Don't know, but the color of the frame look somehow wrong
It's not wrong, it's the new "gold". It's to match more with the other UI changes on the f2p launch (try opening up the Character info window and compare. If it still looks off; then that would need to change.)
----
Has development tried doing a hexagon for the minimap yet? I figured that was going to be reserved for a future change to the character portrait, though if not; it's worth a shot in that it's a compromise between a circle and a square. Though if there is a plan to update the character portrait; then the square might work better.
As far as the square itself; it's growing on me. I like that the icons have an option to only show up on a mouseover and more map area is displayed now by removing the thick borders of the circle. I'm sure it'll look more complete if/when the character portrait is ever revised.
Bug: Mouseover option in the settings doesn't save.
The power/build/character information on the powers tray is now redundant; maybe a consolidation of those buttions might help (all three buttons go to the same window though in different tabs; also Bug: Character Info Window locks to Build Tab when selected is still occurring. Some streamlining there could be beneficial for new users.
I know they've said a fix is in the works, but... I won't trust it until I see it. If you think you have it bad, try being a person whose bad sight can't be fixed by glasses. My only option for MMOs is scaling the UI up.
Thankfully, with games like Skyrim, they already have a huge UI, and even if they didn't then I could ask the community to mod something for me. (The Bethesda games may not be the greatest but they have a community made up of beautiful, wonderful, helpful people. Some of the most bro people you could ever hope to know. Well, that's true of the Nexus forums at least.) So I have those options there, but with an MMORPG my hands are tied, it's all up to the developers.
Try scaling the UI up... go on, try it...
Watch what happens...
The minimap ends up taking up about 30-40% of the screen. It functionally stops me from playing by not only obscuring too much of my field of view, but I can't click in that region, either. There have been accessibility concerns in CO in the past that have made my life difficult, but this is the first one that's outright stopped me playing. I flipped a **** in another minimap thread over it and I hope it can be understood as to why, because I've put a lot of money into CO, and I was looking forward to running Whiteout with a friend...
But when this new minimap was designed, accessibility wasn't taken into account.
See, I've said this before, but I'll say it again...
This is what the public test shard is for.
If they'd landed this on the PTS for a month before landing it on live, we could have helped them figure out all the issues and bugs. We could have worked with them to create a minimap that works for everyone. I just don't understand why they didn't do that. The lack of foresight at Cryptic's HQ bothers me, sometimes. And I just want to slap their management with a foam hammer. I'm sorry, but sometimes I do. And this is one of those times.
I'm just hoping, deep down, that they'll roll the minimap back on live, for now. So that the this new, unwieldy minimap can go through a number of polish phases on the PTS before hitting live again.
They've said that an update is coming on Wednesday, but I'm not expecting a lot, really. I don't know if they really understood what was wrong with it in the first place. But if you think it obscures too much of your view for you, imagine how it is for me... I couldn't believe what I saw when I logged on. I just couldn't believe it.
To me, this is the biggest ball dropping to have occurred yet.
I really want to hope for the best, but... come Wednesday, I can see me deciding to take a long break from CO. And not for reasons of bad game design, but for reasons of poor management, and landing crazy new UI changes on live without even PTS testing them, first.
Too big? It's a 99x99 pixel difference AND you'll soon be able to make it smaller.
Too cluttered? You can hide all the buttons. You couldn't on the round one.
Too ugly? A matter of taste.
Too square? Another matter of preference.
The problem here is that CO seems to use exponential scaling (as opposed to linear). Do you see the horizontal bar of difference to the left side? That increases exponentially, so the higher you scale, the further out it stretches, the UI scale steps can be pretty crazy and it can be hard to get it to exactly the scale you want, because sometimes it can be just too small or too big.
This is why I've before asked for separate scaling of UI elements. But yeah, that horizontal bar of space at the left makes a massive difference when the UI is upscaled. So much difference you wouldn't believe it.
