Kalimar
Joined: Sep 22, 2006
|
  Posted:
May 10, 2009 - 22:23 |
|
A friendly hello to the testing folks out there,
I've been receiving a whole lot of Bug reports in the last 2 days and they will certainly be most helpful for improving the stability and rules-compliance of the Client. I have seen considerably less reports on usability and client features.
How many have noticed that Game Statistics (indvidual and team comparison) can be shown at any time in the game ? How many have switched icons to abstract (and back) ? How do you like indents and colors in the logview ? What do you think on context menus ? Has anyone seen a box "overflow" yet (more injuries than the box can hold) and what happens with overlay in that case ? How do you like the ball animation ? etc.
I've so far only seen a few comments on pop-up-messages and the placement of the block dice.
Here is the thread to tell me about the Good, the Bad and the Ugly!
Greetings, Kalimar |
Last edited by Kalimar on %b %10, %2009 - %22:%May; edited 1 time in total |
|
On1
Joined: Jul 12, 2004
|
  Posted:
May 10, 2009 - 22:39 |
|
Oooh, need to take a second look, all i was looking for was blood! |
|
|
Grumbledook
Joined: Aug 02, 2003
|
  Posted:
May 10, 2009 - 23:00 |
|
didn't realise there were more menus and stats etc |
|
|
zakatan
Joined: May 17, 2008
|
  Posted:
May 10, 2009 - 23:01 |
|
i miss the clock!
also the chat window separated from the rolls window (maybe split the text window into 2)
and the "remember login" tick at the beggining
the ball animation is a bit too slow for my taste |
_________________
|
|
Nighteye
Joined: Apr 19, 2004
|
  Posted:
May 10, 2009 - 23:09 |
|
On1 and me just tried to see the overlay function for the casualty box and at least on my machien it didnt work. All it did was make part of the box white, but it still showed the same players there, you still werent able to see the 3rd and 4th death. |
|
|
Zhluhur
Joined: Aug 02, 2003
|
  Posted:
May 10, 2009 - 23:13 |
|
Hey there Kalimar,
I was just waiting for such a thread to write my overall feedback.
The overall look of the client is nice and the action menu next to the player is very handy after some turns.
I also noticed the statistics, which is very nice for me. I missed such a thing in the old client, where it was only available after the match.
The passing animation of the thrown ball is cool. Adds much the the atmosphere of the game. Is there any blood after an injurie? I never looked at that when I played my testmatches.
The only thing that I would chance in the current layout is the position of the block-dices, turnover button and re-roll button. The ergonomics of the clients lacks a bit there. The eyes go down to the dice and back to the players all the time. I would place them right beneath the pitch. I think I've written that somewhere in the feature request thread.
But I don't want to finish this text without some nice words. I think your work has been very very good so far. Together with Christers help, I think it will be one of the best examples of a client-server software integrated with a website. The old client is great, but this will be even better when its finished.
Cheers,
Zhluhur
P.S: I hope the client will be an open source software after some time. I'll finish my studies soon and need something to waste my time on. |
_________________ *-* Let the games begin! *-* |
|
Christer
Joined: Aug 02, 2003
|
I put together a really quick mockup of a layout that could work:
Mockup 1024x768
This layout would easily be adapted to smaller and larger sizes.
It's not polished in any way, but was simply a very quick concept sketch I did. There's plenty of possibility to tweak and move some of the things around if necessary. In particular the location of rerolls/icons/status messages. |
|
|
maysrill
Joined: Dec 29, 2008
|
  Posted:
May 12, 2009 - 18:08 |
|
Better notification when you need to make a decision on an opponent's turn. I sat around a bit while my opponent was waiting for me to select a blocking dice on a -2db he'd made.
Hotkeys! I love moving using the number pad, and this is a big loss for me currently. Also the GFI and "end turn" hotkeys (especially "`" for end turn) would be wonderful.
I'd second the separate window for chat. I haven't done any spectating, but the spectator chat should be in the same window as the player chat, as it is now.
Maybe the blocking dice could be a pop-up as well, or at least more centered on the screen for something you need to mouse-click a LOT during a game.
