Yeah, don’t know about other SN games, but Silver Tree UI was exhausting. Hope we move into the direction of less clicking, not more. Also those annoying buttons, that you can not press for several seconds after the page loads…
Hope there is some public beta test of the new interface, before it is rolled out.
Not saying I am against changes too. Lot’s of things can be improved. This just needs testing.
edited by Fhoenix on 2/6/2013
As a UI designer/interaction designer, the thing that struck me the most about the new difficulties styling is that it really screams “I’m the most important thing on this page!” More important than the storylet and option titles. Than the action buttons. Than the actual text that is the reason we play FL.
It’s a general degregation over time of the visual information hierarchy of the screens, to the point that it may start impacting both brand and usability.
That said, we know that change is inevitable. I would just prefer to feel that adequate thought had been given to fitting all these changes into a consistent aesthetic.
That was also my impression.
[color=#009900]“Hold my hand. Close your eyes.” ← Auntie Steelbreaker[/color]
All will be well and all manner of thing will be well, apparently. Or so they keep telling us.
Not postponed. Not in the end. Not for long.
[quote=Woogawoman]As a UI designer/interaction designer, the thing that struck me the most about the new difficulties styling is that it really screams “I’m the most important thing on this page!” More important than the storylet and option titles. Than the action buttons. Than the actual text that is the reason we play FL.
It’s a general degregation over time of the visual information hierarchy of the screens, to the point that it may start impacting both brand and usability.
That said, we know that change is inevitable. I would just prefer to feel that adequate thought had been given to fitting all these changes into a consistent aesthetic.[/quote]
I agree, it’s like having a neon sign in the corner. Also seems very ‘modern’ styling for old london
I still miss the big, red “Go” button.
I wholeheartedly agree with Woogawoman. Contrast the new FL screen with the mantelpiece screen. Everything about the mantelpiece screams Victorian horror mystery.
The newer UI seems to say “Insert your text into this generic template.” I understand they want to make the UI of Storynexus games similar, but where is the virtue in that? Isn’t having all of your games look alike a drawback rather than a feature? Especially when so many SN games are set out of our modern times and the new display seems not just modern, but video game like. It makes me very aware I’m playing a game rather than reading an interactive story.
Moreover, I don’t see the point of the change. Were people complaining about the look of this or any game? Was there a flood of hate mail about FL not looking enough like other SN games? Am I missing the pages upon pages of suggestions on the feedback forums asking Failbetter to change the challange italic font?
I’m not opposed to change, but I’d rather the interface look more like the mantelpiece screen or have a similar Victorian aesthetic. It seems the most recent changes have been made for the sake of change rather than to fix a problem.
Having the same UI makes it easier to maintain and improve it. So it’s probably done for FB convinience, not because people are complaining.
You do raise a valid point. If every game looks the same, they all lose something in flavor and atmosphere. And people will complain about any interface change, because they are used to the old design and don’t want to relearn. So the change should better be functional and actually add something to the game, not just make the fanbase irritable. So far, I think the consensus in this thread is, that showing probabilities on mouse over was a nice change, but adding this big black box was not.
i think i found an issue???
Is your issue that you have too much time on your hands? :)
My issue is that not enough UI features can be led in dance in this manner.
man idk what the deal is with these new boxes they seem pretty energetic. They’re just so excited! - YouTube
edited by Spacemarine9 on 2/7/2013
I don’t like the look of the new feature either. Too prominent.
On the subject of whether bad UI interferes with sales, I know it’s just one data point, but when they added the ugly yellow bar at the top, I held off for several months on recommending the game to my friends in hopes the look would be fixed, because first impressions are important. Now they are moving even more in the direction of messing up the game’s look.
Changing gears to talk about a positive visual change, Incendiary Gossip has a new image (while Intriguing Gossip stayed the same):
And there was much rejoicing.
edited by Aspeon on 2/14/2013
That is a nice change, distinguishing it from Intriguing Gossip.
There have been a number of other image changes recently that should be noted:
Has anyone noticed any improvements from the latest patch? I was hoping that this was the one that would finally get rid of the clutter on the left side (no, I really don’t need to know that my ‘Orthos is Coming’ quality is still 0, though it’s nice to know that I have room for two separate kinds of second chances for that quality, should any ever exist), but that was not to be. So far, the only change I’ve noticed is to the formatting of luck challenges, which does not appear an improvement.
I’m wondering if the new luck formatting was unintentional. It’s just that bad, and it seems to be causing weird issues (the weirdest being within my Tales of Terror, in which I have to scroll all the way down to play the first option listed). I do like the new hover text for qualities over the previous method of listing all of them before stating which one you have.
On a similar topic, the “Searching the meaning of the plaster face” storylet is now pretty much unplayable: some options are sent way down the page, the ‘working rat’ one in particular, whose button is completely hidden by other boxes. A bug has been reported (ticket #9764).
On a similar topic, the “Searching the meaning of the plaster face” storylet is now pretty much unplayable: some options are sent way down the page, the ‘working rat’ one in particular, whose button is completely hidden by other boxes. A bug has been reported (ticket #9764).[/quote]
I’ve been assuming that it’s incomplete–that they 've been trying to craft a box like the ones for quality checks, and it hasn’t quite come off yet.
[quote=Aspeon]Changing gears to talk about a positive visual change, Incendiary Gossip has a new image (while Intriguing Gossip stayed the same):
And there was much rejoicing.
edited by Aspeon on 2/14/2013[/quote]
Agreed. I like the new graphic well enough, and the fact that the two are now visually distinguishable in one’s inventory even better.
[quote=Tesuji]That is a nice change, distinguishing it from Intriguing Gossip.
There have been a number of other image changes recently that should be noted:
[snip][/quote]
I noticed the change re: Ostentatious and regular Diamonds, Fairly Tame Sorrow Spiders, and Primaeval Hints. I don’t have a Demark or a Cinder yet, and I have no clue how you get a Magnificent Diamond.