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The New Starmap And Party System Are A Step Back.


Plorf
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So now that the initial shock of Update 14 has passed, I realized that a lot of my issues with the new UI aren't just a case of "different is bad". The new navigation menu and the changed party system are both less intuitive and less functional than the pre-U14 interface.

 

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Let's start with the starmap. The old UI was an overview of the Origin System, with different sized planets orbiting at different distances from the Sun. Clicking on one gave you a "web" of all the different missions in that region of space. Completed nodes were white, incomplete nodes were flashing blue, and locked nodes were black. With this interface, it was clear which missions would lead to which planets or nodes. Any active alerts and invasions were displayed in the top left corner along with the time remaining on each.

 

The U14 star chart is drastically different. Once you approach the navigation console, you are greeted with a ring of unlabeled planets equidistant from each other, which is unhelpful considering most planets look pretty similar. When you click one, a similar ring of mission nodes appears around the planet. These nodes are mostly the same color and distance from each other, which makes it extremely difficult to tell what type of mission they are and whether or not you have completed them. In order to even see all the missions, you have to rotate the planet until you reach the right side. Additionally, there is no way to view active invasions without clicking on their respective planets. An important note is that, while you see a list of names scrolling under the name of each mission, there is no way to see how many players are in a given node at once. This makes finding a squad much more of a hassle. 

 

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Moving on to the party system, I don't even know what to say here. In order to see what Warframe and loadouts are even in your party, you have to hit Escape THREE times, which shows you a horizontal list that requires hovering over each player in the party. I don't need to explain why this is a bad thing. What's more, the old Keys menu is gone, replaced by the Void mission select, which prior to a hotfix, didn't show the number of keys you owned. I understand that the update was rushed so that's not a big deal. However, ignoring the numerous joining/loading glitches I've experienced since the update, which again, I understand, we still have another problem. 

 

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The party leader in Void missions seems to not have any authority. Upon accidentally clicking on a Tower mission through the chatbox, there is no way to cancel the pick except by having everyone vote Decline, or reinviting should they not respond. Other squadmates can also nominate missions using their own keys, which is admittedly convenient, but can get in the way of the leader's choice. The new Accept/Decline vote also bypasses the party leader, allowing the squad to start the mission without you. While this is fine in the regular star chart, it can be a bit stressful in Void missions where prep time is important.

I apologize if this post came across as too much of a rant, but I think there remain some legitimate concerns with the Update 14 interface, specifically the starmap and party system. 

Thoughts?

Edited by Plorf
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I think the names scrolling underneath are the founders, if I'm not mistaken. 

 

Anyway, I agree wholeheartedly with most of your complaints, especially with how the new star-chart is much less intuitive. I'm not even sure anymore which nodes I have unlocked, and I had no idea how to tell a new player how to unlock his next planet, because I have no idea myself. 

 

The squad is definitely a step back as well, forcing us to hover over each individual before we can see what they have currently equipped is time-consuming, and sometimes people start the mission before you can even glance at one person. I liked the old way a lot better, where it was easy to see at a glance what people had equipped. 

 

Also, I agree with your points on the party system, the ability to bypass the party leader is kind of useful sometimes, but for voids it's stressful, like you mentioned.

Edited by kuliise
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yeah i don't like to Esc, Esc, Esc, and hope that "+" on the right of my Picture works, and when don't work as intended, Esc one more time, Communication>friends>invite......

To receive some "squad is full" when me and my Friend are alone and Both have to restart the game.

 

Aaaaaaaaaaaaah Warbugs!!!

On mission select, a "You really want that mission? Yes/Nope" window popup would be nice, than click on the wrong mission and everyone click accept ¬¬'

 

There is a lot of Improvements, Bug Fix and optimizations that have to come to the new UI shine and everyone start to love it.

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While I enjoy the "pretty" that is the new UI... The functionality of it is a giant step backwards.

I agree with all of your points, although I'd stress the last sentence of your third paragraph.

 

This makes finding a squad much more of a hassle.

 

I think you're being generous with that language. It's downright impossible to figure out where an active group is. Short of going to recruitment and starting your own, it's a complete crapshoot. For players that can't/shouldn't host, this is a game-breaker.

 

The squad UI is abysmal. I appreciate the fact that you can now see the level of items players have equipped... but the UI needs to be single-glance, entire-squad info that doesn't necessitate mouse-over / multiple escape kludge-fest. It's very frustrating and when you're playing with PUG's and/or people with little to no patience... (90% of this community) then there is no time to coordinate your config. Personally, I feel rushed all the time now when i'm dealing with a group.

 

I like the style they're moving to, but it needs to be more functional than it is currently.

 

Overall this patch has pushed me from 70/30 group/solo to the inverse. I now spend the majority of my time playing solo because the interface required to group is frustrating. In fact, as much as I like the new graphics, I find myself playing the game far less than normal due to these exact issues.

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New star-map is not even a map with no visual connections. I see questions from new players like 5 times a day "how to get to planet X"  "what comes after what".  The new abstraction is useless and non-informative.

 

 Designers need to create clear visual links between the nodes and planets.

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I swear, I have been losing connection to squads a-lot more when I join them with the new party system then the old one.

 

Lasted a very long time..and really never experienced a loss of connection except on a few occasions.

 

With the new one, I only have a few seconds to accept the mission or else I get disconnected from the squad, and it makes me sad because 9/10, I will most likely start the mission when the host was probably still wanting to wait for players, making me feel like a #$&(%.

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I still prefer the new UI to the old one.

 

But I do think there should be a "Quick" UI option so you can get into the game as fast as possible. 

Im seriously curious as to why you do like the new UI over the old one? (I am honestly curious, because I've got little idea why anyone would prefer it), over the old UI supplanted on the ship's stations.

 

For me its less intuative, less information, less functional, less visually pleasing (where we had smooth buttons that fit with the UI we now have white blocks that dont fit, and most text  and 2d images are out of focus for a 1920 x1080 resolution, graphics getting in the way of UI elements), less uniform (like its a mix of many different UI) and downright slower to use.

 

The ring of planets is a lot faster than the old starmap, but the squad system and node select are terrible. +1 from me

Honestly how is the ring actually any faster? it took me all of 2-3 seconds and 2 clicks to get to a node and starting a squad (if i knew where i wanted to go), it now takes around 5 clicks and 15-20 seconds (about 5 seconds for earth becuase its easy to tell apart from the others) to do the same thing (presuming I know where i want to go I still have to hover over locations as well).

 

Id be very supprised if this new UI is actually not more confusing than the old one for new players.

Edited by Loswaith
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Im seriously curious as to why you do like the new UI over the old one? (I am honestly curious, because I've got little idea why anyone would prefer it), over the old UI supplanted on the ship's stations.

 

For me its less intuative, less information, less functional, less visually pleasing (where we had smooth buttons that fit with the UI we now have white blocks that dont fit, and most text  and 2d images are out of focus for a 1920 x1080 resolution, graphics getting in the way of UI elements), less uniform (like its a mix of many different UI) and downright slower to use.

 

Honestly how is the ring actually any faster? it took me all of 2-3 seconds and 2 clicks to get to a node and starting a squad (if i knew where i wanted to go), it now takes around 5 clicks and 15-20 seconds (about 5 seconds for earth becuase its easy to tell apart from the others) to do the same thing (presuming I know where i want to go I still have to hover over locations as well).

 

Id be very supprised if this new UI is actually not more confusing than the old one for new players.

 

 White Knights ahoy.

Edited by Oxazejam
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