They are refering to how now you can see when a CD is expiring.

 

It's good, better.

 

But the game is unstable in general so........ yeah......

Really? That's what hundreds of people like me feel like when we play the game and get these migraines!

 

 

 

Bioware. We aren't going away. Address the health issues.

 

On the contrary. If it's not fixed we won't have much choice but to leave.

I voted THEY'RE TERRIBLE, because that's unfortunately the only negative option. That said, I don't think they're terrible, just a step in the wrong direction.

 

I liked being able to see if an ability was usable, which you could under the previous system.

 

What I don't like about the current cooldown system is:

 

A) you don't have a timer option to visibly display countdowns,

B) The light baby blue fading slider clashes incredibly with the UI (and / or the white border)

C) you can't see whether or not you have enough resource for a given ability prior to it coming off of cooldown.

Changes are definitely going to be made to the UI in response to initial feedback we received after the patch was deployed. (Very little feedback was received on the PTS Forum before the patch was deployed to the live servers, otherwise changes may have been made before the patch's deployment.)

 

The primary purpose of this poll is to get more accurate numbers on player sentiment. Threads are very helpful for us to get an immediate idea of areas that need attention, but accurate numbers as opposed to post counts help us present a more accurate picture of those affected (threads/post counts can easily be inflated by multiple posts from the same person, opposing points of view, and so on).

Purely as feedback about this - surely an in-game poll or email to all players would give you better feedback? The forums are usually lucky if they manage 10000 unique votes, that's less than 1% of the playerbase (as advertised). That's one heck of an extrapolation of representation. I applaud the desire for feedback, I really do, I just don't see that a forum poll will reach people. Given the way these forums are, a lot just don't go near.

 

As for the PTS - since there is no way to copy characters over, it is a considerable pain even trying it out, let alone getting heavily involved in testing, and that assumes testers care, look, and provide feedback, can do so without immediately having the thread locked, and do so often enough that they catch a patch before it goes live. Most PTS usage 'out there' is for big changes and builds are up for a month or more.

 

I think dev blogs of upcoming changes (one video of this UI change would have told everyone whether they would like it or not) might be the way to go in this sort of case.

 

My two pence.

Edited February 8, 2012 by Grammarye

Whats the point of putting up a poll after the fact?

 

Also whats the point of putting a poll in the forums where it has been proven () by all the fanboiz that 99.999% of the players never come into the forums.

The second iteration was hard to tell on longer cool down abilities if it was off CD or "almost" off CD. So it was annoying in that respect but otherwise worked fine.

 

Take a good idea from the third iteration and just have it "flash" when ability comes of CD only. I'd suggest something like:

 

Icon border = Range indicator (Change color when out of range)

Grey Icon = Lack of Resource or position (ie: behind target)

Countdown timer & flash when CD completes = CD (mix of version 2 & 3 system)

GCD = Like the 2nd iteration, a quick swipe over the icons.

Edited February 8, 2012 by Kunari

Are you going to continue IGNORING the customers you are CAUSING PHYSICAL PAIN?

 

 

I want this addressed. I am one of those people, and you should at LEAST acknowledge this.

Edited February 8, 2012 by StrikeOfLight

It's terrible. Why can't we have it like at launch when **** just grayed out when it was on cooldown? What was so bad about that?

There should be an option to vote for the original release version of the cooldown ui...

Poll goes to show you just how many people read and post on the forums. As bad as people say things are and all of the "majority of players" and the "vast outcry" and things of the like..as of now 1067 people have voted out ~1million subs.

Changes are definitely going to be made to the UI in response to initial feedback we received after the patch was deployed. (Very little feedback was received on the PTS Forum before the patch was deployed to the live servers, otherwise changes may have been made before the patch's deployment.)

 

Bioware is out of touch with reality. Unless we can copy characters over, we're not going to bother testing. This finger pointing as if we had the chance to give feedback is not helpful, Stephen. At all.

 

Also, go check the FP forums for the SOA bug that's hit everyone. Enough is enough. Loot bugs. Bosses constantly getting new bugs. None of the SOA fixes actually work according to multiple posts there.

I am not in favor of the latest change. That bright white color looks the same as when you activate a skill, so I can never tell if I've activated it or not. I like how they were at launch, that was the best imho.

I didn't read the whole thread so this might have been covered already.

 

The #1 thing I'd like the UI to show me is which abilities are not available because I don't have the resources for them (meaning I might need to change my actions to build resources) vs. abilities not available because they're on a longer-than-GCD cooldown (meaning I just use a different ability to fill the gap). If you use button-dimming to indicate insufficient resource and the bar (or clock) wipe to indicate cooldown, it would be perfect IMO.

Either way , it has to be changed. You're making some of the players physically sick.