The numbering for the rolls you'd need to make (shown in the highlighted squares in tackle zones) is interesting, but I'm not 100% sold on it. Seems like a little dumbing down of the game. I guess for newer coaches it could be handy. |
_________________ Author of Firehurler (Twinborn Trilogy Book #1), Aethersmith (Book #2), Sourcethief (Book #3) |
|
Kraark
Joined: Dec 14, 2006
|
  Posted:
May 12, 2009 - 19:35 |
|
Christer wrote: | I put together a really quick mockup of a layout that could work:
Mockup 1024x768
This layout would easily be adapted to smaller and larger sizes.
It's not polished in any way, but was simply a very quick concept sketch I did. There's plenty of possibility to tweak and move some of the things around if necessary. In particular the location of rerolls/icons/status messages. |
I like that, especially if the dugout will get the injured players also, should not fill up that easy, just have it like if they got sent off in the old client and a text with why. (Injury, Red card etc) |
|
|
Dalfort
Joined: Jun 23, 2008
|
  Posted:
May 12, 2009 - 20:01 |
|
For me, the overall feel of the client is fantastic. I would echo the need for short cut keys, especially end turn. The idea of a more centralised dice location is also a good one, as is the need for a separation of chat/notification boxes.
I did notice the stats... not that I wasnt enjoying the game , but found it when to my initial disappointment that the "Dungeon" in the menu bar wasnt in fact an advert of future releases (viva Dungeonbowl!) but the location of the "naughty" boys
Again overall a client worthy of high praise and only open to personnal perference niggles imho ( sounds like a niggle!)
keep up the good, excellent, fantastic work!
*addition* The negated need to download and install anything was appreciated as I may have to play on other machines at times. |
|
|
Wreckage
Joined: Aug 15, 2004
|
  Posted:
May 12, 2009 - 20:20 |
|
Dalfort wrote: | For me, the overall feel of the client is fantastic. I would echo the need for short cut keys, especially end turn. The idea of a more centralised dice location is also a good one
|
agreed... a end turn sound on a turnover similar to the end turn sound when clicking turn would be incredibly nice too....
what really bugged me too, was the way i have to select players... first option is to blitz... second option is to move.... i think if i play the game with a certain routine, the chance is pretty high I gonna click on the blitz sooner or later and loose it...
also it's one more click i have to do on all actions then I had to do before... maybe I am a bit fastidious here but i really liked the old version better..
perfect would be if he (by default) moves normally, when clicking on a free square and blocks when clicking on an occupied square, with extra symbols for passing, fouling and blitzing... these symbols could either be at the side(a bit too far away from the middle to be comfortable IMHO) ... or pop up somewhere in the middle (faster access) and just disappear when I click on a Square and start to move.... ,,,or you could add another line in the graphics with all the extra stuff... .....or.... even better.... blitz, pass and so on could be accessible by rightclicking on the player...
but well that sounds complicated to me even when I just say it... so anyhow.. thanks for now and keep up the good work... |
|
|
Booch
Joined: Jun 04, 2008
|
  Posted:
May 12, 2009 - 21:32 |
|
One usability thing I noticed that bugged me a little was that turning off the sounds didn't affect the "ball pickup" sound. I'm not sure if that's deliberate or just an oversite.
I do like to be able to shut all the sounds off though. And I love that you can turn off the crowd sounds specifically. |
|
|
Khudzlin
Joined: May 24, 2007
|
  Posted:
May 12, 2009 - 22:20 |
|
since you're supposed to declare what action a player will use before doing anything with him/her, the action icons don't have to pop-up, except maybe for the moment you actually pass or hand-off the ball
for a blitz or foul, the action can be carried out when clicking on an appropriate target (come to think of it, it's also true for a hand-off) |
|
|
Count_Von_Halseburg
Joined: Jun 28, 2006
|
  Posted:
May 12, 2009 - 22:40 |
|
The only thing that nearly got me a few times was the proximity of the Block Dice to the end turn buttons etc. I think that could cause Miss clicks... otherwise I thought it felt very fluid - good work! |
|
|
Grumbledook
Joined: Aug 02, 2003
|
  Posted:
May 13, 2009 - 00:23 |
|
Be nice if pressing enter worked after putting in your password when spectating and after clicking the game you want to watch as well
also it would be nice if clicking anywhere on the chat area if it would make the text input bar at the bottom instead of actually having to click on the text box |
|
|
|