idk if staff is reading this thread still, but want to give some thoughts:
Overall: really awesome! Lots of neat stuff! I mostly like it!
However...
Visually it's very busy and Loud.
The apparel should absolutely be below the dragon - it's a lot of visual noise and distracts from the dragons, which are, y'know, the point of the game. Once the scenes are added it's even worse.
The familiars, while the same size as before,
look larger, and overshadow the dragon. They aren't as distracting as the apparel and the awful dotted lines though, and could probably be ignored after a while if the other problems are addressed.
- Speaking of the dotted lines - that's no where else - why doe is not match, say, the battle stats? The empty spaces there are a solid line.
The default background is a nice offer, but it would be much better to be able to turn it off - especially since a lot of users have false-transparency skins, which they paid a lot of gems for. Having the option to be plain white would be a big improvement, especially if it's toggle-able for each dragon (like applying the scenes). However, if it's only possible to turn it off/on for all - that would still be hugely appreciated.
The "Level X Gender Species (Flight)" thing would be better off in the physical info box. It's not really needed where it is, and the ID would be much better placed below the name, like before. Or at least a smaller size. Why is the ID text so huge? It looks bigger than the dragon's names.
What is the point of the tiny flight element symbol under the way-too-huge energy bar? Seems a bit random and unnecessary. Same with the AH and HD symbols. Those can all be elsewhere to better effect.
The physical info box would look much nicer, not only with some sort of container (it's just... floating there. lineage has a border, why not be consistent?), but also up where the apparel box is now.
You say:
"the elements you have customization control over are the very first thing other players will see" but frequently the colors and genes are what people have customized - extensive breeding projects, scatterjourneys, hours in the scrying workshop looking for the perfect combo - it's important to a lot of people. Putting in a box like the lineage info, but with a semi-transparent background so it can be seen over the scene art would be better. (or better, an option to go between semi-transparent and opaque)
Battle info is also just floating, and should be in a box.
The arrow buttons to click between dragons are huge. Even on mobile they're enormous, and could be less than half the size. They'd also look better centered, rather than on the bottom, but that's a minor thing. I'm glad keyboard controls still work.
Customize Page
Since the option to add a vista is already down by the edit bio button, and the familiar swap button is on the page by the bond button... why do we need the extra page for customizing? The scene option could have gone with apparel and skins. The extra page makes it customizing accessible - being able to just click and be there was a
good thing and there's no reason to make it more difficult for people. Less clicks = more likely to use the thing in question. (that goes for anything)
All that said - the rest of the update is awesome! I
LOVE the ability to filter apparel and familiars!!! The ability to feed individually is nice - probably won't use it much myself, but for someone short on food who needs to deed their dragons to access the coli? Heck yeah. I'm fairly indifferent to the "like" thing - glad it isn't connected to fb anymore (ick) and that it's not a like/dislike or rating system. Might be neat to eventually put usernames of people who gave a like, even if it's only viable to the owner.
I really, really hope you guys take everyone's feedback into consideration. I'm sure y'all worked hard on this, but if so many people are giving the same feedback on why it isn't working, it should really be looked into. (personally: it's visually loud and feels chaotic and it's hard to focus on anything and makes me kinda overwhelmed.)
EDIT: in all the excitement I forgot to mention the notification bell! The change itself isn't bad, but stylistically it's different from the message and friend icons. Less shading, or maybe a darker outline might make it more cohesive! :)
i wish there was an easier way to do this...
. Pretty much everything else is 10/10 as well!
