I wanted to chat about the new Inventory Revamp, why we made the changes and why we need to move forward with a new UI format.
We changed the UI mainly for two reasons. First, with the inclusion of item sets, there simply became too much important information to display on a single pane. This means we cannot just roll back to a previous version of the UI – item sets would be unable to be displayed, and we know you don't want that. Secondly, even before item sets were added, many higher level items with a lot of stats scrolled off the screen already at lower resolutions, so players were missing key information. That’s why we went with the tabbed approach – to allow everything show up properly and display all pertinent information at all supported resolutions.
We’re aware of the frustration in requiring more clicks to get to the information you were previously able to access with a quick mouseover. Solutions are diligently being pursued by our team. We’re looking into showing more information in the main preview window and more easily accessible expanded view options in coming updates. This includes ensuring continued support for our macOS players.
Thanks for your feedback and patience. Stay tuned for updates!
“If the Mind is like a candle, the Heart is like the sun.”
Professor Falmea
First, as a Mac player I’d like to thank you for keeping us supported! Now, as far as the item UI goes: I like the changes that show the stat differences for you, but why can’t we see the jewels and spells without clicking ten million times? It’s annoying especially if I’m just going through gear and it doesn’t show what it give me.
I love the new update, everything seems way clearer than before, and personally I'm not really bothered by the fact that it takes more clicks to find informations. However, I wish there were a faster way to know what cards some equips give. For example, it takes a lot more time to choose an amulet in the shops than before.
Thank you for your work on the game and for always bringing us great updates !
Please developers, this game has been perfect with this UI for years, we can't adapt to this, we as a loyal community will appreciate if you revert back to the old UI information
It doesn't help that we don't see what jewels we applied or which card this pet or gear gives It takes a while just to find out about something that I could've figured out using the old UI Thanks wizard101 developers for making this game awesome but we as a community would appreciate the old UI system
Thank you for all you do for the game we play, and have fun doing.
The new UI update I believe is more complex and quite hard to understand. Clicking multiple times just to see what Jewels I have equipped on an athame or ring to know which one to use is quite the hassle. Not to mention, when checking someone's stats, you have to do the same thing to see what jewel effects they have applied, and it's quite annoying. As someone who has been playing for a long time, I could probably adapt to it, but the older UI for me was much more simpler and easier to understand. As for the pet aspect, whenever I do a hatch, if the eggs are the same, it's extremely hard to tell what pet you got back due to the UI, whereas the old UI you could see what pet you got back immediately due to if you could see the card when checking your backpack.
I appreciate all the work you do for the game. Kindest Regards, Brecken
You should at least make it where we can also see the jewels at one page and the item sets on another. I wouldn't mind that.
I also hate how when you inspect a character it automatically goes go the equipment page instead of the stats like how it used to. I want to make sure the character has good stats before I check their equipment. Also, sometimes I just wanna make sure the character has good stats before I start a dungeon with them. Just too many more additional clicks which ruins the experience imo
There's this old saying: "If it ain't broken then don't fix it." As a Windows player this new UI change just messed everything up for me. I'm glad that you Mac players are happy with this change.
As a couple people have pointed out already my primary issue with the new UI is that spells don't appear when hovering over an item if it has one. While I think for vets, and more knowledgeable players this is hardly an issue, for newer or less knowledgeable players this is a rather big issue. I was trying to help a new player out last night with picking a good Amulet, and having to crt-click each Amulet in the Bazaar is really a pain.
Otherwise I think the reaction to the new UI is mostly overblown. While not a fan of it, I can understand the need for the change, and I'm glad to see you're planning to add a tab that displays all info.
ALSO I don't see that many people talking about find item feature. It. Is. Fantastic! Like seriously this is an awesome addition, especially for newer players.
I appreciate the intention behind the changes made towards fixing the UI for players who play with low resolutions, but I still believe hovering over gear should be done in a way to show as many stats as possible. Having to navigate through multiple windows creates more issues than it resolves. Regarding set bonuses and other stats that might get hidden off screen, I think something simple like holding shift should show the hidden stats, possibly in a new window beside the previous one, instead of creating a new set of tabs to navigate through.
If we can just have the same information we'd previously seen in hover displayed, most of our big concerns will be addressed.
