New UI Update: Gameboard

The rockett

abmoraz said:

for those wondering, here's what the gameboard looks like to colorblind people (simulated for all 3 major types):

Wow. Is there a way to post an original one so we can see the difference?  

Wiccan616

I have to agree with the majority here that this update is not good for me. It hurts my eyes and it makes me dizzy after a while with all the dimming and flashing. Hopefully you can change the colors and make them brighter, and remove the constant dimming.

I also don't think it was necessary to change the hit points the other way around.

abmoraz

The rockett said:

abmoraz said:

for those wondering, here's what the gameboard looks like to colorblind people (simulated for all 3 major types):

Wow. Is there a way to post an original one so we can see the difference?  

The original is the upper left. Protanotia is upper right. Dueteranotia is lower left.  Tritanotia is lower right.

Captain_Carlman

Been reading this thread all day and I have to agree with a number of the negative aspects that have already been posted.  I installed the update last night and did a single match, just to see how the new UI looked.  It was pretty jarring and was hurting my eyes a bit.  Once the match was over, I chalked it up to being tired, went to bed, and figured I would give it another shot once I rested.  

Tried DDQ on my lunch break today and I can say that with a bit more experience playing with the new UI, it wasn't just being fatigued the night before, it has a number of problems.  The muted colors, the smaller special symbols, charged tiles being much harder to find on the board, and the less noticable AP bars for powers were all problems I had but have been mentioned many times already.  The screen dimming was probably the worst of it.  I'm still trying to figure out what the exact reason for this was, other than to deliberately slow players down or if it was an unintended effect that was a bug with the UI rollout.  The constant shift between the dark and light for each turn was just killing my eyes by the third match.  It might have been something I could have gotten used to when I was a teenager or in my early 20s, but I'm pushing 40 and trying to watch what the AI is doing for their turn and then staring right into a sudden bright burst was extremely disorienting.  Maybe some other people here didn't have the issues I did with it (sounded like many of them had it worse), but I couldn't wait to be done with it and I'm likely not going to bother finishing the current PvE event.  

If there was a good side to the new UI, seeing more of the characters was alright, I suppose.  I always did like the art of the characters, but as someone else said in the thread, it's not worth the eye strain just so I  can see what the character's belt looks like now.

abmoraz

The rockett said:

abmoraz said:

for those wondering, here's what the gameboard looks like to colorblind people (simulated for all 3 major types):

Wow. Is there a way to post an original one so we can see the difference?  

Also, I think there's some compression or color-correction going on when I uploaded it.  The image here (and on imgur) doesn't appear as washed out as the one on my phone.  You can take a picture yourself.  Install the android app "CVSimulator".  It uses your phone camera and lets you pick which types of colorblindness to simulate.

The rockett

abmoraz said:

The rockett said:

abmoraz said:

for those wondering, here's what the gameboard looks like to colorblind people (simulated for all 3 major types):

Wow. Is there a way to post an original one so we can see the difference?  

Also, I think there's some compression or color-correction going on when I uploaded it.  The image here (and on imgur) doesn't appear as washed out as the one on my phone.  You can take a picture yourself.  Install the android app "CVSimulator".  It uses your phone camera and lets you pick which types of colorblindness to simulate.

Understood. Thanks for sharing. 

Wyntre

I just read through all 13 pages of comments before I commented.

Accessibility consultants exist.  Before you do a major UI update, use one.  Period.

I know hiring an accessibility consultant is an additional expense, but you just accidentally (I assume) made the game unplayable for 8 percent of your male players and .5 percent of your female players.  You also just accidentally made the game painful to play for a number of migraine sufferers.  That doesn't even include more rare low-vision players (like me) who *really* need high contrast in order to play comfortably.  I've got good color discernment, but it's harder to play now.  I don't think this was intended.  A video game disability accessibility consultant would've stopped this update and noted how important contrast and visual cues for the colorblind are.

Someone upthread noted that this is especially hard on aging eyes, and yeah, it is.  I'm a 46-year-old woman who's played for almost four years, and I also didn't like it when the game was made smaller on my iPad.  It really feels like accessibility is not a priority at all for this dev, and that's irritating and upsetting.

Articles like this one show how making your games more accessible doesn't hurt them.  It *helps* them in the long run: https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2020/02/25/how-accessibility-consultants-are-building-more-inclusive-video-game-industry-behind-scenes/  Here's a quote from it:

<<<<When new clients seek consulting advice, Straub provides general lessons until studios are familiar with accessibility. For repeat visits, Straub examines specific problematic options or features.

