Following the UI improvement suggestions i’d also like to compile features that should make a return of some form or UI changes that were too bloated for the other pitch
- Hud Margins
In the settings_v0.ini file there is a secret value you can change called BroadcastMarginLeft/Right/Top/Bottom that influences the location of elements on the screen, on top of changing the default values to these numbers
BroadcastMarginBottom = “0.380000”
BroadcastMarginLeft = “0.820000”
BroadcastMarginRight = “0.820000”
BroadcastMarginTop = “0.300000”
I believe this should become a feature in the menus, and perhaps even expanded upon for hud personalization and customization, as this system is rather limiting. Even without that, having the system shown in the main options menu would be a welcome addition.
- The On Fire system
While i’ve asked about this before, aswell as this being more of a UI issue rather than a gameplay issue, return the on fire meter and showcase the points you recieve for doing certain actions, and the on fire text. just like before, since the code is still in the game the only thing needed to bring back is all the visual feedback
On top of this change back the elimination text to the old slanted BigNoodleTooOblique Font, make the text larger so it pops out more and is easier to see, and remove the background associated with it as it would intrude in the way.
The extra visual feedback the game used to have gave a nice dopamine and morale boost and is a feature still present, so it should be back in full
- A Reimplementation or Expanded upon medal system
While the current hero medals we have are nice, it misunderstood the fact the old medal system also came along with the ability to vote for your teammates or enemies at the end of the game, showing off the individual feats that couldn’t make it in a play of the game for example.
Returning the old card voting and medal system shouldn’t be difficult, as the graphics you can recycle from maximellens vault, which look very similar, and being able to vote for people in the server along with the extra downtime to chat with eachother gives a sense of comradery with both friend and foe. Even if some will choose to be mean, anyone is still free to leave at any time.
- UI adjustments improvements and toggles
Also more of a UI thing but it would help gameplay, a removal of the scoreboard system or a differently formatted scoreboard similar to OW1 style
Since the current only practical use of the scoreboard is to track ult charge and teammates being alive status, what if instead you used a system similar to the PvE event arcade modes or splatoon, or even Stadium mode where you can see your teammates character profile, role and their ult status in a small portion of the screen, either on top or on the left.
This would help people coordinate ults better in pubs without a need to vocally communicate without taking up too much screen space, and coordinate plays better in general. Maybe the same style as stadium but have a toggle to reduce the size of the screen it takes.
Additionally allow the option to change the healing bar from the circular bar we have now to the old horizontal bar, same goes for shields too as those are much easier to read in the heat of the moment
- Character Portaits and Styles and Borders
It would be appreciated if on top of the fonts being changed back on the main hud, the health and ammo and abilities were slanted as they were before in OW1, aswell as teammate and enemy health. On top of which, some character portraits like cassidy have their hats or head decorations cut off vertically in their border whereas in overwatch 1 it didn’t crop out their head, reimplement this too
and alongside this improve the character portrait border system by reimplementing the old leveled borders or introducing new ones based on the current emblem leveling system, as ranked mode already is seeing some borders but they are rather tacky and have no unranked alternative
Finally on this matter change the old ult meter back to the old one or something similar to the old one. The new one is smaller, with an orange color that doesn’t pop out at your face, and is less visually interesting, aswell the new ult logos being black on white rather than white on black.
The old meters greyed out bars were smaller, but as it filled up the yellow lines were bigger which gave it some depth, the overall circle was larger and the yellow popped out, and the white ult logo on black background really popped, and extra animations on top of it may have also been larger too
Either reusing the old one or making one similar would be a massive improvement to game feel.
- General Chat
Last thing that would be nice to see is a general chat system similar to the one from back then, where you could communicate with other users who were on the main menu with an easy option to change between general chats. This along side the medal card vote system helps the game feel less isolatory, with everyone at eachothers throats, and the expanded communication gives more incentive to mute players who are just intentionally trying to get a rise out of others. Making it very easy to mute those individuals inside the general chat along with other adjustments would allow it to exist in a somewhat okay state, maybe have it turned off by default or have the option to turn it off very easily
These are more integral changes to the experience outside of pure gameplay that i think would help the current experience feel better and boost comradery, please consider if a dev is reading this. If anyone else wants any of these too i encourage asking en masse.