Interface vs Functionality

[Laiev]

Basically I would like to know what people prefer: something more visual or something more dynamic and functional?

Based on my Cooldown System (not posted at Hive yet), I have two options:


http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=110489&stc=1&d=1327761968
Pros: Disables the ability (like silence), the display of the icon is disabled (DISBTN) and you can still read the information of skill, in addition, a dynamic text is shown in the skill description showing that it is on cooldown.

Cons: Use 4 dummies (different Ids). At worst would have 48 dummies doing nothing (12 heroes, 4 spell per hero).


http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=110488&stc=1&d=1327761968
Pros: The icon is completely removed from the unit (it is blank) and an icon with no effect is added in place just to demonstrate that the ability is still on cooldown. In this method, the icon with no effect can be replaced by a secondary skill (useful for skills that only activate after a skill has been used).

Cons: Use 4 useless abilities. Didn't display any information of the spell while in cooldown. Bad interface and no eye-candy.

So again, my question is, User Interface or Functionality?

PS: I post example of both cases if necessary or if people is confuse, but right now, I don't care so much for 'efficiency'.

- Errr, I'm unsure if this should be here, at Idea, anyway.

[watermelon_1234]

I voted for user interface because I thought that seeing the spell's description is pretty important and it would be awkward to have a dummy ability for spells with a long cooldown.

[Laiev]

Thanks Watermelon, also if someone has 'another way', feel free to post it here.
Edited using Screenshots :) Now is more clear what they mean.

[Magtheridon96]

I agree with watermelon, the player might want to read the description.

[Peacehagen]

You can use example nr 2 if you make a dummy spell for every spell of your Heroes. Basically these dummy spells has the right Icon (in DISBTN ofc) and the right tooltip, just dont do anything. And you can add a text which says it is on cooldown aswell.

Ofcourse it takes some time, but it could be worth it :)

[Laiev]

@Peacehagen

This can duplicate the number of abilities for a map |:

So, if a map has 20 heroes, each hero has 4 abilities, then with have 80 abilities. Using what you said, we now will need 160 abilities D:, this is a real problem.

[Dr Super Good]

I prefer the SC2 approach where the ability shows the time remaining until it has cooled down in the tooltip. Ofcourse WC3 being backward does not allow this functionality.

[Laiev]

I prefer the SC2 approach where the ability shows the time remaining until it has cooled down in the tooltip. Ofcourse WC3 being backward does not allow this functionality.

This is really depressing :(

[WaterKnight]

Within the tooltip is hardly better. I would not necessarily say that it would be advantageous to use the DISBTN as there might be other requirements, silence etc. Would not be well differentiated in visuals. If you want to replace it anyway and want to show the cooldown in the description, thus you need x objects per spell. Why not display the cooldown right through the icon then?

Another question: How do you remove the spell without interrupting channels? And how do you refresh it without interrupting channels? In case the channel time is longer than cooldown.

[Laiev]

@WaterKnight

Well, in the second option, I didn't remove the icon, I just disable it (SetPlayerAbilityAvaliable or something like this).

Also, the first option didn't interrupt the current order of the unit if is disabled (finally Blizzard did something good).

[WaterKnight]

SetPlayerAbilityAvailable does not affect the cooldown though. So enabling it does not refresh the cooldown. Also, it's player specific. The disablement would affect all units of that player.

[Hexcellion]

Using the first one would be better because it's easy to understand, and just moving your moues to the icon will already make you knowledgeable of the cooldown system used.

[EloTheMan]

I think the 1st option is better,

I also wanted to ask if you tried to switch "ability cooldown". You have several abilities with different cds for each spell rank and when the hero gains/loses CDR the abilities switch between each other to match the new CDR, it works fine if the CDR stat goes on a few numbers (like 10%,20%,30% or 40% which would mean 5 different ability variations for one spell rank)

The downside of this is that it requires a lot of work for each hero and ability, balancing will take more time, it requires more work if the CDR stat gets more variating numbers.

Its visually better as you can see how long it is until the cooldown is off but considering all the work it needs its hard for me to say if its worth it.

[WaterKnight]

The work is not that dire and would not necessarily say that cdr is worse to balance as it's also a chance to compensate for other values.

[Luorax]

The downside of this is that it requires a lot of work for each hero and ability, balancing will take more time, it requires more work if the CDR stat gets more variating numbers.

It's not the extra work; you can write a lua textmacro that generates abilities and can create those abilities in no time (I'm using two macros to generate items + their shop abils, creating an item with tooltip, icon, etc takes like a minute), but the extra loading time they'd add, the extra map size (they can add a lot) and they would have to be preloaded. It's just not worth it. Not to mention spells/systems that rely on ability id's - multiple abilities would lead to a huge chuck of if's everywhere on the map.