Fallout 4 UI immersion-breaking for me...

[Hoamaii]

Greetings, Fallout survivers :)

I just want to share some of my feelings about my first 15 or 20 hours of playing Fallout 4. I'm not gonna go over the story or whether it is truly a Fallout game or an RPG or the countless bugs either because other posts have addressed that already and ultimately, I believe that it takes more than 20 hours to get the full scope of a Fallout or TES game (as well as the full extent of their bugs).

BUT I have to say that the messy UI and obtuse key mapping have somewhat ruined the magic of these first gaming hours when you're expecting to immerse yourself in a challenging new world.

 

Is it just me or are some of you struggling too?

For the moment, I'm playing it on console (PS4) before I switch to PC. I am a PC gamer but I always test Bethesda games on console first because of their 'unavoidable' release bugs. That way, if I encounter a bug, I spare myself endless hours of trying to determine whether my rig or install are to blame or the game itself.

And, so far... well, I'd find it hard to have a clear opinion about the game itself because fighting with the interface and the commands has diverted most of my attention from actually fighting foes and creatures or even exploring.

The worst one being the Workshop interface which I find completely illogical and stubbornly irritating. I'm not a great fan of playing Sims in Fallout but okay, I'll give it a try, see if it leads anywhere. But whenever I use it, I can't help thinking 'oh heck, modders have done it SO much better in Skyrim'. Why the hell use the same key for Workshop and FOV? I try to switch to 1st person to fight and I find myself carrying a red chair around or worse, moving an entire house or recycling my settlers?! Why lock that damn interface? Is there no way to just exit the fraking workshop and resume normal playing? Remap the key? Nope, can't do that either because it is bugged! And the workshop UI itself makes me feel like I'm in an obtuse dev's mind instead of being in a game: the first time I saw those thick green borders around Sanctuary, I thought "Uh oh, graphic bug!" but no it was just the dev telling me 'ha ha, you're trapped!'. No exit - arggh!.. Now I find myself running away from settlements not for the exhilaration of exploring but just to evade the crazy workshops. Can modders remedy that? Maybe. Hopefully.

The recycling system? Okay, I can store junk into workstations to recycle them. But what about armors? Or miscellaneous items? Nope (unless it is specific to console but I can't see why it would be), these I have to drop first. And of course, if I drop a pair of glasses or a ring, they'll disappear under the collision plane. I can no longer select nor grab these items but of course the damn green borders will remain when I move around them. Alright, another job for modders.

Okay, I'm now stuck in the workshop interface again, I'll reload a previous save, and... Oh interesting, ALL my saves display the same thumbnail of my character stuck at the workbench - I can't tell which is which. Quit game and rummage through my data files... A PS4 bug maybe? Nope, thumbnails in my data files do display the correct image, it's the game's interface again which does not import them properly and leaves me with that mind-puzzling list of unidentifiable saves.

Then there's the dialogue interface. You mean I have to click THREE times to get there? Now let's see: what was it? Cross, cross again and now triangle? Oops no, square! Triangle was in the other menu window that I struggled through. And that's IF it does not bug or gets locked. My dog won't display its lines? The stupid dialog-crossair is stuck on my screen? Okay, cancel. Oops, no, I just opened my Pip-boy interface!.. And when I finally get these dialog lines displayed, I always have 4 choices, no more, no less. It may be a translation bug (I'm French so I'm doomed with a French install with no option at all to switch to English) but I found myself yesterday facing 3 dialog options saying "no" and not one saying "yes" - not that it would matter much anyway because I have no idea whatsoever what my character's going to say (and by the time I managed to get there, I couldn't care less what the 'conversation' was about!). Oh well, modders will (and already do) fix that... Bless them!

Pip-Boy interface? Ooh, I can see my fingers pressing the buttons, cool. Oh but wait, that means that my pip-boy screen only uses 1/6th of my window now, I can't see a damn thing on the map. Roads and waters are barely distinguishable from land, no buildings, no terrain relief, not useful whatsoever. I can zoom in? Oh wow! But wait, nope, zooming does not enhance details at all, it just makes the initial soup bigger. Yep, modders already addressed that.

