On Recent Aspect Ratio Changes for Tablets

IceIX
IceIX ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 4,322 Site Admin
in MPQ General Discussion

We've seen a bit of chatter regarding the recent changes for players on some devices (namely tablet devices). We have been working on making the player experience better, which can hopefully be seen with the recent Support updates. We have been pretty happy with the refinement of these features. As we move forward with new updates to the game, we will continue to exercise the lessons we learned from those changes.  In general, a lot goes into making the best player experience, and the fewer options you have to consider, the more streamlined the experience we can make. It was because of this that we decided to cut supporting the tablet (2:3) resolution from the game. Doing this will allow us to focus on less screen sizes, which will make the game better optimized than if we had more screen sizes to worry about.

Overall, we understand that this change is going to be something that some people playing on tablet devices will not like, and we apologize to those players. It's never easy when you have to make those kind of decisions, but we hope that the experience players will have when they encounter future updates to the game will make it worth it. We also noticed that players did not like the new border that was added and we are going to take some time looking to improve that. For example, we made a change today (7/24) to the pillarboxes that should make them less intrusive overall.

For players that decide that they want to switch mobile devices to one they feel is more suited to gameplay, connecting their account to Facebook then restoring via logging in on the new device is an easy way to do that. If, for whatever reason, that’s not possible for someone that wants to switch or they encounter some kind of issue in doing so, customer support is available to help with account migration to that newer device.

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Comments

  • supergarv
    supergarv Posts: 410 Mover and Shaker
    Thanks for changing the pillar boxes. Thats even an improvement for me (iphone 11 pro max) compared to the boxes that were there since the beginning on that form factor.


  • Ugh
    Ugh Posts: 83 Match Maker
    waywreth said:
    So basically for those of us that have trouble seeing the screen and prefer to play on a tablet, the response is "too bad", we're not supporting two resolutions.  
    You're supposed to lose...
  • froggerjohn
    froggerjohn Posts: 373 Mover and Shaker
    Thank you for the post, although the real lesson here, the one that keeps being repeated, is that people don't like having things taken away from them.

    Responsive screen design is absolutely more work, so if the combination of the team resources and legacy code base are such that it can't be maintained at this stage of the product's life span, so be it. But it would be an easier pill to swallow if it were presented at the same time as the kind of enhancements that this change will allow to happen.

    The recent support improvements are indeed terrific. Imagine if the aspect change had been rolled out at the same time as those enhancements, and accompanied with the above explanation about optimizing the player experience. Express being able to devote more development time to these, and other future enhancements, and acknowledge up front that you realize there's a cost for this.

    Now, users are presented with a tradeoff, and the responsible ones can at least see a tangible benefit coming from the diverted development resources. Some people will still complain, no doubt. But I think those numbers are far smaller.

    And thank you for the image swap. Still annoying to lose the screen space, but far less objectionable and distracting in appearance now.
  • supergarv
    supergarv Posts: 410 Mover and Shaker
    @Wyntre Too bad that steam doesnt support facebook savegame import.

    but maybe try to run bluestacks on a PC/Mac and use that to play MPQ on a larger monitor? There you could control scaling.

    (Not implying the game might be worth jumping through these hoops for you; just an option to ponder, as the devs choice will be extremely unlikely to be reverted)
  • Dogface
    Dogface Posts: 999 Critical Contributor
    Wyntre said:
    After years of play, now I can't.  I'm dealing with declining vision affecting a lot of areas in my life right now.  And this new blow is pretty hard: the game that I've poured money and time into for 1,127 days (and used as a distraction from the vision problem) has decided to make it much more difficult for me to play it.

    I realize this is my problem and nobody else's, but I'm pretty heartbroken right now.  Maybe I'll come back.

    Maybe not.

