Not to mention I have to search for the tiny stats that blend in with the troop picture. Yuck. I love updates, but this one hurts.
8 Likes
version 5.1.1
I commented on that above actually. Besides the text issues, which there are a few of, the UI is fine imo.
(vip 12, level 333, “xxedlinxx” on ps4) - I don’t post often because in general all the updates I’ve experienced over the years have been positive, or took only a tiny bit getting use to. I mainly play single player and don’t often do guild stuff but this game helped me through some rough times and has always been a great game to wind down to.
I post out of love and the desire to see the game continue to be successful.
The choice to change how the cards look was a huge error and must be reverted. I understand you paid development hours to make that happen, but some times you need to realize a project didn’t work out and roll back. There may also be some ego involved for whomever made that decision and that must be put aside.
There are a lot of things that people are unhappy with about this patch, but I feel all of the other issues (bugs aside) are trivial and people will work through them.
The cards are the core of this game. They must MUST MUST look like something you would buy at a game store. The previous card design was absolutely perfect, it did not need to be changed and should not have been changed. If anyone walks into your office and says they can make them look better, show them the door.
Do not try to “fix” the new design. Do not try a different design. Use the old design. Gems of war has a lot of areas that could be improved, but the card design is not one of those areas.
I will give you the key to a game that lasts forever: Prioritize what your current base wants to see in the game over any closed door roadmap and don’t try to make the same interface work on dissimilar hardware platforms.
13 Likes
I agree with your overall sentiment but I think you’re wrong on the card art. It absolutely still looks like a card, including a card you would see in another digital of physical game. Check out Shadow Era or DragonBall Z – it reminds me a lot of those. Overall, I think it looks much nicer than the old cards with those budget-looking borders.
I think the font issues are f’n awful, but I think the overall look is nice.
4 Likes
Oh. My. God. I just logged in after the patch to an explosion of ugly.
The screens, cards and menus are now dense and cluttered. Contrast between thematic elements like pictures and substantive information is limited to non-existent. Menus are further buried. The game is now almost unreadable unless it’s at full screen and zoomed out, although even then the result is a pizza of clutter.
I can now barely parse the information on the cards.
Currently I am experiencing a traumatic flashback to the disaster that was the last SolForge client update and how that update was the last torpedo to sink what was once a great game.
The best I can say is that lag seems reduced, so I guess one step forward 10 steps back…
2 Likes
Here is a constructive feedback about the currently board while playing:
The background for the gems, with other words the 8x8 routes board, is like a transparent chess board. This really mess with my eyes when it is combined with all the gems and their colors on the board. I hope you will make this piece of the board like before, without it being transparent.
10 Likes
Since the devs asked for more constructive feedback, I will try to make things more clear. I already submitted a ticket and stuff (was told in chat to do so), but since it’s not just about playability issue, I will post here clearly.
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The troop art is fit for a beautiful, colorful fantasy game. Their rims, the colors of the game, fit together with that perfectly. The new look, with the new borders, doesn’t fit at all. Also the art is smaller. This is not a beautiful, playful look anymore. This game never took itself too seriously, with all the descriptions and I loved that. The UI doesn’t reflect any of it anymore. This is my main gripe with the aesthetics. I loved my troops, the characters behind them introduced in the storylines, but now it all “lacks life” as it’s just another TCG, basically. The game was so vibrant.
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Readability. I am visually impaired - I said that before - and I now cannot play anymore. This is not a “get used to something, people don’t like change” thing. I literally cannot see anymore. I am partially blind and have red-green vision problems. The numbers in battle are unreadable. That goes for life/armor and damage done. Green is basically zero visibility for me, white and yellow are visible with some luck (depends on troop art background). Damage is, given how quickly the numbers fade, invisible. This is not a “gut reaction” that will fade when settling in - it’s not like my eyes will get better. I am literally unable to play the game.
Also I cannot see the stars on my kingdom anymore. I see a white dot. And rarity is basically unrecognizeable for me as well - before the border had, based on rarity, a different design, it was big and all around the troop. Now? Not very visible when part of your field of vision is blocked and the tiny border is in that… -
I find the motivation lowered by the new design. Like, if I could play, I would not feel as motivated anymore to gain more of a troop because the visual change in design when ascending is low. It was so rewarding to see the big border change design and color when upgrading from one rarity to another. Now there’s like no change. And if I cannot even see the border, I don’t even know if my opponent is a cool dude who plays since forever and has worked on his cards a lot or not. Sure, I see in stats, but it’s like catching a shiny Pokemon - it just feels good to get a visual reward, you know?
