iain_b Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 (edited) I agree that I would like a GCD timer overlaid. Although I am not unhappy with the current state of the UI cooldown. It is fine where I am concerned. But I would prefer to have a countdown All you people asking for a countdown, can you not read? It's right there in the dev post. "Show Cooldown Text: This option, when selected, will show the time remaining on a cooldown as an overlay on the ability icon." Edited February 13, 2012 by iain_b Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frigidman Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 (edited) All you people asking for a countdown, can you not read? It's right there in the dev post. "Show Cooldown Text: This option, when selected, will show the time remaining on a cooldown as an overlay on the ability icon." They don't know how to read, only shoot off one liners without even re-reading what they wrote. As for the cooldown fix. Thanks bioware. Hopefully among those selections and combinations, it will result in something usable by pretty much everyone (although from the video and shots, you could do with a mid-dim between "no overlay" and "dark overlay", hehe). As for the age old "they could be spending their time on better things" ... what is more better then a foundational element as the UI? UI element adjustments like this are a very important part of MMO games. Unlike console games, MMO's have much more interaction and control. Compounded with the time people spend in an MMO, the first line of defense (or offense in some cases like the gcd) is the UI. So it is extremely important that they (Bioware) work on improving the UI every chance they get. The more quality of life improvements in the UI, the more happy your customers generally will be while using the game. After all, a person cannot enjoy the massive content and game behind the UI if they are slamming their head against a shoddy UI every minute. No amount of extra content will make up for a horrible UI to reach that content. The point at which people take the UI for granted, is when someone has made a great UI. That is the point when we don't even realize the UI is there, because its working flawlessly and seamlessly. The moment something bad slaps a person out of the game at the surface level... is the moment a UI element has failed its job. GCD is just one of many issues this UI is doing wrong, and its nice to see bioware taking it to heart and working on them. Edited February 13, 2012 by Frigidman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullwrath Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Wonderful innovation. Options are a great thing to have. Thanks for listening to the community. Keep up the good work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slugamaniac Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Thank you for listening to the community BW! My class will be playable/optimized again once these changes go live. The numeric countdown on the cooldowns is an especially nice touch. Thank you again!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinasa Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 LMAO best comment i have seen on this page ROFL! Hi. You seem to have a good grasp on what these additional changes mean. Can you or anyone please tell me which of the options shown are the default launch version that was in place before any of the patch changes took place? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubbathehut Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Huh. Yeah this is the first thing I wanted fixed with the UI ever since starting to play this game. By the way, that was sarcasm right there. How about fixing something really troubling for us instead of some non-important gui flash? And bringing it out like its "the shiz!" just makes it all the more rediculus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anouka Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 The video examples shown with this announcement still show the whole of the UI flashing on GCD - are you saying we can turn this off completely? So the whole of the UI doesn't flash? This would be something I definitely want! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubbathehut Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 I'd be more interested in having my UI show sith corruption, to be bluntly honest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VarKoE Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Thanks bioware for the change. I noted the cooldown counter. Does this over lay the keybinding also on the tab? Will that make it hard to see the bound key sequence? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
profaneascension Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 It worked exactly like how it should till you guys botched it up on the last patch. Now, with the incoming changes you still have this aspect botched up. Absolutely ridiculous. http://cdn-www.swtor.com/sites/all/files/en/cb/20120210_ui33/ui_cooldowns.jpg Both Styles 2 and 4 allow you to see the availability of the ability during the GCD. Is it too much to ask for people to actually read and comprehend stuff that is written? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarpLTunnel Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Glad they listened and are making it user defined. Cant ask for much more in the way of UI except for what has already been addressed about making it scalable which they are doing and maybe down the road user created UI interfaces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whillwynn Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 (edited) A definite improvement. I am pleased with this. However, there are still some fundamental readability/usability issues with this UI that need to be addressed, and letting us move elements around won't fix them. Here goes: Buffs/Debuffs are hard to see, debuff types are hard to identify unless you mouse over them. Durations are hard to see. Add a numerical countdown overlay (60m, 10s and so on), and add a white border to debuffs we can dispel. If that makes it too obvious in your opinion, at least color-code the borders by debuff type (blue = Force, red = physical and so on) so we can make the judgment call.Usability for healing is simply bad. It's usable, but cumbersome. Add mouseover functionality at least. Since healers can (and often do) DPS during encounters, an 'attack target-of-target' feature so we can target a friendly tank/DPS and attack more easily would be a welcome addition. It would even make assist trains easier.Allow us some macro functionality. Nothing automated, but at least the ability to tie more than one ability to the same quickslot (especially reactive abilities off the GCD). There's too many abilities that get constant use for some classes, and prime real estate on the UI is very limited. I'm honestly surprised that lots of this feedback didn't get back to you on the PTS. I just think that