Because we all know this deserves a topic on its own. Let the rage begin!
3/24/11 Patch General
I would think that alone would make this a really really awful patch. Having no feedback at all is just frustrating and doesn't really add anything to the game. There is less focus on bonuses and such but... that's not really a benefit. Hardcore people like to have the most perfect set not to mention it'd be difficult to even tell if you're winning against a group of healers. I hope we're not trying to turn this into Monster Hunter or something. (I love the game but we're not going through stages killing 100s of minions)
There is an astonishing amount of rage towards this patch seeping throughout other topics.
As far as I'm concerned the color coding should be just an addition to the numbers not a replacement. This seems silly. At least make it an option to have the damage in number form as well, so much easier than decoding colors. With all the colors and stuff going on around you and me being color blind especially. It would be much appreciated. I already have a hard enough time discerning which mineral I am picking up.
Exactly, Paska, that's my exact same problem, which I posted in the suggestions forum. This is nothing but bad for us players with color blindness. ESPECIALLY since it's going on in the middle of everything else, the flashes are so fast, and they're surrounded by other colors.
Yes this was a really bad idea for multiple reason's, especially for the colorblind players out there. I just got done reading a really good book I got with my "User Interface Class" for game design, the book is called: Game Development Essentials: Game Interface Design, by Kevin Saunders and Jeannie Novak. They have a full chapter that pretty much tells you not to do exactly what the game has done, and gives valid reasons on why you should not do it. In fact, it’s the second chapter of the book. Color blindness affects more than 10% of the male population, and while is less common among women, there are those females that are colorblind. How you show your damage in-game is part of the UI and with the new way of showing damage, you’re severely limiting the information given to the players and even fully disableing User feedback for other's. I suggest someone on the development team grab this book and give this chapter a look over. There is plenty of information that could greatly help out this game, not only in that particular chapter, but throughout the whole book. I’m not saying the information in that book is like the bible to game design, it’s just based off of what was done in VERY successful games and the reasoning behind it all is very solid. B)
I'm ok with the no numbers thing, especially since damage numbers tend to vary wildly between depths anyway. What I WOULD like is for something to pop up that says "Hit!" or something, or make the color code graphics more pronounced. After the patch it was hard for me to tell if I was making contact with the run and gun approach sometimes.
Too much rage with all these topics I am okay with the colors now we know if our gun or w.e is real weak against the monster and colors are pretty =) love the new heat thing it looks cool when someone is dead (kinda like blood)
Njthug, the game already told you if your weapons were weak or strong versus types, this change is pointless, irrational and not well thought out.
I don't know what the devs were thinking with this, it breaks the game in so many ways it isn't even funny, this will cause even more energy to be wasted on fruitless crafting as people can't figure out what is better or worse and as has been covered....
COLOUR BLIND USERS?
Three Rings really needs to consider the implications of these impulsive changes, this game looked so promising a week ago and now... well I'm kinda wishing I didn't load up on energy from the launch bonus like I did, I won't be using it if I'm not playing.
Before we had some nice looking #'s or some pretty colors to tell us what was good damage we were using the wiki to find out monster weakness then adding up the bonuses from our armor to figure it out. Yes, we dont have those numbers which makes it a bit harder, but we do have these colors that helps us figure it out.Its a part of this game to waste energy to figure out which weapon is good and which isnt (Its not a part of every players game, but some people just like to test out weapons), and if you choose not too you can just read the wiki and figure it all out which monsters are weak to which elements. This game still is promising many of the players are getting upset when
Color Blindness - Since its a big thing to some of you players for those who dont know it affects: 0.005% of the population are totally colour blind. Now I dont think Three Rings can cater to everyone in this game since someone can easily argue using Arithmophobia- Fear of numbers, and having numbers will affect the small number of players who play this game.
(Off-Topic, but to do with rebalancing):
Three rings is just re-balancing the game. Armor of the fallen was, one of the most used armor's in this game (I know I have a set of it maxed out), and now it will most likely not be used as much due to the stats, but why did Three rings make the stats horrible on it (In most players view)?? The conclusion, I came up with was to re-balance the game armor's by having them all equal towards one another in a sense. So, there is not 1 BEST CrAZY armor there is just a lot of armors to pick from and you can mix-and-match however you choose until you find what works for you. (People might say this will waste Crystal Energy, lets be honest without Ce, Three Rings would of not been able or would never choose to make this game as good since no one wants to go home with a small paycheck, and you can always just make 1 armor and use it the rest of your life in Sk).
Regardless I think I am done giving my feedback on this topic no need to start an e-argument over something so pointless. In my view/ (Or my opinion) I think all these updates they made make total sense especially looking back to this game when I started playing and now these developers really turned around this game from something which was cool, but got boring in 1 month to something that is OMG and only gets boring after you run out of Ce.
(Did you even read Nyxeth's post? He blatantly said "COLOUR BLIND USERS", in a separate line, and in caps, and you managed to completely miss that, apparently)
Since your argument is mostly baseless and you seem to be ignoring great part of the arguments here, I'm just gonna state some few things.
