Option to Remove the Circle Image on Skill CD

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Originally Posted by MrTherm

Judging by this thread, it doesnt seem that 90% of players enjoy this.

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I could also say :
On this thread, there's like 150 person at most that dislike the new visual effect. Then if there's like 100k player, it's about 99.9% who likes the new visual and 0.1% who doesn't like it.

Just to say that judging statistic by looking at this thread is not a better way than using a sample of dev team.

The biggest problem with the change is there is FAR to much animation happening in the tool bar now. All that motion just creates visual noise, making the entire thing more difficult to interpret.

This is basic human factors and basic communication theory. You need to keep the "noise" down for people to get the signal.

The entire attitude in the developer post is condescending and insulting. It is common for anyone whose creative output is challenged to become defensive. Making slight tweaks isn't going to fix this. SE need to admit they made a mistake and fix it by restoring the old icons while either working on a new solution that is not so visually cluttered or just moving on to more important things.

Unfortunately, with the exception of the massive, almost company killing mistake made in 1.0, SE never admit to mistakes and continue to push forward, knowing that their customers are just ignorant and will eventually see the brilliance of their design. "It's not a problem in design, it's a problem in communication. Let's just tell them they are stupid and all will be well!"

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Originally Posted by Tisharu

Why doesn't SE implement Add-Ons to this game yet? It have been promised since A Realm Reborn. So as of right now, whatever changed we have to stick to it. With Add-Ons it will please every user and let them customize how their UI want to be.

Every large MMO already have it like WoW, Rift, etc.

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None of those games have console versions to worry about keeping core game parity with.

In general, I haven't had much issue with the new cooldown animation, but there's one thing that amuses/annoys me.

Before, it was difficult to tell with longer cooldowns if they were ready or not, because the last few seconds was such a small portion of the total cooldown timer that the sliver of cooldown remaining wasn't visible anymore. So I'd try to hit, say, Vengeance or Infuriate, and it wouldn't activate.

Now, it's almost the opposite. Since you can "queue" ability use to a certain extent (most visible for mages, where you can hit your next spell before you've quite finished casting the previous one), I've found that I can hit skills and/or cooldowns before the cooldown animation is gone. Currently, it's mostly amusing, but I can see it becoming either something I get used to and forget about the issue or something that annoys me more and more ^^;

Idk if I'm the only one but my mind zeros in on the timer more than the Circle. Most of the time, I kinda memorize when my CD will be up and just hit my keys on instinct more than visually seeing if it's up.

I don't see the issue tbh I think is pretty neat and helpful having that CD "clock"

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Originally Posted by Waeksyn

The biggest problem with the change is there is FAR to much animation happening in the tool bar now. All that motion just creates visual noise, making the entire thing more difficult to interpret.

This is basic human factors and basic communication theory. You need to keep the "noise" down for people to get the signal.

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Could be that I am not human, but it is significantly more clear for me now.

Only wish is numbers were in the middle of the icon, not blended in with the MP costs.

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Originally Posted by Aura_Shurifon

I could also say :
On this thread, there's like 150 person at most that dislike the new visual effect. Then if there's like 100k player, it's about 99.9% who likes the new visual and 0.1% who doesn't like it.

Just to say that judging statistic by looking at this thread is not a better way than using a sample of dev team.

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If so... Can I make a thread to ask people to like the post, if they DO NOT hate FATE? which means... 99.9% of the player group hate FATEs, and why SE still focus on FATEs ?

Just saying ^^
Off topic...

Recently started playing MCH again and it REALLY messes with me looking at the toolbars for procs.

Guess I could watch the mob for the procs but habits die hard.

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Originally Posted by Chichicha

If so... Can I make a thread to ask people to like the post, if they DO NOT hate FATE? which means... 99.9% of the player group hate FATEs, and why SE still focus on FATEs ?

Just saying ^^
Off topic...

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Are you agreeing with Aura? Because you are both making the same point, that taking any data from responses to these threads is not representative of the whole.

