Thoughts on improving the user experience.

[evev]

I'm still getting the hang of the market, but wanted to jot down a few suggestions on how to improve usability.

• Making the "Items in demand" section collapsable like the groups in your inventory. Optionally making both Market sections collapsable.
• Moving the "Offer an item" and "Reserve an item" dialogue boxes below the market.jpg image.
  --Would help reduce the amount of scrolling. If you have many items listed on the market, then even hitting the "End" key to go to the very bottom of the page immediately fails to quickly bring up the "Offer an item" dialogue.
• Giving players the option to arrange the sorted market item list in Ascending or Descending order!
  --Currently the market defaults to Descending order. This works after a fashion: I just start from the bottom and scroll up. I propose changing the sorting line to read: "Sort... [[DropDown Box with sort types]] in... [[ascending order//descending order]]"
• The creme de la creme would be adding a script that changes to RED the text color of the player's offered item when someone else undercuts the price for which the player listed the item.
  --To reiterate, if I put a Helmet up for 100 gold, but someone puts theirs up for 99 gold, the script would change the color of the word "Helmet" in the "Your offered items box" to red. This feature is likely more trouble than it's worth though

Feedback and thoughts appreciated. Love the current Market and Swap systems (along with the Financial Advisor )!

[Mad Merlin]

Well, the sorting orders aren't quite always descending, alphabetically is ascending and by item type is special. It's a fine distinction, but it also complicates adding the sort order, as you probably want different different default sorting orders for each sort type. So, if they were 2 separate dropdowns and still updated onchange, it could be confusing.

However, most boxes are collapsible now (see the latest news), both in the Market and elsewhere. I also moved the offer/reserve an item bits up to the top, as you make some good points (and those 2 bits are always small).

Showing items that are currently being undercut actually isn't all that hard to do, showing them in red would probably be confusing though, as that's how items are shown when they're too high level for you to equip. I'll probably add this after a decide on how to show it... maybe italics?

[evev]

You are right, the sort orders are trickier than I first thought. One option might be to include two commands for each view that can be sorted in ascending or descending orders: "Sort... price, lowest first" or "Sort... age, oldest first". Alternatively a script can check what sort method is being selected and decide whether it's appropriate to display a checkbox nearby that, when selected, would reverse the sorting order from the default.

These are just thoughts because in the end it comes down to personal taste. I'm used to sorting all my lists in ascending order from smallest to largest, but I've been getting more used to the list style in Game! the more I play.

Collapsable boxes (and Game! memorizing what state each character's different boxes are in) is amazing and a God-send. Makes getting around the interface much easier! A delayed thank you

Regarding changing the color of undercut items: I've recently been a bit disappointed in the pace of the market. Because our community is currently small, it seems that (barring a rux market buy-out) me selling 1-3 items a day is 'good'. Still, I gave what you said some thought and after making the Market page editable in Safari with some javascript I played around a bit and came up with some thoughts on how to distinguish the undercut items from others:



I chose the color orange (Tangerine actually, but whatev) because it's the best I could think of for an "ALERT" color since red has already been assigned a job. Personally I think the plain-text bold look attracts attention the best, but that's just me.

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I have another interface change request. It's for the Swap Shop, but I thought I'd stick it here to conserve space.

MadMerlin, could you please move the "Put some items up for trade" box up, right below the "Welcome to the swap shop!" description box? Thanks!

[evev]

Working more with the inventory I've grown to appreciate the option to make custom groups and even had a few occasions to use the "Sell all but"/"Put all but" commands.

Several usability issues have come up and I wanted to post some proposed improvements for the "With selected items..." box.

