What's the point of the info panel?

[BansheeXYZ]

I really like the tooltip windows for items, it's basically what every modern game does. Much better than clicking the "info" button all the time. As the number of options pile up in the launch window, I'm wondering if we can't just get rid of the info panel. Is this not better? Why split the info between the tooltip and the panel? Furthermore, isn't the info panel too small to display magical properties?

tooltips.png (106.14 KiB) Viewed 2067 times

[Hazelnut]

Thanks for proposing we dump the enhancement I spent many hours working on. Lovely suggestion.

Tooltips obscure the images enough that even a single line tooltip can be annoying for some players - this is why there's an option to switch them off. I certainly would not want even larger tips appearing and disappearing as I move the mouse, but that's just me. Anyway, the info panel was a community suggestion made to avoid info clicks for the most common info. You still need to use info mode if you want to see more detailed info like magic properties or potion recipe etc. You have a different view and that's fine, but that's why we didn't choose to go that route.

[BansheeXYZ]

I wasn't active here when this stuff got made, so I don't know whether tooltips or the panel came first. They are both trying to do the same thing, it just seems that the info panel has limitations that tooltips don't.

Let's think about this logically for a moment. You've got a high level character with magically enchanted everything. The info panel can't display any of it. Tooltips can. Lots of modern RPG interfaces used by millions of people use transparent tooltips to display full item attributes. Morrowind, Ultima Online, Diablo, Divinity, etc. It's a common method.

When you say that tooltips have the disadvantage of partially obscuring things, that's kinda true of any text window. You can't simultaneously read and look at imagery, so it's not really a problem. The window is transparent and there can be options to reduce the text size.

I mean, I'm sorry you spent time on something, but others have stated that the launch window is becoming kind of crowded. It's going to be harder for new ideas to make it in there when dubiously useful stuff like the info panel and tooltip colors are taking up lines.

[Nystul]

I am a fan of the info panel

[mikeprichard]

First, I also really appreciate the info panel. But it would be even nicer if it added the additional info the OP mentioned. Would it be possible to remove the "Info" icon to enable the info panel to be expanded vertically in order to capture all of this additional info? However, I understand the full info might still be difficult to display for heavily enchanted items, and making the info panel text microscopically small isn't a viable solution. In that case, I would agree with the OP's suggestion to go with the modern approach of the info being included in mouse-over tooltips (i.e. tooltips that don't require a click on the item to display).

[BansheeXYZ]

The info panel could also be repurposed to show Gold amount and weight. Classic requires clicks to view gold amount in that window, and even then it doesn't show weight.

Also remember that you guys are sorely lacking scaling options for UI stuff. Tooltip text size should be configurable, it doesn't have to autoscale to 4x at 800p. It could be 2x or 3x. I realize this isn't priority #1, but at the same time, don't be like "aww banshee, I hate tooltips they're so big." It's not the tooltip's fault

[Interkarma]

The Info panel is an optional UI change requested by other community members that Hazelnut kindly implemented. It can be toggled independently of tooltips - so you can can use both, neither, or one or the other. If you don't want to see the Info panel, then simply disable it in settings at startup.

[BansheeXYZ]

The Info panel is an optional UI change requested by other community members that Hazelnut kindly implemented. It can be toggled independently of tooltips - so you can can use both, neither, or one or the other. If you don't want to see the Info panel, then simply disable it in settings at startup.

If I turn the info panel off, tooltips don't gain the information from the info panel. They just show the item's name.

[mikeprichard]

The info panel is of course appreciated! But tooltips are a nice alternative. Would it be possible to include all item info in the mouse-over tooltips at some point? Currently (unless I'm missing something in DFU settings), the mouse-over tooltip appears to only display the item name, rather than the item name and full stats.

[Hazelnut]

@BansheeXYZ: We are recreating the original Daggerfall UI with some QoL improvements where they seamlessly fit in. A full modern GUI is mod territory, you're welcome to do what you want there. The info panel does show gold and weight, when classic does for the item type. It's literally the info popup but without having to click each item and then dismiss the popup. Please just turn it off if you don't like it.

@Mike: The tooltips just have the short item name so that if an icon isn't immediately obvious then the tooltip tells you what it is.