Starting a new RPG can be daunting sometimes. You have a lot of new things to learn, new mechanics, new menus etc... and these things take time. A lot of time.
Making the game and UI easier to understand and to use helps facilitate the first time user experience as well as the retention. If players find the game ease to learn at first they are most likely gonna stuck with it longer and understand it better.
Here is a compilations of points in no particular order (good and bad) that I noted while playing PoE II.
Note: this is the first PoE game I played and I might not have a lotfamiliarity with party-based RPG's even though I have played others before.
Players can read past dialogues and even change the size of the text box in the lower right corner:
This is very nice as sometimes you just miss something or you might have clicked "continue" by accident. It allows you to re-read the dialogues. It is very useful as well for players with a cognitive disability who might need more time to process the information.
You cannot click on the slider directly to change the amount you want:
You can only write in the box or move the cursor but you cannot click anywhere you want on the bar. It is never bad to add extra ways to navigate or do things.
Some clickable zones are very small:
The actual clickable zones are the red circles (the small icon). The whole text (red rectangle) doesn't react to clicks even though it is directly connected to the icon it goes with. Allowing players to click on the icon and/or the text makes it less difficult to click on the target (which might be extra hard for people with motor disability or essential tremor)
You cannot zoom on the ship navigation map:
The icons on the map are very small and hard to distinguish and players can't zoom on it to reach more easily the icons. Also the "ships" icons are all the same shape just with different colors which makes it hard to recognize.
Can't navigate between the opened "spell-tabs":
You can have 3 "tabs" open at the same time but you can't switch between them. If you want to see the one behind you have to close the one the most in front first which makes it tedious when you try to compare different spells. Also since it is limited to 3 at a time if you try to open another one it doesn't work and you don't get any info to let you know about it (it could tell you it is limited to 3 at a time or it could close one and replace it)
Another issue with these tabs is when you for instance right click on it more than once the it would then open up to 3 pop-up for the same spell. The game should not allow you to open it more than once per spell as it doesn't make sense to have it opened more than once. It doesn't prevent this error and the "recovery' from it is also slow since you need to close the three tabs individually by clicking on the small arrow.
Shows completed quests by default:
Completed quests stay in your log which adds extra informations to process. Instead you have to deselect the "show completed" option.
In fights, your selected character is not highlighted:
On the image I'm currently selecting the quick circled in red (same guy on the lower left corner where the arrow is). The green circle underneath each of my friendly characters are the same even for the character I'm currently selecting. Using a bolder color or different color might help players differentiate between selected and unselected characters and also recognize where the character is currently.
You can read more information about names/places that are mentioned in dialogues:
This is good! it actually helps players understand better what is going on and it is always present if you need a reminder later on. The issue is that it is the same text just with a different color. Bold or underlying it could accentuate the differentiationand make players realize they can hover over words.
But the highlight is not consistent in the answer options and can be harder to notice:
When you hover over an answer the text turns red and the highlighted names turn dark red/brown which makes it very hard to distinguish. In the example, "Ondra" is actually highlighted but you can barely see it. Also unselected answers (like number 4) don't have any highlight.
Skill level information during dialogues:
Different skills can be useful in dialogues. Sometimes the icon for the relevant skill would be displayed with the level next to it. You can click on it to read more about the skill but it actually also picks the associated answer which is an issue if you didn't plan on picking this one. In the example, clicking on "alchemy" shouldn't pick the answer next to it but only open the pop-up window.
Some icons are hard to understand
In the red rectangle i highlighted symbols. On their own they kind of look like a "up" "upgrade" or "increase" to me but it actually refers to the level in these job traits. It is confusing because all the job traits are displayed the same way for all characters and the symbols are there to show the efficiency in these traits. Maybe reducing brightness for the traits the character doesn't master could help understand the traits levels more easily.
Good error prevention when you get a new companion:
When you get a new companion you are able to select the class you want to assign it. The game lets you know that multiclass is not recommended for new players. You are also able to preview the ability tree so you can see what spells the character would have and you can make a better decision. It is never pleasant to select a character or a skill tree and only discover later on that you don't like it.
Ability tree relationship and highlight:
The relationships between the different branches and spells is hard to see because all the spells are equally separated from each other in this tree. On top of that, when you want to upgrade/unlock spells. On the image the arrow on the left shows a spell i haven't learned and haven't selected. The one in the middle is the one i selected to upgrade (light blue square around it) and the one on the right is a spell i already know (dark blue square around it). The differences between the 3 different states are very subtle.
