GGG Needs to Take QOL Seriously
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It has seriously rubbed me wrong ever since their interview talking about QOL, particular visual, like for colorblindness. GGG has got to do better, and there's a ton they need that PoE2 somehow manages to make tons worse compared to PoE1 (the irony of greater graphical fidelity, it's easier to lose site of certain things with more to process visually). So, please GGG, consider the following QOL that I've encountered as needing some love:
Maps:
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- Add an informational/low detail view at a greater zoom out level, split however the maps are now (square, honeycomb, whatever) so I can see at a glance each "section" and how many incomplete nodes and towers are there, as well as what total numbers of mechanics available (breach, expedition, irradiated, etc). Clicking a sector will then zoom in with current high detail view to that sector.
- Ways to highlight adjoining nodes on mouse over so I can reliably see where a node connects to., cuz even if it is visually improved over some terrain like mountains it would be nice to have an immediate at-a-glance. - "Auto path" highlight if I see a direction I want to go so I can quickly see what nodes I have to go through to reach it. - Killing a boss should automatically reveal all remaining rares. Rares should also be revealed when completing a Tower. - At-a-glance improvements to Tab map details. Any mechanic specific details such as "Area has one additional Breach" should have a distinct text, coloration, or even graphical effects that is then X'd out once that breach is opened and done with, maybe even organize such details in a priority list so those are on top and map/tower influence mods towards the bottom. Add bold/italics, different colors, etc for easier at-a-glance for those mods, too, so that we can see dangerous mods like +Damage and Elemental Penetration and remind ourselves what is in the map. Lots of map mods, mechanics, and tower influence mods really turn the map Tab details list into an absolute novelette of info. At-a-glance is a needed QOL across the board. Stash/Inventory:
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- Better search. Unless I'm just not seeing it, being able to search based off ilvl range (say I only want to highlight above ilvl 76 or something) would be really useful. Also, being able to Ignore certain keywords would be great (If I want to search Energy Shield and ONLY Energy Shield, ignoring any hybrid armors, would be nice).
- More Affinities. Nuff said. Really weird how there isn't a Breach affinity or Expedition affinity, for example. - In-game adjustable item filter. For real, guys, why are we always so reliant on 3rd party software for this kinda stuff? Combat/Interaction
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- Optional "Prioritize Interaction on Left Click" because basic attack way too often just goes off trying to click a shrine, for example.
- Multiplayer skill culling, reduced and invisible effects options. - Auto/Aim Assist of the following configurations with PER SKILL functionality and ability to set a priority list heirarchy: >> Prioritize Hover Target >> Prioritize Target Nearest to Mouse >> Prioritize Mouse Cursor (Ignores Target) >> Prioritize Target Nearest to You, Towards Mouse >> Prioritize Target Nearest to You, Ignore Mouse >> Prioritize Target Affected by Ailment (i.e. primed for stun/stunned, freeze buildup/frozen) >> Disable All Aim Assist And now, the big one... Visuals:
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- Color blind modes. Just add it, seriously. I'm not CB, but plenty of others are.
- Optional outlining for player, party members, and monsters, with adjustable intensity. Being able to also adjust the coloration would be great. - Mob Lifebar Always On. Would be nice to have, though the outlining would do a lot to alleviate this personal pain point of mine. - Move the Gold Gain overlay to the side of the character so it isn't blocking my life/mana bar, or give us options where to display it. - Customizable damage indicator and highlighting options for enemy attacks. It is way too easy to miss certain things, especially for people like me that easily lose track of some stuff in the visual noise and clutter. - Option to change how Delirium fog works so that it doesn't mask so much of the floor, perhaps a simple screen edge fog option, or even that it partially covers the player (maybe around their head?) to still give the direction of the fog. While you're at it, an option to disable Delirium music on Delirious maps would be nice, it gets really repetitive after the nth map. A dramatic Delirium musical hit on map entrance would be a cool effect before slowly fading in the normal track. - Optional cooldown and other indicators. Again, it's very easy to lose track of things in the visual noise, and with the way endgame in PoE2 works you can barely avert your gaze for a fraction of a second to check. - Improved stun and ailment indicators, be it iconography or other visual and audio cues. Being stunned is especially poorly communicated to the player, so having sound options and improved indicators for stun and all other ailments would be greatly beneficial. - Improved indicators for Primed For Stun mobs. This is especially needed as some mobs hide the indicator in their large bodies. Further, some debuffs like Blind cover it up, too. An optional shimmer for Primed would be excellent. - Optional iconography for less visually obvious monster mods, like Extra Damage, so we can more reliably at-a-glance assess threats, especially if it can be "attached" to their bodies and not require a mouse over, or shows on mouse over itself. This could help to alleviate a few "one-shots" as players can more quickly notice specific threats. This would apply to all mobs that can have a mod, such as minions, magics, and rares. - Camera transparency/environment culling needs SERIOUS improvement. The camera needs to cull anything the character can see, I should NOT need to be behind a tree to see through it while I'm being attacked by enemies being hidden by it. There are also a ton of environmental "bird blinds" that don't cull at all and you can't even see your own character. Given that this may be rather challenging and time consuming to improve, automatic highlighting of character models that become hidden would be a great start, and all the more reason to add optional outlining as a first step. EDIT: Added Combat/Interaction EDIT: Added Camera QOL under Visuals. Added Rare Reveal mechanic for Boss maps and Tower maps. EDIT: Added Ailment priority to Combat/Interaction EDIT: Multiplayer skill effect culling under Combat, Tab map details QOL Last edited by CPTBRUMBL3Z#3146 on Feb 12, 2025, 7:37:02 PM Last bumped on Feb 25, 2025, 7:30:26 PM
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Optional outlining for objects is also important because when you left-click on object, you will not fire your skill attached to left-click, it messes up the combat sometimes, so you better to see where those objects are.