In fact, try it for yourself and see. The square minimap becomes many times bigger than the circular one was.
---EDIT---
What's worse is that the exponential scaling may actually be a bug. I swear at some point in the distant past of CO I was able to use more granular scaling, but I can't be 100% sure of that. What it looks like is happening is that 1.4 is more like 1.3+1.3 rather than 1.2+1.2, so it scales exponentially in that way, where each step seems to be bigger than the last.
The prior minimap hit some sort of sweet spot where it wasn't too small or too big, but due to the lack of granularity with scaling, and the lack of being able to scale individual UI elements, the new minimap pretty much screws me over.
Personally I prefer the new Minimap, but I very much hope that something is done soon to reduce its negative impact on those, such as TWW, who it impacts adversely.
Functionally, I like the new mini-map. The hiding buttons are nice especially. As are the options to toggle icons on the mini-map. It takes up about the same amount of room on my monitor, but gives me more map to look at.
Visually, it seems off to me. I finally figured out what bothers me about the look. It's the orange bar on the bottom. With other windows that have a bit bottom bar, it's a grey bar with an orange-gold border. If the mini-map had that same look, it wouldn't feel like it sticks out.
I would prefer it if the buttons for opening various menues weren't on the map, because it makes them hard to see.
Also, the minimap in Champions is sort of of dubious helpfulness half the time, since a lot of locations just give you really unclear minimaps that make no sense.
Also in the Sanctum hideout there is a random other room on the map next to the playable area, I want to know what's up with that...
Visually, it seems off to me. I finally figured out what bothers me about the look. It's the orange bar on the bottom. With other windows that have a bit bottom bar, it's a grey bar with an orange-gold border. If the mini-map had that same look, it wouldn't feel like it sticks out.
I would prefer it if the buttons for opening various menues weren't on the map, because it makes them hard to see.
That would also allow for making the map smaller. At this point I think it'd be awesome if they'd let us shrink the map down a ridiculous amount and just have one little button with a dropdown menu and no buttons. Does anyone actually like the buttons? I always felt that an iconic design like that was so early '00s. Usually, these days, due to phones and applications, people are more used to dropdowns. It looks cleaner, it works better, and it means tha the minimap doesn't need to be humungabig. Ever.
Also, the minimap in Champions is sort of of dubious helpfulness half the time, since a lot of locations just give you really unclear minimaps that make no sense.
That's why I asked in one thread for an option to collapse the map down to just the compass. Though if they did that I'd love for them to show quest pickup NPCs on the compass in a faded out way, just so we know if we're near one. Reason being is that without the minimap I'd probably miss stuff, like the escort missions. Escort missions are so annoying since one has to go out into the field to find them.
But yeah, if they put the quest pickup icons on the compass, then is there any real need for a minimap anyway? Skyrim does fine without one.
I always felt that an iconic design like that was so early '00s. Usually, these days, due to phones and applications, people are more used to dropdowns.
Thoughts?
Almost all of the smart phones I saw when recently shopping for a replacement for my iPhone had icons (as did the iPhone).
All of the applications on my computer (and those of my friends) are activated from an icon on the desktop.
An icon involves clicking on a single button to activate a function.
A drop down involves accessing a menu from which you will then click on an option to activate a function.
Generally the difference is negligible, but more steps is more complicated than fewer.
I do think it would be cool for people to be able to customize this aspect fo the game to their own preference.
As a (hopefully temporary) work around, isnt it possible to activate every function represented by a mini-map button with a keybind ?
THE NEW MINIMAP DOESN'T ZOOM AS FAR OUT - IT SHOWS A LOT LESS OF UTC CAGE MATCH THAN IT USED TO, WHICH IS A PROBLEM FOR FINDING MY TEAM.
THE NEW MINIMAP DOESN'T ZOOM AS FAR IN, EITHER. WHICH MAKES IT MORE CHALLENGING TO FIND THE RIGHT SEWER LID FOR A MISSION.
