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Can We Please Have a "Next" Button?
kirksplat
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
Hey fellow authors and players,
If you would like to see this feature implemented in the Foundry, please speak up. I'm pretty sure that it's something a lot of people would like to have.
The best way that the search UI could be improved, IMO, is for the lists to have a button that says "next."
With Google, this is the equivalent of pages 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. of search results. If we had that functionality in the Foundry, then players could browse the top 50 of each category or tag. Then, they could click "next" and see the top 51-100 missions, or then the top 101-150 missions and so on.
It would only display 50 missions at a time, but we could (with enough patience) literally browse every Foundry mission ever made, simply by having the Foundry search feature work like every search engine does.
Without this feature, even the addition of tags is frustrating, because the individual tag searches are still just going to show the top 50 or 100 results.
This feature would also alleviate what has become a have/have not hierarchy within the Foundry community. Under the current system, either you have a spotlight or a mission at the top of the top (and you get plays) or you don't (and thus do not get plays). IMO, the next button would be good for the Foundry community and its general morale. It would alleviate the divisions. It would make it more inclusive. And, for Cryptic, it would showcase the wealth of available Foundry content, rather than leaving players asking, "Is this all there is?"
We need a "next" button.
If you think this is a good idea, please post.
If you would like to see this feature implemented in the Foundry, please speak up. I'm pretty sure that it's something a lot of people would like to have.
The best way that the search UI could be improved, IMO, is for the lists to have a button that says "next."
With Google, this is the equivalent of pages 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. of search results. If we had that functionality in the Foundry, then players could browse the top 50 of each category or tag. Then, they could click "next" and see the top 51-100 missions, or then the top 101-150 missions and so on.
It would only display 50 missions at a time, but we could (with enough patience) literally browse every Foundry mission ever made, simply by having the Foundry search feature work like every search engine does.
Without this feature, even the addition of tags is frustrating, because the individual tag searches are still just going to show the top 50 or 100 results.
This feature would also alleviate what has become a have/have not hierarchy within the Foundry community. Under the current system, either you have a spotlight or a mission at the top of the top (and you get plays) or you don't (and thus do not get plays). IMO, the next button would be good for the Foundry community and its general morale. It would alleviate the divisions. It would make it more inclusive. And, for Cryptic, it would showcase the wealth of available Foundry content, rather than leaving players asking, "Is this all there is?"
We need a "next" button.
If you think this is a good idea, please post.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Post edited by kirksplat on
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Standalone - The Great Escape - The Galaxy's Fair - Purity I: Of Denial - Return to Oblivion
Untitled Series - Duritanium Man - The Improbable Bulk - Commander Rihan
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— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
I call it, the Stoutes paradox.
If the powers that be are going to limit the shown number of missions to 50 (I can only assume due to an invisible lag issue/server strain associated with listing more), then for goodness sake, please, PLEASE include a next button on the page.
And make it BIG so folks will actually see it! :P
arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline/#/discussion/1203368/pve-content-a-list-of-gamewide-polishing-pass-suggestions
Click here for my Foundry tutorial on Creating A Custom Interior Map.
My Foundry missions | My STO Wiki page | My Twitter home page
YES TO "NEXT".
@Rellimtime82 - Foundry Author
S.S. Doff Lundgren
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
I miss the good old days when we had a next button and costume import. It seems the foundry is getting farther away from getting out of beta instead of closer.
Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
*ahem*
Dear Cryptic,
Please add a next button to foundry searches.
Thank you.
All foundry players ever
Cryptic.
I think every sane people will agree a "next" button is common sense and a feature that should have been there forever, and from the start.
People are saying we used to have it. I don't really remember a button. I remember that the lists showed a lot more than 50 results.
I'm almost wondering if the change was unintentional, like someone limited it during the server-overload of Legacy of Romulus, but nobody undid the change. I've asked Frost about it.
They were disabling the Foundry search during times of stress, if I recall.
My memory is that you could click next to get to the second "page", but then there was no further next button at that point. I could be wrong, but that's how I recall it being.
Click here for my Foundry tutorial on Creating A Custom Interior Map.
That's a good point, that second page button was what I was thinking about. But now that I think of it... I am not sure I ever went to the bottom of the list to keep going...
Wow, I feel kind of silly now. Although this proves I never perhaps searched farther, now that we have the tags for missions that will shrink lists we can dig further with lowered fears of finding nothing.
So, yes, I would LOVE to see a "Next" button implemented as the truncated list is why so many missions aren't getting plays because your rank and file user won't bother drilling down with search tools and will assume that the fist 50 he sees ARE the only missions available to choose from.
It really is disheartening to see Cryptic not even bother with this basic functionality for a tool they like to claim really 'expands' STO.
That said, until they have more then 50 spotlighted missions, they probably won't even consider such a request, as that list seems to be the only Foundry list that matters to them (and honestly, at least for STO, they LOVE to pay a lot of lip service to the Foundry tool; but don't really do a lot to support it (or the authors who create a lot for it) in general.
Proof? You'll notice with every major Season update, it's down longer and the auto-republishing takes longer (or 100% stalls/fails after a point to where they have to do some quick and dirty fix to get it started.) For this Season remember that they stopped it (the republish process) for nearly a week.
Has NeverWinter's Foundry experienced issues? Yep. Have those issues ever been as bad as STO's version of the Foundry? Nope. Does NW see Foundry functionality expansion and item addition on a regular basis? Yep. Does STO? Nope. (And yeas, we do have ONE now manager (zer0niusrex) who does her best to find time to add some new objects for use in the STO Foundry - but as I see it no real effort made beyond that in all honesty.)
So, why the disparity? Simple, NW was designed as a game with the Foundry in mind from day one (Under Atari, it was going the be that game's focus. And it still seems a major focus under PWE, still not NW's main one though.)
STO was considered a usable testbed for what would become the NW Foundry; but it suffered from what a NUMBER of other tacked on STO mechanics have suffered from -- abandonment from the STO Dev team because they seem to love to throw new systems and mechanics at STO - while leaving other mechanics they launched in a season or expansion that they said the would continue to iterate and expand on suddenly and cvompletely abandoned.
Hell, listen to one of Gekko's recent interviews where he can't even remember the DS9 Fleet Action that was removed - and which many players still remembered and wanted back, but Gekko, now a MANAGER can't recall it ever being in game.
^^^
Really goes to show that Cryptic really cares about their products if they promote someone to a lead position, yet he can't even recall the development history nof a game he himself has worked on since its inception, eh?
TLDR: Yes, the Foundry needs a "Next" button and Cryptic Developer management needs to NOT have attention deficit disorder with regard to continuing to support and expand on features they have added to their own game.
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
This to me is the central contradiction. One of the biggest critiques of this game has been a lack of content. Then, they release and promote this tool as a content explosion. Yet, there is not the simplest of features, like a next button, which allows players to browse and find the content of the content explosion.
If they did this to their own UI, there would be an instant collective WTF moment from every dev on the team.
In any case it doesn't really matter. Either way it's needed.
Click here for my Foundry tutorial on Creating A Custom Interior Map.
Source.
Is there a single Foundry author out there who likes this design choice? Please speak up.
1) They removed the "feature" that penalizes new missions, giving them a shot at getting on top at the start. The fact that new missions are now stuck with a low rating even if people love it makes it so there's a chance they end up being stillborn.
2) They made it so you could select tag category from a drop down menu at the top of the top rated list, which was really obvious.
Even in that case I think it should show more missions, but those would be improvements if they're adamant about sticking with only 50.
Click here for my Foundry tutorial on Creating A Custom Interior Map.