Logic behind map change?

[Radzkie]

The new party member icons.

 

How is this change more beneficial to the player base?

 

If you're standing beside or on top of party members, you cannot use your mini map to tell which way your character is facing(with the arrow). This may not be important to some people, but nonetheless that is one function of the map lost.

 

It makes seeing enemies/mob spawns on the mini map harder if there's a party members near them. Once again, making the mini map less functional than it was before.

 

If a party member is near a quest objective, there's a chance their icon will overlap that objective.

 

There's more, but I only wanted to point out that it seems like we lost more with this change than gained. What we gained? Some colorblind people can more easily see where party members are, but is there no other way to do that? Could it be done so we don't lose mini map function?

Edited February 10, 2017 by Radzkie

[Asheris]

It doesn't bother me but rises a question - wouldn't it be better if they changed the icon of the party member on the mini map instead of adding a transparent circle to it?

 

I mean it was kind fo strange from the beginning - having a blue-ish map and a pale-blue icon to follow your fellows on a map but this? How is that helping when you have 7+ people running around now?

[Nightblazer]

I think instead of the purple circle around the party members it would be better to remove the circle and just change the original icons to purple to indicate party members.

[bdatt]

I really would like to know why party member icons were changed.

 

How is this change more beneficial to the player base?

 

If you're standing beside or on top of party members, you cannot use your mini map to tell which way your character is facing(with the arrow). This may not be important to some people, but nonetheless that is one function of the map lost.

 

I almost fell to my death on Soa last night for the first time since 2012 because I didn't know which way I was facing when Iooked at the minimap. This change was probably unnecessary and a waste of resources.

Edited February 10, 2017 by bdatt

[dr_mike]

This change was probably unnecessary and a waste of resources.

 

Next time you see someone in a wheelchair, be sure to tell them that their chair isn't necessary.

 

edit: Not sure why we needed yet another thread on this. We haven't heard anything from staff about the issue. Attempts at direct contact have been ignored. But no, we don;t know if it is a bug or a poor attempt at accessibility improvements. Some of us who have asked for accessibility improvements are wondering why 1) no one contacted any of us to find how how things could have been changed for the better and 2) why no one asked if what they changed made things better.

Edited February 10, 2017 by dr_mike

[HelinCarnate]

Next time you see someone in a wheelchair, be sure to tell them that their chair isn't necessary.

 

edit: Not sure why we needed yet another thread on this. We haven't heard anything from staff about the issue. Attempts at direct contact have been ignored. But no, we don;t know if it is a bug or a poor attempt at accessibility improvements. Some of us who have asked for accessibility improvements are wondering why 1) no one contacted any of us to find how how things could have been changed for the better and 2) why no one asked if what they changed made things better.

 

Sorry but this change in no way is anything close to what you are describing. I am color blind and had minor issues with seeing group members before but I could still see them. My GF has it even worse than me and she sees most color in black and white and she was still able to figure out where everything was on the mini map. Now the players are easy to spot but the giant circles around them block out anything else.

 

It gets worse in PVP. Say you are guarding a node and 3 opposing players show up. 2 others on your team see them and rush to help you. You are in a big fight but no worries as it is a stalemate. Everyone is in close range trying to get the healer down, then someone else shows up and someone says "4 grass" because you are now outnumbered. When the others see that and look at the map before they could quickly see, oh there are 3 there and I see someone else running there so they should be ok. Now they see 1 blob that could be 1 person or could 7 people, who knows. So the person who just respawned really has no way of knowing if they should help or if that would over commit them to the area until they get close and can see how many people are actually there.

Edited February 10, 2017 by HelinCarnate

[Eialune]

Next time you see someone in a wheelchair, be sure to tell them that their chair isn't necessary.

 

Wow. An analogy that is as offensive as it is inaccurate.

 

Sorry but this change in no way is anything close to what you are describing. I am color blind and had minor issues with seeing group members before but I could still see them. My GF has it even worse than me and she sees most color in black and white and she was still able to figure out where everything was on the mini map. Now the players are easy to spot but the giant circles around them block out anything else.

 

It gets worse in PVP. Say you are guarding a node and 3 opposing players show up. 2 others on your team see them and rush to help you. You are in a big fight but no worries as it is a stalemate. Everyone is in close range trying to get the healer down, then someone else shows up and someone says "4 grass" because you are now outnumbered. When the others see that and look at the map before they could quickly see, oh there are 3 there and I see someone else running there so they should be ok. Now they see 1 blob that could be 1 person or could 7 people, who knows. So the person who just respawned really has no way of knowing if they should help or if that would over commit them to the area until they get close and can see how many people are actually there.

 

Thanks for your perspective. The new map interface is detrimental to everyone right now, regardless of their eyesight. I would imagine there are lots of ways to improve upon the old group icons, even more than just the color change that people have been suggesting in other threads, but this is absolutely not one of them.

 

If they could put a giant circle around the group member icons, couldn't they create a unique shape, to make color/contrast less important...? (I'm genuinely asking, I'm not very knowledgeable about programming.)

[americanaussie]

Well I noticed it and thought...cool now I can see where other people are and I found it especilly helpful in Odessen proving ground.

[Edyn]

The new party member icons.

 

How is this change more beneficial to the player base?

 

If you're standing beside or on top of party members, you cannot use your mini map to tell which way your character is facing(with the arrow). This may not be important to some people, but nonetheless that is one function of the map lost.

 

It makes seeing enemies/mob spawns on the mini map harder if there's a party members near them. Once again, making the mini map less functional than it was before.

