New UI Update: Gameboard

Tony_Foot

Apart from the shard fall out, I cannot remember a change with such a resounding dislike as this.I didn't like the curtains but it doesn't bother me enough to mention, but this is just a bad pointless change.

Gracktbnarkt

After a few years of playing I finally have a comment for the forum. 

The new color scheme is very hard on older eyes, and the dimming between active rounds makes it very hard to see the opponents moves. 

This has the affect of slowing gameplay dramatically, I normally have my next match picked very quickly- now I have to wait till I am allowed to see the board again before looking for the match and try to figure out what just happened. 

This would be vastly improved by the ability to select your own background color and toggle off the “their turn” dimming. 

sweegy

I also haven't posted in a very long time.  I've played almost 6 years now without any visibility issues, but this change has made the game nearly unplayable for me.  I am Red-Green colorblind (Deuteranope) and the previous color scheme contrasted enough where I could tell the difference between the tiles and make matches well enough to play the game (except when lots of fortify/web tiles were around).  This new board change just simply does not work for me.  The colors are too similar and I'm having a hard time finding matches, and missing Match-4's and 5's that would usually stick out.  On top of that, the dimming on the AI turn is jarring and it makes seeing the board even harder.   Please devs, revert the change or let me toggle to the old UI where I was able to play the game.  I enjoy the game, and have been supporting it for years.   I can't support it any more if it hurts to play.  Thanks.

Esheris

Can we please get an option to use the old Ui? I feel like this new Ui could have used more time in beta and user feedback before going live.

Mimicking most other people's opinions, the board darkening on the enemy turn is giving me headaches/migraines. 

I have played many rounds with the new tile change trying to get used to it, but I feel like I'm still straining my eyes and not catching moves I should be making as clearly as before.

After playing TONS of puzzles games with different looking tiles over the years I thought it would be no problem, but something is way too busy with MPQ's new UI.

Hopefully the devs can find a solution to make everyone happy!

SaltnPeppa

Games are not exempt from significant visual changes under the American Disabilities Act that marginalize people with disabilities.   https://dsq-sds.org/article/view/4513/3833

Jacklag

I hated it, hated it, hated it. It's darker, less clean, it made it more difficult to tell apart symbols (like 5*Colossus' phoenix and Onslaught's mask, Beta Ray Bill's hammer from a Strike tile), enemy special tiles became almost invisible in darker tiles like blue and black as well as friendly tiles on yellow tiles. It also made it more difficult to see when mine or the enemy's AP bar is full and to tell passive's from active bars.

I play the game on an Android phone, BTW. 6.4" screen

Skrimgeour

I have been playing for 2609 days and today you have done more than any other day to convince me to go elsewhere.

1) I am a 5* player, not a whale, but I have supported the game moderately well over the years.
2) I am color deficient (not color blind) to red-green and the new changes make is extremely difficult for me to tell tiles apart. 
3) The dimming between turns is horrible and distracting.
4) UI fixes are supposed to enhance player experience, not totally destroy it. Please let us go back to the old UI

abmoraz

Ok, I got the update and it wasn't just the screenshot.  It's BAAAD for colorblind players.  Like, The DDP took almost 45 minutes to complete (normally it's 5-10 minutes, if that), even with my phone set to "Colorblind" mode, the tiles are near impossible to tell apart.  It took FOREVER to find matches, more or less formulate a strategy.  It basically became "wait for the game to suggest a move, then do that"

First, the good things:

1. I like the darker mode.
2. Enemy countdowns are MUCH better now

Now the bad

1. Red, Green and Black are nearly identical
2. Blue and Purple are exactly the same
3. The "dimming" on the enemy's turn is distracting and off-putting
4. Charged tiles are practically unnoticeable (they just blend in like another character's icon inside the tile)
5. AP Bars are much harder to notice when full
6. Friendly countdowns are...weird.  I don't know how to describe it, but the white skull got lost.  I dunno if my eyes were blending it in with team-up tiles or what, but I just couldn't process it
7. Some character's "badges" on AP tiles are nearly invisible (Wolverine and Polaris to point out examples)
8. The darker tiles make finding enemy special tiles more difficult.  Strike tiles mainly because they are narrow, dark, and in the middle of the tile and the tiles are now darkest in the middle and protect tiles on black (cause... well... "black on black ")
   

Now for the (hopefully) helpful suggestions:

1. Offer "theme packs".  An alliance mate of mine suggested that he'd "pay to go back to the old color scheme".  That's not a half-bad idea.  Offer theme packs (purchasable with ISO/HP/CP...) so we can choose the theme we want.  You can then offer packs for things like Holidays (Christmas pack that has snow effects or lights; Valentine's back that has Deadpool as Cupid in the background, etc...).  If you want to get crazy, offer customization where we can use a color-picker and shape-picker to set the tiles to what suits us best.
   
