Pinco's UI

[Jonathan Baron]

Unfortunately you do have to, in large measure, learn the EC all over again due to the icon change-over. It's been distressing for some recent EC converts because they had to relearn once to switch from CC to EC, and then a second time to learn EC with the new icon system.

By necessity, some of the new icons are better than others of course, because all had to change due to serve the mini-texture system and there were over 700 of the silly things.

To Rock's point, an icon should be iconic - it should be the quick visual reference to an element of the game that best expresses it.

For example, you can't get more iconic than Dermott's virtue icons precisely because they're NOT Dermott's icons at all. You're not having to get into someone else's head and see it as they do to understand what it means.

That's a poor example because the in-game system came with icons. There is no universal symbol for each thing in the game.

Begging was mentioned. The original icon worked: the exchange of dignity and individual power for continued survival. The giver, in exchange for keeping the beggar alive, receives an acknowledgment of superiority over another human being. This is ancient. It's universal. It's iconic.

What does the cat symbolize? The opposite. It's the deceiver, feigning love, adoration and presenting itself at its most attractive as a scheme to get what it wants. This is why feline is so often confused with female, though the two have no shared linguistic derivation. It's just as easily the universal symbol of lonely old age. It's, thus, wrong for begging entirely. So would a begging dog - perfect for middle easterners and many Asians perhaps but wrong in the west where dogs are so often loved. Nobody likes a beggar.

Symbols mean things on deep levels. This is why you have to endure so many design meetings when you employ symbols in games.

Pinco is one person doing a job meant for a team. Thus I am reluctant to criticize the icons. Besides, if you're having to actually look at icons to find the key you hit to use what they symbolize then you are in the learning stage of the game. This was a conscious sacrifice of ease of use to achieve superior overall look and feel.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

For the minimap, you can turn on Scale Mode and make as small as you want. Just get it down to the "small" size you think is too big, then scale it down from there.

 

[Jonathan Baron]

Impressive job!

But there's one thing I dislike. Why is there a (rather big) minimum size on the "minimap"? It's too big for my personal taste and I can't seem to make it smaller, just bigger...

Did you turn on Scaling and use your mouse to try to scale it down still further? You can get that map down to a tiny, tiny size.

 

[Pinco]

Impressive job!

But there's one thing I dislike. Why is there a (rather big) minimum size on the "minimap"? It's too big for my personal taste and I can't seem to make it smaller, just bigger...

use the scale mode and make it more little...

Unfortunately you do have to, in large measure, learn the EC all over again due to the icon change-over. Some are better than others of course, because all had to change due to serve the mini-texture system and there were over 700 of the silly things.

To Rock's point, an icon should be iconic - it should be the quick visual reference to an element of the game that best expresses it.

For example, you can't get more iconic than Dermott's virtue icons precisely because they're NOT Dermott's icons at all. You're not having to get into someone else's head and see it as they do to understand what it means.

That's a poor example because the in-game system came with icons. There is no universal symbol for each thing in the game.

Begging was mentioned. The original icon worked: the exchange of dignity and individual power for continued survival. The giver, in exchange for keeping the beggar alive, receives an acknowledgment of superiority over another human being. This is ancient. It's universal. It's iconic.

What does the cat symbolize? The opposite. It's the deceiver, feigning love and adoration as a scheme to get what it wants. This is why feline is so often confused with female, though the two have no shared linguistic derivation. It's just as easily the universal symbol of lonely old age. It's, thus, wrong for begging entirely. So would a begging dog - perfect for middle easterners perhaps but wrong in the west where dogs are so often loved. Nobody likes a beggar.

Symbols mean things on deep levels. This is why you have to endure so many design meetings when you employ symbols in games.

Pinco is one person doing a job meant for a team. Thus I am reluctant to criticize the icons. Besides, if you're having to actually look at icons to find the key you hit to use what they symbolize then you are in the learning stage of the game. This was a conscious sacrifice of ease of use to achieve superior overall look and feel.

yes, that's why I keep tracking the feedbacks about it, but some people are shy

-Begging.... i realy dont like cats(remember me on cat-hat... )

I'm trying something else, actually is the cat from shrek

-Forensics...sherlok holmes in UO..come on

That's will stay as is since the title is Grandmaster Detective and is perfect to simbolyze it

-Taste Identification....looks from a japanese cartoon

That's the best thing I found, someone tasting a potion that is the purpose of the skill.

-Throwing..... looks like from Keith Haring but not UO

That's the best I was able to do, if you can do better let me know

-elemental spells looks almost the same for me

I need more details....

-animal form

is the chinese dragon, and is well defined so will stay as it is. The original icon was undefinable...

- clumsy

you can't understand a turtle upside down? the original icon was a leg what have a single leg to do with clumsy?

- explosion

It's an explosion effect, nothing else.. and is easier to understand than the original one....

- earthquake

is an earth crack like the original there is not much to understand in it and I can't do it differently...

