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### Topic

#### A plea for improvement to the main UI: mood monitoring

I have a long-term frustration with the new(ish) player UI that I am hoping I can convince you (TS) to fix.
I know people -- me included! -- have a tendency to disproportionally dislike change right out of the gate. So I’ve played for two months with this interface to see if I would eventually adapt. Or if maybe other changes would come along that would alleviate the problem.
No such luck. It’s still not any good for me.
Here’s the situation:
Energy is represented by two UI pieces, both always visible:
general: the color-coded arc
precise: the translucent number
Mood is represented by two UI pieces, only one of which is visible:
general: character facial expression & background color
precise: percentage & number (only available on mouseover)
Energy:
Mostly, I use at the color arc to get a sense of my energy. I just want to make certain I’m not close to dying, a condition for which the color arc provides PLENTY of warning. The color arc is such a good UI feature for this purpose that I rarely even look at the exact number.
Mood:
With the conversion of game mechanics from XP to iMG, I now find myself caring a LOT what my mood is. Furthermore, I care specifically about a range that is less than one-tenth of my total mood (or energy). I am constantly striving to keep myself above 90% and below 100% for maximum iMG generation. This requires much more micromanagement.
... Which means I spend a stupid amount of time moving my cursor up to the top left of my screen, and then back down to where I need it. The general information provided by the facial expression is only useful after it’s too late and I’m out of the mood zone I want to be in.
This means that the interface is exactly backwards for me. The energy number, which I rarely care about at all, is visible always; the mood number, which I care about always, is visible only with extra work.
It looks like y’all tried to address that very problem shortly after the new UI was released by making the circle flash briefly over to ‘numbers’ mode each time you gain or lose mood. That hasn’t helped. It’s forcing information at me when I don’t want it, and not making it readily available when I do. After the initial adjustment period, I find that I ignore the flashes more than half the time -- not on purpose, just because they’re irrelevant more often than not. But sometimes my eye is drawn to the movement anyway, even when the change is not a critical one, and that just makes me more annoyed. It doesn’t cut down appreciably on the number of times I am required to mouseover.
Now, maybe there are other playstyles which cause someone to care more about energy, or less about mood, or both. I don’t have data on how common that is. But even so, there should be a way to make this less annoying for those of us who micromanage our mood.
Here are some ideas. Any of these would be an improvement for me; surely one of them would work across the board ... or maybe someone else has a better suggestion.
1. Change the current translucent energy number to mood instead.
2. Make the translucent number toggle-able, so that the user can set whether they’d prefer to see energy or mood at any given point.
3. Leave the energy number alone and add an always-visible mood number somewhere else.
4. Allow the user to set an alert (something front-and-center and requiring user confirmation) upon reaching a user-specified mood level. (Me, I’d set it for 91%, so I could stop worrying about it all the time.) Then stop with the circle-flashing.
5. Create a whole new UI piece that allows fine-grained at-a-glance mood assessment. With the energy color arc, I know right away what various shades of yellow, orange, or red mean, without having to do any mental math. Give us something that serves the same purpose for the 90%-100% mood range. This could replace the current headshot circle.
Thanks for reading.