2. Get rid of the "shine" and "gradients" on the tiles.  That will go MILES towards helping for us colorblind people.  I did a mock-up in **** (Photoshop for Linux), but making the tiles solid coloring did wonders.  I'd upload the PNG, but I don't have a place to host the image and the forum doesn't allow for direct uploads. Currently all the tiles (except yellow and team-up) start with a light shade at the top, get darker in the middle, then get light again at the bottom (Yellow goes dark at the top to light at the bottom.  They all have "light glare" in the upper right and lower left (except for yellow and TU again, which are top and bottom).  I removed all these effects and just made them solid (red & purple using their darker shade from the middle; blue, yellow, & green using their lighter.  "Black" I went with a middling gray because of the background).  They were all easily discernible that way and make the "ownership" badges pop more.
   
3. I think the gradient on the background of the AP bars is what makes them more difficult, but I'm not 100% sure on that one. I think changing that background to a more solid color would help.
4. The health bars seem backwards.  They seem (to me, a colorblind person) to burn off the red first and end on green.  I assume that's not the case (given everything I've been told in life about the color significance of red and green) and it's just a case of me mixing up the shades.

I haven't run into any battles with repeater tiles yet.  The old system, they were always an issue because they turned the shape of whatever tile they were on into the same shape as the blue tiles, which was a pain.  Not sure if that is still the case.

Thus concludes my TED Talk on how to ruin a colorblind person's day.

pheregas

@LakeStone  My apologies at invoking your name once again.

I know all the devs probably went to bed last night congratulating each other on a successful rollout with no apparent game breaking bugs.

However, upon waking up and sifting through now 9 pages of negative comments, I hope you'll take the drastic steps necessary to roll back the game to it's previous release.  I would imagine the different platforms would make this a high priority given that players are having physical symptoms with the changes.

If this were just a matter of people not liking a new layout, I think that would be one thing.  I would advise users to get used to it and get on with it.

However, that is clearly not the case here.  Some of the player base simply cannot differentiate some of the colors now.  Players get headaches/migraines from the flashing and the strain of staring so intently at the game.

Please let us know that this is being looked into and post status updates.  We need to be kept informed because people put a lot of time, effort, and money into this game and to all of a sudden risk health ramifications and in-game progress due to physical issues is not right.

If there's an emergency meeting, let us know.  If there is a roll-back, let us know.  If we have to suffer through this, let us know.  We just need to plan accordingly.

Tarakanova

Oh dear...as someone who's been playing daily for over 2 years, I really wish I could praise the devs for actively working on improving the game but this is not the way to do it. I have played a good dozen of battles with the new UI, and unfortunately I don't think this is something I could (or want to) get used to.

As nearly everybody else has pointed out, the darker gameboard makes the tiles harder to distinguish. And I say this as someone who has no issues seeing colours, I cannot imagine the nightmare for colourblind folks.

Not only that, I just find it less aesthetically pleasing than the classic look. The green in particular looks too dark and the yellow is now about the only colour that remains vibrant. On the other hand, the AP bars almost look too bright, especially in comparison with the tile colours. Blue in particular feels way too luminous. And how is it that this slightly bigger board appears more crowded than the other one?

Character symbols are also almost too visible now, it distracted me more than it helped. And it seems that special tile symbols stand out less now. Right now I am having a particular problem distinguishing Strike tiles from normal tiles with Rocket's symbol.

The board darkening on enemy turns may have been present before, but now it is too much. It's especially ridiculous on turns where there's just a mook gaining AP, it basically hurts the eyes for nothing. 

More visibility of the character portraits is not a real gain. Someone who wants to see a bit more of them could just lower the AP tab from time to time.

I have tried the new physics for a few moves, then turned it off as I felt it did not really add anything. Wish I could likewise turn off the darker gameboard.

I'm sorry for all those who spent time and energy designing this new gameboard, but this is not a positive change!

EDIT: One last thing, I'm pretty sure that with the overall darkening of the gameboard, the bright flashes at every match stand out more... and I already found them kind of uncomfortable before...