Hard to see symbols:
The arrows are hard to see because of a low color contrast.
Bellow is another example of low contrast for the name of the NPC you are interacting with. Her name is in dark blue over black background which makes it very hard to read.
Underneath here, the red on black contrast is very hard to read as well, especially, for an important matter.
Experience bar and experience points:
The experience shows 19.215/21.000 which equals more than 90%. The XP bar underneath doesn't correspond to these 90%. This is because (I'm not 100% sure but i think so) the experience bar actually represents the whole experience you earned throughout the game from level to now. It can be confusing if you just glance at the XP bar and you want to know how close/far you are from the next level. In case the same XP bar is to be kept as it is, maybe adding a start and end point (0XP - 21.000 XP) at each end could help better visualize it.
Spell summary doesn't show the cast time:
Cast time is an important variable in the game. You can see it when you right click on a spell to see more details but it doesn't appear in the quick overview. It would be nice to have it always visible so you don't have to remember it and you always know how long it takes.
Zoom is limited and some items are hard to reach:
This is as much as you can zoom on the image. you can see on the right next to my character there is a grey rectangle and a smaller grey box. Even when I zoom in the box remains very small and hard to reach.
UI location:
The part of the UI circle on the top left allows you to pause the game or to speed the game. When at see it is located in the left upper corner which is kind of hard to notice especially because when on foot it is located in the middle of the screen (where the other red circle is roughly)
Small clickable zone:
The clickable zone for switching the characters on top is fairly small and limited to the round frame even though when you hover over the image a bigger shape appears around it but you cannot click it. Extra space to click something just makes it more comfortable for everyone as long as it doesn't hinder the experience.
The video bellows shows another example of very small zone of interaction. You have to click on the small diamond to read the previous dialogues.
Switching between trading and menus:
If you are trading and for example want to check your ship crew to compare the recruits then, the trading tab would actually close and you have to talk again to the NPC to restart the trade. Allowing you to open the menu without disturbing the current action might facilitate the task.
Character clickable zone:
The character clickable zone (where you have to click to start interaction with a character) is strangely only located at its feet. If you hover over the NPC body you cannot start a conversation. In this example I almost started to think I couldn't interact with this NPC since her feet were hidden behind the counter.
Can't quick swap between your characters skill trees:
First it is a bit hard to find the skill tree at first: in the inventory then underneath the profile picture the purple button with the 3 rectangles (maybe because I didn't perceive it as a skill tree representation at first also). The other issue is that you can't switch quickly between skill trees. Many games would show your characters at the top and allow you to switch between their skill trees just by clicking on them. Here you have to go back to inventory and then reopen it which adds extra work for the players.
Replacing equipped items:
Whenever you want to replace your gear you have to equip it and then put the gear you just removed in your inventory because it doesn't automatically goes back there.
Can't search items using keywords:
You have access to a search bar in your inventory but you cannot use keywords to find specific items. For instance, in the image above I don't get any results for searching the word burn even though I know I have fire traps and burn bombs in my stash. Allowing the players to search for keywords that are present in the description (such as poison, burn, stun etc...) can be a good way of saving them some time searching items.
Talking about search bar, you don't have one in the shop:
It is rare that merchants have a lot to sell so it is not really a big issue but sometimes their list of items can be longer and a search option could be useful instead of scrolling everything or checking a specific type of items (armor, weapons etc...)
Equip double handed weapon:
When you character has two single-handed weapons and you want to equip a two-handed weapon it would tell you that you can't do it (because when you change gear the equipment you unequip has to be put back in your stash but obviously you can't have the two weapons selected at the same time).
Therefore, you have to remove your two weapons and then equip the new two-handed weapon.
Crafting items:
While crafting items, sometimes it creates more than one item at a time. Here crafting once the sparkcracker actually gives you 3 of them. The issue is that it shows 3 in the amount you want the craft at the bottom even though it is actually just one craft that yields 3 fireworks. You don't craft it 3 times. It might be confusing because it looks like you are trying to craft it 3 times then. Maybe it should just display 1 at the bottom since it is mentioned at the top that it is for 3 sparkcrackers.
These are all personal opinions and by no means I'm trying to say how things should or should not be in the game. I surely don't have all the information that the people who worked on the game have.