Suggestion for ios: talent button reset after character swop

[Cory Trese]

Nov 8, 2014 14:29:56 GMT -5 tenbsmith said:

fallen, I totally respect your need to balance our opinions with the opinions of others and your own experience.

I think you need to be cautious NOT to put too much emphasis on your and Corey's experiences with game usability because you two have such deep expertise with the controls that you've developed and tested. Using them must be like second nature to you two.

Think of the new player first picking up the game, they are likely less concerned about number of clicks as they try to learn this complex, deep game. At least at first.

We pretty much ignore our own feedback after the game goes to market -- focusing as much as possible on data and feedback from players -- primarily over e-mail, with the forum as a strong second.

One thing I enjoy doing is convincing new people to play the game, and watching them play for the first 20 minutes. I've learned a lot about new player experience from this process.

It is interesting how difficult it is for ANYONE to remember/predict how the average new player will interface with the game, or what they are actually experiencing.

[tenbsmith]

Yeah, watching a new player play the game for the first time is the best source of data on usability. Just to see the places where they hesitate, appear confused or get frustrated.

It goes without saying that this is a small issue compared to the overall quality of the game.

[rygar]

I totally see the advantage of the existing mode of keeping a talent button active for the times when you want to repeatedly use a talent. It could be the difference in game playing style for individual that governs whether the feature detract or adds on to their game experience.

I just wish to clarify I wasn't suggesting abolishing the feature just a workaround that suits all in my opinion. Ie the current active talent will be deselected once the character is no longer selected. It will stay selected should the player not switch the character.

The key is pretty much the focus of the player at a certain point in game. In my experience if I have reason to select another character , the purpose is very much not to use the same character and his active talent again but to consider cross class combination attack, ect. The value of leaving the current talent hot keyed in this instance is therefore questionable , and have indeed proved to be a bit detrimental for me as when I revert back to the same toon I'd have to check if the hot keyed talent is what I want to use the second time round. Many a times, i wasn't even at the stage of contemplating choice of attack because I happen to have a fetish to check enemy status so I often unleash a talent when I didn't want to due to the incumbent feature.

On the flip side when I do not intend to swap characters but to go for repeated use of a talent , as often in the case of Selen frenzied strike, the feature is truly a boon.

So the idea of deselecting an active, hotkeyed talent where character is swapped Is pretty much a best of both worlds case though, admittedly, just from my perspective.

So far, both En1gma and tenbsmith have opined that the feature in its current form can be inconvenient.

As for saving on clicks, I speak for myself in that for every save of click in situation when I repeatedly use a talent, the feature has likewise caused me to waste click to cancel the talent just to prevent misfire.

And as for keeping the talent hotkeyed even after turn ends, I find it largely unneeded. Even In a case where the character pretty much has only one useful invested talent for combat use such as Vincent and his lightning storm for eg, I find that the first order of business when next turn starts is not unleashing another LS but to , yep you name it, check enemy status. The way it is now I have to manually unclick the talent and that's only if I remember to !

[anrdaemon]

There's so little indication of current state of the surroundings, that I end up canceling currently aimed talets after almost every use.
Unless something is improved in regard to visibility of enemy status, sticky talents are a nuisance at best.

[En1gma]

Have to agree with @andraemon here... I check a single enemy's status successful times per TURN, before, during, and after attacks... And to do this, I have to cancel the selected talent every single time... For me, having the talent cancel out at the end of a turn and when switching talents would be great. Another solution to this is to make an alternate method of checking enemy status. Make it a long press, or have a scrollable enemy screen that would number and display all enemy statuses..

[fallen]

Thanks for all the feedback!