Posted 6 months ago by Lorikeet | Permalink

### Replies

- ... Which means I spend a stupid amount of time moving my cursor up to the top left of my screen, and then back down to where I need it.
  This is exactly my problem as well.
  Posted 6 months ago by Eye Wonder | Permalink
- Agreed, the mood percentage should always be visible, and it seems easy enough to implement.
  Posted 6 months ago by Grupletruge | Permalink
- Yes to this! I care way more about my mood number than I do about my energy number.
  I, too, wanted to give myself time to adjust to the new interface and I still haven't found the mood-displaying mechanic to be as simple and intuitive as it used to be. Even though the background color changes with mood loss, it doesn't seem to be enough to register in a sort of natural way. I've grudgingly come to terms with the energy indicator, but the mood thing is still a bit of an annoyance.
  Also, I'm not a fan of the head-shot circle. I always keep my mood up, but I really don't enjoy looking at my own doofus smiling face all the time. I actually changed my facial features for the first time since I joined because I didn't like how I looked at full mood, and there was no way to escape staring at my own dumb-looking face that flashed to get my attention every few seconds, ha. Why didn't anyone tell me I looked like such an idiot when I laughed? My friends obviously suck. I bet I these pants make my stomach look fat, too, and no one has said a word.
  Hm. Maybe I over-identify with my Glitch? Having that head-shot circle up all the time does help with that, then, as it's a constant reminder that I'm on the outside of the game looking in.
  Okay I have to go change my pants now.
  Posted 6 months ago by Sirentist | Permalink
- Sirentist, you're hilarious.
  /more begging for mood UI improvements
  Posted 5 months ago by Kinkajou | Permalink
- And this is where I chime in with my usual two points:
  1) Mood: why?
  and
  2) Could we please have something more legible than the tiny, transparent buff circles of invisibility?
  Posted 5 months ago by Pascale | Permalink
- I completely agree about the head-shot picture - I've only just emerged from hiding behind my mask when the vanity was updated, because I couldn't stand the creepy mirror image effect, especially when standing on a platform at the left side of the screen. I would love the ability to select my own 'spirit animal', as it were, with maybe happy/angry crab and rube as options for example.
  Posted 5 months ago by katlazam | Permalink
- For me, I don't move the mouse looking at the numbers because when it changes color to the second-highest range, that's when I do something to increase mood. Perhaps some kind of transition or count-down color blend change could happen when about to drop to the next level, as a warning for those who like to increase mood in advance?
  Posted 5 months ago by diaveborn ♥ | Permalink
- This is now one of my biggest un-fun areas of the game. Not noticing I've fallen below the crucial 90% cutoff until after a big batch / quion run just sucks.
  Posted 5 months ago by Sturminator i` | Permalink
- I wasn't aware staying under 100% was beneficial. How does that affect iMG gain? I'm curious. :3
  I find the flashing very distracting, as well as agreeing that I hate my new face when in full smile mode. I preferred the generic happy face.
  May as well put both sets of number back into 'plain' view (as plain as highly transparent, but better than nothing) as well as have the visual feed back. I think the Glitch face is cute, but it's not very useful for all styles of game play.
  Posted 5 months ago by a lifted pixel | Permalink
- pixel: 100% gives full iMG bonus. But when you're gaining mood -- whether it's through emblems, icons, drinks, quoins, meditation, or whatever -- you're rarely going to be at exactly 100% unless you've gone over and wasted the excess.
  Since 100% is the same as 91-99% for iMG, I just prefer to stop my mood-gaining activities at around 99.x% instead of risking wastage trying to hit 100%.
  Posted 5 months ago by Kinkajou | Permalink
- I would love the ability to select my own 'spirit animal', as it were, with maybe happy/angry crab and rube as options for example.
  Love katalzam's idea! A selection of the animals in the game to show mood would be fun. I do get a little tired of my own face up there (who wants to look in the mirror all day long?!) and changing out various cute things would make me happy.
  Posted 5 months ago by duien | Permalink
- I am forced to keep my mood above 90%, because when it gets lower than that, the picture of my face has eyes that are PINK! They never look that way in the vanity or my profile, or anywhere else in the game. What's up with the bad graphics in the mood indicator? I HATE PINK. I do like the laughing face because I have FANGS! When I picked these features, I didn't even realize I had those at first. I don't mind the mood flashing so much because it's useful, but I would like a numeric value visible (not on top of the face) at all times. And yes, the buff indicators are still invisible.
  Posted 5 months ago by KhaKhonsu | Permalink
- +1 Although I don't think I keep track of my mood as precisely as most people in this thread, I none-the-less totally agree and support this idea. I would personally like both the mood and energy numbers to be displayed at all times (more precisely: the mood percentage). The face has never bothered me, but when I tried out a new mouth I had to change again because like Sirentist, I really didn't like the look at full smile and it annoyed me.
  I think the best option would be to put the percentage of mood directly beside the translucent energy number.
  Posted 5 months ago by Coconut | Permalink
- The UI will continue to evolve and improve over time. But, in the meantime, if you are actually moving your mouse up to the corner to see your mood, consider just pressing the "z" key instead — the opens your player menu, but it also brightens the energy display and switches to the percentage for mood.
  Posted 5 months ago by stoot barfield | Permalink