Please give us the option to keep the old skill use animation

[Stormtower]

So same time frame as fixing the Guard shield use rank LI.

Truth +1

Smh, more change for the sake of change whilst long known issues linger unresolved.

[Tullkas]

Truth +1

Smh, more change for the sake of change whilst long known issues linger unresolved.

Agree 110% please just revert.......asap

[Tavi]

We intend to create a toggle in the future that will let people swap between the new and old skill animation UI, but we currently can't promise an ETA until we get further down the road with it.

Thank you for responding. Until that toggle is made, it needs to be reverted ASAP. This isn't a *just* a preference issue, or a "can't see toggles" issue (which is horrid, prevents people from playing because seeing what toggles and skills one is using is an important part of playing. I don't get why the feedback was ignored. ) It's a *health* issue for some of us. We are not imagining headache, nausea, eyestrain because we're adverse to change, it's a real, actual thing.

*Please* roll back. Quickly. THEN make the toggle and reintroduce if you feel you HAVE to have it.

[DavidmeetHal]

We intend to create a toggle in the future that will let people swap between the new and old skill animation UI, but we currently can't promise an ETA until we get further down the road with it.

I was thinking about this after responding to this earlier, and felt that I had to come back and tell my true feelings, which are that I feel that SSG(not Cord, I don't believe in shooting the messenger, he's is just the spokesperson) is giving us a big middle finger in regards to this situation.


Quite frankly, I am disgusted. Multiple players claiming health issues with a game change and all we get is "Oh we'll do something, but we don't know when!"

[Wyllshire]

Quite frankly, I am disgusted. Multiple players claiming health issues with a game change and all we get is "Oh we'll do something, but we don't know when!"

Exactly. And then on the live stream today, saying it was just a "few" players who had a problem with the changes. Garbage.

[Esgalad]

We intend to create a toggle in the future that will let people swap between the new and old skill animation UI, but we currently can't promise an ETA until we get further down the road with it.

Intend

Can't promise

ETA

Further down the road....with giving people an icon gif that already exists? And I never saw anyone complaining about or asking it to be replaced?

I cannot comprehend almost any of this.

[BK613]

Just want to echo the other posters in this thread that the change hurts gameplay (and one's eyes.) Revert.

[Wolfhelm]

I just did a quick tally of the responses in this thread.

There were 81 unique names replying to the original post.

75 were against the new animations

4 were neutral or gave no opinion either way

2 were in favor of keeping the changes

I know that a great deal of players don't read the forums, let alone post in them, so no straw poll taken here bears any official weight, however this is pretty damning just the same.
I've been reading these forums since day one, and I honestly can't remember a single issue where opinion has been more one sided.

People overwhelmingly hate this change, there is very little middle ground here, we don't need a toggle, just change it back ASAP!

[greendarner]

Yet another who hates the new animation. My eyes are old. I can't see it half the time. It also seems to have delayed skills going off, but maybe that's just the usual lag that seems will never be fixed.

[Dolamrothdame]

Yet another who hates the new animation. My eyes are old. I can't see it half the time. It also seems to have delayed skills going off, but maybe that's just the usual lag that seems will never be fixed.

Another vintage player who is in the same boat. I too feel like it has slowed skills going off. I truly question the reasoning for this change, other than to make the game look newer to new players.

[Grision]

Been playing off and on since beta, this is a pretty sad *exciting new change* you've forced on us. Not sure how this made it past beta testing but let me suggest a couple changes to it.

1. Remove it. Plain and simple. The toggle animation is almost invisible on lighter toggle skills.

2. Remove the toggle and keep the skill animation or make the toggle have a bigger OBVIOUS border.

Just my two cents..

[Sherush]

I hate the new skill bar animation it makes it very hard to see if you have something toggled on or in use.

[DavidmeetHal]

I hate the new skill bar animation it makes it very hard to see if you have something toggled on or in use.

I had no idea that my detect ore skill was on until I saw an ore node on in the radar screen.

[Braer]

They don't have the budget for the resources required. Enough is being spent on therapy for bruised egos as it is so can't just revert and throw out the new style without increases ego massaging. Even Cord couldn't deliver that suggestion that there would be many on either side of the debate with any conviction, on stream yesterday. Fine people on both sides? NO!

Too boring for them to fix the champ who runs around with an annoying arrow in her hand all day every day. No, let 'em make stuff up to do rather than fix the things that are important to players. So update the LinkedIn profile to add "universally castigated" or delete the reverence and revert the changes.

The only way this could have been seen as good would be if you played so badly that buffing, toggles and response skill usage went by entirely over your head. Normal for Needham, given all evidence from streaming?

[LeRaginAsian]

I'm red-green color blind and I'm having a terrible time with this change. I can't tell when I've properly activated or toggled a skill without leaning in to peer closely at my screen.

I've complained off and on about the use of red text on dark background to no avail, but at least when I'm looking at an item tooltip I don't have some orc wailing on me so I can use a magnifying glass to read the non-contrasting text. I can't use the magnifying glass in combat.

