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Issues, Workarounds & Localization

 
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New interface causing cognitive dissonance
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Westley Judge
State War Academy
Caldari State
#1 - 2014-12-17 18:39:45 UTC  |  Edited by: Westley Judge
There's a wonderfully polite thread in the Feedback/Suggestions forum asking for "constructive criticism" of the new interface but it seems to have been utterly overlooked by anyone with any real say, so I'm making a new post in this forum.

The new interface and it's monochrome nature & homogeneity have rendered EVE all but unplayable for me. I'm in my 40s, never had any learning disabilities diagnosed, and didn't expect anything from the screenshots that circulated during the beta test of Rhea. However, now it's launched I've dropped from 4-18 hours/day to 4-18 minutes/week of playtime. I genuinely find the new interface much harder to navigate, because the way I'm used to processing button/icon information has been vaporised without a care.

We've evolved to place a lot of stock in what color something is. It's important, it matters on a subconscious level. Different colors have different meanings, and more than that the juxtaposition of different colors is used as a simple identifier in many areas of life - black/yellow means "dangerous/poisonous", for example.

I'm coming to realise that I use colour a lot more than I ever thought, way more than icon shape or pattern when it comes to recognising which icon does what. The Devs obviously have had similar thoughts in the past as various items have recently been having their icons subtly tweaked to make them differ from other items that have always had different purposes yet shared the same icon. And yet in this patch they've actively removed those identifying marks, scrubbed them off entirely.

I first played EVE 10 years ago, didn't get into it, moved on. I decided to try again just a few months ago, got straight into it thanks to the "new" tutorial missions, and had been happily playing regularly until last week. Now I can't see myself playing ever again, and I'm sad because I've made a considerable investment of time and money when compared to other similar games, neither of which I expect to be able to be reimbursed for.

As said earlier, I've never been diagnosed with any cognitive issues. I do however know of players that DO have diagnosed issues, and for the Devs to remove any way for them to customise the interface as we used to be able to do is deplorable; video games have always been one of the most inclusive of media, yet this shunts aside anyone unable to deal with a specific method of interpreting data. I hope that some notice may be taken of this issue, and hopefully a way to reintroduce those lost elements that make the game, not necessarily more pleasurable, but most definitely and infinitely more playable, may one day appear.
Sol Project
Shitt Outta Luck - GANKING4GOOD
#2 - 2014-12-17 20:00:08 UTC  |  Edited by: Sol Project
Forget it..You're right it ac ualyy is bad.

Ladies of New Eden YC 117 by Indahmawar Fazmarai

Warning: NSFW! Barely legal girls in underwear!

Diana Kim > AND THIS IS WHY THE FEDERATION MUST BE DESTROYED!!
Sol Project
Shitt Outta Luck - GANKING4GOOD
#3 - 2014-12-17 20:01:50 UTC  |  Edited by: Sol Project
Double post.

Ladies of New Eden YC 117 by Indahmawar Fazmarai

Warning: NSFW! Barely legal girls in underwear!

Diana Kim > AND THIS IS WHY THE FEDERATION MUST BE DESTROYED!!
Dimitrios Bekas
Pandemic Horde Inc.
Pandemic Horde
#4 - 2014-12-18 05:34:58 UTC
For me it is impossible to different the symbols when i lower the size of the Neocom, like i had it with the colored symbols.
I now need to have it 3times as big, and i really play lots of hours every day with 6 toons, and still, it will never be the same.

The reason is simple...

Even now i really put all symbols into the same order on any clients, i still need to "recognize" a lot symbols and wait for the popup, BECAUSE THEY LOOK QUITE THE SAME for me.

Sure the big Z for you wallet, ok... And Marketplace with that Diagram shown, ok...but Chatchannel, Contracts, Notices,...look all the same for me.

And the biggest MINUS, i will never again make the neocom so small like i had it before, because then ALL SYMBOLS look the same when they are so small.

For other UI Elements in the Game, this slick and corporate new Re-Design sure makes sense, and works perfect. BUT, for the Neocom Buttons it is a downgrade in usability.

Sure, it looks "MODERN" now...but hell, would it be SUCH a "disaster" if there could be an option to KEEP the old buttons ?
By default, for new players, leave the modern style...but as i said,..make the neocom smaller (to have at least more Room for everything else) will never work again.

And this has nothing to do with age or psychological issues...its just LOGICAL from a Graphical point of view that ONE COLORED BUTTONS have their limits.

Waiting everytime until the popup comes up, ...is really annoying. And there is nothing to learn...it is done. I need to keep superlarge white buttons on my NeoCom and it takes me lots of time and nerves now...to find, what i am looking for.

:(
Sol Project
Shitt Outta Luck - GANKING4GOOD
#5 - 2014-12-18 10:40:05 UTC
You too can relearn it ...
... with icons that make it harder than before.

I wrote a huge complaint explaining why this and the fading change is bad. :p

Ladies of New Eden YC 117 by Indahmawar Fazmarai

Warning: NSFW! Barely legal girls in underwear!

Diana Kim > AND THIS IS WHY THE FEDERATION MUST BE DESTROYED!!
Westley Judge
State War Academy
Caldari State
#6 - 2014-12-21 12:47:50 UTC
A comparison to the WoW interface was made elsewhere, and it's not valid on many points. The main one escaped me until recently though, and that's that it doesn't matter how the WoW interface looks because you can change it. Anyone can have any interface they like over there.

Really the Neocom icons are the hardest thing to deal with I think, as Dimitrios says; the rest can be dealt with by playing with the pining & transparency sliders. Just an option to change the icons, either manually replacing the graphics with personal icons or just switching back to the old ones, would make a huge difference.

Perhaps with the upcoming dismantling of the game package, this might become easier to support?

Still a shame there's no official recognition of this.