Test Server Feedback

I'm with you on this one. I went from "ughhh I can't see things" to "OMG I CAN SEE AND IT'S ALL GROUPED TOGETHER AS A VISUALLY DISTINCT BLOCK" when I saw the new layering. I don't have to look around the icons any more. I can look above the icons as one unit, and I can line up my targets and compare health status across them at a glance without looking at the icons (which was the best thing about the old rectangular display and it's back). This is best and I am very appoint. It may be working well for me because I've trained myself to gauge health based on negative space and counting lines.

I may be expressing myself badly due to lack of caffeine and excitement, but tl;dr I actually like this more than what we have on TQ right now. I know, I was shocked too.

Not true. As stated before, the central HUD is not made to be copied that small, and the new health in layers has a very unreadable health since it is not 180°. Health in circle had 4 clear distinction every 25% of each layer, which was much better for a quick glance.

I also agree with the fact that duplicating an old HUD is definitely not a step forward, nor it is according to the new interface's overall style.

About sleepers, as a WH player I was curious and checked out myself. This is exactly the same thing without shield layer, so basically the missing circle leaves a bit of empty room. Simple and clear.

So, the two key problems with the targeting interface are, imo :
1- The odd 270° covered by the layers, making very hard to tell were are each quarter. It is aggravated by the fact that there is four lines, one for each cardinal point of the circle, around it. Creating some "false" indications about were are 25 and 75%.

I took an example to illustrate. Look at this screenshot "quickly" like you would do in a quick glance. http://bit.ly/TB5Qn8





If I were asking you if the armor is at more or less than 40%, what would you answer on your first impression ? (Note : For some reason I found it even more confusing when the small picture is moved to a corner of the screen.)

2- I honestly don't get the point with the "insertion" of this feature among the new others that we've seen recently. Take a look at module tooltips for example, they are quite dark and "clear", taking enough room so that all the informations are spaced enough to leave a comfortable feeling when you look at them. Now we have a flashy white bar were each layer takes, what.. 3 pixels of thickness ? Seriously ?

I do love to see CCP offering improvements to their game, to us :) But this second "proposition" of health display looks more like a workaround for me.

Edit : Answer : armor is at 37%

CCP please please listen to your players on these circular health bars. They are terrible. When people tell you "its hard to see, we dont like it, the old way was better, etc". For Christs sake listen this time before screaming ahead with a change.

Yea OK, you want to give it a change, make it look cooler. Great. Do That. But please listen this time. Isnt that why we have these forums anyways?

I wouldn't be terribly worried about whether the HP bars are automagically intuitive. A new player will quickly figure out which bar represents the shields, and which the armor.

That said, maybe the following would be both readable and intuitive, and might even save space:

Split the target HP into three separate bars, arranged in a semicircle rather than a full circle around the target. Shield HP will be the right-most on the semi-circle, centered at the three o'clock position. Armor HP will be in the middle, centered at the twelve o'clock position. Hull HP will be the left-most, centered at the nine o'clock position. That will make the centers of the HP arcs align with the crosshairs, so that they are not merely ornamental but also are a reference point. I would make small indents at 25% and 75% levels for each HP arc as well.

Something like this: http://i.imgur.com/qOFb3.png

Apologies for the awful drawing, but best I can do using MSPaint. I don't know whether segmenting the HP bar itself will be desirable.

The damage will go from right to left, just like on the current HUD, and the whole thing will also flow from right to left. For additional clarity, maybe add 'SH,' 'AR,' and 'ST' above each bar or something, but I don't think it's really necessary.

It's cool. The motion is a little too fast though. A couple of misclicks and I almost get seasick.

If you select something close to what you're already looking at the camera does a little jump that would probably benefit from being a little slower and smoother. Say if the new target is within a certain angle form the previous one make the transition at a third of the usual speed or something.

(Crossposted this because I have no idea which thread you want feedback in, sorry. Maybe the other camera thread should be merged with this.)

I've been wishing for that bracket to be toggle-able since I started playing. Press ALT once to turn it on, press ALT again to turn it off.

I died a little inside while drawing it.

We are aware of this and looking into a fix right now.

I have no idea what's going on but I got on Buckingham and tried to shoot some stuff (an asteroid, a station) with my dramiel...

When I went to lock a target, the target icon popped up in the top right corner of my screen (ALL the way in the corner, and underneath my selected items window). When I tried to activate guns, the target lock appeared to break (but the target icon remained in the top right corner). It proved to be impossible to lock and fire on anything, and the icon for every single thing I locked remained in ghost form in the upper right (even warping around wouldn't clear them), resulting in a stack of ghost icons.

IDK what you've done but you've completely borked something.


e: while I'm posting here, are you guys gonna fix the "brackets randomly vanish either from space or from your overview" bug that's currently on TQ? (EG, you'll have a target locked, but that target will either vanish from your overview [but remain locked] or will remain on the overview but its in-space bracket will vanish [but it remains locked]-- both game-breaking and fiercely irritating bugs)

The "crystal balls" look silly. Do they come with special mystic aura candles? Or, just the typical vague words of reassurance that "all will be as you wanted... as we saw it"?