Serious question and conclusion on the New UI

[Doghouse]

@Sirrian

So far, feedback from Micrsosoft, Apple, Google, and Sony has been very positive about the direction, and the great news is that the game’s daily active userbase has grown 3% in the days since we released the 3.2 update.

Good to hear about the suits at Microsoft, Apple, Google and Sony giving you positive feedback. What about the people ACTUALLY playing your game?
Regarding the growth of the userbase. That’s what publicity does for ya, even if it’s negative. Negative publicity > no publicity.

[Annaerith]

@Sirrian

and the great news is that the game’s daily active userbase has grown 3% in the days since we released the 3.2 update.

it probably grow cause of the “anniversary freebies” advertising you are having everywhere, everywhere outside of the game that is

nothing to do with the new graphic that doesnt even show on the android store (it still has old screen shots)?

@Sirrian

We’ve just adjusted the colors back MUCH closer to their old levels for next week’s update though!

hope to see it soon

[turintuor]

@Viridian

You’re the exception if you ‘believe’ the devs at face value here, most can see/sense something’s up, if only that they’re not being taken seriously in the long term view of things.

Maybe. “Always look on the bright side of Life” is my motto when I come here.

@Viridian

To make sure we’re clear, the devs haven’t said much at all, that’s the point, lol. They didn’t ‘explain’ anything other than try to deflect people’s anger at having something put on them nobody really wanted.

They did mistakes and Sirrian tried to explain how it could have happen, not excuses. It will not erase the fact that they did mistakes and this answer will be read by a tiny % of the playerbase, so I don’t believe that Sirrian answered to have a better image on steam or whatever platform. And we both know that haters don’t care about devs’s answers as their goal is only rage on the forum…

@Viridian

but to add some pointers that new horrendous ‘bright green’ click here button in most interface dialogues now,

Ah okay big buttons are exclusive to mobile, I didn’t know .
Still I don’t see how it’s worst for PC player: I can click as usual to move on (better for mobile does not mean worst for PC).

@Viridian

The chest opening ‘dialogue’ is another blatant one, it’s designed for quick ‘swiping’ and dragging, sideways etc, with a finger etc (you know, on a mobile device), whereas before it was a specific ‘drag down’ using a mouse at the side of the list thing.

Come on are you saying that drag on the side is easier that draging up/down? Before mobile players could drag up and down so it’s the same for them…

@Viridian

Steve for his work on his games

And apparently you don’t know about Warlords (too young maybe? Amiga era) .

[AgentOfSmash]

i went and tested it and was able to scroll through the full list of troops in about 3 seconds, but i also have a mouse with a wheel that i can switch to free-wheel and it goes rather quickly on almost everything.

[LeiaOrgana]

My first post was removed. I guess the “Tiny Soldiers” didn’t like it. I guess in there defense I did cuss a bit so whatever, although I seen other posts with people cussing not get removed within 10 seconds… actually not even at all… So I put it back up and made sure there was no reason they could remove it.

[Annaerith]

@Sirrian

So far, feedback from Micrsosoft, Apple, Google, and Sony has been very positive about the direction

i suppose if you make a “dark/gothic” themed game and keep it that way for few years, then add rainbows to it - microsoft etc would still be positive about its direction?

[Nephilim]

I wonder if the guys behind magic : the gathering puzzle quest will still want him when they see what he’s done to a beautifully designed game like gow used to be.
Have ANY of yours guys actually tried using the new search tool on consoles, or tried building teams and choosing banners etc?
Its a colossal bollock drop. There’s not ONE single thing good about this abomination. Not one. And the fact that a few people have apparently sent pm’s to you guys is either folks kissing arse to try and get free stuff or for some unexplainable reason they weirdly find it better.
Global chat has been a storm of people complaining the last two days, the forums are on fire with new members and new threads all popping up to say the same thing!
How can ANYONE look at this and think it’s better in any way than what we have had before? It just isn’t.
From the dreadful medieval toilet sign for deceased troops, to the awful ‘jason vorhees’ mask for silence and the crosses drawn with a red lipstick for stun and the barrier what’s barely visible. It’s just shockingly bad. You’ve totally ruined your game. It’s gone from a beautiful fantasy themed game to a botched hotch potch mismatch of an Xbox dashboard and backwards thinking, like giving a child a packet of chalk and crayons and seeing what’s turned out after an hour messing around after too many orange smarties (sweets).
Also I think a response should have been made by the devs in an official news section, not tagged onto yet another thread about the terrible mess that the game has become.
I’m devastated. I’m passionate about the game, love my guild and the forum and the devs but I’m so frigging pissed and angry that I can’t help but put my thoughts across.
Regards
Daniel

[anon43026234]

@Saltypatra

I can second that we are getting a lot of positive feedback privately.

Best joke (lie?) I read on this forum since a long time! Thank you for that.

[SpecialRX]

The designers did not play on small-screen devices enough for 3.2.

I would hazard a guess that you didn’t play much on console either.

Please, please, please start doing more than just cursory testing on a console.

I really don’t mind the update - I’m sure that any readably problems will be addressed - but the gulf between ease of usability on mobile and on console is stark, and desperately needs to be looked at.

Most of the action in troops screen has become even more laborious. The Troop Filters - Oh God the filters! - which many people like, simply do not make life any easier on console. Please try filtering troops to Undead, you’ll see what I’m getting at.

