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

[trickfred]

Personally I think it's completely backwards to have skills highlighted when you cannot use them, they should be highlighted when you CAN use them. I don't mind the new system, but the extra highlighting added around the skills should show up when the skill is ready to be used, and not when it's charging. I can live without the ready flashes as well.

[Fizil]

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).

 

If you'd like to give us constructive feedback on changes to the UI and the global cooldown animations, we'd welcome that in this thread. Discussions about the poll or other aspects of development aren't appropriate.

 

There were several threads about this on the PTS Forums. The reason you don't see a lot of activity there is that HARDLY ANYONE PLAYS ON THE PTS. You need to add character transfers ASAP to fix that. No one wants to level up an alt on a server with no one on it. Those of us who HAVE done so, and post feedback, just get ignored. The only things that get attention are things that are controversial because of the patch notes, not because of what people have experienced on the PTS.

[profaneascension]

The state of any given button should fall within these four categories:

 

 

NOT ENOUGH RESOURCE / OUT OF RANGE

 

The icon is darkened.

 

 

READY TO USE AND WITHIN RANGE

 

The icon is at 100% brightness.

 

 

ABILITY IS ON COOLDOWN

 

A numerical counter is laid over the icon, indicating how many seconds are left until the ability is off CD.

 

 

GLOBAL COOLDOWN IS IN EFFECT

 

A vertical descending shadow effect is laid over the icon, except for abilities that ignore GCD.

 

 

 

I really don't understand why the GCD effect is given such visual prominence, considering it's always in effect after a skill is executed, and it's always going to last 1.5 seconds. It's one thing to count the seconds left on a skill with a 9-second cooldown when you have other skills on similarly long cooldowns, but a 1.5 delay that is almost always applicable really shouldn't be that hard to count in your head, especially when most people have a .5 second buffer anyway.

[StrikeOfLight]

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.

 

They obviously don't care that they are causing people like you and I and hundreds of others actual pain, do they?

 

Like I said earlier, someone is going to get pissed enough to sue over a seizure. Until then, they apparently couldn't care less.

 

Please PLEASE prove me wrong Bioware. Say something. Anything. Just acknowledge that there is a problem and say you will at least work on it.

Edited February 8, 2012 by StrikeOfLight

[keltonz]

I dislike the new UI a lot.

 

There are two main problems:

 

One: The Global Cooldown causes ALL abilities to flash when it's up. This means all of your bars will flash white every 1.5 seconds.

 

Two: Using ANY ability causes all of your abilities to go grey and they don't fade back in until after the Global Cooldown is up. This is a huge problem when you're a class that spams abilities every second, such as a Jedi Sentinel. Basically, the abilities never light back up and are in a constant state of fading grey and flashing. Because of this, you can't tell what abilities are ready, whether or not you're in range, or if you have enough resources to use the ability.

 

I play a Sentinel and it is almost impossible to determine when abilities are off cooldown. During my hardmode raid last night, my entire UI was constantly greyed out or flashing, which made it impossible to determine which abilities could be activated.

 

I could not monitor Merciless Slash, Cauterize, Overload Saber and Zealous Strike properly. I basically had to guess when each was ready to use. The other raiding Sentinel in my guild was having the same issues.

 

And don't get me started on the flashing every 1.5 seconds...

 

As a mirror class to Sentinel (Marauder) I totally agree with above post.

 

My suggestion is to return to the original UI, but with one added change: Instead of having the cooldown timer scroll from top to bottom, which makes it hard to see near the bottom, have one that is radial. Its difficult to describe, but imagine something like the dying pacman animation:

 

Pacman Animation

 

But instead of being just a circle, it would occupy the entire ability faceplate.

 

With no enemies targetted, and nothing on CD, everything would be normal. As soon as you target something, abilities that are out of range would turn red, and abilities that lack the proper resources would turn dark grey (if both out of range and no resources, priority on no resources).

 

When an ability is used, a faint white Radial cooldown marker as I described would animate over every ability on GCD.