Love the new look so far. Got use to it pretty fast. I play as a DRG. Loved the dev response. It's always nice when you get a decent explanation from a dev for the decision making process. I'm in the 99% who like it.

And don't look at forums for a measurement of what people like and dislike. Most casuals and people that are happy, rarely care enough to go out of their way to a forum to say they enjoy it. Plus many don't visit forums due to the belief they're filled w/trolls, elitist or people who will whine about anything. This should be common sense at this point in time.

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Originally Posted by Mycow8me

Getting good has nothing to do with this.
Motion and light changes can literally draw unwanted attention and disrupt focus for some people. This was for all intentions and purposes, feedback, even the dev was welcoming it. I doubt anyones refusing change...
Git gud and stop making assumptions.

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That my friend, is called Attention-Deficit Disorder.

It's now into day three and I've already adapted to completely ignoring anything but the number count down on my UI. Unless you have severe ADD you should be able to adapt to it over time.

I like the changes. I was one of the ones who were frustrated because an ability LOOKED like it was up, but wasn't quite ready yet. Yes, it's a little busier than it was before, but now I won't try to smack Deployment Tactics just because Eye for an Eye LOOKED like it was ready again (but really had a second to go.)

The new recast timer animation is actually pretty nice. I don't think it's that distracting considering that the entire hotbar dims out while using skills that are on the global cooldown. But, I saw some people pointing out that the circles were too bright and too white, so I went to investigate.

http://puu.sh/nl8Jr/4e94e3a950.png http://puu.sh/nl8Lh/abd14d7fa6.png http://puu.sh/nl8wq/cafff13692.png

As you can see above, only the edges of the circle animation is brightened. White outlines on those circles for visibility while the rest of the icon is dimmed. Any pixels inside the rotating circles are either the same shade of colour as the icon when not on cooldown or are just slightly brightened. Obviously, anything near the edges of the circles is significantly brightened, but it's quite small.

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Other than that, options are always nice to have. So for those that don't like the new recast animations, you might need to wait a little longer for the option to become available.

I love the change, because we all have tried to hit a cool down in that special situation and it was just a 1-2 seconds away from actually being ready. I do agree lessening the white border intensity can help the contrast of the action bar a bit. Looking forward to it! Keep up the good work guys.

I like the circle, it helps me. But I wish the second numbers were bigger and in the middle of the icon.

It happened before, it happens now and it will keep happening even after 10 years. SE will always be hyped releasing "fixes" they think are game changing and sooooo much better (of course with the SE team's point of view), people will complain, SE will release a dev comment on how and why this had to be changed, and next patch they will put everything back how it was. Remember the ground telegraphs? They never learn.

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Originally Posted by S-r-ex

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Originally Posted by sanosuke001

Now, if you meant "storage" then tell the PS3 kids to get bigger hard drives.

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By 3.2 the low capacity release PS3's are already screwed unless updated. Mind that the PS3 has a meager 256MB of both system and graphics memory. That wasn't much a decade ago, and still isn't much. This option might just be the drop that spills over.

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Sanosuke's point was that this option can't be the drop that spills over because it doesn't add even a drop. There is no extra memory requirement by offering multiple options of how to display something, because regardless of how many other options a player could have chosen from, only the one they actually do choose will get loaded into memory. Hiroshi Minagawa's claim that "due to memory restrictions, we cannot hold data for two types of animation" is total baloney because the machine's memory wouldn't be holding data on both types of animation, it would only hold one or the other.

Both types would be held within the application's data files, of course, so there could be a slight increase in hard drive storage space, but the storage of an extra cooldown animation would be pretty trivial compared to the amount of other new stuff that's continually added and loaded into everyone's system regardless of which pieces of it they're actively using. And in any case, hard drive space isn't a major limiting factor on any of the platforms the game runs on since they all allow for hard drive upgrades. (PS3, for instance, which is where the memory limitations are so stringent, can use a hard drive of over two terabytes, roughly a hundred times the size of FFXIV.)

