Dev Diary Feedback: Update 2: Character Panel Changes

[Clover]

In his latest developer diary Tim “Raskolnikov” Lang discusses the upcoming changes to the Character Panel. Click here to check it out and post your comments here!

[cicdle]

I loved seeing the process in this dev diary. I can't wait to get in BR to get a real good look at the changes.

[Deathbix]

Call me a fan boy, or a troll but to me it just looks like LOTRO has copied WoW's char panel almost exactly, added a few new tabs for lotro only features such as cosmetic and housing, but generally the actual UI of the tab is more or less the spitting image of WoW's.

Which begs the question, are Turbine trying to get mainstream success? Seeing as a lot of the mechanics with Minstrels and Hunters are questionabley similar to EQII and WoW, and not to mention the Burglars new skill has the same function and even the same name as a Rogue skill in WoW.

Something smells fishy to me.

[Crell_1]

The buttons that are not in bullroarer presently at the bottom of the panel will help alot, but I'm concerned with the size of the new window on my laptop. I appreciate the ability to choose to view my character in greater detail, but I'd like a way to get the window in roughly the same screen-dimensions it was before so that it doesn't take up so much space running at in something below 1280x800 (I use windowed mode because its much more stable on my integrated graphics).

[MisterVertigo]

Thank you for this! It was awesome to see the design process and the different stages it went through. I can't wait to see this on the live servers. I've been complaining for a while about how TINY my character looks in the Character Panel. I'm excited to see this!

[Saora]

First impressions:
The new character tab looks far more confusing than our current character menu.
Sure, new players will have no problem with it because it will be the only character tab that they've ever known; but for anyone who has been with this game for a while, it will take some serious getting used to. So while the character journal was made easier for some, it will become a confusing mess for others.

Me personally, I never found the character journal and all of it's tabs to be confusing in the first place—even when I first started playing this game. I still do, however, find most of the stats to be confusing and overwhelming. I'm glad to see that those will finally provide a bit more explanation as to what they actually do. (For example: I still have no idea if I should be worrying about evade and parry as a hunter, because I'm not entirely positive what those stats really pertain to.)

I am extremely excited about new outfit tabs. Wish we didn't have to pay TP to unlock them, but hey. Ya'll have to make your money somewhere and I will gladly pay for something like that (so long as it isn't ridiculously overpriced).


*Edit:
I completely agree with Crell_1. The crafting window became absolutely enormous when it was revamped. I would hate to see the new character journal experience the same fate. Give us the function, and we can zoom in on our characters' faces just fine in the same size character menu that we presently have. I don't need my character's face to take up half the screen in order to determine if I like her in that hat.

[Marguerita]

I like the 8 buttons you added but i have a question :

- will they work as a tab and or will they open each a new window ?

because so far, using the 4 buttons yesterday gave me my screen covered by 4 differents panels, all black background and thus making it impossible to see what happens behind.

I love the new idea and concept but i loved also the fact that with the others you could check very fast a lot of information without beeing covered all over the screen.

----sorry if i dont explain very well, trying my best---


on a side note, as this is a UI panel modifying the interface, and you know that some of us modify and adapt the UI, will you release the Art Assets as it was done for a time ?
We did not have any for the last patch and we are wondering - Thank you

[LadyDess]

I think these new updates to the character panel look cool! I agree with previous posters about the current panel's character view being too small, so that's a great change. There are two questions I had, however:

1. Since I know we will be able to purchase more cosmetic slots with TP, how many do we start out with? Do we start with 3 for free, and can purchase up to five? That was how I understood it but I just wanted to make sure.

2. Will our reputation with the different factions still be viewable in the character panel? I didn't recall seeing it in the pictures. If not, where will we be able to see that when this update goes live?

Anyway, good work Turbine! Looking forward to seeing what you guys do in the future as well!

[Rhyaehar]

First impression: USE THE STORE. BUY BUY BUY!!

Seriously. A for effort, F for implementation. I know where to find the money drain, I don't need to be confronted with it every 2 seconds.