 

If a party member is near a quest objective, there's a chance their icon will overlap that objective.

 

There's more, but I only wanted to point out that it seems like we lost more with this change than gained. What we gained? Some colorblind people can more easily see where party members are, but is there no other way to do that? Could it be done so we don't lose mini map function?

 

After changes like this and AoE telegraphs, I'm to the point where I'm seriously questioning whether or not the current BW team has even played the game, or any MMO, for that matter. This is really simple stuff that any one of us Joes could have taken five minutes to test and say, "Whoa, bad idea. This change really sucks because..."

[Totemdancer]

I think instead of the purple circle around the party members it would be better to remove the circle and just change the original icons to purple to indicate party members.

 

You know the crazy thing about that?

The icons used to be that colour and they changed them to blue because some people who are colour blind couldn't see them, but others can't see those blue ones, which is why I think they changed them, but put the circle around them.

If they are focused on making the game map playable for the whole whole community, they should have a few options people could select in preferences. Like choosing a purple or blue icons. But they could take it further an maybe offer a pink and green icon.

[Totemdancer]

Well I noticed it and thought...cool now I can see where other people are and I found it especilly helpful in Odessen proving ground.

 

Except when everyone is near each other and then you can't see how many. Maybe you have 2-3 guarding a node or maybe 1. How are you supposed to know where to go if you can't see how many?

[Suzsi]

The big circle icons for party members is great in PVP, so much easier to see where everyone is at and which direction the dots are moving in. You don't have time to study teeny tiny markers in PVP.

[-Highsteel-]

Next time you see someone in a wheelchair, be sure to tell them that their chair isn't necessary.

 

Now that is a record sized Red Herring

[Totemdancer]

The big circle icons for party members is great in PVP, so much easier to see where everyone is at and which direction the dots are moving in. You don't have time to study teeny tiny markers in PVP.

 

Not really.

You can't see where half the team is or if you have 1,2,3 guarding an off node that only needs 1.

Someone calls inc 1 and you look to see how many defenders before you rush to help. If you can see there are 2 defenders you don't need to go. But if you only see one big circle and can't see how many, you may run there to help and not know you have 2 defenders. This over extends your team numbers at the current node you are fighting at.

Then you also have people who are lazy, given up or farming stuff and are all grouped at the off node. You keep looking around for your team because you only have 4 guys fighting 7 and you don't know if it's because they are dying heaps or if you have a numerical disadvantage.

It's even worse in Void Star because people are often in close proximity to the doors and you can't see how many a side there are.

If your team is in close proximity of each other the circles cover them and you can't count numbers. That is even more distracting than trying to read the old mini map because you have to try and count how many over lapping circles there are and if they are the same overlapping ones or different one.

These new icons make the mini map impossible to read properly and you may as well not even have it because it's that useless.

[RowanThursday]

This is why your game has a UI section in preferences, Bioware.

 

By all means, include a high-contrast surrounding circle option in preferences for minimap group member icons. Also include two or three colour mode options, since colour-blindness is not a binary condition. Also include an on-off switch for it.

 

Proper implementation of accessibility options should never lower the quality of existing options- that's bad design implementation since you're lowering the quality of experience for more people than those for whom you're improving it, and it's wholly unnecessary, since the above provides an obvious solution that benefits all and disadvantages nobody.

 

But, then, you think RNG is exciting and making opening a Cartel crate take three times as long while you sit through that stupid 'revealing contents' scene with the accompanying grating music every single time will encourage more people to buy them, don't you? Yes.... perhaps it's time Bioware renamed themselves to Czerka.

[Fleurdelis]

Next time you see someone in a wheelchair, be sure to tell them that their chair isn't necessary.

 

I have a friend that has Cerebal Palsy and is in a motorized wheel chair, bigger than the standard ones, so big he can't even get on a plane, and he plays this game and that is without a doubt the stupidest comment I have seen in these forums.

[americanaussie]

Except when everyone is near each other and then you can't see how many. Maybe you have 2-3 guarding a node or maybe 1. How are you supposed to know where to go if you can't see how many?

 

I could see them just fine. I wonder if this is affected by resolution or something. I could see each individual player without issue. I know the display was different on my hubby's surface book. His resolution was way higher and it made certain things super tiny and blocked together.

[ludoviccb]

I could see them just fine. I wonder if this is affected by resolution or something. I could see each individual player without issue. I know the display was different on my hubby's surface book. His resolution was way higher and it made certain things super tiny and blocked together.

 

It really depend on your resolution and the scale you use your mini-map. If your scaled far back to see both door in Voidstar, it stack up everyone right on top of one another and you don't know how many people are there.

 

One of the best place to see that effect is in S&V Trasher, if you're scaled to see a large area on the minimap (which I prefer for PvP) all the red dots for the snipers are hidden by those huge purple circle. To find out which way to turn Trasher to get up, you got to look and find the sniper instead of looking at the red dots. To see them, I need to change my mini-map scaling instead of just using my standard scaling. It lead to the question, is my mini-map scaled right for this fight or not, instead of scaling it all the way back.

 

Also, when there are objectives near one of your party member, you can't see them due to that big circle.

Edited February 11, 2017 by ludoviccb

[Totemdancer]

I could see them just fine. I wonder if this is affected by resolution or something. I could see each individual player without issue. I know the display was different on my hubby's surface book. His resolution was way higher and it made certain things super tiny and blocked together.

 

I've seen another post where this is the case. But most of us can't see it. I also read that people in another thread tried changing resolutions to see if it helped, but it didn't.