Fix Fellowships Perks UI

[crackie]

The User Interface (UI) is a critical part of the gaming experience. It needs to be functional as well as convey necessary game information to the players. The Fellowship Perks interface is currently inadequate in meeting those tasks.

1. First, the green + sign for Tourney Archive Perk usage is only visible from the Map view. The green + button should be added to the Tourney tab of the fellowship window clicking the shield from City view too for consistency.
2. Second, the number of Tourney or Spire points currently banked with the Tournament Archive and Spire Archive Perks are awkwardly and clumsily hidden inside this green + button. With no tournament or Spire going on, there is no way to see how many points are in archive storage. This makes things harder to plan fellowship tourney and Spire pushes for extra chests or crystals as a team, both of which may require players to save resources in advance. The Perks tab should show the currently benefits of activated perks, like how many points are currently stored in archives.
3. Third, the "button" to spend XP points is indiscreet and does not resemble a button, thereby leading to misclicks and wrongful spending of XP points. The button should be made clearer.
4. Fourth, the notification area should announce whenever a new perk has been activated, including which mage activated the perk. This lets admin know who to talk to in case of miscommunications so they can be prevented in the future. Ideally, a parade of devs clapping and singing appears after a gong goes off too, but that part is optional because we are reasonable in our demands.

Green + visible in Map View

No Green + in City View

Perks Tab should display currently activated benefits or points stored in archives*

Notifications should announce Who activated What Perk and When

• Benefits / Pros:
  • Less clicking/Reduces carpal tunnel.
  • The same information is already displayed somewhere so the code is already done.
  • Easier to call Piggy.
  • Make you question your sanity less often wondering where did the green button go.
  • Lets fellowships see what is going on when there are no tournament or Spire happening to allow for proper group planning.
  • Avoid miscommunication when wrong perks are activated to make full use of resets.
• Downsides / Cons:
  • Less support tickets to answer for the army of volunteer support looking to make themselves useful.

* I'm too lazy to look up actual costs to have this many perks activated so the perk cost numbers do not reflect true costs at this level

 

[Sir Squirrel]

Yeah, they should have done this before it was released to live and there should be a way to see how many points you have acquired for tourney and spire somewhere on the perks page as well.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Yeah, they should have done this before it was released to live and there should be a way to see how many points you have acquired for tourney and spire somewhere on the perks page as well.

They never did any of those on Beta, so no one should be surprised they did not bother for the Live servers either. All these weeks now and we still can't see the stored points when the Spire or tournament are not active.

 

[hvariidh gwendrot]

makes me wonder why they do beta other than to torture you guys more and squeeze extra cash from there lol

 

[Yogi Dave]

They never did any of those on Beta, so no one should be surprised they did not bother for the Live servers either. All these weeks now and we still can't see the stored points when the Spire or tournament are not active.

Not everyone looks at beta. those of us who did may not be surprised, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't advocate for something that should have been there. Also, beta is more to test for bugs. While it can advocate for changes, that is not its main purpose, but it is the purpose of the "Ideas and Suggestions" section in this forum.

 

[crackie]

The window between beta and live is so close too. Feels like nothing meaningful gets ironed out besides spelling errors. For example, the pet food quest issue prob would have popped up in beta and should be easy enough to resolve. Instead, it rolled out live too and you have hundreds of people stuck on events near the beginning. I would never bother signing up for beta. The live version is buggy enough lately with all the fuzzy math and fuzzy changes

 

[Yogi Dave]

I don't really mind the beta to live generally being short. I was a long time for several changes, such as the spire and the changes to the tourney, even though they didn't listen to beta. (As though they listen to us here, right?) Perks took a while. Still, the code does typically have bugs when introduced live.

For some unknown reason, though I could speculate, they keep putting back in event quests that can't be done by some. I'd be willing to bet some will be back in the next event, even if fixed in beta. That has happened more than once.

fuzzy math and fuzzy changes

Just not warm and fuzzy.

 

[crackie]

Just not warm and fuzzy.

I know. That inventory display bug where everything was off by a decimal felt like a “Bank erred in your favor” bug, but it didn’t actually give you more inventory.

I suppose that is realistic. Banks don’t keep your money in their banks in the real world either and is just a scam moving numbers around on a computer too.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

For some unknown reason, though I could speculate, they keep putting back in event quests that can't be done by some. I'd be willing to bet some will be back in the next event, even if fixed in beta. That has happened more than once.