[interactii]

Awesomely written Dev Diary there. I was really enjoying it and then.. it stopped

What about all the other panels? How do they look? Same thing in a bigger space? I like the buttons on the eng. markups much more than that fidgety toolbar with too many icons on the bottom.

I use the char panel for 3 things currently, Stats\Equipment\Cosmetics, which looks great, check reputation, and to set FM skills in groups, which still has an interface that I think could use a lot of improvement. It's easier to click the skills tab or reputation tab now in this window than it would be to go to a little button on a toolbar.

[Dutchie86]

Parts of it I like, parts of it I dislike

I like the overall view of it, but i really don't understand Stats, they have to be better readable

To much click options, and so to much lists with only 1 piece of information, while you need 3 lines for it

Can't you just make a list at each of the 3 parts (basic stats, Offence, Defence) or the sub-parts as you have on the Map where you can select what things too show (bard, trainers, skirmish thingies, rep thingies, etc) and what not; Now there is too much different lines with information

So now it is:
Offence
__Damage
____Tactical XXX
__Critical
____Tactical XXX

And i Prefer
Offence
__Tactical Damage XXX
__Tactical Crit XXX


It's just too hard too read

REst is looking very nice

[Snowlock]

It's pretty but,

Still can't find the war tab...

It's too big. Scale it down but keep the functionality. When you open the behemoth, it's difficult to see vault items, chat to compare linked gear, etc...

[Smailien]

But you tried to fix it. I mean come on, it was not really that confusing at all. Sure there are a lot of tabs, but you can see them all anyways and they are ALL labeled. After about a day of play you should be able to navigate the panel naturally. I guess I'll be able to adjust to the new panel but I really feel like this was a waste of your time.
If I were to suggest one thing for the new panel it would be to take the wallet off of a button. I don't know if it combines money, DP, and the barter wallet, but I assume it is the wallet we already see.
Does our money and DP really take that much space on the screen? I love the convenience of hitting C just to find out how rich or poor I am. (Especially seeing that I always have 1 DP....errr 106k DP that is)

[Thalifea]

Call me a fan boy, or a troll but to me it just looks like LOTRO has copied WoW's char panel almost exactly, added a few new tabs for lotro only features such as cosmetic and housing, but generally the actual UI of the tab is more or less the spitting image of WoW's.

Which begs the question, are Turbine trying to get mainstream success? Seeing as a lot of the mechanics with Minstrels and Hunters are questionabley similar to EQII and WoW, and not to mention the Burglars new skill has the same function and even the same name as a Rogue skill in WoW.

Something smells fishy to me.

Firstly this might help a little bit:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2049858_make-tinfoil-hat.html

Now onto the guts of your post. Does the character panel look like WoW's? Yes, a fair amount but it also looks very efficent, like WoW's panel. I don't think there is anything suspect about it, just efficent.

As for some classes having simlar heals as other classes. Lets see Captains can heal, so can Paladins. Yup LOTRO is trying to be like every other game out there, no doubt about it.

[Crimson_Praetorian]

Two things:

1. The new panel looks fantastic. Much cleaner, organized, easy to use, and not so in-your-face. I hadn't realized it was 15 tabs until he pointed out in the diary. I especially love the larger character view. Now I don't have to use skins (or my glasses) to see it!

2. The step-by-step walkthrough on this diary was GREAT! That is just the sort of communication that keeps players happy with their devs. Showing why you made changes is equally, if not more, important than showing the changes themselves.

Kudos to all involved. Can't wait for this next update!

[Crell_1]

1. Since I know we will be able to purchase more cosmetic slots with TP, how many do we start out with? Do we start with 3 for free, and can purchase up to five? That was how I understood it but I just wanted to make sure.

The present implementation is you start with the 2 that exist now for free. You can buy the other 3 at a cost of 495 TP an 'outfit tab' account wide.

2. Will our reputation with the different factions still be viewable in the character panel? I didn't recall seeing it in the pictures. If not, where will we be able to see that when this update goes live?

I assume that it'll be on one of those small buttons you see in the screenshots at the bottom. That's not currently how it is in bullroarer, you have to go to the ^ which you used to use to get to the barter wallet then go to character>reputation/housing/etc..