“Anytime that I consult, I try to offer broad insights into the four areas of physical accessibility: fine-motor, auditory, low-vision and colorblindness,” he said. "For me, [it’s] less about fixing things on a granular scale, and more about addressing big issues.”>>>>

You need a guy like that before you roll out a major UI update.  If you don't, you hurt large segments of your players.  It ultimately costs more in the long run *not* to use a consultant like this--not only in time and money but in relationships to your player base.

Right now, I feel like D3Go! doesn't care about players like me *at all*, which is a slap in the face considering how much money I've spent on this game.  (Note: it's probably enough to hire the goshdarn consultant).

CoxLargo

Just created this account to post my dislike of this change. Awful. 

One serious question, how this thing was approved? I mean, no one notice ALL these issues!?



Acabo de crear esta cuenta para mostrar mi desprecio y disgusto por esta actualización. Realmente mala, NO DAN GANAS DE JUGAR ESTE JUEGO ASÍ COMO ESTÁ. Así nuevos jugadores no tendrán, irrespetaron a sus jugadores más viejos.

Pregunta seria, cómo este cambio fue aprobado? Deberían despedir a los que lo pasaron.

Borstock

abmoraz said:

for those wondering, here's what the gameboard looks like to colorblind people (simulated for all 3 major types):

OMG! You weren't kidding. That's unplayable.

Akoni

After playing 40-50 matches between PvE and PvP with various characters, I think I am ready to provide comprehensive feedback. Overall, I find the design is okay. I neither love or hate it. I can see what the team was trying to do with this resurfacing and it makes sense. On closer inspection, there are some things that I believe can be improved upon with a few simple, but extremely effective adjustments.

Device
I used an iPad Air 3. Although an iPhone was available, it was not used since it is less enjoyable to use for this game and might skew my opinion.

Tile Physics
I found the tile physics to be a little weird until I realized that the further the tiles dropped, the more they bounced. Normally, this would not be an issue, except that the tiles are not designed to look like rubber objects that bounce. During gameplay, this can be slightly distracting since the human eye can pick up on these subtleties. Since an option was provided to turn this feature off, I see no reason to "fix" it. If changing it is desired, having all the tiles bounce minimally as if falling from the same height might do the trick.

Tile Color

• The shadowing on the lateral edges of the tiles make it difficult to discern where the tile ends and the background begins. This can be alleviated in one of two ways. 1) Provide more light along the tile edges which will give them more contrast. 2) Brighten the background to provide more contrast. (More on this point in Background Color and Dimming During Enemy's Turn.)
• Yellow is nice and bright. It can be easily discerned from the other colors.
• Red appears to be darker than before. Still discernible, though.
• Purple is more purple than last time which provides no improvement other than ending the purple versus pink debate.
• Blue appears to be darker than before. It's brightness appears to be close to that of the green tiles and may cause an issue with those with color-blindness. Adjusting the brightness up or down a bit may help.
• Green appears to be slightly darker than before. It may be easily confused with blue for those with color-blindness. Adjusting the brightness up or down a bit may help.
• Black has more life to it, however, the lateral edges cause it to be affected more than the other tiles in terms of contrast. 
• Team-Up tiles are very distinctive and easy to discern.

Tile Shape
The shapes of most tiles are good. Even when the shapes are the same (i.e. Team-Up and Black), the color and tile design are plenty to help the player in determining the difference between them. The only issue is with the Blue tile and Green tile. The Green tile is clearly a square. The Blue tile is an upright rectangle, however, the lightly rounded sides (left and right) give the Blue rectangle a more square like look. Making the sides more slim/straight on the Blue tile should make it look more rectangular and less squarish. On another note, has anyone thought of using a star for Blue tiles instead of a rectangle? A simple 4-corner star with it's points aligned diagonally would make it discernible from both the Green squares and the Yellow Rhomboids.

Icons

• In general, white friendly icons are bright.
• In general, black enemy icons are difficult to see on all except Yellow tiles. This is likely due to the combination of darkened tiles and shading. Adjusting either may make these icons easier to see.
• Character icons are bigger and brighter. The bigger icons are welcomed by players who have had difficulty distinguishing between tiles. The brighter tiles cause the detail to jump out and make the screen look a lot busier or crowded. Since the brightness provides needed detail, increasing the fade on character icons may help players see more detail without being overwhelmed.
• Attack icons can be easily confused with character icons in the shape of a hand or fist. This may not need to be addressed if previous suggestions are implemented.
• Strike, Protect, Countdown, and Repeater icons are the same as friendly and enemy icons mentioned above.
• Charge icons are harder to identify than in the past due to a more grayish colored icon. Making this icon while, similar to friendly tiles may make them easier to identify.
• Invisibility icons are discernible, but might be easier to discern if the font were more bold.