GIVE ME BACK MY ZOOM!
(THIS POST BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE NEW CONTACT FONT INTRODUCED WITH THE LATEST PATCH. ISN'T IT BEAUTIFUL? DOESN'T IT MAKE THINGS LIKE THIS POST EASIER TO READ?)
I hate forced changes like this. Especialy when most of them are meant for relooking/redesigning and end up as it is most of the time, let's be honest: something fugly. Just for the sake of bringing a change, forcing everyone to change their habits and create something new, it just had to be made.
The mini map icons are now too short IMO, if I want them bigger I have to resize this ugly mini map which is then too big. The border color is like a bad joke. And that shape.. bleh
I'm not gonna thank you for this thing, especialy because we don't have any choice.
Comments
It's not wrong, it's the new "gold". It's to match more with the other UI changes on the f2p launch (try opening up the Character info window and compare. If it still looks off; then that would need to change.)
----
Has development tried doing a hexagon for the minimap yet? I figured that was going to be reserved for a future change to the character portrait, though if not; it's worth a shot in that it's a compromise between a circle and a square. Though if there is a plan to update the character portrait; then the square might work better.
As far as the square itself; it's growing on me. I like that the icons have an option to only show up on a mouseover and more map area is displayed now by removing the thick borders of the circle. I'm sure it'll look more complete if/when the character portrait is ever revised.
With "Follow Target" you can still do whatever you want with the camera, I think. Try it and see for yourself if you can.
I really love neon Green look at my character
I know they've said a fix is in the works, but... I won't trust it until I see it. If you think you have it bad, try being a person whose bad sight can't be fixed by glasses. My only option for MMOs is scaling the UI up.
Thankfully, with games like Skyrim, they already have a huge UI, and even if they didn't then I could ask the community to mod something for me. (The Bethesda games may not be the greatest but they have a community made up of beautiful, wonderful, helpful people. Some of the most bro people you could ever hope to know. Well, that's true of the Nexus forums at least.) So I have those options there, but with an MMORPG my hands are tied, it's all up to the developers.
Try scaling the UI up... go on, try it...
Watch what happens...
The minimap ends up taking up about 30-40% of the screen. It functionally stops me from playing by not only obscuring too much of my field of view, but I can't click in that region, either. There have been accessibility concerns in CO in the past that have made my life difficult, but this is the first one that's outright stopped me playing. I flipped a **** in another minimap thread over it and I hope it can be understood as to why, because I've put a lot of money into CO, and I was looking forward to running Whiteout with a friend...
But when this new minimap was designed, accessibility wasn't taken into account.
See, I've said this before, but I'll say it again...
This is what the public test shard is for.
If they'd landed this on the PTS for a month before landing it on live, we could have helped them figure out all the issues and bugs. We could have worked with them to create a minimap that works for everyone. I just don't understand why they didn't do that. The lack of foresight at Cryptic's HQ bothers me, sometimes. And I just want to slap their management with a foam hammer.
I'm just hoping, deep down, that they'll roll the minimap back on live, for now. So that the this new, unwieldy minimap can go through a number of polish phases on the PTS before hitting live again.
They've said that an update is coming on Wednesday, but I'm not expecting a lot, really. I don't know if they really understood what was wrong with it in the first place. But if you think it obscures too much of your view for you, imagine how it is for me... I couldn't believe what I saw when I logged on. I just couldn't believe it.
To me, this is the biggest ball dropping to have occurred yet.
I really want to hope for the best, but... come Wednesday, I can see me deciding to take a long break from CO. And not for reasons of bad game design, but for reasons of poor management, and landing crazy new UI changes on live without even PTS testing them, first.
The problem here is that CO seems to use exponential scaling (as opposed to linear). Do you see the horizontal bar of difference to the left side? That increases exponentially, so the higher you scale, the further out it stretches, the UI scale steps can be pretty crazy and it can be hard to get it to exactly the scale you want, because sometimes it can be just too small or too big.
