The Vault placement: we'd really like to hear from you [Archive]

CJ54

05-08-2014, 07:41 PM

Hey everyone, we've been discussing the Vault feedback, and wanted to lay out our original reason for moving the Vault tab and discuss what we can do about it.

So here's the reason behind the Vault move: we have a limited amount of UI space (we can't add more elements than already exist to the menu, only move them around), and the Inventory tab is about to become pretty relevant due to our ability to add consumable items to the game. Right now this only exists with the gift packs, but we are also planning on using those as additional rewards in certain events, plus some other potential uses for those and that tab

So, knowing that that UI element is about to become more important, where do you think we should move the Vault tab to? "Back to where it was" is a fine answer, but the question is, what does it replace? Since we're going to be ramping up the use of the consumable items and the Inventory screen is how you use those, we kind of don't want to lose that one, and the others are pretty important as well. Before anyone mentions it, I know that our free players are going to mention the "Add Funds" tab, but that IS pretty important to the people who chose to spend money on the game during events, to have that close at hand. It is also how we keep the game going, so there is that.

So far, things we have talked about as possibilities:

-Making the Vault tab the default screen on the profile, so it is only one click to get there. This would solve the access problem with the Vault and be the fastest and easiest fix, but we're worried people would not appreciate that either.

-Moving the Unit tab to "More" (which is also crowded) or to the profile tab.

-Moving Inventory to a profile tab or to the "More" menu (we're not sure we can move it to the profile tab without breaking things at this point, is the thing.)

We're also seeing if we can dig up some hard data about what tabs people are using most commonly versus least commonly.

And more importantly, the point of this whole thread, is that we want to hear how you all would move things around to meet your needs the best, given all the different factors outlined above. The goal is to make the UI *more* usable, not less. We're still going to have to balance any suggestions with what is technically feasible (blowing up the UI is bad).

So fire away with the constructive criticism (please keep it constructive!), and let us know how you would move things around. I know there has been lots of discussion about this in a lot of spread out separate threads, but we will be pointing more traffic at this one and want to keep all the feedback in one place to get a better idea of strength of sentiment.

Let us know.

Jnsolberg

05-08-2014, 07:55 PM

Why not make vaulting gold automatic? That way we don't even need that button.
Also, we know where to buy gems. We don't need that on the menu.

CJ54

05-08-2014, 08:00 PM

I'll talk to one of the engineers about that; there was some reason why auto-vaulting was a serious pain to implement, but you're right that it would solve the issue.

Tachyon

05-08-2014, 08:15 PM

Why not make vaulting gold automatic? That way we don't even need that button.
Also, we know where to buy gems. We don't need that on the menu.

Auto-vaulting is the best solution, and will save users a lot of time. You can leave the vault button in the new location, it is still needed for people to check the vault status and to upgrade the vault.

Shadows

05-08-2014, 08:45 PM

Before anyone mentions it, I know that our free players are going to mention the "Add Funds" tab, but that IS pretty important to the people who chose to spend money on the game during events, to have that close at hand.

CJ, I'm confused as to how the new location of the "Add Funds" makes it closer at hand than the previous (and still in play) location to the right of the gems tally on the top of the screen... it has always been a quick hit for our gemmers, and honestly, placing the "Add Funds" where it is in the Menu now actually ADDS a tap, so if you really want to have the ability to buy gems etc. close at hand, leave it be in its original location, delete the tab in the MENU and put the vault there...

Easy Peasy!! :-)

edit: Okay, thought about your question about less-used tabs... if you at Gree are serious about consolidating the MENU, may I recommend you start with the store? You could combine all the various building into one Building sub-menu, and when opened it could show the Money, Unit, Defense, and Boost as tabs such as you have in the Army and Hero Equipment sub-menus (Weapons and Armor)... PLUS you could replace one of the (now-useless) building sub-menus in the Store and create a Units sub-menu, therefore moving it out of the main MENU choices....

Valid or

05-08-2014, 09:34 PM

I do agree buying gems is important, but I can't say I have used the menu button once, I have always accessed the purchase screen from just taping on my gems.
Now haveing said that.
Would it be posable to link the gold to our vault(as a short cut)? I know right now when you tap our gold it brings up the purchase screen..but do we really need 3 differnt ways to access it?
This way nothing has to be moved around.

Lys

05-08-2014, 10:08 PM

CJ.

We have other areas with which to purchase gems. One that doesn't require us to even pull up the menu. I've NEVER used the add funds menu button in my life, only that little plus sign up in the top left.