Background Color and Dimming During Enemy's Turn
The background color no longer changes depending on the turn player. If this was done for aesthetics, it was partially successful. A darker background causes less eye strain. However, the tile portion of the screen now dims during the enemy team's turn which increases eye strain similar to flickering lights. The strain occurs because the amount of light that exits the screen and enters the eyes changes long enough between turns for the pupils to begin dilating. When it is the players turn again, the light increases causing the pupils to rapidly constrict again. This can be addressed in multiple ways:

1. Remove the dimming effect and lighten the player's background to a lighter blue while keeping the enemy's background as is. This is similar to what it was prior to the update, but the change doesn't need to be drastic, just noticeable. The change in color does not cause the same level of eye strain since the amount of light (brightness) does not change, just the type of light (color). 
2. Remove the dimming effect and replace it with another turn indicator such as a bar, dot, or other object near the top of the screen. With the empty space below the pause icon, a barely noticeable indicator of some sort can point in one direction or the other. 
3. Remove the dimming effect and shade the characters instead. On the player's turn, the enemy team is slightly darkened. On the enemy's turn, the player's team is slightly darkened.

Power Bar
The larger banner indicating character power readiness makes it easier to see the information. That information is, unfortunately, obscured by the coloring and shading. The banner is composed of four sections: 1 for each character's powers and 1 for the Team-Up powers. Each section is blue with a darker border shading. Each power readiness bar is also dark and sits within this border making it difficult to see. This could be addressed in a few ways:

1. Make the border on each section smaller. This will place more of the power readiness bar over the lighter portion of that section, thereby increasing the contrast.
2. Have each section fade from dark on the left to light on the right. This will place almost the entire power readiness bar over the lighter portion of that section which will increase the contrast.
3. Outline each power readiness bar to make it easier to discern each power readiness bar from its background.

I know many players are saying that the changes are horrible, but I am seeing mostly gut reactions. Gut reactions are often in response to something that isn't right, even though what is right may not be known. I think the changes are good, but not finely tuned. The frame is solid in my opinion, but the surface just needs a pinch more adjusting. Once those are done, I think the majority of players will be happier.

joec3

JaGo said:

In general, I dislike the darker colors but I’ll get used to it. However, the dimming of the entire board when it’s the enemy’s turn causes physical discomfort. When it dims my brain and eyes freak out trying to refocus on the tile movements. Please drop this particular change.

-JaGo

I an on day 2,255 of playing MPQ and due to the background changes and dimming during the opponent round I will need to stop playing unless it is fixed ASAP. 

It is very uncomfortable and an unpleasant experience for my eyes to continually try to readjust to the differences in brightness. 

This is not a user preference/being opposed to change thing, it is literally a physical obstacle and makes the game painful to play.

Horrendous decision.  Please fix it.

abmoraz

Akoni said:

<long post snipped for space>

Very well said.  While I agree with a lot of the issues (and solutions) that you mention, I do have to disagree on the severity of some of your points.  Specifically the color/saturation ones.  I posted above how the game looks to colorblind people (at least a simulation of it, being colorblind, I can only assume that makes it so you see what I see, since it strips out the colors I can't see... so it doesn't change much).  Green/Blue aren't/never were an issue.  Those aren't colors that cause confusion.  Blue/Purple are, as are Green/Red/Black (depending on the type and shades).

As for the shape, I think the shapes are mostly fine (though I agree that a star would make more sense than a rectangle).  I think the issue is that gradients.  The old version all tiles were "top lit" as in they appeared to be lighter on the top and faded to dark at the bottom, as if the light source was coming from straight up.  Now the lighting is ... non-uniform.  The tiles get lit from the top and bottom, and have glare markings that are inconsistent (most on the upper-left and lower-right, but a few are top/bottom, or lower-right and top).  I think most of the issues could be fixed by your suggestions, as well as decreasing the 3d lighting effects on the tiles (that make them shiny) and going with bolder solid primary colors. Full contrasting outlines on the tiles would help with the new background as well.

Looking back at @IceIX 's original post, the background in the screenshot he posted seems a lot darker and has less of a gradient than what I see on my device.  His black tiles look a lot more "black" than mine.  Mine are really more of a "charcoal" or "ash".

Seeing that and that you did all your testing on an iPad and that they previously said that the forced aspect ratio was because of issues with Apple (and to reduce development costs), I'm wondering if this is more of a "they have adjusted development to be iDevice specific" and the rest of us are seeing the side-effects of that.

I hope they can fix this sooner rather than later.  I just tried to do my final pass on slice 5 PvE and only made it 4 matches before my eyes hurt too much to continue.

killahKlown

I'm probably in the minority here but I'd just like to say that I'm not a fan of the new look and feel that came with the latest update.

abmoraz

The rockett said:

abmoraz said:

The rockett said:

abmoraz said:

for those wondering, here's what the gameboard looks like to colorblind people (simulated for all 3 major types):

Wow. Is there a way to post an original one so we can see the difference?  

