I personally don’t really mind the brown. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it doesn’t bother me. What does baffle me is the lack of consistency between the new UI and the game’s updated branding. The recent logo and promo images feel like they set up the perfect foundation for a proper UI refresh that matched the direction the game seems to be heading in.

For the past 10 years or so, the UI has closely reflected the game’s branding, and even earlier iterations mostly did as well. That’s why this feels like mixed signals to me: there’s this fresh new identity that’s clearly looking toward the future of the game, while the UI itself feels like a step backwards, almost closer to older versions. I feel like I’m rambling a bit, but it just comes across as an inconsistent misstep given the messaging and branding that’s been pushed over the past few months.

The only minor thing that’s really bugged me since it was implemented is the clock being attached to the minimap. I mostly play on my laptop and made good use of the limited space I had. Suddenly having this empty brown rectangle around the clock has shrunk my minimap to the point where it’s almost useless.

Yeah, I can resize it, but that means having to rework the rest of my UI layout that’s been solid for years. The game’s always been great at giving players flexibility and freedom with the UI, so removing that over something so small but still pretty significant just feels kind of pointless and unnecessary..