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FEEDBACK: Character Slot ordering

Rhesus_TOR

By Rhesus_TOR
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Rhesus_TOR

Rhesus_TOR

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Please revert the character slot ordering back to the way it was. With two pages of toons, having the order for characters always be predictable based on alphabetic order makes finding a toon easier than having to scan the page looking to see where I used them last relative to the toon I last used.

 

Ideally, I'd like the ability to be able to lock the order of toons based on usage preference, but honestly, the old way is orders of magnitude better.

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Rhesus_TOR

Rhesus_TOR

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As someone who has four pages of characters (due to the server consolidation), I like the change that puts all of the ones that are actually being used at the front of the list.

 

When you have more than a page of characters, ALL of which you use for crafting and mission cycling, the order will shift regularly and the list turns into a jumbled mess without any real sense for preference or likelihood of usage.

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Heezdedjim

Heezdedjim

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Alphabetical with the most recently logged one at the top is probably the least worst way this could be done. There really isn't a good alternative, other than letting us drag and drop toons into exactly the slot we want them in and having them STAY THERE until we move them, and I don't see that happening any time soon.
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MillionsKNives

MillionsKNives

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I have to add my support to any form of control of the ordering of our characters in the login screen. Predictability goes a very long way towards a good UI.

 

Also, I would like to say that the new character select screen feels very cluttered with all of the new unnecessary buttons they added. It wasn't too hard to figure out that you would select a character and hit play, or just double-click. The old login screen without all of the clutter felt a lot cleaner than with the new changes.

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Sunjammer

Sunjammer

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Posted (edited)

For people that only play a couple of characters out of a larger bank of alts this change is probably a slight improvement.

 

Unfortunately for everyone else it is a complete pain: for those of us that swap characters frequently this is already extremely grating after just one evening. At least with the "last played first and all others alphabetically" we always knew where your characters are and I suspect many, like me, named their characters to take advantage of this sorting.

 

Moreover I suspect that even some of those that like it now because it keeps their frequent characters on the front page may change their mind if/when some new content comes out that makes them want to play some of their other characters. Expect some nerd rage around about Makeb if this hasn't been addressed by then!

 

Ultimately BioWare can please everyone by letting us set the order our characters appear in but that might be asking too much. However they could simply add a preference options that allows us to use the "classic" sorting or the "new coke" sorting. While they are at it if they could add an option to suppress all those redundant new "play" buttons (both the "PLAY" one and all the green triangles) I would be very grateful.

Edited by Sunjammer
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Sunjammer

Sunjammer

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The new ordering is perfect for me. Works exactly how I wanted it to before now.

Your suggestion regarding the Inventory/Cargo Bay sorting, i.e. of having a filter, would also make sense here.

 

All characters could be listed alphabetically or whatever but we also have a field where we can type and our character list filters as we do. For most players typing one or two letters would be enough to narrow the list to less than a page or to a single character (I know I could simply type the first letter for all but two characters). Of course, there are some players who keep their character's names the same but for a letter or two: I suspect they wouldn't benefit much.

Edited by Sunjammer
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AsheraII

AsheraII

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When they were still alphabetic, I used to have a nice list going imp-pub-imp-pub-..

Characters were also easier to spot alphabetically.

On the other hand, the characters that I frequenly played but that were on page 2 are now more easily accessible.

 

So I'm undecided which system I like better.

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Sylin

Sylin

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After today's patch I'm not sure what's up with that green "play" button next to my characters, but it hardly seems necessary, and is obnoxious IMO. Does it change to something else if you're not a subscriber, or have "locked" characters? If so, I could MAYBE understand its presence, but there are SO many better ways to do this, Bioware.

 

First, let me choose how to sort my characters. Give me a fly-out bar that allows me to sort by level (and reverse), A-Z (and reverse), by faction (as a sub-sort), or Manually using up/down arrows for each toon.

 

Second, stop treating your players like 3 year-olds and lose the big green Play button you just arbitrarily put in the selection screen. There's already a yellow border around my selected character (as opposed to blue, for non-selected ones), I can see a BIG animation of them on my screen, and there's a Play button on the lower right corner. Why do I need yet another visual cue that yes, THIS is the toon I want to play? If people are honestly complaining that they weren't sure about which toon they were logging in to, then add an animation effect to the yellow border around the character's name box. If you need to isolate "locked" characters, then gray them out.

