An Idea For Quick Access To ALL Skills

As I now have all the 12 current skills available I'm finding myself wanting to use more than the four that are readily and quickly accessible. It's not hard to use the book icon to bring them all up, but it's not as quick as I'd like it too be. The icons are a bit smaller, so I generally have to focus to make sure I tap the right one. It might not be so severe that I always end up dying when I have to bring it up while in combat, but I think many of you would agree that it could be done differently.

A lot of people have suggested adding a few more buttons, but I think that'd be a mistake. The controls already take up quite a bit of the screen, and when you're playing on an iPhone or iPod touch there isn't all that much to begin with. So I quickly dismissed adding more buttons.

Yesterday I saw another comment about wanting more skill buttons, so I started giving it some thought. My first idea was that you could use simple gestures to execute a skill, like draw a circle, or draw a line up the down. But since left and right is reserved for moving the camera view, this seemed like it would be very limited if you can only do up/down motion. After that I thought of a toggle variation that would replace the book option with a button that cycles through 3 pages of 4 skills each, but it seemed cumbersome since you'd have to tap the toggle button twice to get back to the page 1 if you are on page 2 (as in toggling goes like page 1 > 2 > 3 > 1 > etc.). It seemed like a good way to move through the skills though, so I took that idea but replaced the toggle button idea with swiping left and right to move through skill pages.

Let me illustrate.

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/6425/skillsswipe1.jpg

So here are our four primary skills, let's call these four page 1. As you can see I also took the liberty to rearrange some buttons, mainly to give the skill buttons a bit more room, but I think it'd be a good idea to move the emoticons icon next to the chat too, since they kind of belong together. I kept the book button, although it wouldn't really be necessary with this method. But don't focus too much on that, this idea could just as well work with the current layout too.


http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/4...llsswipe1b.jpg

So now we want to go to the next four skills on page 2. Within this white frame would be the swipe area for the skills. If you swipe left or right outside of this area you'll move the camera view as you do now, but inside this area left/right swipes flips through the skill pages.


http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/1...illsswipe2.jpg

So we swipe left with our thumb, page 1 slides out and we have..


http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/6...illsswipe3.jpg

..page 2, skills 5-8. Imagine it working exactly like how you swipe through the pages of apps on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. This would be the same thing, only with 3 pages of single columns.


http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/1...illsswipe4.jpg

Swipe left again..


http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/5...illsswipe5.jpg

..and we are on page 3, skills 9-12.


http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/6...illsswipe6.jpg

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/6425/skillsswipe1.jpg

Swipe left from there and you end up at page 1 again, or swipe right to go back to page 2. Being able to swipe both left and right would also mean that with the current maximum of 12 skills, with this setup of 3 pages all 12 skills would be accessible with one swipe left or right and tap.

Note that I don't mean for it to actually look blurry when you swipe, it's just to illustrate the swiping motion, and I'm not suggesting that you should be able to place a skill on several pages, I only did this because I don't have points on all 12 skills but still wanted to illustrate what a full set of 12 skills would look like. :)


Some additional thoughts:

• The skills page would function in the same way as it does in-game, you'd simply swipe left and right over the righthand-side column to access the pages. There'd also be an indicator to tell you that there's more than one column. This way you could assign each page exactly how you want it to be, which could be useful for Enchantresses for example who might want all their healing skills on one page, and AoE skills on another. It could look something like this:

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/6...selection1.jpg

http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/8...election1b.jpg

http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/5...selection2.jpg


• If you have four or less skills, all you have is one column. Swiping left and right wouldn't move to another empty column, but maybe trying to swipe could show that column budging a little and going back just like it does in the iPhone menus if you are on the last/only page. Eight or less skills and you have two columns that you can swipe back and forth between, and then finally three columns if you have nine or more skills. And if there are more skills added in the future, a fourth column and so on could be added.

• However, even if you have all 12 skills, there's no obligation to assign them to all three pages. If you only add eight skills to two pages, it would only swipe between those two. If you have 8 skills but only really want to use 4, you could just assign four skills to one page.

• This could also work as a up/down swipe instead of left/right. It's hard to tell without being able to actually test it to say which would feel more natural, but either way would use the same principle of swiping within the white frame I showed above. It could perhaps even be a menu option, a choice to either swipe up/down or left/right since I'm sure everyone has their own preference.

• Swiping is a technique we are all very familiar with using these devices too, so it shouldn't be a problem for anyone to use this control method as long as in-game help and such makes it clear this is how it works. It's also something that is unique to these devices, and I've always been a fan of games and apps that take greater advantage of the unique control methods these devices offer rather than just having plain, old buttons. In short: swiping is cool. :D

• This idea would work just as well on the iPad version of the game.