As far as the most used tabs, "Profile," "Guild," "Map," and "News" are the ones I use the most. Recently though, Support, as I've been sending quite a few tickets. Honestly, nuke the Add Funds. It's quicker to hit the gold/gem display and bring up the purchasing from there. Really.

Jason SS

05-08-2014, 11:14 PM

I am another gem buyer that has never used the "add funds" tab to make my purchases. I always use the + next to my gems total at the top of the screen, it is so much more convenient. I suggest moving the add funds into the store and combining it with the Special items available for purchase.

Another tab that can be removed easily and probably more acceptable to Gree are one of the allies tabs. Add Allies and Visit Allies both take us to different areas of the same menu, just combine them into one Allies tab like you have in LaW.

Vixia.

05-09-2014, 12:22 AM

I agree with the others saying you can remove the 'add funds' in the menu. I never use it either. I do as Lys and press the plus sign where my gems are and purchase that way. Remove 'add funds' in the menu and you can put something else there.

I'd rather have my inventory in my profile and my vault in the menu where it were before, unless you can automize the gold saving, then it can stay in the profile.

And do we really need to access the inventory for refills? If my energy, health or stamina are out, there's a popup saying I can refill and if I have potions it would take from those instead of buying more with gems. And then the inventory isn't needed for that reason.

Rossta4249

05-09-2014, 01:03 AM

I think that these responses represent the general consensus... Remove the Add Funds from the menu and return the Vault to this location. Add Funds can be accessed from the gem and gold meters on the main screen.

rutty

05-09-2014, 01:38 AM

Don't need the add funds button AT ALL - there is already a more accessible option for that. Put the vault back where it was, it's one of my most used options, more so than Map, Guild etc.

One option I rarely use is Units - rarely use that these days. Anyone still buying units? Not me. You could consolidate that into the store (but would probably need to also consolidate a few options in there to make space)

JamieF

05-09-2014, 04:32 AM

I agree with rutty^
Hardly no one needs those Units tab (unless someone is doing the individual quests) and the worst unit you'll receive in a guild is even better than what you can buy (gold wise). So moving to store?

Auto-vaulting seems nice feature.

backstabber

05-09-2014, 06:43 AM

Agree that vault should be moved back. I would say there are 2 menu options that could be moved:
1. Add allies and visit allies can be combined to allies. 1 free space
2. Unit moved to store. To make room, i would combine hero equipment and army equipment. Menu is already set up with tabs so i would have 4 tabs. Army weapons, army armor, hero weapons, hero armor.

Least used button: Gamecenter. What does it do? All it does is say Welcome back <gamecenter id> and then show me achievements...which can be accessed through the ios gamecenter screen

Edit: i also go to add funds by pressig the + sign next to gem count

Julius Wheezer

05-09-2014, 06:43 AM

I also agree that the ADD FUNDS menu option is redundant. Always used the "plus" sign, or just used the prompt screens that come up when you don't have enough.

Not sure about the auto-vault, though. For one thing, it's nice to find people who have forgotten, or are in the middle of something while you steal away their livelihood, and for another, what if it goes wrong? Unlikely as it may seem to some, I can envison a scenario where the programming goes wrong and gold fails to get in the vault and gets stolen.

On a positive note, i'd like to mention that my mini's (on ipods) usually crashed when viewing profile before the inventory was moved. Now they don't. In fact the game seems to be generally much more stable, especially on the ipods. Thanks for that.

Silent follower

05-09-2014, 08:51 AM

CJ, I'm confused as to how the new location of the "Add Funds" makes it closer at hand than the previous (and still in play) location to the right of the gems tally on the top of the screen... it has always been a quick hit for our gemmers, and honestly, placing the "Add Funds" where it is in the Menu now actually ADDS a tap, so if you really want to have the ability to buy gems etc. close at hand, leave it be in its original location, delete the tab in the MENU and put the vault there...

Easy Peasy!! :-)

edit: Okay, thought about your question about less-used tabs... if you at Gree are serious about consolidating the MENU, may I recommend you start with the store? You could combine all the various building into one Building sub-menu, and when opened it could show the Money, Unit, Defense, and Boost as tabs such as you have in the Army and Hero Equipment sub-menus (Weapons and Armor)... PLUS you could replace one of the (now-useless) building sub-menus in the Store and create a Units sub-menu, therefore moving it out of the main MENU choices....

I completely agree here, that moving units to the Store and consolidating there the buildings and equipment to own sub menus would solve this easily.

And as so many have written, the fastest way to purchase gems (or gold) is from the upper screen direct menus. I used to be a frequent buyer and have never ever bought gems using the menu.

