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

[gryhmr]

I think its a joke I cant play the game and they need a poll to tell them this was a bad idea.. when PVP on Illum is being fixed right away. I'll post here like I posted on the other thread with over 1000 posts on it. Forward your complaints here.. Yell at their boss' boss' boss' boss and maybe they'll get the hint.

 

To Lawrence F. Probst III - Chairman of the Board

EA Corporate Secretary

Electronic Arts Inc.

209 Redwood Shores Parkway

Redwood City, CA 94065

 

 

To the better business bureau.

3033 Wilson Blvd, Suite 600

Arlington, VA 22201

 

Got an email address for the EA exec? I would like to send him a lovely letter about how I get dizzy playing his company's product.

[shadowflit]

I'm afraid this comment may not be read as an explanation for my vote, but here goes anyways.

 

I voted option 3, because the changes were neither an improvement nor terrible in my opinion.

 

In the original cooldown bar, it was hard to tell which abilities were going to be usable when the GCD was over, that was not great. In 1.1 cooldown bar, that problem was solved, but it became hard to tell when long cooldowns were actually up, because "a couple seconds from finishing" and "available" were very hard to tell apart.

 

I think the 1.1.2 changes made some things easier, but introduced a lot of visual clutter and removed the 1.1 ease of being able to see what abilities are currently available once you wait out the GCD. With respect to the visual clutter, I hate the flashing, and am just trying not to look at my action bar as much as possible. My keybinds are mostly memorized, and keeping track of the GCD isn't too important, I just hit the next ability when the current one finishes. If there's a slight delay before seeing the ability go off, I assume I misjudged the cooldown availability and go to a different one. The only abilities I actually look at are the long (2m) cooldown ones. This seems like the change was not successful.

 

As for a constructive suggestion, here's my attempt. The original cooldown bar made it clear that abilities were not available by simply leaving them greyed out regardless of whether they were on cooldown or waiting on the GCD. The second cooldown bar made it easier to tell which abilities were only waiting on the GCD, as opposed to abilities that were waiting on the GCD and a cooldown. Why not use two different color overlays? For instance if something is on cooldown or conditions are not met to make it usable, overlay it with red. If something is waiting on the GCD but otherwise immediately usable, overlay it with blue. Make the cooldown (GCD or otherwise) a grey descending overlay on top of the other one. Seems like this would solve both problems to me.

Edited February 8, 2012 by shadowflit

[Nelle]

Hi folks,

 

We recently implemented a change to the global cooldown UI with Patch 1.1.2 and we realize that it has been a hot topic here in the Forums. In an effort to prioritize any new changes to the UI, we wanted to poll the community on their opinion of the current global cooldown UI. Please vote in the poll above! As a reminder, please only vote with the cooldown UI changes in mind.

 

 

Honestly the CD UI you guys had 2 patches ago was better then anything you've put forth now.

 

I really think you guys should get away with trying to show the Global Cool Down on every single slot/bar and focus on a true timer of abilities that have cool downs. Not the GCD.

 

Think Omni CC from that other MMO. Picture in the link.

 

http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/omni-cc

[Tikonderoga]

man. i really liked the new ui. i hope they don't cave and revert back to not bing able to tell when you 45s cd was ready to pop.

 

Can you read the poll question please?

 

Question is about "new changes to GLOBAL cooldown". It's not about cooldown for abilities that could be activated every 45-60-etc seconds. It's about annoying flashing you can see on all your buttons every 1.5 seconds.

 

* * * * *

 

I wonder who all these people voting "It's fine" - probably they all just didn't pay attention to actual question.

Edited February 8, 2012 by Tikonderoga

[BluesGun]

They are too bright now. We need an option to show the time remaining in seconds on the long cooldowns. Also they really need to differentiate spells that can't be used to to lack of rage/focus - everything just goes white every global cooldown.

[Davfor]

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...

 

^ This

[Posiden]

It wasn't as bad on my Combat Medic, but when I started playing my Sith Warrior alt I started to notice the real problem.

 

Because ALL abilities turn grey when you trigger the GCD, when you play a class that uses a rage mechanic it is very difficult to tell if you have enough rage to use a given ability when the GCD is expired. Especially since most of the Sith Warrior abilities are a red or darker color, it makes it a challenge to see which abilities you will be able to use when the GCD has expired.

 

The saddest part is that each attempt to "fix" it has only made it worse. I don't quite follow the logic of changing the entire GCD/Cooldown UI just for a few abilities (High Impact Bolt, Riposte, etc.). Why didn't you just develop a specific solution for those specific abilities as opposed to changing everything across the board?

Edited February 8, 2012 by Posiden

[njcook]

I know this will probably get lost in the sea of comments, but I need to say it anyway - Can't we go back to the original launch version of the animation? It was nice and simple, the GCD animation matched with the ability being grayed out if it wasn't usable, whether it was a condition thing (like not being behind someone) or it being on cool-down.

[JacienOrdo]

Got an email address for the EA exec? I would like to send him a lovely letter about how I get dizzy playing his company's product.

 

http://investors.ea.com/contactBoard.cfm#1

 

They say the email on there isnt for customer support but hey who am I to not tell people to mail there when its obvious alot of us arent really being heard or helped.

[GamewizX]

So the poll is pointless. Got it. We already knew that though.