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Originally Posted by Defias

I agree...on that these features (like the new ouchie zones/red zones of doom).
Why not make them an option or give players the ability to set their own colors.
Destiny for example added in colorblind modes (of the few Good things Bungie ever did.) And it's awesome.
FFXIV could benefit from colorblind modes and say UI features for the visually

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This i agree with but I've wanted color options since 1.0 being patly color blind.

Shiva for me is the biggest nightmare where color is concerned. Everything in that arena is the same color.

In defence of se though they do sometimes do things to make it easier for us folks. Like sacred standard in wanderers palace. The markers are all different colors true but also different types shapes.

But i would love custom colors on the aoe markers. Especially in things like Shiva.

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

Sanosuke's point was that this option can't be the drop that spills over because it doesn't add even a drop. There is no extra memory requirement by offering multiple options of how to display something, because regardless of how many other options a player could have chosen from, only the one they actually do choose will get loaded into memory. Hiroshi Minagawa's claim that "due to memory restrictions, we cannot hold data for two types of animation" is total baloney because the machine's memory wouldn't be holding data on both types of animation, it would only hold one or the other.

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I'd love to tell you that you're right about that because it seems so sensible, however, he explained exactly why that is not the case. It may seem to be poor implementation, and perhaps it is, but the implementation that they are using according to the dev post is an entire packet of hotbar images all loaded at once such that every conceivable icon that could be on a hotbar (and as such any recast animations) are all held in memory at once. He mentioned that there are some exceptions, presumably for icons that change (MNK's chakra perhaps) or for whatever reason don't need to be in memory and for which some display lag would be acceptable. Something that would be called every couple of seconds at least in battle doesn't qualify.

I can't tell you why the recast animation can't stand alone outside of the packet of other hotbar icons or anything, just that the dev post specifically said that it can't and I have to believe he knows something that I don't.

On another note, I do wish they had just put a 0% saturation filter over the icon while it was on cooldown. The circles do obscure the image enough that if you're at all confused about the icon or placement on your hotbar you'll have (more) problems. I experienced this yesterday coming back from a fairly long break from the game. I was wrestling with muscle memory telling me one thing but visually being unable to confirm what certain icons were (without hovering over them to read). A minor annoyance that will probably pass, but I think there would be better ways of indicating something is on cooldown (even to the last millisecond) than obscuring the image this much.

I sympathize though. I'd like grayscale images for abilities that are on cooldown and other people may think that's a terrible idea.

Errr.....its good that 90% of the in house testers liked it ,but that awfully limited pool to base a decision on lol oh my?

Should always let the players choose and vote to really know what customers would like. OR always have option to turn a feature off.

I don't hate the changes but would have vastly preferred just the counter not the circle. We need the ability to have player designed UI add-ons, its overdue se, please consider this ,there are very talented players that could whip up numerous variations to suit everyone needs and preferences.

Is it really that hard to add an option to remove it entirely, or add the CD countdown to the center of the skill icon with the icon darkened slightly? This change is rather distracting, and I'd rather have the option to turn it off. I have messed up on my heals and barding a lot more than usual since 3.2 dropped. Just wish they had a poll on the main site or patcher to ask people's opinion on such things as this. :/
But this is just my opinion on this and it won't change for who knows how long. e_e

I personally like it but, I dislike that he numbers of the countdown are so small.
Some of them get often hidden behind other objects like the Controller Button's icons, and whats worse, if a skill like Trick Attack that isn't always enabled is on cooldown, the numbers for the countdown are also greyed out, which makes them VERY hard to see.

I would like it for the numbers to be way bigger and more to the center of the icons if possible :/

I dont mind it for cooldowns. But dam does it have to be on every GCD? On every single button? Every 2.5 seconds? That is tha main issue. It wouldn't be distracting if the gcd wasn't making your whole dam bar flash every couple seconds like a bunch of disco balls. Even crap games with much more hardware issues than FF are able to throttle crap like that for the GCD as to not annoy the hell out of their players.