 

When an ability is on CD, it would grey out slightly and play the same cooldown marker as described above, with the appropriate time.

 

I like the radial idea better because it is easier to see than the line that moves top to bottom. When the line is very close to the bottom, its hard to see it. With the radial, even when the timer is at a very low value, it will still span from one edge (depends on animation, my suggestion is start/end point is top) to the center.

 

When the ability comes of GCD, no animation is played. When an ability comes of CD from use, it makes a subtly white sparkle. This will prevent the flashing of the current system, where every ability flashes when it comes of GCD.

 

I hope that makes sense!

[VelumArgentum]

I basically agree with all the constructive criticism that I've read so far on this thread.

 

As a Sith Juggernaut, I'm having a really tough time deciphering when my abilities are ready for use. Please correct this. I had no issue with the way the GUI was before.

 

That being said, the poster above me who suggested the cooldown radial to sweep across the ability rather than top to bottom is an excellent idea.

 

 

Finally... I'm really tired of reading all these posts that "Bioware sux" or "Bioware doesnt give a fux."

 

Give it a goddamn rest. The game's been out for a month and a half, and as the front-page news suggests, there have already been 27,000 years of in-game playing. Just think about how many support tickets/issues the team has had to deal with. They can't continuously hire new people to deal with these things, ad infinitum.

 

I think they are doing a stellar job, and aside from a few hiccups, I'm enjoying my investment and my time in-game immensely.

 

Also, remember that this is a PC game, where the dev team has to optimize the game for billions of possible hardware configurations. This isn't a console. If you want optimization out of the box for a incredibly complex game... go play your xbox. Oh wait, right. That thing is running on 6 year old tech, and can't even come near the complexity of gaming on a PC.

 

Quit your ************, and let Bioware do their thing.

[Jivefenix]

Hi everyone,

 

I wanted to let you know that we will be deploying a patch tomorrow (details coming very soon) with the following resolutions:

 

• Killing players on Ilum will now consistently grant Valor and mission credit as intended.
  

 

Once again, thank you for your patience.

 

Though this is about Ilum hopefully they will change the UI back as well. Maybe I'll be able to play without a headache soon, but I'm not getting my hopes up

[Lord_Karsk]

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).

 

If you'd like to give us constructive feedback on changes to the UI and the global cooldown animations, we'd welcome that in this thread. Discussions about the poll or other aspects of development aren't appropriate.

 

When we can copy chars over to the test server then you will get plenty of feedback.

[Dwimmerlaik]

I voted for "They're terrible," but with a caveat.

 

In WoW, a mandatory addon I used was called OmniCC. It simply added a numerical countdown to abilities that were on cooldown. This would be absolutely perfect, in my opinion. In addition, the post-GCD 'flash' that abilities do now is distracting and a little annoying. It doesn't necessarily show you what's off cooldown when it ends, but rather after it ends.

[nonamesleft]

I wouldn't say terrible or good. Playing as a marauder the old system was terrible as abilities on 30 seconds to a minute cool down are used constantly and it was unclear when an ability with a relatively long cool down was ready or had a few seconds left. This new system can be jarring at times, but I find it easier to use abilities on long cool downs the second they are available and not before. An option to manually adjust the lights and whistles to each players preference would be better, a modable UI would be ideal. Edited February 8, 2012 by nonamesleft

[fadingdimension]

This doesn't have to be a war. Can't everyone just agree that an individual choice is the best solution? Everyone gets what they want. Shouldn't that be the end of it?

 

Half your customers want hamburgers and half want hot-dogs. Add them both to the menu.

 

Instead of arguing with eachother we can just unify behind this idea and show Bioware there's only one real option for them.

[HarvardAce]

There are 2 different factors into making something castable, as I see it: CD and "everything else", which includes target type, range, and resource constraints. I don't think separating "everything else" would add much value.

 

The goal should be that you can immediately deduce the status of both of those factors (CD and "everything else") with a peripheral look at your ability bar.

