Test Server Feedback

+1 !

I rather have everything yellow and flagging hey Im a link than to have bolded letters that are very hard to segregate and easily reproducable in chat.

At least for chat make them yellow? or is that impossible?

Yellow/gold/orange whatever in chat and maybe just Underline all other links in other parts of UI so that when you mouse over it changes pointer but the Underline lets you know it is a link?? Some people with vision issues can not just tell from font weight (bold) that it is a link, but an underline, even if in same color as surrounding text, would be a visual clue as to it being clickable as a link. Wouls this clutter things up with undelines? Maybe, but at least every other word wouldn't be a different color.

As a designer, I'll tell you up front - classic design mistake Numero Uno is that you're putting Form OVER Function. I don't care if it looks good, I care that it works. I played EVE before Trinity, and years before UI designers were ever hired because it WORKED and I had fun! I didn't care about "horribly ugly" yellow text!


Design Rule 1 : Form FOLLOWS Function.


It doesn't matter if there are links in the descriptions if - guess what? - noone knows that they're there!! Both in player made links or not. I didn't even realize there WERE links in the new item descriptions! I saw the YELLOW headers, and I tried to click on those, but I didn't see ANY bolded text that I thought was a link in the actual description.


I don't scrub over text to see if there are links, I need a visual indication that there are links and bold is insufficient. You have to revisit your design paradigm. You're going to have to make text in your descriptions more than white bold even on CCP descriptions.


As a UI designer you are designing FOR your user (user interface). We are giving you feedback. Don't be dismissive.

I give +1 for this. Links in chat should stay the color they are. We'r not racist, we want diversity. In face of the coming tragedy of links being the same color as chat I give my strong objection!

Keep the yellow links!

Completely bassackwards and counterintuitive answer, great job!

I have more likes than you, I win.

CCP your game already has many contradictory elements, often for NO purpose. Links being YELLOW in chat and BOLD in descriptions will be just fine, I am sure you player base can understand by CONTEXT the difference.

You REALLY need to reverse the BOLD garbage, it is pure garbage. NEW FONT + NEW UNIDENTIFIABLE LINKS = Apple Lion, don't do it.

I was coming here to say just the same thing. It's a computer's job; the client should do it instead of bothering the player.

Current method:
1. type a word
2· mouse to position (or 2· Ctrl Shift left and 3· mouse to position)
3· highlight text, fiddley if it was mid-sentence because of the space
4· right click
5· mouse to position again
6· select Item Type
7· mouse to position again
8· double click item

Better method:
1· type a word.

Anything typed with correct spelling becomes bold and linked while you continue typing. This would have the extra bonus of turning the chat prompt into a handy tool. Press space, type "Hek", you're done. Space ishtar done. Even typing "Imperial Navy Slicer" is easier than mucking around with those 8 steps.

Suggestion on this point: add a keyboard command while the chat prompt has focus that performs "Show Info" on the last word typed, so the player doesn't even have to look for the mouse to click it. This would turn the chat prompt into a monster of a useful tool. For instance, [space key] rifter [hold space press enter]. Rifter info appears just like that.

Still keep the current system intact as well for the keyword functionality it allows, but boy would it be good to kill off a large percentage of the times you have to wade through the linking procedure.


The one concern is that too many links might appear in chat, be it yellow or white. I honestly don't think they would be that numerous. Nevertheless this brings me to suggest an alternative for how linkable words can appear in chat. This alternative still makes use of the client linking words automatically.

Alternative method of applying automatic links:
· If the author hasn't explicitly created a link, everything appears as normal when posted in chat.
· Readers in the channel can hold the Show Info hotkey and click any word.
· If it is linkable, the client automagically links it.
· Left click for Show Info, right click for magical and automatic right-click menu.

Suggestion on this point: In the chat prompt where the author is typing, words still automatically link themselves and turn bold as described earlier. Upon pressing enter, the text is posted as normal, unlinked, waiting for a hotkey. This point isn't critical and the interface could just fall back to only automatically linking with the hotkey even in the chat prompt, for visual and tangible consistency. However this suggestion does: let the author see what is linkable by others, let the author see any mistakes he might have made with a typo, teach all players over time what can be linked without effort because it would be visual every time, and would allow the author to activate their own links from the prompt with one less key (improving its functionality as a tool).


So anyway, two main points here.
· The client should be creating automatic links from text when it can.
· A Show Info hotkey would be extremely useful, regardless of links. For ships in hangar, fitted modules, pretty much anything.

Suggestion on this point: I would like to see a Market Details hotkey as well, working exactly the same way. Left click automatic link to market, right click for automatic right-click menu.


Combining automatic linking with a hotkey or two creates a tonne of extra functionality yet LESS clogging up the chat contents with bold links. I would happily settle for bold white links when they're created automatically, but would still prefer bold yellow for player-created links or dragged-in links.

Since http links and in-game links seem to be handled differently in chat, I suggest maybe also making them two different colors. One for external(browser) links and one for internal(info window, fittings, etc) links.

note: I haven't used chat linking for some time now, so I may very well be pulling suggestions from out of my @ss.