I decided to cycle through this thread and count the number of different posters and their general feelings about the landing page. Mind you, I counted names and not number of posts. So if one person posted a lot, they were only counted once. Obviously, these are the numbers so far, and anyone posting after this are not counted. Also, these are my findings before any potential edits and such.
Number of posters asking for the landing page to be removed: 22
Number of posters asking for an option to disable it: 44
Number of posters with negative feelings about the landing page that did not ask for it's removal nor ask for a disable option: 34
Number of posters who want the landing page modified: 16
Number of posters who were "cast into Gre'thor" by baddmoonrizin: 6
Number of posts by baddmoonrizin warning the community of forum rules: 3
Number of posters who have positive feelings about the landing page, including anyone who said they like it, were actively defending it in the thread, and (to be generous) anyone who said it's not as bad as people say: 6
If anyone disagrees with my findings, please, feel free to recount the posters yourself. Better yet, start a poll. For now, I think I'll just leave these numbers here.
Amen.
Another case of Cryptic throwing away time and resources 'fixing' something that wasn't even broken. The Landing Page is silly, it adds nothing, and provides nothing but annoyance because it pops up every time I change characters.
Stuff like this is what really makes you wonder about the priorities over at Cryptic Studios. There are plenty of things in this game that need the teams attention and they spend time on a new landing page that no one wanted and the vast majority of the player base doesn't even want.
And yea... there have been some instances of people focusing on that one corner alone as if its everything. And some people have actually attacked others who don't agree. Makes them come off looking like Crusaders, and not willing to listen to reason or even outside opinions.
And then treating "that one corner" as if it was somehow wrong. It isn't. IMO the infinity lockbox announcement is in fact the most relevant and useful part of the whole quad, since it's a limited-time event. Something people can actually miss, as opposed to the queue and the episode which will stay up permanently for the forseeable future.
The problem is it doesn't mention Delta Recruit, Mirror Invasion or the Junior Officer Weekend at all.
Anyone saying that "no one wants this and no one asked for this" apparently doesn't have all of the information. I point to every single "I missed the flash sale, because I was in game and didn't hear about it" thread, of which there have been numerous since the anniversary and have shown up like clockwork after each and every sale. There have been many calls to have some kind of in-game announcement for when such sales happen. This new Landing Page can (and in my opinion should) be used to advertise such sales. So, I find complaints here about using the Landing Page to market the C-Store baffling, since this addresses those specific complaints asking for an in-game sales announcement of some kind.
In my opinion, though, the Landing Page needs to be more dynamic, instead of the static announcement that's been implemented. Of course, that means it needs as near to live updates as possible. If it's possible to implement, I feel the best utilization of the page would be to highlight sales as they happen (yes, market the C-Store), the current ongoing event (with a rotating announcement if multiple events are occurring simultaneously), live Twitter/Facebook posts from the official game accounts (as significant information gets passed through those channels, yet not everyone checks them), links to the most recent updates. Basically, "NOW" information. The latest episode or newest queue doesn't need to be there unless it's linked to an ongoing event (Mirror Invasion, Kobayashi Maru, Featured Episode/Re-Run, etc.) as those can already be found in the mission journal or queue UI.
I agree that the layout needs to be tweaked. The layout of the initial pop up isn't much of an issue, but when logging out, changing character, etc., I agree that the menu should be more centrally located rather than off to the side.
As to frequency of occurrence, if the Landing Page can be made to be more dynamic, being updated with live information, then having it pop up when calling up the options menu can be useful. If it's only going to be updated weekly with each patch (if then), then the one time at initial login is all that's needed.
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In my opinion, though, the Landing Page needs to be more dynamic, instead of the static announcement that's been implemented. Of course, that means it needs as near to live updates as possible.
This version seems like something generic they are using as a test.
I hope it is more dynamic and updated after they get it fully working.
And I would like to see the DATES right up front....I want to log in, see this Landing Page and can tell immediately: when does this event or sale run and how long.