The looting UI? Any piece of furniture that my crossair encounters will trigger a lovely green box detailing its content way much bigger than my inventory display. Okay. But see, I'm trying to target thugs here, these green boxes keep blocking my line of sight and I'm not using VATS because for some reason VATS does not enhance my shooting skills, it actually minimize them. What the hell do I care what's in that drawer when I'm in a fight?!.. Not yet modded to my knowledge but probably will be.

Orientation bar? Isn't it supposed to help me rather than confuse me? Settlements icons are so small that they all look the same and cardinal directions keep hiding them from view - what was wrong with N, S, E and W instead of North, South, East and West in full letters? When I figured out how perception works (pretty much like the Witcher), I expected thugs and creatures to show on my orientation bar after I spotted them, especially when I have a perception level of 9 - but no, they will only show when they're after me and when they're after me, I do not need the orientation bar to tell me where they are, I know! Will that be modded too? I suppose so...

I could go on and on, but alright, I'll stop 'bitching' here, and in truth, I was (am?) more than ready and willing to love and enjoy the game as much as I did other TES or Fallout games. Unfortunately, the stupid UI keeps breaking my immersion all the time and actually prevents me from truly enjoying the game. Why Bethesda decided that important infos should be small (or completely skipped) and secondary ones, huge and unskippable, makes absolutely no sense to me. And the total inconsistency of key-mapping from one menu to another (or worse: keys randomly triggering one of the 4 or 5 different actions they're mapped for) makes me feel that no decent UX designer ever worked on this game.

In any other game, after one hour playing, commands have become a reflex and UI is part of the scenery. And there I am, 20 hours in game, still struggling because it's not commands I have to remember, it's inconsistencies, contradictions and incompatibilities. And whenever one of these green boxes pops-up, I feel like 'oh, come on, let me play the game, please!..' I find it all counter-intuitive, immersion-breaking, and at times, just as game-breaking as bugs can be.

So yeah, I'm having mixed feelings, and I guess I'm a little bit irritated too because, obviously, some great modders could have done a much better job than this. It's one thing (and an admirable one) to invite gamers to mod their games, it's an entirely different one (and far less admirable) to force them to rely on mods to make a game enjoyable or simply playable.

Sure I was expecting bugs, they're somewhat a Bethesda landmark, but never before (not even with TESO) have I had so much trouble to just enter one of their storyworlds. And I'm not even talking about the story or the gameplay here, these I still have to discover.

I guess I'm gonna switch to PC a lot sooner than I intended, because well, yes, I still want to play that game and apparently I won't be able to unless I mod it...

[Vulon]

I'm playing on PC with a controller and have clocked a little over 100 hours of gameplay so far. I can't say the UI has given me any grief, personally. In fact, in general, I love it. It's not the most attractive UI out there, but it doesn't need to be. It seemed kind of weird to me for the first few hours of gameplay but I got used to it. The looting system is (imo) a massive improvement over the ol' loot every corpse/search every drawer/open every chest system from previous Bethesda releases.

 

I like the workshop. I've only been attacked while actively building stuff once, and while I did screw up by forgetting to hold down the FOV button (mapped to the select button on my Logitech F710 wireless controller) long enough to exit out of workshop mode, the other settlers, along with a healthy array of missile turrets, brought the attacking Deathclaw down to its last bits of health by the time it was close enough to be any sort of threat. By that point I'd successfully opted out of the workshop UI and blew the beast into chunks with an explosive shotgun.

 

The other stuff you mentioned regarding the workshop isn't anything I myself have had any issues with, so...different strokes for different folks, I guess? Keep in mind that you don't have to mess around with any of that stuff if you don't want to.

 

I'll admit I've had some similar frustrations with the dialogue system, but nothing quite to the extent of what you're describing, and nothing that frustrated me nearly as much. My biggest gripe would have to be the lack of variety when it comes to dialogue options when speaking with companions.

 

I can see everything in the pip-boy interface perfectly fine, so I can't relate to your issues there, either. And unless the console's default FOV is for some reason a lot higher than the PC's, it definitely takes up more than 1/6th of the screen. Keep in mind that you also have the option to adjust the color scheme and opacity for the pip-boy interface and world UI from the settings menu. Not once has the UI ever impeded me in a fight.

 

I find the orientation bar highly intuitive, as well. The icons are all quite clear and I've never had any particular issue with it.