• The names have been blurred to protect the innocent. :p

Perfect. Very well presented. There is no reason not to do this. ;)

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Originally Posted by Dizko

Perfect. Very well presented. There is no reason not to do this. ;)

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I agree. :D

I don't really see how this would solve the skill problem.
It's just as fast if not faster to just click the spellbook and select the skill from there.
And the question is how responsive would that be in practice.

A good idea though, and it sure would be a nice addition, but as said, don't know how it would solve the problem.

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Originally Posted by Shebee

I don't really see how this would solve the skill problem.
It's just as fast if not faster to just click the spellbook and select the skill from there.
And the question is how responsive would that be in practice.

A good idea though, and it sure would be a nice addition, but as said, don't know how it would solve the problem.

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What skill problem?

Maybe you're better at using the skill book than me, but if this idea worked the way I'm imagining it for me personally it would be much faster than tapping the skill book and then trying to hit the right, small button in the grid that comes up. Not to mention it wouldn't clutter your view of the action. But to each his own, I suppose.

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Originally Posted by _ck

What skill problem?

Maybe you're better at using the skill book than me, but if this idea worked the way I'm imagining it for me personally it would be much faster than tapping the skill book and then trying to hit the right, small button in the grid that comes up. Not to mention it wouldn't clutter your view of the action. But to each his own, I suppose.

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True, but if I understood you right, you want more buttons to press.
Maybe it comes down to personal preference, but that wouldn't make it any faster than pressing the spell book, assuming you even wanted it to be faster :P
Anyway, I still support this, I like the idea, and I actually thought about this, having played KO etc that also have action bar pages, well like almost every MMO that comes to mind.

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Originally Posted by Shebee

True, but if I understood you right, you want more buttons to press.
Maybe it comes down to personal preference, but that wouldn't make it any faster than pressing the spell book, assuming you even wanted it to be faster :P
Anyway, I still support this, I like the idea, and I actually thought about this, having played KO etc that also have action bar pages, well like almost every MMO that comes to mind.

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No, I don't want more buttons to press. More buttons is what I'm trying to avoid hearing people asking for 2 more skill buttons to always be on the screen. It'd be totally cluttered! This method would only keep 4 skill buttons on screen at any time. I want to be able to access all 12 skills more easily than having to tap the skills book icon every time I want to use something that isn't one of my top 4. Maybe I wasn't explaining my idea well enough for you, but this ought to make it much faster to be able to use all of your skills. Imagine for example you want to quickly use 3 skills that aren't among your top 4. Right now you have to tap the book icon, tap the first skill, tap the book icon again, tap the second skill, tap the book icon yet again, tap the third skill. Compare that with having all of those three next to each other like you have now with your top 4. Instead of 6 taps, it's just tap tap tap, done.

Also, like I mentioned about the Enchantress, you could have one list/page of 4 AoE skills for when you're playing to do damage, then have another just a swipe away with all the healing skills if you want to play a healer part.

It's also kinda situational, but as said I totally support this.

Thumbsup for you, sir.

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Originally Posted by Shebee

It's also kinda situational, but as said I totally support this.

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Oh of course, it's not every situation where you need to rapidly access skills, but for example when I'm playing the enchantress, and we're up against a boss and someone dies it's quite a bit of trickery to run around trying to not get killed yourself while at the same time bringing up the skill book (which also blocks half the screen as you're trying to evade) to access Resurrect (I don't have it in my top 4 since it's usually not frequently needed). But it could just be me that's not as lightning fast as some of you guys, so maybe this idea would better suit me.. But anyway, glad you're on board, sorry if I'm being pushy, I just think it could potentially be a really good solution.

Its not very good for spamming skills with low cool down, which is why people want more buttons.

if you are simply changing to a skill which is less prequently used, then thats no problem. but if you're spamming spells and need to swap back and forth, then more buttons is a better choice.

secondly

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Maybe you're better at using the skill book than me, but if this idea worked the way I'm imagining it for me personally it would be much faster than tapping the skill book and then trying to hit the right, small button in the grid that comes up. Not to mention it wouldn't clutter your view of the action. But to each his own, I suppose.

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Right now the skill icon is the same size as your normal 4 slots. I don't find them that hard to press.
Also, I think there a *huge* drawback of the potential for fatal mistakes. What I means is, you swipe OUTSIDE the box and suddenly from a clear view of the boss, you're looking at the wall. And from running away, you're running too.
Just a potential snafu.

And lastly, I think having 2 buttons to switch left and right (or frankly, just have 2 rows of skills. you only got 12 anyway, is giving up 4 of them is that hard to do?

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Originally Posted by Splurd

Its not very good for spamming skills with low cool down, which is why people want more buttons.

if you are simply changing to a skill which is less prequently used, then thats no problem. but if you're spamming spells and need to swap back and forth, then more buttons is a better choice.

