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

[darthjanus]

SUGGESTION: Keep the the current animation for activated abilities on cooldown BUT return to the simple graying animation used at launch for the Global Cooldown. Edited February 8, 2012 by darthjanus

[Chaosmagistrate]

Poll options are too extreme...I would much prefer a timer or a clock fade...nonetheless...let me copy characters to the PTS or provide generic pre-made characters with unlimited tokens/commendations and I will test the **** out of your content...until then...yeah, PTS will not be installed.

 

pre-1.1 was ok, not great. 1.1 was /facepalm...post 1.1.2 is ok, but given the choice between 1.1.2 and pre1.1, I'll take pre-1.1.

 

But given more choices, I would rather mod the damn thing and be put clock timers and a visual timer. or ideally, just let me move my ui bars and re-size them.

[Nonameperson]

Terrible, it was better before the patch.

[Thesseract]

To help people understand. I play botha a Sith Juggernaut and Bounty Hunter.

 

I hate this change for 2 reasons:

 

First it makes me unable to use my action bars to tell if an ability is available due to a proc (retaliate or rail shot) to queue an ability before the GCD is up.

 

Second after playing for ~hour after the patch was released I started to have a small headache. To clarify I do have all 4 action bars open. I have never got headaches from video or computer games before. I have been a gamer my whole life. I do get headaches if I try to read in a moving car.

[zandadoum]

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.

 

i gave my feedback.

 

i want player made addons so i can chose whatever i like.

 

go and youtube "addon review OMNICC" and learn from it.

[Fellthar]

Easiest solution IMHO:

 

A overlay of a number counting down over your ability when its on cooldown. If you have 29 seconds left on a cooldown the ability is greyed out with a big 29 over it (obviously counting down to zero).

 

The current system is worse than the one prior which was worse than the one prior to that...

 

If they used this solution, please make it optional. I used the mod in WoW that did this, and it was terrible for me. I couldn't see what abilities were what when they were on cooldown, which matters to me with my play style.

[StrikeOfLight]

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.

 

THEN LET US COPY CHARS OVER TO TEST SERVER.

 

How is this so hard?

 

And WHY haven't you said ANYTHING about the health issues your gawdawful UI is causing me and hundreds of other people?

Edited February 8, 2012 by StrikeOfLight

[SalvorHardin]

I think it's going in the right direction as far as visibilty goes. It just may be a bit too "shiny".

 

A good compromise would be to keep the edge highlight (which is a very good idea I believe) but instead of having this glowing when the skill is available, there should be a red/blue mask over the skill box while it is still in CD, that just disapears when CD is over. And keep the greyed icon when, no matter if it's on CD or not, the skill is just unavailable.

 

All in all, I think the general reaction is out of proportion... I wont be surprised if someone tries to sue BioWare for having a seizure because of the new GCD !

 

On another note, I don't roll on test server ONLY because of not being able to use my toons there... Just saying

Edited February 8, 2012 by SalvorHardin

[Ervashi]

I voted "They're good" but wanted another option...

 

I think in some cases the GCD is a big improvement. I appreciate that it's easier for me to see which abilities are on CD.

 

However, as a player with Force and Energy-dependent classes, I find it difficult to know which abilities I'll be able to use when the GCD finishes based on how much Force/Energy I have. This isn't *terrible*, because I generally know how much Force/Energy I have and how much Force/Energy each ability costs, but it can definitely be a hindrance.

[zandadoum]

368 QQers so far.

 

The new CD UI is very good.

The graphic effect is not bad at all, and I can follow without problems my cds.

 

People will never be happy in something.

 

occams razor tell us that it's more probable that there are 368 guys who have a real problem with this new UI change and ONE guy (you) who is blind

[DiLune]

I voted that I hate it. I don't hate it, but it isn't entirely useful. It has elements that are nice, but as a player of a rage using class, it makes my life very difficult.

 

But anyway, I hate binary choices. I don't hate it, I would choose in the range of "keep improving it. This doesn't work, but it shows promise."

[DarthWarrior]

I do lke the fact they have asked if we like it. Just next time give us options to choose from BEFORE you change it

[lifewontwait]

Can I have the way it was originally? I liked that one.

[Noxsabe]

Djeez i had no idea there are so many players disliking the new changes !! personally i like them as of now, i totally have no problems with them i can clearly see when and what skills are in cool-down. in fact the very first thing i said to a friend was

 

"if players now can't see what skill is in cool-down then its time for them to buy glasses"

 

even my friends like the new changes, personally i don't need a fancy animated button as cool-down indicator, only one i can clearly see and one that is functional. like the one in game now.

Again i totally was surprised that so much of the players dislike this. oh well Gamers are picky i guess.

