Game text font

Discussion in 'Era Discussion' started by Zagyg, Feb 17, 2013.

  1. Zagyg

    Zagyg Active Member
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    I don't know if it's accurate to the era or not but I sure like the stylish font of the T2A period (it's in the skill list/system messages here) better than the ugly block letters you get for things like item names and other messages (*looks furious*). Just wondering if people generally agree or disagree with me, and if it could be considered for a future change.
  2. Deacon

    Deacon Well-Known Member

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    I like the old-style font, it looks much more suited to the age of UO. The courier-type font seems well out of place imho.
  3. Blaise

    Blaise Well-Known Member
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    The journal is effectively useless with the current font. It has been brought up several times and I believe it is on the fix list, but of low priority.
    Same goes for Rune Book text, etc etc. Also, the formatting of magic weapon information. That whole [Surpassingly/Power/blahblah] bracket mess needs to go.

    a supremely accurate pitchfork of vanquishing, is proper. ;)

    There's gotta be a toggle on RunUO for that somewhere.
  4. Zagyg

    Zagyg Active Member
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    This x 1000. I hate the current format and can't imagine how anyone ever thought it was an improvement.
  5. Godric Greycliff

    Godric Greycliff Well-Known Member
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    I wholeheartedly agree. I'd like to see the old font even on the ctrl-shift item titles.

    I also wish you'd all speak to me in Elizabethan English like the NPCs.
  6. Upgrayedd

    Upgrayedd Renaissance Volunteers
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    I'm just thankful that item IDs are permanent and public so I doin't have to ID the same item multiple times.
  7. Blaise

    Blaise Well-Known Member
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    Are you ready to be shocked?
    I disagree. I think the ability for any Tom, Dick or Harry to see what I'm packing, at a glance, is bad. It's basically advertising all your shit when you're in town (thieves suck, even though I know you are one) and being a victim because you OBVIOUSLY have sick gear on, sucks. You wanna know what I'm wearing? Get Item Identification skill or use your wand, and be in range. None of this hiding on the screen somewhere and browsing my paperdoll like a shopping list because I personally identified something.

    I think it was fine for the sake of function in Beta but at this point, seeing who's got a vanq kryss and how many poison charges are on it, with no skill use involved, is Trammel, to put it bluntly.
  8. Zagyg

    Zagyg Active Member
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    Not what this thread is about, but I agree Blaise. I GMed Item ID so that everyone else gets free ID on my items? The only way to keep the world from seeing what you have is to not know yourself. Ridiculous. Not just annoying, but nonsensical.

    I would agree with Upgrayyed that it was extremely annoying when you IDed an item with one character and even the other characters on the same account didn't get the benefit of it. But IMHO, the prpoer fix would have been making an Item ID cross all characters on an account, not all characters on the server.
  9. Godric Greycliff

    Godric Greycliff Well-Known Member
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    I hate to continue the hijacking but we should just disable the item ID in the paperdoll. I don't know if that's a simple change or not but I think it would be a pretty good fix. Keeps things ID'd for the merchants but makes it harder to size up your opponent and, as far as thieves go, if they've snooped you pack to see what you've got they're gonna steal your magical item whether they know what it is or not.
  10. Aegis

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    +1, make ID items IDed only for the IDentifier if that makes sense :)
  11. HateCrime

    HateCrime Well-Known Member
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    I really enjoy how item ID currently works. Nothing sucks more than having to re-ID everything on every account. If somebody is worried about losing a weapon, then take precautions against that happening. Set a disarm hotbag on your weapon, put your items in lockable containers etc. Forcing everyone to constantly re-ID everything so that people can have more protection against thieves with no effort is trammel IMHO. A thief is going to steal your weapon regardless in hopes that you might have something decent.
  12. Upgrayedd

    Upgrayedd Renaissance Volunteers
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    People seem to forget the tedious process of IDing each item not just for every account but for every character. Also, I see the Item ID as be analogous to the identifying an item in the real world: once that sword has been dug up and cleaned off, it's clear that it's a rusty junker or a museum-worthy piece. Personally I wouldn't have a problem if Item ID was eliminated entirely and items simply displayed their attributes from the start. But, if you're going to argue for getting rid of universal ID, then how about going back to cutting up your bandages one at a time too? It seems there are too many Luddites in this thread.

