Poll: What do you think about the new changes made to global cooldown UI in 1.1.2?

[chumppi]

Just put the fu**ing cooldown timers on the bars please.

 

"1:59" 119 seconds

"60:00" 3600 seconds(1 hour)

Less than 1 minute = "59s" = 59 seconds

Less than 1 second = "0.6s" = 0,6 seconds

 

Cooldown timers + individual buttons are grey when not available + the skill you just used rolls the 1.5s cd.

Edited February 8, 2012 by chumppi

[EkonBor]

You guys almost got it!

IMO there needs to be about one more 'layer' of awareness animation added.

 

get out

Edited February 8, 2012 by EkonBor

[JacienOrdo]

This entire thread is a classic example of what is wrong with people in the MMO world right now. People complained about the current GCD visuals, so Bioware worked on the issue and changed it.

Someone made a good point, you can't currently copy toons onto the PTR so they just put it into game so everyone could try it out. It seems that a majority of people dislike these changes. (I am not one of them, I really like the new changes and hope they leave them in game for use)

So, people come to the forums to tell Bioware they don't like these changes. (Did I mention these changes came out YESTERDAY!!!!!!)

Bioware puts up a poll to get a general idea from everyone who visits the forums (giving a chance for those that don't like actually posting a chance to way in on the situation). No, it does NOT represent everyone in the game, but the people that do come to the forums are those that want to be heard on the issues.

So, as Bioware reads the forums and takes in all the feedback on the change made YESERDAY!!!!! You all start the raging about it... just as a common sense response to a few of you people... no they didn't have this at launch because they thought a lighter color scheme would work.. you asked for something different so they are trying that now... someone all caps raged about Bioware ignoring their customers and not responding to this issue... did I mention they put in these changes YESTERDAY!!!!! Just b/c YOU don't like it doesn't mean the other MILLION people don't get a say in the matter. And those that are "in pain" from it... that sucks and would really make me mad... but do you expect them to bring down the entire game for the few people that might be having this issue... that isn't right either.., have patience and act like your mother taught you some manners.

Its true, Bioware is new to the MMO market and it shows alittle... but they are also doing a damn fine job and made a damn fine game... so why not chill out, give them a minute to look at the situation that came up YESTERDAY!!! and if you hate this all so much, feel free to leave... There are plenty of people that enjoy this game and are grateful for the work that Bioware is doing to improve the game that is been out a MONTH AND A HALF and has features it took Wow years to get.

Maybe its time for the newly formed SWTOR community to just RELAX!

 

When I stop getting head aches from the constant flashing on my screen I'll relax. Until then? Maybe you should take the time to read the 200+ page thread on the issues people are having rather then just raging yourself in big bold caps which make me personally want to feed you your own statement of "Relax" the polite way of asking "UMadBruh?"

[neue]

I think it's too soon to tell. They came as a shock to me at first. I did run a flash point last night to get a feel for it. I think I need some more time to get used to the new animations/UI queues. That's not to say they aren't more accurate. It just feels like nothing is ready for use.

 

The fact that ability buttons do not come back to full color until the global cool down is up makes it hard for me to decide what my next button press should be. It feels like a cop out to just make them all appear on cool down as opposed to how they were original intended to work. I understand this might have been done to avoid misleading when an ability is actually ready, but I feel forces you to spend too much looking at your button to decide what to press next. It feels like it makes the global cool down seem longer than it actually is.

[gryhmr]

Again the issue for me isn't 'like' or 'dislike' its that it makes me dizzy after a short period of time. I cannot play the game other than doing trade skills right now because any time I enter combat my screen strobeing makes me feel car sick. I do not have a history of anything like this and its never happened in any other game until now.

 

I just want to be able to play the game again without feeling ill.

[Thesseract]

This entire thread is a classic example of what is wrong with people in the MMO world right now. People complained about the current GCD visuals, so Bioware worked on the issue and changed it.

Someone made a good point, you can't currently copy toons onto the PTR so they just put it into game so everyone could try it out. It seems that a majority of people dislike these changes. (I am not one of them, I really like the new changes and hope they leave them in game for use)

So, people come to the forums to tell Bioware they don't like these changes. (Did I mention these changes came out YESTERDAY!!!!!!)

Bioware puts up a poll to get a general idea from everyone who visits the forums (giving a chance for those that don't like actually posting a chance to way in on the situation). No, it does NOT represent everyone in the game, but the people that do come to the forums are those that want to be heard on the issues.

