Why are the icons still stretched?

evilspok · January 2023

Every time I think something is temporary and will eventually get fixed nothing happens. It looks unprofessional fix it please.

evilspok · January 2023

valoreah wrote: »

I would counter this with the questions who cares? And why is this even a problem? Far more important things to worry about in the game than iconography on the forums.

Because you don't get a second chance at first impressions? When the official forums look worse than your typical fleet's in the game it's a bad look.

rattler2 · January 2023

I blame Vanilla. Even we mods have tried to check with Kael on it in the past. Think even he's stumped.

I'm just spitballing here, but it could be some minor Vanilly update changed something, and made our existing icons not quite fit anymore on actual width so it tried to adjust them to fit, resulting in them being stretched. The answer could be as simple as just readjusting the width of the blank space in something like GIMP and reuploading, or it could be something convoluted and complex. I don't know the Vanilla software so I can only speculate.
I'll try passing it up the chain again though. But for now I'll just settle for blaming Vanilla.

evilspok · January 2023

rattler2 wrote: »

I blame Vanilla. Even we mods have tried to check with Kael on it in the past. Think even he's stumped.

I'm just spitballing here, but it could be some minor Vanilly update changed something, and made our existing icons not quite fit anymore on actual width so it tried to adjust them to fit, resulting in them being stretched. The answer could be as simple as just readjusting the width of the blank space in something like GIMP and reuploading, or it could be something convoluted and complex. I don't know the Vanilla software so I can only speculate.
I'll try passing it up the chain again though. But for now I'll just settle for blaming Vanilla.

This is the best outcome I could hope for thank you for your efforts.

evilspok · January 2023

valoreah wrote: »

evilspok wrote: »

Because you don't get a second chance at first impressions? When the official forums look worse than your typical fleet's in the game it's a bad look.

What exactly does iconography on the forums (which a very small portion of the playerbase even uses) have to do with the game play? One would think how the game itself looks and plays is just a tad more important toward making a good impression.

Why are you continuing this thread when the topic has been addressed? Are you arguing for arguments sake or are you arguing that we shouldn't care enough about the game to expect it to be presentable? Either way I think you've made a mistake.

Put it this way, even a returning player visiting the forum and sees that will immediately think "this game is going downhill nothing to see here" and move on. If it's bothersome for me to mention it many months later it only illustrates the lack of thought that seems to pervade the place.

evilspok · January 2023

valoreah wrote: »

evilspok wrote: »

Why are you continuing this thread when the topic has been addressed? Are you arguing for arguments sake or are you arguing that we shouldn't care enough about the game to expect it to be presentable? Either way I think you've made a mistake.

I am sharing my opinion and thoughts on the topic, which we are all freely allowed to do here. That is in no way a mistake. Discussion is what these forums are for and that is a healthy thing. It is very important to hear differing viewpoints on any topic, this one included.

Put it this way, even a returning player visiting the forum and sees that will immediately think "this game is going downhill nothing to see here" and move on. If it's bothersome for me to mention it many months later it only illustrates the lack of thought that seems to pervade the place.

Or a returning player simply may not care about icons at all, assuming they even visit the forums to begin with. It has been cited many, many times over the years only a very small fraction of the overall player base visit the forums.

Just because this bothers you it in no way means it will bother everyone. I have been playing this game since the beginning and visit the forums frequently. I could not care less about oversized icons. They do not bother me. You are, of course, welcome to disagree.

Personally, I would rather a new or returning player get immersed and enjoy the overall game play inside the game. That is where attention is needed in my opinion. By all means look into the forum icons, just things like that should be at the very bottom of the priority list, if on there at all.

That's your argument to make that Cryptic should focus on bigger issues not mine. Cryptic repeatedly says that this or that project would be too big to handle. If they can't handle the big things, then at least address the little ones. Cryptic is basically a high-tech art studio. If they can't manage to get some proper 2D artwork on their website, they are in dire straits.

evilspok · January 2023

valoreah wrote: »

evilspok wrote: »

That's your argument to make that Cryptic should focus on bigger issues not mine. Cryptic repeatedly says that this or that project would be too big to handle. If they can't handle the big things, then at least address the little ones.

New content takes priority, so yes, they do not have the time to take on larger projects. Most of the time when they say this, it has been for people asking for features which would essentially require a rewrite of the whole game. That is not feasible at this point.

Cryptic is basically a high-tech art studio. If they can't manage to get some proper 2D artwork on their website, they are in dire straits.

Or they just spend their time and effort on revenue generating. People paying for items in game are what keeps the lights on, not 2D artwork on their forums which again, hardly anyone pays attention to.

Not sure why you think you are an expert at revenue generating if you don't understand that if the storefront looks like a hobo lives there, no one's coming inside. "Which again", you have no idea how many people visit the forums or how many pay attention to it.

baddmoonrizin · January 2023

Ok, folks, let's cool down, please. I think everyone has made their point.

evilspok · January 2023

Agreed valoreah. It's fine I'm just passionate about Star Trek and STO and want them to put their best foot forward.

spiritborn · January 2023

Honestly I think they only people who'd get really upset about the current icons are people who saw them before they got stretched, new people might think it a stylistic choice.

rattler2 · January 2023

It will get looked at. Kael just needs the time to dive into Vanilla. Everyone please be patient. We'll update if anything comes up.

sthe91 · January 2023

I first posted about this on June 2022. The only two things in that thread that are not applicable are that the new Arc client does not have a built-in browser anymore and forums no longer have the blinding white background as well.
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline#/discussion/1267352/the-icons-on-the-main-sto-and-neverwinter-forums-are-now-squished-today-in-arc-chrome

truewarper · January 2023

rattler2 wrote: »

I blame Vanilla. Even we mods have tried to check with Kael on it in the past. Think even he's stumped.

I'm just spitballing here, but it could be some minor Vanilly update changed something, and made our existing icons not quite fit anymore on actual width so it tried to adjust them to fit, resulting in them being stretched. The answer could be as simple as just readjusting the width of the blank space in something like GIMP and reuploading, or it could be something convoluted and complex. I don't know the Vanilla software so I can only speculate.
I'll try passing it up the chain again though. But for now I'll just settle for blaming Vanilla.

I wonder why this might be the case...hopefully a couple of lines of clean code should right the visual problem.

Why are the icons still stretched?

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