• "Eat"/"Eat all but" Commands
  ---Currently we have to click each item we want to eat individually. It would be nice if we could select several items to consume and execute the above command to take care of all of them. When several items are selected, the script would begin "eating" them, starting with whatever's at the top of the character's current inventory list. The script would "eat" all the selected items and then display the results in order at the top of the inventory screen. If the player made a mistake and selected too many items, the script would terminate when it detected that a player would be "too full" to eat the next selected item and display what has been eaten so far with an error message at the end.
• "Use"/"Use all but" Commands
  ---Same principle as the above command, this would allow players to consume their stockpiles of Unmarked Pills or heal with multiple potions/duct tapes at the same time. I've yet to discover anything that you could use with only a certain limit. I would recommend a script that would try to use all the selected items and merely display the results (success/failure) at the end without terminating on first failure. This way if you forgot what item gives what campground improvement and selected a dozen of them, the script would attempt to use all the items and you would merely see whether any improvements were added at the end.
• Sell/Put/Eat/Use... ALL
  ---This is a small matter so it can be optional. Currently if I want to mass sell all the selected items I type in some huge number and hit Go!. Having a separate function to Sell/Put/Eat/Use every single selected item would be nice. Alternatively the existing fields can be used, if some commands were added. For example, typing "a" in the number field could be interpreted by the script as "ALL".
• Enter/Return to activate Go! regardless of what is selected
  ---A small issue, but currently hitting the enter key executes the Go! button only when I clicked inside a text box. It would be nice if the same could happen if we merely clicked a command and selected the radio button.

-=Managing the Growing "With selected items..." Box=-
Just in case I wanted to list two ways of potentially manage the growing number of options in this box:

• Rudimentary Syntax
  ---The drawback of this is that it would be another wrinkle that new players would have to absorb and old players would have to learn. The positive is that doing so would certainly allow to save space and present a more compact set of inventory controls. What I mean by 'syntax" is giving the player an option to type "-1" in a "Sell" box to sell all but 1 of the selected items and thus allowing us to scrap the "Sell all but" line. Also, as mentioned above, a player could type "a" in a "Sell" box to sell all of the selected items, instead of a new line being added.
• Splitting the Box
  ---A stop-gap measure could be splitting the commands related to grouping items into their own box to the right of the existing "With selected items..." box. I believe there's enough space, and if the box is thus split, the new EAT and USE commands can take the space of the current grouping commands.

Please let me know what you think!

[evev]

Currently after you finish a trip you selected you are given the option that reads "Adventure again in Holiday Island". Clicking this link takes you back to the list of trips where you have to once again select the kind of trip you want to take.

I recommend instead to change the "Adventure again" link for Holiday Island to read: "Adventure again in Giant Pinata Ranch (1500 Gold)". Depending on what trip you select, the name of the trip after "Adventure again in" would change and so would the gold price (appended to always remind the player that they are paying a fee again). This would allow a player to take several trips in a row without the distraction of having to re-select the trip.

I would recommend that the link on the sidebar (the one that appear above "Heal at the Healer" remain the same as it is now: "Holiday Island", clicking which takes you to the trip selection screen. This should give players the flexibility to select a different series of trips, should they want to, without having to go back to the city.

[Mad Merlin]

Still undecided on the market undercutting, although I think I'm leaning towards bold as well.

I think having a multieat like the current multisell makes more sense than something like a market multiput, even if you opt for all different food each day, that's probably not more than half a dozen in total, and usually far less. Multiuse I'm undecided on, but it seems like it wouldn't get used all that often, it's rare that you'd want to use potions rather than the Healer when you're not in battle.

For Sell/Put ALL, you know you could also do Sell/Put all except 0, right? For activating the "Go!" button, I'm thinking having keyboard shortcuts to combine, sell, marketput, etc would be good, then you could select a few items, hit c (for combine) to select and activate (so it'd work even if it wasn't already selected) that option without having to scroll up.

Overloading the boxes to accept negative values as "all except" commands is interesting, definitely not intuitive though.

I also moved the offer box up at the Swap Shop.

Good idea for Holiday Island, I'll add that soon.

[evev]

Update 4/10: Dear Reader, scroll to the bottom of the post for the new ideas. I tried editing the rest, but it's still such a mess! Abandon ship, abandon ship, she's gonna blow!