 

The first version only distinguished between "castable" and "not castable" and didn't distinguish whether it was due to CD or due to anything else. This was sub-ideal because it wasn't clear when an ability came off cooldown if you would be able to cast it due to other constraints.

 

The second version made it clear on the "everything else" category -- lit if there were no "everything else" constraints, unlit otherwise. The issue with the second version was that it was hard to see the CD on abilities with long cooldowns. For abilities that only had a GCD, this wasn't a huge issue because if you couldn't tell you would likely be in the "queue" window, but for longer CD's (especially >1 m) the sliver of a bar left could still mean 3+ seconds left before you could cast the ability, and that sliver was really hard to see unless you were staring right at the ability.

 

The newest version once again makes it similar to the first iteration, where it is hard to tell if you have an "everything else" restriction on an ability if it is on CD, because the CD graphic also dims the icon (just not as much as the "everything else" restriction does). Additionally, the new graphic is a bit obnoxious with the flashing.

 

My suggestion on how to fix it would be the following:

 

1) If the ability is castable immediately, lit up, with a thin non-obnoxious white border around the icon (such that it doesn't appear to "flash").

2) If the ability is not castable due to range, target, or resource constraints, give it a clear red color shift.

3) If the ability is not castable due to cooldown, dim it 50% and do the normal CD overlay that "empties" over time.

4) If the ability is on CD *and* is restricted for any other reason, do both filters (red filter, dim, and the CD overlay).

 

For an added bonus, if the ability is otherwise castable except for the CD, and the time remaining on the CD is less than the "ability queue" setting, give it a yellow border, so we know if we click on it, it will cast when the ability is off CD.

 

Another option would be to do the CD graphic for GCDs but anything effected by only a GCD would not lose the white border.

 

Best option would be to give us the choice to customize the overlays for CD/"everything else" as I would imagine one size will not fit all here.

[DarthKeredias]

Though this is about Ilum hopefully they will change the UI back as well. Maybe I'll be able to play without a headache soon, but I'm not getting my hopes up

 

Sounds to me that they pretty much have to at this point

[GamewizX]

They obviously don't care that they are causing people like you and I and hundreds of others actual pain, do they?

 

Like I said earlier, someone is going to get pissed enough to sue over a seizure. Until then, they apparently couldn't care less.

 

That isn't the issue. Here is what they are dealing with when they have no current ETA as to when they can fix it:

 

a) Shut down the servers for the extreme minority of players experiencing physical effects from the UI changes until they are able to implement a change (no you can't just "roll back" changes that easily) that corrects the issue at hand.

 

b) Keep the servers running, those who have physical effects can choose not to currently play while Bioware investigates the issue and looks for a proper solution.

 

Option a) keeps EVERYONE from playing while option b) only keeps those with physical problems from playing. NEITHER option will expedite a solution to the problem, as that solution will come at the same rate regardless of option chosen.

 

That means there is absolutely no logical reason to bring down the servers for a patch UNTIL the patch is ready to go. Just because a fix isn't ready within 24-48 hours of people raising concern over it doesn't mean Bioware doesn't care or that they are doing nothing about it. The conspiracy theories aren't productive and do nothing to help with the problem at hand.

[keltonz]

ABILITY IS ON COOLDOWN

 

A numerical counter is laid over the icon, indicating how many seconds are left until the ability is off CD.

 

 

GLOBAL COOLDOWN IS IN EFFECT

 

A vertical descending shadow effect is laid over the icon, except for abilities that ignore GCD.

 

I disagree with these two ideas for reason already mentioned in my post, but I'll mention them here directly.

 

The number for cooldowns is too confusing. As a Marauder, I often have 10 abilities on CD at a given moment. Numbers are not intuitive - its a far better idea to have something like the vertical descending shadow effect you suggest for GCD.

 

However, the vertical descending shadow has problems of its own. When the shadow is near the bottom of the frame, it becomes very difficult to tell precisely when it comes off CD. My suggestion would be to have a radial animation, much like the animation of Pacman dying. When the timer has low value, you will still be able to see it because a large portion of it is not near the edge but also spans to the center of the frame.