We could always go back to the first few years of events that had quests that required collecting productions for tier 2 and 3 goods. Back then, it was more obvious that a brand new city was not supposed to be able to complete some events.

 

[Yogi Dave]

We could always go back to the first few years of events that had quests that required collecting productions for tier 2 and 3 goods.

The March of the Herds from '17 was the worst for painful quest that early chapter players couldn't do. Plus, you had to pay things for quest, not just collect or produce. These required you to collect or produce then give them to the game. All other quests may be painful, but at least you got to keep the goods. ...and the sugar beets scattered around the city were difficult to see. Wish I'd had a truffle hound to find them for me.

 

[Dominionofgod]

yea, i havnt found a way to see how many points you have stored currently once tounrey is over for the week. There should certainly be a way. And the tourney tab on the fs window seems like a good place.

 

[crackie]

OK I've changed it to be UI fix for Fellowship Perks in general instead of just the visibility of the Green button.

 

[Yogi Dave]

OK I've changed it to be UI fix for Fellowship Perks in general instead of just the visibility of the Green button.

I liked the change to your top post, so I clicked 'like' which meant I unliked it. So liked it again, just more. Just one question. How do I get a snacks tab? Were you awarded that through your non-profits Shenanigan Elves co-op? Okay, 2 questions.

 

[crackie]

How do I get a snacks tab?

You need to help get the new Trader changes passed. Then it will show the snacks your FS has available to trade for help.

 

[Myne]

You need to help get the new Trader changes passed. Then it will show the snacks your FS has available to trade for help.

bahahahha!

 

[Myne]

No one has any cons on this? Is more discussion needed?

 

[Dominionofgod]

The Fellowship Perks interface is currently inadequate. First, the green + sign for Tourney Archive Perk usage is only visible from the Map view. The green + button should be added to the Tourney tab of the fellowship window clicking the shield from City view too.

Honestly, i never look there during an active tourney. During active tourneys i always looks at the tourney screen. I only looking the the tourney tab of the fs window when there is no active tourney.
Granted, that fact does not negate the idea you presented.

Second, the number of Tourney or Spire points currently banked with the Tournament Archive and Spire Archive Perks are awkwardly and clumsily hidden inside this green + button. With no tournament or Spire going on, there is no way to see how many points are in archive storage. This makes things harder to plan fellowship tourney and Spire pushes for extra chests or crystals as a team, both of which may require players to save resources in advance. The Perks tab should show the benefits of the current perk and how many points are currently stored in archives.

That i certainly agree with. There is no way to view your stored points outside of an active tourney/spire right now. That is a problem for sure.

Downsides / Cons: Accountability for bad UI/UX design if you're the dev responsible

That i disagree with tho. I wouldnt call that a bad UI design unless they already considered this and rejected it. Then it would be a bad design.
Right now i jsut see it as an over sight. The perk system is a pretty cool system. And im sure it wasnt easy or fast to program. So i give them credit for that. So i see the lack of being able to view the stored points outside of tourney/spire as more an oversight or something missed.
Again; granted, that disagreement of terms in no way effects the actual suggestion.

So yea, they are good ideas.

 

[crackie]

No one has any cons on this? Is more discussion needed?

I haven’t asked to put this to a vote yet bc I am working on the Trader listing proposal first. The field is busy with a lot of proposals being voted on right now. Spacing it out to maximize chances, especially since the CM voting round is toughest and most limited. Gotta do everything we can to help since we also can’t rely on having banshees on our side to get our points across

 

[Myne]

I haven’t asked to put this to a vote yet bc I am working on the Trader listing proposal first. The field is busy with a lot of proposals being voted on right now. Spacing it out to maximize chances, especially since the CM voting round is toughest and most limited. Gotta do everything we can to help since we also can’t rely on having banshees on our side to get our points across

gotcha. I agree too.

 

[Sprite1313]

I haven’t asked to put this to a vote yet bc I am working on the Trader listing proposal first. The field is busy with a lot of proposals being voted on right now. Spacing it out to maximize chances, especially since the CM voting round is toughest and most limited. Gotta do everything we can to help since we also can’t rely on having banshees on our side to get our points across

Did you want to consider adding this, so we only have 1 user interface suggestion going on the perks? It doesn't fully tie in with your original post (for which I will vote, once we get there), but it does relate to the UI for perks. Not sure if it risks bogging it down too much.