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

[shadowfoxe]

i feel that changes are needed still to the way it coolsdown and icon visuals.

the Icon many times after becoming available again is dim

 

why does it not light back up fully to bright icon color (to the brightness of when you first start from out of combat?)

[Scar]

The bug on Ilum didn't need a poll, why the hell does this issue need a poll?

 

Because the bugs on Ilum were an exploit. And they had repercussions throughout the entire game. This is an opinion, and doesn't effect everyone.

Edited February 8, 2012 by Scar

[Fieryabyss]

The new animations need to be taken off the GCD and that's it. If your eyes hurt, you need to stop clicking and staring at your hotbars or learn how to keybind/keymap like previous have said.

 

The new animations work wonderfully for anything that actually has a cool down. It was extremely hard to tell even if the CD had <3 seconds, if it actually was up. Now it basically hits you in the face, seeing it in your peripherals.

 

The entire hotbar does'nt need to get revamped, just take it off the GCD

 

BH Healer here with a Razor Naga fully keymapped to all my bars. I dont stare at my bars and this still affects me because 3 edges of my screen flash every 1.5 seconds even when using my free heals. This has nothing to do with nubs needing to l2p. It has to do with a massive company releasing a feature on its product that makes many people, not just a minority, have adverse affects from it including being physically ill.

[GamewizX]

Glow doesn't need to be long. Just a subtle short reminder is what I think would be ideal. ANYTHING but the current DiscoFunk mode.

 

I'd rather hear the Dumb and Dumber "most annoying sound in the world" sound when my cooldowns are up than deal with this flash.

 

/shrug I'm of the opinion that the current system works for the ability cooldowns, but that's just a matter of personal taste. The GCD does need to be fixed, however.

[Achromatis]

I think you should give us a way to toggle on or off the changes. Thats all, just let us either show or hide hotbar "feedback" on cooldowns and whatnot.

 

Alternatively, change the "flash" to a subtle pulsing.

Edited February 8, 2012 by Achromatis

[DaxRendar]

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...

 

I like the new mechanics over the old ones, but agree with this poster on the issues with it.

 

Take some time and modify the UI so that A SINGLE BUTTON (and only that single button) flashes brightly when it comes off Cooldown.

 

Make the GCD tracker more subtle and use colors to differentiate between Abilities that are unusable because you are out of range, lack resources (Energy, Rage, etc), are On Cooldown, or not currently available (Riposte, Quickdraw, etc).

[gryhmr]

Because the bugs on Ilum were an exploit. And they had repercussions throughout the entire game. This is an opinion, and doesn't effect everyone.

 

yeah it only makes some people physically ill with dizziness, nausea, and headache. no big deal. why fix it today?!

[Mugo]

During GCD, now I don't see what will be available resource wise once GCD finishes.

 

Disaster!

[Alodar]

My favourtie iteration of the UI was the one available at release.

 

I found the first change was alright but it was difficult for me to determine when long cooldowns were over.

 

The second change is more visual but I find the flash really annoying. (I voted They're terrible in the poll)

 

IMHO:

 

1. Start with the original UI.
    
    
   
2. Currrently usable abilities should be normal brightness.
    
    
   
3. Unusable abilities, due to lack of resources or unmet conditions should be greyed out.
    
    
   
4. Abilities on cooldown should use the same cooldown timer that BioWare used in Dragon Age Orgins with the grey becoming bright in a clock face sweep animantion. ( I suggest this because the sweep down animation can be difficult to see once in gets to the bottom)
    
    
   
5. Use the sweep down animation for the global cooldown but it doesn't have to be flashy. Global cooldown happens after most abilities are activated, so it doesn't have draw attention to itself (most folks have the default .5 second delay set up and are activating the next ability before it is over anyway.)
   

 

I played last night on a new Consular and a 50th level Jedi Knight and the UI was only really annoying for the Jedi Knight. That's because the Consular only had 7 or so abilities on the tool bar -- the Jedi Guardian had 3 full tool bars plus the companion tool bar open and the flash was more annoyingly strobe like.

 

People who tried this out on the test server wouldn't have seen the full effect unless they had a high level character.

 

I believe a high prioirity on BioWare's list should be to enable the copying of existing characters to the test server. IMHO it is a lot to ask a paying customer to put the time in on a character that could be wiped at any time. The ability to copy existing characters would result in BioWare getting much better feedback from the PTS.

 

 

 

Keep up the great work and thanks for being so supportive of our concerns.

 

 

Alodar

[Seref]

The sweep is fine but the GCD flash is awful and distracting. IMO, the only time an icon should flash is upon completion of an extended (i.e., non-GCD) cooldown.

 

Also Bioware, please take this situation as a point of serious consideration for third party UI addons. It would save everyone time and headaches if little things like this could simply be handled by the community.

