Illusion Castle: New User interface and Party System

**GoughGhan** · 04-03-2010, 09:52 AM

The new User Interface

The first, and by far the most obvious, part of the new update is the updated User Interface. As I said in the previous blog the new UI comes across as very slick, compared to the one currently in use. For anyone who has not yet seen screenshots of the new UI (and really, I doubt that there are any people left at this point) here you go:

I must admit that I like it, and I welcome the change to something a bit more modern. The character name at the top right was removed, and MP received a numerical counter similar to the HP bar. Premium, Nation Bonus and notification icons were shifted to the bottom left of the screen, fitting in rather unobtrusively, which is another aspect of this new UI that I like. On a side note I wonder how long it will be before we see the first new skin...? I would put money on it not taking too long. I would also recommend that you restore the default UI before the update. We will make the files for the default UI available closer to the launch day, for those who somehow managed to lose or corrupt theirs.

Back to the new Interface. The new 'C' button on the right of the skillbar opens up a menu for everything you could possibly need ingame: Crafting, Inventory, Buddylist, Help, etc. The menu also lists the keyboard shortcuts for the various items on it, which is a decent touch.

New Cabal Menu

You will also notice that the EXP and AEXP bars shifted right down to the bottom of the screen. This is not a big change, but it fits in with the overall new look. The little jukebox bar also got an upgrade:

New Jukebox UI

The extra quickslots on the skillbar are very useful, and I have gotten used to having them there in a remarkably short time. You can access the skills either by mouseclick or by using Alt+number of whichever slot you want to use. Especially on a Force Blader the expanded UI is fantastic, and I am sure most FB will agree with me.

**GoughGhan** · 04-03-2010, 09:52 AM

A Force Blader skillbar with the new system

I saw a question somewhere on the forum about how auto-attack will handle the expanded bar, and it is pretty simple. Your main skillbar is still the start for the auto-attack feature. It will run through all the skills on the main bar, and if it reaches the end and there are no skills cooled down yet it will simply shift up to the first skill in the new expanded skillbar, and start to cast it. As soon as a skill on the main bar has cooled down again auto-attack will try to use it. I hope people do not try to overcomplicate the explanation again... It really is very simple.

You have to enable the expanded skillbar in the Options / Game menu. Once activated it will stay activated, like any other game option. You can also choose to lock/unlock the expanded bar, either by clicking directly on the UI (you will see where if you move your mouse over the correct area) or simply enable lock/unlock through the Options / Game menu. Having it locked simply means you cannot remove skills from the bar by accidentally clicking on them.

The new Party System

Let's move on the new Party System. This is going to be really big news, I think. The single most important part is that you can now rejoin a dungeon if you got disconnected and you have a party member still inside the dungeon. And to make this even better you do not need a new entry item either. If you have entered it once, and your party member is still inside, you can re-enter again without an entry. This is a long overdue update, in my opinion.

The more minor parts of this is that you can now party anyone with the /party command. They do not have to be close to you, and they do not even have to be on the same map. There are some limitations, of course, such as the fact that you cannot join a party that is already inside a dungeon, and you cannot party members of the opposite nation in TG. If you relog to another channel you will automatically rejoin the party as well, and you will be able to see the other people in the party listed like this if they are on another channel:

Party-members on a different channel

The last part that I will discuss today is not really a discussion. I will simply leave you with this screenshot: