Wouldn’t exactly call it Whining, I am genuinely curious why it all of a sudden changed to this, I’m not a fan as neither are several others, I have also been using Photon since day 1 and this is a new change as of yesterday, along with the yellow highlights that were just added that defeat whatever color scheme you select for everything in the settings menus. Working as intended or other issue?
First Impression: I don’t like and I will stick to the old UI as long as it is available. The current state of Photon UI does not convince me to change. Period!
General feedback:
- The waste of screen space is mentioned by a lot of others. I won’t go into detail here.
- Would it makes sense to provide an option like “Enable compact Mode to all windows” and the player decides, when it is disabled? I skip the question “Why not make it as compact as the old one” because I fear this question is a waste of time here
- The inconsistancy of the windows:
- Sometimes there is always a close button, sometimes not, sometimes the close button is related to the compact mode.
- Sometimes buttons are always visible (e.g. the “Recover active probes” button within the Probe Scanner window and sometimes you have to place the mouse over a certain area before the icons/buttons appear (e.g. drone window for the different options for drone or gneral drone management). Sometimes its like playing hide and seek here
- The lock windows size and position does not alwasy work (was also mentioned above)
- Not quite sure about but I think the UI causes some performance issues, especially if you change from normal space to the abyssals (longer loading times?)
- Give the player the UI selection option within the Launcher. At this moment I ran one account with photon and two without it. At the moment I always have to restart at minimum one account with the right UI setting. But it seems this is an old issue because this happen also if you have different sound setting and starting accounts from the same Launscher
- Irregular button re-arrangement. If you re-arrange buttons (well not a good idea in many cases) do it in a way that concentrate the buttons and do it in the same way for all windows (e.g. Probe Scanner: Launch button and recover-button are in the same place. It would make sense to include there also the reconnect to lost probes option there as well. The place would be there…(or does it only appear if the probes are lost. sorry, could not check it)
- Make windows and text customizable concerning size, color and transperence level. I think you could cover a lot of issues with that.
- For the sake of essential and quick information gathering: Avoid shades or glimmering effects or make them customizable.
- Contrast issues between writings and background
Special pros and cons found out:
pro drone window:
- Micromanaging drones, especially single or grouped drones is more easy because of the little buttons where the old right click and select options becomes obsolete.
con drone window:
- takes to much space even if you change from icon to list option
- the icons for the drone options are only visible when you place your mouse over the frame/the folder group. I would suggest you make them always visible. Especially the little options wheel where you could change between passive, agressive, … mode is kind a hide and seek play.
- its very fiddly if you fly a drone boat with different drone groups and you have to find out how to collaps the folders between drones in bay and drone in space
I really like the bigger broadcast buttons in the fleet menue and dislike the waste of space…
I’ll stop at this point … it took over 90 minutes to write and check this…
General remark:
Honestly, I’m really amazed about your bad communication. And this is again a prime example: You introduced it without warning as a default operating UI. I would say you forced it onto us without warning (I mean that you change the UI as default per now). A lot of the comments here showed it and it seems some people even lost their fights/ships because of this forced introduction.
Personally, at the moment I have the impression that I’m a Beta Tester who pays money to be allowed to test your … erm… “new” product … after you increased the fees. To be honest: Are you kidding me??
3 Likes
Hiya, I like a lot of the concepts in the Photon UI, but most of improvement comes from constructive input. SO here’s what I don’t like in Photon/this latest update (notes taken through the day as I encounter them)
Coloured Text : This first item may be outside of Photon, but the colours used with indicating system security status levels, and the other elements around system display, they have been dulled to a level that I don’t like them. The system/station/etc text is clear but still so much darker that it really feels drab grey to me, and those colours are dulled to a level which, instead of feeling vibrant and good (to me) they are all a bit sad and generally unpleasant to see. They might be good for a dark-mode setting perhaps for people experiencing light sensitivity or otherwise wanting the game elements less bright, but otherwise just feels dull. Extra: This applies to other coloured texts I’ve seen later, like in the wallet.
