HUD IS TOO BIG

[Neraz]

+1, like in TF2, make an option to enable minimal HUD

[Anchev]

This is basically it. Right now the camera is so zoomed in and the hud is so big because apparently it's balanced around the game being awkward to control? Shouldn't you be balancing the game around strategy, movement and what to do with the information given to you? Right now more often than not I'm just fighting the HUD. In a vertical fight I can't even see myself and the enemy at the same time. It makes no sense to have an elaborate fog of war system and still need to make players view the game through a tiny peephole. For people saying it makes mirana's arrow easier to dodge... good? If a mirana player is throwing an arrow that's revealed by the enemy's sight but blocked by the HUD, that's not a strategy that's an exploit. A strategy would be to have it travel through fog-of-war and come out too close to dodge.

Thumbs up for this... In a competitive game the challenge should come from your opponents, not from awkward controls and fighting to get the information that acording to the rules of the game should be available for you. Information should be completely hidden or easily accessed. Not available but bothersome to get hold of. There is a reason why UIs and Controls (the players input/output to the game) have evolved over the years... How many would want to go back to the controls of Warcraft1 for example where you couldnt right click to move but had to press the move key first? Though maybe a far fetched example but the principle stays the same. The challenge should come from beating your opponents, not from the game itself.

Also, a generally accepted principle for designing good games is that games should be easy to play but hard to master. Things like UI and controls only affect "easy to play".. "hard to master" comes from tactics and teamwork. Please focus on making Dota2 the best game it can possible be. Dota1 was a great game but far from perfect.. Dota2 has the potential of becoming even much better. And don't get me started on the people who believe there is nothing to be learned from LoL and HoN just because they don't belong to their target audience...

[Rekuja]

Needs to be scaled down, we don't need to stick to the warcraft 3 layout :\ wasn't that one of the "limitations" anyway?

scale it down, make it look more sleek... feels like I'm playing a game from the 80s. The game looks stupid even on an HD monitor...

[Baconsmyweakness]

Agreed that the UI should be customizable.

BUT!!! I think that the default UI should be better designed so that it's optimal for as many people as possible. The game shouldn't have to be adjusted so that people can be comfortable with the game within 4-5 test-games. The game should be comfortable as soon as possible for as many people as possible.

Priority should not be customization, it should be optimizing the default UI.

[Zacharybinx34]

It's too big. Let us at least make it smaller!

[Desthro]

I signed up for the forums just to support this. The UI is freaking huge. It's so unwieldy that I actually don't like playing the game! I have /never/ been a fan of huge interfaces, they are frequently inefficient and make the games less playable. To the people talking about game balance, really? You think the select few heroes with capable spells are really going to suddenly become overpowered because of condensing the UI screen real-estate? Be real with yourselves. Hardcore, backwards-thinking people the lot of you. It's not unbalancing, not any more unbalancing than putting more junk on the UI to begin with. Yes the UI in DotA was huge... obnoxiously so, but almost every last bit, save for the pretty border and cute portrait, was utilized for /something/ in the game of WC3. There is so much waste in this UI... and what IS good about it is muted greatly by the poor color choices in the Mini-Map, the wasted space between skill buttons, the name above the portrait, haha.... DotA 2 should be a /vast/ improvement of the game, not just a pretty remake. Which it is as far as I can tell so far. There are so many things that could be done to make this a much better game... and instead people are insisting on making it the same as DotA-Original. How pathetic. DotA 2 should be making huge sweeping enhancements, not just merely making a pretty clone of the original. I was disappointed to see the same heroes, the same map, the same gameplay, the same everything with prettier graphics. Nothing different. If you want the same go play DotA-Original. I want enhanced gameplay, and if my HUD is too rotten big to give me that, then forget it.

DotA 2 isn't going to be the rage that it /SHOULD/ be with this stick-in-the-mud development that is essentially making a DotA clone with prettier graphics. Pathetic.

[vladhood]

I signed up for the forums just to support this. The UI is freaking huge. It's so unwieldy that I actually don't like playing the game! I have /never/ been a fan of huge interfaces, they are frequently inefficient and make the games less playable. To the people talking about game balance, really? You think the select few heroes with capable spells are really going to suddenly become overpowered because of condensing the UI screen real-estate? Be real with yourselves. Hardcore, backwards-thinking people the lot of you. It's not unbalancing, not any more unbalancing than putting more junk on the UI to begin with. Yes the UI in DotA was huge... obnoxiously so, but almost every last bit, save for the pretty border and cute portrait, was utilized for /something/ in the game of WC3. There is so much waste in this UI... and what IS good about it is muted greatly by the poor color choices in the Mini-Map, the wasted space between skill buttons, the name above the portrait, haha.... DotA 2 should be a /vast/ improvement of the game, not just a pretty remake. Which it is as far as I can tell so far. There are so many things that could be done to make this a much better game... and instead people are insisting on making it the same as DotA-Original. How pathetic. DotA 2 should be making huge sweeping enhancements, not just merely making a pretty clone of the original. I was disappointed to see the same heroes, the same map, the same gameplay, the same everything with prettier graphics. Nothing different. If you want the same go play DotA-Original. I want enhanced gameplay, and if my HUD is too rotten big to give me that, then forget it.

DotA 2 isn't going to be the rage that it /SHOULD/ be with this stick-in-the-mud development that is essentially making a DotA clone with prettier graphics. Pathetic.

do you come from league of legends

[myssy]

dont feed :/

[Bashtime]

it s way too small

[Desthro]

do you come from league of legends

Does it matter? If you must know I have played quite a few games DotA, back in the day when it was kind of funny to stack Demon Edge cause it was the best... all the way through Allstars, LoL, and HoN. Just because it's different doesn't mean it's bad. Change is good, and DotA 2 should embrace those changes for the sake of the genre. Stagnating it by keeping everything virtually the same inhibits innovation and prevents the growth of the game. Can't make money if you don't embrace the future. (And that's what video game developing is all about. Don't kid yourself.)