POE needs a status icon overhaul

In the midst of combat it is very hard to tell what statuses are effecting me. I also can't tell when my potions are about to run out. There are a number of ways I can think of for the UI to address these issues. Each status icon looks the same to my peripheral vision because each one is a small box. To make things worse the boxes shift as statuses come and go. Why not have creative, easily identifiable ways of indicating statuses? Peripheral vision is good at detecting motion so status indicators should flash or be animated. Why not have thin bars at the edges of the screen that shrink as your potions run out? Bleeding could be indicated by a flashing drop of blood over the health globe while leech could be indicated by a syringe pulling life out of the health globe. Shock could be indicated by a flashing lightning bolt that always appears on a certain corner of the screen. Chaos DOT could be indicated by a flashing skull that appears over the face of the health globe statue. There are a myriad of ways to go about helping the player more easily recognize what statuses are effecting them. The current system doesn't work well accept with things like fortify and burning which are easy to recognize.

I absolutely support your observations/ideas.

I think the UI is really not well designed (see my life/mana globe scaling posting) and I consider an overhaul of the UI as maybe one of the best (and easiest!) ways to dramatically improve gaming experience:

- Why no (optional!) acoustic warning sounds or visual flashing for bleed/poison/"almost dead"? It would me so great not having to watch your life globe all the time and instead just popping a life flask when you hear a warning/see a flashing.

- Why no colour change to purple/green on life globe when receiving chaos DOT/poison?

- Why no fixed positions for elemental status ailments (chill, freeze, burn, shock?)

- Why only one (#@FDC&%XYA?! line for tabs in stash?

- Why no stash tab for maps with a symbol for each map opening a small extra container with the different kinds of that map you have collected/stashed?

- Why no sorting by name/colour/level for items in stash tabs?


I could come up with so many ideas for UI-improvemnt I'm absolutely sure every PoE-gamer would enjoy - and I'd just love to see some changes to the UI.

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BillyBobBeavis wrote:

The current system doesn't work well

It doesn't work well, but it works. That's always been good enough for GGG.

I agree that current status icons are a bit confusing and difficult to track. But popping up flashes and animations here and there every time a status effect starts or ends will create too much clutter and distraction in my opinion.

Since the game knows which buff/debuff you will possibly use/trigger, how about displaying them all the time on the top in their fixed positions? Grayed-out when inactive, full color and opacity when active, and they will turn grayed-out with a top to bottom draining animation.

I also agree that they need more distinctive icons.

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BurakUeda wrote:

I agree that current status icons are a bit confusing and difficult to track. But popping up flashes and animations here and there every time a status effect starts or ends will create too much clutter and distraction in my opinion.

Since the game knows which buff/debuff you will possibly use/trigger, how about displaying them all the time on the top in their fixed positions? Grayed-out when inactive, full color and opacity when active, and they will turn grayed-out with a top to bottom draining animation.

I also agree that they need more distinctive icons.

A lot of mobs and such have special effects that are nearly identical to other effects, but they have a different icon, if those icons were made more similar, there would be a lot fewer problems with the effect bar.

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SoilnRock wrote:

- Why no colour change to purple/green on life globe when receiving chaos DOT/poison?

Didn't think of that one. Good idea.

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BurakUeda wrote:

But popping up flashes and animations here and there every time a status effect starts or ends will create too much clutter and distraction in my opinion.

It might be a lot of clutter at times but at least you could watch for particular effects more easily, which would help to analyze your build.

+1

Trying to sort through sometimes enormous amounts of buffs & debuffs to figure out if I'm about to get randomly one-shot or if my flasks are about to run out is pretty much impossible. I totally agree a UI rework should be done regarding those things in order for the player to better understand what is going on.

My suggestion would be to have the killy debuffs show near your hp bar, so you can better track your defenses. HP colour turning green during chaos/poison degen would be a very simple yet extremely helpful addition. As for flask duration, don't really have a great suggestion, all I know is that having them on top constantly swapping places every fraction of a second is a horrible way to try and keep track of them.

Hope GGG takes notice of this post, as it really would be a great quality of life improvement to the players.

GGG probably already have a solution for this...



New Microtransaction - Customize Status icons.

Available in blue & purple color. :)

Putting it on globe ball is a good idea.

in diablo 2, if you got poison, your globe turn green.