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A hypothetical day at the CCP office:

UI Designer 1: So... they didn't like any of the icon sets we proposed.
Manager: We can't spend much more time on that, we need a decision.
UI Designer 1: Shouldn't we shelve it for later?
Manager: We put it on schedule, so we will deliver it. We need your team free to work on other things.
UI Designer 2: Honestly, the feedback we got was way too one-dimensional, I don't think they're seeing the bigger picture. If we take every change into consideration, then we have to spend more time getting the rest together which hasn't been touched.
Manager: Both of you are not helping, even though what both of you say has merit. Still, they're not UI developers, and you are. I can draw pixels in paint too, that doesn't mean they work as intended.
UI Designer 1: I disagree, our playerbase bring up a lot of valid points, and their feedback and mockups are on the right track too.
UI Designer 2: That doesn't matter, even if we decide to go that route, we can't use those mockups.
UI Designer 1: What?
CCP Lawyer: We can't use player created mockups as part of our client for legal reasons.
UI Designer 1: You've got to be kidding me...
UI Designer 2: Tough luck. I guess we have to ship this. Too many mockups and ideas are around, this does not leave us with much space to find something else in between and we're running out of time anyway.
Manager: Indeed, all very problematic. Well... let's just ship it, and take the flak, maybe we can work something out during this sh!tstorm.
UI Designer 2: Sounds about right.
UI Designer 1: I'm NOT agreeing with this... there has to be a better way and we can't let the next thing happen like that again!
Manager: I'm sorry, that is not your call to make. You can't see in the future how it will work out, forum population is just a small part of the playerbase. We will ship it, and see what happens to player count and subscription changes. There is no point speculating.


*... sometime in the future, a UI designer silently leaves the company.*

I like the new icons. I understand that someone worked hard on them and that lots of people hates em. Just make them toggleable in General Settings or something. I see them as an improvement and I got used to them and appreciate them, but for #^$&'s sake, I need my CEO to undock and shoot stuff and he hates the icons.

It is far too subtle a distinction, particularly in Min/Amarr FW space with red/orange backgrounds and whether the icon is filled or not is not easy to see immediately. Being able to quickly differentiate between players and NPCs is, in my opinion, much more important than being able to quickly differentiate between ship classes, though I'm not opposed to the concept.

I think players should have a standings box fill around the new icons, particularly the Bracket icons. That way we can see the new class and still immediately determine when a player warps on grid, or when warping to a grid with both players and NPCs.

Exact same situation for me. The fact I'm bothering to post on the forums at all should be a big warning flag that the icon issue hits wide on the playerbase, not just a few veterans really deeply.

I do not like the new neocom icons at all compared to the previous ones, and it has already been months attempting to adjust to that. These new overview icons feel much more insulting now that I expect, like the neocom icons, that we will never be allowed to use the previous overview icons again.

I understand that CCP is trying to make EVE feel more like a "space" game, but FFS, the recent changes force me to notice just how drab and gray everything is.

And in case CCP doesn't understand basic human psychology, GRAY=DEPRESSION. It'd be just great if only my character felt the depression of living in a bleak hyper-capitalist utopia, but my HUMAN BRAIN playing the game is the one that feels the sadness from the UI changes.

Eve pilots should be able to live happily if they so choose, because they get to be IMMORTAL in a universe where mortals are generally not even given a moment of thought. You can bet your ass that Dust players feel a hell of a lot more "alive" in their world, despite the fact they know they are eminently disposable.

Seriously CCP, what are you doing?

Well its Monday tomorrow, I'm seriously hoping CCP have a meeting and ditch these icons and soon!

The quietest Sunday ops this alliance has had in years, peeps are just not fleeting up 'cos of the confusion these icons cause....

The longer CCP leaves it the more disenchanted peeps will become, particularly when CCP go awol which is interpreted as not listening to their customer base...

This is feedback on the new Icons.

My Background: Solo/small Scale PvP / Exploration PvE. Tested the new overview and brackets on SiSi before it was implemented on TQ. Had some days to let the changes sink in now.

Major issues i encountered:

- NPC- and Playericons have the same shape while featuring different coloring:

Huge NoNo! In a universe where human players pose the biggest threat, the one thing that has to work reliably is that you are able to distinguish a player from a NPC in no time. NPCs need a distinct set of icons. The FN/Concord Icons are basically identical to respective player icons. I have huge problems recognizing players entering a grid when there are NPC icons on my current overview. Also: Visually impaired people. Same goes for drones: Allthough different from player icons, many of them now feature the same basic shape (triangle), which makes it much harder to quickly identify the overview icons when you are not focusing on them. Also there are way to many triangular shapes in general.

- Details of Icons (namely Beacons, Sun, Structures, Deployables, Belts) :

I actually think that the different player ship icons are fine and i didn´t expect to distinguish them from each other in so little time, even in hectic situations. I like them and think that the additional information they display helps with identifying stuff on your overview and in space. What i found to be an issue is the detail level of other icons. It´s just way to high. Again this is an issue for threat assessment in peripheral vision. The detail level of non player/non NPC icons clutters up the overview and i need to take a closer look each time something pops up.

Minor issues:

- "Rectangular" shape of the stargate icon:

The celestial that is probably the most common round shape on overviews and gets selected for warping, broadcasting, aligning, etc. the most. A rectangular shape makes it less distinct from station and container icons. This is only a very minor problem. But i wish that in numerous situations throughout the past few days, i would have been able to recognize the stargate icons earlier.

Overall i think that the new icons don´t look all that bad. The additional information carried by player ship icons is helpful and just needs some time to get used to. It´s the discriminability between player icons and icons of secondary concern that causes alot of trouble.

I'd get used to only having one leg but that doesn't mean i wasn't better off with two.

New neocom icons - Boring, indistinct at a glance and just left there for players to "get used to"

New Map, just left there in the hope people will "just get used to it", faults and all.

New Icons, going the same way?

This is a slippery slope, where is the bottom?
Is the ladder tall enough for CCP to climb back to where they used to be?
Forget about going higher on the ladder (for now) just get back to what used to be suitable and usable.


I would so love to have a job where I get to just ignore customers and do as I please.

This thread is roughly over 1320'ish posts. I'd wager about 1300 of them thusfar are "critical" about the overview icons. In that people don't care for them, and would rather an alternative solution be found.

Edit: Alternative = roll back to the old until a better solution is found.

This would be a great time to tap into your CSM resources.

the overview icons.. damn you ccp... not this, please just let us turn that **** off and go the old one