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Welcome Window PTS Feedback


DanielSteed

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Hello everyone!

 

With today's PTS update we have added a new welcome window. This window will highlight three different categories:

 

 

  • Your next Crit Path Mission (or Generic Activity Finder if you don't have any)
  • The current Conquest (and your personal goal)
  • The featured Cartel Market Item

 

This feature is still being worked on, so some players may have issues with the chat window. If the chat window is minimized, it will not come back for the rest of the play session. Resetting the UI with ctrl+U will temporarily cause the chat window to come back, but it'll go away the as soon as you say something.

 

Let us know what your thoughts are with this new addition!

 

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I appreciate that this feature is a work-in-progress. My first feedback is that currently the welcome window is maximising every time my character leaves a conversation, and since it takes up a large portion of the screen when it's maximised it's really irritating to have to minimise it repeatedly.
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I get it that many games offer something similar, and that the current implementation might be rough, but this thing is too in your face, and moving the Social options from their current space around chat to this window is a terrible decision, we don't need another separate UI fragment that is always in your face. One game has even integrated their version of this window into their equivalent of the Preferences screen, so you can bring it up by hitting ESC, have the preference menu on one side, and the event and sales notices on the other.

 

I would also move from the vertical format to a horizontal format, add a close button, and not have it pop up more then once at log in.

 

There is also an missed opportunity to promote the Ops of the day, or other queued events, as well as actual game news.

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There will be plenty of people that don't need or want this

Not when they log on, not when they log off, not at any point in time during their online session

 

Just make it possible to permanently silence (hide) it, yeah :)

Edited by Evolixe
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Could you please stop tying new UI elements to already existing ones?

First you gave us those annoying conquest pop ups that we can't turn off without losing all other system messages as well and now this oversized waste of space as part of the social center with no option to turn it off at all.

 

Just make the new stuff separate and, more importantly, allow us to disable it completely in the interface editor. Preferably without losing any actually useful stuff in the process.

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Could you please stop tying new UI elements to already existing ones?

First you gave us those annoying conquest pop ups that we can't turn off without losing all other system messages as well and now this oversized waste of space as part of the social center with no option to turn it off at all.

 

Just make the new stuff separate and, more importantly, allow us to disable it completely in the interface editor. Preferably without losing any actually useful stuff in the process.

 

Not a fan of this new "features" either but as far as tested the new welcome list seems to be a dropdown. if you click on the symbol(the one you used to minimize chat....chat got a new one) on the left of the social bar you minimize this window and it wont show up for me the next time i log in.

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*snip*

 

I'll make this relatively easy, Daniel: Stop messing with the UI. All the UI changes over the years have been worse than what was there previously, especially with the current character sheet (too much wasted space, and you can no longer use the mouse wheel to scroll through outfit slots). This, this the icying on the cake. This new notification bar looks worse, it doesn't properly fit to any edge of the screen, and it can't be minimized properly. It also no longer shows how many players are on an instance / planet.

 

And the whole thing about the current item of the day is just in-your-face advertisement. Get rid of this, immediately.

Edited by BenKatarn
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What? No, noooo! It may seem like a small thing but this is a game of alts and many of us log in and out dozens of times per day. This is an added annoyance to the process. Imo you shouldn’t bother with this at all, there are many other useful things you could be working on, but if you do it, it HAS to be voluntary. As someone pointed out, there are some players that won’t want this, ever. I’m one of those players. Don’t do it, please!
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To use a quote: "Your constant silence throughout our history... This was your distraction?" ;)

 

Really though, I would much rather see resources going towards fixes and balancing that would provide meaningful quality of life changes to players. I can already see, as others have said, that this will become an annoyance.

 

The featured Cartel Market Item

 

I actually wouldn't mind this as a "once-per-account-per-day" pop-up when logging in instead.

Edited by JarenWelen
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What? No, noooo! It may seem like a small thing but this is a game of alts and many of us log in and out dozens of times per day. This is an added annoyance to the process. Imo you shouldn’t bother with this at all, there are many other useful things you could be working on, but if you do it, it HAS to be voluntary. As someone pointed out, there are some players that won’t want this, ever. I’m one of those players. Don’t do it, please!

 

So is STO. And theirs is intrusive. You can't do anything without closing it. EVERY TIME you load a character. I'm all for this kind of thing. Not intrusive, but a welcome window. I'm surprised it wasn't done long ago. This is definitely needed. So many are in chat going "is x available/active/ready?"