Thank you for moving the swap box to the top of the swap shop. Makes things much easier . Apologies for the long post.

I still think changing the color of undercut items in the market is a useful feature, but my ardor for the idea has cooled somewhat after I realized that with Game!'s current population the market is a little too slow for lower-level players.



<s>I'm a little confused when you refer to multisell or multiput. As I understand the UI now, the only difference between selling multiple items and putting multiple items on the market is that there's a chance of an error message (when you lack the gold for the listing fee) in the market place command.</s>
We got this cleared up on IRC. Currently you can multisell by either selecting the appropriate radio button, or clicking the [SELL] link for an item you have multiples of and selecting the number to sell.

<s>To reiterate, what I recommend is a command that will consume a number (as specified by the user) of all the selected foods. This command will terminate in an error message only when the player tries to eat more food than their stomach will accommodate (fullness). If a player selects something inedible the game will give an error message in the course of consuming any other selected food, but will continue instead of terminating outright.</s>




I think multiuse it will be a good addition to accommodate future developments of Game!. If this option is added then people will be able to consume multiple pills, potions and use multiple pet or campground improvement granting items at the same time. I feel that the "wouldn't get used all that often" point is a bit shaky because the same may be said about the "Sell/Put all but..." options. They only come in handy if someone's trying to become a Packrat Master and I doubt that many people besides high-levels will have the resources to participate in that challenge or much less understand why they should participate. (This is not to demean the idea, but I think it may need more development so it can become a more prominent feature of the gameplay.)

it's rare that you'd want to use potions rather than the Healer when you're not in battle

The Healer is very convenient and I hope his function and prices remain as they are now. However, I also hope that potions may be re-designed to make them more useful than free combinations or ways to get Necatrs of Life.

For activating the "Go!" button, I'm thinking having keyboard shortcuts to combine, sell, marketput, etc would be good, then you could select a few items, hit c (for combine) to select and activate (so it'd work even if it wasn't already selected) that option without having to scroll up.

Thanks for the Sell/Put ALL tip - makes sense Keyboard shortcuts are an interesting idea, but I worry that someone may lose items if they accidentally hit a shortcut key while trying to work with their inventory (and having items seleted). In my opinion having to scroll up and select an option before anything happens is a minor inconvenience if it means reducing the chance of accidentally losing items. I tip-toe around my inventory as it is, making sure I see where I'm clicking for fear of clicking the irreversible [Sell] link and losing an item.




Forget I said anything about negative values in the boxes - that's going to be too confusing and counter-inteuative. Thank you very much for moving the box up in the Swap Shop. Makes placing multiple items a breeze now (By the way, did you know that hitting refresh after placing an item in the Swap Shop will currently attempt to place the same quantity of items/gold again? Kind of useful, but makes you go back to town and then to the Swap Shop if you want to refresh the list of what's on offer.)

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Before I start I would just like to mention that I think the Pack Rate challenges (how many items you have and how many you have seen) are fantastic ideas that just need a bit of work. Two proposed changes that have been on my mind:

1) It can be said that the Pack Rat Challenge along with how many items in Game! your character has seen are minor parts of the game, but it feels that players have been going against the spirit of the idea by perverting the idea of reserved items. Currently a level 0 player can walk into the Market and see all but the 5 quest only items in the game, thereby eliminating this small, but interesting part of Game!.
--I would propose that none of the items on the Reserved List count towards the number of items you have seen. In fact I would go a step further and recommend that ONLY the items you've had in your inventory count towards the number of seen items because you actually had a chance to see and hold them instead of seeing an ad for them or watching them lying on a market stall.
---On a related note I would recommend enforcing the minimum prices of items on reserve so people are unable to reserve all the items in the game for just 1 gold each with zero intention of ever buying those things.