Felessa

Another one here that disliked this change... everything is just too dark and less bright, so contrast is lost, wich makes many trivial actions, like looking for matchs, much more difficult.

The new blue/purple powers bar is another area that lost a lot of its contrast too. The gray/silver old one was much better since you could distinguish each color very well.

I liked the bigger area for the characters and the thin health bars, but apart from that, as others have pointed, I would like to have the option to at least use the old UI, so please, review this update carefull.

abmoraz

abmoraz said:

 I did a mock-up in **** (Photoshop for Linux)

TIL: The open-source alternative to Photoshop is a banned word in this forum...

Crowl

After doing my pve clears for today on my tablet instead of my phone, I hate the colour changes less than on my phone, but the character icons are still overly prominent and the screen dimming is horrendous, but overall it does seem to work a bit better on tablet than phone.

abmoraz

TML said:

Colorblind player chiming in and echoing the opinion of other users, the game is borderline unplayable for me.  Green looks like black, blue looks like purple.  Cannot tell what powers I'm firing.  It's going to take forever to do a battle, the shapes aren't as obvious at first glance.  Just about all bad.

Fellow Colorblind person here.  The old layout had similar issue to me, but the "Color Correction" mode on my android devices made it much better.  The new color scheme is less affected by the correction.  It takes forever to play a match now

Jacknife

Actually there is a simple solutiıon for 2 sides developer and players. Put a box as Phisycs box on options section. Someone like new update click box on the other hand ppl dont like wont click and play with old style.
Result is eveyone is happy. To impose new update to people is musnt be a option.

nikkoekinox

Hello everyone, looong time without posting, but
The new interface is not very good : I praise the change, because it keep the game fresh, but the contrast between colors, and the dimming on the enemy turn NEEDS to be ajusted : it's an atrocity
Torture for my old eyes...

Or let the players decide : In the option can you have an "Old interface" Checkmark?

I quite like Btw the blobbing effect of the falling tiles.

Please, listen to the outcry, it's a nice first step, waiting for improvements 

sargeantbarnes

As someone who is light sensitive, this new update is a nightmare. I've never had eyestrain so quickly, and feel nauseated by the constant dimming. If you are trying to encourage people to play less, then this is the way. Please, at the very least, give us an option to turn off the dimming. I don't have to mention how difficult it is to match tiles due to colours being muted. Sigh. 

SaltnPeppa

Games are not exempt from significant visual changes under the American Disabilities Act.    https://dsq-sds.org/article/view/4513/3833

And whoever deleted my post about this, it's against the law for censoring me for pointing out a law.  Especially when it has to do something about pointing out marginalization against those with disabilities.

abmoraz

SaltnPeppa said:

Games are not exempt from significant visual changes under the American Disabilities Act.    https://dsq-sds.org/article/view/4513/3833

And whoever deleted my post about this, it's against the law for censoring me for pointing out a law.  Especially when it has to do something about pointing out marginalization against those with disabilities.

1. give them reasonable time to address the issue(s).  Threatening legal action isn't a great look.
2. It's not illegal.  The forums have no requirement to give you a voice at all.  They're a private entity that can regulate it's content as they see fit.  It's only questionable if they are the government (or directly government funded).
3. to whichever mods deleted his post.  Look up "Steisand effect".  What was lost in the entire wash of this argument is now a talking point.  Good Job (/s)
   

/I am a colorblind person that is directly affected by this act, but come on...  Give them a chance.

SaltnPeppa

abmoraz said:

SaltnPeppa said:

Games are not exempt from significant visual changes under the American Disabilities Act.    https://dsq-sds.org/article/view/4513/3833

And whoever deleted my post about this, it's against the law for censoring me for pointing out a law.  Especially when it has to do something about pointing out marginalization against those with disabilities.

1. give them reasonable time to address the issue(s).  Threatening legal action isn't a great look.
2. It's not illegal.  The forums have no requirement to give you a voice at all.  They're a private entity that can regulate it's content as they see fit.  It's only questionable if they are the government (or directly government funded).
3. to whichever mods deleted his post.  Look up "Steisand effect".  What was lost in the entire wash of this argument is now a talking point.  Good Job (/s)
   

/I am a colorblind person that is directly affected by this act, but come on...  Give them a chance.

Private entities are not exempt.  Please read the link and look into the law.  Also, i never threatened anyone.  Read my post.