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There will be plenty of people that don't need or want this

Not when they log on, not when they log off, not at any point in time during their online session

 

Just make it possible to permanently silence (hide) it, yeah :)

 

I second this, I can't see really using this, it's not an improvement over just hitting 'L' to open up the mission log.

 

That plus the dropdown design means the options to move the window are limited to the upper part of the screen. Just no.

 

I want MORE interface customization options, not less. I changed the default interface as soon as I made my first character and do not like being forced to run with whatever the dev's think is the 'best' interface setup.

 

Just stop messing with the UI unless you can make the additions fully customizable.

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Okay, now that I found where it is thanks to someone mentioning it's the drop down with "friends and guild", I see it. Everyone here calling it "intrusive". As I mentioned in a previous post, the welcome window in STO, makes it impossible to do or see anything without closing it on every character you log into, every time. That's intrusive. By being a drop down box, this is already non-intrusive. I also love the drop-down/retract animation.

 

Hint: You can resize it via the U.I. editor. AND you can move it around w/o the U.I. editor. This alone makes it awesome.

 

So, this is awesome. A welcome addition. To give the feedback requested:

Your next Crit Path Mission (or Generic Activity Finder if you don't have any): This is great. I love it. Sometimes I forget what primary mission a character is on. Or what the primary mission is. However, right now, on my transferred character with no primary (purple) missions (completed all story to current), it says "Balmorra Droid Reconnaissance" (Reconnaissance is cut off btw). When I click on that, it opens my mission log to the Event "The All Worlds Ultimate Swoop Rally". Pretty sure that's got nothing to do with Balmorra droids.

 

The current Conquest (and your personal goal): This is awesome. I'm not a conquest fanatic, so I can't really say much about it. I don't have any preferences as to how this one functions.

 

The featured Cartel Market Item: This is... okay. I feel it could be better used for something else, like what the daily Ops is. This is based on the current "three item" setup. I have missed the daily sales several times. It's also not opening the CM when clicked on. But I'm not surprised about that last one.

 

Since it can be scaled via U.I. editor, I am okay with three more items added to the right of what's there now. Also, the current items could be scaled down a bit. Not much though because if it's scaled down with the U.I. editor, it'll be too small to even read.

 

If you move it, the U.I. editor location doesn't change. If you move it, and you open, then exit the U.I. Editor the welcome window then snaps to the center of the screen. If you log out then back in to the same character, it resets and doesn't snap to the center anymore when performing the above actions.

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Where is the number of players in the instance counter?

 

Is this a bug or a new design? I like to know how crowded an instance is, it can affect gameplay.

Ditto this.

In addition, the 'Search' ability seems to have disappeared! This is something I use on an almost daily basis, mostly in dealing with the large guild I'm in. Did it move or am I missing something?

 

In general, this window as it is doesn't do much for me. Between a number of active alts, guild activities, and assorted Conquest bits, I've become comfortable with sorting and finding missions on my own.

For myself, I could see it being an ad for the current Cartel special of the day (which I usually but not always remember to check), and another about dev announcements & patch notes. Maybe this toon's current Conquest total.

Ideally, one could use the Interface Editor to select from a range of possible 'welcome' notices?

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Okay, now that I found where it is thanks to someone mentioning it's the drop down with "friends and guild", I see it. Everyone here calling it "intrusive". As I mentioned in a previous post, the welcome window in STO, makes it impossible to do or see anything without closing it on every character you log into, every time. That's intrusive. By being a drop down box, this is already non-intrusive. I also love the drop-down/retract animation.

 

Hint: You can resize it via the U.I. editor. AND you can move it around w/o the U.I. editor. This alone makes it awesome.

 

So, this is awesome. A welcome addition. To give the feedback requested:

Your next Crit Path Mission (or Generic Activity Finder if you don't have any): This is great. I love it. Sometimes I forget what primary mission a character is on. Or what the primary mission is. However, right now, on my transferred character with no primary (purple) missions (completed all story to current), it says "Balmorra Droid Reconnaissance" (Reconnaissance is cut off btw). When I click on that, it opens my mission log to the Event "The All Worlds Ultimate Swoop Rally". Pretty sure that's got nothing to do with Balmorra droids.

 

The current Conquest (and your personal goal): This is awesome. I'm not a conquest fanatic, so I can't really say much about it. I don't have any preferences as to how this one functions.

 

The featured Cartel Market Item: This is... okay. I feel it could be better used for something else, like what the daily Ops is. This is based on the current "three item" setup. I have missed the daily sales several times. It's also not opening the CM when clicked on. But I'm not surprised about that last one.