 

I don't know. My friend recently purchased the ps4 version, so I'll have to give it a try next time I hang out with him to see how it stacks up. Other than that, I'm not sure what to tell you. The only mods I have installed are texture/LOD optimizations, so my game is pretty close to vanilla and I love it.

Edited November 29, 2015 by Vulon

[Warmaker01]

Never played Bethesda RPGs anywhere else but on PC, so I cannot give you a POV from the Console UI perspective. FO4's UI is instantly familiar from my time playing FO3, FONV. For most parts I like the UI on PC version because of the familiar feel. However, there's 2 things UI related that I wish were better:

 

1. Dialogue Wheel needs to die a fiery death. If you look at Nexusmods' FO4 page, do note what the #1 mod is, far exceeding even bewbs. That says a lot :laugh:

 

2. Settlement Management needs a much better UI. To be able to manage every settler, their roles, supply routes, equipment, where they sleep, etc., better.

 

Other than these, I have no issues. I like how the UI changes when you're using Power Armor, something I remember a few modders tried to do back in the FO3/FONV days.

[Boombro]

 

The recycling system? Okay, I can store junk into workstations to recycle them. But what about armors? Or miscellaneous items? Nope (unless it is specific to console but I can't see why it would be)

Because it doesn't make sense to store all gear.

Junk is junk, you don't mod, wear use other than crafting.

 

Everyone is hating the UI, not only you. A UI overhaul is the next big thing and the nexus will break as soon as it out because of mass download. You can zoom in the pip boy for now, but I don't how to do it in the PS4.

 

And what wrong with the green borders? They tell where not to build and they disappear as soon as you exit the the workshop mode.

 

Try to get used it to and adopt. It not hard. I did and the only fault I find is that loot, trade window is so short, like what the f*#@, use at least half the screen. But yeah. And just move the cam away from the chest, locker for a tiny bit for a loot window to go away.

 

It important it note that you can change the hud colors, and the pip boy's will also change the light. So at least it your favorite color.

[Boombro]

 

1. Dialogue Wheel needs to die a fiery death. If you look at Nexusmods' FO4 page, do note what the #1 mod is, far exceeding even bewbs. That says a lot

There is no bewbs mod yet.

Just wait.

Edited November 29, 2015 by Boombro

[Warmaker01]

 

 

1. Dialogue Wheel needs to die a fiery death. If you look at Nexusmods' FO4 page, do note what the #1 mod is, far exceeding even bewbs. That says a lot

There is not bewbs mod yet.

Just wait.

 

Glorious Female Nude Mod is sitting #4 though. But yes, I expect things like that to... rise, eventually.

[Boombro]

 

Glorious Female Nude Mod is sitting #4 though.

That because there is not slutty mods or bouncing breasts and butts mods.

[thomriis]

Damn How long would i have to wait???

 

I think the ui is ok,Text is a bit small but lucky for me my father is an optician, So free glasses for me :thumbsup:

 

My biggest problem is the settlement building.

 

1.Man this is time consuming (Have only killed the bloatflys and radroaches at the beginning,Rest of my xp is from building. Im now at lv 8.

 

2.The fov is horrible at times when building, very often i can't see where im placing things at all.

 

3.Trying to get that chair to fit the corner in my room :wallbash: :wallbash: :wallbash:.

 

Better get back to the actual gameplay soon, Or i'll go mad.

[KimberJ]

Yeah I had problems with the PC version. Vogue ENB fixed the visuals. Config .ini on controls fixed that, a few. UI was fixed by lowering transparency way down. Then settlements was fixed by playing on survivor, to make it so dangerous that I have to use settlements building, from there I leveled from 1 to 12 just building stuff in sanctuary an tearing it down. Then sneaking out to the other settlements by using a map on the internet of their location. I'm not sure why they don't put more customization an options into games. Maybe it's for testing/cheating purposes. They do deal with issues with patches, so if you got one go tell Bethesda, else they won't fix it, an only 20% of us actually do that. I don't, just cause I don't care what it is, I'll play it anyway.

[Boombro]

 

They do deal with issues with patches, so if you got one go tell Bethesda, else they won't fix it, an only 20% of us actually do that. I don't, just cause I don't care what it is, I'll play it anyway.

The patch is not even out yet.