New player experience - Lack of in-game information

I and my friends are new to the genre of ARPGs, and PoE2 was our first. I personally noticed how the game either fails to provide key information, or does so in such a poor way typically due to UI.

From my own experience, I have many suggestions, but I'm sure other people have even more. Here are just some of my ideas that I believe would significantly improve the new-player experience of the game. Please keep in mind, just because something seems like "common sense" to you, it doesn't mean the same would hold true for new players.

Necessary changes, info important for gameplay:

Inform player that trade exists - As a new player, I thought this game was largely singleplayer with players meeting in hub towns. The "trade channel" also suggests to the player that this is the place to handle trading items. No reference to the trade website whatsoever. Trade is the primary way of improving gear in-game at the moment, I don't know why this info is withheld.
Solution - When the player pauses the game, have a button "Trade Website" that links to the trade website. A new player will discover and explore the site by themselves this way.

Weapon set passives - Useful for transitioning from a starter player to a more advanced player. No dotted underline further info for the "weapon points" in passive tree, despite "ascendancy points" below having it. This UI inconsistency suggests to the player that there's no info for "weapon points", despite it being hidden away in a circular button to the side.
Solution - Keep UI consistent and intuitive for new players, stick to information via dotted underlines.

Prefixes, suffixes, tiers - UI info on gear for detailed information is extremely faded, washed, blends with background and other UI. Again, inconsistency in UI for no reason. I only noticed this info after 400 hours, despite the fact I always ALT inspect every item, purely because it's so faded.
Solution - Make this info a pure white, to stay consistent with the other info on items.

Omen modifiers - No way for the player to know what "omen will only add suffixes" does, unless they've memorised every single modifier's prefix/suffix tag in the game. Majority of players just use externals programs/sites to check this info, so it's not about "exploring and discovering" on your own.
Solution - When using an omen, holding ALT inspect over an item should display a menu on the side with the possible modifiers to gain/be removed. This wouldn't be overwhelming, because holding ALT would be necessary.

Passive tree UI & functionality - 0.2.1 is going to improve clarity, which I'm glad about. However, current model discourages experimentation, and takes a lot of time, again usually using external programs to help.
Solution - First, a button to remove all skill points instantly. Next, the ability to save presets, in case you need to quickly revert after trying a new build but failing. Lastly, and debatable, but in my opinion re-speccing should be entirely free to encourage players to experiment as much as possible and find what works for them. Especially in the campaign, where players lack gold, it discourages learning and trying new things.

QoL changes:

Inform the player of loot filters - No reference in-game whatsoever.
Solution - On reaching end-game, give a pop-up about checking out loot filters online to reduce visual clutter.

Weapon skill support slots - No info on how to obtain more, it just happens when it happens, and you probably don't even notice immediately, so you don't know exactly what the condition is.
Solution - Display all 5 support gem slots on skills, but have any unavailable ones locked, then when you mouse over them, it displays the criteria to unlock it. In the case of weapons, "reach level 90" etc. In the case of regular skills, "use a _____ jeweller's orb".

Class selection - No reference of ascendancies whatsoever.
Solution - Give a little preview of the art and name of the ascendancies on class select. Don't provide the passive nodes, it would be overwhelming, but let the player know these things exist and are something to look forward to.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, I hope you can respond constructively here, because when I tried suggesting these ideas on other sites (Reddit, YouTube), 40% of the replies were just attacking me/blaming new players, and the another 40% were just arguing about the game's balance, and the last 20% actually noticed my points.

[Repost because I put it in the wrong forum sorry, first time using this]

Alot of reasonable ideas, so I try to tackle them one by one:

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LordBourne#0747 が発言:

Inform that player that trade exists - As a new player, I thought this game was largely singleplayer with players meeting in hub towns. The "trade channel" also suggests to the player that this is the place to handle trading items. No reference to the trade website whatsoever. Trade is the primary way of improving gear in-game at the moment, I don't know why this info is withheld.
Solution - When the player pauses the game, have a button "Trade Website" that links to the trade website. A new player will discover and explore the site by themselves this way.

Good idea, even tho GGG realistically doesn't want u to trade for upgrades, it's just common knowledge at this point that trade is the best tool for upgrades until a certain point. Just a little Hint on a loading screen can go a long way.

