I am unhappy with the UI

[BeerNut]

The lack of options is nothing short of disturbing... It really irritates me that I am going to have to spend ANOTHER couple of hours after buying the game, going through the .ini to make the game playable and fun. Is it that much to ask for a game that you DON'T need to reprogram the start files just to make basic adjustments?

I've never had a problem with the UI in any other game in the UT series up to this point... I don't care about appearance or UWindows, but how does Epic justify reducing full screens of options (2k4) to a couple of assinine slider bars?

I guess my biggest problem is that I've ALWAYS thought of Epic as a pretty customer-friendly developer. In the past, they have been pretty forum-active, and at least willing to address serious concerns one way or the other. After seeing them blantantly ignore UNANIMOUS threads regarding serious oversights, and then release a substandard product kindof sucks...

[UnrealGrrl]

Sorry to say this but UT3 is a major step back for you guys, it's hard for me to believe that this is the same company that made ut99 and ut2004.
How can features that you were smart enough to implement 8 years ago be missing from this title ?

The menu looks like its idiot proof, always asking you for confirmation.
It asks you if you are sure you want to start a new match, but when you change the game resolution no problem, no need for a confirmation dialog for that, as if starting a new match by accident is way more severe then changing the game resolution to something that my monitor cant handle.
Even installing the game takes less clicks then actually getting into a match from the main menu.
Some menu items get bigger at small resolutions, if you play at 640x480 (for example) a drop down menu takes up half of the screen, the server menu fonts get bigger and it shows less servers/page, it looks horrible.
Why can't i copy-paste to the console... You could do this in ut99 and in ut2004, what about ut3 ?


ALOT of features are missing, how the hell is this:
[shot]http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/7554/sorryepictp8.jpg[/shot]

better then this ?
[shot]http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/7606/sorryepic1op8.jpg[/shot]

How am i supposed to tweak the video settings individually ? Because *surprise surprise* turning off bloom or depth of field from the ini turns off all post processing effects, and *surprise surprise* with no post processing the nightshade is completely invisible.
Where are my sliders and check boxes for every single video setting ? I understand that you want it to be easy for the casual gamer to select his settings BUT, the more features the better, why didnt you add another "really advanced" screen with those options ?


How is this:
[shot]http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/1623/sorryepic3xn1.jpg[/shot]

better then this ?
[shot]http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/3465/sorryepic2rl6.jpg[/shot]

Where's my ping ? where's my player list ? where are all the server settings ? They were there in ut2004, is this the next installment or the previous installment in unreal tournament ?


In every interview i've seen you said you were focusing more on offline play. Well let's see in ut2004 you could:
- pick a name
- change your team members
- customize the enemy bots

In ut3:
- you dont have a name, you are "Player", live with it
- customize your team ? forget about it
- choose enemy bots in instant action ? nope
- at least see what enemyes you will face in the next mission ? nope

Not to mention there are significantly less character models in the game when comparing to ut200x, but thats ok because you cant choose how to look anyhow.

After i first installed the game i went in and played the campaign offline for about 10 missions, i was curious about the online features so i logged on but then changed my mind and logged off to continue my campaign and guess what, the game erased all my progress. While i was thinking about throwing my monitor out the window i went into instant action to check out the necris vehicles, first map i tried "serenity_necris" has axon vehicles instead of necris.


The gameplay is fun, the graphics are amazing. But then menus suck, alot of critical features are missing and the game is full of bugs.
Good day.

and THIS is why Epic should have waited "UNTIL ITS DONE" instead of to get it out for Black Friday...

enough reviews and forum posts around the web like this will effectively kill the game no matter how good it looks. and us hard core fans will be left with patches, mods and empty servers faster than ut2004 cleared out...

i keep hoping ill see something that offers hope when new news posts or threads about the game appear, but its always "looks great, plays well, too many bugs and missing features". and the more posts we see on the full release, the more missing features and steps backward become revealed.
Epic & Midway probably figure theyll recover lost pc sales with console sales, but this could have been avoided if it really was "done".

and i hate being depressed and neg about this...

[otsego_amigo]

solution: become an INI master...

As a programmer myself I plan on buidling my own INI GUI
interface.

will you be sharing??? I'm sure you would have tons of fans!

[NakhtiUT3]

Red here its me.

Thanks man ... I am not all that bothered by the UI changes ... it may be because I have a high end rig and everything will be getting maxed anyway but anyway I was really really bothered by the things you have clarified. Now at least for me things are back to being all good with Epic. I still think they should give the user more control but knowing that I can choose my name and character and the bots just like before eases my mind.

[NakhtiUT3]

And the one feature I haven't seen yet is individual Bot customization -- features like Accuracy, Awareness, Strafing, Jumpy Behavior etc. and being able to give them whatever name you wished. Original UT did this best.

Actually I think UT2K3 did the absolute best job of giving you options and letting you configure bots ... I still say that the best UI ever is the one from UT2K3 ... it really felt like a PC UI and had so much functionality. I loved that UI and the game because it introduced the Anubans (and Epic I am still unhappy that you dumped them ... bring back the Anubans please!).