Also, I think there's some compression or color-correction going on when I uploaded it.  The image here (and on imgur) doesn't appear as washed out as the one on my phone.  You can take a picture yourself.  Install the android app "CVSimulator".  It uses your phone camera and lets you pick which types of colorblindness to simulate.

Understood. Thanks for sharing. 

I just realized that you said "Post the original one" you meant "the UI before the change with the same colorblind filter".  I'm a little slow on the uptake today.  Unfortunately, I can't.  I don't have access to a device that hasn't updated... so it's gone.

acescracked

abmoraz said:

for those wondering, here's what the gameboard looks like to colorblind people (simulated for all 3 major types):

For reference, any way to show us how the old board looked in comparison? 

Edit: oops just saw your response above. Thought it would be hard without access to old ui

HoundofShadow

Interesting. How does other game developers accomodate to those three types of colourblindness? Is there some ISO standard for choices of colours or shades?

Timemachinego

While I don't want to detract from the severity of how utterly awful this game board update is, since ya'll at D3 don't actually seem to be so swift, I want to inform you that you're seeing the cascade of what happens when you make repeated unwanted changes on a formerly working thing.

The community was fairly 50/50 but eventually favorable to the roster screen changes; you took away the function of being able to see the enemy team's skill distribution (and that does matter) but gave us a much easier to scroll through roster and saveable loadouts. You took something away but you gave us something too.

Next came the store screen which many of us find ugly but generally don't engage with enough to have heavy opinions about one way or another. Cashing in vault tokens SUCKS **** now, it's ridiculously slow, but at least we have shortcut buttons? It's also easier to accidentally cash in large amounts, which we assume is the reason for that.

Then you came for our game board, the thing we interface with 90% of the time. We're literally sickened, blinded, rightfully upset. This thing sucks bad. I can't find half the enemy special tiles, it's markedly faster with physics on so if you can not barf watching all this **** bounce around you'll place better, I've got to CHECK powers rather than firing when ready because the gauge is so unclear... I can only believe now that you wish to drive us all away in some sort of short-sell nonsense because the only way to mishandle a strong property like this so massively is to intend it to fail.

ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS GET OUR OPINIONS! We pay for this children's game that has employed you for years, maybe you should listen to the people that actually play it day in and out? Surveys months too late does NOT constitute feedback, you're just doing what you want and now we all know that what you want is not what WE want so maybe we're all better getting out of this dysfunctional relationship?

jredd

Akoni said:

I know many players are saying that the changes are horrible, but I am seeing mostly gut reactions. Gut reactions are often in response to something that isn't right, even though what is right may not be known. I think the changes are good, but not finely tuned. The frame is solid in my opinion, but the surface just needs a pinch more adjusting. Once those are done, I think the majority of players will be happier.

People who are getting migraine/eye strain responses to the changes/dimming are having their health impacted by the game when they previously were not. same with the colour blindness issue. It's not gut reactions in those cases, more so 'i'll need to stop playing this game because of this change'. not liking the changes is one thing but it seems to me that a great number of people are affected physically and mentally. and that's not good.

Cannibalqueen

I agree with and have contributed to the gripe here.  I still want the old UI back as soon as possible.  But also want to point out the one big shining good thing they did, is they made the damage and heal numbers way more readable.  Whatever they did there,  I hope once they make adjustments or roll this back and maybe try out some minor changes on the old interface, that they keep that.  It even feels more comic booky.  I love that part of it.

I like the tile physics too, always have even when they leaked last year.  There’s some good elements to this.  It’s just also so much entirely bad about it.

Carnifex

Hi guys.

Personally, I am on team toggle.

First of all, thank you to the devs for reading everyone's feedback, and for continuing to trying your best to keep the game and fresh and updated. I must admit the new gameboard does look modern and up to date.

Unfortunately, Im one of those who isn't getting on with it too well. I'm finding the dimming on the AI's turn distracting, I end up tapping my phone alot believing my phone is about to lock due to inactivity, haha, and it is rather difficult to keep track of enemy matches and cascades. Was it ever an issue determining whose turn it was? 

From reading through the comments on here, I see the colour-blind community is having issues with the new board. I personally am not colour-blind but do have fairly poor vision and can sympathise with their issues. The new prominent icons on the tiles I find fairly hard to distinguish between special tiles, as well as the new contrasts of colours, especially blue and black. I do seem to be taking a lot longer making my matches than previously.

Also is anyone else struggling with the new AP bars? I believe the size of them has been reduced, and noticing when a hero's AP bar is full is harder to notice.

If it were possible, a toggle to use the old game board would be amazing. If not, I'd be happy with the removal of dimming on AI's turn, and a tweak of contrasting colours and icons.

Thank you