface with lots of clearly named tabs, lists of data, and a search tool to find a data field or button.


I play EVE Online, or used to regularly, and Paradox games seem to be similar. EVE is "Spreadsheets in Space" while EU is "Ledgers". I'd love if this game were just data entry and a map.

[equinox1911]

Originally posted by estevan:

Personally I would prefer a nice cold, sterile interface with lots of clearly named tabs, lists of data, and a search tool to find a data field or button.

To me it makes no difference at this point. After +1500 hrs i know the interface well enough ;)

No doubt that the UI is lacking in pdx games, they get better with each iteration, but to be honest, at this point UI is not a concern of mine in these games. If you are new to pds games the term "pds math" will become a thing and it's infuriating at times.

As for the long term development with 3 DLC a year, you would be right in assuming that eu iv was not build for it. In fact ck2(2012) was the first to do it and eu iv(2013) embraced it fully, for better or worse. At this point the ui is kind of a mess like MS Office before the 2013 reboot of the UI, grown into something only a watchful parent could love.

If you like clean and neat interfaces i'd suggest you check out the Endless universe, in particular Endless Legends.

[estevan]

Originally posted by equinox1911:

Originally posted by estevan:

Personally I would prefer a nice cold, sterile interface with lots of clearly named tabs, lists of data, and a search tool to find a data field or button.

To me it makes no difference at this point. After +1500 hrs i know the interface well enough ;)

No doubt that the UI is lacking in pdx games, they get better with each iteration, but to be honest, at this point UI is not a concern of mine in these games. If you are new to pds games the term "pds math" will become a thing and it's infuriating at times.

As for the long term development with 3 DLC a year, you would be right in assuming that eu iv was not build for it. In fact ck2(2012) was the first to do it and eu iv(2013) embraced it fully, for better or worse. At this point the ui is kind of a mess like MS Office before the 2013 reboot of the UI, grown into something only a watchful parent could love.

If you like clean and neat interfaces i'd suggest you check out the Endless universe, in particular Endless Legends.

You're absolutely right about the Endless franchise. I use them as a reference for great UI in gaming.


Regarding making no difference, I hope they reconsider their UI for EU5.