"Spend your life doing strange things with weird people." -- UNK
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
Anyone saying that "no one wants this and no one asked for this" apparently doesn't have all of the information. I point to every single "I missed the flash sale, because I was in game and didn't hear about it" thread, of which there have been numerous since the anniversary and have shown up like clockwork after each and every sale. There have been many calls to have some kind of in-game announcement for when such sales happen. This new Landing Page can (and in my opinion should) be used to advertise such sales. So, I find complaints here about using the Landing Page to market the C-Store baffling, since this addresses those specific complaints asking for an in-game sales announcement of some kind.
In my opinion, though, the Landing Page needs to be more dynamic, instead of the static announcement that's been implemented. Of course, that means it needs as near to live updates as possible. If it's possible to implement, I feel the best utilization of the page would be to highlight sales as they happen (yes, market the C-Store), the current ongoing event (with a rotating announcement if multiple events are occurring simultaneously), live Twitter/Facebook posts from the official game accounts (as significant information gets passed through those channels, yet not everyone checks them), links to the most recent updates. Basically, "NOW" information. The latest episode or newest queue doesn't need to be there unless it's linked to an ongoing event (Mirror Invasion, Kobayashi Maru, Featured Episode/Re-Run, etc.) as those can already be found in the mission journal or queue UI.
I agree that the layout needs to be tweaked. The layout of the initial pop up isn't much of an issue, but when logging out, changing character, etc., I agree that the menu should be more centrally located rather than off to the side.
As to frequency of occurrence, if the Landing Page can be made to be more dynamic, being updated with live information, then having it pop up when calling up the options menu can be useful. If it's only going to be updated weekly with each patch (if then), then the one time at initial login is all that's needed.
Info on sales is on the game launcher. If people are to lazy to use that then they miss out. Like many people have said the landing page adds nothing to all the game.
As for updating the landing page in real time hmm I don't think that's ever going to happen. The engine is from City of Heroes a game from 2004 so odds are is way to old to do that.
In my opinion, though, the Landing Page needs to be more dynamic, instead of the static announcement that's been implemented. Of course, that means it needs as near to live updates as possible.
This version seems like something generic they are using as a test.
I hope it is more dynamic and updated after they get it fully working.
And I would like to see the DATES right up front....I want to log in, see this Landing Page and can tell immediately: when does this event or sale run and how long.
There is a test server they could have used instead of choosing to annoy players on Holodeck. As much as PWE doesn't like the negative feedback and posts from unhappy players, PWE did unleash this on themselves by not thinking through the implementation of it and testing it first before throwing something broken on to Holodeck. Which brings up another potential use for the landing page. If there are things to test, then that could also be another thing promoted. I used to enjoy testing things on Tribble and Redshirt until feedback was ignored and bugged content was pushed to Holodeck anyway. History tends to repeat itself with PWE, especially where Star Trek Online is concerned. This isn't the first and I'm pretty sure it won't be the last time that PWE finds a way to irritates the players.
Anyone saying that "no one wants this and no one asked for this" apparently doesn't have all of the information. I point to every single "I missed the flash sale, because I was in game and didn't hear about it" thread, of which there have been numerous since the anniversary and have shown up like clockwork after each and every sale. There have been many calls to have some kind of in-game announcement for when such sales happen. This new Landing Page can (and in my opinion should) be used to advertise such sales. So, I find complaints here about using the Landing Page to market the C-Store baffling, since this addresses those specific complaints asking for an in-game sales announcement of some kind.
In my opinion, though, the Landing Page needs to be more dynamic, instead of the static announcement that's been implemented. Of course, that means it needs as near to live updates as possible. If it's possible to implement, I feel the best utilization of the page would be to highlight sales as they happen (yes, market the C-Store), the current ongoing event (with a rotating announcement if multiple events are occurring simultaneously), live Twitter/Facebook posts from the official game accounts (as significant information gets passed through those channels, yet not everyone checks them), links to the most recent updates. Basically, "NOW" information. The latest episode or newest queue doesn't need to be there unless it's linked to an ongoing event (Mirror Invasion, Kobayashi Maru, Featured Episode/Re-Run, etc.) as those can already be found in the mission journal or queue UI.