 

Also, when abilities come of CD, a small sparkle/flash animation should play. Something far more subtle than what was in 1.1.2, but something. But this flash should not play for the GCD - that's just too much flashing!

Edited February 8, 2012 by keltonz

[StrikeOfLight]

That isn't the issue. Here is what they are dealing with when they have no current ETA as to when they can fix it:

 

a) Shut down the servers for the extreme minority of players experiencing physical effects from the UI changes until they are able to implement a change (no you can't just "roll back" changes that easily) that corrects the issue at hand.

 

b) Keep the servers running, those who have physical effects can choose not to currently play while Bioware investigates the issue and looks for a proper solution.

 

Option a) keeps EVERYONE from playing while option b) only keeps those with physical problems from playing. NEITHER option will expedite a solution to the problem, as that solution will come at the same rate regardless of option chosen.

 

That means there is absolutely no logical reason to bring down the servers for a patch UNTIL the patch is ready to go. Just because a fix isn't ready within 24-48 hours of people raising concern over it doesn't mean Bioware doesn't care or that they are doing nothing about it. The conspiracy theories aren't productive and do nothing to help with the problem at hand.

 

You do not understand what I was talking about.

 

I simply want them to ACKNOWLEDGE it. They refuse.

[HarvardAce]

The state of any given button should fall within these four categories:

 

NOT ENOUGH RESOURCE / OUT OF RANGE

The icon is darkened.

 

 

READY TO USE AND WITHIN RANGE

The icon is at 100% brightness.

 

 

ABILITY IS ON COOLDOWN

A numerical counter is laid over the icon, indicating how many seconds are left until the ability is off CD.

 

 

GLOBAL COOLDOWN IS IN EFFECT

A vertical descending shadow effect is laid over the icon, except for abilities that ignore GCD.

 

This actually is the best suggestion I've seen, and I like it better than the one I just posted. It satisfies all needs, is very easy at a peripheral glance to see what is castable, provides much more useful information with a quick direct glance (how long is left on the CD rather than guestimating based on the height of the CD effect), and is not visually jarring for frequent effects (i.e. GCD).

[Thesseract]

That isn't the issue. Here is what they are dealing with when they have no current ETA as to when they can fix it:

 

a) Shut down the servers for the extreme minority of players experiencing physical effects from the UI changes until they are able to implement a change (no you can't just "roll back" changes that easily) that corrects the issue at hand.

 

b) Keep the servers running, those who have physical effects can choose not to currently play while Bioware investigates the issue and looks for a proper solution.

 

Option a) keeps EVERYONE from playing while option b) only keeps those with physical problems from playing. NEITHER option will expedite a solution to the problem, as that solution will come at the same rate regardless of option chosen.

 

That means there is absolutely no logical reason to bring down the servers for a patch UNTIL the patch is ready to go. Just because a fix isn't ready within 24-48 hours of people raising concern over it doesn't mean Bioware doesn't care or that they are doing nothing about it. The conspiracy theories aren't productive and do nothing to help with the problem at hand.

 

The only flaw however is that by your line or reasoning they should never shut down the servers for new patches ever unless keeping them on would cause the game to become unplayable for >50% of players. (Or you provide the threshold, at what point does bioware have to fix a mistake?)

 

You also ignore the fact the making the game unplayable for 10% of people for 10 hours is different than shutting down the servers for half an hour for everybody (These numbers are just an example and not meant to reflect reality).

 

The new patch caused the game to become unplayable for some players. Either refund their money or fix it asap.

Edited February 8, 2012 by Thesseract

[GamewizX]

You do not understand what I was talking about.

 

I simply want them to ACKNOWLEDGE it. They refuse.

 

What else do you want them to say? Stephen just acknowledged that a change is coming and wanted to get additional feedback while they work on a solution. Perhaps I just don't understand what you want from this.