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Weapon set passives - Useful for transitioning from a starter player to a more advanced player. No dotted underline further info for the "weapon points" in passive tree, despite "ascendancy points" below having it. This UI inconsistency suggests to the player that there's no info for "weapon points", despite it being hidden away in a circular button to the side.
Solution - Keep UI consistent and intuitive for new players, stick to information via dotted underlines.

I think weapon passives are not finished and just in an early implementation state. Hopefully they will iterate on the implementation and UX. The usage is pretty clunky right now.

"

Prefixes, suffixes, tiers - UI info on gear for detailed information is extremely faded, washed, blends with background and other UI. Again, inconsistency in UI for no reason. I only noticed this info after 400 hours, despite the fact I always ALT inspect every item, purely because it's so faded.
Solution - Make this info a pure white, to stay consistent with the other info on items.

The UI for Pre- and Suffixes isn't good, I agree. It should be more visible. It took me a while to even notice that Pre- and Suffix are shown when pressing Alt. Having all the Affixes shown in game tho I think isn't necessary. Maybe in a sort of glossary, but otherwise PoEdb does a great job at it. I don't have a problem with 3rd party sites and tools.

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Omen modifiers - No way for the player to know what "omen will only add suffixes" does, unless they've memorised every single modifier's prefix/suffix tag in the game. Majority of players just use externals programs/sites to check this info, so it's not about "exploring and discovering" on your own.
Solution - When using an omen, holding ALT inspect over an item should display a menu on the side with the possible modifiers to gain/be removed. This wouldn't be overwhelming, because holding ALT would be necessary.

Ties in to the former topic about Affixes. I'd say it would be good to have the UI show what affixes can be removed by certain currencies, like they do with expedition crafting.

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Passive tree UI & functionality - 0.2.1 is going to improve clarity, which I'm glad about. However, current model discourages experimentation, and takes a lot of time, again usually using external programs to help.
Solution - First, a button to remove all skill points instantly. Next, the ability to save presets, in case you need to quickly revert after trying a new build but failing. Lastly, and debatable, but in my opinion re-speccing should be entirely free to encourage players to experiment as much as possible and find what works for them. Especially in the campaign, where players lack gold, it discourages learning and trying new things.

I don't know if we need a button to remove all passives. It's very rare that I ever wanted to completely respec a character... I think it never was the case. But I don't think it would hurt either, so it's w/e. I like the option to save some presets, but then again it goes against the identity of a character imo. If I can just hotswap a character from being for example a crazy map clear build to a one shot boss build it doesn't feel right imo. Maybe they could add some form of tree overlay that u can save, so u don't have to remember how the tree looked like before u altered it, but u still have to manually redo the tree. Something with "friction" involved :D
I'm also against free respec. Respec should always come with a cost. I think the current system is fine, maybe even a bit too cheap atm, but that's just my opinion. People running a "campaign build" and then completely respeccing their character when entering maps just doesn't sit right with me.

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QoL changes:

Inform the player of loot filters - No reference in-game whatsoever.
Solution - On reaching end-game, give a pop-up about checking out loot filters online to reduce visual clutter.

Fine by me. Best would obviously be an ingame lootfilter system like Last Epoch has.

"

Weapon skill support slots - No info on how to obtain more, it just happens when it happens, and you probably don't even notice immediately, so you don't know exactly what the condition is.
Solution - Display all 5 support gem slots on skills, but have any unavailable ones locked, then when you mouse over them, it displays the criteria to unlock it. In the case of weapons, "reach level 90" etc. In the case of regular skills, "use a _____ jeweller's orb".

Agreed. Took me a while when I played Poison Conc the first time to realize when I get additional slots.

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Class selection - No reference of ascendancies whatsoever.
Solution - Give a little preview of the art and name of the ascendancies on class select. Don't provide the passive nodes, it would be overwhelming, but let the player know these things exist and are something to look forward to.

Should definitely be a thing. I think GGG doesn't want to overload new players with too much information, but ascendancies are an important part of the class fantasy, so they should be shown at character creation somehow.

[just reposting from the other thread, saw ur response]

Very importante feedback, I hope GGG takes this to heart.

Some very good points, GJ writing them down. Things like that always go underappreciated or straight up shitted on T_T.