Nov. 25th Official Blog

[Mike]

The official blog (http://ameblo.jp/sega-psblog/entry-11088658361.html) was updated tonight. The two big topics are the character creator and icons. The character creater is much talked about and since no new information is mentioned about it on the blog, I'll just leave it at that.

The new info is on some of the new icons. As some of you may remember, the icons in the first alpha weren't very popular and have been changed as a result. The first of the new icons were uploaded to the blog.

http://www.pso-world.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1789&pictureid=24072

These are some of the weapon icons. Sword, rifle, and rod. The coloring of the backgrounds represent the type of weapon: orange = melee, blue = ranged, yellow = tech.


http://www.pso-world.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1789&pictureid=24073

Items have taken a step backwards to their PSO-stylings. These are the icons for monomates, dimates, and telepipes. I can attest from personal experience that the mate icons were difficult to differentiate.


http://www.pso-world.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1789&pictureid=24074

Finally are some photon arts icons. Rising Edge, Bind Through, and Grenade Shell. These icons have been changed to a simpler, easy to understand design. Tech icons will also get a similar redesign. Icons for skills will have a brighter background than techs or PAs so you'll be able to tell the difference.

[Cayenne]

Love the item icons and the rest are real easy to see.

Good job SEGA!

[Seth Astra]

The new icons look much nice. Seems like they're higher resolution or something. They look less... Flat.

[Razelis]

Thanks for sharing, Mike!

[Dre_o]

Things like this are what make me have faith in this game. They actually listened to what people had to say and fixed it accordingly. They simply could have said: fix the icons? No. But they did not, you have my respects SEGA.

[Enforcer MKV]

While the new icons are nice, I'm hoping to see the new gameplay in action (relatively soon). Things like the roll and such. I don't mean to sound negative, I'm just....more worried about how the thing plays.

[NoiseHERO]

Unless that dart/arrow looking skill is something new/for a new weapon (Maybe a crossbow or bow and arrow.)

I think the skill icons can still work on not being confusing to look at.

[Worship]

sweet!

[RemiusTA]

i liked the old weapon icons better. Everything else is a good change.

[XxPSOmanxX]

New icons looking noice.

[Ceresa]

While I'm sure this didn't really take up any time...who was complaining about it in the first place? Drag the shit to your hotbar, press 5 to monomate, and you're done. Why would you need to look at the icon to use it instead of just hitting the same button you've used to heal 3000x before...

And aside from the mate changes, the weapon ones are basically identical in terms of recognition, and the skill ones don't tell me a fucking thing at a glance either way. Any knowledge of its function before just pressing the button in combat for 10 seconds certainly would have been accomplished by reading the description in the menu before dragging it to my hotbar. At which point muscle memory once again takes over and the icons become meaningless.

[Kazzi]

Looking good! I prefer the more simplistic icons! I can concur that the mates were a pain to tell apart. Loving the new skill icons especially.

[Noblewine]

The icons look great and easy to see.

[pikachief]

Unless that dart/arrow looking skill is something new/for a new weapon (Maybe a crossbow or bow and arrow.)

I think the skill icons can still work on not being confusing to look at.

I may be mistaken but I'm pretty sure that's for the wired lance.

[Kent]

The minimalistic icons are for the better. Anyone who's spent time with PSO (or a Windows Phone, for that matter) can attest to this.

Too much trying to be special and flashy in something that literally just needs to be an icon only gets in the way, and actually detracts the speed at which an icon can be identified. If you have to look at an icon and think to determine what it is (assuming you've seen it before, of course), then you're doing it wrong. Likewise, making key differentiations in simple shapes and patterns (and colors, to a lesser extent, but any well-design icon/UI is also colorblindness-friendly) are the best way to create proper symbolism that's easily recognizable through peripheral vision, and to an even greater extent in any areas just out of focus.

That and, you know, the stylized simplicity just looks a lot better than trying to be too detailed - some of the older icons (like for monomates) were just... ugly.

[Blueblur]

I like all the new icons much better.

[RemiusTA]

While I'm sure this didn't really take up any time...who was complaining about it in the first place? Drag the shit to your hotbar, press 5 to monomate, and you're done. Why would you need to look at the icon to use it instead of just hitting the same button you've used to heal 3000x before...