I agree that the layout needs to be tweaked. The layout of the initial pop up isn't much of an issue, but when logging out, changing character, etc., I agree that the menu should be more centrally located rather than off to the side.
As to frequency of occurrence, if the Landing Page can be made to be more dynamic, being updated with live information, then having it pop up when calling up the options menu can be useful. If it's only going to be updated weekly with each patch (if then), then the one time at initial login is all that's needed.
Can I just say amen to all of this.
One thing on the current What's New tab. I just looked at it in depth and if you go to the page then you can flip through pages that gives you every single update, change or addition from Season 6 and forward. I'm going to have to say that as someone who now and again takes extended hiatuses and hates asking people what's happened in the interim, this is something I'm going to find useful in the future.
Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end of it.
Possibly the least obtrusive way to implement a feature that lets people know what's going on, would be glowing buttons around the mini-map. Just like when there is a new big patch and the question mark starts glowing, the Journal button could be glowing when there is a new episode or an event, C-Store button could be glowing when a sale is happening (or when a special item like the Key Ring is in the store), dilithium store button could be glowing when the Phoenix Pack rises from the ashes, queues button could be glowing when there is a new queue...
It still won't help with people complaining about unannounced flash-sales though - I could imagine the complaint there tends to be more "I didn't know to be online on that day" rather than "I was online and I didn't notice"...
I'm going to admit 11 pages.. TLDR.
1. every time you change a char? ridiculous.
2. every time you hit the esc key? makes me want to throw he keyboard across the room.
3. I like Badmoons suggestion of make it dynamic. let it come up once a day, and then once when you log in on a new char IF something changed. better yet, add a indicator / switch to the HUD that will let you toggle when it indicates an update. I'm fine with checing it when enroute in sector space
Anyone saying that "no one wants this and no one asked for this" apparently doesn't have all of the information. I point to every single "I missed the flash sale, because I was in game and didn't hear about it" thread, of which there have been numerous since the anniversary and have shown up like clockwork after each and every sale. There have been many calls to have some kind of in-game announcement for when such sales happen. This new Landing Page can (and in my opinion should) be used to advertise such sales. So, I find complaints here about using the Landing Page to market the C-Store baffling, since this addresses those specific complaints asking for an in-game sales announcement of some kind.
Being one of those people who in most threads complained about missing the flash sales I can say the landing page as it stands right now will do zero to solve that problem for me.
The landing page in its current form does not do anything what so ever to addresses those specific complaints. All it does is duplicate information we already see on log in so not only is it useless in its current form but it makes using other functions in the game more frustrating to use.
Isn't a flash sale usually a spur of the moment thing where pre-notice is not often given ?. I don't see the landing page even if it did include this option being any benefit to notify you of a flash sale "IF" its intention is to pop up once per day per character. Meaning if a flash sale occurs a hour into your logon time unless the landing page makes itself unwelcome and pops up with this update it still falls upon you to look for that information as you have already had your once per logon view of it.
Now there have been some interesting ideas thrown around regarding how to make the page useful. However even if a quarter of these ideas are taken on board it will take months for them to code it in. So my conclusion about this being a rush job and put into game before it was ready is very likely to be correct.
I'm betting next Thursday if they fix the pop up on every logon there won't be a disable landing page option coded in. Just my thoughts.
Hello rubber banding my old friend, time to bounce around the battlezone again, where are all my bug reports going?, out of love with this game I am falling, As Cryptic fail to acknowledge a problem exists, Shakes an angry fist, And from Support all I'm hearing are the sounds of silence.
