The "Launcher" Is Located In A Very Odd And Confusing Place

[Dev Bubbles]

@DrTentacles Noting this down as well.  Thanks!! 

[RearAdmiralZill]

I think the "launcher" is fine. Ironically it will show a lot of its worth when the game is down, and assuming natural progression, it'll populate with more news/events/ect. I'm with Bubbles too when it comes to keeping it clean. Most launchers are way too busy and all I end up caring about is the big "play" button.

My only complaint with it is that its, not actually a launcher, lol. Bulletin Board? Status Page? Idk. You decide.

[Dev Bubbles]

Yeah, we talked about it as well.  Calling it a launcher isn't the greatest either.  Noted.

[Arturo Sanchez]

What puzzles me is I have to go through 3 screens to just start the game.

I click the game and I have the option to start workshop tool or start the game.

then I load in and find this "launcher" ho's function was to give me an extra button to click for no reason.



Why not fuse the first two steps and have an option to pick between launching the game (with a tick box for the direct x 11), the dev app (hint hint), and the workshop tool thingy.

[Dev Bubbles]

@Ceres, yeah because workshop and dev app are separate apps, the launching of those are controlled by Steam (that screen is Steam's). 
The screen offers 2 advantages right now.  One is the communication of community events and news, and the other is the communication of server downtime, which we think is pretty valuable even though it doesn't happen often (fingers crossed). 

[-Anakin-]

I hadn't heard anything about this launcher in the dev app. I would have let you guys know how I felt about it before if I'd seen it earlier.

I do think the general concept of a launcher is an okay idea, I like the idea of listing news and community events in a very visible way and I understand you guys wanting the server status visible too.

The problem is more the execution. It honestly seems unfinished, with the grey border, and the fact it adds so much time to game launch. Before, your game was one of the quickest to launch and load in my library.

I agree with tentacles about the content it should display too.

Thanks for your replies, devs.

[ZnC]

I noticed it in dev app, but didn't think to give feedback since nothing was mentioned about it. It's probably fair to have the launcher on by default, but have an option for players to turn it off.

[Dev Bubbles]

@zanc, I don't think having that option is good, because then we'll have no way of notifying you directly if the game is down when you are trying to get in game. 

And interestingly, I just assumed that you guys are giving us feedback even when we don't need it or outside scope   I know I'm making a joke but it's actually pretty true  based on past test sessions.  So I'm responding based on this context, that since the launcher is unavoidable, and that we get feedback on everything all the time, if there was some serious concern or dislikes about the launcher, we would have known about it during 8 days of testing period.  But no matter, this is besides the point.  The focus really should be, let's collect the feedback you guys have, and let's move forward and improve the screen where makes sense. 

Thanks everyone.

[Urz]

To clarify my own post as well, the issue is that instead of it actually launching the game, they just shoved the screen later into the process where it feels out of place. If it functioned correctly it's a fine idea, and an avenue Muse can use to promote community events (if they choose to).

It clearly was designed as a launcher and even has launcher in the "window" title, so I do wonder where in development they ran into problems with the proper implementation, and said "fuck it, put it in anyways".

yeah because workshop and dev app are separate apps, the launching of those are controlled by Steam

Why can't those applications be launched by this launcher instead?

[Dev Bubbles]

@urz, yeah totally get you about the flow.  With the label of launcher, we labeled it really looking at what content we want to display, and less about it being an executable vs a client scene for example.  And to your point, we should not have called it a launcher and should have followed more strictly of convention in this case in terms of flow.  I personally didn't really think the wording matter as much, but I was clearly wrong.  No need to speculate here.  I do think that, we implement based on what we think we need.  I think for what we are trying to do, the implementation itself serves the purpose, but the flow and presentation can be better for sure.  Thanks!

[Byron Cavendish]

My 2 cents: when I saw the big patch go down, I loaded up the game and saw this launcher. The servers were down but I didn't know they were, so I immediately messaged ayetach to let him know the servers were down. He let me know that it was planned and there was a server maintenance update on the new launcher. I had used this launcher and somehow completely missed this server status part. So I feel that part doesn't pop enough. I'm not even sure why, by the rules of visual hierarchy it works but it just doesn't jump at me.

[Dev Bubbles]

Byron, ok noted.  We'll look at that as well.  While I definitely wish we had gotten more feedback sooner, definitely better late than never.  So still very appreciative of everyone's feedback today.  We'll get cracking on improving this next week.  Thanks a lot! 

Happy Halloween everyone!  Be safe and have fun! 

[Squidslinger Gilder]

Oh for sure the launcher idea is good. I like that it shoots the news first and foremost before joining into the game. Sure theres info in game but often times people can't be bothered to push a button. Splash screen launcher with the news solves this and frees up screen real estate once loaded in.

[Coiler]

Maybe you could use the matchmaker waiting time to spread news ? Everyone goes through that. Might as well read something while waiting for a lobby.

[Byron Cavendish]

But I use that time to play civ5...