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CK2 Dev Diary #86 - Character View Redux

Greetings!

Today I’d like to show off the new Character View, which we affectionately refer to as the ‘Redux’ version. The old Character View, despite having been redone several times already, was still plagued by not having enough space for the various elements (traits, in particular) and having random buttons floating all over the interface (Leading Troops Toggle, Artifacts, Barber Shop, etc). Our primary goal has been to free up space and facilitate the addition of new buttons, and here’s the result:

DDCharView_YourCharacter.png


This is how the Character View for your own character will look. As you can see, a lot of things have been reshuffled to create more space. We’ve kept in mind that certain habits are hard to break, so some of the more commonly used things are still in their original place, e.g. the ‘Arrange Marriage’ button, and the information you need at a glance is in the same general area as it used to be, e.g. the Levy Size number. We’ve replaced the text with icons, and all icons now also have tooltips - this means that, unlike before, we actually explain the concepts of the various lists you see, such as what the difference between a Trait and a Modifier is.

Some elements have been removed, such as the ‘Dynasty Tree’ button, as clicking the Dynasty Shield itself fulfilled the exact same function.

The old ‘Combat modifiers’ icon (the two crossed swords) have been replaced by a new icon (orange with a sword and chess piece) in order to make it more clear that you can hover it to see useful information. We’ve also added a similar button that shows the total effects of any Artifacts a character has (yellow with a goblet and helmet). This icon is also visible in character lists, making it useful for tracking down characters which hold artifacts on their persona.

We’ve also exposed the Personal Combat Skill value of characters in the list of skills. More on this in a future DD, but rest assured that it’ll have an enhanced impact on your gameplay experience!

To preserve some sense of mystery I’ve censored some of the buttons pertaining to expansion features using pictures of confused ducks, I’ll go into more detail on what the buttons entail in later DD’s.

This is how it looks when viewing another character:
DDCharView_OtherChar.png

As you can see, it’s similar to the other view although with more censored buttons. The main difference, which may take some time to adjust to, is the new location of the Plot button - though it is now in a way more convenient location overall.

We’ve tried to shuffle as much information as possible to the right of the view, in order to make it easier to get the information you need at a glance - Active diplomacy (such as wars), levy numbers and stats are all lined up and easy to view.

While we don’t expect everyone to instantly embrace the new layout, we did it out of necessity and managed to use the space we had available in a very effective way - and after having spent months using it internally, I don’t believe there’s a single one of us in the Dev Team that could go back to the old layout. :)
 
Liked the blood drops on the second portrait, are they new? Never noticed them before.
Blood drops mean you are related. Big red ones mean close family, like child, brother, parents, ... Darker red mean related but from further away, like cousin, great-parent, ... Black drop mean bastard
 
Blood drops mean you are related. Big red ones mean close family, like child, brother, parents, ... Darker red mean related but from further away, like cousin, great-parent, ... Black drop mean bastard
No, no. I mean the blood speckles on the character's helm. Like if he just killed someone in battle. I never noticed it before, I don't know if its new
 
No, no. I mean the blood speckles on the character's helm. Like if he just killed someone in battle. I never noticed it before, I don't know if its new
That's a new feature if your character suffers an injury, it's drawn on them now.

I'm not sure what specifically is the cause of that particular one though. Possibly the "beaten up" modifier you get when you encounter a raging carouser?

I think scars are also getting multiple "tiers".
 
No, no. I mean the blood speckles on the character's helm. Like if he just killed someone in battle. I never noticed it before, I don't know if its new
Oh, my bad
 
with the tweaks for duel skill will there be added traits like in some mods so there can be actual duels/fight on the field instead of just randomly dying on the battlefield by someone with hardly any duel skill?
 
Some elements have been removed, such as the ‘Dynasty Tree’ button, as clicking the Dynasty Shield itself fulfilled the exact same function.
I've been playing this game for years and i literally didn't know this until recently. The old button was so clear and obvious. How will new players ever figure this out without just randomly clicking icons.
 
The new layout pluses:
- more room for traits
- nicely grouped buttons
- slightly higher aesthetics of the background and buttons
- tooltips

The new layout's minuses:
- still too little space for titles and claims
- placement of different parts of the window seems almost random*
- still no society mana indicator on the character screen

In the end I think that the new layout is most welcome and needed but personally, given for the time we waited for it, I find it a bit disappointing.

*I wanted to elaborate on this one. For me the character window consists of description, information and function.
To easily relate to the character it is nice if the window has logically placed name, CoA, avatar, stats and traits so each character is easily recognizable by a glance. Those features are not well grouped. There is avatar in the upper left corner, the glorious CoA somewhere neither in the middle nor harmonizing with the avatar, traits correspond nicely with at least avatar but placing of the stats is heretical. Changing their position with the realm info panel would be slightly better but it would still be ugly. Placing like that requires a lot of jumping from one spot to another.
Titles are in the lower left corner, realm info in the upper right? What logic can possibly stand behind this?
The same with buttons. The armory/barbershop is in the middle and the focus/plot panel in the very upper right. It doesnt look optimal at all. Doesnt seem to be user friendly.
 