2) The other change I would recommend is allowing people to breach the 100% stamina level. Instead of a ploy to get more stamina this is a request for a convenience feature that would allow players to eat without worrying that the current stamina cap would waste their food. To reiterate, a player would still only start with 100 stamina and if they happen to have more than 100 stamina at day-end they would start the NEW day with only 100 stamina. This proposed change would merely allow a person to eat all their food at once and eat it without having to worry that any stamina will be lost.

[Mad Merlin]

We discussed this a bit on IRC, but for posterity, I'll summarize:

On multiput vs multisell, there's actually just 1 multiput, but there's 2 ways to multisell, the one I was referring to was the one that occurs if you click the [ sell ] link for an item you have more than 1 of.

With that in mind, I think we agreed that that was a good way to go.

-----------------

Now for a few things we didn't already discuss...

On potions, I think I might beef them up again (they were already doubled in strength once before), and add boss encounters where you'd either need to use potions or wait until a higher level to complete, or possibly use some secret new things that don't exist yet.

For keyboard shortcuts, they'd be fully customizable, and there'd be the option to disable them globally, so you can disable specific shortcuts you deem too dangerous, or for example if you're (temporarily) using a netbook and expect to accidentally fatfinger a lot of keys, you can totally disable them.

I agree that having seen an item right now isn't especially impressive, especially in light of the reserved items at the Market. I was thinking about removing that stat before, although replacing it with the "you've had this item before" stat is probably more interesting.

Speaking of the reserved items, you bring up a good point about disallowing reservations for less than the autosell price, 20% of the current reservations are for less than the sell price, which is a much higher figure than I expected. There's also the option of having reservations expire like items you put up for sale, although I'd probably set the duration to longer than 48 hours. Initially I didn't have the reservations expire because they weren't visible to all, but that's no longer the case.

A number of people have asked for the stamina breaching feature now, I guess there's really no reason not to implement it, so I'll do that.

[evev]

Just a small UI inconsistency that I noticed:

--Items that cost more than 999 gold in NPC shops (Artist's Hovel, Item Shop) have commas separating every thousand (1,000 or 800,000).

--The Magic Shop and the Skill Shop lack this feature.

Once again, this is a very small issue, but if possible, it would be nice if the prices for spells and skills could also have commas separating every thousand (1,800,000 or 64,000).

[Mad Merlin]

Just a small UI inconsistency that I noticed:

--Items that cost more than 999 gold in NPC shops (Artist's Hovel, Item Shop) have commas separating every thousand (1,000 or 800,000).

--The Magic Shop and the Skill Shop lack this feature.

Once again, this is a very small issue, but if possible, it would be nice if the prices for spells and skills could also have commas separating every thousand (1,800,000 or 64,000).

Fixed.

[evev]

-="Item Drop" Messages=-
I have enjoyed leveling up both of these pets on my characters. My understanding of what either pet actually does really stems only from this thread.

Currently it's difficult to tell whether either pet has influenced a drop. We do see a message about "spreading fairy dust" or "sniffing around", but I feel that's too little feedback since we also know a pet can fail to find anything when its ability is triggered.

The priority of this feature request is low, but what I propose is writing a script that would change the generic "You also found a(n) ##ITEM_NAME##!" message when the ability of Fairy or GAC#2 is triggered AND successfully influences the dropped item. Below I outline all the possible "item drop" message cases when having a Fairy or a GAC#2 follow you.


NO ITEM DROP, PET ABILITY FAILS TO TRIGGER
No message regarding items.

ITEM DROP, PET ABILITY FAILS TO TRIGGER
"You also found a(n) ##ITEM_NAME##!"

NO ITEM DROP, PET ABILITY TRIGGERS, ABILITY EFFECT FAILS
No message regarding items

ITEM DROP, PET ABILITY TRIGGERS, ABILITY EFFECT FAILS
"You also found a(n) ##ITEM_NAME##!"

