Battle list UI

[r_mephala0 1]

The latest  update removed the battle names and most comments in its discussion thread were about the removal of the names.

 

As the devs said,

 

we are already working on adding full-scale support of format battles in PRO. All other bits of the update will stay.

 

However, the user experience is terrible. What improvements did it bring? None, in fact.

 

First, the chat that occupies one third of the window. It is filled with rubbish like "I ranked up yesterday" or "i have 1874 crystals" from some random "players" who sit  chatting instead of fighting. Or there is flooding with random characters that is ignored by the moderators.

Any constructive question is almost always ignored.

Furthermore, the moderators are strange - they issue warnings and bans wile ignoring people who write things like "ererererrerewerwerwerwrerewre" completely.

 

Second, the battle list lost the filtering options. This results in a longer list to chose from, making the selection process impossible.

 

Third, the modes are now represented by icons. This is NOT intuitive. Just like with the icons that were on the battle picture, there is no way of telling what they mean, the user has to guess.

 

Fourth, there is no sorting options. For example, I want to play CTF on Serpuhov or Highland, preferring teams with smaller max. sizes. I don't care about duration. How long does it take to make a decision on the screenshot below?

I will have to click on every of those battles to find out the max.players number, then looking for other positions in my list again.

 

If I had the possibility to filter and sort, the task would become easy. First I would filter by "battletype = CTF", then I would filter by "map in (Serpuhov, 2042)", third I would sort by max. team size.  Voila, problem solved.

Currently I have the strangest sorting options ever

WHY are maps in such order? It is not alphabetical, but weird.

 

The current sorting does not take the variability of needs into account. The devs are trying to fit everyone into it, however,  the same person may have different needs, e.g., some days he can play DM as long as he likes, while some other days  he prefers short CTF games. The game currently will show CTF first regardless of that player's needs.

 

I propose to delete the chat box and to transform the battle list into a table with filtering and sorting capabilities (like in spreadsheets). The headers could be customizable (order and visibility should be determined by the user) and include:

• Battle mode
• Map
• Team size/max players for DM
• Used blue team slots
• Used red team slots
• Free slots (this can be useful for hiding full battles)
• Duration
• Time to the end of the round from now
• Allow supplies
• Allow weapon change
• Allow SCD
• Allow bonus boxes
• Allow friendly fire

Anyone should be able to customize their list, displaying only the info he needs.

 

If the chat proves to be useful (which I doubt), it can be moved to a subdomain (chat.tankionline.com), reducing the server load (chatters don't play, but occupy player slots on the servers) and finally giving the ability to chat there while in battle (could be useful to call someone who is needed to the ongoing battle).

 

The update polls in Google Docs do NOT represent the opinion of players, because they are not connected to the Tanki profile. Anyone can vote several times, even if he doesn't have a Tanki account. Therefore, I propose the polls above. They are a closer approximation of the players' opinion for they can't be forged so easily. Furthermore, we can see the results, while the official polls' results  remain a secret to the players.

 

 

Please, do NOT discuss the battle names and/or PRO/private battles  here. Don't turn this topic into garbage. If you want to talk about that, use the appropriate topics.

 

 

This post will be edited only to correct misspellings. Any additional info will be in the next post.

[r_mephala0 1]

Reserved for new info

[Truthteller 4,204]

mephala I agree tat the main chat is full of crap but it is also useful 

I agree with the alphabetical stuff and but how ever I don't want main chat removed

[r_mephala0 1]

Please give at least two examples of the chat's usefulness

[Promissory 569]

I agree with almost everything, but please, don't remove chat.

[Baasil 37]

WOW... THANK YOU this is what I have been trying to say! PLEASE can I add this topic link to my post? As Tanki needs to fix these updates.

 

 

This is my post: http://en.tankiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=235087&page=1

 

 

[Baasil 37]

However I disagree that the chat be removed, the chat should not be removed as it develops culture into Tanki Online.

Edited December 18, 2014 by Baasil

[lordmostafa 3,821]

Okay, you gave a huge wall of text m8, here comes a huge wall in return...

 

Moderators are there, they do not "ignore", they just don't see. There are about 25 EN chat mods for how many English players? Thousands maybe? And do not say "Hire more mods", why? Because not all people have what is needed to be a chat mod, the requirements for chat mods are higher than all staff jobs..

You need to understand that Consultants and Chat mods do there best in doing their job, consultant consult, and chat mods mod. But they aren't always there, they are humans and they have a life, they can't be sitting 24/7 on a computer screen working for a game.

 

The chat is, well, a chat, it's meant to be for CHATTING, when you played a long game, you don't jump for a game right away, you chat, take some rest after that hard work. Moreover, the chat is a place to organize with friends, have fun, it's a place for consultants to work, it's essential! It's a part of the game. It can't be removed.

 

Now, lets give you some counter argument...

 

Second, the battle list lost the filtering options. This results in a longer list to chose from, making the selection process impossible.

It was reverted based on feedback, the old filtering system is back.

 

Third, the modes are now represented by icons. This is NOT intuitive. Just like with the icons that were on the battle picture, there is no way of telling what they mean, the user has to guess.

Do you mean these?

These aren't intuitive?! If they aren't, I don't know what is -_-

 

Fourth, there is no sorting options. For example, I want to play CTF on Serpuhov or Highland, preferring teams with smaller max. sizes. I don't care about duration. How long does it take to make a decision on the screenshot below?

 

I will have to click on every of those battles to find out the max.players number, then looking for other positions in my list again.

