Now I've actually used the new Interface.. (in General)

I'm gonna give some feedback.

New NCB time, so I'm finally fighting with the new interface, instead of just posting. ;)

I still don't like the new home. It has nothing to do with CB the game for me. The only time its used is if I need a link from it. It's doesn't really feel like a 'home', nor part of the game.

The poor equip page. Once I've stuck the gear I want to use on my minion/s (and that mostly doesn't ever change), I never (bar one reason I'll touch on below) go back to it. It's a shame, as it's the best display of your team. Although Evasion displayed on this page only shows the effect, not the level, which is a pain for knowing how much defensive Dexterity you've got.

The Train Page. It doesn't show my XP, untill I click on "Show all Minions". The coloumn headings seem skewed, because they are centred, while the contents aren't. I think left justifying the headings would be neater.

When fighting, I find myself using the left pane to fight, then going to train xp, then back to fighting. The only problem here (especially when starting out) is neither the Train page nor the left pane show PR/MPR. Which makes finding what sized targets you should be fighting a pain. Unless you click on the Euip page to see your PR/MPR (the only reason I ever go back to it).

If the fighting is being condensed, Maybe PR/MPR should be moved next to BA on the left pane. Give you everything you need to fight there.

I still dislike the 'used' colour on links. The purple fades into the Red of the box, making it hard to read. I suppose this would be fixed when themes can be made, but it grates on the default theme.

Fighting now seems more clunky (for want of a better word) now than it used to.

Would it be possible to merge the Train and Equip pages into one? And make the left pane everything needed for fighting?

'The Train Page. It doesn't show my XP, untill I click on "Show all Minions". '

What browser are you in? I get this in IE, but not FF.


Anyway.


I don't mind the new interface; but as most of my CB time is either browsing the forums or clicking fight that's not surprising.

However I will agree that the train and equip pages don't have the same ease of use that they had previously. The equip page not being a default page especially - that one extra click to do everything.... I thought I'd get used to that but I haven't.

So yeah, agreement with the GentlePerson and mostly everything he says.

Totally agree with you GL. This whole new theme and then Jon's tidying up of the "cluttered" home page has made doing simple tasks slow and annoying.

The home link is practically useless.
The train page is a comical bunch of nothingness
The equip page is slow, pointless and hard.

Everything else seems okay.

I've heard this firefox thing so many times... If it doesn't work it's because IE is crap and you should be using FF.

If thats the attitude, then it makes me wonder... all these changes are to keep new players. If a new player is using IE and it's not working well with the site, s/he isn't going to use the site. The more browsers that work, the better. Don't keep shovving out with the 'Firefox works fine' comment. Saying that, the old theme aslo worked fine.

I'm using IE.

Another thing with the equip page. Once you save your changes, it defaults back to the Weapon Tab.

If you're changing single peices of armour (to check things like PR scores or whatever) you've got to click back into the armour tab after every save. :(

I know people fear/resent change, but I'm all for change that improves things.

Maybe I'll grow into the new UI, but at the moment (and I know it's not finished yet) it doesn't feel like a beneficial change.

I'm also using IE and have never had a problem with it. The only problems I have are ones that are known faults but the creator won't fix them because its IE and I should be using FF. Work that out.

I think just having more logical defaults would be beneficial, as Ranger pointed out a while back.

Two simple changes would make a WORLD of difference:

-- Make the equip page "Home" and put the current home page under a different heading such as "One-look" or 'Stats" or "Summary" or somesuch. (the "one-look" page could perhaps even become configurable at some point, with panes for forums, stats, etc ala My Yahoo or personalized Google).
-- Make any views that show your team be "all minions" by default.

These changes are moderately small -- just default and link changes. I have seen several people ask for these changes, and no one adamantly defending the current configuration.

Great. We've identified a problem and a simple solution has been stated. I doubt anything will be done though. Hopefully they will, this theme is just grating.

I would love a customisable 'Home' page. ;)

Would it be feasible to merge the Equip and Train page into one?

That would make for a busy page... I find training and equipping (especially involving External Transfers) to be two very different operations... I still like an Equip and Train segmentation...

All transfers could be made their own operation, with their own page. ;)

Hmmm... At home I get the XP shown on the Train page. Maybe it's a screen size issue. I use a larger screen size at home than at work (Database has a prefered size at work).

Agreed 100%.

Sut summed up my thinking very well, better then I initially stated it.

Ever try to find an item on one of your farms, then get it to another character and see how well it works?

Tons of clicking in the new interface, where previously it was fairly easy to do.

I still have no idea why things are the way they are when most of the community (it seems) wants simple changes described above.

It's a little odd that we have to go to our "equip" page to transfer funds now. We should have that as a separate link somewhere now.

I also agree with GL that many things from the "equip" page should be pulled out and put onto the sidebar. Another thing of note, the "BA" on the sidebar doesn't update when we get new BA, so we might want to add something in there to "keep it current" every few minutes.

Veri, I was under the assumption that trying to give a pane a "heartbeat" like that would make the interaction between the left pane and the fight page more troubling. For example, currently the left pane and fight page work well when chugging away with C-Enter... What would happen if as I am plugging along the left pane refreshes? Would I lose continuity of focus? Would my fight list refresh without me know it? Small issues, to be sure, but I _really_ like the way the interface is so seamless when fighting, and I would hate to see that compromised in any way.

As it stands now, I simply click "Fight", and that refreshes my left pane -- exactly when I would expect it to refresh. That's just my opinion, though, and my mastery of web page design/programming is far from masterful. *smile*

Next thing. ;)

Could the two columns in the Quick Link section of the left pane be seperated a bit? Maybe right justify the second column.

I accidentally hit Businesses far too often when going for Forums. ;)

GL, I think you "accidentally" drink too much. *OOOOHHHH*

I think they could stand to be separated a bit myself... *glug glug*

(Oh dear goodness, "glug" is not in the spell checker. This is clearly unacceptable! I mean, I need to keep adding more to this post just to get it on the boards! How droll!)

I have to agree with the majority of the above, with the exception that I already use FF...

I would be far happier to have the Equip page as my homepage. As a result of this change, I have fought far less, and have taken up forging to rid myself of the annoyance.

We essentially now have two "Active Threads" links - the (more) on the homepage, and simply clicking on Forums.

And even after all this time with it, I -still- have a problem with going to Home when I want to go to my team. ""topic" required but not supplied"

Could we not move links to the sidebar to make it the "Center feature" without breaking efficiency?


Oh, and I have to go to the equip page to view external transfers, or I have to view my own userpage (to which there is still no easy access link). Sometimes I even post in Forums when I wouldn't ordinarily, just to get that link.

Additionally, when you go to the Forums list and try to view post counts, the link comes up broken.

Oh yeah, and I have to fight/forge to view my actual BA count when it is below 160. That's still there. Not to mention that when I switch from my main character to the tournament character, it thinks I have the same amount as the previous character until I fight/forge.



I suppose what I'm trying to say is...using CB now, for anything, is like trying to wield a two-handed sword and a tower shield in a fight. (totally appropriate analogy for a fighting game)

"Oh yeah, and I have to fight/forge to view my actual BA count when it is below 160."

Just hit refresh.

laaaaame