given the lack of pre-mades or transfers (and even selective beta testing pre-release), you're making testing your game way too difficult to get a proper sample size. I'll use myself as an example, since I'd rather not assume about anyone else. I don't mind helping you test, but I'm paying to play for keeps, not to play in half-empty test servers where my character could get wiped any second. You could get away with it when this game wasn't out, because I jumped at the opportunity to play the game to adjust my expectations for release. But now? You'd need to make testing a helluva lot easier/more convenient for me to hop on the PTS. I know I strayed a bit from the topic, but hopefully the overall feedback still reaches you. Edited February 13, 2012 by Whillwynn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RavensFlight Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 If this works as advertised (trust is a little sketchy with you guys nowadays) then all I will have to say is: Woot! I will be more the satisfied with GCD for the first time playing this game. And if this is a preview of the lvl of control in customization that you’re going to be building into the other area’s (buffs/debuffs, sizing windows, raid healing window, etc.) then I feel positive about looking forward to it. Granted this is not overdone but its more then satisfactory until they open up to addon systems. <--positive assumptions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mcky Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Bravo, bravo! This is a small but useful addition. Performing a mouseover to check a CD timer is less than ideal. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiars Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Really? This is what bioware is working on? Such a waist of time NO ONE CARES about how the GCD looks. How bout instead you give us a ui we can move. Actually this is both an easy change and is very important for people who are not used to games with GCD. Depending on the artwork and what an individual finds noticeable, the current GCD animation can be hard to notice. The announced changes allow people to adjust to what they find useful without devoting a lot of developer resources to it. I am glad to see that they are listening and doing things like this to better polish the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cailen Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 As much as I appreciate you guys working on things like this.. I don't understand why a cosmetic issue is more important then some others like server balance and evening out the classes etc.... I'd personally prefer that stuff to get fixed over making something look better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Itoao Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 While I'm completely satisfied, and still puzzled by all the gripes about the current UI, these changes look phenomenal. Kudos for all your hard work and listening to the troubled portion of the player base. You can't please everyone, but that looks like an *** load of customizability for the majority. Edit: I play on a 27" LED screen at max res (with screen brightness to medium-high) but also rarely look at my cooldowns because I like mashing my keypad controls. This could be an explanation for why I rarely notice the flashing. I have to agree with what he said. I like the options but I am fine with the current UI. More choice is always good though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthtoph Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 (edited) I would like a GCD in a color other than blue. You know, cause all my icons are f***ing blue. Edited February 13, 2012 by darthtoph Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joonbeams Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 As much as I appreciate you guys working on things like this.. I don't understand why a cosmetic issue is more important then some others like server balance and evening out the classes etc.... I'd personally prefer that stuff to get fixed over making something look better. I don't understand why people assume that because one fix is announced, that's the ONLY thing BW is working on. BW likely has multiple teams working simultaneously on multiple projects with things being rolled out when ready. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keta Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 As much as I appreciate you guys working on things like this.. I don't understand why a cosmetic issue is more important then some others like server balance and evening out the classes etc.... I'd personally prefer that stuff to get fixed over making something look better. Because they had to. The current UI was making some folks physically ill to the point they couldn't engage in any combat, and other couldn't tell which abilities were off cool down due to the gcd changes. In all likelihood all they did was push the UI change forward. It's not like the programmers in charge of the UI change were pulled off of Quest bugs. They were already working on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerrunch Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Please discuss Stephen Reid's blog post, Incoming changes to global cooldown UI, in this thread. What the f? The bright sweeping alpha cover is still there on all of the choices? NO THIS IS NOT A GOOD FIX! Seriously, I didn't see a problem prior to the last patch. Now you've let a tiny, non event issue turn into a major problem and your not taking the right actions to fix it. Not a good sign. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rainforrest Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 good to see they listened, now i also suggested to their team to move the lock/unlock bar to preferences menu, cos a lot of the times when i am in combat ( clicker here ) i unlock the button and loose a lot of my spells ;/ not sure if anyone else has the same issue! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryRow Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 What is there to say except, Thank you for listening to us! Seriously, you were working to improve the cooldown ui for us and turned it into something a lot of people hated. When we spoke up, you shifted resources very quickly to respond to the issue and it looks like you've come up with a great solution. Can't wait to test it in game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fritter Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 I think this is awesome; it was more than what I was expecting. I'm really happy that you've given us options to choose how we want the UI to look. I'm hoping to see more stuff like this in the future Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Takayo Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Awesome changes, i can't wait to see the overlay text!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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