-agility..a cat again

I have you ever heard the expression "Agile like a cat"?

maybe its only me...but even the EC should keep some old-fashioned UO feeling

If you can redraw the original icons without the background well, be my guest

 

[Thrakkar]

Awesome! Didn't know about the scaling mode. Worked perfectly!

Another question, is it possible to switch between Legacy Containers On/Off via Hotkey, Action or Icon?
Usually I prefer the freeform mode of the legacy containers, but when I'm doing a treasure map, I switch to grid mode, because 80 unsorted items can hardly be well-arranged in a single container...

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

There is a toggle icon for legacy containers in the Actions menu under the Other section as "Toggle Legacy Containers".

 

[Thrakkar]

Cool! Thanks!

 

[Jonathan Baron]

Not sure it's shyness really, Pinco, though the percentage of folks posting to any forum will never exceed 20% off those reading it.

Iconography is simply not something can you achieve universal acceptance of in a game nearly halfway through its second decade.

Personally I thought the new icon package was wonderful - so much so that I posted your screen shots of your new icons to the forum of UO's largest current guild (no, not the folks who leave those silly books lying around). And, yes, it's always the Cat that gets the reaction

But, if we're talking symbols, what the Pinco UI has come to symbolize to lots of players - even those who will NEVER abandon that horrid old client that continues to hurt the image of the game around the world - is the contrast between player commitment to the game and that of the inaccessible development team paid to serve them.

Live teams will never be judged fairly. Ongoing development is a function of revenue, not live team commitment. The ongoing development of the Pinco UI comes from a place apart from revenue streams - from love of the game. Thus a player would be far more reluctant to be critical of it in the same way they'd be critical of so-called Publishes.

Not saying it gets a pass or anything like that. Rather, it's judged in a fairer fashion I think.

Most UO players have played UO for many, many years and every change to the game triggers memories of every change ever made to UO that the player did not approve of.

-

 

[Pinco]

Not sure it's shyness really, Pinco, though the percentage of folks posting to any forum will never exceed 20% off those reading it.

Iconography is simply not something can you achieve universal acceptance of in a game nearly halfway through its second decade.

Personally I thought the new icon package was wonderful - so much so that I posted your screen shots of your new icons to the forum of UO's largest current guild (no, not the folks who leave those silly books lying around). And, yes, it's always the Cat that gets the reaction

But, if we're talking symbols, what the Pinco UI has come to symbolize to lots of players - even those who will NEVER abandon that horrid old client that continues to hurt the image of the game around the world - is the contrast between player commitment to the game and that of the inaccessible development team paid to serve them.

Live teams will never be judged fairly. Ongoing development is a function of revenue, not live team commitment. The ongoing development of the Pinco UI comes from a place apart from revenue streams - from love of the game. Thus a player would be far more reluctant to be critical of it in the same way they'd be critical of so-called Publishes.

Not saying it gets a pass or anything like that. Rather, it's judged in a fairer fashion I think.

Most UO players have played UO for many, many years and every change to the game triggers memories of every change ever made to UO that the player did not approve of.

-

That's true, but the official team has 2 things more than me: graphics and someone able to draw
My drawings are bad and my graphical skills are limited, so there is not much I can do to make everyone happy, and this new features requires only icons with transparent background (and you can't remove the background from the original icons)... so here we are

 

[Cloak&Dagger]

That's true, but the official team has 2 things more than me: graphics and someone able to draw
My drawings are bad and my graphical skills are limited, so there is not much I can do to make everyone happy, and this new features requires only icons with transparent background (and you can't remove the background from the original icons)... so here we are

What format are the original icons saved in? I am sure there is a way to remove the background from them, it just might be very complicated. =\

 

[Pinco]

What format are the original icons saved in? I am sure there is a way to remove the background from them, it just might be very complicated. =\

they are in dds, however the fact is that there are no layers so you must do it manually = impossible.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

Not impossible, just DAMNED hard and time consuming. There are a few shortcuts you can find in whatever graphics program, but in the end it comes down to erasing single pixels or outlining the image precisely and cut/pasting it into a new file.

Mainly it's a pain in the ass and why it took me a good while to build the extended Copper and Third Dawn sets.

 

[Cloak&Dagger]

...

Not impossible, just DAMNED hard and time consuming. There are a few shortcuts you can find in whatever graphics program, but in the end it comes down to erasing single pixels or outlining the image precisely and cut/pasting it into a new file.

Mainly it's a pain in the ass and why it took me a good while to build the extended Copper and Third Dawn sets.

This is what I was getting at.

 

[Woodsman]

But, if we're talking symbols, what the Pinco UI has come to symbolize to lots of players - even those who will NEVER abandon that horrid old client that continues to hurt the image of the game around the world - is the contrast between player commitment to the game and that of the inaccessible development team paid to serve them.

While UO is fairly late to the game of allowing the players to really customize the UI, I would say that a lot of games might not be as successful as they are if not for people like Pinco.

