Originally posted by The n00b A:

Originally posted by Macdallan:

I have no issue with the inventory system as is, but I understand the complaints. Some people want a different system so they can carry more stuff, wear more gear, or just have gear on a paper doll or dedicated slots. I have a feeling they'll tweak this as development continues.

I think the boat interface itself is fine and I'm perfectly happy that you can't see the health bar of the boat. I actually think we should not have health bars for enemies, or anything that isn't you, but that's a personal preference. I'd rather see other visuals, like we have for building pieces that are water damaged or damage to the boat, to show how damaged enemies or other items are. Heck, I don't even like the alert icons over the enemies, I preferred the look of game before they added them. I wish they'd remove the steering wheel icon from the boat, too. Icons and health bars impact the immersion, and they're not really necessary anyway. The boat doesn't need a health bar. You can't do anything about it when you're on the water anyway, and you should be doing repairs on the shore frequently.

Basically you want to play without GUI. Bars and stuff replace visual indicators, so unless we get something to indicate enemy and our own health, that would be a bad change. Also removing the steeding wheel icon would be bad, since even driving you get a feel of how much you have turned the wheel. Without that icon, we would have to stay looking at the boats rear everytime or the minimap in open seas.

So you're suggesting players SHOULD NOT be looking where you're going while at the helm of a boat? Probably not a good plan.

Not without any GUI, but a minimalist GUI, or as unobtrusive as possible. Unfortunately they seem to be going toward more icons and timers on screen, and that's not something I like or want to see in the game. I really hope they give the option to toggle some of these helper icons on and off for those of us who don't need or want them.

Ideally no icons should be needed to show how much you're turning the boat or raft, it would be shown in game with the rudder or some other indicator that isn't a bright icon in the middle of the screen. You should know if you're mostly going straight or not anyway just by the way the boat moves. I'd prefer it if they move the icon away from the boat, at least, since there are too many icons that clutter up the screen already.

I don't mind the personal health bar and food bar, or the icons around the edges of the screen. It's the unaware, alert, boat icons and things like that in the middle of the screen that detract from the overall experience. The game's got a unique visual style that I really like, but when you slap a bright red exclamation point above a health bar of an enemy it completely ruins it. The health bars don't bother me as much as the exclamation point does since it's not necessary. The game already makes it very obvious if a critter is alert or unaware. I vastly preferred it before they added the icons and I hope they make them a feature we can toggle off.