Myrra

05-09-2014, 08:54 AM

I use the vault tab for two things:

1) protecting my golds!
2) forcing a server refresh (on occasion, after killing the last guy on a quest the quests don't update and the connection to the server seems to make that happen)

Since it was a frequently used tab, it is frustrating that it is further away. Additionally, the "Profile tab" seems to be slow to load, so it takes longer to get to the vault then when it was there before.

Considering the question at hand, here is how I would set up the tabs:

Order of tabs:

1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8

First Pane of 8 tabs:
1 - Store
2 - Inventory (replaces Units)
3 - Map
4 - Guild
5 - Profile
6 - Add Funds (I think this is where it was)
7 - Vault (back where it was)
8 - More

Within Store:
1 - Money Buildings
2 - Unit Buildings
3 - Boost Buildings
4 - Defense Buildings
5 - Special
6 - Units
7 - Equipment (consolidated from Army and Hero, now with 4 tabs)
8 - Decorations

Here I moved the buildings to be the entire first row (except decorations which I left alone)
Units was moved and as someone else suggested the Army and Hero equipment were consolidated and would be a 4 tab screen.

Within Profile Tab:
Stats, Skills, Comments (Maybe bonuses could become a standalone tab?)

One other nit - on the Guild Member tab, could you get rid of the "Enlist More Recruits" area? (or just put it on the Guild Info screen). We have a long list of members and it would be really nice not to have to see only 3 at a time. Along those same lines, during war, it would be nice to have the member list be able to be scrolled to show more than 3 people at a time.

Thanks for soliciting our feedback.

-Myrra RK

taxman

05-09-2014, 09:14 AM

Same as above. Put is back where it was. Other options with one click to buy gems dont need add funds button.

Ninjasasquatch

05-09-2014, 10:06 AM

I liked it where it was, at least on the first page, it's too hard to get to now. Or just make gold up to the max vault exempt from capture. Then if you need that spot you can use it for whatever new game content you like.

syKosis

05-09-2014, 10:44 AM

You could remove either "Visit Allies" or "Add Allies" and just make an "Allies" button. This would free up one tile for another use. Those 2 buttons essentially bring you to the same place.

Johnny56

05-09-2014, 01:30 PM

It seems to be a consensus here to remover the Add Funds button and put the Vault button back in its place. I definitely agree that the Add Funds button here is not needed. There are many other easier ways to get to Add Funds. The Add Funds button here just leaves the impression of showing how greedy Gree is getting by putting it right in your face.

On my device (a 3rd generation iPod Touch iOS 5.1.1) Profile is slow to open. So any option under Profile is not good for me.

Backstabber had some good suggestions above (http://www.funzio.com/forum/showthread.php?91106-The-Vault-placement-we-d-really-like-to-hear-from-you&p=1291571&viewfull=1#post1291571).

NinjaHonu

05-09-2014, 02:01 PM

I prefer the vault button back where it is. But not a big deal. It's one click to get to the gem purchase screen with the "+" button. 2 clicks with the Add Funds button. I ALWAYS use the "+" button. Faster.

FIX THE BUY NOW gem purchase units. Add a "Are you sure" confirm button please. Many times I wake up to a bunch of GLTQ pop ups and I press okay about 10+ times to get rid of the unit pop ups earned by my guild and accidentally press a buy now gem unit that is hiding behind all the pop ups. Vault location.... small issue.... Gem confirm purchase button BIG ISSUE.

phopjon

05-09-2014, 04:05 PM

Back where it was or make it the first tab you access on your profile so it's the same number of clicks. Then move profile to where the vault was. After nearly three years, there's a lot of muscle memory at play here.

And you'll forgive this free player if he sees something devious in putting "buy stuff" in what is most likely the muscle memory spot for all free players. I understand. Bills need payin and all. But still

Aronius

05-09-2014, 06:35 PM

Do not set up an auto vault.... Why not place it where that useless gree symbol is under the experience in the upper right corner?

AvatarTBS

05-09-2014, 11:26 PM

The Vault button needs to be moved back to where it was. Absolutely nobody wants the "Add Funds" button. There have literally been polls, threads, and surveys about this for weeks. The problem is, no one is reading and/or responding to our problems unless it has become nearly impossible not to. SnapOpera posted a "Hey, guys!" thread asking about ideas and suggestions, and no one has dropped back by to acknowledge the posts there in the 2 weeks since it's creation.

No, we do not need an "Add Funds" button. No, none of us believe it's "how you keep the game going", there are hundreds of models out there that disagree. And yes, we need the Vault to be in an extremely accessible place, for obvious reasons. Putting it as a tab in the Profile section may have literally been the worst place it possibly could go for the players.

