Intense Profile Joined March 2010 Australia 50 Posts #1



The UI has several roles to fill, the main one being to present information to us. It should present that information in a logical, accurate and clear manner. The better that information is presented, the better decisions we can make.



So, what improvements would you guys like to see done?



Here's one of mine that's been bothering me for a while. I would like to see a progress bar underneath buildings that have been bound to the same hotkey.

When it comes to improving the game, I think the UI is one aspect that's often overlooked. While balance and gameplay have changed drastically since the start of beta, the UI has more or less remained relatively unchanged.The UI has several roles to fill, the main one being to present information to us. It should present that information in a logical, accurate and clear manner. The better that information is presented, the better decisions we can make.So, what improvements would you guys like to see done?Here's one of mine that's been bothering me for a while. I would like to see a progress bar underneath buildings that have been bound to the same hotkey.

SeanShepard Profile Joined September 2010 United States 48 Posts #2 they need separate burrow and unborrow hotkeys for my roaches :/

EnderCraft Profile Joined December 2010 United States 1727 Posts Last Edited: 2011-03-08 07:42:22 #3 Like the addition of the game timer, i'm sure a lot of people will see UI improvements as simply "dumbing" down the game. Especially for those who played BW. Seeing as the SC1 UI was a basic as basic can get...



I really don't have a staunch opinion on this. However, I expect what I mentioned above to be in the minds of most people who think of SC2 UI improvements. SC:BW has a higher skill ceiling than SC2? SC 64 is where it's at brah.

Mastermind Profile Blog Joined April 2008 Canada 7096 Posts #4 On March 08 2011 16:35 Intense wrote:

Here's one of mine that's been bothering me for a while. I would like to see a progress bar underneath buildings that have been bound to the same hotkey.

Yes, this is exactly what I am hoping for. Different hotkeys for burrow/unburrow would be great too. Siege tanks have 2 hotkeys, so zerg units should too. Yes, this is exactly what I am hoping for. Different hotkeys for burrow/unburrow would be great too. Siege tanks have 2 hotkeys, so zerg units should too.

Axeinst Profile Joined March 2011 Belize 281 Posts #5 Thats cool idea



But you should make this same thread to battle.net forums, because blizzards reads it more.

arb Profile Blog Joined April 2008 Noobville 14610 Posts #6 On March 08 2011 16:40 EnderCraft wrote:

Like the addition of the game timer, i'm sure a lot of people will see UI improvements as simply "dumbing" down the game. Especially for those who played BW. Seeing as the SC1 UI was a basic as basic can get...



I really don't have a staunch opinion on this. However, I expect what I mentioned above to be in the minds of anybody who thinks of SC2 UI improvements.

personally i enjoyed the simple UI of BW far more than the SC2 one personally i enjoyed the simple UI of BW far more than the SC2 one Artillery spawned from the forges of Hell

Chicane Profile Joined November 2010 United States 7143 Posts Last Edited: 2011-03-08 07:44:40 #7 On March 08 2011 16:37 SeanShepard wrote:

they need separate burrow and unborrow hotkeys for my roaches :/



Ya I agree with this. I believe they already have it right with siege tanks... where if half of them are sieged, you can select all the tanks and choose to siege the rest, or unsiege the remaining non sieged tanks.



Edit:



Ya I agree with this. I believe they already have it right with siege tanks... where if half of them are sieged, you can select all the tanks and choose to siege the rest, or unsiege the remaining non sieged tanks.Edit: On March 08 2011 16:40 EnderCraft wrote:

Like the addition of the game timer, i'm sure a lot of people will see UI improvements as simply "dumbing" down the game. Especially for those who played BW. Seeing as the SC1 UI was a basic as basic can get...



I really don't have a staunch opinion on this. However, I expect what I mentioned above to be in the minds of most people who think of SC2 UI improvements.



Ya that likely will come up, and with good reason in some cases. Having the timings down of your units/cooldowns in your head should be rewarded rather than being able to easily check up on it. That being said, I may sound a bit hypocritical still feeling that there should be seperate buttons for burrow and unburrow. Ya that likely will come up, and with good reason in some cases. Having the timings down of your units/cooldowns in your head should be rewarded rather than being able to easily check up on it. That being said, I may sound a bit hypocritical still feeling that there should be seperate buttons for burrow and unburrow.

Jumbled Profile Joined September 2010 1489 Posts #8 I need just one thing: a proper bloody subgroup modifier key. It's a really simple, obvious, useful unit control tool that Blizzard somehow saw fit to leave out.

ander Profile Blog Joined September 2010 Canada 403 Posts Last Edited: 2011-03-08 07:53:48 #9 On March 08 2011 16:46 Jumbled wrote:

I need just one thing: a proper bloody subgroup modifier key. It's a really simple, obvious, useful unit control tool that Blizzard somehow saw fit to leave out.



you mean something other than tab? you can set it yourself =o. sorry if i dont get your meaning, i don't use that key personally.



they need to add....... nothing. the game timer was added for no reason at all, and there are a few other seemingly arbitrary additions that serve no purpose. i like the ui fine the way it is. you mean something other than tab? you can set it yourself =o. sorry if i dont get your meaning, i don't use that key personally.they need to add....... nothing. the game timer was added for no reason at all, and there are a few other seemingly arbitrary additions that serve no purpose. i like the ui fine the way it is.