If it takes me four clicks to pick the copy of the athame that I want to equip, I just won't equip it. I'll just make do with a single, "jack of all trades, master of none" copy. This disincentivizes farming for a second, third, fourth set of gear. I made in-game friends during that farming, and definitely spent crowns on things I wouldn't otherwise have known existed.
I understand there are technical issues preventing it from staying the way it was/reverting to it, but while it doesn't make the game unplayable, this new interface does make it much less convenient to play.
There's this old saying: "If it ain't broken then don't fix it." As a Windows player this new UI change just messed everything up for me. I'm glad that you Mac players are happy with this change.
Hey DeathGem, I can speak for myself as Mac user here and I do not like the new gear UI display. It is far worse than the old system. The set bonuses and location where the gear can be found are fine updates, and they are the only ones that should be on a separate tab. Everything else needs to be reverted back to how it was.
The New UI was needed if 'Gear sets were added' as there would be too much information on a single mouseover tab, HOWEVER jewels NEED to be shown on mouseover. its very hard clicking to see what jewels i have socketed on all my items Its really off putting.
There's this old saying: "If it ain't broken then don't fix it." As a Windows player this new UI change just messed everything up for me. I'm glad that you Mac players are happy with this change.
I agree the ui was totally fine, idk why they decided to mess with it. They need to put it back, no one wants to do all that clicking especially when it was easier before
I can understand why you changed how items stats are displayed, but I don't like or understand why the hover displays were removed for reagents and treasure cards that you receive as drops/rewards. A single treasure card can have multiple varieties and if you don't know the school of the spell you won't be able to find it. I love being able to compare things, but overall the new equipment ui just makes things frustrating. I see two ways to fix this.
1. Have the 'new gear changes' window always appear and instead of using ctrl+click to access extra information, hold down ctrl to swap between base stats & adjustments+spells(adj+spells in one window) for all 3 windows(current gear, hovered gear, and changes). Along the same lines, holding ctrl could add new windows/expand the windows and show more information to the side rather than below.
2. Or you could simply switch to scroll-able windows, and give the windows a max size relative to the resolution to stop it from going off the screen
Heyyo, just putting an opinion out there. I understand the need to update the UI to show new information such as set bonuses and stat changes, but the original UI was fine the way it was.
My suggestion is to keep the original UI, but then be able to ctrl+click to see the FULL details of whatever you wanna look at. People can have their interface back and everyone would still be able to see the full view (if they want to) without it being in the way.
Thanks for getting back to us on this. I have been playing now for more than 10 years and this change renders this aspect of the game almost unplayable I'm afraid.
I hear what you are saying about two things:
1. Screen resolution 2. New Gear Set stats
If I could make some suggestions?
1. Screen res: Many players now have higher resolutions, but I do understand the challenges for those who do not. Would it not be an option then, to allow us to "Use Tabbed Stats" with an On/Off toggle? That way, if we need to, we can turn it on or off.
2. New Gear Set stats: This is a new item (obviously) and I'm sure using CTRL/Click just to show this would be more user-friendly. The number of times we actually use full sets is not that common, and once we have selected it, we have decided. It isn't something you look at very often. The rest of the stats, the cards, the May Cast spells, these are all things we look at frequently as we journey through the spiral. There are so many individual items and pets, etc., that we do this a LOT. Item Set bonuses...great idea, but not something we need access to frequently.
It is good that this UI update is good for Mac players. But it is inconvenient for other players like me. So a total revert isn’t the right move to make. That’s why there should be a revert option like the one for classic graphics. I think that task is simple. Not asking for too much.
Just make a scrollbar, so it still comes up as a single panel but it's just an extra bit of scrolling within that particular panel. I get you guys are trying to improve on things but it's needlessly complicated and not child friendly, and at the end of the day, it's a kid game. It's not even really user friendly.
Its understandable that you would have a ctrl click option for gear bonuses or gear comparisons. That being said there is no reason at all to have spells and sockets be on another page. Please just modify the ui so we can see spells and gems. That's all we really want.
I havent experianced any of 2 things you just mentioned, but maybe thats just me. Still can you please just make 2 tabs, one like old one used to be with stats ,cards and jewels and other with gear set bonus? And what about pictures on reagents and treasure cards, why you remove them?? I cant think of any good one... Honestly I will never get used to it, since i know we used to have better and faster way. At this point i feel like its unplayable for me and i dont even want to lvl up and find new gear. Thank god my membership is over in few days, so i think i will stick with my lvl and gear and just do some gardering. Hope something will change to make me want to play again.
