Hi there, I learned not long ago of Karawasa looking form someone to review the current UI of the map. I decided to fill in, and here are some of the considerations I have coming as a newbie to the map: Accesible Unit Icons In the same vein that it has been set for the Hero, I believe both the Worker and the Elemental Summoning Center should have its own Hero-like icons as well. This grants the benefits the curent pre assmebled unit groups provide (a clickable element that selects the corresponding unit, in addition to a hotkey), without having to sacrifice three unit groups that the player should be entitled to use as he wishes. For the worker itself, simply flagging it as a hero should do the trick. By creating him first, he would be assigned to F2, with the hero follwing with F3. For the Summoning Center I would specifically recommend giving it a dummy WarpGate ability that grants a unique icon with a uniquely defined hotkey (by default W, but I believe it can be changed). The unique icon placement makes it standout to a newcomer, which is crucial in understanding the game. Example: Further Explanation of the Element Mechanics During my first match, it took me up until the 8th wave or so how to unlock my elemental towers. I am of the opinion that when the player earns his first Vespene Income, a decently sized tip shows up that informs that you can now summon an elemental baddie to unlock an element tier by going to the Summoning Center pressing the Warp Gate button/hotkey. Perhaps even flashing the command buttons for summoning those guys. Queries should be placed on a static table in a dialog that could be collapsible/hidden. Further on the whole mechanic, I found a good idea placing icons for current and next wave, however, the icon is small enough to not be qite readable, and the fact that unless you already are familiar with the map, you wouldnt know what they represent. I would suggest replacing the elemental icons with more symbolic ones (a red flame, a brown rock, green grass, blue waves, etc) that would inform right away, and/or large icon size and tooltips for them. For the creeps, I believe a glossary (using the same for the melee units) that displays them with their elemental strenght and weaknesses, along with some sort of categorization, would help as a reference for the player to anticipate their tower setup. Leaderboard and global information I believe leaderboard should only show non shared info, that is, ony player data, not map data like current wave nor the interest rate. I feel that curent columns for player data work as intended, so no suggestions there. Wave data (current wave level, netx wave, their creep info, etc) would be better placed at the top center of the screen in a slightly bigger font. Example: Player information Current player life, experience, resources and such I beliee should be placed at the bottom left, with both life and xp rendered as bars, and the interest payback countdown there too right below minerals possibly. Also, terrazine should ave a tooltip describing whats it for. Example: Standard console Standard SC2 console hud doesnt really fit with the map and consumes a lot of in game scree state for the map needs. I suggest removing it, and placing all selected unit info and command buttons to the right side, with command buttons having different sizes for specific commands (primary unit commands should be much larger that upgrade options and such). An example (needs reotuches on certain elements and weights, but gets the idea): That's pretty much what floats in my head at the moment. All hero related stuff is curretly an inconsistent mess that I will eventually address. Any comments and arguments are welcome.
