Thoughts on the bottom userbar

[Kase]

As we're redesigning most features of Las Venturas Playground, we're thinking about improving the bottom userbar, which is a very important part of the user interface.

Right now, the bar looks like this:



As you can see, the current userbar is composed by several parts:

• Session-based kill/death ratio
  
• Session lenght
  
• Clock (real-time, bound to the /clock command)
  
• A selection of commands
  

While some of them may be useful (for example, the session-based kill/death ratio and the lenght of the current session), they're hardly understandable- in a nutshell, the userbar is too complicated for new players. For the most part, the bar shows a bunch of information which isn't useful at all for regular and experienced players, and only takes up space on the player's screen: a list of common commands.

My idea would be to reorganize the left part of the userbar (kill/death ratio, session lenght and clock) because it shows useful information, although this time making sure the information is understandable for new players and displayed in a properly organized way. The main problem relies on the command list, which is often not useful and takes up space. I would rather get rid of it, and move this list to a discoverable command like /commands (or /cmds, as an alias)- which also needs a rehaul.

Getting rid of the command list clears up a lot of space in the userbar, so here come the questions: what information do you want to be displayed on your screen at all times? What are your opinions on the current userbar?

[ELABD]

well no need for those cmds i think the most important is k/d ratio and time
naybe the minigmed that are signed up

[Beaner]

The current user bar annoys me, to be honest. I think it'd be better if the bar was only displayed to unregistered players or registered players with less than 50 hours (i.e. till they achieve the 'regular' status) by default. But these players should also be able to disable it using a command.

Since the user bar is mainly for new players, the only commands that need to be displayed for now are /rules, /help, /minigames and /jump. For the rest, I suggest we introduce some new commands which can guide players. Amongst many features in LVP, players don't understand our banking system completely. If we can have some commands like /banking, /exporting, /irc (similar to /rules), which provide brief explanations on how things work; they'd be useful for the user bar.

The user bar is already dynamic, with two or three sets of commands being shuffled every few seconds. If we get rid of individual minigame commands like /ww, /rocket, /sniper, etc., we can easily have about two sets of 3 to 4 commands each, so that there's more space to display the kills, deaths, ratio, session and clock in an organized manner on the left side.


This is unrelated to the subject, but since it's a part of the user interface, I'd like to suggest a change in the "Las Venturas Playground" text on the top right side. We used to have this before and it is way more useful than what we currently have.

[Fuse]

Remove a few elements and lower the opacity to 90 or so on the black bar, that would make it less annoying  imo

[!TargetPractice!]

I agree about /commands it only lists like 20% of all the commands. Needs an overhaul.

[striker]

I would like for that bar not to be visible on my screen, know all those damn commands already. But if it could be visible for the unregistered players, that's a good idea.

[ELABD]

make a cmd to hide it

[Richard]

make a cmd to hide it

Indeed, make it a toggle for regulars.

[Kase]

I see, that might be an option. Regardless of the userbar, what information do you want displayed on your screen?

[Richard]

For regulars I'd say as close to none as possible. They know the commands and so and probably would like their screen to be as clean as possible (correct me if I'm wrong, but that's what I prefer).
I do think the session based k/d and ingame time is a nice addition. But that's a very small part of the bar.
Also, now that I think of it, the bar was the problem with LVP Radio showing the songs, wasn't it? It was on the same spot, with the k/d and ingame time. If the k/d etc could be moved, then that could come back maybe.

As for non-regulars, I think the main commands (/commands /rules /help /minigames, maybe something else that doesn't come to mind right now) should be sufficient.

Edit: The idea of adding minigame signups might be a bit too much. That'd spam if it's a little busier in the server. And if 5 people sign up, you wouldn't be able to read it anyway.