There is a difference between someone complaining about missing a flash sale, and someone asking for a landing page. True, I don't have access to all the information, but I've never heard, or seen in the forums, anyone asking for a landing page. The complaints I have seen/heard about missing flash sales usually have to do with players being at work during the sale, or something like that. Honestly, I think the devs need to rethink the whole concept of flash sales. We never know their coming ahead of time, they last for less than a day, and the discounts aren't so good that I am motivated to buy anything I didn't already want. But, back to the topic at hand. The game already has the news page, these forums, the start up page, and the calendar. The calendar and the start up page could both be used better, and I feel that's where the devs should focus their energy. Why not put sales in the calendar? I also like the previously mentioned idea of making the "Hail" and "Calendar" buttons flash when there is something new. I check the calendar every time I play, and honestly, it's not kept up to date. The second month is often empty, and the first month is sometimes slow to be updated. (Again, are we not getting a Risa event in June this year?) The start up page often advertises sales and events that are over, and tries to pass off the current expansion that we've been playing for months as "new". One last point. I don't think it's fair to say that players asking for the landing page to be removed isn't constructive. This thread was asking for feedback, not just positive feedback. True, such comments should be polite and respectful, but players should be able to say they don't like a given feature, especially in a feedback thread.
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rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,669Community Moderator
but players should be able to say they don't like a given feature, especially in a feedback thread.
They should also be able to judge a given feature when its functioning properly in order to actually give accurate feedback rather than kneejerk reactions to a malfunctioning detail. The feedback would be better when the thing actually works as intended.
I also like the previously mentioned idea of making the "Hail" and "Calendar" buttons flash when there is something new.
Kinda like how with each season update the [?] button flashes until you open that menu and select the "Whats New in Season X" button... on EVERY character? And won't stop flashing until you do so on said character?
While some of the information being shown now is available in other areas... this is a consolidation of information into one convenient location. It might actually be a means of not having to click that [?] button every time we get a new season... on every character you log into.
I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite colored text = mod mode
Kinda like how with each season update the [?] button flashes until you open that menu and select the "Whats New in Season X" button... on EVERY character? And won't stop flashing until you do so on said character?
Well, if the intended landing page is supposed to only appear once per account, the same thing should be possible with some flashing buttons ;-)
The more I think about this whole idea, the more it makes me wish our characters had their own office. We could stop in, check up on the news and reports from around the galaxy, etc. Include the patch notes, upcoming sales, events, etc. Things like flash sales could be advertised on the new shiny poster board sized displays on DS9 and some could be added to Drozana, ESD, Qo'noS, and other stations. To take it one step further. If I am out in space, I could always go into the ship interior and view this information in my Ready Room. With so many unused assets and areas in STO. Lets give them a purpose!
I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite colored text = mod mode
The more I think about this whole idea, the more it makes me wish our characters had their own office.
You mean... like... our own Ready Rooms in our ship interiors?
Yes, but an office also on station. Lifers could have an office on the lifer station, which is pretty devoid of life most of the time. It would be a single instance, just like interiors and hopefully the team could come up with a way to decorate it with accolades and such.
Fortunately that's a confirmed bug, we should see a fix soon that will relegate the landing page to once-per-account login. Further updates are very likely but Cryptic's only had a couple work days to look at the problem and processes feedback. So, exactly what will change (ex. moving landing page from ESC menu to J menu) we can't say for sure yet.
if you insist it stay, how about just putting it on the transition screens, like when you are beaming to earth spacedock?
We do already have loading screens that promote season/expansion content. That serves the function of highlighting new updates but it can't link players to it. That's what the landing page has over the launcher links (for instance), those simply reference and provide extra reading if you feel inclined to stop and dig in. Folks get the hail or queue directly with an in-game splash page.
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I dislike having a giant billboard when I log in and hate it on the ESC menu window.
We need an option to disable it and/or use the old ESC menu.
Or put the important parts back in the middle, not off to the side. Something like...
And really, how static are those panes? Players going to have to look at "What's new in 14.5" for months?! You look at it ONCE on one toon, then don't need it anymore! I thought the 2 panes on the 'J' window were sufficient to inform me of what I want to know!