 

I don't see how cracking intelligent jokes isn't "adult" or "mature." Adults don't like to laugh?

 

Cracking jokes is one thing. Insults and ridicule is completely separate. People aren't making jokes in some light-hearted manner and that's very obvious.

[Thesseract]

I too see no problem with jokes. I mean it's clearly Biowares own fault we are in this mess. They failed to properly test something before forcing it on everyone. They clearly should have made it optional. I think jokes are appropriate as long as they are at Bioware's expense (to help ease frustration) and not directed at people who disagree with your viewpoint regarding wether or not the new UI is good/bad. I mean since 2000 posts was not sufficient and bioware had to create a poll they must not really read these forums anyway.

 

I mean besides making fun of Bioware what else can I do. I can't get my money back for purchasing this game. I can't get the subscription fees I've already payed back.

Edited February 8, 2012 by Thesseract

[Jukken]

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...

 

+1

This is exactly what makes it suck. I play sniper and can't tell what is on timer or not. They are all black/gray and flashing. 'Series of Shots' is totally messed up.

[Razuko]

Reduce opacity on the blue global cooldown. Make individual ability cooldowns red. We also don't need to see the global cooldown on the sidebars imo. Make it only show on the bottom 2.

 

Or better yet, make the them selectable options so everyone can be happy...

 

And ffs enable character copy for our toons or premade 50s to the PTR or else things like this and Illum are going to continue being broken/not fixed/liked when patches hit live and only further causing disdain from the community and added stress on yourselves... The reason you guys don't get ptr feedback is because nobody is there to give it, and they never will be if it requires leveling up another character for the purpose of testing.

[vfrost]

is it hard to implement?

 

http://i40.tinypic.com/wbuijb.jpg

[Thatoneroo]

All I can say is make it optional. Please when you add a UI change don't force it on us. As a sith juggernaut who builds rage its really hard to see all my skills with how white they all become. Please make this a UI option.

[GRINnBARRETT]

is it hard to implement?

 

http://i40.tinypic.com/wbuijb.jpg

 

Exactly.

[dipstik]

I'm not sure if you PvE or PvP more, but for me a 30 second or longer timer never gets used twice unless it's a story arc fight or I am soloing something meant for a group. So being able to tell at a glance that a long timer is not ready vs having my hotbars all lite constantly or flashing every few seconds isn't a comparison. The latter is much much harder to deal with.

 

i mostly raid and hm. any boss that takes longer than 1 min to down makes the previous ui worse than the new one imo. i have to check out the whole greyed out ability thing everyone is crying about.

[TrueZero]

I logged onto the forums to vote on this because the new UI did, in fact, give me a headache as well within a few minutes sitting down and playing (normally I can play for many hours at a time). I popped a couple Excedrin and kept playing, but it could probably use a tweak; the flashing is at the very least a little distracting.

 

Love the game though!

[Keta]

http://investors.ea.com/contactBoard.cfm#1

 

They say the email on there isnt for customer support but hey who am I to not tell people to mail there when its obvious alot of us arent really being heard or helped.

 

 

Expressing displeasure in a product or the way the product is being supported is not customer support, so I'd say emailing them there might be quite OK. besides who's to say that you're not, at least indirectly, a shareholder in EA? I actually looked up a couple of my mutual fund holding this morning and guess what ....

[Posiden]

is it hard to implement?

 

http://i40.tinypic.com/wbuijb.jpg

 

WoW's modding community > TORs UI team.

 

I think that has been well established for a while now.

[EternalFinality]

Cracking jokes is one thing. Insults and ridicule is completely separate. People aren't making jokes in some light-hearted manner and that's very obvious.

 

Oh I'm sure the Bioware devs won't have their feelings hurt. It's clear they don't read the forums anyways! *rimshot*

Edited February 8, 2012 by EternalFinality

[Spyderian]

Just give us the option to put a numeric countdown on the buttons and we will all be happy and you won't have to keep changing the UI every few weeks. Just Give Us Some Damn Numbers.

[Voydangel]

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...

 

This^

 

and Im not even a sentinel

[priestofhell]

The GCD change is fine. Work on balances and new PvP systems (Arena). you'll attract more customers

[Kiernon]

I voted 'they're terrible' but I don't want to be overly negative. I feel the new UI changes have one glaring problem. I'm a Jedi Guardian, and not a GCD goes by that I'm not hitting SOMETHING as quickly as I can. The constant flashing of the entire bar makes it very difficult to see the icons beneath, and be able to see what abilites are greyed out and what abilities are ready for use.

 

I suggest you tweak the alpha on the GCD to make it more transparent, to make it easier to see the buttons underneath while the GCD animation is underway.

 

Exactly the same feeling for myself on the subject.

While I don't think it's abysmally 'terrible' or anything, playing my melee classes keeps everything locked in a grey shroud and 4 bars of flashing after every quick ability is somewhat annoying and difficult for ability use readability.

 

As for the 'default' UI, my suggestion is since there are many who indeed do enjoy the way it is now, an option to tweak transparency and flash enable/disable would sensibly go a long way.

 

If anything, I consider this entire UI situation a prime example as to why add-ons are a bit of a big deal in modern MMO games. Community produced options and choice would cater to all people with particular classes and playstyles and their UI customization needs.

 

Thanks to Bioware for taking notice of the issue, and interested to see where it all goes from here.

 

-K