I just downloaded it and tried it out and so here are my thoughts.
Kinda Like - Mmmm
I like the fact that the EVE logo and the menu headers (News/EVE Store/Account/Support) are ranged left rather than centred as they were on the old launcher.
The bug reporting feature - This looks very slick and easy to access. I really like the fact that you can file bug reports straight from the launcher. I wondered if there ought to be a facility to include a screenshot of what’s happening though. Love the icon too!
I love the colour-coding vertical bars to the left-hand side of the account listings showing alpha and omega status - subtle and elegant.
I like the View News Archive button at the bottom of the left-hand column.
Really Hate - Grrr
The lack of ability to resize the launcher - The old launcher was much, much more compact (because it could be resized) I play on a smaller screen and the new one is just so space hungry - urg!
I don’t like the way that the dates on the news items in the first column appear in a Year/Month/Day format - This really ought to be in a European style: Day/Month/Year IMHO.
There used to be an ability to have an account label for each account. I found this really helpful but this has disappeared on the new launcher - please bring it back!
I really don’t like the way that the account name is on the right-hand side and the character names are on the left-hand side - feels very messy.
I really don’t like the way that you can’t control the order that the characters appear in within the account. On the older launcher, these used to organise by the most recent access now they seem fixed and random, not even alphabetical for example. Urg!
I really don’t like the fact that the < Play Now > button is separated from the account listings, on the old launcher the positioning felt way more logical and clean. (I really preferred the small roundels with an arrowhead in them to be honest).
Not at all sure - Ummm
The typography on the old launcher felt much less heavy and bold than it does on the new launcher - have you changed the font? If you have, the old font was way better.
On some levels, the mini pictures of the characters are a nice touch but they are pretty space hungry so maybe they should only be visible when you click on the account?
The account icons are a little bit clearer on the new launcher but a bit big and clunky. Maybe somewhere in between the old and new size to make them more compact?
The graphic above the (rather clunky) play now button feels a bit wasteful space-wise - it does nothing and just enlarges what is an already large launcher window.
The notifications and offers box seems really large to me. I do ‘get’ why CCP wants to direct players to these things but the net result is that the whole launcher ends up overly large and clunky.
I don’t really understand the corporation button (at the moment it’s a placeholder) but I think this might be handy depending on what it does (as a CEO some degree of see what corp members had been doing would be handy here).
Summary
There are a lot of bells and whistles on the new launcher however this feels over-complicated and the whole thing has ended up much more ‘clunky’ and really … B _ I _ G
Whilst I’m sure that there might be ‘in the background’ technical advantages to the new launcher I’m not feeling massive benefits here, sorry. In terms of the look and feel it feels a bit like we are trying to fix something that wasn’t actually broken.
Like Gerard Amatin above, generally speaking, I prefer the minimalistic look and feel of the old launcher to this new variant so I’m going to be sticking with that for now - please, please, please don’t stop it from working!