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Originally Posted by Nutz

I'd love to tell you that you're right about that because it seems so sensible, however, he explained exactly why that is not the case. It may seem to be poor implementation, and perhaps it is, but the implementation that they are using according to the dev post is an entire packet of hotbar images all loaded at once such that every conceivable icon that could be on a hotbar (and as such any recast animations) are all held in memory at once. He mentioned that there are some exceptions, presumably for icons that change (MNK's chakra perhaps) or for whatever reason don't need to be in memory and for which some display lag would be acceptable. Something that would be called every couple of seconds at least in battle doesn't qualify.

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But that's the thing, you don't have to do the replacement every time something is cast. You do the replacement in memory JUST the moment the setting is changed and then keep THAT in memory.

Edit: Or worst case scenario, have it be one of those changes that applies on next restart. At least it would give us a usable alternative.

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Originally Posted by Reinha

I'll give up idle camera, autoattack marker and group pose to free up memory for this.

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Yeah who exactly needed that auto-attack marker? Is the enemy in combat? What extremely rare circumstances do we need to know that an enemy fighting us is currently NOT auto-attacking?

Who exactly needed the extra clutter of "Market Prohibited" on the bottom of item specs, when up top we already have UNTRADABLE"? 100% of Untradable items should be Market Prohibited. And if you can trade it, you should be able to market it. otherwise, individual items need to be updated.

Yeah seems like some wasted memory by the way they programmed the UI and things added we don't really need or ever asked for.

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Originally Posted by Laraul

You can revert back to the old hotbar cool down timer graphic by simply unchecking the following...

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That only changes the little number counting down, not the circles.

You can revert back to the old hotbar cool down timer graphic by simply unchecking the following...

http://i.imgur.com/y2mmfBk.jpg

It's in the patch notes.

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A recast timer for actions and items will be displayed.
For Windows, Mac, and PlayStation®4, this option can be enabled or disabled under the Display tab of Hotbar Settings in the Character Configuration interface.
For PlayStation®3, this option can be enabled or disabled under the Cross tab of Hotbar Settings in the Character Configuration interface.

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All the talk about the PS3 preventing an option to choose between the updated and original cool downs is now completely debunked. If you would like to see for yourself the actual PNG images used, used a dat miner/viewer.

The original recast overlay texture prior to 3.2.
http://i.imgur.com/e4rhB5g.png

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Originally Posted by Mykll

Who exactly needed the extra clutter of "Market Prohibited" on the bottom of item specs, when up top we already have UNTRADABLE"? 100% of Untradable items should be Market Prohibited. And if you can trade it, you should be able to market it. otherwise, individual items need to be updated.

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^I can't like this enough! When I read the prelim patch notes, I definitely had WTF-face. Is 'Untradeable' not enough clarification that it can't be sold on the market board? Please, make sure my coffee lid says, "Caution, contents HOT"!

In WoW (yes yes BOOO HISS evil how dare you bring up that curse word) they had a small flash on the icon when a skill was ready. It wasn't distracting but it was helpful when things got wild.

This whole thread is why we can't have good things. So what? They will remove it and people who liked it and had their life made easier will now have to deal with the old bars again...

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Originally Posted by Fevelle

This whole thread is why we can't have good things. So what? They will remove it and people who liked it and had their life made easier will now have to deal with the old bars again...

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Not if they listen to our suggestions on how implement both options.

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Originally Posted by Nutz

he explained exactly why that is not the case. It may seem to be poor implementation, and perhaps it is, but the implementation that they are using according to the dev post is an entire packet of hotbar images all loaded at once such that every conceivable icon that could be on a hotbar (and as such any recast animations) are all held in memory at once.

