Guns Of Icarus Online
Info => Feedback and Suggestions => Topic started by: Moo on July 09, 2013, 03:28:14 pm
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My observations/opinions based on the dev build. I've checked most of them are still relevant to the released 1.3...
First the chat-related stuff, then the other stuff.
And before someone suggests some lame, discussion-precluding method of reporting, don't bother...
- Separating global and match chat is a mixed blessing. Perhaps give the option to display two chat boxes (one above the other) or at least be able to re-merge the chat into a single box so everything can be seen at once.
- Having the J key do different things depending on what is visible isn't ideal. Better would be H for Global and J for Match chat, or something. Oh, H is party chat... G then? Or maybe G could be Party chat and H Global.
- Can chat in match channels when not in a match. Can also chat in party channel when not in a party.
- Another idea is to move the spectator slots to the top of the side bar in a match, and add another setting to the chat box to expand but not obscure the slots. The slots could automatically appear at the top when the chat is set to this position, and remain in their normal place at other times, if you don't like the idea of moving them entirely.
- The chat window itself seems to have a kind of shadow all around it, which is kind of odd.
- Text sometimes overlaps the chat window scroll bar.
- The top left corner of the border of the chat window looks kind of unfinished.
- The left of the chat input is sometimes covered slightly by the top of the surround of the bottom left bar.
- Players in a game join "Global" channel as well as "Match" channel.
- The chat returns (with animation) to default size when returning from other pages. Would be better to stay how it was set. This doesn't happen when in a game lobby.
- Sometimes when switching to Match chat then expanding the window, the bottom (default size) part of the window shows match chat and the top part shows global chat, as if the background hadn't been cleared properly.
- Something that would be good in its own tab is private messages. They should appear in all views so you can always see them, but a tab that only shows them would be good, as it would mean messages wouldn't get missed when there's a lot of activity, or when not looking at the screen etc.
- A sound when receiving a private message would be good too. I guess make it optional for those who don't want it.
- When spectating, toggling the chat shows the full chat window, which can't be clicked on.
- I am seeing chat from blocked players. With their name in the blocked-player colour...
- Clicking on the Global (and Match?) button in the chat when expanded hides the scrollbar. Seems to happen at other times too. I didn't notice this problem in the dev build.
- Icons in top bar are somewhat unexpected. My suggestion would be to move the "Build Party" to the left where the icons are, shrink the role box (less space between them), and have Help and FAQ (text) buttons where the build party button currently is.
- Build Party button has different font to the other buttons. This could be changed as there's plenty of space in the box.
- Version number and players waiting appear at bottom left of main menu rather than top left in bar. Why? Now there is a blank space in the bar. I'm hoping this is only temporary, as it's good to be able to see the players and version everywhere.
- Re #??? "Back" button on Character page should probably say "Cancel", as that's what it does, and Customization Complete also takes you back...
- "Back" on Ship page doesn't cancel, and is therefore the same as "Customization Complete". So one should go. Or, it can be changed to actually cancel, see above.
- Store page: New layout is nice. Perhaps rename role categories from e.g. "Gunner" to "Gunner Costumes" or something, to make it more clear.
- The clan tags look no different from just typing in [abcd] as part of your name, as was previosuly. I think they should, to avoid ambiguity.
- It says "enter up to 4 letters or numbers" but anything with numbers in is rejected.
- I think (https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php/topic,1566.msg27602.html#msg27602) the tags should be done "officially" with some kind of registration system and standards, rather than freely by each player...
- I preferred the old layout of the Progress page, as it was easier to switch between things...
- Why are Badges now unlocked manually? Will there be a choice between them at some point? Also they seem to still be called Medals (which sounds better to me) in the Stats page. Does there really need to be a page just for Badges anyway, as they can be viewed by setting the Prizes page to Type: Badge and Status: Redeemed.
- So, the old layout could be retained, and maybe have a shortcut button (setting the Prizes page to those settings) on the bottom left of the Stats page if being able to see your badges is that important.
- Summary tab: "Achievements to next level - x" I think would be better with a colon rather than a hyphen.
- When clicking Practice from the main menu, "Cancel Search" appears at the bottom behind the bar.
- When viewing other things (e.g. Character page) from the Form Crew screen, the bottom buttons from both things are displayed at the same time, making a mess.
- Bottom left button in Form Crew window says "Exit Match", but there is no match at this point.
- Social page shows placeholders for a second when switching to it, before showing correct values.
- "Last Role" seems to show the rank (e.g. Powder Monkey) of the last role you played, rather than the name (Gunner).
- Party voice chat lights the voice chat icons in both the party list and the match crew lists, so no way to tell which channel they are using? Perhaps different icons should show, or the speaker icons be different colours, or something. This isn't a problem in game as the bars are coloured.
- Reported by others, but the purple for party chat during a game is replaced by black when that party member is also on your ship, which is confusing.
- How about a voice-chat-to-ship key while in a lobby? This would be useful for crew as well as captains.
- "Invite All" in the party window sends a message/invite to the party... It should have a cooldown or something to stop it being a spam button. It should probably also not send the invite to people already in a match with you.
- The "Join my match!" text looks like something someone has typed, rather than an automatic message or an invite.
- "Crew Formation" is sometimes an option in the map vote list. I don't see how this makes sense, and voting for this makes something weird happen.
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I'm just gonna leave this here: https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php/topic,1605.0/topicseen.html
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I'll address numbers 1, 6, and 25, because I also noticed those.
1. I emailed about adding a notification to the Match tab if you're currently in Global and there are new messages in Match, and it'll be looked at (along with other chat changes, presumably) for next month.
6. Emailed about this as well, and Howard said it was fixed. If you saw it today (not in dev app), then that's worth noting.
25. Similarly, I was assured an "official" clan system is being looked at for the future and that the current clan tag implementation is just the first step. :)
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I think it was Clara Skyborn that told us that the clan tags are just a temporary solution until actual clan system was implemented.
As for separating match and global: it was a requested feature by a lot of people.
27. Medals are automatic, but those are displayed only in you progress page. Badges are manual, and you can choose witch you can display on your profile page (only 3 atm). If you clikc on somebodys name in Social tab you'll see their badges and gameplay stats. They are probably manual becouse that's how prizes system has been done).
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(http://s5.postimg.org/79ap8jfbb/GUI1.png)
Full size (http://postimg.org/image/913o3fyo3/full/)
My first attempt at improving the GUI a little...
I realized I couldn't move the party button, so top right is unchanged. Put the player numbers etc back where they used to be. Moved Social (small but often used button, at least for me) to its old, more obvious, place. Replaced icons with text buttons. Tried to fix the top left corner of the text box. Moved the Back button... The whole bottom left bar thing was odd, I guess the news/support link could go in bottom right of main menu now. Back button not great, but increased chat area is worth it I think. Another option would be the back button at the bottom right. Or the main menu screen could be redesigned a little, the news/support text incorporated into that... The number of players could move to the bottom right box, and where it was, an actual "Menu" button, so no back button. Maybe even have a "Matches" or something button somewhere, along with Menu, so a back button wouldn't be needed in other places either.
There's a line across the text box where the Global/Match text is, which I hadn't noticed before...
Opinions?
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Put the player numbers etc back where they used to be.
This is what annoys me the most about 1.3, so honestly as long as this was put back I'd be happy. The rest of your changes are pretty good too.