[potmonkey]

The current system doesn't make me sick or annoy me too much, but the OmniCC / Cooldown Count style would be 10x better in my opinion, so I voted terrible. I've seen that suggested a lot and it's something I find a real pain not having since migrating from WoW.

 

This is why a lot of people hope you start taking modding serious. Don't worry about trying to be the end all for everyone, let the community help you solve these issues and give people choice.

[Nijle]

 

I believe a high prioirity on BioWare's list should be to enable the copying of existing characters to the test server. IMHO it is a lot to ask a paying customer to put the time in on a character that could be wiped at any time. The ability to copy existing characters would result in BioWare getting much better feedback from the PTS.

 

 

 

Keep up the great work and thanks for being so supportive of our concerns.

 

 

Alodar

 

Well said sir, well said.

[Lashknife]

The previous system, where abilities lit up even when they were on cooldown, was quite annoying. However, as much as I enjoy the new system, I would settle with the previous one if people are having a physical, adverse affect because of it. Nobody should be physically impacted from playing due to a change that can very well be done differently with just some more time.

[Thesseract]

People ARE saying this because they believe Bioware should be able to fix this immediately. Unfortunately that's impossible, so I was countering the request to shut down the servers and fix ASAP. That equates to shutting down the servers and having the game be down before a fix is even ready.

 

A change to the GCD animations should definitely happen. That is the thing causing the physical issue for some people. The ability cooldowns are infrequently enough that it's not the cause of the problem and are instead a matter of personal taste. The people with physical effects need to realize it takes time to fix this, so their best bet is to just hold off on playing until then. Does it suck? Yes. But there is no way to force Bioware to expedite the change any faster than the steps they are currently taking.

 

You weren't only saying that Bioware can't do the fix immediatly. For all anybody knows they could shut down the servers and do a rollback right now. Equally it might be impossible. In which case Bioware should just say so.

 

You were also saying/implying that because the people who find the game unplayable are a minority that even if they can do this they shouldn't.

 

I tried explaining to you that just because an issues affects a minority doesn't mean servers shouldn't be shut down to fix it. In other words to me 10% of paying customers not being able to play for 10 hours = 100% not being able to play for an hour. Yet you insist on arguing with me.

 

To clarify: Nobody is saying bioware should indescriminantly shut down servers.

 

You seem to be saying 3 different things.

 

1. Bioware can't simply shut down servers and do a rollback. - This is just speculation on your part.

 

2. People are saying to shut down the servers and do a rollback. - They are but clearly only if Bioware can do #1.

 

3. Even if they can shut down the servers and do a rollback they shouldn't based on majority rules. - This is your argument.

 

I'm not sure why you keep repeating point #1 as if it's true because it's just speculation on your part. Obviously point #2 doesn't apply if point 1 isn't true so why do you keep bringing it up?

 

Now if you want to argue point #3 I will do that.

Edited February 8, 2012 by Thesseract

[Melwyn]

I HATE THE NEW UI GLOBAL COOLDOWN SYSTEM and you should to..

 

I play an operative healer and for one skills that are instant are coming up with global cooldown and causing them to be grayed out when they should be instant as soon as i get tactical advantage, but no they are delayed causing a huge issue. The global cooldown also causes abilities to flash every freaking second i mean gimme a break its annoying. And on top of that you never know what skills are ready now ( since i am a IA medic and use tactical advantage once again a big problem not knowing what is ready to be used). Using an ability causes everything on your UI bar to go grey and they don't come back in until after global cooldown is back. I spam my heals like any other healer i know all of you must be annoyed by this not just Imperial Operatives , but with us having tactical advantage its that much worse.

 

Please change this as soon as possible you guys are going the wrong way with these patches and updates your making the game worse...

[Striker_KOJ]

It is now very easy to see what abilities are on cooldown and how long they have. HOWEVER, it would be MUCH cleaner to have a countdown timer with numbers over the top of the button or at least a 3-2-1 countdown when it is over. I absolutely hate having to spam because I can't tell if it is off cd or nearly off cd.

 

The flash at the end NEEDS TO GO. It is just random nonsense that I don't need in my life. When each ability finishes cd, it should immediately return to its normal full color state. No glitz no glam, just go back to normal. Trust me, the players who know what they are doing will see that we can use our abilities without this flashing crap.

 

I agree with you.

 

However, I feel like Bioware doesn't trust that the players "know what they are doing". Tell me I am exagerating all you want, but when a company comes out and tells their customers that the reason why we have a poorly thought out and poorly implemented product (in this case the revised ability cooldown animiations) is because of a failure on the customers part, that doesn't inspire any confidence in the company.

 

As a loosely applicable analogy, this is like Toyota saying it was the customers fault that the gas pedal would stick and people would crash because there wasn't enough test drives out of the dealer. (Loosely applicable, calm down haters).

 

It is not OUR responsibility to code your game, Bioware. The test server is obviously a potentially useful mechanism to get customer feedback, but don't give us your conceited crap that its OUR fault that you made a poor product, addimitedly received minimal feedback, and put it in place anyway, without a contingency to quickly revert the change if the admittedly minimally reviewed product is crap.