@rattler2
With respect, friend, you seem to be implying that negative feedback is inaccurate, and based only on the bug. That's not a fair assumption. No, this thing is not in a convenient location. It's in an annoying location. The point for myself, and I think a lot of us, is that we already know where to find this information and yet it is being forced in our face. If it were a button we could hit, or ignore, then it would be in a convenient location, and we players may actually start to find this helpful. If that's not going to happen, and this thing is here to stay, then can you at least give us a disable option? I think putting it in the ready room is a brilliant idea. We need more things to do inside our ships, and it puts the information in game where we can find it if we want to. You know, I can see how you would find the flashing "?" button annoying. Maybe that could be reduced or disabled, too. But, I find that flashing button a lot easier to ignore than this landing page.
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rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,669Community Moderator
With respect, friend, you seem to be implying that negative feedback is inaccurate, and based only on the bug.
The Devs are aware of the bug. Yet people keep bringing up the bug. When they actually say they know about it... further comment on the same bug is kinda redundant. Better feedback now would involve things like the Ready Room idea and other things like that, which is a lot more constructive. Not going over the same thing over and over again.
THAT is really the issue right now. Not that it's inaccurate. Just that it is unnecessary to continue to bring it up til the cows come home.
I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
The nut who actually ground out many packs. The resident forum voice of reason (I HAZ FORUM REP! YAY!)
normal text = me speaking as fellow formite colored text = mod mode
Or put the important parts back in the middle, not off to the side. Something like...
+1 this.
Just make it symmetrical, so for example, since the landing page appears to include two sizes of pictures, I would put the big ones on the sides of the menu, and run the small ones underneath.
It might also be worth considering making the landing page the size of 1-3 promo windows, and putting slider-arrows in there, to rotate through the ads. This would make it possible to roll through all of the new items, rather than being stuck with displaying just four at a time (So that if you had two active calendar events, new queue, new featured episode, new foundry spotlight, new season update and a c-store sale going on, you wouldn't have to prioritize what to put into the limited space of the landing page).
I don't see any reason why the landing page should be displayed again when you press ESC and want to logout or change character. Even the message "welcome to sto" doesn't make any sense in that situation. Isn't it enough to display it on the first login of the day (as I assume was their intention)? I know it's a small thing but having the main menu pushed to the left of the landing page really starts to annoy me...
I dislike having a giant billboard when I log in and hate it on the ESC menu window.
We need an option to disable it and/or use the old ESC menu.
Or put the important parts back in the middle, not off to the side. Something like...
And really, how static are those panes? Players going to have to look at "What's new in 14.5" for months?! You look at it ONCE on one toon, then don't need it anymore! I thought the 2 panes on the 'J' window were sufficient to inform me of what I want to know!
And BTW, I still hate the new queue screen too.
I love your redesign of this. Please can this be done.
Re: What's New. I think it's staying because clicking on it takes you to a page where you not only see what's new in 14.5, but can flip back in time through every single major update or expansion all the way back to season 6. So I guess it'll get update every time something major is added - season, half season, large-ish events such as anniversaries seems to be there too - but it'll stay there.
After having gone through these pages What's New may legit have become my favorite. I tend to come and go in games a lot and I hate asking around about what's changed while I was gone. This page is going to answer a lot of those questions for me without me having to dig around in fifteen different places for information.
Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end of it.
@rattler2
With respect, friend, you seem to be implying that negative feedback is inaccurate, and based only on the bug.
On this point: some of the feedback here is directed specifically at the bug. It further assumes this is an intended feature. In that sense, yes some of the negative feedback is (quite simply and literally stated) inaccurate. That does NOT mean that it is based ONLY on a bug (or that this feedback should be discounted) but it has demonstrably been influenced by a bug (which one should simply keep in mind when trying to consider the aggregate magnitude of opinions.)
Therefore, we do not have an ideal baseline to judge (with complete accuracy) the final impact of the landing page. We still have workable data and actionable feedback (certainly sufficient to do something) but, that's part of a discussion that will continue to evolve with future developments (ex. from "it's annoying" to "it's still annoying" after the bug fix, which I'm expecting for the ESC menu in particular.)
