With the gameplay reveal, the user interface for the game has also been shown for the first time (at least the more up to date version). So let’s take a look.
The first thing we notice is that the UI console is anchored to the center of the screen. Traditional Blizzard RTS UI was designed for 4:3 screens and after many players switched to 16:9 monitors, it meant that there was a lot of dead space in the UI. Stormgate opts to shrink the UI instead of having dead space on the console. This means that crucial information like the minimap and resource numbers will be easier to track as there will be less eye movement needed to check the corners of the console. It also means players using ultra widescreen monitors should have an easier time seeing and clicking on the minimap if the game supports ultrawide resolutions.
Simplified Macro
Up next is the famous “Quick Macro Panel”. This was mentioned by Frost Giant developers in multiple interviews. These tabs on top of the command card will be used to give construction/production orders without the need to select individual workers and buildings. If I had to guess I think the tabs are as follows:
Q: Building Construction
W: Basic Unit Production
E: Advanced Unit Production
R: Basic Upgrades
T: Advanced Upgrades
As expected, the command card UI changes when a unit is selected and unit commands are displayed. I think the icons correspond to following commands:
A: Attack/Attack-move
S: Stop
D: Hold Position
F: Move
G: Patrol
The grid layout is in full display here, which I think is a great choice. Unit abilities are listed at the bottom row, starting with Z.
At the start of the video, we also get a quick glimpse at the building command card for the Command Post (HQ of the human faction). It appears that the A key allows the player to build workers, D to upgrade to a higher tech tier, and the Z key appears to charge up workers (similar to Human militia in Warcraft 3) as mentioned in the Stormgate info pack. F is obviously set rally point and G looks like the button to cancel production.
Graphics Insights
When we look at the unit information panel, we see a very familiar sight, except with 2D portraits replacing the 3D portraits of Blizzard RTS's. Frost Giant mentioned before that adding 3D portraits was a time consuming, expensive process and that they were leaning into using 2D portraits and it looks like that is still the plan. I personally think they look stylish and I don’t think I will miss 3D portraits all that much but your mileage may vary.
Other than that, everything seems to be the same as previous Blizzard RTS's. One thing I noticed is that the weapon icon remains consistent for S.C.O.U.T., Lancer, and Vulcan but Vulcan has a different armor icon compared to the other two (structures also have their own armor icon). That makes me think they may be using a SC2-style armor/weapon type system whereas there are different armor types but not different attack types and attack bonuses for each unit is individual. Or they could have not gotten to making a different icon for different attack types yet - the pitfalls of analyzing pre-alpha footage!
Minimap is again as expected. It is a decent size, so seeing things shouldn’t be hard. The icons on the minimap also seem to be clear and communicate different points of interest well. If I had to nitpick, I would say the boundary between the playable area and the out of bounds dead space isn’t clear but that is not something I would be concerned about at this stage. Ryan Schutter, lead UX designer for Frost Giant, commented on reddit that constricting the minimap to playable area is a planned upgrade for a future build
Overall, I think the user interface is looking great. I am sure the art is not final and it will look much more pretty when the game is released but in terms of functionality, it already looks to be a big improvement on previous RTS games.
Getting Involved
If you want to engage with the Frost Giant developers and get information from them as they post it, you should sign up for their newsletter, head on over to /r/Stormgate on reddit, and sign up for the beta and wishlist the game on steam!