 

Since it can be scaled via U.I. editor, I am okay with three more items added to the right of what's there now. Also, the current items could be scaled down a bit. Not much though because if it's scaled down with the U.I. editor, it'll be too small to even read.

 

If you move it, the U.I. editor location doesn't change. If you move it, and you open, then exit the U.I. Editor the welcome window then snaps to the center of the screen. If you log out then back in to the same character, it resets and doesn't snap to the center anymore when performing the above actions.

^This.

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Here's my take:

 

It seems like you want to cater to the casual by adding streamlined features to enable their ease of game play. Great.

The welcome window can help that, But... I can not move it lower than a certain point. I don't see a mailbox anymore. It opens up fully extended and I can't adjust it. Adding the cartel market feature of day is very freaking shady. Overall? It's a giant "MEH" for me!

 

It's the people that have no desire for these features that are truly forgotten. If you add something to the HUD/UI at least let the player have an option in the editor to tweek it. Choices like moving, inverting, resizing, customizing, and disabling would be appreciated.

 

 

You can not press Escape to exit the Proficiency page, you must press K.

Exploration mission icons still appear above npc regardless if the toggle option on the map is turned on or off.

No option to remove floating treasure chest icon above vendors.

Boss loot drop windows appear in middle of screen and can not be moved.

Stronghold and planetary guild territory banners still have no option to be disabled.

Renown and conquest have no option to be disabled.

 

I don't care who owns what planet! I don't want to die from adds left over from a boss because the loot window pops up in my face. I can care less about stupid renown and conquest notifications every time i wipe my behind and I detest those F'ing floating treasure chest icons above vendors!! What happened to letting us play our way?

Edited by TonyTricicolo
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I can see ZERO benefit to this new UI item...can you explain the thinking behind it?...don't remember it ever being asked for?!!

 

I'd much rather see the Crew Skills and Crafting windows UI being addressed - maybe combined. Every time I craft I end up with about 5 or 6 UI elements open ...GTN, Inventory, Crew Skills, Crafting, Materials, Legacy Bank - I have a big monitor and it always still ends up cramped.

 

Please focus on something useful...Jedi are meant to be all about focus right?!!

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I agree with the other players that the UI change is terrible, don't fix what isn't broken.

 

Specifically, please turn the Welcome Window from a dropdown into an actual, free-floating window. Then restore the social bar to its original design; specifically, retain the minimalist layout and do not remove the current zone name and /who player count.

 

Regarding the contents of the Welcome Window, I've never found much use of such a feature in other games (the things it showed me provided no value, and actual important news was missing), and I don't see a use for it here.

 

We've been through a lot of experimentation with Tutorials, Galactic Command, Activity Finder, Conquest and now this.

First of all, do not auto-expand the window on every login. When I'm switching between chars, I don't want to have to collapse the window each time. Instead, only open the window if the character (or legacy) hasn't logged in for the last 7 days (or maybe 30 days).

Second of all, the daily 50% CM sale should not be part of the Welcome Window, especially for paying subscribers.

 

I agree that this is a missed opportunity to highlight actual game news (e.g. new features or patch notes, emergency server shutdowns), or current activity finder or renown bonus, really anything for endgame players. It doesn't even mention Double XP even though that is running right now, and it likely won't show Casino event or Lifeday since those are not part of conquest.

On my PTS char (who is still in the Onderon story), the crit path only shows a blank image without text, so I can't really give feedback on that. I hope that on my live chars which completed their crit path, I won't see a blank image and you'll just hide that section.

Edited by Jerba
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This seems like a good quality of life idea. Personally I don't need it but still.

 

What exactly is good about it?

 

They've removed the indicator for number of players in the instance, and also made a formerlly full customizable/movable UI component into a 'stuck on the top part of the screen' annoyance.

 

That plus one full third of the dropdown is advertising. The rest of is it also pretty much useless. Even when I am doing a 'critical mission' path it's on my screen anyway since I will have the mission tracked.

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What exactly is good about it?

 

They've removed the indicator for number of players in the instance, and also made a formerlly full customizable/movable UI component into a 'stuck on the top part of the screen' annoyance.

 

That plus one full third of the dropdown is advertising. The rest of is it also pretty much useless. Even when I am doing a 'critical mission' path it's on my screen anyway since I will have the mission tracked.

 

The only advertising I saw was the cartel market which serves its purpose. the drop down menu tells you what event is happening at the current time and what mission you're currently tracking. However, I do note that there are instances where the menu opens every time I take a new quest or end a quest or end a quest which does need to be worked on. for new players this is a great idea. as a founder, to me it's not necessary and I should have the ability to turn it off.

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