In the Hero pane, we used to have an abbreviated list of attributes. Mouse-hovering over them would give further details on “sub-attributes”.
They changed it a little while ago so that ALL that info is on the screen at once, which is a great idea. But now you have to mouse-hover over EVERYTHING to tell what’s what, because they aren’t LABELED! Everything has a cryptic ICON instead.
They can keep their silly little icons if they must, but give us WORDS too! Only the hardcore stat-tweakers will ever learn all those little mysterious symbols by heart. Lower the accessories and underwater weapons to the bottom right corner of the window, and give us a TEXT label on the attributes so the information is actually informative.
Build a man a fire, and he’ll be warm all day.
Set a man on fire, and he’ll be warm the rest of his life.
– Unknown Fire Elementalist
No? Why? What would it hurt? There’s plenty of space for it, and it would be a super-easy update to program.
And apparently they are NOT “pretty obvious and easy to learn” for everybody, or I wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble of posting.
Toughness and Agony Resistance are Identical. There are several “Crossed Swords” icons (plus a single sword for “Power”. I would’ve thought a FIST for Power). Several “Target” icons. Etcetera. NOT obvious to me, no sir!
Build a man a fire, and he’ll be warm all day.
Set a man on fire, and he’ll be warm the rest of his life.
– Unknown Fire Elementalist
No? Why? What would it hurt? There’s plenty of space for it, and it would be a super-easy update to program.
And apparently they are NOT “pretty obvious and easy to learn” for everybody, or I wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble of posting.
Toughness and Agony Resistance are Identical. There are several “Crossed Swords” icons (plus a single sword for “Power”. I would’ve thought a FIST for Power). Several “Target” icons. Etcetera. NOT obvious to me, no sir!
I said ‘no’ as in ‘not only hardcore players know them by heart’
Not as in ‘I disagree with your suggestion itself’
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
See? I didn’t even catch that and it was right in front of me. How am I supposed to learn a bunch of little symbols? (I am 50 years old. I played Pong when it was new and exciting. It’s too late for and old dog to learn new tricks.)
Build a man a fire, and he’ll be warm all day.
Set a man on fire, and he’ll be warm the rest of his life.
– Unknown Fire Elementalist
I’m 47 and also had Pong fun! I have had some of the same issues, but have slowly been assimilating what’s what as I choose new gear for alts I’m leveling and have to see which stats I want to raise up. I still have to mouse over to confirm anything but the first four stats, however.
I’m not sure how they could have all the info on the panel without insane amounts of clutter. Maybe a 3 letter abbreviation before each icon? I do like the icons as they fit the game aesthetic.
Keep in mind it’s not quite the radical change you’d think — before they gave us the plethora of icon info we had to mouse over a base stat to see the secondary stats anyway.
The thing is that symbols stay in our memory longer than words. Words are more difficult to remember than a symbol.
Don’t ask me why. I have no idea about the anatomy of the human kind or whatever.
I like it with symbols. There’s more space which it’s easier to see everything on one look. Plus the symbols resemble everything very well and are easy to keep in memory. Much easier than 12 different words (who knows if more will follow).
Gamer & Developer; Playing games is part of making games! Gather experience and make games!
Hover your cursor over the space-saving symbol. I hate to say it, but even a child can understand what they mean by heart after about a month or two of playing. My 6th grade nephew gets it, and he’s not even 13 yet.
Symbols with mouse-over labels are just way cleaner and easier to fit into a menu.
Chris “Dawnheart” Aerinoh — Revenant, Guardian — Blackgate
It fits just fine. (And my own font is actually a little larger than the actual game font; compare to the character name above.)
I’m sure the art guys can make it prettier; indent/color code/line the stats up in a nice column, etc. They could still put the symbols in front too, if they liked.
Attachments:
Build a man a fire, and he’ll be warm all day.
Set a man on fire, and he’ll be warm the rest of his life.
– Unknown Fire Elementalist
The thing is that symbols stay in our memory longer than words. Words are more difficult to remember than a symbol.
Don’t ask me why. I have no idea about the anatomy of the human kind or whatever.
I like it with symbols. There’s more space which it’s easier to see everything on one look. Plus the symbols resemble everything very well and are easy to keep in memory. Much easier than 12 different words (who knows if more will follow).
In what world are symbols easier to remember than words?
You don’t have to REMEMBER words. You can read a new word right away. Someone has to TELL you what a symbol means.
Heiroglyphics died out as a means of written communication and took YEARS for experts to decipher. Why? Because they DON’T all resemble everything very well. I am STILL trying to figure out what that Healing Power symbol is supposed to look like.
Build a man a fire, and he’ll be warm all day.
Set a man on fire, and he’ll be warm the rest of his life.
– Unknown Fire Elementalist