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Well I for one will not keep playing this game if people are going to push for it to look and feel like this:

http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/5391/skillsall.jpg

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Originally Posted by Splurd

secondly

Right now the skill icon is the same size as your normal 4 slots. I don't find them that hard to press.
Also, I think there a *huge* drawback of the potential for fatal mistakes. What I means is, you swipe OUTSIDE the box and suddenly from a clear view of the boss, you're looking at the wall. And from running away, you're running too.
Just a potential snafu.

And lastly, I think having 2 buttons to switch left and right (or frankly, just have 2 rows of skills. you only got 12 anyway, is giving up 4 of them is that hard to do?

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Okay, you're right. The buttons that pop up tapping the skill book are the same size as the ones on the right side. For some reason I always felt like they were smaller and harder to get the right one than the quick ones though.. Maybe I just never learned to memorize exactly where they all are. I don't know, only that I would like for there to be a better way.. and personally I think my idea blows the current way out of the water.

As for the fatal mistake, I do agree with you there. This is just an idea, I can't say how well or not it would work in actuality. But I did also mention in my first post that the exact same thing could be done by swiping up and down and swiping up and down anywhere on the screen doesn't do anything at all currently. So if swiping left/right wouldn't work it'd certainly be something that would become clear if Spacetime decided to try this idea out, and then there'd always be the option to swipe up/down instead.

I'm so glad that I play this on an iPad :) And yes, I'm just rubbing it in :P

On topic: well thought out suggestion! I wonder what the devs think about making this a possibility?

wow the swiping ideas is great and doesnt take any more space on the screen you got a good thing going on there , just add two buffs at the bottom left end corner and it wold be perfect

I like the idea, but even if they wanted to simplify it and only allow say 8 skills to be used, you could easily do that by using a modifier key. Like for example pressing and holding the book icon would change the skills to be skills 5-8, and letting go would go back to 1-4. Just like we do in most games with the Alt or Ctrl modifier. That would be simple to implement.

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Originally Posted by _ck

Well I for one will not keep playing this game if people are going to push for it to look and feel like this:

http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/5391/skillsall.jpg

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Zomg thumbs

Well, obviously not to *that* extent. I have ideas but am lazy to draw them out.

So... I think we should be able to shout the names of our skills and have them be cast o.o

I liked the pics so I support. :D

very good! nice idea without wasting space

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Originally Posted by Hurs

So... I think we should be able to shout the names of our skills and have them be cast o.o

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that is somewhat awkward to do in public :cool:

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Originally Posted by Splurd

that is somewhat awkward to do in public :cool:

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haha, i could see that on the london underground! (mind the doors please) no i didnt want to cast that!

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Originally Posted by Hurs

So... I think we should be able to shout the names of our skills and have them be cast o.o

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Haha, that would be AWESOME!

I could just hear us sitting in some library, on a train or anywhere else, screaming out "Lightning bolt, Lightning bolt" like that one kid in the D&D video, that we ALL made fun of!!

lol Smeltn :D
Imagine yourself sitting in your bed when you're sick screaming HEAL.

Well I'm glad some of you liked my idea.. Wish I could get the developers to look at it and say what they think.

Bump.

Devs.. Please? Any comment? I spent a bit of time putting this together, it'd be nice with some kind of response.

Fantastic Idea

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Originally Posted by Hurs

So... I think we should be able to shout the names of our skills and have them be cast o.o

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Lol. Out walking the dog - "Heal!....Heal!"

Poor doggie.

Awesome suggestions- we're looking at ways to map commonly used emotes and skills more intuitively. Not in this coming app store update (we already submitted it), but it's on the list. I really appreciate the amount of time you guys are spending mocking things up. I'm glad our community has so many talented photoshoppers! Motion blur and everything. :D
Please keep the ideas coming, we want to make Pocket Legends the best experience possible. By the way, did you notice if you swipe with two fingers what happens? Currently swipes are mapped to emotes, but the system is in place for us to do different things with it.
Thanks!
.j.

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Originally Posted by Jakis

Awesome suggestions- we're looking at ways to map commonly used emotes and skills more intuitively. Not in this coming app store update (we already submitted it), but it's on the list. I really appreciate the amount of time you guys are spending mocking things up. I'm glad our community has so many talented photoshoppers! Motion blur and everything. :D
Please keep the ideas coming, we want to make Pocket Legends the best experience possible. By the way, did you notice if you swipe with two fingers what happens? Currently swipes are mapped to emotes, but the system is in place for us to do different things with it.
Thanks!
.j.

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Thanks for the comment. :)

I did not know about the two finger swipe! Ha, that's cool! I did know about that you can shake to wave though. Sometimes I like going into Towne and telling people to shake their iPhones, just because most don't know about it and it's a fun little easter egg sort of thing.