on user interface

so, the main reason that i wasn't satisfied with the old interface was that contained a lot of wasted space and unneeded information.

to begin, my basic thought is that any information presented on a given screen should be actionable; it should in some way inform the decisions that the player is making, or else it serves no purpose.  stats like strength and agility can have an impact, but they're both very much persistent statistics; they don't change enough to really warrant providing constant updates as to their status.  health is relevant; it changes frequently and directly effects whether a player will decide to seek or avoid combat.  name is relevant (in parties) to show who owns what health.  day and time are (or will be) relevant, because time will at some point impact which events occur when exploring.

level doesn't impact decision making.  experience only needs to be listed if there's some sort of system (that the player can impact in a meaningful way) that changes your stats on level up based on some equipped item or such, in which case you're just providing the player with busywork in order to feel like they're getting the most out of the game, which is bad.

secondly, i don't know why there was a second panel for the 10key.  yes, it allows mouse controls rather than keyboard - but it doesn't need to be so large.  there's already a panel for system output, so that can be used to inform the player of their options, and all you need is a small bar beneath or above that for buttons.

the new ui is going to have 4 distinct sections: character display (party status; name/health, name/health), game text ("you are in a place"), system text ("options: 1. explore 2. find 3. move") and the button bar.  no more text input bar; that can be done by popping up a window, since entering your character's name is really the only time it will be used.

i did get a new keyboard last night.  this one has three broken shift keys.