    I suspect many of us who use tablets instead of phone do so for accessibility reasons, and this hits us where it hurts.
    How about migrating to Steam? You can have a screen as big as you like.
  • wymtime
    wymtime Posts: 3,759 Chairperson of the Boards
    With the previous version on tablet my one complaint was how flashy matches were.  There were times when the game hurt my eyes.  My wife had to actually stop playing the game because how flashy it was.  With this new change the game screen is much smaller (not my preference) but the game is a lot less flashy.  My wife has started playing again as well as the game no longer gives her headaches.  I got used to the previous format and will get use to this one.  Overall I will take the smaller game screen for less flashy and not hurting my or my wife’s eyes.
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,454 Chairperson of the Boards
    on the iphone 11 pro the starry night windowboxing is much less intrusive than the bars were.
  • Rhipf
    Rhipf Posts: 295 Mover and Shaker
    Just a bit of a nit to pick but I think it would be better to stop saying:
    It was because of this that we decided to cut supporting the tablet (2:3) resolution from the game. Doing this will allow us to focus on less screen sizes, which will make the game better optimized than if we had more screen sizes to worry about.
    and instead say the following:
    It was because of this that we decided to cut support for any resolution other than 9:16 in the game. Doing this will allow us to focus on one screen size, which will make the game better optimized than if we had more screen sizes to worry about.

    It is a minor change to the wording but it more accurately reflects the actual change made to the game.

  • Pongie
    Pongie Posts: 1,412 Chairperson of the Boards
    I mentioned this in the other threads, drop the tablet version of the game. It’s basically mobile only now. Let the OS handle it. iPadOS has the 2x stretch mode, not sure about android tablets. 
  • Reaper70
    Reaper70 Posts: 9 Just Dropped In
    Obviously D3 doesn’t care or they would change it back. I’ve seen nothing but negativity in chats about the update, and even heard of long time players quitting. I myself, a over 4 1/2 yr player absolutely hates this change. I downloaded this game to play on my iPad not my phone. This sadly will be the final straw that gets me to quit this game . Keep making stupid choices like this D3 and you will lose even more players like me.
  • Bryan Lambert
    Bryan Lambert Posts: 234 Tile Toppler
    Pongie said:
    I mentioned this in the other threads, drop the tablet version of the game. It’s basically mobile only now. Let the OS handle it. iPadOS has the 2x stretch mode, not sure about android tablets. 
    The 2x mode on iPads doesn’t stretch, it just scales. The aspect ratio on a 2x scaled iPhone game (like Trivia Royale) has the exact same side letterboxing as the current version of MPQ.
  • allen_koholic
    allen_koholic Posts: 103 Tile Toppler
    edited July 2020
    Thank you for letting me know it’s time to uninstall this game.  See you later.

    **Mod note:  removed vulgar language- fight4thedream
  • krakenoon
    krakenoon Posts: 355 Mover and Shaker
    @IceIX

    While I realize this thread will be another source of heat from some members of the community, I would like to say thank you for opening this channel of communication.
  • PuceMoose
    PuceMoose Posts: 1,445 Chairperson of the Boards
    While I am disappointed at this solution, the black/starry pillarboxes are preferable to the purple curtains (to me at least), and I appreciate getting some communication on this issue. 

    For those on iPad (android tablets may have this feature too), you can experiment with the screen zoom/magnifier (under accessibility). It's not perfect, but you can expand the size of the game board area at the expense of chopping some visual elements on the top/bottom of the screen. It probably won't be worth the time for most, but I intend to play around with the settings a bit to see if there's a decent middle ground. 
  • 111MCH111
    111MCH111 Posts: 116 Tile Toppler
    Just recently support of IPad 2 and 3 was terminated. After a small poll, I figured out that I was within 1% using old hardware. So I bought this year, especially for this game, MPQ, two new IPads , version 2018 and version 2019.
    Now the screen size support is terminated.....sigh. I wish I could complain and threaten to stop....but let’s be honest, I love the game too much. Day 1310.....
    MPQ, 💡,  you can improve your Change Management Skills. Perhaps announcement of a Change upfront with the Honest reason, in this case simple cost reduction, will generate less complaints. Especially if you combine the Change with a few 🎁 .....just a suggestion 😎
  • Chrynos1989
    Chrynos1989 Posts: 343 Mover and Shaker
    @IceIX

    But you guys will still support tablets, right? The aspect ratio is one thing, but I would be very downed if one day suddenly the game wouldn’t be playable on Tablets at all

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