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Post by Cory Trese on Oct 15, 2015 8:08:33 GMT -5
Thanks for the feedback, everyone! We will try to improve the UI.
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mataeus
Templar
[ Elite & Star Traders 2 Supporter ]
From summer sands, to armageddons reach.
Posts: 820 
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Post by mataeus on Oct 15, 2015 9:36:25 GMT -5
anrdaemon - as mentioned on the thread, the character list has been reduced to the minimal size. The new Talent scrolling list and new HUD shape will be not be changing. Not at all a fan of the wood motif. It doesn't match the look of the rest of the game. Too much sheen doesn't look hand drawn like the rest of the graphics. I love the talent scrolling list, it's awesome. It's exactly the kind of polish the UI needed. In fact, the right-hand side of the screen looks fantastic, and does what a great UI should do - improve the UX  I also, in general, love the wooden look when used on a HUD. It's just that, as said above, the two contrasting styles don't match! It looks fine with that bit of studded wood under the scrolling talent list, but the square wooden box jutting out from the right hand side of the stone circle contrasts in style as well as material. Round stone (or steel?) to square wood. I know by this point I'm pretty much flogging a dead horse here, and I don't expect things to change (after all, the majority is pandered to - you make money by selling to the masses, not the few). I'm prepared in advance for Cory Trese's characteristically defensive stance (I'd be defensive too if the results of my passion (no, not that passion) was being picked apart by the end user), but for me, the HUD or UI or menu or whatever you wish to call it has always been, by far, the weakest link in Trese Brothers' games. Intuitive, uncluttered UIs are key when it comes to mobile strategy games, providing transparent information in places you expect to find it. You don't have a lot of screen inches to play with, and you have to cater for people with digits / pens / styli of all different sizes and levels of usability. When combined with screens of varying resolutions (both pixel and touch), it can cause major headaches. I get that. I understand it, and I appreciate it. It's just that I've found, right from the beginning, TB in-game UIs have always been trial and error for me. Yes, we've come a long way from the scrolling text menus of first generation Star Traders. But look at Cyber Knights - I've played days worth of hours in that game, regulars will know it's my favourite TB game, but I still to this day struggle with the unintuitive / unclear UI design. Now that your games are launching from version 1 with more polish (Tutorials / Libraries from day one, for example), I hope that in future this will include the UI. I'd be happy to beta test just that on it's own. As En1gma alluded to above, I hope this is taken as a desire to help, from a fanatic to my favourite mobile developer. This appears to have reignited my smiting. I've been up and down between 34 and 37 today... Ah, you fickle lot! At least go full force and get me into negative numbers... It could become a running joke on the forum. A bit like the Karma rating  |
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sennett
Consul
[ Patreon ]
Posts: 149
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Post by sennett on Oct 15, 2015 11:42:55 GMT -5
After a break from HOS recently i had to come back and see what all this hub bub was all about. I admit some of the changes took some getting use to but what made it all worth it was the scolling talent addition. To me something of that nature was long over due. One thing that might be nice to have is a waypoint marker so you could just go from one end of an already explored area to another easier. Thanx once again for your great games and all your hard work. Now if we could just get a MP stripping talent on Tamlin my life would be complete.
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Post by fallen on Oct 15, 2015 12:54:50 GMT -5
After a break from HOS recently i had to come back and see what all this hub bub was all about. I admit some of the changes took some getting use to but what made it all worth it was the scolling talent addition. To me something of that nature was long over due. One thing that might be nice to have is a waypoint marker so you could just go from one end of an already explored area to another easier. Thanx once again for your great games and all your hard work. Now if we could just get a MP stripping talent on Tamlin my life would be complete. Thank you!  I just posted a finished pic of Tamilin's boots to our Patreon early today. That means all that is left is hair, bow, and hands. It's all pending on art at this point, so I'm trying to get wrapped. Really gunning to make Tami the focus of the October wallpaper for Patreon. |
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Post by wascalwywabbit on Oct 15, 2015 12:59:29 GMT -5
Not including planning, how much time does a ui/ux change like this take for you guys?
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Post by Cory Trese on Oct 15, 2015 13:14:13 GMT -5
Not including planning, how much time does a ui/ux change like this take for you guys? I think the latest round of HoS updates took about 40 days of work, between the two of us. That includes new graphics, coding and testing -- the planning took a few months of analysis work on the metrics and reviewing e-mails -- most to calculate interest levels in various features. Obviously those 40 days of effort are not 15 hours a day 100% focused on HoS -- at least 10 hours of our average day over the past 60 days has been split between BF and ST2. Just doing a rough calculation from Rescue Time ( www.rescuetime.com ) I am going to guess that the UI/UX updates we're discussing took us between 180 and 240 hours. With Heroes it can be a bit tricky to sort out what fallen's hours are being allocated to, UX or EP4. Cross-platform game dev is hard, yo. |
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Post by wascalwywabbit on Oct 15, 2015 13:42:39 GMT -5
Well I can say your work is impressive... Fantasy is normally my go to for rpg and tactics both, but those new mechanics goodies in bf are tempting, Andrew's art is getting really good too. For now I'll content myself with a new char. Or two in HoS... May go PC though since my two kindle fires don't seem to be registering the boost in iap
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Post by Cory Trese on Oct 15, 2015 13:46:05 GMT -5
Well I can say your work is impressive... Fantasy is normally my go to for rpg and tactics both, but those new mechanics goodies in bf are tempting, Andrew's art is getting really good too. For now I'll content myself with a new char. Or two in HoS... May go PC though since my two kindle fires don't seem to be registering the boost in iap If you are having trouble with the IAP on Amazon, shoot me an e-mail. I may be able to help. |
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Post by wascalwywabbit on Oct 15, 2015 14:06:34 GMT -5
Will do this evening after the kindles come home from the kids after school time...
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Post by mandomaniac on Oct 15, 2015 20:26:39 GMT -5
I have a suggestion... it starts with a C, it ends with a 2, and there is a K in the middle.... No hints chummer |
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Post by wascalwywabbit on Oct 15, 2015 21:11:16 GMT -5
I have a suggestion... it starts with a C, it ends with a 2, and there is a K in the middle.... No hints chummer Cyber Knights 2? |
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Post by fallen on Oct 15, 2015 22:14:03 GMT -5
Lol
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Post by Officer Genious on Oct 15, 2015 23:40:11 GMT -5
I have a suggestion... it starts with a C, it ends with a 2, and there is a K in the middle.... No hints chummer Cyber Knights 2? No, Clown Killers Die2. Angry murdered clowns haunt clown-slaying teenagers in a classic stalker flick. |
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Post by wascalwywabbit on Oct 15, 2015 23:45:00 GMT -5
No, Clown Killers Die2. Angry murdered clowns haunt clown-slaying teenagers in a classic stalker flick. Criminal Kittens 2? I'd play that if the Trese trio made it... |
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Post by hissrad on Oct 16, 2015 1:50:04 GMT -5
No, Clown Killers Die2. Angry murdered clowns haunt clown-slaying teenagers in a classic stalker flick. I'd watch that, got stuck watching a killer clown movie the other day....not cool man, not cool |
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