Lastly, it seems kind of insane that your "coding" is so inflexible, that even adding another button is an impossibility. There are constant bugs, glitches, and mishaps going on every time a new quest, war, patch, or feature goes active. Honestly, literally, and most importantly constructively, I believe you need new coders with fresh eyes and ideas to take a look at some of the problems and antiquated systems still being used. I would not suggest this if I did not care about the game and want to continue playing it. But it is becoming so difficult to do so, which is sad. There is feedback given every single day, both here and in tickets, and all we've received is automated replies, or responses from moderators, admins, or devs stating they'd "look into something", and then never responding again.

I say all of this because I hope that this time, in this thread, it really will be read. Please, no more "Add Funds" button. The obsession with screaming "MONEY MONEY MONEY!" at your players at every available opportunity is not only annoying, but it's having the opposite effect. I have not even considered buying a gem, because you're putting the "buy fake money with real money" right in our faces, and it destroys the little fantasy world we're living in where that seems like a sane thing to do.

Put the vault back where it was, so we can resume keeping our imaginary money safe. There's too much breaking the illusion by begging for cash grabs to lose yourself in this game like you once could.

Thanks for reading, and please don't forget about the other feedback thread, either. There are plenty of very intelligent people who'd like to discuss great ideas with you for free. I wouldn't pass that business opportunity up. :)

Raistlin (ESq)

05-09-2014, 11:53 PM

I am a regular Gem purchaser and just like everyone else, do not use the Add Funds button. Vault needs to go back where it was. Auto Vault is a terrible idea, as others have explained above.

Jcreek201

05-10-2014, 02:15 PM

Razzy

05-10-2014, 05:59 PM

Make vaulting of gold automatic and increase limit, pls

Wish

05-10-2014, 07:31 PM

Isn't there two tabs for adding allies? Take the main one out and leave the one under the allies button. Not sure if it's still there, I don't visit that section anymore

Wish

05-10-2014, 07:32 PM

I do not like the vault button under profile. It takes too long to open

Tomate Eins

05-11-2014, 01:25 AM

When I buy gems I just use the plus symbol next to the gems...still faster to get to than the new location where the vault used to be. I appreciate the transparency of this thread and the actual desire for fredback but I do not see the point in redundant gem screen buttons. I liked the old vault.

And @avatar, telling the devs that they should basically fire themselves, is anything but constructive. I understand the frustration with the constant glitches but just bashing GREE on the forums, like I see all too often on here does nothing to help. It clearly doesn't motivate them to make improvements. Constructive feedback does.

Same here, I have never, ever, in any of the games, on any of my accounts, used the Add Funds button when buying gold/gems. And am still a good customer, even without that interface. Lol.

If short on space and still wantind a seperate button for purchases (since needed for cash/gold), why not move it to second page and merge the two allies buttons into one. Since they give access to the same sub-menu

AvatarTBS

05-11-2014, 02:29 AM

And @avatar, telling the devs that they should basically fire themselves, is anything but constructive. I understand the frustration with the constant glitches but just bashing GREE on the forums, like I see all too often on here does nothing to help. It clearly doesn't motivate them to make improvements. Constructive feedback does.

I never said anything about anyone "firing themselves". I said they need a fresh pair of eyes looking at some of their ideas both abstractly and from a coding perspective. Bringing in a specialist to look at problems Gree cannot/will not solve would be extremely useful. The coding is a constant problem. We're told time and again why things "can't" happen, it would be nice to hear that someone was beginning to see what CAN be done. If I didn't care about this game, I wouldn't play it. But the lack of development and real customer support are really putting it in a bad place. That needs to end, so we can all enjoy playing the game for a long time to come. I don't want to see it cast aside like so many others.

la coloraa

05-12-2014, 06:15 AM

Please can help me out if you know the value of each upgrade of the vault. I will appreciated it.
Thanks.

Hey everyone, we've been discussing the Vault feedback, and wanted to lay out our original reason for moving the Vault tab and discuss what we can do about it.

So here's the reason behind the Vault move: we have a limited amount of UI space (we can't add more elements than already exist to the menu, only move them around), and the Inventory tab is about to become pretty relevant due to our ability to add consumable items to the game. Right now this only exists with the gift packs, but we are also planning on using those as additional rewards in certain events, plus some other potential uses for those and that tab

So, knowing that that UI element is about to become more important, where do you think we should move the Vault tab to? "Back to where it was" is a fine answer, but the question is, what does it replace? Since we're going to be ramping up the use of the consumable items and the Inventory screen is how you use those, we kind of don't want to lose that one, and the others are pretty important as well. Before anyone mentions it, I know that our free players are going to mention the "Add Funds" tab, but that IS pretty important to the people who chose to spend money on the game during events, to have that close at hand. It is also how we keep the game going, so there is that.