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I do like, however, the new chat. That is one thing I can read better now.
I also love the new search functions and how we select from a dropdown list now, which makes selecting kingdoms faster. If, you know, I could actually see things and select what I wanted, I would be so much faster now. -
The extra screens are so unneccessary. Why do I have to click an extra button to see the status increases the difficulties give? (Warlord and so on) Or my bonuses?
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Also my hero is so small… why even bother buying the weak armors when there’s no visual admiring them anymore?
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I love the other things in the patch. Well, reading them. The Wisp nerf sounds good and all that. I cannot play to test it out because again, I cannot see. But they do read nicely and it was about time.
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All the scrolling when clicking on a kingdom and seeing the options is unneeded. It was great with the buttons before!
I agree with the people who ask to not fix the new design, use the old design. I want to reiterate: Your game was one of the best games for people with visual problems because it was colorful, things were easily visible and big (both buttons and the beautiful troop art). Now your game is unplayable with visual disabilities and I don’t understand why you would do that. Please, just give me back the old UI. I am even willing to spend more money on the game to use it. I love this game so much and this is not an issue of getting used to change - this is an issue of making a game perfect for people with disabilities unplayable all of sudden. I am sitting here and am literally in shock because I suddenly cannot play the game I spent hours upon hours and which was a part of my daily life anymore.
19 Likes
I really don’t like not being able to see what the previous troops I chose were in arena. Sometimes I forget what common and rare I choose and now I might choose an UR that is completely blocked
15 Likes
Going to agree with @Sheba on almost all counts. The new UI is particular an eye sore. The old graphics were unique and that artwork assuaged a lot of bad aspects of the game. Now it is very cold and unappealing.
Ditto on the readability, motivation, chat, and extra screens - some info is now duplicated with that stupid count up/down screen after a PvP battle.
I get that designing a UI for the wide range of platforms is really, really hard and there is a whole artistic aesthetic where you just can’t please everybody but to my eye the artwork has steadily been going down from unique, warm and fanciful to cold and sparse to the detriment of providing both entertainment and information.
I have a Wisp team and still am glad you nerfed that as well as the double trait firing on matches. The game might get fun again if it wasn’t so ugly now.
6 Likes
I find myself wondering if we are seeing different versions of the cards on different platforms because what I see on my PS4 looks nothing like Shadow Era or DBZ. I see a zoomed picture of the old character image with a gradient border on the top and bottom with very little stylizing or embellishment. Both DBZ and Shadow Era have highly stylized borders and stats. The borders were not budget-looking, they fit perfect with the rest of the game.
you always choose between same rarity.
UI/UX designer should be fired asap.
cards stats unreadable, nice decision to make it all white.
this black&white design looks like i played Space Game, or Sci-Fi, wtf.
i cant believe soulforge+dungeons’ feedback was good.
10 Likes
Yeah I know but sometimes I forget what the common and rare troop I choose were like right now I choose wight but forgot I choose a red and then choose Goblin Rocket who is now blocked by Runic Blade and Wight. If I saw I already choose a red I wouldn’t have picked Goblin Rocket.
@devs
3 Likes
@ozball If you and your crew comes to the decision to get the old boards look back, until the new playing board is looked at and ready for a 2nd go. I just wonder if it will need a client update for you to change it? Also I wonder how long time it might take totally.
1 Like
Same thing here. It should not be semi-transparent with Blur turned off.
3 Likes
I think it would be better if that had nothing to do with blur option on/off at all, hopefully they will be able to make the chess table without being transparent. The kingdoms backgrounds that is shining through the transparent chess board is really disturbing for my eyes.
5 Likes
I am not wild about the art changes, but I could live with them. What is a real problem is the readability issues. If a spell uses yellow mana, I find it very difficult to read the white on yellow to see how much man has been collected. All the numbers are much harder to read. Was this tested on older players? I have mild cataracts, but can read just fine, usually. With the new interface, I have problems.
6 Likes
How does it work?
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Ivar uses “Internetz”. It’s super effective!
You are responsible for at least 50% of the new expressions i learned this year.
1 Like