    Back to the topic: The font used by the game is a relatively trivial. The specific wording of IDed items is OK now and rewording it would be a slight improvement. I have no trouble reading journals (care to elaborate on this?) Like so many of these low-priority items, it's like comparing C cups to D cups: sure one is marginally better, but they're all good. The only reason I brought up Item ID is to put things in perspective and to give thanks to the staff by citing a useful upgrade.
  13. Blaise

    Blaise Well-Known Member
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    When I get home I'll take a screenshot of the journal here and the journal on another shard, as a clear example of how terrible the font is in our default journals.
    The only way to make the journal even useable here was with a journal .mul mod that Tater made up for me. (thanks Tater)

    I will address the other points in another thread, regarding Item Identification specifically.

    Thanks for the feedback on both topics, despite calling people Luddites. Please save the insults and trash talking for the appropriate forums.
  14. Blaise

    Blaise Well-Known Member
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    Please take note of my subjective statement that the Journal Font/Hues suck really bad here. I have been through every possible Client-Side option to modify and this does not change.
    The same font is applicable to Rune Books as well, wherein, I prefer the nice stylized font shown in the client options, that does not work here.
    [​IMG]
  15. Zagyg

    Zagyg Active Member
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    I think your real-world Item ID analogy isn't a good one. If a jeweler inspects a diamond and finds it to be of superlative quality, does that mean everyone else who looks at it has suddenly become a master gemologist? No. Can the average person tell a real painting or diamond from a fake/forgery/replica? No. Whether an expert appraises something privately or right in front of an observer, no one else gains their expertise through osmosis. If they put it up for sale at a high price, buyers simply take it on faith that the item is worth what it's being sold for.

    I'd rather have an IDed item visible to everyone on the server than have to ID separately for each and every character. I'd take the lousy logic and aforementioned drawbacks over the extreme annoyance. But I'd much rather (if it were possible) have IDed items remain IDed to all characters on an account and NOT everyone in the world.

    I played a thief for more than half my time on OSI. It's not a popular class with a lot of people but I feel that, played right, it can be artistic. Item ID was important to me, and I feel the class is diminished by getting free Item ID on virtually everything in everyone's backpacks and homes.

    Regarding the font in the game: of course it's a trivial matter. No one said or hinted otherwise. I just wanted to find out how people felt about this in the open forum, so that there was a possibility of it being changed somewhere down the road.
  16. Blaise

    Blaise Well-Known Member
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    More on topic:
    [​IMG]
  17. Upgrayedd

    Upgrayedd Renaissance Volunteers
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    Fixed that for ya...
    [​IMG]
  18. Blaise

    Blaise Well-Known Member
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    The sans serif, as you put it, font, is boring and plain. This is not a machine instruction manual, it's a Rune Book in the fantasy lands of Britannia!
    Perhaps there's a client side mod that can just make everything you see, standard ASCII, to avoid all that style and graphical representation. It takes way too much effort to see things with character and style.

    In fact, can you just send me a binary representation of my purple bear mask and rune book please?
  19. Upgrayedd

    Upgrayedd Renaissance Volunteers
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    But seriously, while I can see some value of a decorative font for player names, converting all text to the decorative font sacrifices readablity and legibility. From a design standpoint, serif fonts (like the decorative one) are best suited to high-quality printed output while sans serif fonts are best suited to screen output. As you can see in the pic below, serif fonts have many details that aren't reproduced well on a monitor, especially in smaller sizes. Also, all of our speech text actually has a small stroke of black around it which amplifies the the serif problems. To make matter worse, all of our speech text is superimposed on busy backgrounds with varying colors and textures--the exact wrong place to use a serif font.


    [​IMG]
  20. Blaise

    Blaise Well-Known Member
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    Yes, century old, as in, fitting to the era of the game. Not in my entire life of playing any Ultima have I ever had a problem reading what was in the game, outside of players choosing radical hues for their text.
    The journal here is borderline useless without modifying .mul files, something I will revert if/when this is corrected
    I'm also unsure what 14" display you're playing on now, but even in era, when I was ACTUALLY on a 14" display, I never had a problem reading the fonts. I don't know where you're losing readability and legibility. It is the English language, plain and clear as day, serif included. These things are perfectly clear in every way I've seen them, in books, journal, etc, on every shard I've played....except this one. (however limited a selection that may be)

    Why?

    Rather than give me a lesson on fonts and their history, could you please provide some examples of where sans serif is actually beneficial, in game, with screenshots as evidence.
    I have yet to see sans serif font be anything but an abrasive aesthetic here.

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