[Feedback] New Item Window and XP Potions

Discussion in 'Test Server Forum' started by Uwkete-of-Crushbone, May 7, 2018.

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  1. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    When you go to Examine the Draft of the Wise (an old blue potion), it lists it as (emphases and quotes are mine):

    "When used this magical potion grants the user a bonus to adventure experience earned for one hour. This potion can only be used once before disappearing."

    When the down arrow is clicked to reveal more information, that's when it gives us the usual stats it always had:

    "Effects:
    • Applies a blessed experience when Activated. Lasts for 1 hour.
    • Increases Combat XP of caster by 110.0%
    • Increases AA XP Gain of caster by 110.0%
    • Increases Tradeskill XP of caster by 110.0%
    • You can only have one experience potion active at a time."
    It must be said, it also gives that information if you just hover your cursor over it, without Examining it. Still, I can imagine confusion rearing its ugly head.

    With the really ancient pink ones, such as the Draft of the Expert, it has the same failing, with the following difference:

    "When used this magical potion grants the user a bonus to tradeskill experience earned for two hours. This potion can only be used once before disappearing."

    Can't we just tweak the initial wording to say, "a bonus to experience earned" and if folks are still confused, then when they do the down-arrow bit, they can see all the numerous bonuses?

    Also, isn't "This potion can only be used once before disappearing." somewhat over-wordy and confusing? If an item has "charges," such as a stack of potions, I would hope people would be smart enough to figure out that when you use one out of, say, a stack of 5, you will have 4 left. :-/

    Unless, of course, if we use ONE of these, the entire stack then disappears, since they're old? :( If that's true, maybe they shouldn't be stackable...which would really be defeating the purpose. ;->

    Uwk
    who's a bit leery to try that last theory; I still have many a crafter to get up to where they should be, and even the old pink things are still valuable ;)
    Rosyposy and Laaw like this.
  2. Laaw Well-Known Member

    over a decade of confusion should never be changed, it would only cause more confusion. which might cause some confusion
    Geroblue and Uwkete-of-Crushbone like this.
  3. Finora Well-Known Member


    That does seem a bit weird, but who knows what craziness they've been getting with customer service about potions and what not. I worked in RL customer service for years, and some people really are just plain stupid and need things spelled out for them in detail like that. I can only imagine the same is at least sometimes true for CS in games.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone and Rosyposy like this.
  4. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    True; I was almost a Technical Writer until that glorious day when every corporation on the planet (well, at least in this country) decided they "didn't need no stupid writing or manuals!" and fired everyone. I almost went freelance online until then, and found I had to suddenly compete with people with PhD's, 30+ years of experience, and a willingness to work for $0.50/page... X-P

    At any rate, we were always told by instructors, "Never presume your audience knows as much about a particular subject as you do." Still, there's gotta be some presumption of being at least as smart as a gerbil, one would like to think. :-/

    Uwk
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  5. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    Looking back on this, I think I should've had the title at just, [Feedback] New Item Window, since I am finding other stuff...

    Such as, while hovering the cursor over the 50th level Flickering Gem of Criticals, the blue area between the arrowheads is chopped in half, since the adornment item window is half the size of others (it's just a Gem, after all). Unfortunately, it's the wrong half for the drop-down arrow that would have more information available. :-/

    When you're Examining it, there's enough room in the Examine window to show everything. :)

    Uwk
  6. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    In addition, all the flavor text for both the Frostfell materials as well as the regular fuels we get from the merchants seems to be totally missing? Dunno about you all, but I certainly haven't memorized all the various tiers for fuels to the point where I know instantly which name goes with which level. :(

    Thankfully, the Imbuing materials' (at least the ones from level 1->99) descriptions have been left alone. :)

    Uwk
  7. Whilhelmina Well-Known Member

    I agree with the above statement. The lack of flavor text on fuel (mouse over tooltip) is highly annoying. We have to open the examine window to actually know the tier of fuel we have.
    Same remark for fertilizer items.


    But overall, I really like the change, it makes the gear stats way more easy to read.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone and Rosyposy like this.
  8. Whilhelmina Well-Known Member

    The ascension scrolls have a problem too.
    Not the regular one, but the "special" ones, aka "Mysteries of the Keeper" and "Ascended Journeyman Primer". Player has no way to know what does the scroll before clicking it, and examining opens the box for using it which isn't really great. We all know that a lot of people don't read stuff and will misuse them.
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  9. Niami DenMother Well-Known Member

    Please make sure to get in a /bug on the specific items (or groups of items) where needed text is missing from the mouseover. In some cases, it is an accidental oversight because there are so many ... odd ... things out there with special exceptions to every rule. The necessary devs for fixing the item stuff aren't likely to be reading this forum regularly.

