I know the characters so I really don’t mind, but the last weekend I was playing some KI with SF and other games players and they ask me why it was pitch black.
How about them being darker o colorless until getting selected? or even a still image? the idea of not being able to see the character you are hovering unless you press A and then wait for the loading.
I think this is a known glitch. You should be able to see all characters that you own. Sometimes the game blacks out all the characters in the select screen. I’m pretty sure the developers are aware of this are trying to find the issue to fix it, we may just have to deal with it until March when the next patch update comes.
Apart from that, lol.
I’m not talking about the glitch (however I think they are aware of it) but a suggestion abiut the characters being pitch black in the BG when hovering over them and you can’t see them until you select them (loading times take some time so you don’t get to see and have an idea of the character until you select it).
This was brought up and umm “aggressively debated” in this thread
https://forums.ultra-combo.com/t/simple-but-still-major-issues-with-character-select-interface/15955
Honestly, and I’m not saying this would be easy, because I’m positive it wouldn’t be, but I’m kinda hoping that somewhere down the line, either as part of a 4th season or not, that they redo the entire UI and upgrade it significantly.
Now, I totally get that this isn’t something that they can charge for, so the chances of it happening outside of a seasonal structure would seem to be minimal and I respect that. But outside of the KI logo screen, which I love, it seems like virtually every menu and every cursor feels too slow.
The initial loading before the main menu takes a long time (though perhaps not as long as it used to) and all you’re looking at is a green box. Granted, I love that it now says “syncing with Ultratech servers” but still. For as long as you see it, it’s not all that much to look at.
Also, the structure of the menus, where several modes are hidden beneath menus… I mean, I know there’s a lot there, but it still feels like everything is at least one too many button presses away. It’d be nice if they could find a way to streamline everything a bit more, even if the screen becomes a bit crowded.
But yeah, as for the select screen, the use of green smoke, the purple background, the light blue hexagons don’t really do it for me. I’d like to see a sleeker, darker style, if possible.
But along with form, the function also seems to suffer as the black silhouettes seem to be placeholders for letting the cursor move faster (I could be wrong on this). I absolutely love the character walkup animations, especially the more unique ones like Fulgore and Hisako, but getting to that point still feels like it takes too long, especially in local multiplayer.
Also, the loading times tend to make the process of finding the right color or skin or accessory set etc feel a bit cumbersome. Long story short, it’d be nice if this could be redone in a way that speeds everything on the select screen up, but also looks sleek and stylish.
It’d also be great if the pre-match “fight on” screen could be redone to make it less busy and more stylish. Sorry, I know that sounds vague, but stuff like taking the massive, slow to load 3D models out, taking the mismatching logos (the silver spinning one and the huge Vs logo) out, and taking the unnecessary stage scroll out.
This part should have it’s own identity that matches a sleek, dark theme of the rest of the menus and what not. The original KI used a lot of black, accented by neon colors or silver. While this might be a massive stretch, it always gave me a Blade Runner vibe when I was younger; this sort of high tech, dystopian future as seen through an 80’s sensibility.
It’d be great if those sort of themes could be explored again with a more modern dystopian take. I think the Ultratech theme in Season 2 did a good job in this regard, but the hexagons everywhere and the blue all over the place, now purple and green, I dunno… maybe black and a sort of mercury silver and gold? Maybe something involving lightning and rust?
I dunno. It’s hard to verbalize, but I do think that it’d be nice to have an entirely new theme and to leave the Ultratech theme, whether it be blue or purple/green. Maybe they could use this as a chance to upgrade the speed on the menus and the loading times as well.
But as for the “Fight On” screen, I’d love to see the previous screen fade to black and have a video on either side depicting each character looking dark and foreboding or cool or whatever. Just a brief video. Then maybe they turn at the end of the video to face the opponent and everything else from the video disappears and a neon “Vs” logo animates between them. Perhaps a KI logo could be on the bottom of the screen and some sort of design behind them, or not.
Either way, long story (slightly) less long, I hope they make one more push to streamline everything (including all non-command list related writing fonts) in to a cohesive new style that takes it out of the Ultratech motif and in to something newer, sleeker, darker, yet more functional. I love all the work that these amazing people do on this game, and I think that this would add a cool layer of polish to the game that I’d want to see.
I wonder if IG itself worked on the UI aesthetics. While in last GDC One booth (not related to MS) had a X1 with KI. When I asked why they told me something like “our students worked on the UI” (season 2 KI ). So maybe the UI is not being worked at IG’s studio?
Could just replace the silhouettes with Shadow Lords artwork?