I love your redesign of this. Please can this be done.
I'm a little more on the side of "remove the landing page from the ESC menu and put it somewhere else that's a bit more intuitive place to look for content" (ie. the main menu of the mission journal, brought up by "J.") If that's what Cryptic ultimately opt for then maybe look at an ESC menu redesign as a stop-gap fix? Bigger changes could take time (especially with an expansion coming) so maybe we should look at highlighting suggestions as "stuff that might be doable right away" (so ViL isn't too badly affected) and "stuff that they might look at down the road."
Post edited by duncanidaho11 on
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
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If people are too blind not to see the news on the launcher, they're not gonna see anything on the outdated-on-launch landing page. You can't force people to learn or pay attention to anything. If that means some of them are missing out on news and flash sales, so be it.
Besides, most of the time someone misses a flash sale it's because they were out of the game.
None of my feedback has had anything to do with the bug, and that includes citing other player's disontent. If players are saying they don't want it at all, then making it appear less often does not solve the problem. Now, a disable feature is a win-win solution. That would enable the devs to reach the target audience without annoying the experienced players who are in the know. Same thing with putting it in the ready room, or, linking it to a button that players can choose to hit, or not.
This landing page is an obnoxious waste of space on my screen. I can imagine it might be semi-useful for super casuals who log on once per month, but all the information it provides is already available elsewhere - less obtrusively.
Alright, so the page popping up every motherlovin' time I switch characters is supposedly a bug. Fair enough. If only there was a test server or something, where these things could be ironed out before going live. Why does it pop up when I'm logging off or alting, though? Is that also a bug? I sure as shizzle hope so.
In summary: a feature I neither need nor want. What I do want is a simple toggle to disable the landing page entirely. And the inane loot roll fly-ins. And the queue confirmation prompt that's now obsolete.
Comments
Amen.
Another case of Cryptic throwing away time and resources 'fixing' something that wasn't even broken. The Landing Page is silly, it adds nothing, and provides nothing but annoyance because it pops up every time I change characters.
Stuff like this is what really makes you wonder about the priorities over at Cryptic Studios. There are plenty of things in this game that need the teams attention and they spend time on a new landing page that no one wanted and the vast majority of the player base doesn't even want.
It's baffling.
The problem is it doesn't mention Delta Recruit, Mirror Invasion or the Junior Officer Weekend at all.
In my opinion, though, the Landing Page needs to be more dynamic, instead of the static announcement that's been implemented. Of course, that means it needs as near to live updates as possible. If it's possible to implement, I feel the best utilization of the page would be to highlight sales as they happen (yes, market the C-Store), the current ongoing event (with a rotating announcement if multiple events are occurring simultaneously), live Twitter/Facebook posts from the official game accounts (as significant information gets passed through those channels, yet not everyone checks them), links to the most recent updates. Basically, "NOW" information. The latest episode or newest queue doesn't need to be there unless it's linked to an ongoing event (Mirror Invasion, Kobayashi Maru, Featured Episode/Re-Run, etc.) as those can already be found in the mission journal or queue UI.
I agree that the layout needs to be tweaked. The layout of the initial pop up isn't much of an issue, but when logging out, changing character, etc., I agree that the menu should be more centrally located rather than off to the side.
As to frequency of occurrence, if the Landing Page can be made to be more dynamic, being updated with live information, then having it pop up when calling up the options menu can be useful. If it's only going to be updated weekly with each patch (if then), then the one time at initial login is all that's needed.
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This version seems like something generic they are using as a test.
I hope it is more dynamic and updated after they get it fully working.
And I would like to see the DATES right up front....I want to log in, see this Landing Page and can tell immediately: when does this event or sale run and how long.
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
Info on sales is on the game launcher. If people are to lazy to use that then they miss out. Like many people have said the landing page adds nothing to all the game.
As for updating the landing page in real time hmm I don't think that's ever going to happen. The engine is from City of Heroes a game from 2004 so odds are is way to old to do that.
