TheJG

This is the issue. When the game was released I hated it, but I thought "well, there's been a lot of very specific feedback, and some of the things myself and others dislike the most should be very easy fixes." So I checked the first few updates eagerly and none of the changes any of us wanted were made. Then I left it a while before I checked again, tried the demo again, and it was exactly the same game with a slightly re-ordered office screen. I've come to the realisation that any patches now are simply to fix bugs (and the majority of the patches so far have also been solely to fix bugs). This is the game now.

I play TEW 2016, but the AI are awful at building up non-established workers. I thought this was a well known "feature" for the TEW series? It's got to the point where in historical mods I artificially bump the popularity of workers who don't work for me, otherwise nothing ever changes.

I know the feeling - I've tried the demo numerous times now with various skins and the updated patches and I just don't like the way it looks, feels or plays. Everything looks so awful and plays so unintuitively. I can't see any kind of graphical updates or QoL updates ever happening either based on the patches so far, so hopefully those aspects of the game are taken more into consideration with the next version.

I always thought this in '16. I had about 5 dev companies in my game and I always found it silly that if I wanted to send them to another company I had to recall them to do it.

These are vital features. And they were in the last game. Almost feels like it's a bug rather than a suggestion.

<p><strong>- UI improvements.</strong></p><p> Other than the office screen being gridded, nothing much else was changed regarding the UI. Yes, there was a new skin, but that was fixed by users on the forum within hours anyway. It's still a disaster in regards to ease and playability and there's so much wasted space.</p><p> </p><p><strong> - More graphical aspects.</strong></p><p> The main issue is with the tiny, tiny match ratings, which mean that the most important part of the game appears irrelevant. For whatever reason, hundreds of graphics have been removed from this version of the game. It feels too much like a spreadsheet.</p><p> </p><p> Other than a quick look to see if the UI has been improved, I haven't played the demo since the first couple of weeks it came out, so can't speak for much else. I find it very strange that you can't edit a workers status during the game though.</p>

Yeah, this still looks so good in comparison.

Perfect, thanks. "A few months", it says. I thought that might be the case. I guess the only way to do it would be to add a 2nd player and take over the child company. But that would mean ending the relationship etc.

<p>Two questions I'm hoping someone will be able to answer.</p><p> </p><p> 1. How long does it take a worker to recover from a chronic injury? It states "Chuck Palumbo is currently working through a Chronic Lower Back Pain". It doesn't state when it will end. Also, does giving them time off help?</p><p> </p><p> 2. Is there any way to raise a child companies production values? I've got multiple child companies and my main one is suffering with show quality because their production values aren't as high, but I can't work out if there's any way to raise them.</p>

Exactly. I mean, even with letter grades, where we've been told that they're not being considered, it doesn't say why: "QUESTION: Will letter grade graphics be re-added? ANSWER: No, that is not something that is being considered." Right, so they're not being considered, but why? A lot of people like them and the previous version of the game had an option for both, which pleased everyone. But now they're not being considered? Is it coding limitations? If it's coding limitations then why was it present in the previous version of the game, which used the same coding language? Is it just something that they don't want to add because they personally don't like them? Everything's so cryptic.

There was an excellent thread posted by a member who works in UI development pointing out the ways the UI was a disaster. None of his suggestions have been implemented, it's only a re-skin and the office screen has been re-gridded. I'm worried that due to VB6 the game has been coded into a corner and can no longer be changed to what we're hoping. I get the feeling that the functionality has dictated the design, and for the design to change it's going to mess up the functionality, hence why the design is barely changing, even though there are some really simple suggestions that are frequently being raised and aren't being implemented or even acknowledged. I wish they'd announce that though - "we can't change this due to coding limitations" - then you'd just think oh, fair enough. Whereas at the moment it just seems like a lot of issues are being ignored.

I posted this in the beta reaction thread but feels it deserves its own thread. I've tried getting into '20 but I just can't. I think there are a lot of UI issues, only one of which has been resolved with the release of the full game, but I believe a large part of why it doesn't feel fun is that everything is so spreadsheety and small that nothing feels like an achievement. It feels like you're playing with SUM calculations in Excel. You get a 100 rated match: In '16 100 (GRADE: A) In '20 100 Nothing pops. Nothing stands out. There's nothing to hide the fact that you're essentially playing with a spreadsheet. I noticed that the game no longer uses graphics for the ratings. Why has this change been made? It's a massive step back. The graphics folder has gone from 284 files in TEW 2016 to 74 files in TEW 2020. This has been turned into a very, very text based game, with minimal graphics.

I'm assuming it has something to do with the fact that ratings are now text based rather than graphical, like in '16. I guess it pulls through as, say, "rated: 66" and trying to add a letter in there would screw up every calculation. Whereas I'm guessing that in '16 the number was a prompt to show the graphic, which as per your preferences could either be the graphics for numerical or the graphics for grades. On a sidenote, the graphics folder has gone from 284 files in TEW 2016 to 74 files in TEW 2020. This has been turned into a very, very text based game, with minimal graphics.

