Friday Dev Update: New Inventory UI Preview
For this week’s dev update we want to show you all a picture of the progress on the new inventory UI. Note that some parts (the icons for the tabs for instance) are place holders. I’ll briefly discuss a few of its features.
Larger Icons
It may not be very apparent from the image, but many of you may be pleased to note that the icons are slightly larger than before. We had gotten a number of complaints about the size of them in the past, especially from users with very high resolution monitors. We increased their default size from 32x32 to 50x50. You may notice in the picture that they appear slightly pixelated. This is because all of the icons are still currently stored as 32x32 images. We’ll do a run-through and re-create them all at larger resolutions to fix the pixelation.
Better Tabs
As you probably know, the tabs in the current Salt inventory interface all act as their own little container. The new tabs are filters rather than containers. One good thing about this is that it allows us to have an “All” tab where you can see the entire contents of your inventory in one grid.
Obvious Item Rarity Colors
I love getting rare loot in games. It is the main draw that keeps me playing many RPGs. It makes me feel accomplished to be decked out in a full set awesome gear. This is why we are making it easier to instantly recognize better loot by having item backgrounds reflect item rarity colors. It also has the added bonus of making rarer crafting components more distinguishable from their common counterparts.
Controller Support
Notice the little frame around the orange crafting journal. What does that mean? Does that mean it is currently being selected by a controller? Why yes it does! I know many of you won’t get too excited about this as you prefer to use the great old keyboard/mouse. However, this will be a great change for many who have been wanting controller support. The inventory as you see so far is fully navigable and usable by a controller. I personally used to be a keyboard/mouse exclusive kind of fellow. Since then, I have come to appreciate how much freedom a controller gives me in terms of finding a relaxing gaming position that doesn’t require me to keep both arms outstretched like a zombie for long gaming sessions.
Character Window
Currently, all equipped items appear in one of the inventory tabs just like everything else. It will be nice to have it more separated and organized. The window on the left side of the screenshot is the character window. It is visible at all times while the inventory is open and it shows what is currently equipped as well as some stats. Equipped head, chest, legs, feet, and handheld items are displayed in the upper section, and all other equipped items are displayed in the lower grid.
Crafting Tab
The crafting tab will be a tab attached to the inventory window. In the image, the tab with the picture of the potion bottle is the crafting tab for temporary functionality purposes. We will change the icon later.
If you select the crafting tab, the inventory grid will be filtered to display only crafting components, and an additional interface will pop up from behind the inventory to display your selected components and what you can make with them.
As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions. A UI overhaul has been needed for a while now, and I’m excited to finally get to do it.
- John Gamble (Lead Developer)
I'm not fanboying here, but I love everything so far. The larger icons are a lot better for those of us with aging eyes. The character screen is perfect, it really helps fix things in my mind as to what I'm wearing. And I really love the idea of being able to see the rarity of items at a glance. I know I have a lot of items that I can't quite figure out which is of higher rarity. I'd also like to be able to compare what I'm wearing and have equipped with what I've just found.
ReplyDeleteHello
ReplyDeleteSo now i can write to you
ReplyDeletei have the Game for a few Weeks and i love it
BUT
I Need
a
MAP
i hope you will be Implement a usefull Map
THX for your Great Work
No complaints here you guys are doing an awesome job. Thanks
ReplyDeletewill there be a maximum amount of stuff you can carry? because right now containers have no use.
ReplyDeleteWe have a Compass a Sextant the Sun & Moon and pen and paper are easily available .
ReplyDeleteWhy do we need a map ?
All these updates look like they'll be awesome. Very excited for the character screen. Can't wait for the update! Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteFanboy here: I wanna help out! I absolutely love this game and see the amazing potentials it holds (which you guys are actually talking about doing in the future: https://saltthegame.com/pages/roadmap/)
ReplyDeleteRight now, I'm using alot of my sparetime to edit the projectsalt.wiki.com. I just want to say thank you!
I just got the game and am enjoying it so much that I stopped playing to come read your webpage to see what I've been missing. (sorry I'm late) - Updates look great. As a user of a larger monitor I would like to suggest a scaling UI. Allowing the player to craft a crude map would be cool.
ReplyDeleteI just got the game and am enjoying it so much that I stopped playing to come read your webpage to see what I've been missing. (sorry I'm late) - Updates look great. As a user of a larger monitor I would like to suggest a scaling UI. Allowing the player to craft a crude map would be cool.
ReplyDeleteJust would like to first say that this game is awesome!! You guys are doing an awesome job. The second thing is that for crafting, I think it would be nice to see our crafting recipes saved, after we discover them. So when we start out we have nothing but as we learn from books and just by luck, in our crafting tab it has a list of discovered recipes that we can click on, and if we have the required materials it automatically starts to craft it. Just a suggestion. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteJust would like to first say that this game is awesome!! You guys are doing an awesome job. The second thing is that for crafting, I think it would be nice to see our crafting recipes saved, after we discover them. So when we start out we have nothing but as we learn from books and just by luck, in our crafting tab it has a list of discovered recipes that we can click on, and if we have the required materials it automatically starts to craft it. Just a suggestion. Thanks again.
ReplyDelete