Let's just... take the opportunity to have one thread which limns the many problems with the new client, and generate some constructive feedback. I'm not going to include screenshots for my list because I'm too lazy. I haven't looked at it too closely, so please, correct me if I'm wrong. I'll underline the things most important to me, if you're at all interested. Also, forgive me if this doesn't actually "go here," but it seems to be where the majority of the new client discussion is taking place, and it's no longer in beta. Main Menu: This is the PS4 menu. I see PlayStation® button symbols all over, and that really makes it feel like whoever made this client was trying to phase out PC play. There is no list of online players. Deck Manager deck selection is very slow; unless you only have under fifty decks (for some horrid reason), it will take a minute just to scroll to the one you want, and scrolling seems a bit "slippery," if you will. Deck management in-client is clearly designed for PS4: you quickly move through the entire list (no filters) and the only information you get is the Rune art; you have to press square—sorry, click the "Details" placeholder (which feels somewhat insulting) to see any stats. The removal of Beginner Campaigns. 98% of my time in-game was farming Beginner Protectorate; it was easy, it required no mind for deckbuilding, you could just toy around with whatever and have fun. You could test wonky things, broken things, bad things. Now, the only options you have are the tutorials, the very difficult Trials, or the scripted stories. (Bug) Ranked Win/Loss at end of match. I really hope this is a bug, anyways. Custom games are minimalistic. It's literally just pick PvP or PvE, bot faction, if applicable, a deck and a map. When I saw it in the patch notes I had assumed there was more to it than that, for it to even be mentioned. Although, I suppose, this is just a rebranding of Casual/Unranked. (Was there an "Unranked?" I don't even remember, now.) (Bug?) The loading symbol of doom. Even when double-checking things for this thread, I can't see the campaigns because it won't load them. Then when I try to close the game, the client becomes unresponsive. The removal of "Exit Game." A minor quibble, but I've gotten so used to closing the old client by doing that, if feels incorrect to close the window the traditional way. Transition: The removal of loading screen art. Rewards screen. It looks so scrunched, as if it were for a resolution which has never existed. You also cannot view the rune reward; it's just an icon. In-game: The bottom-left pane is truly massive. It was the first thing I noticed, because it ate so much of the window. Not only that, there is so much spacing between objects on that pane, that you literally need to expend more energy moving your eyes just to see it all, unless you play on an Etch-a-Sketch(®?). The terrain tab. It's a Post-it® note. The position number changing is distracting to me, and it appears to not be hideable. Rune Dock sorting. It's by highest-to-lowest, and that's just unpleasant. This may be because this is the PS4 client, ported to PC. Rune Dock information. I cannot possibly express how useless the Rune Dock tooltips are. By not showing the selected Rune on the bottom-left pane, I will sit there and try to relearn how to play the game at the most basic level. Abilities are not sorted correctly, on the tooltip. Stats are not sorted correctly, on the tooltip. You learn to play quickly based on the most basic visual information, such as icons. By not seeing these icons, you're being slowed down. Butterfingers! It will sometimes take as many as three attempts to click-and-drag a Rune from the Rune Dock. I can find no consistency in the reason behind this. Champion selection. Clicking on a Champion causes the game to want to do something, and that's strange. You can't easily select another Champion, more-than-half the time, and the only way I can reliably do this without the game moving them is by clicking on my Shrine. Furthermore, it's never clear whether or not you're now able to perform an action, or which target you're selecting. I literally just click blindly, hoping it works. Champion movement. Left-click-to-move is something you must, as an experience gamer, always turn off as your first action, in a game. To have that imposed upon you is maddening. Not only that, your movement gets all... "screwy" (to put it mildly) when you are trying to move multiple Champions in succession; in the old client, you can easily time movement to prevent the auto-pathing from wasting your AP. In the new client, everything moves at mach 7, and pathing still f—screws up. Not only that, it will often still show that you have the first Champion selected, half the time. Basic Champion function. I had to guess that double-pressing "A" was the basic attack hot—no, "hot double-key," based on some people talking about other, related things. I've been on the Steam Discussions for a while, and I not-too-long-ago mentioned this very thing: moving as many as thirty Champions is very easy; it's just two left clicks and the A key to have everything attack, and a left-and-a-right for movement. Neither is any longer true, and that's a rather drastic change to be thrust upon old players. Not only that, but it seems all ability hotkeys require a double-press, and that's just tedious. The "camera." I've never considered the "camera" an actor in the game. Some people are saying it's zoomed too far in, and I don't really see that, usually; maybe a little bit, sometimes. But the main issue I have is—where are you going? I'm doing something down here, why is the camera auto-panning somewhere else? Why is it constantly panning during every turn, away from what's happening? Equipment. It's just weird, to me, to place the icon—rather, a tiny, poorly-resized version of the icon, over the Rune art. The new position also means reading the tooltip is awkward. (Bug) Victory denied. 3/8 of my games "ended" with a bug where what would be destructive damage to the enemy Shrine caused the client to sort of freeze, in a manner of speaking; the timer keeps going, Champions and Relics (if applicable) keep moving, idly, but you cannot deploy any Runes, move any Champions or use any abilities. It seems as though the game is "won," but you'd have to infer from your account state afterwards (having more Gold than before the match, an additional Rune, etc.) to know if it counted. Exiting the game and attempting to rejoin does not give you the option to rejoin—that game is over, whether you won or not. So far, this has happened between 2 Shrine health and 28, when I tried to attack with ~7 Champions within 3 seconds. Potential Solutions: I won't lie to you: allowing the continued use of the old client will solve literally every issue here. Having the choice would be ideal, but if there were some fel imperative in place, demanding that all players use only the new client, I really think the process of amending these problems is going to be far more trouble than it's worth. The PS4 client can remain on the PS4. The PC client can remain on PC. This needn't look and feel like a cheap port to the original system it was designed for. But failing that... -Removal of: Necessity of double-pressing keys. -Reinstating of: Rune Dock "preview" (bottom-left pane), any removed campaigns, right-click-to-move, an "exit game" option (probably wouldn't work on PS4), online player list, original equipment placement. -The Improvement of: Champion control, Deck Manager movement, sorting and information. -The Option of: The terrain sub-tab, loading screen artwork, PlayStation® button icons, automatic camera panning (if only for PS4 players).
This ^ I am going to call it quits for a few weeks and hopefully this Bane Shift storm is settled and some of these glaring issues are patched so it is at least playable. Thank you for writing it all together so nicely, I personally can not control my rage.