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He did explain how it's all animated together and not as an icon in the background with an overlay recast timer on top of it. So, for instance, if they have a 1% increment in their recast animation, it would mean they actually load 100 different images of each skill icon and keep all 100 in memory, switching between them according to the current cooldown state. But that still doesn't account for why they couldn't have a packet of 100 images for animation type A and another packet of a different 100 images for animation type B, and then use whichever fits the user's settings. The system would still only be alternating between images in one set or the other, not both, so would only need to load one of the possible sets. (If anything, that should make offering multiple options even easier, since they're each just a set of animation images, processed the same way regardless of which set is displayed.)

A more valid point of his post was the part that it would take programming, QA, etc resources, but he tried to inflate that into sounding as though it were something excessive when he was simply describing what every change in the game takes, including this change they did just make. Once you exclude the spin factor, his post came out to saying it doesn't give us options because for that they'd have to put the option in. Basically, they just didn't bother.

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Originally Posted by Zhexos

Hello, everyone.

The following is a comment from UI Lead Hiroshi Minagawa in regards to the new recast timers implemented in Patch 3.2.
Display the remaining recast time as a numeric value
*Since we cannot add more displays on top of existing icons (which is a measure to lessen display density), we therefore used the part of the display which was used for TP cost. There were comments from testers mentioning that they wanted the number to be displayed in the center of the icon; however, this would required preparation of a different part or the placement of a process which would check the situation to change the displayed position. This was rejected because it would increase the load.

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Unfortunately by new timers this is what most were expecting. The circles are not ugly, but they are not an improvement on the old ones.

All these new ones do is show the same cooldown in the same clockwork manner only with a circle in the middle.

You couldn't use the same faded animation method for numbers?

Read this to understand WHY the change was made.

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Originally Posted by Laraul

Read this to understand WHY the change was made.

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Just to be fair a couple things about that specific example:

1. I can still see it, as could others...so it's a personal thing...much like the change to 'fix' it works for some but not others.
2. The real problem with that skill was it has a long cooldown timer+ is on a light colored background. Meaning another option SE could have chosen, would have been to adjust the background colors on skills with longer cooldowns and there would not have been a problem.

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Originally Posted by Laraul

You can revert back to the old hotbar cool down timer graphic by simply unchecking the following...

http://i.imgur.com/y2mmfBk.jpg

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This only affects the numbers (which I have no issue with). It does nothing to remove the flashy white disco balls going off all over my hotbar whenever the GCD is triggered. Circles. Over top of square buttons. There are several ways that this new animation is distracting and out of place.

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Originally Posted by Laraul

The original recast overlay texture prior to 3.2.
http://i.imgur.com/e4rhB5g.png

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This made much more sense.

Wow. People can be annoyed by the smallest things.

To be fair, though, I agree 100% that it should be optional and should have a toggle somewhere. I'm guessing the UI memory load issue is part of the problem. I'm also guessing that when the PS3 version goes away, we'll see a LOT of awesome changes for the better, across the board.

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Originally Posted by TheRogueX

Wow. People can be annoyed by the smallest things.

To be fair, though, I agree 100% that it should be optional and should have a toggle somewhere. I'm guessing the UI memory load issue is part of the problem. I'm also guessing that when the PS3 version goes away, we'll see a LOT of awesome changes for the better, across the board.

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I think you forgot PS3 version only has one crossbar on the screen (max 16 icons) while PS4 and PC can have 10+ bars (over 160 icons) simultaneously... ^^;
I believe this icon animation circle thing was purely a design outcome, just bcoz the decision maker tho it looks better.

Is there anyone who doesn't have some kind of visual impairment or color blindness playing any more

my take on the visual changes... fcks given: 0
I managed ok with the old style, and will do so with the white circles

tl;dr neck up moaners

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Originally Posted by randysquirrel

my take on the visual changes... fcks given: 0
I managed ok with the old style, and will do so with the white circles

tl;dr neck up moaners

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"It's not an issue to me so of course it shouldn't be an issue to ANYONE."