01-05-2021, 08:54 PM
I'm inclined to agree with the people frustrated about the recent change in UI. I do think it was high-time we got something more visually appealing, and it does look good.
That being said, it's too busy, and too lacking in clarity, and I think it's going to cause much grief especially for newer players who aren't used to many of the classes, and skills in the first place. It isn't much of a problem for people who already have an understanding of how the system works, but when you take a look at, say, Hexer, it just looks dizzying. I'll be more concrete with my issues:
![[Image: YwoALlk.png]](https://i.imgur.com/YwoALlk.png)
- It looks cluttered initially:
There's too much stuff happening. You have too many buttons at the same time, a ton of different colours many might not even know mean anything to this day, and an entire left side of dud information with bright visuals that do nothing for you, except distract you.
- The organization isn't as good as one might think:
Going back to the point of colours, it's all very pretty, but not even the dandy guide in the top right explain what the different skill-colours actually mean, and that's a huge downgrade compared to before when they were straight up sectioned off, and we didn't have to draw mental lines between what section of skills did what. When skills were grouped up, we could expect them all to be visually easy to identify with each other, and I don't think that's the case anymore.
- The class bar is annoying to navigate:
We have a lot of classes now, and that's absolutely fantastic. Suffering from success is a good thing to be proud of. Unfortunately the scroll-system for the class is messy to use with its static jumps, and infinite cycle if you accidently scroll too far. That everything is coloured is nice for the sake of keeping classes, and their promos grouped, it's also very distracting when you're already dealing with the issues mentioned above. The static jumps of the scrolling also cut off some classes from each other, such as in this case Duelist, and Firebird being one jump further up. Additionally, there's no visual indicator to what class you've got selected for when you click on Learn Skills, which can sometimes put you into a class you don't even want to look at.
- Solutions:
While I don't expect anything to be done about many of the things I've mentioned, I'm going to propose some fixes that I believe would work to remedy the overall frustrations of using the new menu. I want to point out that I do like it, it just needs more quality of life.
Firstly, re-introduce the spaced organization. It was an amazing, and easy way to differentiate skills. I know you said you didn't think it was important, but I must wholeheartedly disagree, and promptly apologize that it might mean a lot of work down the line. But such a tiny thing goes much further than you might think, especially for the lot of us who use the menu all the time.
Secondly, give us a real scroll bar on the class list instead-- one that halts at the bottom, without cycling. Scroll bars are amazing, that's why every browser in the universe uses them all the time, and fluid scrolling makes it easier to find what you're looking for in my own experiences.
Thirdly, add a visual indicator to what class you've got selected, so I don't accidently hit Priest when I really wanted to put points into Eclair. Additionally, and this is just personal preference, but muting all the colours on the class list when you're buying class skills would go a long way to make it feel less busy, and attention-hogging.
Fourth, remove all the + and - buttons from skills you haven't selected. Please. They make it look so abhorrently messy.
Fifth, add some explanation to what the different colours of skills actually mean. We've got a nice guide in the top right, but it doesn't actually talk about different skill-types at all. This would also go a long way in providing people-- especially new players, which much-needed clarity.
At the risk of sounding pretentious, I'm going to quote Frank Lloyd Wright: "Less is more, only when more is too much." And right now, I think that's where we're at. At the very least I hope the user-friendliness of the menu is going to increase from people's suggestions.
That being said, it's too busy, and too lacking in clarity, and I think it's going to cause much grief especially for newer players who aren't used to many of the classes, and skills in the first place. It isn't much of a problem for people who already have an understanding of how the system works, but when you take a look at, say, Hexer, it just looks dizzying. I'll be more concrete with my issues:
- It looks cluttered initially:
There's too much stuff happening. You have too many buttons at the same time, a ton of different colours many might not even know mean anything to this day, and an entire left side of dud information with bright visuals that do nothing for you, except distract you.
- The organization isn't as good as one might think:
Going back to the point of colours, it's all very pretty, but not even the dandy guide in the top right explain what the different skill-colours actually mean, and that's a huge downgrade compared to before when they were straight up sectioned off, and we didn't have to draw mental lines between what section of skills did what. When skills were grouped up, we could expect them all to be visually easy to identify with each other, and I don't think that's the case anymore.
- The class bar is annoying to navigate:
We have a lot of classes now, and that's absolutely fantastic. Suffering from success is a good thing to be proud of. Unfortunately the scroll-system for the class is messy to use with its static jumps, and infinite cycle if you accidently scroll too far. That everything is coloured is nice for the sake of keeping classes, and their promos grouped, it's also very distracting when you're already dealing with the issues mentioned above. The static jumps of the scrolling also cut off some classes from each other, such as in this case Duelist, and Firebird being one jump further up. Additionally, there's no visual indicator to what class you've got selected for when you click on Learn Skills, which can sometimes put you into a class you don't even want to look at.
- Solutions:
While I don't expect anything to be done about many of the things I've mentioned, I'm going to propose some fixes that I believe would work to remedy the overall frustrations of using the new menu. I want to point out that I do like it, it just needs more quality of life.
Firstly, re-introduce the spaced organization. It was an amazing, and easy way to differentiate skills. I know you said you didn't think it was important, but I must wholeheartedly disagree, and promptly apologize that it might mean a lot of work down the line. But such a tiny thing goes much further than you might think, especially for the lot of us who use the menu all the time.
Secondly, give us a real scroll bar on the class list instead-- one that halts at the bottom, without cycling. Scroll bars are amazing, that's why every browser in the universe uses them all the time, and fluid scrolling makes it easier to find what you're looking for in my own experiences.
Thirdly, add a visual indicator to what class you've got selected, so I don't accidently hit Priest when I really wanted to put points into Eclair. Additionally, and this is just personal preference, but muting all the colours on the class list when you're buying class skills would go a long way to make it feel less busy, and attention-hogging.
Fourth, remove all the + and - buttons from skills you haven't selected. Please. They make it look so abhorrently messy.
Fifth, add some explanation to what the different colours of skills actually mean. We've got a nice guide in the top right, but it doesn't actually talk about different skill-types at all. This would also go a long way in providing people-- especially new players, which much-needed clarity.
At the risk of sounding pretentious, I'm going to quote Frank Lloyd Wright: "Less is more, only when more is too much." And right now, I think that's where we're at. At the very least I hope the user-friendliness of the menu is going to increase from people's suggestions.
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