There is a test server they could have used instead of choosing to annoy players on Holodeck. As much as PWE doesn't like the negative feedback and posts from unhappy players, PWE did unleash this on themselves by not thinking through the implementation of it and testing it first before throwing something broken on to Holodeck. Which brings up another potential use for the landing page. If there are things to test, then that could also be another thing promoted. I used to enjoy testing things on Tribble and Redshirt until feedback was ignored and bugged content was pushed to Holodeck anyway. History tends to repeat itself with PWE, especially where Star Trek Online is concerned. This isn't the first and I'm pretty sure it won't be the last time that PWE finds a way to irritates the players.
Can I just say amen to all of this.
One thing on the current What's New tab. I just looked at it in depth and if you go to the page then you can flip through pages that gives you every single update, change or addition from Season 6 and forward. I'm going to have to say that as someone who now and again takes extended hiatuses and hates asking people what's happened in the interim, this is something I'm going to find useful in the future.
It still won't help with people complaining about unannounced flash-sales though - I could imagine the complaint there tends to be more "I didn't know to be online on that day" rather than "I was online and I didn't notice"...
1. every time you change a char? ridiculous.
2. every time you hit the esc key? makes me want to throw he keyboard across the room.
3. I like Badmoons suggestion of make it dynamic. let it come up once a day, and then once when you log in on a new char IF something changed. better yet, add a indicator / switch to the HUD that will let you toggle when it indicates an update. I'm fine with checing it when enroute in sector space
The landing page in its current form does not do anything what so ever to addresses those specific complaints. All it does is duplicate information we already see on log in so not only is it useless in its current form but it makes using other functions in the game more frustrating to use.
Now there have been some interesting ideas thrown around regarding how to make the page useful. However even if a quarter of these ideas are taken on board it will take months for them to code it in. So my conclusion about this being a rush job and put into game before it was ready is very likely to be correct.
I'm betting next Thursday if they fix the pop up on every logon there won't be a disable landing page option coded in. Just my thoughts.
Hello rubber banding my old friend, time to bounce around the battlezone again, where are all my bug reports going?, out of love with this game I am falling, As Cryptic fail to acknowledge a problem exists, Shakes an angry fist, And from Support all I'm hearing are the sounds of silence.
They should also be able to judge a given feature when its functioning properly in order to actually give accurate feedback rather than kneejerk reactions to a malfunctioning detail. The feedback would be better when the thing actually works as intended.
Kinda like how with each season update the [?] button flashes until you open that menu and select the "Whats New in Season X" button... on EVERY character? And won't stop flashing until you do so on said character?
While some of the information being shown now is available in other areas... this is a consolidation of information into one convenient location. It might actually be a means of not having to click that [?] button every time we get a new season... on every character you log into.
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Well, if the intended landing page is supposed to only appear once per account, the same thing should be possible with some flashing buttons ;-)
You mean... like... our own Ready Rooms in our ship interiors?
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Yes, but an office also on station. Lifers could have an office on the lifer station, which is pretty devoid of life most of the time. It would be a single instance, just like interiors and hopefully the team could come up with a way to decorate it with accolades and such.
Fortunately that's a confirmed bug, we should see a fix soon that will relegate the landing page to once-per-account login. Further updates are very likely but Cryptic's only had a couple work days to look at the problem and processes feedback. So, exactly what will change (ex. moving landing page from ESC menu to J menu) we can't say for sure yet.
We do already have loading screens that promote season/expansion content. That serves the function of highlighting new updates but it can't link players to it. That's what the landing page has over the launcher links (for instance), those simply reference and provide extra reading if you feel inclined to stop and dig in. Folks get the hail or queue directly with an in-game splash page.
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We need an option to disable it and/or use the old ESC menu.
Or put the important parts back in the middle, not off to the side. Something like...
And really, how static are those panes? Players going to have to look at "What's new in 14.5" for months?! You look at it ONCE on one toon, then don't need it anymore! I thought the 2 panes on the 'J' window were sufficient to inform me of what I want to know!