This is why I've before asked for separate scaling of UI elements. But yeah, that horizontal bar of space at the left makes a massive difference when the UI is upscaled. So much difference you wouldn't believe it.
In fact, try it for yourself and see. The square minimap becomes many times bigger than the circular one was.
---EDIT---
What's worse is that the exponential scaling may actually be a bug. I swear at some point in the distant past of CO I was able to use more granular scaling, but I can't be 100% sure of that. What it looks like is happening is that 1.4 is more like 1.3+1.3 rather than 1.2+1.2, so it scales exponentially in that way, where each step seems to be bigger than the last.
The prior minimap hit some sort of sweet spot where it wasn't too small or too big, but due to the lack of granularity with scaling, and the lack of being able to scale individual UI elements, the new minimap pretty much screws me over.
Visually, it seems off to me. I finally figured out what bothers me about the look. It's the orange bar on the bottom. With other windows that have a bit bottom bar, it's a grey bar with an orange-gold border. If the mini-map had that same look, it wouldn't feel like it sticks out.
Also, the minimap in Champions is sort of of dubious helpfulness half the time, since a lot of locations just give you really unclear minimaps that make no sense.
Also in the Sanctum hideout there is a random other room on the map next to the playable area, I want to know what's up with that...
Grey bar, or blue bar would fit both much better
That would also allow for making the map smaller. At this point I think it'd be awesome if they'd let us shrink the map down a ridiculous amount and just have one little button with a dropdown menu and no buttons. Does anyone actually like the buttons? I always felt that an iconic design like that was so early '00s. Usually, these days, due to phones and applications, people are more used to dropdowns. It looks cleaner, it works better, and it means tha the minimap doesn't need to be humungabig. Ever.
Thoughts?
That's why I asked in one thread for an option to collapse the map down to just the compass. Though if they did that I'd love for them to show quest pickup NPCs on the compass in a faded out way, just so we know if we're near one. Reason being is that without the minimap I'd probably miss stuff, like the escort missions. Escort missions are so annoying since one has to go out into the field to find them.
But yeah, if they put the quest pickup icons on the compass, then is there any real need for a minimap anyway? Skyrim does fine without one.
That's for the new two rooms they're adding (crafting tables and duelling).
Almost all of the smart phones I saw when recently shopping for a replacement for my iPhone had icons (as did the iPhone).
All of the applications on my computer (and those of my friends) are activated from an icon on the desktop.
An icon involves clicking on a single button to activate a function.
A drop down involves accessing a menu from which you will then click on an option to activate a function.
Generally the difference is negligible, but more steps is more complicated than fewer.
I do think it would be cool for people to be able to customize this aspect fo the game to their own preference.
As a (hopefully temporary) work around, isnt it possible to activate every function represented by a mini-map button with a keybind ?
And those who do not like puns may be tempted to groan at me.
Or please give us a choice circle or square .....blue or gold ....old or new ...
NOW GIVE ME BACK MY ZOOM!
THE NEW MINIMAP DOESN'T ZOOM AS FAR OUT - IT SHOWS A LOT LESS OF UTC CAGE MATCH THAN IT USED TO, WHICH IS A PROBLEM FOR FINDING MY TEAM.
THE NEW MINIMAP DOESN'T ZOOM AS FAR IN, EITHER. WHICH MAKES IT MORE CHALLENGING TO FIND THE RIGHT SEWER LID FOR A MISSION.
GIVE ME BACK MY ZOOM!
(THIS POST BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE NEW CONTACT FONT INTRODUCED WITH THE LATEST PATCH. ISN'T IT BEAUTIFUL? DOESN'T IT MAKE THINGS LIKE THIS POST EASIER TO READ?)
The mini map icons are now too short IMO, if I want them bigger I have to resize this ugly mini map which is then too big. The border color is like a bad joke. And that shape.. bleh
I'm not gonna thank you for this thing, especialy because we don't have any choice.