Many thanks

[Strat]

@SpecialRX

Most of the action in troops screen has become even more laborious. The Troop Filters - Oh God the filters! - which many people like, simply do not make life any easier on console. Please try filtering troops to Undead, you’ll see what I’m getting at

100% agree. I added this to the bugs thread. On every ‘modern’ screen they removed all end/beginning list functionally to jump. So you can not longer immediately get to Zhul’Kari with a 1 action now you have to go through 31 selections to get there.

[SpecialRX]

Lol. I just posted the exact same thing before reaching your post. Great minds and all that…

Mate, Im convinced that this simply hasn’t been tested on console. The problem is, is that it does (kinda) work on mobile where you can scroll with the flick of a finger (I guess pc employs a scroll- wheel mouse, thing too?). But as you know, console interface functions completely differently, and what was already unnecessarily laborious has now become a massive fucking ball ache!

*Apologies, I didn’t play at all yesterday. Will def catch up before the close of GW.

[Strat]

@Nephilim

Global chat has been a storm of people complaining the last two days, the forums are on fire with new members and new threads all popping up to say the same thing!

On the ‘Positive’ side usually there is some disagreement, bickering, name-calling, childish comments in Global chat on X1. It’s seems finally the every single poster is in 100% complete agreement its been like that for days.

I sure everyone knows what they agree on.

[The_Unforgiven]

Not so many people buying snake oil today.

[Shanji]

I second that! Listen to the players please…

[jeno]

funny how all red reviews on steam actually help you gain userbase. i guess that is a working strategy. congrats i guess. whatever works.

[Versheenah]

@Sirrian

Lyya is also quite correct about silent majorities… we’re actually receiving quite a good amount of positive player feedback in PMs, but they’re obviously not comfortable posting here because of the large number of negative comments. If we judge it by the usual 10:1 negative:positive rule, we’re probably doing a bit better than breaking even.

The more I think about it the more issue I have with this silent majority thing. What this silent majority approves of is just aesthetic to them, what we talk about is how this new look is physically painful to us and giving us health problems. Even if we are a minority, even then, ignoring us would be, quite frankly, ableist and cruel. What you’re doing with this new UI is pushing out people who have a hard time finding things for themselves to begin with.

@Sirrian

Still, we’d like to do better than break even, so bear with us while we keep improving things for everybody.

I want to have faith and I will hang on for at least two more weeks. I’m not sure I’ll be able to last more. IT HURTS.

@Sirrian

however we DO believe strongly that modernizing the look of the game is the way forward.

Forward where exactly? Because how I see it there is a vast deep abyss right in front of you.

What about the fantasy theme which used to be the heart of the game? Why was it so necessary to kill it? Is there any hope that it will return from the dead?

Sometimes it’s better to take a step back.

[Lyya]

I too have trouble seeing the destination. Normally a UI refresh occurs due to some task-based deficiency; maybe the old design has reached a limit (for example, a control couldn’t accommodate more data without a redesign), or maybe a competitor’s UI compares favorably and is drawing away customers. But there’s been no evidence on display that people were significantly dissatisfied with the look and feel of the game, and I look at just about every single post on this board.

I echo other posters’ concern regarding the justifications given. If Mobile was as important as it sounds, then why wasn’t the design Mobile-first, others-second? This can result in problems on Console, of course (not that the new UI doesn’t have Console problems), but at least things would be readable on both small-screen and 10’ UI.

Is it actually true that the new UI, months in the making, didn’t get the most basic sanity pass on their most populous platform? How is that even possible? If the dev team is so close to the bits that they can’t recognize a fundamental usability flaw (unadorned low-contrast UI, font sizes well below the UX guidelines given by Apple/Google), then they could at least have shown the result to trusted friends before proceeding. (I have to assume they don’t want us involved in the process by the evidence given.)

[Doordash_Support]

So Steam isn’t as important, consoles are eh, alright, and MOBILE is your target audience… yet the GAME WASN’T TESTED ON MOBILE?

I’d have honestly preferred silence over what is blatantly a bold faced lie. I’ve been playing on multiple platforms, and got so many people into Puzzle Quest. To see this… sigh.

Much like when I played a fighting game competitively that I had a passion for, and then I met the developers.

The majority of profit comes from the “silent minority”, and as such, we don’t matter. But at least we get a reply, no matter how fake, while the game IS STILL SUFFERING, so it obviously matters even less.

You’ve seen the last of my money. And no, it’s not because I’m not getting what I want. It’s because you have no respect for the people that play YOUR game. The PEOPLE… that PLAY… not MS, not Sony. My bad for not having a never ending bank account to pay up like they do, but you’d think after 8 VIP levels of over priced, 50/50 gambling bullshit we’d all get something more than a lie and a “but we get positive feedback!”.

Guess I’ll go play some Bejeweled or something.

[Blondie]

I used to open up this game and see the beautiful world map and it used to make me happy. Now I look at the glaring and horrible mix of bad icons at the bottom and big black bars with white text for kingdom names. Now, I’m only playing for my guild mates because of guild wars. I hate the map. It is glaring and ugly. Trying to mix the ugly new with the beautiful old style look it used to have just does not work. Please return the beauty that it used to have.

[Blondie]

I am on mobile, and believe me, it looks simply horrible on mobile too. Unreadable and glaring. And the fantasy look is ruined by the glaring “new look”. And I can not scroll the troops. It sounds like others can. But I have no scroll bars, anywhere. They must have only tested on Android unfortunately.