And BTW, I still hate the new queue screen too.
With respect, friend, you seem to be implying that negative feedback is inaccurate, and based only on the bug. That's not a fair assumption. No, this thing is not in a convenient location. It's in an annoying location. The point for myself, and I think a lot of us, is that we already know where to find this information and yet it is being forced in our face. If it were a button we could hit, or ignore, then it would be in a convenient location, and we players may actually start to find this helpful. If that's not going to happen, and this thing is here to stay, then can you at least give us a disable option? I think putting it in the ready room is a brilliant idea. We need more things to do inside our ships, and it puts the information in game where we can find it if we want to. You know, I can see how you would find the flashing "?" button annoying. Maybe that could be reduced or disabled, too. But, I find that flashing button a lot easier to ignore than this landing page.
The Devs are aware of the bug. Yet people keep bringing up the bug. When they actually say they know about it... further comment on the same bug is kinda redundant. Better feedback now would involve things like the Ready Room idea and other things like that, which is a lot more constructive. Not going over the same thing over and over again.
THAT is really the issue right now. Not that it's inaccurate. Just that it is unnecessary to continue to bring it up til the cows come home.
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+1 this.
Just make it symmetrical, so for example, since the landing page appears to include two sizes of pictures, I would put the big ones on the sides of the menu, and run the small ones underneath.
It might also be worth considering making the landing page the size of 1-3 promo windows, and putting slider-arrows in there, to rotate through the ads. This would make it possible to roll through all of the new items, rather than being stuck with displaying just four at a time (So that if you had two active calendar events, new queue, new featured episode, new foundry spotlight, new season update and a c-store sale going on, you wouldn't have to prioritize what to put into the limited space of the landing page).
I love your redesign of this. Please can this be done.
Re: What's New. I think it's staying because clicking on it takes you to a page where you not only see what's new in 14.5, but can flip back in time through every single major update or expansion all the way back to season 6. So I guess it'll get update every time something major is added - season, half season, large-ish events such as anniversaries seems to be there too - but it'll stay there.
After having gone through these pages What's New may legit have become my favorite. I tend to come and go in games a lot and I hate asking around about what's changed while I was gone. This page is going to answer a lot of those questions for me without me having to dig around in fifteen different places for information.
On this point: some of the feedback here is directed specifically at the bug. It further assumes this is an intended feature. In that sense, yes some of the negative feedback is (quite simply and literally stated) inaccurate. That does NOT mean that it is based ONLY on a bug (or that this feedback should be discounted) but it has demonstrably been influenced by a bug (which one should simply keep in mind when trying to consider the aggregate magnitude of opinions.)
Therefore, we do not have an ideal baseline to judge (with complete accuracy) the final impact of the landing page. We still have workable data and actionable feedback (certainly sufficient to do something) but, that's part of a discussion that will continue to evolve with future developments (ex. from "it's annoying" to "it's still annoying" after the bug fix, which I'm expecting for the ESC menu in particular.)
I'm a little more on the side of "remove the landing page from the ESC menu and put it somewhere else that's a bit more intuitive place to look for content" (ie. the main menu of the mission journal, brought up by "J.") If that's what Cryptic ultimately opt for then maybe look at an ESC menu redesign as a stop-gap fix? Bigger changes could take time (especially with an expansion coming) so maybe we should look at highlighting suggestions as "stuff that might be doable right away" (so ViL isn't too badly affected) and "stuff that they might look at down the road."
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Besides, most of the time someone misses a flash sale it's because they were out of the game.
Alright, so the page popping up every motherlovin' time I switch characters is supposedly a bug. Fair enough. If only there was a test server or something, where these things could be ironed out before going live. Why does it pop up when I'm logging off or alting, though? Is that also a bug? I sure as shizzle hope so.
In summary: a feature I neither need nor want. What I do want is a simple toggle to disable the landing page entirely. And the inane loot roll fly-ins. And the queue confirmation prompt that's now obsolete.