 

Third--and I can only speak from personal experience here at 1920x1080 res--but why only 8 characters per page? In a game with a customizable UI, one would think we could maximize the screen real estate here and shrink it down to allow for more characters per page.

 

Last but not least, adding that little window that tells me "You are a SUBSCRIBER"? Love it. Honestly, not being sarcastic here. It not only makes me feel good, but it's functional in that it lets me know the status of my subscription at a glance. If it ever changes, I know I'm in trouble. :)

 

/soapbox

 

PS... the lock/unlock UI button in-game is FUBAR. Please fix. Thanks. :)

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Samy_Merchi

Samy_Merchi

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Posted (edited)

New order is a huge improvement. I don't want to have to always click to the second page to find the Z-name character I play after I've played some other character. Keep the most often used oneS on the first page, that's so much more convenient.

 

Having said that, having the ability to choose is always better so that everyone can choose what's best for them personally. But if there has to be only one way, the new way is so much better.

Edited by Samy_Merchi
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Rankyn

Rankyn

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Posted
After today's patch I'm not sure what's up with that green "play" button next to my characters, but it hardly seems necessary, and is obnoxious IMO. Does it change to something else if you're not a subscriber, or have "locked" characters? If so, I could MAYBE understand its presence, but there are SO many better ways to do this, Bioware.

 

First, let me choose how to sort my characters. Give me a fly-out bar that allows me to sort by level (and reverse), A-Z (and reverse), by faction (as a sub-sort), or Manually using up/down arrows for each toon.

 

Second, stop treating your players like 3 year-olds and lose the big green Play button you just arbitrarily put in the selection screen. There's already a yellow border around my selected character (as opposed to blue, for non-selected ones), I can see a BIG animation of them on my screen, and there's a Play button on the lower right corner. Why do I need yet another visual cue that yes, THIS is the toon I want to play? If people are honestly complaining that they weren't sure about which toon they were logging in to, then add an animation effect to the yellow border around the character's name box. If you need to isolate "locked" characters, then gray them out.

 

Third--and I can only speak from personal experience here at 1920x1080 res--but why only 8 characters per page? In a game with a customizable UI, one would think we could maximize the screen real estate here and shrink it down to allow for more characters per page.

 

Last but not least, adding that little window that tells me "You are a SUBSCRIBER"? Love it. Honestly, not being sarcastic here. It not only makes me feel good, but it's functional in that it lets me know the status of my subscription at a glance. If it ever changes, I know I'm in trouble. :)

 

/soapbox

 

PS... the lock/unlock UI button in-game is FUBAR. Please fix. Thanks. :)

1) Personally, I like the new ordering system. However, I think an option to pick which way characters get sorted is a good idea.

 

2) That big "play" button is probably there so they can change it to a big red X when you have characters you can't play. The space had to be made so they may as well put something in it and I'd rather see that than an empty box.

 

3) The game was originally designed for only 8 characters. Multiple pages was an after-thought and, as such, the UI would probably have to be rebuilt to accommodate it. Hopefully at some point in the future they'll change it to something better organized for 22 characters.

 

The subscription status pane is a good idea. I just wish it had been smaller and somewhere else so that more space could be allocated to character select.

 

PS) They've said the lock button was a bug and will be fixed.

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GoldenHornet

GoldenHornet

Posted
Posted
Please revert the character slot ordering back to the way it was. With two pages of toons, having the order for characters always be predictable based on alphabetic order makes finding a toon easier than having to scan the page looking to see where I used them last relative to the toon I last used.

 

Ideally, I'd like the ability to be able to lock the order of toons based on usage preference, but honestly, the old way is orders of magnitude better.

 

I also dislike the new sort order.

 

As an altoholic that regularly rambles through both pages of characters (thank you so much for more slots) it was easy to find the character I wanted as they were in an obvious alphabetical order.

 

Now I have to scan both pages to find the one I want. Yes, it's not a huge hardship, but it's a step backwards in usability and an unnecessary inconvenience.

 

For the database programmers out there, we've gone from an index seek to a table scan. It's just less efficient.

 

In an ideal world I'd love to be able to change the sort order of my characters into a custom order (I miss that from City of Heroes) but the option to be able to sort the list by last login / alphabetical / creation date / current level (in descending order) would also be very welcome.

 

And yes, the big green "Play Now" arrows feel redundant and ugly...

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