Suggestions for the left side

Hello,

with &quotleft side&quot I mean that string of info on your characteristics below the actions, the money and the Fate.
Personally I think that some of the characteristics that are shown are not that useful with respect to others that are not shown… for example: I don’t think there’s a big need of Turncoat, Noise, Peckish, Irrigo, and I think there’s a need of Making Waves and Notability (at least MW). A wonderful thing could be a clock marking the approach of Time the Healer, but I don’t know if it’s technically possible.

(In passing, I also think that the division of the &quotqualities&quot in the profile is sometimes a bit arbitrary and not that intuitive [e.g. why MW is a &quotSpecific ability&quot? and Notability a &quotstory&quot?] so that it’s not always obvious whether to check a specific thing - not to mention that there are a lot of categories now! easy to get lost!)

Perhaps it’s just me however!

The sidebar lists all menaces, so it showing those is just a consequence of that. I think it’d be nice if Making Waves and Notability were both under Specific Ability. They’re basically the same thing, after all.

[quote=Master Polarimini]clock marking the approach of Time the Healer, but I don’t know if it’s technically possible.
[/quote]

That happens kinda in black crown and has never worked for me, just flashes weirdly. I’d rather it didn’t, than introduce something that buggy.

The qualities categories do seem pretty arbitrary - perhaps there’s some terribly logical reason for them beneath the surface. I don’t mind the menaces in the sidebar - I do like the suggestion I once saw, that the second-chances for each stat could be merged and placed in one slot, and the relevant menace placed in the other - but the system works just fine as it is.

I didn’t say to remove the four main menaces, but the others that are very minor.
I would use the left side to mark the qualities of which there is some need to follow the progress or to have an immediate idea of the value.

I think even the minor menaces are useful to have on-screen, because those usually have a lower threshold for danger, so it’s better to be reminded that they’re there.

There certainly are some ui/ux improvements that could be made.

I know Failbetter is busy enough as it is right now with The Sunless Sea and new Fallen London content but maybe see this as a wishlist.

Instead of just using the sidebar it would be very nice indeed if the relevant stats were shown on a played card/storylet. Right now you can see for instance when you hover over a conflict card what your connected stats are to both parties but once you have clicked it you have to trust to memory.

It would be great if the current stats were displayed right there in the text. So for instance it could say ‘small loss of Connected: Urchins (currently 25) and greater gain of Connected: The Docks (currently 23)’. Color coding it to see immediately which will gain and which will lose would make it even better.

Certain other stats would also be rather nice to have directly available as well. Unseen and Approaching when in the Alleys of Spite for instance.

There are plenty of other examples but this should be enough to illustrate.

I fear that with the way the game texts are probably stored (pure conjecture on my part) this won’t really be feasible but perhaps the stats can be displayed under the text. And yes, this would increase the number of database calls…

As to the sidebar: it would be rather nice if we could just go to a settings page and decide what is displayed there. Alternatively you could have all items be collapsible divs.

If we’re talking UI, the only thing I’ve found that gets on my nerves (enough to client override) is the flashing “Buy now” button on the merch ad. It’d be a better experience if it didn’t highlight every time the mouse grazed the sidebar, which for me seems to be often.