And finally:

ITEM DROP, PET ABILITY TRIGGERS, ABILITY EFFECT SUCCEEDS!
Fairy: "The fairy dust reveals a(n) ##ITEM_NAME##!"
GAC#2: "Wagging its tail, your Generic Animal Companion #2 returns with a Stick clenched firmly in its teeth!"
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-=User Backend=-
There are two features that I feel are sorely lacking from the user's Preference pane: the ability to add or change the e-mail attached to their account and the ability to change their password.

Currently I believe we are alright, but as the user base increases these features will become more and more important. I think that letting users associate an e-mail address with their account at a later time is especially important since it's the only way to recover the account and it's optional at account creation.

I can share what happened in my case: when I first came to the Game! site I was unsure whether I would stick around, so I chose against including any e-mail. It's unlikely that I'll forget my password, but having that fallback option is always nice.

[Mad Merlin]

I have enjoyed leveling up both of these pets on my characters. My understanding of what either pet actually does really stems only from this thread.

Currently it's difficult to tell whether either pet has influenced a drop. We do see a message about "spreading fairy dust" or "sniffing around", but I feel that's too little feedback since we also know a pet can fail to find anything when its ability is triggered.

The priority of this feature request is low, but what I propose is writing a script that would change the generic "You also found a(n) ##ITEM_NAME##!" message when the ability of Fairy or GAC#2 is triggered AND successfully influences the dropped item. Below I outline all the possible "item drop" message cases when having a Fairy or a GAC#2 follow you.

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NO ITEM DROP, PET ABILITY FAILS TO TRIGGER
No message regarding items.

ITEM DROP, PET ABILITY FAILS TO TRIGGER
"You also found a(n) ##ITEM_NAME##!"

NO ITEM DROP, PET ABILITY TRIGGERS, ABILITY EFFECT FAILS
No message regarding items

ITEM DROP, PET ABILITY TRIGGERS, ABILITY EFFECT FAILS
"You also found a(n) ##ITEM_NAME##!"

And finally:

ITEM DROP, PET ABILITY TRIGGERS, ABILITY EFFECT SUCCEEDS!
Fairy: "The fairy dust reveals a(n) ##ITEM_NAME##!"
GAC#2: "Wagging its tail, your Generic Animal Companion #2 returns with a Stick clenched firmly in its teeth!"
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Please let me know what you think.

You're overcomplicating. If the ability triggers, then it has influenced the drop. However, sometimes said influence was not large enough to affect the ultimate outcome of the drop (or lack there of).

I think what you really want to know is "is my pet getting me more items, and if so, how many?", and that's intentionally left unspecified.

-=User Backend=-
There are two features that I feel are sorely lacking from the user's Preference pane: the ability to add or change the e-mail attached to their account and the ability to change their password.

Currently I believe we are alright, but as the user base increases these features will become more and more important. I think that letting users associate an e-mail address with their account at a later time is especially important since it's the only way to recover the account and it's optional at account creation.

I can share what happened in my case: when I first came to the Game! site I was unsure whether I would stick around, so I chose against including any e-mail. It's unlikely that I'll forget my password, but having that fallback option is always nice.

It's not too hard to add, and a few other people have asked for it now. However, there's a hidden method for changing your password, if you provided a working email address, mail yourself a forgot password link and you get to change your password.

[evev]

As I mentioned, the reason for my pet suggestion is to help players understand what their pet is doing and the fact that it's actually doing its job (instead of constantly firing blanks).

For this purpose I brought up the idea of changing the item drop message when the influence of a pet's ability was large enough to effect the drop. If you feel that that's still giving away too much information then perhaps the Wise Sage can give a hint about how each pet helps as he currently does for some (such as BK Detective).



My issue is that I have failed to provide any e-mail address when I registered and thus I'm stuck for the foreseeable future.

[Mad Merlin]

My issue is that I have failed to provide any e-mail address when I registered and thus I'm stuck for the foreseeable future.

You can update both your password and your email address via your player preferences now.