So far, things we have talked about as possibilities:

-Making the Vault tab the default screen on the profile, so it is only one click to get there. This would solve the access problem with the Vault and be the fastest and easiest fix, but we're worried people would not appreciate that either.

-Moving the Unit tab to "More" (which is also crowded) or to the profile tab.

-Moving Inventory to a profile tab or to the "More" menu (we're not sure we can move it to the profile tab without breaking things at this point, is the thing.)

We're also seeing if we can dig up some hard data about what tabs people are using most commonly versus least commonly.

And more importantly, the point of this whole thread, is that we want to hear how you all would move things around to meet your needs the best, given all the different factors outlined above. The goal is to make the UI *more* usable, not less. We're still going to have to balance any suggestions with what is technically feasible (blowing up the UI is bad).

So fire away with the constructive criticism (please keep it constructive!), and let us know how you would move things around. I know there has been lots of discussion about this in a lot of spread out separate threads, but we will be pointing more traffic at this one and want to keep all the feedback in one place to get a better idea of strength of sentiment.

Let us know.

Valid or

05-12-2014, 06:41 AM

Please can help me out if you know the value of each upgrade of the vault. I will appreciated it.
Thanks.
Your a little off topic..would be better to start a new thread for this, rather than tring to hijack a thread gree started to get our feedback on game improvements.

Kingdommadness

05-12-2014, 07:04 AM

I am a gem user, Never used add funds tab, its simpler to click plus sign on top. Remove add funds and put there vault- or better add autovaulting.

I understand you dont put auto vaulting, because you want users to be more active and be engaged with the game even more. But trust me, those who play it already are going in and out the gane a lot.. Adding autovaulting wont make users less active with the game, you will also help people wih sleep deprivation and setting alarm clocks for collecting manors - its not the funnest part of the game ;)

Valid or

05-12-2014, 08:40 AM

Before anyone mentions it, I know that our free players are going to mention the "Add Funds" tab, but that IS pretty important to the people who chose to spend money on the game during events, to have that close at hand. It is also how we keep the game going, so there is that.

Let us know.
A lot of people have said remove the add funds tab. But honestly that is something they will not consider..it is there bread and butter. A lot of us don't use it agreed as we just hit the + by our gems. Think we need to be a bit more constructive and forget about sugesting they remove it.

Uberfauker

05-12-2014, 09:13 AM

Okay, I'm to lazy to read back and see if this has been suggested. If it has, I'm so so so sorry...well, not really. :p

How about placing a vault button on the home screen next to the battle list?

cheetah

05-12-2014, 12:09 PM

Why not get rid of the funzio id tab or the game center tab. Funzio id is useless as it is for us transferring the game from device to device. And since we can not do that without your help now it seems irrelevant

Vile Lynn

05-12-2014, 04:12 PM

wherever you move it or keep it.... please have it in a consistent place with CC and MW, too. Lots of us play more than 1 GREE app.

Peanut Butter

05-12-2014, 10:21 PM

Ctrl-Z that move developers!

Johnny56

05-13-2014, 10:18 AM

One of the biggest problems with the movement of the vault is that it is inconsistent with other Gree games. I also regularly play Modern War and Crime City. Since these game interfaces are so similar the buttons should match and did until this change in Kingdom Age. It is bad enough having to search for the Vault under the Profile (which is slow to open) but just recently I found myself opening the Profile in MW to get to the Vault. This inconsistency does not leave me with a good impression about the leadership of Gree.

Capitalsfanatic

05-13-2014, 12:06 PM

Burying the vault button does not seem to make sense. It would need to be a top level button, quickly accessible for immediate vaulting. The Add Funds button could be hung off of the More button, one level below. This because Add Funds is easily accessible from the upper left gold/gem meters -and- because adding funds is accessible from virtually every action screen in the game, or it pops up automatically if funds are low. Placing yet another Add Funds button on a top level menu, seems to serve marketing, not functionality.

CJ54

05-13-2014, 12:17 PM

Awesome, thank you everyone for the feedback! The suggestions have been passed to the developers, and we are discussing this today. We'll have an update for you as soon as we reach a consensus based on what we can do.

Maart

05-13-2014, 01:23 PM