Excess Padding : in many windows there is still a lot of wasted space through excessive padding, where a ‘compact mode’ would be appreciated for those who like their information compact while visible and also not-in-the-way of viewing their ship and the space around it … so far I’ve seen the Fleet Invite window is particularly egregious ; in cases where maybe the extra size is supposed to be about grabbing attention or alerting, put some extra border-filling colour (like a yellow or orange) so it’s really loud and also doesn’t feel like badly wasted space
Neocom Transparency : the Neocom and its expanded menus are stuck on ‘light mode’ with transparency, I don’t like it and I haven’t found any option to ‘disable light mode’
Inconsistency : (because consistency was part of the plan right?) … the ones that stand out to me so far are the CHAT and Planetary Industry and Inventory windows, which have no one-click Minimize/Close button to quickly get them out of my way (EDIT: applies just to Compact Mode, where there is still plenty of room for that essential extra button without otherwise changing the layout or appearance)
Button Sizes : several buttons are much taller/larger than is appropriate for the size of text within them; I like most of my text to be small, so the button should at least be not-tall to be a proper fit with that text, and here I am very aware of the big wasted space (similar issue to the excess padding mentioned earlier)
INDUSTRY PANEL : This is a further extension of the issue in wasted space and excess padding. I like playing EVE with a smaller (720p) height so with the graphical section as big as it is, there’s very little room for the blueprint list and now there’s even less. Last week (with compact list) I could see 6 blueprints and that was workable, but with the added waste-padding now I only get 3 blueprints. There is the button to collapse the graphical portion of the panel in which case it becomes a list of blueprints and nothing else as every action and function to use the blueprints will also be hidden - functionally useless. SO, my request here, if we can’t reduce the padding or shrink the graphical section, give the Industry window a ‘compact mode’ where all of the functional features and information are available without the big cool imagery - and in the case where there’s not enough material to start a job then the Start button can be disabled like usual saying “not enough material” and then if I want I can expand the main interface for the details.
Neocom BUG : when I log in, the Neocom icons below the skill training are missing until I resize the Neocom (not just the image is missing, the buttons are completely absent)
(later additions)
Contract Window : the minimum width is more than necessary, but more importantly considering that width the ‘Name’ and ‘Search By’ fields are very short, so much that there is not enough room to show the full label in the ‘Search By’ field
2 Likes
The slot column in inventory is blank. This used to show High, Medium, or Low for modules. How can we view this?
1 Like
Opted out immediatly
some reasons :
- Windows are too big, why such huge border everywhere, even in compact mode
- i prefer the old window highlight
- Why did the close button moved inside the 3 dot menu in some windows? how is this more usable ?
- why change color code for systems security? it looks less readable to me
overall i did not find any reason to keep the new ui, everything is either worse or not better than the old ui from what i see so why even bother trying to use it
4 Likes
I actually loved the new color scheme for the security, it doesn’t look like Mardi Gras anymore
Can we keep the Mardi Gras theme at least in February and March?
1 Like
I actually loved the new color scheme for the security, it doesn’t look like Mardi Gras anymore
Can we keep the Mardi Gras theme at least in February and March?
One word, terrible. Disturbing. Big luck, my friend found where we can restore the old graphics.
The largest problem is all windows size changed which are setup after many times.
1 Like
i dont like the new UI and rather use the old one … sorry
holy thats a crap… the UI is to big… the window´s are so heavy… pls make it smaller !!
4 Likes
For the most part I like the Photon interface but there are a few things of which I am not fond.
One of the most obvious changes in the new interface is the removal of the sliding sidebar we currently have. I use this a lot when mining to reload crystals in my mining lasers and monitor how much ore is in the mining hold as well.
The other is the need to have to click at least 2x to get to the minimize option on many of the windows. I use this a lot since I may need the info in the window for a quick check but don’t want to have to reload the window every time I need the info.
1 Like
The new UI breaks my usage in three ways that compel me to disable it.
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The probe scanner window when stacked on top of the d-scan window does not have an option to “dock in solar system map”. I use this feature multiple times per session as I switch whether or not i’m actively scanning.
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The names of chat channels are now less visible and more truncated by a larger font and more wasted white space making it harder to know which channel tab is which when many are stacked.
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The probe “recover” button is smaller and less convenient.
In general I find there is still a great deal of wasted space even in “compact” mode I’d strongly suggest a “truly compact” mode that actually minimizes wasted space. Eve is complex game trying to make the ui look cleaner by forcing white space into the design is terrible for usability.
4 Likes
I tried to use it…forced myself to try it but it SUUUCCCKKKKSSSS…I do not have a ps4 I have a computer and want to play games on my computer not a video game consul for little kids or on my phone…all of the windows in it and tabs are wasted space…I like my color settings instead of the shitty generic ones and my organizational skills are obviously better than the ones used by someone who organized the ninety million clicks to setup a now clustered and useless sidebar…my conclusion and recommendation is to get rid of the Photon UI and go back to what is useable and less abhorrently inept
4 Likes
One further question:
What is the intention behind the fact if you have a loot window in compact mode where there is no “Loot” or “Loot all” button?
Compact mode kills functionality in this case.
8 Likes
Hi CCP Me Again Shi!