So, as Bioware reads the forums and takes in all the feedback on the change made YESERDAY!!!!! You all start the raging about it... just as a common sense response to a few of you people... no they didn't have this at launch because they thought a lighter color scheme would work.. you asked for something different so they are trying that now... someone all caps raged about Bioware ignoring their customers and not responding to this issue... did I mention they put in these changes YESTERDAY!!!!! Just b/c YOU don't like it doesn't mean the other MILLION people don't get a say in the matter. And those that are "in pain" from it... that sucks and would really make me mad... but do you expect them to bring down the entire game for the few people that might be having this issue... that isn't right either.., have patience and act like your mother taught you some manners.

Its true, Bioware is new to the MMO market and it shows alittle... but they are also doing a damn fine job and made a damn fine game... so why not chill out, give them a minute to look at the situation that came up YESTERDAY!!! and if you hate this all so much, feel free to leave... There are plenty of people that enjoy this game and are grateful for the work that Bioware is doing to improve the game that is been out a MONTH AND A HALF and has features it took Wow years to get.

Maybe its time for the newly formed SWTOR community to just RELAX!

 

I guess you don't understand that bioware provided only one small post stated that they would "investigate" without any further updates over 24 hours.

 

I guess you also don't understand that for some the game is currently unplayable. So if those people who have Paid to play the game cannot they have a right to be upset.

[StrikeOfLight]

This entire thread is a classic example of what is wrong with people in the MMO world right now. People complained about the current GCD visuals, so Bioware worked on the issue and changed it.

Someone made a good point, you can't currently copy toons onto the PTR so they just put it into game so everyone could try it out. It seems that a majority of people dislike these changes. (I am not one of them, I really like the new changes and hope they leave them in game for use)

So, people come to the forums to tell Bioware they don't like these changes. (Did I mention these changes came out YESTERDAY!!!!!!)

Bioware puts up a poll to get a general idea from everyone who visits the forums (giving a chance for those that don't like actually posting a chance to way in on the situation). No, it does NOT represent everyone in the game, but the people that do come to the forums are those that want to be heard on the issues.

So, as Bioware reads the forums and takes in all the feedback on the change made YESERDAY!!!!! You all start the raging about it... just as a common sense response to a few of you people... no they didn't have this at launch because they thought a lighter color scheme would work.. you asked for something different so they are trying that now... someone all caps raged about Bioware ignoring their customers and not responding to this issue... did I mention they put in these changes YESTERDAY!!!!! Just b/c YOU don't like it doesn't mean the other MILLION people don't get a say in the matter. And those that are "in pain" from it... that sucks and would really make me mad... but do you expect them to bring down the entire game for the few people that might be having this issue... that isn't right either.., have patience and act like your mother taught you some manners.

Its true, Bioware is new to the MMO market and it shows alittle... but they are also doing a damn fine job and made a damn fine game... so why not chill out, give them a minute to look at the situation that came up YESTERDAY!!! and if you hate this all so much, feel free to leave... There are plenty of people that enjoy this game and are grateful for the work that Bioware is doing to improve the game that is been out a MONTH AND A HALF and has features it took Wow years to get.

Maybe its time for the newly formed SWTOR community to just RELAX!

 

I can't "RELAX!" when I have a migraine the size of TEXAS.

Edited February 8, 2012 by StrikeOfLight

[MaximusRex]

On the Subject of the UI changes, to me the perfect way to set it up would be to revert it to the way it was prior to the most recent patch, but the heavy white line from the trailing edge from the current patch added to the previous CD sweep for better visibility. I would like to see the sweep changed from a top to bottom sweep to a radial sweep, this helps prevent the sweep edge from being confused with the frame of the UI. Finally lose the Flash for the Global CD but do have individual abilities flash when they come off CD. The entire UI flashing is distracting and counter productive to to the goal of being able to tell what just became available.

 

So, in list form:

 

1. Abilities always lit when you have the resources

2. Radial Sweep with a strong White Line at the trailing edge

3. Only individual abilities flash when they come off CD, GCD should just have a standard sweep and no flash. (Flash could be replaced by some other method of highlighting the ability, such as the icon sizes up then back down as an example)

[Ahrounmoon]

^ Yes. This.

 

Agreed, this would work.

[Fentz]

you need to add options so people can choose the version they want, if you change it again and not add any options, people who liked this one won't be able to use it.

 

you really need to start doing this OR start supporting addons

[Tierce]

(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.)

