Originally Posted by
GoodSyntax
Guys,
Being a software engineer, I can tell you that this update was neither lazy, nor amateurish. There is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes that you will never see, nor really ever appreciate. Simple effects like the water, while cute, surely took weeks to code - something which many posters do not appreciate. There is a lot of work involved in pushing out any kind of update, so give the devs a break and offer CONSTRUCTIVE criticisms. Simply saying this update sucks or goodbye PL doesn't help devs at all. Providing details like other have about which features, specifically, require attention will help the devs address your concerns. Better yet, if you could provide the devs a detailed instruction script to trigger a "bug" then not only can they find the issue, they could probably fix it as well. What so many of you are doing is akin to calling Microsoft and saying "Hey, my computer isn't working." There are so many variables to any software project, that personally, I ignore the incessant bitching-and-whining, and focus on the users who give me concrete examples of bugs, or useful feature requests. Just saying that "I don't like the update" helps nobody and just adds to the post count on a thread that is already pretty long.
So, with the above said, here are my thoughts, which is shared by most of the users on this thread:
- The skills icons are simply too small on a phone (mine is a Droid 2 Global with 480x854 resolution). On the display, the icons render in at ~5/8" and they are all pretty tightly spaced. This makes hitting the correct skill difficult - especially when tackling high level mobs that deal a lot of damage (like in Humania), and you are relying on trained repetition/twitch reflexes.
- The joystick is too small as well... I thought that the placement in the previous UI was better. By moving the joystick up, it often interferes with rotating the camera perspective. The new location feels a bit more uncomfortable as well, considering how most people hold a phone. Making the joystick larger and situated lower and more to the left would "open up" the gameplay area and feel more natural.
- The attack button is too small as well and there is too much padding on the right edge of the screen. I keep hitting the inactive gutter/padding and keep walking in the wrong direction.
- The font size on player names overwhelm low resolution devices, like typical Android phones. This is especially an issue in crowded areas like Forest Haven, Balefort Consignment Shop and others. The addition of the guild names below the player names just adds to the chaos, and makes all names in crowded areas unreadable. Perhaps, if you could scale the font size based on POV distance, that would help, or drop the Guild names on players more than ~20m away.
- The Inventory screen needs some work...specifically, it seems that the toon takes up way too much real estate and consequently, everything else seems too compressed - especially the inventory section. Since there is room below the toon, move the xx/yyy inventory slots used label below the toon. This would allow you to increase the size of the icons for helm/weapon/armor/etc. I would also take away some of the padding/gutter space around the toon. The inventory screen should focus on the inventory and the stats - the toon is nice for eye candy, but should not sacrifice readability/usability elsewhere. By removing some of the additional padding, you could squeeze in another 10-20 pixels for inventory. Also, remove the right side padding of the inventory list as I don't see an purpose for it (there are no up/down scroll buttons anymore).
- On the My Friends tab, move the SpaceTime Nexus button to the left under Guild. In it's current location, all the SpaceTime Nexus button does is take up space when you could probably fit one more friend in the visible viewport. Do the same with the Reject All/Accept All buttons and Add Ignore Name button.
- The quests tab has way too much padding on the left side. Move the Current Quests list farther to the left (to line up with Abandon Quest button) and extend the width of the list.
- The inspect screen needs some work as well. Similar to the Inventory screen, the rendering of the toon takes up too much space and make the important information/actions less attainable. Specifically, the Add Friend, Mute and Report buttons are too small and too close together. It is difficult to hit the correct button. I can see people accidentally muting the characters that they are trying to friend.
- In regular gameplay, the chat screen width has to be increased. Move the chat list so that it starts from the right side of the quick chat bubble and extends all the way to the notifications counter. Also, it would be nice if the chat list were scrollable (swipable) so that I could go back and see maybe the last 20-30 lines instead of just 9 lines of text.
- The Expand/Collapse skills button location makes no sense. This positioning is part of the reason why the skills icons are so small. Frankly, it would make more sense to the left of the attack button, so you could pick up the 20-30 pixels and make the skills icons larger.
- There is too much padding/space below the toggle notifications button and the top of the skills section. Reduce the padding so you can get some more space so you can increase the size of the skill icons.
- The popup notifications are super annoying! There doesn't seem to be a way to quickly dismiss it, or disable it altogether. At lease provide an option to disable this as it just interferes with gameplay. Like many, my friends list is huge, so I am getting constantly bombarded with popups.
As a general observation, it seems that there was too much focus on adding spacing/padding and not enough focus on gaming mechanics. Shrinking the joystick, skills and attack for the sake of adding some visual spacing looks good on paper (and on screen shots for gaming review toos), but has been a major hit to gameplay.
In a vacuum, each feature that was added is nice, but the overall implementation in reference to playing the game leaves something to be desired. Going forward, focus on the gameplay...approach each feature as the end user who has to consume the new UI. Don't clutter the viewport with unnecessary chrome/adornments that add little (if anything) and be mindful that most of us really aren't designers, so we won't care too much about whitespace, typography or other designer hot buttons, we just want to play and enjoy the community aspects of the game.
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