How are you… i hope your having a lovely day… mine hasn’t been so great. i woke up today hoping to play Eve… but I’ve seen there’s an update… Cool… except… now my UI is different. I’m not sure where things are… I’m missing some items. My Neocom is HUGE for whatever reason…
Yes you gave us an option to Revert… cool but unless your pretending Old map doesn’t exist it’s extremely likely we will be forced to use photon eventually (skill queue) So in the spirit of that i have one toon using it… and omg… do you guys even play the game? legit question…
Why does compact not have a Close button? why is compact just the old version? (ov and DScan) why is “disable light background” even a ■■■■■■■ thing when we have transparency… this is just Transparency with extra steps… and i hate it… I hate every little bit of it. the PI ui looks good… but that’s literally the only good point i can make. I HATE THIS UI CCP… i hated it when you forced it on Skill queue and i hated it when you pushed it on Agency… Agency at least made some sense. It was a new thing now you’re just ruining the experience of many players for the giggles… NOBODY ASKED FOR THIS UI. IT LOOKS BAD IT FEELS BAD AND IT REALLY DOESN’T LOOK LIKE EVE ANYMORE. Please take this UI under SERIOUS advisement. There is a reason we opt out… And not out of simplicity. ITS BAD. ALWAYS HAS BEEN. the second you stop huffing your own Glue the sooner you can stop wasting your time on it.
I’m seriously trying to be nice here… I REALLY REALLY don’t like this UI and think its an entire waste of time\effort… This isn’t just a stubborn old bitter vet nagging about the game… It is OBJECTIVELY WORSE in many ways just play the damn game.
Sorry for the hate CCP I hope you change your tune soon.
3 Likes
Feature request: UI AddOn support so all of this can be overridden by 3rd party UI designers.
Surely an overhaul of this magnitude is not purely cosmetic and some attention has been paid to the back-end architecture.
4 Likes
This is my first post on the forums, and I don’t intend to post much, but I really feel I need to give feedback on this new UI…
I’m afraid to say it’s terrible. I tried to tough it out to adapt to it but had to give up after a day of it. Significant problems include:
I can’t see as much information as with the older UI. One glaring example is moving the selection panel on the bank window to overhead from the side, which left me looking at about 4 rows of entries. Yeah, that’s not enough guys. This isn’t the sole issue but is probably the worst example of reducing the important information access.
My head actually began to hurt because of the contrast glare I was getting under the Amarr colour scheme and I had to take a break. Might just be me but why design something that actually makes your customers feel ill?
Low sector systems now appear to be yellow on the route track. I guess I could get used to it but not sure why I really should have to?
The change to more subtle indicators from the red dots may seem cool but it’s too subtle and less intuitive for my liking. I also don’t like having to mouse over a slider to get it to thicken. Again too subtle at the expense of facility.
As I say, I didn’t just reject this out of hand. I tried but it really was frustrating to use and I eventually opted out earlier today.
I have to say if the opt out is removed and I’m forced to use this UI as it stands I will likely just quit the game entirely. I’m certainly not going to spend hours playing a game that literally gives me a headache when doing so.
Hopefully these issues can be resolved as I’m not against the new UI in principle, I get this is Beta, and it’s good that effort to improve things is being made, but unfortunately it’s just not good enough right now. I feel there really needs to be a different approach taken by the designers to prioritise what actually works over what may seem “cool”. As I say, as it stands, it’s just terrible, and the older UI is much better.
I’m sorry if this is all a bit neggy, but hope these criticisms will prove helpful and we’ll get a much better outcome as a result.
5 Likes
It appears as though we are being forced into using the new UI which the majority of people do not like, as a new player experience it might be ok for alphas to use before moving to omega and then changing to the UI we know and use and which is far better than the crayon mode photo UI.
Contracts do not work under the old UI anymore and you need to change over to new UI in order to create a contract, if this is a bug it needs attention, otherwise being forced to use something we dont like wont rest with the majority of players.
Stop messing with thing that no one likes and fix bugs that have been in this game for over 5 years!, fix those before introducing more bugs into the game.
1 fix that needs attention if the retriever and lodestrike skin this issue has been in game and its been reported many times and nothing has been done, the error, skin a retriever with the lodestrike then look at the ship from the front and spin it left to right, the skin does not fit the ship properly and this has not been addressed, we are going through update after update with new issues being introduced while old errors go unaddressed.
If something works dont break the game and introduce more problems, one other issue is the sound issue between eve sound library files conflicting with other programs like google chrome, youtube or spotify, this issue has been in game since the beta of dx12, then you add a sound update to the game and make things worse, stop messing with the game.
2 Likes
It looks like opening the mail window via the notification for new mail, instead of clicking the button on the neocom, does not clear the neocom button from thinking there is new mail. It will continue to show as though there is new mail even though there is none (including on the tooltip for the button) until you open the mail window via that button.