-In your argument you state having colours is not so bad. However, is it any better than having text numbers? The answer is no. Why degrade from something that was working perfectly fine to something as ridiculous as this? How does this "make total sense"?
-There are several things which make this number removing update terrible; Just to state a few: Shakes and colours may cause lag and confusion, colour blind players will be clueless, the actual size or whatever of the flash has a limit.
If you really would wish to stop being so close-minded and supporting the devs no matter what, then simply check the thread we have on the suggestions - Several players listed tons and tons of reasons as to why this was a stupid and pointless change, that won't do anything but cause us frustration and reduce our general fun on the game. The only reason I can even think this was done, would be the devs being tired of hearing us ranting about nerfs and wanted to simply end all rants.
Regarding Fallen; The nerf they did on it wasn't balancing. It simply made it useless. And even before the nerfs, I had that armor - But I ended changing from it because I didn't feel the damage bonus was really worth it, even being two ultras. I'd way rather use Vog Cub than the old Fallen, to be honest, even with the current low bonus.
I sorta disagree Njthug, since 3-4 months ago when I started the game was playable and fun, even if it did get boring after a month or so of playing. About a month ago, the game was still fun, and becoming even more fun as they added more content. Now all in the matter of one update, It is no longer fun.... It's not only not fun, its no longer even playable in my opinion. Im serious when I say that too, I had absolutly no fun doing my dungeon run after this update. It was frustrating, and confusing, and im a very good player, well I like to assume I am since I die very little. I couldnt tell if my shots where hitting or missing half the time. The screen would shake, giving me a headache after awhile. I can no longer tell if im out damaging the healer's or not, or what sort of strategy I should take around them. At one point, there were quite a few mobs on screen, healers included, and I had no clue what was going on. It was a mass confusion of colors, yellow stars, screen shakes, and who knows what else going on. At its current stage the game is Un-playable for me, and my fiance, which combined have spent well over 100 USD on this game. (her alot more then I have since she spends energy like she's in the mall shoping for cloths...) At this point im worried if I spent money on a game that I may no longer play. I guess thats a risk u take in a preview/beta game, but I had NO CLUE that it was even possible to damage the game as much as this update did....
I have confidence that Three Rings will fix it. I only post this to explain how I currently feel about this game. Apparently im not the only one, as the haven is more popular then the dungeons currently since nobody seems to be having any fun playing dungeons.
Guys... Speaking as a colorblind user: good luck finding someone who cannot distinguish between grey/blue/gold. You'd have to suffer total monochromacy (~0.00001% of the population) to not see the differences in color, and even then they can still distinguish brightness. That whole argument of colorblind users suffering is moot and somewhat insulting to people with the condition.
The color choices in the action parts of the game have been rather smart and the few "iffy" ones have been changed.
The general problem isn't really being colour blind; Several of my friends and guildmates are having a hard time even being able to pay attention to the flashes. I'm having trouble myself aswell. I just imagine it'd likely be harder for colour blind users, and one of my friends who is colour blind, has been having tons of problems with that aswell.
On either case, in general, the problem in this would be that for most gameplay, the flashes are way too quick and there would be too many flashes when hitting multiple mobs, which makes this in general impossible to actually observe.
I am colorblind I find nothing insulting here. Sidenote. Valestone and Luminite distinction actually gives me trouble, don't know about anyone else (was thinking about posting about it actually).
While I don't see this as the foremost issue to changing from numbers to colors. The problem here is not distinguishing grey, blue and gold, obviously that is possible. Its distinguishing those from the array of colors also flashing on the screen, the attacks being done to me, explosions, the wide range of colors of the level and other characters / creatures.
I mean do I really have to sit there distinguishing them, was it gold that was the most? Or blue?
Instead just seeing a large number flash, ok is 10 more or less than 6?
In fact like I said before lets take it a step further. Combo: Gold ok so its highly effective, doing 20 damage. This bomb is also highly effective but only does 11 damage... See the issues here?
d0gr0ck, I am colorblind as well. Just because it isn't difficult for you doesn't mean it doesn't make it more difficult for me, and perhaps other people. You're right, I can distinguish between the three colors (though grey and blue are kind of harder...), but it isn't just that those three colors are there, it's that they're used in such close proximity to the other colors, and at such high speeds. The truth is that I find it very difficult, bordering on impossible, to distinguish between them in such conditions.
Valestone and Luminite distinction actually gives me trouble, don't know about anyone else (was thinking about posting about it actually).
Ohhh, red or blue cone deficiency?
That was my nitpick I was going to get around to once I had some more exploration time: different weapon types of same star are same "effectiveness" but wildly different damage.
Red, and I do graphic design (imagine that), thats why I was gonna push for a hover over popup to tell me what names of the minerals, heck all the items, they already do it with vials, would make sense. Could definitely help.
it was a good patch as far as I am concerned, well the colour part. i wish there was text though....