I played Warcraft at launch and off and on a lot since then, and I look at the UI before/after launch and then compare it to the last few years, and it's like night and day. Many of the custom mods for Warcraft have made it more accessible to a lot of people, and it's the same with Pinco's UI - I doubt the EC would have as many users as it does without Pinco's UI.

Next week is the details of Pub 72, and it might have the first of the upgraded graphics. If they look good, between those and Pinco's UI, there might be quite a few CC fans giving the EC another look.

 

[Petra Fyde]

On the whole, I like the new icons. I have changed just a few of them where I prefered the ones I had made myself. I have to admit I did find the begging cat a bit confusing. Therefore I offer:

The .dds

 

[Pinco]

On the whole, I like the new icons. I have changed just a few of them where I prefered the ones I had made myself. I have to admit I did find the begging cat a bit confusing. Therefore I offer:

The .dds

Nice one! Thanks

 

[Old Man of UO]

Agents?

Is there a tutorial on how to use Agent in the UI?

I missed several months on UO and Stratics, and if it was discussed before I've missed it. Can you point me to a discussion/instructions of how it works and how to set it up?

Thanks

 

[Pinco]

Re: Agents?

Is there a tutorial on how to use Agent in the UI?

I missed several months on UO and Stratics, and if it was discussed before I've missed it. Can you point me to a discussion/instructions of how it works and how to set it up?

Thanks

the changelog should be helpful

4.4

- The backpack icon on the paperdoll can now be used to drop items inside and you can now target the backpack by clicking it with the target cursor.
- The backpack action now allows you to target the backpack.
- Now you can avoid the use of "hold shift to unstack items" to use the lootbag.
- Changed the user settings icon.
- Added the action: "Drop What You Are Currently Holding" into the Pinco's UI category.
- Added a new option into the User Settings->Pinco's UI: "Enable Quick Loot On All Containers".
- Added the Agents Settings to the main menu and actions:
        * The agent settings allows you to edit, add or remove agents. In order to add/remove use the +/- buttons near the dropdown box.
        * To add an item to an agent use the 2 buttons: by type or by ID. The buttons are enable only when you can use them.
        * To remove an item just click on it. Certain agents allow you to remove or edit items by a context menu that appears by clicking on them.
- Added the following agents:
        * Organizer
                + The organizer allows you to move items from a container to another automatically.
                + The organizer can be started by a button available on every container. 
                + The organizer will works only with the content of the container where is started (NO SUB-CONTAINERS).
                + You must target the destination container ("hot bag") at every use.
                + Press the organizer button while it's running to stop it.
                + You must keep move your mouse while the agent is in execution.
                + Right click on the organizer button allows you to switch between the organizers.
        * Undress
                + The undress allows you to move certain dressed items into a container automatically.
                + The undress can be started by a button available on the paperdoll gold label. 
                + The undress will works only with the items equipped (it will NOT search the backpack or any container).
                + You must target the destination container ("hot bag") at every use.
                + Press the undress button while it's running to stop it.
                + You must keep move your mouse while the agent is in execution.
                + Right click on the undress button allows you to switch between the available undress.
        * Restock
                + The restock allows you to move a specified amount of certain items from a container to another automatically.
                + The restock can be started by a button available on every containers. 
                + The restock will take the specified amount of items from the container where is started and move them into the destination container.
                + You must target the destination container ("hot bag") at every use.
                + Press the restock button while it's running to stop it.
                + You must keep move your mouse while the agent is in execution.
                + Right click on the restock button allows you to switch between the available restocks.
        * Buy
                + The buy agent allows you to automatically select specified amount of items from an NPC shop without search for it.
                + The buy agent can be started by a button available on the shop window. 
                + Right click on the buy agent button allows you to switch between the available ones.
        * Sell
                + The sell agent allows you to automatically select specified amount of items from an NPC shop without search for it.
                + The sell agent can be started by a button available on the shop window. 
                + Right click on the sell agent button allows you to switch between the available ones.

 

[Storm]

Re: Agents?

Is there a tutorial on how to use Agent in the UI?

I missed several months on UO and Stratics, and if it was discussed before I've missed it. Can you point me to a discussion/instructions of how it works and how to set it up?

Thanks

I will make a tutorial for it (good idea )

But for now to use the organizer agent (not really used the others )

hit escape and go to the menu and select agents setting

then from the drop down list select organizer agent , now at he bottom to will see add by type and add by id select add by type and select the items you wish to add to the list(need to select add everytime)

now close out of here and open the chest/bag you wish to move things from and at the top you will see 2 arrows right click on the arrow to the left (the pone pointed at a angle) and select the organizer you want (in the original agent menu you have a + sign that allows you to add more and also rename option)
now when you left click on that arrow it will give you the option to target the chest or bag or even pack animal you wish to mope to then all you have to do is keep the mouse moving slightly


Hope that helps I will make a video for it soon (need to use the others as I have not really messed with them)

Storm