AmericanUmlaut Profile Joined November 2010 United States 2383 Posts #10 I would really, really like to see this, too. Once I've got an expo up, I can't tap to my nexus to see how far along my probe is. The result is that I either have to double tap and physically look at my nexus, or I have to queue a second probe everywhere to make sure I don't have interruptions. I have the same problem when I off-race as Terran, where you tend to have a very large number of barracks bound to the same hotkey.



The other issue that I have with the UI is more of a bug than a missing feature, but I really wish it would get fixed: audio notifications are inconsistent. Sometimes my omniscient lady friend notifies me that my research has completed, and sometimes she doesn't. Usually I'm paying enough attention that it doesn't matter, but every once in a while I'm ten or fifteen seconds late with my first round of warped-in units because of it.



In response to the haters that will shortly drown this thread in cries of "already so easy" and "learn to play," I am firmly in the camp that believes that SC2 should be hard to play because of the complexity and depth of its strategy and tactics, not because the UI is designed in such a way as to make it physically difficult to play well. The frumious Bandersnatch

speakerbox Profile Blog Joined January 2011 Canada 324 Posts #11 Leave it simple. More UI changes will make it have the same problem as WoW has with addons.. eventually you dont have to think as much because the game does it for you. twin anchors houseboats

smocca Profile Joined May 2010 United States 83 Posts Last Edited: 2011-03-08 08:05:05 #12 On March 08 2011 16:42 Chicane wrote:

Show nested quote +

On March 08 2011 16:37 SeanShepard wrote:

they need separate burrow and unborrow hotkeys for my roaches :/



Ya I agree with this. I believe they already have it right with siege tanks... where if half of them are sieged, you can select all the tanks and choose to siege the rest, or unsiege the remaining non sieged tanks.



Edit:



Show nested quote +

On March 08 2011 16:40 EnderCraft wrote:

Like the addition of the game timer, i'm sure a lot of people will see UI improvements as simply "dumbing" down the game. Especially for those who played BW. Seeing as the SC1 UI was a basic as basic can get...



I really don't have a staunch opinion on this. However, I expect what I mentioned above to be in the minds of most people who think of SC2 UI improvements.



Ya that likely will come up, and with good reason in some cases. Having the timings down of your units/cooldowns in your head should be rewarded rather than being able to easily check up on it. That being said, I may sound a bit hypocritical still feeling that there should be seperate buttons for burrow and unburrow. Ya I agree with this. I believe they already have it right with siege tanks... where if half of them are sieged, you can select all the tanks and choose to siege the rest, or unsiege the remaining non sieged tanks.Edit:Ya that likely will come up, and with good reason in some cases. Having the timings down of your units/cooldowns in your head should be rewarded rather than being able to easily check up on it. That being said, I may sound a bit hypocritical still feeling that there should be seperate buttons for burrow and unburrow.



Even separate from "dumbing down the game" is the idea of not having a single best way to do things. I like that there are a bunch of different ways of going about macroing, each offering unique advantages and disadvantages. For example, I used to hotkey my queens altogether but found that I couldn't double tap to get to a specific one when I needed to. So, I switched over to hotkeying my queen along with the hatch that queen is injecting on so I could double tap there and also single tap+tab over to the hatch to make from it individually (I hotkey all hatches together as well). Later, I finally switched over to just hotkeying my queens alone, separately so I could tap those keys to check their energy.



If you search you can see like a hundred topics just on methods of queen injection management. That just seems really cool to me.



Anyway, on topic!:



I would love to be able to hide the menu bar at the top completely.



Also, I think being able to show all health bars but still have it hide the health of buildings that are full health would be nice. Maybe even have the option to hide it for workers and overlords too (again, if they are full health). I feel like healthbars are so advantageous to show but also clutter up the screen so if you could get rid of some of the less important ones it would be good. Even separate from "dumbing down the game" is the idea of not having a single best way to do things. I like that there are a bunch of different ways of going about macroing, each offering unique advantages and disadvantages. For example, I used to hotkey my queens altogether but found that I couldn't double tap to get to a specific one when I needed to. So, I switched over to hotkeying my queen along with the hatch that queen is injecting on so I could double tap there and also single tap+tab over to the hatch to make from it individually (I hotkey all hatches together as well). Later, I finally switched over to just hotkeying my queens alone, separately so I could tap those keys to check their energy.If you search you can see like a hundred topics just on methods of queen injection management. That just seems really cool to me.Anyway, on topic!:I would love to be able to hide the menu bar at the top completely.Also, I think being able to show all health bars but still have it hide the health of buildings that are full health would be nice. Maybe even have the option to hide it for workers and overlords too (again, if they are full health). I feel like healthbars are so advantageous to show but also clutter up the screen so if you could get rid of some of the less important ones it would be good.