 

You guys need to give us premade 50s or ability to copy characters from our live server to the test server if you want us to test. There is not enough incentive for people to give up their time to level a character on the test server. I mean, at least give us a very significantly expedited leveling process. Multiply all XP gains by 5 or maybe even 10. You're not getting testing feedback on the test server because there are hardly any people playing on it and definitely very few level 50s. Plus, the patches are going out so frequently, people don't have time to level a 50 AND test all the new stuff each week. I would also bet that due to the huge inconvenience of how the test server is setup, a large portion of your players are people trying to find exploits with no intention of tell you about them so that they can take advantage when the patch goes live.

 

Throw us a bone, help us help you. If you want to have honest people interested in testing willing to give up their time to do this every week with all your new patches, you need to make it a hell of a lot easier to get a level 50 on the test server that we can test with.

[Skauron]

Tonight i do not feel like playing.. it is not because i'm tired.. it is not because the game lacks action, it is quite simply that such a major change has been made that makes the UI disgusting to look at. I am playing a Sith Juggernaut alt and am around level 39 at the time of writing this post and the cooldowns now display in such a way that it feels incorrect in what it is showing. I am able to use abilities before the icon is bright again and the bright blue 'time remaining' and the flashing has got to be one of the most annoying changes i've seen in ANY mmo ui.. since i started playing them years ago, and i've played a good many of them.

 

If i wanted to be distracted in such a way by bright lights and flashy things, i'll shine a torch in my face thank you!

 

Til then, please, ftlog stop trying to improve the things that are working just fine and concentrate on what he community is screaming is actually wrong. For now though, you can add this new 'GCD' change to that list. :/

 

I have ignored many things that need fixing, i've not complained about any of them.. but this change i'm afraid brougth me to the forums to plead at least for someone to be reasonable about it.

[matthiro]

Beta/Release CD's/UI was great and I have no idea why someone thought it was a good idea to touch the UI/GCD. KISS (Keep it simple stupid) if it isn't broken you don't fix it!

[EternalFinality]

I liked the part when they blamed the PTR testers for letting this abomination go live, when the TOR PTR is one of the worst testing environments in MMO history.

 

Is this some kind of tacit admission they have no internal testing? Is this a joke?

Edited February 8, 2012 by EternalFinality

[Gedierond]

Might as well leave my opinion here, to quell the raging a bit.

 

I like the new animation, looks nice and it does a good job in letting you know when an ability goes off CD. I do agree, though, that the abilities that you could do if they weren´t on CD (the ones you possess the resources for) should not be greyed out during the CD bar animation.

I don´t mind if this animation applies to the GCD also, but if people want a different animation for the GCD and longer CD´s, that´s fine by me too. I guess the abilities that suffer the GCD could use a darker animation.

 

Just my two cents. No need to rage about this, guys!

[pangwl]

solution: just slap a small countdown timer on abilities icon (in red)

 

best of both worlds

Edited February 8, 2012 by pangwl

[Xehoz]

Since GCD is short, and most abilities cannot be used while GCD is ticking, greying out the unavailable actions makes sense.

 

No, it doesn't. There's an option to queue the next skill. In order to queue the next skill (when low on force/heat/energy) you need to know what's available/possible to cast. It's as simple as that.

[StrikeOfLight]

I liked the part when they blamed the PTR testers for letting this abomination go live, when the TOR PTR is one of the worst testing environments in MMO history.

 

Is this some kind of tacit admission they have no internal testing? Is this a joke?

 

Nope. Not a joke. This is how they roll, over there at Bioware.

[Vhaegrant]

I can't play long enough at the moment to comment on how it effects your planning for upcoming abilities. To be honest I'm pretty on the ball with what should and shouldn't be available at any particular time.

 

My issue is with the high contrast colour scheme and the the flashing every 1.5 seconds. With all four ability bars up (two along the bottom and one either side of the screen), and as a 50th level Powertech nearly all 48 boxes are full, this places a nasty strobe effect in my peripheral vision.

 

The net effect is to cause a mild sense of nausea within one combat.

 

Previous to this I could play for ridiculously long periods of time (see below).

 

While i'm not a great fan of the thickness of the cool down line and the forced shadow depth above it I could live with them if the colour was made customisable. The white is too severe, I would much prefer a lower opacity or the ability to choose a softer colour. Personally I'd go with a dull red.

 

It's unfortunate to note that this little UI fix has made the game unplayable for me at this time.

 

I feel that in the interest of full disclosure I should mention that I play on a 24" LCD LED iiyama E24473HDS monitor with at least 36" distance between eyes and screen.

 

I have had no contrast issue with any other recent game (Battlefield 3, Skyrim) despite many hours of gaming.

 

Over the holiday period I managed to invest a single 27 hour session to playing SWTOR with no ill effects.