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" Forgot about that, meant to include a "Prioritize Interaction on Left Click" and all combat/interaction based ideas. Last edited by CPTBRUMBL3Z#3146 on Feb 8, 2025, 12:28:06 AM
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" Just throwing a helping hand (the fact this is possible doesn't diminish the need for these options): Unbind your left mouse button. If you still NEED to auto attack sometimes, bind it to something else. IIRC you can even rebind the current "left click" on the skillbar to something else while still retaining the "left click to interact" binding. | |
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A lot of the stuff that you mentioned is much better solved by getting mob density under control. If you're not spammed by hundreds of enemies on a single screen and only 1-15 enemies are on screen at a time most of the issues no longer exist. A lot of your suggestions are just bandaid when the real problem is monster density being way too high.
As for loot filters - they do not require any 3rd party software, they are simple text files that you can edit yourself (ok text editor is technically 3rd party software but every OS comes with a text editor and you can also edit it on PoE website as text). One thing I agree on is there needs to be a way to turn off aim assist / target lock when using WASD control scheme. Last edited by DemonikPath#1311 on Feb 12, 2025, 9:36:47 PM
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" Not sure I follow, since plenty of my ideas would apply whether there's 50 enemies on screen or 5. It may be easier to track certain things with only 5, but that doesn't change the fact there is a lot of bad UI feedback in this game. " Nor should I need to learn a friggen programming language. |
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" Could you elaborate because I genuinely don't understand this. What is missing or bad about keybinds? |
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" I'm talking about these:
Spoiler
- Optional outlining for player, party members, and monsters, with adjustable intensity. Being able to also adjust the coloration would be great.
Looks terrible and isn't needed when there are few enemies. And also very unlikely to ever happen, GGG has always been against things like that, see for example removing rare/magic enemy glows. - Mob Lifebar Always On. Would be nice to have, though the outlining would do a lot to alleviate this personal pain point of mine. Sure will be nice to have but only if enemy density is lower. - Customizable damage indicator and highlighting options for enemy attacks. It is way too easy to miss certain things, especially for people like me that easily lose track of some stuff in the visual noise and clutter. - Optional cooldown and other indicators. Again, it's very easy to lose track of things in the visual noise, and with the way endgame in PoE2 works you can barely avert your gaze for a fraction of a second to check. - Improved stun and ailment indicators, be it iconography or other visual and audio cues. Being stunned is especially poorly communicated to the player, so having sound options and improved indicators for stun and all other ailments would be greatly beneficial. - Improved indicators for Primed For Stun mobs. This is especially needed as some mobs hide the indicator in their large bodies. Further, some debuffs like Blind cover it up, too. An optional shimmer for Primed would be excellent. It's way too easy to lose track because there are way too many things to keep track of - reducing enemy density again fixes the core of the problem. - Optional iconography for less visually obvious monster mods, like Extra Damage, so we can more reliably at-a-glance assess threats, especially if it can be "attached" to their bodies and not require a mouse over, or shows on mouse over itself. This could help to alleviate a few "one-shots" as players can more quickly notice specific threats. This would apply to all mobs that can have a mod, such as minions, magics, and rares. Not a problem where there aren't multiple rares / magic packs on the screen at a time. If you only have to deal with one at a time it's not hard to read its mods. " I mean it's a very simple language. I just said that you don't need to use any external tools to edit it, they just make it easier for people. The in game UI for that would either be overly complicated or too limited. Also having them as text files allows me to edit them much faster than it'd be possible with UI and also allows me to generate them from a template using a tool I made. Last edited by DemonikPath#1311 on Feb 12, 2025, 11:35:14 PM
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" Hence, optional. Even if they reduced density and balanced around that, plenty of players would use these improvements. And Primed for Stun literally gets covered by some mobs' bodies. " Last Epoch is only just barely less complex (no sound effects, missing size control, missing full control over transparency and color) and is entirely in game. Works perfectly well. |
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" Filterblade doesn't implement everything that is possible to do with loot filters in PoE. |
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