Massive User Interface Overhaul Incoming
- XOOM
- 5 hours ago
- 4 min read
This update is profoundly important, as it directly targets one of the worst parts of WWII Online's new user retention: The user interface (UI).
For the better part of 20 years, our UI has been pretty much the same and lost in time... that is until now. The updates you'll be reading about today are actually in final testing phases and are nearing deployment.
Our goal was to simply better direct users to the engaging parts of WWII Online by providing better guidance (on-screen helpers and tutorials); by organizing and reducing information where possible, making several things more intuitive to include an all-new mission creation paradigm, making some things like objectives much more obvious, adding in the long sought after Instant Action button and more.
Thank you to our active paid subscribers and 2026 funding donors for making the following possible. Please consider subscribing and/or upgrading at https://account.wwiionline.com/login to help us do more!
VIDEO DEMO IS RECOMMENDED TO WATCH
Due to the amount of changes and gaining maximum awareness of what's coming, we strongly encourage you to watch the video below and share it out to others for greater recognition. Thanks for watching!
PERSONA SCREEN
The new "Persona Screen" eliminates a previously boring experience with limited information on what is actually going on in the campaign. Now users logging in can see the current map state before picking a side with more information.
Persona Screen update includes:
Tutorial helper for new installs / brand new players to guide them.
Strategic overview of map on the screen.
Strategic positions owned by side (town ownership).
Campaign information (campaign number and total days, and server time).
Active Battles will show any objective on a town.
1 Active = Some objective on Grobbendonk.
0 Contested = Not contested, if it was, it'd change to a 1.
Persona screen music returned (old school WWII Onliner's will remember this).
Side specific joining, Allied on the left, Axis on the right.
Instant Action buttons for each side below the primary join button.
This will place users with the first available weapon in the most popular Army mission corresponding to the side clicked.
Static "How to Play" guidance (lower left of map).
Map legend (lower right).
"Fight for Freedom" tagline for Allies, "Join the Blitzkrieg!" tagline for Germans.
Primary characters represented for each side.
Much to my surprise, we did not have a guided tutorial on the first or second screen of WWII Online. This has now been resolved and automatically displays on fresh installs for new or returning users. They can hit the ? button anytime to reactivate.
ACTIVE BATTLES SCREEN
This is a completely overhauled "Active Battles" screen that simplifies objective and mission navigation, and adds an entirely new mission creation paradigm.
Active Battles Screen update includes:
Tutorial helper for new installs / brand new players to guide them.
Current Objectives (Target) which is Town labels (seen on the left bar).
Filters: All Objectives, Attack Objectives or Defense Objectives.
Relevant activity, calculates overall mission participants and prioritizes their ranking.
Missions which correspond with that same Objective (seen on the right bar).
Attack missions are ranked by:
If mobile spawn active, take priority.
Then look at overall population.
Defense missions are ranked by population exclusively.
Selected strategic facility found at the center-top of the map (ex. Turnhout).
Branch selection (lower left). Soldier = Army, Plane = Air Force, Anchor = Navy.
City Search helper found at the upper left of the map.
ORDERS FROM HIGH COMMAND: A new persistent message that can be edited by any HC officer rank Colonel or above. Guide players better!
Instant Action buttons for each branch.
One-click will automatically deploy players to most popular mission.
It selects the mission and the first available weapon.
If Air Force or Navy doesn't have a mission, and they click instant action on those branch pages, it'll redeploy them to the best available Army mission.
The Instant Action button is intelligent enough to bypass a non-spawnable (due to no supply available or mission ended) and try a new mission.
Instant Action button offers feedback of what it is doing when clicked (Deploying, Redeploying, Checking Army Missions, Unavailable, Join Failed, etc).
The new mission creation paradigm coming to WWII Online is significantly important! Check the above demonstration video for better recognition of what this represents.
FEEDBACK IS WELCOME
Let us know what you think by commenting on the article below!
What are your initial impressions?
What is your favorite part of the new UI?
What did we miss?
How do you think new and veteran players will use it?
If you have questions, let us know!
We anticipate an Open Beta test on this before going full live to make sure you all have an opportunity to evaluate and get familiar. Standby for more news on this. Thanks for reading!