[JacienOrdo]

That isn't the issue. Here is what they are dealing with when they have no current ETA as to when they can fix it:

 

a) Shut down the servers for the extreme minority of players experiencing physical effects from the UI changes until they are able to implement a change (no you can't just "roll back" changes that easily) that corrects the issue at hand.

 

b) Keep the servers running, those who have physical effects can choose not to currently play while Bioware investigates the issue and looks for a proper solution.

 

Option a) keeps EVERYONE from playing while option b) only keeps those with physical problems from playing. NEITHER option will expedite a solution to the problem, as that solution will come at the same rate regardless of option chosen.

 

That means there is absolutely no logical reason to bring down the servers for a patch UNTIL the patch is ready to go. Just because a fix isn't ready within 24-48 hours of people raising concern over it doesn't mean Bioware doesn't care or that they are doing nothing about it. The conspiracy theories aren't productive and do nothing to help with the problem at hand.

 

So now were conspiracy theorists for being annoyed we cant play and were getting no answers? I'll tell you what gets nothing done.. sitting in a corner quietly "Trusting" any sort of establishment. Your theory on them doing anything about it is just that. a guesstimate. They havent responded with anything other then an automated "were looking into it."

Edited February 8, 2012 by JacienOrdo

[Amp_]

The skill cooldowns were fine at launch. I don't know why you had to go and mess with them.

[Elror]

The state of any given button should fall within these four categories:

 

 

NOT ENOUGH RESOURCE / OUT OF RANGE

 

The icon is darkened.

 

 

READY TO USE AND WITHIN RANGE

 

The icon is at 100% brightness.

 

 

ABILITY IS ON COOLDOWN

 

A numerical counter is laid over the icon, indicating how many seconds are left until the ability is off CD.

 

 

GLOBAL COOLDOWN IS IN EFFECT

 

A vertical descending shadow effect is laid over the icon, except for abilities that ignore GCD.

 

 

 

I really don't understand why the GCD effect is given such visual prominence, considering it's always in effect after a skill is executed, and it's always going to last 1.5 seconds. It's one thing to count the seconds left on a skill with a 9-second cooldown when you have other skills on similarly long cooldowns, but a 1.5 delay that is almost always applicable really shouldn't be that hard to count in your head, especially when most people have a .5 second buffer anyway.

 

 

please do this.

[GamewizX]

The only flaw however is that by your line or reasoning they should never shut down the servers for new patches ever unless keeping them on would cause the game to become unplayable for >50% of player.

 

The new patch caused the game to become unplayable for some players. Either refund their money or fix it asap.

 

That is incorrect. I said shut down the servers once a new patch is ready to be deployed. People in this thread and the other major thread before it have stated many times that Bioware should shut the servers down. That serves no purpose if a solution isn't available yet.

 

Just because the servers are still up doesn't mean they aren't trying to fix it.

 

The only time you should bring down servers prior to a solution being implemented is to stop game-exploits that could break the game in major ways.

[StrikeOfLight]

Alright. I'll give it one more shot. Perhaps if I ask nicely...

[Ozono]

Hi, Thank god you guys asked our opinion about this, I have to say this new changes broke the game for me The Sith Marauder have a very specific and hard rotation, thats actually not a rotation because it depends on the abilities that become avaible and your rage the CURRENT deployed system DONT let me see accuratly when the cooldown is actually over, I mean the abilities become avaible much faster that is show on the UI, i know this because i can click the abilitie and use it before the flashing thingy stops, the previous UI was a lot better and more accurate that this one... this result in a DPS lost thats very obvious for me fix this fast please.

 

Beside that I just want to know WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO OPTIMIZE THIS GAME ?? i have a GTX 560 and I only got like 3-8 FPS on Illum and 10-12 FPS on Warzones? the code in the game is broke something is very wrong with all the developers that made this game and it really have to say that the BIOWARE brand name was let down with all this crappy perfomance issues that the game have now for 2 MONTHS!... seriously DO SOMETHING!