Do you need a color blind test subject? I'm a retired engineer so I've got plenty of time and I live a few exits up 128 from your office so I'd be happy to drop by and tell you if I can see something or not.

I’m red/green colorblind and it takes a real effort to keep track of this change. Completely unnecessary and annoying. No apparent understanding of or actions on the complaints on BR.

Sorry this still went through on you two. I made this exact observation in the bullroarer thread and it either wasn't read or was flat out ignored with the rest. Not sure which is worse.

[Seregthol]

I made this exact observation in the bullroarer thread and it either wasn't read or was flat out ignored with the rest. Not sure which is worse.

Either possibility makes me very upset.

[Hallsae]

Very inadequate response from SSG. Pls tell me the stream has a better response…

[TobiasEstForte]

I wasn't a fan of it from seeing it on videos by BR preview players, but when it dropped I came to realise how much it actually breaks my gameplay. Cycling through two skills over and over ala minstrel idle healing, you feel like there's a skill delay because it queues and uses with similar animations, so both skills have exactly the same frame around them at all times albeit a slightly different colour and the only indicator that the skill was used is that the cooldown appears.

Which also means if you're not cycling through 2 skills but queuing a string of skills, you're waiting for cooldowns rather than a change in skillbar animations because use and queue are pretty much the same.

Why anyone would suggest that use and queue are the same animation but a slightly different colour is beyond me. It's as if they aren't even playing the game, just looked at a still frame of it and said "that's old-fashioned".

[Arabani]

Very inadequate response from SSG. Pls tell me the stream has a better response…

I just watched the stream, the only thing I can say....I'd rather not say.

It has been the third day I, and pretty sure many others, can not play the game. At all!

[kudurru1]

How did this pass any accessibility/UX testing?

It's distracting and unnecessary but above all it's difficult to see which skill is on with all this flashing. Isn't LOTRO demographics on the more mature side? What about players with eyes condition?

No idea what the person greenlighting all this wants to achieve - wouldn't it be better/cheaper to consider user feedback before such issues go live? That Zero Communication policy you have going is really absurd.

[Braer]

I had my first vaccine shot on Wednesday (cheer) and have been feeling it take effect. Nothing needing any meds but as symptoms abate I realise after a session on the guardian and watching the reactive chains the nausea maybe isn't the vaccine at all. Great way to put players off a second dose though!

[-RF-]

Today we wiped in Remmorchant because more than one of us could just not see if skills were toggled or not. We decided to file a ticket everytime we wipe, almost wipe or have any hardship because of this animation.

On the other hand... maybe this is now the reaction to some players complaining that the content is too easy? But instead of making some content more difficult they just made the game more difficult. We will probably never know.

[Nostro44]

Truth +1

Smh, more change for the sake of change whilst long known issues linger unresolved.

Sometimes easy changes are given to new programmers so that they can learn something about how the system works. Begs the question though of who even thought this was a good idea in the first place and put it on the list of work to do.

[Jenara]

Thank you for responding. Until that toggle is made, it needs to be reverted ASAP. This isn't a *just* a preference issue, or a "can't see toggles" issue (which is horrid, prevents people from playing because seeing what toggles and skills one is using is an important part of playing. I don't get why the feedback was ignored. ) It's a *health* issue for some of us. We are not imagining headache, nausea, eyestrain because we're adverse to change, it's a real, actual thing.

*Please* roll back. Quickly. THEN make the toggle and reintroduce if you feel you HAVE to have it.

Exactly this. "We are not imagining headache, nausea, eyestrain". I have to quit playing after an hour because of these symptoms. And I won't even get into the inability to distinguish what skills are active and what aren't.

This is NOT a little thing, and reverting to a state (that worked and didn't make anyone sick) until an opt-out is added is a quick and simple solution.

Honestly, the only reason I came to the forum was to ask where the disable option was because I knew there had to be one and I couldn't find it! Now I find out there isn't one, and isn't going to be one for who-knows-how-long.

I've been playing since pre-release and I've never encountered Turbine (now SSG) being so unresponsive to real life health issues.

The biggest, most crucial, problem is all the circling, sparkly things going on on the screen now that causes motion sickness-type problems for some of us, and potential seizure issues for others. That is no small thing, and it's concerning, if not appalling, that SSG 1) doesn't seem to understand the physical problems because this change came out WITHOUT an option to disable it and 2) doesn't seem willing to give that option any priority.

SSG: Please have your designers do some research/study on the effects of constantly moving and sparkling graphical images on the human body, and reconsider your stance. Thank you.

[Arnenna]

I had my first vaccine shot on Wednesday (cheer) and have been feeling it take effect. Nothing needing any meds but as symptoms abate I realise after a session on the guardian and watching the reactive chains the nausea maybe isn't the vaccine at all. Great way to put players off a second dose though!

I feel for you having sat through these animations while going through that reaction. You were probably told your second dose will be at around eleven weeks? Realistically, it will be at around six weeks, and here's a head's up for you . . . . the reaction to the second dose is much worse. The same symptoms, but more intense. Out of a team of 30 employees, 22 have been off work due to second dose reactions over the last month in work.

I hope these animations have been reverted by the time you get yours.