Jumbled Profile Joined September 2010 1489 Posts #13 On March 08 2011 16:53 ander wrote:

Show nested quote +

On March 08 2011 16:46 Jumbled wrote:

I need just one thing: a proper bloody subgroup modifier key. It's a really simple, obvious, useful unit control tool that Blizzard somehow saw fit to leave out.



you mean something other than tab? you can set it yourself =o. sorry if i dont get your meaning, i don't use that key personally.



they need to add....... nothing. the game timer was added for no reason at all, and there are a few other seemingly arbitrary additions that serve no purpose. i like the ui fine the way it is. you mean something other than tab? you can set it yourself =o. sorry if i dont get your meaning, i don't use that key personally.they need to add....... nothing. the game timer was added for no reason at all, and there are a few other seemingly arbitrary additions that serve no purpose. i like the ui fine the way it is.

Tab is for subgroup selection. A subgroup modifier key is one which you hold down so that the orders you give apply only to your currently selected subgroup.



For example, if you had a protoss army with a couple of different types of units selected, you could use tab to make the sentries in that army the selected subgroup, then use the modifier key to have them and only them focus-fire a PDD, as they are the only ground unit which can hit it while it has energy. Tab is for subgroup selection. A subgroup modifier key is one which you hold down so that the orders you give apply only to your currently selected subgroup.For example, if you had a protoss army with a couple of different types of units selected, you could use tab to make the sentries in that army the selected subgroup, then use the modifier key to have them and only them focus-fire a PDD, as they are the only ground unit which can hit it while it has energy.

undyinglight Profile Joined December 2008 United States 593 Posts #14 Often times when I click and drag to select a group of units I accidentally click on the top left tabs which is quite annoying. Also Zerg should have separate rally points for Queens and Overlords. Rise Up!

Axeinst Profile Joined March 2011 Belize 281 Posts #15 How to tab back and forth?

emc Profile Joined September 2010 United States 3068 Posts Last Edited: 2011-03-08 09:22:22 #16 they need larva timers on multiple selections of hatcheries. You will notice that a single selected Hatchery has a timer of when the larva will finish, but multiple hatcheries dismisses this. Strange that toss is the only race that has a UI function that the other races dont. For example, when you have multiple gateways selected, it will tell you when warp gate is ready to be used again with a circular timer over the icons. Hatcheries should have this for larva and Barracks/Factories/Starports should also have this. The Terran buildings could use this, sure you see white dots on queue'd units but you can't actually tell how long it takes for the unit to spawn.



Also a number or white dots (or a small number after the number of dots reaches over 5) on Hatcheries would be a cool indicator of how much larva there is on individual hatcheries when multiple hatcheries are selected. This could be useful in knowing if your far away expansion has enough larva to defend or just better larva management among your hatcheries.



I also don't see why Toss gets a Warp Gate hotkey, but Terran and Zerg don't get a Hatchery/Production Building Hotkey just doesn't make sense why Toss needs 1 less hotkey for their production facilities and the other races don't.



And, Creep tumor idle button anyone?

emc Profile Joined September 2010 United States 3068 Posts Last Edited: 2011-03-08 09:20:18 #17 On March 08 2011 17:50 undyinglight wrote:

Often times when I click and drag to select a group of units I accidentally click on the top left tabs which is quite annoying. Also Zerg should have separate rally points for Queens and Overlords.



you can disable this, it's in the options look around for it.



you can also disable clicking the top menu bar, which is very useful you can disable this, it's in the options look around for it.you can also disable clicking the top menu bar, which is very useful

Valckrie Profile Joined August 2010 United Kingdom 530 Posts #18 On March 08 2011 17:50 undyinglight wrote:

Often times when I click and drag to select a group of units I accidentally click on the top left tabs which is quite annoying. Also Zerg should have separate rally points for Queens and Overlords.



I disagree, it's not that hard to rally an overlord egg to where you want it to go when spawned. Queens don't even need to move that far once spawning anyway. If they did this you would have 4 seperate rally points from a hatchery - far too much. I disagree, it's not that hard to rally an overlord egg to where you want it to go when spawned. Queens don't even need to move that far once spawning anyway. If they did this you would haveseperate rally points from a hatchery - far too much. Fear is a 4 letter word. Why be afraid?

vyyye Profile Joined July 2010 Sweden 3915 Posts #19 Energy bar so I can see how much chrono is about on all my nexuses when I have them targeted. I pretty much just blindly C click here and there when I have more than one nexus nowadays, would be nice to see how much chrono is sitting there.

Bloodash Profile Joined April 2010 Netherlands 1159 Posts #20 what I miss outside of a match, what warcraft 3 had and SC2 doesn't, is hotkeys in the main menu



I mean I can't even use arrows to scroll trough a list of games? let alone browse trough the menus with keys (you could start a custom game on WC3 without touching the mouse) I'll bite this hand that feeds me, and take it for my own!

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