Option to Remove the Circle Image on Skill CD

[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.

Greetings,

Thanks for the quick feedback!

During development, we had a long debate about whether or not to make design changes to the recast timer.

If there was an option which would allow you to choose between the new design and the previous design, there wouldn't be any issue; however, due to memory restrictions, we cannot hold data for two types of animation. Therefore, based on comments received during our testing, we continued to make improvements until 90% of the team was in agreement, and in the end, we decided to implement an improved version.

With that said, I would like to go into a bit more detail about this. The explanation involves some technical jargon and information, and it is primarily geared towards those of you who wish to know the finer aspects of this, as well as how the development team's decisions are made.

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The issue we wanted to resolve with this improvement
Since the display when an action's recast is nearly complete and when the action can actually be used again were the same, there were times where some actions with long recast times weren't executable even when it looked like it was possible.
(*We've been receiving comments on the forums regarding this since quite a long time ago--right after A Realm Reborn released, actually.)

For end-game content, a few seconds can result in a life-or-death situation, which can cause a large amount of frustration, so this was an issue we wanted to resolve.

Ideas for improvement

A) Change how the icon is presented when an action becomes available
Change how the icon is presented when an action's recast is near completion, so that users can tell right away when an action will soon become available.

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.

Limitations related to the design change suggested in A)
Currently, we cannot increase the capacity for texture images on the UI (HUD) which are constantly displayed.
*The capacity limitations on video memory for the lowest spec environment
In regards to the textures for the HUD, in order to account for the stability of the memory status, it has been structured in a way where it does not re-read, therefore we cannot address this by preparing two types of animation patterns for the recast.

If we changed the structure so it can re-read, it will involve a large amount of programming resources, QA resources, and there would be a high risk of related bugs that would continue into future expansions.
*Considering the risks, to start out we have removed the possibility of re-reading HUD textures from our structure.

Having a structure that requires an engineer's time who can design this type of UI system, implement it, and maintain it (which is rare), would, in the long term, result in a reduction in the quality and amount of service we can provide. As a result, it would be a disadvantage for the players.

To prevent and increase in stress being placed on screen rendering, we had to change the design for the recast animation so that it maintains the structure of having one image animated in a pattern.

When considering these factors, we had to choose: use the previous design or use an improved design.

Development inspection for the design change

We made four large design adjustments and held a vote during play test sessions.
*There were many more fine detailed design adjustments.

We all voted to see if we preferred the previous design or the new design, and gave the reason behind our choices as well as our thoughts on it after trying it out for about a week. During testing, we had testers play it in a normal manner for about a week.

1st test - tested and evaluated the improved version with members from the UI team and other development team members.
2nd test - QA testing, vote ratio between old and improved version: 3:4
3rd test - QA testing, vote ratio between old and improved version: 1:2
4th test - QA testing, vote ratio between old and improved version: 1:9 (this is the version which has been introduced in Patch 3.2)

There were 50 testers, and comments were taken from both actual players and non-players.

Opinion as the UI lead
The design we have currently is something which received 90% approval from internal testing; however, you can also say that, 10% of the testers were against this design, which means
out of 10,000 players, 1,000 players would be against it.

If I decided to take the safest route for this matter, it would be to leave it as it was until now without announcing anything or doing anything at all. (Clearly this route is missing the bigger picture for the long-term.)

There have been comments mentioning that if the recast timer can be displayed numerically, it should be possible to keep the previous recast animation. During the 3rd round of testing, I also thought this (where one out of three was against this), and I was thinking we're not going to make any changes this time.

However, as a result from making further adjustments, we were able to reach a design which 90% of the group agreed on. *Leaving out the fine details, we also took into account bias from multiple votes.

We made a decision after looking at it long and hard, but because there were a lot of comments where people felt uncomfortable at first, but got used to in a week and like the improved version better, we decided to go with the new design.

*The majority of testers were private players, so their comments are based on alternatively trying the new recast design and the previous design.

While this improvement was only one UI task, we proceeded while considering our overall policy for future UI changes. Considering the many benefits that this change could achieve, we decided to implement it.

*I'm sure people will ask why we aren't trying to make something that everyone likes, but if we don't follow this approach, we won't even be able to come up with something the majority can agree on. ;_;

The future
I'm sure there will be other improvements in the future that we will not be able to prepare an option for. Though we will implement these kind of changes, we would like to receive comments from various view points. This time around, not only have you mentioned that you liked the previous display method, but you also explained which parts of the new display was concerning. This type of information is very useful, and I would like to thank you all!

From the comments we have received, there were many about the white border on the edge of the circle being too strong, which made it hard to see the action's icon.
*This was also brought up by the testers.