 

If I had the possibility to filter and sort, the task would become easy. First I would filter by "battletype = CTF", then I would filter by "map in (Serpuhov, 2042)", third I would sort by max. team size.  Voila, problem solved.

Currently I have the strangest sorting options ever

You should post ideas in the Ideas and Suggestions sub-section, not here.

 

WHY are maps in such order? It is not alphabetical, but weird.

 

The current sorting does not take the variability of needs into account. The devs are trying to fit everyone into it, however,  the same person may have different needs, e.g., some days he can play DM as long as he likes, while some other days  he prefers short CTF games. The game currently will show CTF first regardless of that player's needs.

Maps are now sorted by duration.

 

I propose to delete the chat box and to transform the battle list into a table with filtering and sorting capabilities (like in spreadsheets). The headers could be customizable (order and visibility should be determined by the user) and include:

• Battle mode
• Map
• Team size/max players for DM
• Used blue team slots
• Used red team slots
• Free slots (this can be useful for hiding full battles)
• Duration
• Time to the end of the round from now
• Allow supplies
• Allow weapon change
• Allow SCD
• Allow bonus boxes
• Allow friendly fire

Anyone should be able to customize their list, displaying only the info he needs.

Again, ideas aren't meant to be here. Tho I wouldn't recommend suggesting the removal of the chat, you will get only rejection.

 

If the chat proves to be useful (which I doubt), it can be moved to a subdomain (chat.tankionline.com), reducing the server load (chatters don't play, but occupy player slots on the servers) and finally giving the ability to chat there while in battle (could be useful to call someone who is needed to the ongoing battle).

Chat is useful for almost all of the tankers, it's not useful for you and maybe a few more guys, personally find the chat VERY useful.

 

The update polls in Google Docs do NOT represent the opinion of players, because they are not connected to the Tanki profile. Anyone can vote several times, even if he doesn't have a Tanki account. Therefore, I propose the polls above. They are a closer approximation of the players' opinion for they can't be forged so easily. Furthermore, we can see the results, while the official polls' results  remain a secret to the players.

They do represent the opinion of players, even tho they aren't connected to profiles. Why would someone who doesn't even play the game come and vote? Furthermore, Tanki makes those polls to get players' opinions for them to improve the game, why would players need them?

[Miahak 1,596]

"First, the chat that occupies one third of the window. It is filled with rubbish like "I ranked up yesterday" or "i have 1874 crystals" from some random "players" who sit  chatting instead of fighting. Or there is flooding with random characters that is ignored by the moderators.

Any constructive question is almost always ignored."

 

Firstly i would like to say the chat is for everyone, It's not "filled up with rubbish", well i know what you meant, but every players are not the same, there are some people who wants to chat with their friends after battle. Most of the players don't want to chat in the battle, because they want to focus more in battle, and these people who chat in the match and don't play, it will count as multing in battle, maybe you won't like that either, if someone join in your team and start chatting in the battle instead playing, will you like that?, of course not, in battle people just want to have fun, not to chat. Therefore if a player want to chat with his mate, he/she can go out from the battle and come to the main chat and talk to his friend instead chat/multing in the battle. That's why main chat is important for everyone, without chat people won't be able to talk/help each other and it will be boring. As you said "players who sit  chatting instead of fighting", well no one will force you to go battle, it's up to you, if you want to play in battle or chat with your mates in the chat. 

 

"Or there is flooding with random characters that is ignored by the moderators. Any constructive question is almost always ignored."  This is wrong. Chat moderators are not ignoring any violators, chat moderators are now spending more times in chat, if they see any violations they warn/ban straightaway. Violation only gets ignored when a moderator not in that chat, but we should also understand that in English community we only have few chat moderators and they are trying their best, however they get lots of reports from the game,probably over 100 reports a day. Chat moderators have to take care of chat and in the game, i bet they don't get time to play much.  -_-

 

"Any constructive question is almost always ignored." 

It is not getting ignored, Consultants are also working hard in chats, some players are asking questions when there is no consultants/moderators, but as we all know, everyone have different time zone. I'm not saying that, they will never get an answer to their questions if there is no consultant/moderators in chat, we do want to answer to the questions and solve their problems. What i'm trying to say is, player can PM one of the consultant, if they don't get an answer to their questions in chat, and the consultant will reply back to them as soon as possible :)

[Moreuz 67]

Please give at least two examples of the chat's usefulness

1.) If you wanna talk to someone about a war or joining battle.

2.) How would the Higher ranks ( to ) help out the new guys ( to )

3.) If you have lower ranking friends, how would you talk to them?

Edited December 17, 2014 by Moreuz

[Moreuz 67]

 

You are most-likely NOT in an english server, so the consultants and/or chat moderators probably can't understand english very well

[ThouShallNot 963]

[WarMonkey51Austin 68]

We should have PM's in game...

[ThouShallNot 963]

We should have PM's in game...

why you downvote my post?

[Baby_Sam 614]

The unanswered question that was picked, its answer is clear from the garage. I cano't believe a WO1 would ask this question.

However, this kind of question should be asked in the forum not in a running chat window where everyone is looking for their friends or whatever, and by the time they type an answer the question has been gone.

 

Regarding people who want to chat instead of fighting, if you are fighting, why do you care?

[Miahak 1,596]

We should have PM's in game...

This is not "Idea & Suggestion" section :P , you can post your Idea in here, "Idea & Suggestion". :)

[WarMonkey51Austin 68]

why you downvote my post?

Because your just being random and not sensible

 

 

 

tho looking back i think i was a bit too grumpy, sry m8