I agree with everyone on the new UI update. The update is more complex than ever before. When I want to go and see what jewels I have socketed on an athame, amulet or ring it is very difficult to do that with extra tabs.
Reason 1: If I have two of the same athames with different jewels socketed for each, how will I know which one is the right one. One could have pierce jewels and the other could have critical jewels.
Reason 2: The amount of clicking that has been added. I understand that it separates each part of the item, but why? It just makes it 10x harder for a player to see what an item has on it.
There has to be a way to switch back to the old UI system. Some players may enjoy this update. MOST don't.
While these decisions are not taken lightly, I for one would love one of the developers play as a character just having leveled and go to purchase a new deck. I can see that jewels are able to be put on the deck, but I can't see which kind of jewels and that makes a hugh difference if I am looking to build something specific. All I see is the changes made with the deck I am about to buy and the deck currently equipped. Please consider a change so we can see what jewels we can place on the new items.
Exactly. No one asked for this change and it is a horrible retrograde step. Multiple clicks, plus the need to use the other hand to hold down ctrl where before it was just the mouse, just to see the information you could check at a glance before. Loathe the utterly useless information on the main panel - seriously? Who cares whether the item can be 'auctioned' or was a crowns item? We are looking at the stats.
The only (arguable) benefit is the third panel that summarises the changes for those that had a hard time perceiving the important changes between two pieces of gear. Although I never found it a problem reading across and spotting that I would gain a big lift in critical but lose defence for example. I didn't need to know every single variation as I was looking for the most significant ones.
Why should the vast majority of players be inconvenienced by a minority who are still playing on an old monitor with low resolution? I've never been asked by KI if I'd submit my key hardware info for them to know the CPU, GPU, Memory and resolution info. Are they that sure it is that significant an issue? Seriously, who doesn't have widescreen HD monitor if they are keen on playing games? That's the standard for current devices in stores and an easy upgrade to add to older kit.
As a 35 year veteran of the IT industry in roles from programming, system analysis, QA Testing, and support I totally agree with DeathGem67 - "If it ain't broke then don't fix it".
I plead with KI to find a way to engage with the user base and collaborate with them on new ideas to see if they are welcomed before you go ahead with changes. The old argument about maintaining your IP for accepting new story line, character ideas or UI changes that come from the customer base can easily be overcome by the submitting person agreeing to assign any such rights in favour of KI. If you are the ones asking the customers 'would this be a good idea' it doesn't apply anyway.
It just makes sense to ask first before expending effort of stuff that isn't liked or wanted. Do it with a closed set of trusted players if you want to keep it quiet what you might be planning to change, although I can't believe there are other games companies out there that eagerly try and find out what KI are planning for their game! They are far more focussed on talking to their own customer base to improve their product and whether KI plan to make changes to pet abilities isn't going to be of interest to companies that do FPS games now is it?
The user base commit to thousands of hours of play time. We don't switch off our brains during this and we notice stuff. Why not use that experience and improve the dialog between you and your customers. The current system of emailing you instead of submitting a ticket into a proper support database that can be escalated, tracked and is visible to the key parties to the ticket is woefully archaic.
I'd rather KI develop that instead of thinking up and introducing stuff no-one is asking for. You could even buy a turnkey system for doing support in a better way so it's not as if it would take much effort. Please? it'd make all our lives so much easier.
Wizard101 is a game that has held my interest for many, many years despite frustrations caused by some changes and lack of action in areas that do need fixing but never get done. Imagine how much more loyal and excited I'd be if KI started to deliver a games experience that truly involved the players and listened to them.
this really is annoying i cant see what jewels or card my gear has, i do not like it i spent alot of money on this game an this is like a slap in the face, you can not see how much health your enemy has in battle so your guessing how much more you got to do to kill them, its all messed up you all messed this up an i am very hot, you dont change it back im gonna just quit the game,, i spend a lot of money in crowns an i buy a year membership every year, thinking i will support the game, cause i loved it,, well with this new advance you just did i do not like and im giving this a week if its not back to way it was so we can just stroll over our gear to see what cards it gives or not being able to our jewels i want a refund of my money, and i will no longer support ki
Its really off putting.
