[0.9.092-BACKER#4722] Can't use special abilities

[Teddy]

The "Special Abilities" button neither looks nor is clickable. Seems to be the case regardless of who I'm fighting. I've tried reloading the page and save, to no avail.

 

[Animefan666]

You cannot access the Special Abilities menu from the Abilities menu. Hit back and select Special Abilities.

 

[Teddy]

Ah, thanks, now I found it. But for the record, it's just called "Special". I suppose these unclickable buttons are labels, then, but I think they're more confusing than helpful given they aren't used anywhere else, and also occupy the space for a button...

 

[Jacques00]

Ah, thanks, now I found it. But for the record, it's just called "Special". I suppose these unclickable buttons are labels, then, but I think they're more confusing than helpful given they aren't used anywhere else, and also occupy the space for a button...

The button is labeled "Specials" but it's actually for "Special Attacks" and the usual button was labeled as "Abilities" for "Special Abilities". The specials menu was split up recently to keep attacks on one end and other options on the other end of the button menu and to condense the list a little as well.

"Flat" buttons like that serve as labels for the button menu, yes. A couple other places that use button menu pages (with the "< Prev" and "Next >" buttons in the center) have the same layout.

 

[Theron]

Special is kind of generic though, and not everybody has tooltips turned on. Might need a rename.

Sp. Attacks would fit, I think. There's probably something better.

 

[Teddy]

The button is labeled "Specials" but it's actually for "Special Attacks" and the usual button was labeled as "Abilities" for "Special Abilities". The specials menu was split up recently to keep attacks on one end and other options on the other end of the button menu and to condense the list a little as well.

Fair enough. On that note, the Kineticist abilities "Psychogenic Vim" and "Reality Schism" (and presumably "Haste") should maybe be moved to the "Abilities" menu, since they only heal or buff.

"Flat" buttons like that serve as labels for the button menu, yes. A couple other places that use button menu pages (with the "< Prev" and "Next >" buttons in the center) have the same layout.

It's not the place where I expect a label, but to be honest, that's probably mostly because I'm still used to how it was before...

 

[Jacques00]

Fair enough. On that note, the Kineticist abilities "Psychogenic Vim" and "Reality Schism" (and presumably "Haste") should maybe be moved to the "Abilities" menu, since they only heal or buff.

Naturally, all the class-specific abilities will appear in the Special Attacks menu, and it looks like those abilities fall into that. It may require some extra parsing, but I'll try to look into a way I can make those kinds of abilities appear on the other menu. Currently, the only exceptions with the class abilities may be one of the separate Kineticist abilities and the Levitate ability (since it shares a menu with other flying abilities).

It's not the place where I expect a label, but to be honest, that's probably mostly because I'm still used to how it was before...

There are two ways a button menu with a potential for more than 15 buttons will be displayed: either broken into sorted chunks (such as by letter, like A-M, M-Z, etc., with no page navigation) or through a paging menu (has page navigation, shows up to 10 choices per page--I added the label primarily for clarity, like in the ship equipment menu and the drink/food menus). I tried to stylize the labels so they are flat and non-clickable with non-bold font (I want to avoid changing up the colors too much, so I left that alone). Normally buttons you can click/tap on have a drop shadow.

 

[Teddy]

There are two ways a button menu with a potential for more than 15 buttons will be displayed: either broken into sorted chunks (such as by letter, like A-M, M-Z, etc., with no page navigation) or through a paging menu (has page navigation, shows up to 10 choices per page--I added the label primarily for clarity, like in the ship equipment menu and the drink/food menus). I tried to stylize the labels so they are flat and non-clickable with non-bold font (I want to avoid changing up the colors too much, so I left that alone). Normally buttons you can click/tap on have a drop shadow.

Hmm, I think what tripped me up is that the current design lands right inbetween "enabled button" and "disabled button", which in some GUI frameworks could have indicated a broken button. Removing the button-shaped background for the label could break the association with buttons without hurting the colour scheme, I think.

 

[Jacques00]

Hmm, I think what tripped me up is that the current design lands right inbetween "enabled button" and "disabled button", which in some GUI frameworks could have indicated a broken button. Removing the button-shaped background for the label could break the association with buttons without hurting the colour scheme, I think.

Okay, I think I came to a compromise: the flat buttons will just adopt a semi-transparent variant of the shadow color (appearance will vary based on the color theme, so it could appear completely transparent in some cases), that way it can look somewhat like a disabled button, but still have opaque enough text to be legible.

I also made adjustments to the special attack/ability lists. They should now separate between offensive attacks and support/utility abilities, respectively. Hopefully that is a bit more clear in what action belongs where.

These changes should hopefully appear in the next release.