I've been playing this game for years and i literally didn't know this until recently. The old button was so clear and obvious. How will new players ever figure this out without just randomly clicking icons.
LOL. I was the complete opposite when I read that. I was confused because all this time playing the game I didn't know we had another button to click to get to the tree, other than that of the dynastic shield.
 
Meh, this is indeed an improvement over vanilla, but I'm still going to just mod the UI again. There is clearly not enough room allocated in the Diplomacy section (war, truce, treaty) for conquerors/emperors. Diplomacy, traits, and modifiers need and deserve entire rows all to themselves.
 
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Greetings!

Today I’d like to show off the new Character View, which we affectionately refer to as the ‘Redux’ version. The old Character View, despite having been redone several times already, was still plagued by not having enough space for the various elements (traits, in particular) and having random buttons floating all over the interface (Leading Troops Toggle, Artifacts, Barber Shop, etc). Our primary goal has been to free up space and facilitate the addition of new buttons, and here’s the result:

View attachment 378139

This is how the Character View for your own character will look. As you can see, a lot of things have been reshuffled to create more space. We’ve kept in mind that certain habits are hard to break, so some of the more commonly used things are still in their original place, e.g. the ‘Arrange Marriage’ button, and the information you need at a glance is in the same general area as it used to be, e.g. the Levy Size number. We’ve replaced the text with icons, and all icons now also have tooltips - this means that, unlike before, we actually explain the concepts of the various lists you see, such as what the difference between a Trait and a Modifier is.

Some elements have been removed, such as the ‘Dynasty Tree’ button, as clicking the Dynasty Shield itself fulfilled the exact same function.

The old ‘Combat modifiers’ icon (the two crossed swords) have been replaced by a new icon (orange with a sword and chess piece) in order to make it more clear that you can hover it to see useful information. We’ve also added a similar button that shows the total effects of any Artifacts a character has (yellow with a goblet and helmet). This icon is also visible in character lists, making it useful for tracking down characters which hold artifacts on their persona.

We’ve also exposed the Personal Combat Skill value of characters in the list of skills. More on this in a future DD, but rest assured that it’ll have an enhanced impact on your gameplay experience!

To preserve some sense of mystery I’ve censored some of the buttons pertaining to expansion features using pictures of confused ducks, I’ll go into more detail on what the buttons entail in later DD’s.

This is how it looks when viewing another character:
View attachment 378140
As you can see, it’s similar to the other view although with more censored buttons. The main difference, which may take some time to adjust to, is the new location of the Plot button - though it is now in a way more convenient location overall.

We’ve tried to shuffle as much information as possible to the right of the view, in order to make it easier to get the information you need at a glance - Active diplomacy (such as wars), levy numbers and stats are all lined up and easy to view.

While we don’t expect everyone to instantly embrace the new layout, we did it out of necessity and managed to use the space we had available in a very effective way - and after having spent months using it internally, I don’t believe there’s a single one of us in the Dev Team that could go back to the old layout. :)
I love ducks
 
How will the character creator work? (Character editor, whatever it is called)
Is it getting reworked?
that addon needed a revamp long long long ago. like scrap the entire your traits are tied to your age point system because you are already automatically locked out of achievements when you do a custom character.

Only reason to ever have such a restrictive system is if they had changed it so that custom created characters are eligible for achievement play, which they can't do since it'd change checksum so ditch the lame age/point system already!

Players who paid for that dlc extra should be allowed to create whatever kind of RP dynasty member they want w/o any kind of useless and annoying hindrance.
 
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Im pretty sure I know what the ducks are. You can't quite censor your streams!

I just don't know what they'll do SPECIFICALLY...
 
that addon needed a revamp long long long ago. like scrap the entire your traits are tied to your age point system because you are already automatically locked out of achievements when you do a custom character.

Only reason to ever have such a restrictive system is if they had changed it so that custom created characters are eligible for achievement play, which they can't do since it'd change checksum so ditch the lame age/point system already!

Players who paid for that dlc extra should be allowed to create whatever kind of RP dynasty member they want w/o any kind of useless and annoying hindrance.
I agree
 
Cheers for the DD Rageair :D That character screen definitely looks like a step up, and as it's the heart of CK2's UI, a most welcome improvement :D (not that I didn't enjoy the old one, but new one looks better :)). Love the confused ducks :cool:.
 
I'm liking this redesign. But I definitely second the suggestion to add filters for things like dead relatives or bastards.