[NakhtiUT3]

A game with a terrible UI is completely worthless. The only reason I continue to come here is that Epic has made such great games and been active on their forums before.

I'm 100% sure that Epic could give a **** about you hitting these boards anymore ... so really there is no reason for you to come around here if you are only going to complain and not buy the game. Just stating the truth so don't get bent out of shape.

[Bloody Roots]

Answer to the OP is simple:

UT3 was conceived FIRST as a console game, whereas UT99 & 2K4 were conceived of first as PC games.

[Balroch]

world hold on......

[Bloody Roots]

I have seen all the complaints on here stemming from the full game release in Germany.

All of these decisions by Epic can be logically understood if one assumes that UT3 is primarily a console game, not a PC game.

[NakhtiUT3]

No matter what anyone says though I already have this game pre-ordered and paid for and tbh I am just as excited to get the game today as I was when it was first announced. The truth of the matter is the game is still going to rock and the modding tools will allow us modders to do so many things it is going to be amazing.

We won't even care about this once we get our hands on that great stuff and get down to the task of making incredible content. Epic is allowed to screw up too you know folks. Are any of you perfect? NO. And so don't be so judgmental. Epic has made great game after great game after great game so if they missed a few things on this release get over it. You have to examine the entire game before you can pass judgement and that is what I am going to do. If no one wants their copy anymore send it to me ... I will gladly take it off your hands. And you know for all this complaining folks are doing (even me on page 2) the vast majority of us are still getting the game and Epic knows this. All this energy going to waste on one issue that is really not a critical issue.

What if the game was severely broken? Weapons didn't work, Vehicles were unusable, characters looked awful and the visuals were trash, game types had bugs, etc. So with all that in mind I am not going to complain about anything anymore ... not until I get my hands on the game, have spent at least 20 hours playing it, and have messed around with the modding tools.

[Sharpfish]

Answer to the OP is simple:

UT3 was conceived FIRST as a console game, whereas UT99 & 2K4 were conceived of first as PC games.

Apparently incorrect according to Jim Brown (epic) who just quoted me saying a similar thing and said I was 100% wrong. YMMV.

[masterp0]

hhhmmmmm i think i see why they made this ut3 instead of ut4. here's the plan. they release a game that everyone complains about (like ut2003) and then maybe next year ut4 will be released and by comparisson, everone will by happy with the changes and will play this new installment and epic will claim that ut3 doesn't count whenever it is brought up in conversation. so.....

ut3 = ut2003
ut4 = ut2004

BAM, history repeats itself!!!!!!!

[NakhtiUT3]

I bought every single UT game since the beginning. Looks like this will be the one to break the trend. Are you listening Epic?

No they aren't ... they are sick of all the complaining and the whining ... and they could care less if you don't buy the game. Many many many others will buy the game and that is what business is about. You all seem so surprised ... are you all that ignorant about what business is for. Businesses are in the business of making money folks and Epic has made a ton of money since UT/UT2K3/UT2K4 ... so they are now a different company.

It happens people ... get over it. They have made so much money from the licensing of their engine alone it is not even funny ... and then throw in Gears of War ... are you kidding me? Their entire business model has changed ... and you honestly think some complaining PC gamers are going to make Epic revert back to their prior models? Man you people just don't get business at all. You are on the other side and all you can see is YOU THE GAMER. Grow up people ... it is not about YOU ... it is about the bottomline. And this game is going to make Epic even more money and nothing any of you say can change that.

So if you want to keep wasting your time complaining and starting this meaningless threads ... and oh yes they are meaningless for all the reasons I stated above. Do you think Epic even reads these types of threads and takes them seriously? The press is going to give this game glowing reviews ... face it ... and it deserves it 100% ... the graphics alone are a marvel and they changed the gameplay to be more like UT ... what most of you were complaining about before but seem to be neglecting to give Epic credit where credit is due. Now I am all about modding so I am going to enjoy this version of UT more than any I have ever before from that perspective. I really can't wait to see the power of kismet in my hands.

So I hope you really take something away from this post. Realize that all your complaining will not change anything. And realize this is not the same Epic of old nor can they afford to be in this current competitive climate. There is too much at stake. And really what other PC game offers as much as UT3 ...even with the faults you people are finding? Answer: NONE. So please stop it with the grumblings and just get ready to frag when this game drops.

(Now of course this post will do little to stop anyone because people just don't get it and don't want to ... that is obvious. People are actually enjoying complaining ... it is really crazy).

[Giblet]

Here here. I still think the German release was a tester, there might even be patches at the other release dates based on feedback. That would be a clever way to do things, no? Even if they do nothing to the UI, it wont be long before user made changes are done, better ones than Epic would've made as standard so it looks like a win-win situation to me. The only drawback really is what UGrrl pointed out about Epic missing the boat with sales and the potetial for bad reviews putting people off. People whining in the forums isn't going to help sales much either.

[Bloody Roots]

Every person posting here needs to memorize the above post by NakhtiUT3...

At one time, Dell Computer operated out of Michael Dell's dorm room in college. He catered to the wants of about 25 people who lived in his building. Now look at Dell.

(Many of the PC gamers posting here can be equated with those original 25 customers of Dell)

As with Dell, so with Epic. It is called "success".