 

I'm really happy for the folk who are not having an issue with eye strain or nausea and wish I could be playing SWTOR.

Edited February 8, 2012 by Vhaegrant

[KidRaid]

I don't mind too much the new changes

but

I am still having a hard time figuring what is going to be ready after the GDC. It might be me but I tend to have enough to do looking at my health scanning to see if my healers drew agro looking at the ... well you get the picture.

 

Well so my question is why have a GDC at all? just let me click an unready power , put a outline on it and fire it when the cooldown is over. Make the power that are in their own cooldown dark.

 

This way I will be able to quickly know wich powers are available. At worse I will have a 1.5 second whe the power will be outlined and then it will fire.

[Xehoz]

Beta/Release CD's/UI was great and I have no idea why someone thought it was a good idea to touch the UI/GCD. KISS (Keep it simple stupid) if it isn't broken you don't fix it!

 

Yeap, if it's not customizable, you have to KISS and as discrete as possible.

[realID]

My issue with it is the same as most of my issues with many of things you do Bioware.

 

You make the choice for me.

 

I dislike it. I liked 1.1.1 much better. Heck, I liked 1.1.0 better.

 

So my question to you is this... Why not, instead of forcing one and only one new format on us, give us all of them as options. There was nothing wrong in 1.1.1, I could see and tell everything I needed to see. This "Everything is blacked out during GCD" is little more than an annoyance. I'm glad some people like it and I don't want them to lose the option to keep using it... But I would like the option to keep using the version I liked as well.

 

Also I weep for anybody prone to epileptic seizures...

 

 

Suggestions (for both this and improving the PTR)

 

Suggestion One: Just because it deserves repeating, stop forcing things on us, give us options! Players love options! Let them pick what they want (cough hi-res graphics, UI, etc. etc. All things where BIOWARE made the choice for the PLAYER)

 

Suggestion Two: I'm busy running heroics/raiding/playing with my friends, I don't have the time to level up a duplicate character on the PTR and get him in the same gear as my current toon and then see how I feel about things. Every major PTR patch should be followed with the option/ability to copy over the current and/or recent version of at least one if not multiple characters we actually play.

 

Suggestion Three: The bright flashiness REALLY needs to go first and foremost.

-If I'm in range and the ability can be used, it should be the normal button appearance.

-If I'm out of range, lack the resources, and/or simply can't use that ability right now (but not due to the GCD) then the ability should be darkened out about as heavily as you have everything darken out with the current UI implementation.

-If the only reason I can't use an ability is because it is on cooldown then give players the option to either have the scrolling down blackness (similar to 1.1.1) and/or a heavily darkened box with a yellow number ticking down until it's off cooldown.

-If the only thing preventing me from using an ability is the GCD, then a very light darkening (greying?) out would be acceptable.

-Find and pay an epileptic person to sit down and play with the UI before you push it to the masses.

 

Suggestion Four: API... Yes, addons. Players care about the game Bioware, we can actually help you with this. We want to make it look better and many of us can and would do so... if you give us the option. Blizzard's base UI sucks, but they don't have to worry about it because there are so many UI customization addons out there that anyone can find something that makes them perfectly happy... Less work for Blizzard and every customer is happy... Hint.. hint...

Edited February 8, 2012 by realID

[gryhmr]

I'm actually frustrated that the issue of health in your customers isn't enough reason to bring down the servers and revert the change until you find a permanent fix. I cannot play this game right now.

[Jedeyemindtrick]

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.)

 

Call me lazy, but as much as I would like to help test the patch betas I do not have the time nor the inclination to create and level up a character(s) to 50 on PTS. Add to that even if I did level up most of the content and gear would be inaccessible due to a general lack of population on the PTS.

 

If you really want the player base to assist with your testing BW needs to expedite character copies or character templates on PTS. Until such time as you make it more convenient for people to migrate to and use the PTS you are going to continue to end up with the live servers being your test bed for patches.

[alifaraaz]

I've voted I don't care because it seemed the most right - even though I do care. Rather I feel very neutral about it:

 

It has made it clearer to see what's on CD and what's not, in particular spells with long cooldowns.

 

However, the GCD animation can be annoying, as when I'm using several instants - I can't see what will be ready for use after the GCD is done. And really I want to have decided what button to press before the GCD is done, not after.

 

In summary - it was a solution to a problem that unfortunately came with a pretty nasty side-effect. Hopefully you guys understand what I mean and fix it in the near future In the mean time I'll deal with it, who knows it might improve my anticipation of what skill to use next.