Support Page Interface Improvements Needed!

babinro

Issue: 
It is tremendously inconvenient to find out which characters have supports equipped to them and which ones don't.    I'm not even at the point in the game where I'm taking this feature all that seriously and it has already become an issue.

I can only imagine the sheer headache of tracking all 24 supports will be in the future.

Solution:
When clicking on the Supports page we see a list of large Support icons and a side scroll bar (this is on Steam but I imagine the mobile interface is similar).  This screen lets us see the details on the Support and that's it!  
This is too much wasted potential for player convenience.

1) Place a Visual Indicator on each Support to show which character its currently equipped on.  
This could be done in the form of a small character portrait along the empty lower right space of each image.
It could just be written in text over the image in the middle section of the support.   

Anything that lets us see at a quick glance which character has which support.   It's not enough to just go to the desire character and assign the desired support because doing that starts a loop of equipping supports from other characters and you have no clear way to organize who has what.

2) Give us the option to ASSIGN supports from the support page.
This is the page where we look in depth at the support details, right?
So I click on the support and get a level up screen....next I get a support details screen and then nothing....
Why is there no 'equip to' button that brings up my roster in order to assign it to someone?  
Its only natural to want to transition from this screen to equipping a character after all.  Especially if you implement suggestion number one and use this as a visual hub of which characters have which supports equipped to them.

You could even go one step further and place countdown timers on this main support screen for those who can't yet swap supports.


Please look into these improvements.   Number 1) in particular is vital to making this feature tolerable.   The fact that I feel compelled to use a 3rd party notepad or excel document to track this stuff with only 8 of 24 supports is a sign that there's room for improvement on this execution.

HoundofShadow

On the mobile interface, we can filter by * level, like in the roster page. We can scroll to the right of the page as well.

When we click on any support, we can see only two pages: 1) basic info of Support or level up screen, and 2) perks on the next page.

When we click on any character on the roster page, we are shown 9 pages:

1) Basic info of character like levels and number of covers or the sell cover page
2) Level up screen with power etc.
3) Equip support
4) 3 colour power page to add cover
5) Power 1 description
6) Power 2 description
7) Power 3 description
8) Character's background and affiliation
9) Cover Artist

What's the probability of most players using all 24 supports even if they have all of them? Chances are really low. Most players would simply use those same characters that they use in PvE. As for Supports, they would use Supports that support the strategy they are using, or they would use the highest ranking support possible. 

How do we know whom the support is being equipped to? Right now, we can only use an indirect way of checking this. The indirect way is:

Step 1: go to roster
Step 2: choose any character
Step 3: go to "Equip Support". Here, you can see whether there is any support being equipped.
Step 3a: If there is support being equipped, you can view "support details" or "swap support.
Step 3b: if there is no support being equipped, it wi show "No support equipped..." Equip Support.

Selecting a support that is being equipped to other character will show you "This will remove X support from Y character. This support cannot be swapped again for 2 hour." 

Why do you want to know whom the support is equipped to? To me, knowing whom the support is being equipped to is not important at all. Again, the 2 hour limit would be up by then and I can swap it to another character easily. Probably, someone would like to share why it is important. We are limited to 2 or 3 characters per match in PvE and most of the players, I suppose, are not going to use more than 5 or 10 characters per PvE, not including Essential Characters. 

As for putting a "Equip to" option in Support page, I think it is a matter of preference. Logically speaking, there's two mode of thinking as far as character and support are concerned:

No.1: Which character should I equip this support to? I may or or may not use this support even though I have equipped it to some character.

No. 2 I'm going to use this character in the next few matches, and I want to equip Support for this character. 

In the context of PvE, I think most players are going with thinking mode no 2. This problem is similar to the "Train" button that was replaced with "Supports" button.

Most players are going to enter the battle screen or "Assemble Your Heroes" screen more than 10 times per day. The logic is you choose the character first and then you choose the support. Therefore, I think that putting an "equip to" button in the support page is redundant.

Punisher5784

I found it easier to switch out Material in Final Fantasy VII than it is to change Supports in MPQ.. FFVII was released over 20-years ago

Shintok17

HoundofShadow said:

On the mobile interface, we can filter by * level, like in the roster page. We can scroll to the right of the page as well.

When we click on any support, we can see only two pages: 1) basic info of Support or level up screen, and 2) perks on the next page.

When we click on any character on the roster page, we are shown 9 pages:

1) Basic info of character like levels and number of covers or the sell cover page
2) Level up screen with power etc.
3) Equip support
4) 3 colour power page to add cover
5) Power 1 description
6) Power 2 description
7) Power 3 description
8) Character's background and affiliation
9) Cover Artist

What's the probability of most players using all 24 supports even if they have all of them? Chances are really low. Most players would simply use those same characters that they use in PvE. As for Supports, they would use Supports that support the strategy they are using, or they would use the highest ranking support possible. 

How do we know whom the support is being equipped to? Right now, we can only use an indirect way of checking this. The indirect way is:

Step 1: go to roster
Step 2: choose any character
Step 3: go to "Equip Support". Here, you can see whether there is any support being equipped.
Step 3a: If there is support being equipped, you can view "support details" or "swap support.
Step 3b: if there is no support being equipped, it wi show "No support equipped..." Equip Support.

Selecting a support that is being equipped to other character will show you "This will remove X support from Y character. This support cannot be swapped again for 2 hour." 

Why do you want to know whom the support is equipped to? To me, knowing whom the support is being equipped to is not important at all. Again, the 2 hour limit would be up by then and I can swap it to another character easily. Probably, someone would like to share why it is important. We are limited to 2 or 3 characters per match in PvE and most of the players, I suppose, are not going to use more than 5 or 10 characters per PvE, not including Essential Characters. 

As for putting a "Equip to" option in Support page, I think it is a matter of preference. Logically speaking, there's two mode of thinking as far as character and support are concerned:

No.1: Which character should I equip this support to? I may or or may not use this support even though I have equipped it to some character.

No. 2 I'm going to use this character in the next few matches, and I want to equip Support for this character. 

In the context of PvE, I think most players are going with thinking mode no 2. This problem is similar to the "Train" button that was replaced with "Supports" button.

Most players are going to enter the battle screen or "Assemble Your Heroes" screen more than 10 times per day. The logic is you choose the character first and then you choose the support. Therefore, I think that putting an "equip to" button in the support page is redundant.

Totally agree. There's no need to know where a Support is or has been just where it's going. The game already unequips the support from the other character automatically when you equip it on a new person. What more do you want. 

Brigby

While I don't have any information about the second request in OP's first comment, I can say though that a visual indicator will be included in the upcoming R152 build. It will allow players to see which characters have a support equipped to them.