 

I'm so tired of Bioware's arrogance. I in no way expect Bioware to be perfect and never make mistakes, but stop shifting the balme to the "players" when the decisions that YOU make are not well received.

 

"Geez, this would be the greatest game ever if we didn't have all these foolish dissatisfied customers...."

[TheZen]

The new flash animation is nice but the general darkened of the icons are terrible.

 

It makes it a lot harder to see which abilities are actually unavailable vs those that are.

[Vagren]

Simply put:

 

Global cooldown should be shown by the top to bottom swipe.

 

Ability cooldown should be shown by dimming the ability.

 

 

Any other features (countown timers, etc.) are simply extra and could also cause clutter. I hate having all of my abilities dimmed because of global cooldown so I don't know what I will be able to activate as soon as GCD is over.

[ArtosKincaid]

Please just give us the ability to put cooldown numbers on any skill with a cooldown longer than 1.5 seconds. You can grey out the button when we don't have enough of the appropriate resource, and turn it red if we have enough of the resource but we're out of range.

 

If we have to stop and think about what the highlights and shadings mean the UI isn't doing its job.

[toekneeg]

As dps sorc I didn't have any problems. Too much flashiness tho. Only apply animation to the ability being used and on cooldown. Also, add some sort of numerical timer so we can tell easily at a glance how much time is left before the ability is ready again.

 

Also, please make our own rebuffs on targets bigger so we can tell when they are running out so we can reapply them. Hard to know who's debuffs are whose with 4 sorcs in a raid.

[iCanUseTheForce]

The updated UI makes it difficult to see which abilities will be off CD before the GCD fades. It's a constant action bar flash & fade that's annoying. With my sentinel and assassin I am constantly spamming spells and the new UI makes it impossible to see if I have the focus or force to use an ability prior to it being off the GCD. And I can't plan ahead by seeing the time left on a longer CD.

[ptwonline]

all these people that say this new animation is hurting their eyes turn down the gama it helped a ton so its not so bright also try keybidning your skills I know where all my skills are you dont need to look at your bar if you keymap everything. also the new change is great it is really easy to see when longer cd skills are off cd. Before if you had 30s or so left on a 3min cd it still looked like it was ready to use.

 

I tried lowering gamma, brightness, contrast. The problem is that the GCD wipe is so bright against the darkened icons, the flash at the end, and then also SO MANY icons at the same time with that bright wipe and flash. It's too much. The bright-dark-bright pattern across the bars every 1.5 secs is too much, even with the brightness turned way down.

 

Keybinding your abilities is only part of the story. Different classes have different levels of need to stare towards the ability bar and buff/debuff area right above it. For example, on my Jedi Shadow a core ability I have to re-use some time between 12 and 20 seconds, and the way to tell when to re-use it is to watch the buff icon like a hawk. How is knowing my keybinding going to help me with that? I also have key abilities on 8 and 15 second CDs that are crucial to re-use, and because of their timing difference a simple, set rotation is not easy to make.

 

Since my main abilities are on relatively long timers not only is it difficult to get a set rotation/rhythm, but I also have to use other abilities as filler but the priority depends on many different things: enemy health level (different levels = different abilities), how much Force I have left, how many stacks of another buff I have generated, and my own health levels to determine whether or not I need to prioritize attacks that will let me heal. NONE of those things can be determined by simply keybinding. I HAVE to look constantly at the bottom of the screen because all of the relevant info is there.

 

That's why Power Auras was so popular in WoW: you could put relevant info around your character on the screen to pull your eyes away from the bars. This game would benefit greatly from that.

Edited February 8, 2012 by ptwonline

[Keta]

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.

 

 

What he and others want is a simple acknowledgement that they're aware there are problems with the UI making people sick and that they're working on resolving that aspect. So far there's been nothing that remotely resembles that. "We're going to make changes" could simply be minor tweaks to make some abilities clearer doesn't address whether there's a fix enroute for those who are getting physically ill from their game. And the longer they wait to make that acknowledgement, the more people are going to believe that Stephen and BW just don't care or flat out don't believe them.

[jcyrus]

Personally I really like the changes.

 

It took a lot of guesswork out of wondering when my abilities will be ready, especially those abilities that were displaying incorrectly.

[FearNight]

I vote that you give us the ability to switch between the 3 UI iterations in our preferences. I would select the option of the original UI. With the current 1.1.2 UI, my Operative utilizing tactical advantage procs is almost unplayable. The only thing that allows me to still play is when using my standard ability rotation that doesn't require looking down.

 

If my tactical advantage procs mid GCD, I need to be able to see it light up instantly. Instead, I have to wait until the GCD blacked-out animation finishes, and then survey my abilities to see what's ready. This is horribly inefficient compared to the previous UI iterations.

Edited February 8, 2012 by FearNight