I like the global cd function. . For the most part.

 

My only gripe is the darkening of all the abilities. I like the enhanced look, you can see the bar clearly drop over everything and the effect (to me) is sweet looking. Just find a way to only darken the abilities that are not able to be queued next.

 

Again this was only a problem till I figured out what the change really was. I did quests, Ops, Pvp, flashpoints w/o problems. The thing I had to do was know my class all the better. I have to monitor my rage (being a warrior) and know how much rage an ability needs or uses.

 

I like the change, but of course everything can be tweaked to perform better.

This poll is silly and treating the issue like its black and white.

 

Good changes:

Easier to see when an ability comes off cooldown.

 

Bad changes:

Highly distracting GCD and flashy. When in constant GCD its now impossible to see when things come off cooldown. Highly noticeable for people using all instant abilities. These animations provide no useful or new information to the user.

 

 

What I would like to see:

Revert the GCD changes. Simply make an ability under cooldown a different shade or display a numerical countdown on the button. Some interface options around this would be nice as well.

Poll goes to show you just how many people read and post on the forums. As bad as people say things are and all of the "majority of players" and the "vast outcry" and things of the like..as of now 1067 people have voted out ~1million subs.

 

So what does that say about Bioware that they would put this poll in the forums?

It seems too visually noisy. It becomes an issue when it is so bright and frequent.

 

Other comments regarding problems with Sentinels/Marauders are legit. It's not gamebreaking by any means but there are definitely some issues between the new cooldown system and the resource mechanic for those two classes.

I like the idea of a poll but please make the options even next time. Good and Terrible are not equally strong terms. Someone thinking it's just bad or slightly worse then the previous UI might not want to call it Terrible, but still doesn't like it.

 

Awesome <--> Terrible

Good <--> Bad

Like it <--> Don't like it

 

You get the idea. What was your SAT score again?

(Very little feedback was received on the PTS Forum before the patch was deployed to the live servers, otherwise changes may have been made before the patch's deployment.)

 

Hi. Enable us to make copies of our level 50 character onto your "test" server and you will likely see a large increase in activity on the server and hence... more feedback!

 

But otherwise your subtle blame shift was good for a laugh I suppose.

Terrible change. Bad before, worse now. It looks cheap and nasty. Just add a small numerical timer on the bottom right corner of each ability that pulses when its cooldown is over and have unusable abilities slightly darker than usuable ones.

 

I hate talking about WoW but think along the lines of the addon omnicc (not actual Blizzards UI stuff).

Theres a lot of replies so this might have been stated before.

 

Before the patch, you could tell if a button was on its own specific cooldown AND the global cooldown.

 

Now, you can't tell if its on its own specific cooldown and the global because they're all greyed out and this prevents you from seeing what you should next in your queue.

Whats the point of putting up a poll after the fact?

 

Also whats the point of putting a poll in the forums where it has been proven () by all the fanboiz that 99.999% of the players never come into the forums.

 

I had read sowmewhere on the interweb it was nearer 10% of gamers read the game's official forums, especially in MMO's. But that is ok, as 10% is a clear enough snapshot of how people feel about most things. However, it is also known that within that 10% a proportion are gamers who love to complain about things just for the sake of it.

 

I think one of the biggest lessons the Bioware team have learned after this issue is that they need to implement a level 50 character copy to the PTS so that things will get tested by more people who care about the game.

 

At the moment the results are showing a healthy majority for the hate it campaign. I also see that on twitter one of the CM's has been tweeting about it.

 

Edited February 8, 2012 by JBChimera

My only complaint is that there seems to be a delay in skills showing up (not grayed out) that are actually available. I see it happen a lot with Assassinate on my Sith Assassin.

@StephenReid:

 

Here's some constructive feedback. In essence, don't reinvent the wheel. Keep It Simple.

 

Main Use Case:

1. You have an OnState at 100%

2. You have an OffState at 50-80% opacity

3. You have a rotational clockwise cool down animation overlay.

 

Situational Use Cases:

4. There may at times be a need to highlight a skill with a simple outline.

5. A small very light burst animation can be effective.

 

Again, keep them simple and use them in moderation.

 

Why does WoW, LOTRO, RIFT (to name a few) follow a similar pattern? It works. It is effective design in communicating when skills are available. Effective design best follows common rules across multiple media types or genres.

 

Rotational Clockwise animations for cool downs:

This option is most accepted as a standard because it is easier for a user to literally "tell the time" that is left on a cool down. It is a universally accepted practice. Moving an animation vertically or horizontally does not effectively communicate time within such a confined space.

 

For those showing physical discomfort over the UI, I hope you do your due diligence and offer them an immediate solution.

Edited February 8, 2012 by aharoncagle