[AlphaMan]

HAHAHAHAHA Oh wow I can't stop cracking up....



That's great, you just became my favorite dev

[Dusalan]

Not impressed...once again another change for the sake of change.

After playing LOTRO for over 3 1/2 years, I'm becoming less and less attracted to the game due to these "cosmetic" updates that really don't do anything to improve game play or game interest.

New areas, new quests, new character types....that would be the place to put the development budget.

The old character panel is just fine as is...except it doesn't have a link to the new LOTRO store! That's my primary guess on why the change is happening. Notice all the emphasis to make the store link unobtrusive...to cut down on the complaints about the ever expanding LOTRO store links...but they also want to provide more opportunities to buy stuff from the LOTRO Store (more outfit slots to buy...more outfits to buy...etc....).

[MrsAngelD]

Not impressed...once again another change for the sake of change.

After playing LOTRO for over 3 1/2 years, I'm becoming less and less attracted to the game due to these "cosmetic" updates that really don't do anything to improve game play or game interest.

New areas, new quests, new character types....that would be the place to put the development budget.

The old character panel is just fine as is...except it doesn't have a link to the new LOTRO store! That's my primary guess on why the change is happening. Notice all the emphasis to make the store link unobtrusive...to cut down on the complaints about the ever expanding LOTRO store links...but they also want to provide more opportunities to buy stuff from the LOTRO Store (more outfit slots to buy...more outfits to buy...etc....).

This +1000

[Skigorn]

Love the change! The additional buttons that are missing currently will complete this overhaul. I love that the character displayed is larger so we can accurately see what we're wearing and how it looks. Great job.

[AlphaMan]

I have to disagree with you a lot on this one Dusalan, it's not change for nothing. The character panel as it is is pretty annoying to navigate through at times, and one thing I've wanted was a much bigger character image. I realize some people may not care about examining their wardrobe closely, but it will help others (including me). So, how is that nothing?

[Skro]

Call me a fan boy, or a troll but to me it just looks like LOTRO has copied WoW's char panel almost exactly, added a few new tabs for lotro only features such as cosmetic and housing, but generally the actual UI of the tab is more or less the spitting image of WoW's.

Glad to know it looks like WoW's... but actually, there are some people who haven't played WoW, and thus don't compare with it...

As for myself, I had a quick glance at the Char panel last night when I quickly logged on BR, and nothing popped in my mind... until I read the Dev Diary, saw this picture, and the Truth appeared in front of my unbelieving eyes:

In fact, this is an actual pen&paper RPG character sheet (and an old-school one, with tons of stats, plus the entire page for the bio).

And the idea of adding shortcuts to the Store is a "good" idea, as we won't have to get lost in the tentacular menus anymore to find what we are looking for...
And good is the fact that they are defaulted to only one dropdown button (yes, I'm one of the people who are annoyed by the bi Store buttons everywhere )

Regards,
Skro

[Hammerfast]

Since the character panel is finally being redone, isn't this a good time to tack on just a little bit more SPACE for the bio? It's really hard to write even a pathetic bio in just two or three short paragraphs. Text doesn't amount to much in a raw data form, so how about giving us some more room for a bio? I don't mean physical space, I mean data space for a longer, more entertaining, better written bio.

This isn't important to everyone, but it is positively amazing how many people send me tells in the game that say - to some extent or other - "Thanks for the bio!" People DO read these and enjoy them, and I believe they'd enjoy them a lot more if we could do a bit more with our character bio.

[Khuldar]

Is it possible to name the outfit tabs? Or just numbers. I'd like to have a "winter" "casual" "formal" or "combat" outfits labeled as such. With so many outfits on all my alts I feel I'm going to have trouble keeping them straight.

Looks good though.

[Elderban]

Logged on to Bullroarer, opened up my LI panel, and the first thing I see? Two new "Buy It Now!!!" icons.

Open my character panel, what do I see? Five new "Buy It Now!!!" icons.

Like others have stated, the only reason changes were made to the character panel is so that more store links could be added.

And, seriously, $3.00 per character to add a LI slot or $5.00 per character to add a cosmetic outfit tab? I wouldn't even pay that if it was account-wide.