With these comments in mind, we'll consider lowering the white from the border by about 10 to 20 percent in order to tone down the contrast of the overall hotbar and to increase the visibility of action icons.

Is it impossible to add an option?
Cutting straight the conclusion, it's not impossible in the long run.

There are two types of images in the current UI: one which needs to be placed constantly in the memory and images which can be loaded when they need to be displayed. The recast display is something which needs to be constantly placed in the memory.

There is a large amount of UI images for this type, but we're arranging them individually as well as making optimizations to make room for placing two types of recast images. We would then be able to add an option for it.

However, arranging and re-stacking existing data like a puzzle may break those displays, so it requires various display size testing. To be honest, it's a lot of work, and we won't know the outcome until we try it.

The optimization work we do isn't something which can be seen by players, so this isn't mentioned in the patch notes, but it is something that is done continuously. We may be able to have enough room available in the future to have another set of recast animations.

That pretty much sums up what I can explain at this point.
I look forward to seeing everyone's comments!

[Eidolon]

Hello, everyone.

The following is a comment from UI Lead Hiroshi Minagawa in regards to the new recast timers implemented in Patch 3.2.

so tl;dr : PS3 limitations?

[RyuRoots]

so tl;dr : PS3 limitations?

Like I said before. Just about every problem this game encounters you can almost guarantee it'll get stonewalled with one of three of their favorite excuses: PS3 limitations, server limitations, or SE won't let us use our own money.

[ArtEmisPalmecia]

Thanks for the information , but I have to agree with others. Now there is too much animation happening with the hotbars, and for some like me, its become more distracting than helping.
This was done with near perfect execution back in v1.2 days, so it is a shame that similar results cannot be replicated here.

Also, please don't forget bullet 3 from an old presentation used...

[Mykll]

Hello, everyone.

The following is a comment from UI Lead Hiroshi Minagawa in regards to the new recast timers implemented in Patch 3.2.

Yeah I am still not buying this explanation, which I otherwise love the info that went in the background.

Ok so the numbers counting down, are there on abilities without TP/MP. That info is just in the exact same spot. And we have a toggle to turn them off. So, adding a countdown timer, to abilities that had none before, uses ZERO additional memory or resources, over the previous UI where nothing was there? I remember an excuse on the TP bar was that having a number would not work, yet having numbers on those abilities were none were before DO work?

Accessibility Visual Alerts is a toggle, and that is a tremendous amount of bars bouncing all over on both side of my screen if I turn it on. So that is programmed in a way so that even if turned off, memory and resources are constantly drawing something that doesn't show up? How is that efficient? And if that is not the way it is, meaning no resources are being used, then why can't the hot bars be programmed the same?

Lessoning the white line would be an improvement. But, changing the circle, to the entire square (with the additional outlines), would be better. Having a different shape, with bright white, continuously counting down on all square abilities, especially on every single GCD, is extremely distracting.

Yeah I am either missing a lot about something, or something just doesn't make sense to me. Maybe both.


Edit: Warlax, that is perfect right there. We have UI memory and everything when we hover over an ability, but we can't add the exact same thing to the hotbar version of that ability? Yeah I dunno...

[Causality]

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.

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?

[Wade]

however, due to memory restrictions

I think now it's safe to say it's the go to answer You can add in 3 new jobs with 3 new sets of actions but a circle animation (which you should've used an overlay for) is too much for memory? Balls sir, balls!

[Felis]

I think now it's safe to say it's the go to answer You can add in 3 new jobs with 3 new sets of actions but a circle animation (which you should've used an overlay for) is too much for memory? Balls sir, balls!

Do these 3 new jobs use own UI, or share they the UI wih the other jobs?

[Wade]

Do these 3 new jobs use own UI, or share they the UI wih the other jobs?

They have new icons - same UI, new icons. New icons = more memory. My point was you can squeeze in all these new ability icons into memory but can't toggle the circle? If it's there, it can be removed - the original icon simply needs an overlay.

If they are saying that for each animation it uses a whole new set of animated icons to create the circle (which it sounds like they did) - go back and do it with an overlay and you'll free up loads of memory.

[CatchaFire420]

Hello, everyone.

The following is a comment from UI Lead Hiroshi Minagawa in regards to the new recast timers implemented in Patch 3.2.

There were 50 testers, and comments were taken from both actual players and non-players.

out of 10,000 players, 1,000 players would be against it.

Now explain to me how 50 testers translates to representing the true population of the community???

Possibly one of the most ignorant decisions I have ever seen. REMOVE THE DAMN CIRCLES, MY GOD WHY DO YOU CONTINUE TO RUIN MY ENJOYMENT OF THIS GAME.