General Discussion

Lee "Torsion" Nagar, a programmer for Star Wars Galaxies talks about changes to the the game's buff interface in a new dev journal.

Dev Diary - Buff Interface

Hi everyone, this is Lee "Torsion" Nagar, a programmer on Star Wars Galaxies. For my first dev diary, I am going to discuss my work on the player buffs interface.

One of the first things I noticed in SWG was a somewhat limited buff interface. So when the lead designer brought me into his office to discuss a buff UI revamp, I was very eager to participate.

The very first task was to allow for more than two rows of displayed buffs. What is the purpose of showing the player what buffs are on them if they aren't visible?

Read more here.

I have a better question.... why the %^&^ should anyone need/have more than 20 buffs at a time? Is this Star Wars or Buff Wars? People complained in the Pre-CU/CU game that buffs were "required" and a pain to get and unbalanced the game.

Now it is 20X worse. The over dependence on buffs clearly shows a lack of creativity and diversity in game design and play mechanics. And it is about the MOST un-Starwarsy and Iconic thing about the whole game. Show me any reference to all this buffing in Any book or movie. Did the devs even see any of the SW movies?

Doubt it.

Not to mention this "update" is extremely poorly done.  Who wants to look at 6 rows of crap staring them in the face in the upper right of the screen, literally in front of your face when fighting?

This is because in the unmodded UI, you can't move your HA(M) bars.

Pre-CU had a far better UI, buffs (when active) were in their own window that you could then move to any part of the screen that you wanted.  Debuffs showed up near your HAM bars, a good place for them since you need to see those in your face.

As usual, SOE took the wimpy and easy way out by just adding more rows to the buffs and debuffs below the bars.

Wow that is the dumbest most retarded thing Ive seen SOE do. That just shows their ignorance for money except they will probably kill the game doing that lol. They have lost their minds or something..they must be on crack cocaine.

Quick $OE! get the small bus programmers!!!.

Buff UI revamp.... People want the original UI (or something similar) and they come with (and only seem to work on)  something like a Buff UI. I'm comletely speechless.. in a negative way.

GET SERIOUS FOR ONCE SOE!

One step forward and two steps back. This is exactly what drives many people away from SWG and the like. I didn't mind the old school buffs because they were minimal and they supported the economy. Sure they weren't perfect but I really really hate this new buff system. Buffs now are just more and more crap that clogs up my UI. And now they want to add more rows? Why don't they just get rid of them? Talk about game balancing.

They made the cu to streamline professions and make the game more balanced but these buffs just make it one big buffing contest. One or two very special and limited buffs are ok but it has gotten so ridiculous that the entire buff system takes away from an already sad state of affairs.

Once again SOE, you are 10 lbs of crap in a 5 lb sack.

Okay, I don't blame the NGE entirely for SWG's decline...

BUT....

The NGE did introduce one of the most hideous User Interfaces I've seen in modern day MMOing. 

The fluff graphicsw of the "metal" edges... the lack of personalizing the size, shape and position of the various windows.... The team who designed this, failed... and continue to fail by not fixing it.

The original UI was streamlined and extremely effective. The fact they killed THAT part of the game, is a show of total idiocy.

This "Buff Revamp" is a continued insult to the community who plays and played...

As ever,

I wish there was a Star Wars MMO.

Originally posted by Burntvet

I have a better question.... why the %^&^ should anyone need/have more than 20 buffs at a time? Is this Star Wars or Buff Wars?

I've said it before and I'll say it again... those icons look like Walt Disney puked all over my screen.

How about buffing that ugly UI?

Originally posted by Suvroc

 

Originally posted by Burntvet

I have a better question.... why the %^&^ should anyone need/have more than 20 buffs at a time? Is this Star Wars or Buff Wars?

Amen to that!

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again... those icons look like Walt Disney puked all over my screen.

LOL