[Fromwarpath]

If I could tell what abilities were off cooldown when I hit something, I wouldn't have an issue with the new changes. I literally have to wait for the GCD/Animation to be over on the bars themselves before I can tell what to hit next, and that is downright silly.

[Merouk]

Quite honestly, I still don't understand what was wrong with the way abilities were animated on launch.

 

It's because they think we care, or need to pay attention to, the reason WHY an ability may not be available. Personally, I don't have TIME in the heat of combat to reason why things are dimmed, I just want to be able to tell what on my bar is ready and what's not.

 

Things like being in range, having the appropriate target, meeting the prerequisites (enough energy, behind the target), we learn and get a feel for that through gameplay. That's what levels 1-20 or so are for.

[ActosMagus]

I don't particularly care either way, but the new UI seems overly flashy. I could see it being a health concern to those individuals that have problems with such things.

 

 

As to the UI changes themselves, I can only make out a slight difference between an ability that is unavailable (due to lack of resource, target, or other restriction), and one that's waiting for the GCD to complete. The only plus side to the changes I can think of is that flashing does make it easier to notice the GCD finish while my attention is focused elsewhere on the screen.

[Sirsri]

Perhaps this would make more sense if BioWare described what they were trying to do, and not just ask if it's good?

 

Yes, the UI should stand on its own as with everything else, and if it's not obvious what it's trying to do there's clearly something wrong. I had to explain to about half my guild how it works yesterday. That's a bad sign.

 

I'm not an HCI guy, but this doesn't seem like a style of change I've seen anywhere else. That doesn't inherently make it bad, but it's not in any way obvious what it's doing. The white borders around abilities detract from the contrast created when an ability is on, or off cooldown. It might work if the white border was limited to long cast abilites as they come off cooldown, rather than a global thing? I'm not sure. Think 'spell flash' the WoW mod. You're highlighting when something is off long cooldown.

 

The global cooldown problem, at least to me, partly stems from how you're trying to actually animate the cooldown tick, with a sliding fade. Try (internally) a very simple change: Rather than have the de-fading happen to the bottom of the icon have it converge to the centre of the icon. I'm not sure that helps, but it might be a worthwhile idea to prototype. While you're at it, reduce the alpha bleed through, and maybe (again, for prototyping purposes) have a little white square show up in the *centre* of the ability when it is off even the global cooldown.

[drakem]

Telling me what abilities I can use after the GCD is up isn't useful to me. I have a 0.5sec (adjustable) buffer to enter my next ability before the GCD is up. If my icons are flashing that they are 'available' (i.e. the GCD is up and I haven't entered a new ability) then I am not being the best that I can be. Also on my Jedi Knight alt I was having some abilities that would never 'ungrey'. Please change or revert as fast as possible.

[SimpJee]

They are the bomb, I love them as a Tank who just watches cooldowns all the time. Now I can tell very quickly.

 

Thank you! Options are always nice though, so add an option to change the effect?

[Chazcon]

...Personally, I don't have TIME in the heat of combat to reason why things are dimmed, I just want to be able to tell what on my bar is ready and what's not.

 

 

Absolutely right on.

[Revanmug]

I vote terrible so there would be changes but in reality...

 

Just remove the GCD lightning and how dark it is. Ability on cds should be darker then anything else until back up. Starting a gcd should only make abilities slightly darker compare to abilities on cd.

 

Simpler yet, just remove the shade completly for GCD and leave the white bar going down. That is all I need to see for that information.

 

The rest is fine.

[Kalua]

I don't like the fact that every ability on GCD flashes.

 

I could probably live with GCD abilities not flashing at all -- but I do like it for abilities with more than a 1.5sec cooldown.

[DarthTHC]

I voted that I don't care either way.

 

The graphics are interesting. I don't seem to have a problem knowing when my cooldowns are up and being able to use my skills.

 

Then again, there are very few skills that I use that I actually need to look at the button bars to see if the cooldown is up. Generally I know the timings on the skills and the rotations I use. I largely ignore the button bar visual feedback.

 

If forced to pick between pre-patch and current, I'd pick current.

Edited February 8, 2012 by DarthTHC

[Goibhnie]

Personally, I've liked the launch iteration of the cool-down the most out all of them. A simple graying out of the skill on cool-down much like if the target was out of range or a bad target. The previous to this patch iteration of the GCD worked fine as well for me. I'm not sure a timer of sorts would be appropriate as an overlay for the skill on cool-down. I think it would be very annoying, cluttered, and for some may be unreadable. A quick mouse-over gives you the skill pop-up with time left on cool-down.

 

Another option is to create a cool-down bar that is similar to the cast bar that players can load with skills they feel are necessary that would have a variety of displays such as cool-down time left. This bar can be toggled on and off in the UI tab and you just have to pull a skill into one of the slots and it throws a display up beside it with the cool-down, much like an ops pane with portraits and health.