Haha, second thing for me. "Bigger numbers? Nope. Skills changed? Nope."

Surprised this wasn't changed.

Is there a list of the UI changes? The only noticeable change is the gridding of the office screen and a new skin (which isn't much of a change, because we all had user created skins installed anyway). Other than those two things I can't see anything that's changed?

When a large percentage, I'd assume even a majority percentage, play a game because of Real World mods, then Real World mods should be heavily considered when developing said game.

Would back and forward be possible in VB6 then? I never know what's done as a result of poor design and what's done as a result of programming limitations. The pop-up's look so messy. If, for example, you load up a worker, then look at their popularity, then their popularity progress, there are four X'able windows. Being able to go back and forward whilst staying in the same screen would be a big improvement. Especially if you could use Backspace or gaming mouse buttons to go back a screen.

I think there are a lot of UI issues, but I believe a large part of why it doesn't feel fun is that everything is so spreadsheety and small that nothing feels like an achievement. It feels like you're playing with SUM calculations in Excel. You get a 100 rated match: In '16 100 (GRADE: A) In '20 100 Nothing pops. Nothing stands out. There's nothing to hide the fact that you're essentially playing with a spreadsheet.

No. I think it's a step back from '16, mainly in regards to the UI. There are also little things that bother me, like the ratings being tiny, which makes what you do in the game feel inconsequential, more spreadsheet like and less fun. Hopefully the UI changes are more than what we've seen already, as I don't think it's enough to just grid the office screen (which everyone including me pointed out within an hour of the game being released) and put a new skin on (which was fixed by mods rightaway too).

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Slim Jim" data-cite="Slim Jim" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="48899" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>For those asking for Popularity update too:<p> </p><p> <a href="https://i.imgur.com/Y6ftQFU.jpg" rel="external nofollow">https://i.imgur.com/Y6ftQFU.jpg</a></p><p> </p><p> <a href="https://i.imgur.com/RnkXJsB.jpg" rel="external nofollow">https://i.imgur.com/RnkXJsB.jpg</a></p><p> </p><p> It would still need the scroll bar but you can see a lot more of their popularity. If you took them in order you would likely have USA, Canada, Mexico, British Isles in the left column and Japan, Europe, Oceania, India in the right column.</p><p> </p><p> I don't know how the graphics work exactly so splitting into two boxes when switching view might not be possible but trying to make the most of the space, and not sure how often the Recent Headlines box is being used but I wouldn't mind it being on the second screen with Contract Details.</p><p> </p><p> Also, I think the titles for each section (Status, Skills, Popularity, Recent Headlines, etc.) should all be centralised in their boxes for uniformity.</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> It's actually incredible how much better the skills look. So much easier on the eye.</p>

This whole game is based around numbers, yet even though the width of the game has increased, the numbers have gone from being big and bold to being tiny and muted. This makes everything you do feel inconsequential. '16 popularity: https://i.imgur.com/WFR7ycf.png '20 popularity: https://i.imgur.com/2kB04Bj.png '16 popularity progress: https://i.imgur.com/oi6XOjg.png '20 popularity progress: https://i.imgur.com/UO68bMO.png '16 previous show ratings: https://i.imgur.com/rHyh0UC.png '20 previous show ratings: https://i.imgur.com/Q4OL1rP.png '16 belt prestige: https://i.imgur.com/XCpzyaW.png '20 belt prestige: https://i.imgur.com/mSWG0wj.png And now for the worst example, the match rating when you're booking a show: '16 match rating: '20 match rating: It's barely visible, like it's an afterthought, when it's in fact the whole point of the game. I've been trying to work out why I just cannot get into this game and I think this is part of the issue. Everything meaningful isn't highlighted as being meaningful.

<p>I don't know about anyone else, but during my games I never play for long enough to see workers inducted into the Hall of Immortals. I played a 2001 mod for 5 years and only had <strong>one</strong> entrant during that time.</p><p> </p><p> So my suggestion is that we can filter the Hall of Immortals screen so we can also see all workers who have already qualified for induction upon retirement. That way you can at least know who has qualified, even if you don't play for 20 years so will never see it happen.</p>

It's great that he's taken the feedback on board and delayed the release. I'm hoping that when he refers to there being no chance for a "complete overhaul of the UI", he means in regards to the concept art that's popped up on the board lately, which is obviously unrealistic, rather than a rejigging and rethinking of what's already there. All I'd like is a game that's at least as functional and user friendly as the edition before. I wouldn't class TEW 2016 as a pretty game, but it did everything well and the layout and flow were infinitely better.

Oh, I see. So I was along the right lines, just not all of the talking options result in promises. Ah, that makes sense. It was ported from a TEW 16 mod, so wouldn't have been filled in with "iron clad". The fact that I couldn't negotiate is an issue though - I may have been able to make a better offer than my competitor and sign him to an iron clad deal, but I wasn't able to.