    Adornments and items with tradeskill bonuses come to mind as problem children as well. (I put in a /bug on several adorns already.)
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone and Rosyposy like this.
  10. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    But it does show in the Examine window? Bah, what a PitA...at least it still exists in some form. :(

    True! :)

    Uwk
  11. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    Ah! Good point! Will do. :)

    Uwk
  12. Thart Developer

    Dropping flavor text and useful info from mouseovers is definitely not part of the design :oops:

    A fix for those missing item descriptions is in the pipe, verified with some Frostfell materials and ascension scrolls. The nature of the issue means other item types may have not been displaying descriptions as well.

    I also put in a mouseover layout fix for items that have long adornment names like Flickering Gem of Criticals' "Lambent Adornment of Critical Chance (Lesser)".

    Thank you everyone for all your help and /bug reports! :)
  13. Whilhelmina Well-Known Member

    You're welcome. I'll continue to check random items falling into my bags.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  14. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    And I've followed Mum's suggestion and sent in /bug reports. :)

    Uwk
  15. Tkia Well-Known Member

    I've been trying to find a way of getting the comparison windows up using the alt key but so far no luck. I've even been into advanced options to see if there's a setting there that I have different on test to the live servers but can't find anything. Has this function changed or been lost completely? I hope it's just changed as I use it constantly when I'm picking up dropped gear and in raid loot rolls.

    Anyone else found a way of doing it?
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  16. Thart Developer

    Fear not, it's still there! :)

    Before you could set it to either use Alt or Ctrl, and since Alt is now taken up by showing base mods, the setting will only check for Ctrl for both values.

    If you /bug'd it, I think I saw that this morning and submitted something to make this more intuitive:
    1. It will fixup your settings (changing the corresponding cvar, cl_chain_tooltips, from 3 to 2 if you had it set as such).
    2. It also adds "Hold Ctrl to show comparison" next to the "Hold Alt to show base mods" text in the mouseover if this setting is enabled and the item you're mousing over might have something to compare against.
    That change isn't deployed yet, but you can still use Ctrl to show the comparison windows in the current test build.

    Does this cover your usage of it?
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  17. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    We got our info back for fuels from mouseovers! :D

    Haven't checked the Frostfell mats yet, but I'm hopeful! :)

    Thanks, Thart! :D

    Uwk
    Thart likes this.
  18. Tkia Well-Known Member

    Thanks for the info, Thart. Yes that was probably my /bug report you saw. It's comforting to know that somebody does read them :)

    I've checked and the Ctrl key does work - I never even knew that was an alternative before! However, there is a bit of a clash with using Ctrl to view items in the dressing room. If you hit ctrl while hovering, the comparison windows pop up and the cursor correctly changes to the magnifying glass so if you click you continue to get the dressing room window as before. But depending where the comparison window locates itself you sometimes end up having to click through that window to activate the dressing room view which is a bit cumbersome. I'm not sure what logic is being used to determine the comparison window positions relative to the inventory slot you are hovering over but sometimes a window will pop under your cursor and other times it's well clear. Could it be tweaked to always keep the popup clear of the cursor? Clicking blind through another window is not exactly intuitive :)

    The added info text will also be a huge help for those of us who have spent 14 years holding Alt :) However I have to say that when I've been poking this I haven't actually seen the 'hold alt .. 'message yet. Is that only showing up on certain levels or types of item? I've mostly had lower level toons with simple items equipped over the last few days so maybe I haven't tripped over one where it's applicable yet.
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  19. Whilhelmina Well-Known Member

    yes, you only see it if the item is reforged, infused, adorned or modified in any way. I you don't adorn/change your items, you won't get the message.
    Basic gear in high level zones is already modified so you nearly always have the message "hold alt...". As you're on lower level toons (so under 100) you don't have pre-modified items.

    (and I learned through your bug that you could choose to not to display the comparison, I had totally forgotten that, I have it set to "always")
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  20. Niami DenMother Well-Known Member


    Caught another one that gets cut off - "a vampiric incisor" Mouseover gets as far as Required for the quest "L"
    then it stops. :D
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
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