UI/UX Next Steps

[p][/p][p]A friend once told me, “UI design is gameplay design”. Especially in 4x games the mechanics are only part of the puzzle, the UI/UX side of interacting with those components can make a simple game great, or a great game incredibly frustrating. [/p][p][/p][p]Based on your feedback many players have found the UI in Endless Legend 2 to be non-optimal (I’m paraphrasing, some of you were much more explicit…). We have been looking at ways to improve and address the feedback. Some of which were bugs (wrong information), some of which were requests for improvements (not providing enough information), but we also got the sense of more holistic issues. [/p][p][/p][p]We are working on a redesign that broadly attempts to consolidate information, improve flow and remove the “Divided UI” concept from the game. I used “Divided UI” to refer to cases where we split information on different sides of the screen because there was a logical difference (for us) or we wanted to minimize overlap on the center of the screen. But it ended up being frustrating for players that didn’t know what part of the screen to look at to information or actions. [/p][p][/p][p]On the main game screen this “Divided UI” was most noticeable with empire actions. Some were in the upper left (protectorates, empire, quest log, etc) and some were around the turn button (heroes, research, diplomacy). The reason for this break is that some of these actions are related to turns (having to pick a tech that turn, having to pick a new hero, having to respond to a diplomatic request), but that distinction doesn’t matter to most players as much as just having one place they can go to find these types of empire actions.  [/p][p][/p][p]👷‍♀️ We are looking at making several changes here to improve feedback and bring elements together. [/p]

1. [p]All empire actions are in the upper left[/p]
2. [p]Faction powers moves to the top center to be more noticeable[/p]
3. [p]Strategic resources take up less space[/p]
4. [p]Research per turn is now clearly displayed[/p]

[p][/p][h2]BEFORE[/h2][h2][/h2][h2]AFTER ✨[/h2][p][/p][p][/p][p]There are also issues understanding the decisions on the city screen. Adjacency, leveling districts, managing population, and having clear decisions on what to build next were all muddy. This also suffers from the “Divided UI” issue mentioned above, where some of the city information is displayed at the top and the construction part was on the bottom.[/p][p][/p][p]This is more than just a UI issue and we are also looking at it as a flow issue and considering things like having Districts work like improvements (so you can just select one from the build list instead of needing to click a tile in the world first). [/p][p][/p][p]🎯 The goals of this are[/p]

1. [p]To have all city information at the bottom of the screen[/p]
2. [p]Switch District construction to list based (ie: you pick the district you want and then the place, not the place and then the district)[/p]
3. [p]Allow players to filter their districts and improvements lists[/p]
4. [p]Allow players to have the Population and Construction menus open at once[/p]
5. [p]Allow players to view already constructed improvements. Take up less space[/p]

[p][/p][h2]BEFORE[/h2][p][/p][h2]AFTER🔮[/h2][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]So, what do you think? Is this the right direction? Do you prefer the current UI? [/p][p]Would you like the UI to include more cat pics? We would like to hear from you.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Derek Paxton, [/p][p]Game Director of ENDLESS Legend 2[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]Your Feedback Matters: Reviews and Community[/h2][p]
Thanks to all of you who already shared some feedback with us, we are reading all your comments and look at the best way to integrate them into the game 💖 [/p][p]Huge kudos to those who have already shared a review of the game, it is incredible to see the amazing reception the game is having 🌟[/p]