And aside from the mate changes, the weapon ones are basically identical in terms of recognition, and the skill ones don't tell me a fucking thing at a glance either way. Any knowledge of its function before just pressing the button in combat for 10 seconds certainly would have been accomplished by reading the description in the menu before dragging it to my hotbar. At which point muscle memory once again takes over and the icons become meaningless.

I mean, yeah i dont think it really mattered much, but at the same time if they need to improve it, then why not.


IMO, they should have just kept the PSO icon idea, since they adopted symbols for everything and made it pretty much impossible to mistake anything aside from Resta and Anti.



Im glad they're adopting separate symbols for everything, though.



As for the rant, if the game adopts symbols for everything instead of text, but there are more consumable/usable items than mates, rides and atomizers, then yeah, they need to make them easy to understand. Besides, all this talk about the GUI is pointless, the issue is that it was too annoying to use more than anything. i don't care how flashy the menus and shit are in this game (Anyone played PSO Episode III?), i just care that it works.


And seeing as Phantasy Star Online (ep1-4) was a game that felt pretty connected with its artstyle, im sure they have plenty of artists around and these icon changes probably took less than a few hours to actually finish.

[Dragwind]

I agree, I think the icon change is much welcomed.

[Macman]

Eh, they're icons. Once muscle memory sets in they won't mean anything.

[NoiseHERO]

Eh, they're icons. Once muscle memory sets in they won't mean anything.

You guys are forgetting these games aren't made ONLY for us losers that have been playing this game for the past 10 years. If I'm playing a game in a new series for the first time, and the menu's and icons look annoying, I'm just gonna start pressing anything.

I'm sure they're just showing in general that they're working on making the interface better. After the people that ACTUALLY PLAYED THE GAME complained about it. Most likely nothing more than that, no big deal and no complaints if it also looks better.

Which it does.

[RemiusTA]

You guys are forgetting these games aren't made ONLY for us losers that have been playing this game for the past 10 years.

Thank you, jeeze.


I guess if they were to listen to some of you, the icons would just be solid colors or something.

[chibiLegolas]

My god. The alpha mate icons really WERE hard to tell apart at a glance. Glad they went back to PSO days and stuck with simple designs.
Good job Sega!

[kyuuketsuki]

Not sure I'd call those Photon Art icons "simple", but they're still an improvement over the previous ones at least. Item icons (mates, telepipe) are much, much better.

I don't get the weapon icon changes though. In what way are they an improvement over the old ones?

[NoiseHERO]

I usually find skill icons to looks stupid or confusing in every online game ever though anyway.

But items are important!

You can't muscle memory button mash consumables when you're new, they cost money you don't have. D:

[Enforcer MKV]

^This man speaks so much truth it isn't even fun.

[Razelis]

i think the previous weapon icons are kinda cute lol

[Angelo]

I really liked the minimalist weapon icons in PSU.

I still think the updated ones are not very stylish enough.

[rezakon]

PC Game.

I really don't care about icons because I remodel them anyway to suit my own tastes like I do in every other mmorpg I play. I prefer the item icons to stay the same though because the monomate, dimate and trimate icons are about as iconic in my mind as god damn rappies.

[Arkios]

Not sure I'd call those Photon Art icons "simple", but they're still an improvement over the previous ones at least. Item icons (mates, telepipe) are much, much better.

I don't get the weapon icon changes though. In what way are they an improvement over the old ones?

I agree 100%.

I actually liked the fact that the old icons had the SW, RF, RD abbreviations. It seems to me like the sword/saber is going to be really hard to distinguish between now, along with the other melee weapons.

[Kion]

Did everyone miss that i says, "alpha 2 test" over the icons?

[Resanoca]

Did everyone miss that i says, "alpha 2 test" over the icons?What's your point? D:

[Kion]

Doesn't that imply that there's going to be another alpha test is the (possibly near) future?

[Resanoca]

Doesn't that imply that there's going to be another alpha test is the (possibly near) future?Yeah, that was already said a bit back.
http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showthread.php?t=191244