Topic

Staff Topic

[updated] Quantity picker ho!

You know how when you have to choose how many of a stack of Sammiches* you want to eat (or donate, or whatever) you get a menu that has a limited number of choices? That has been the cause of some frustration for quite a while for many people, and we've had lots of requests to provide the ability to enter an exact number. Well guess what? ... Yes! You're right! We did it!

Now, when you get a menu asking you to choose a quantity, and there are more than 5 items in the stack, you'll have buttons to choose "all", "just one" or "none" and an input field to enter a number (pre-populated with a value that is half the stack size).

A few tips on how to use it:

• You can start typing a number as soon as the menu comes up. Fast!

• You can use the right arrow key to move focus to the input, and then use the UP and DOWN arrows to change the quantity.

• You can also use the + and - buttons on either side of the input field to change the quantity.

• Hit the ENTER key while the input field is selected to submit the value!

(One possible issue we're aware of is that there is no way to click to submit a custom quantity. You have to hit the ENTER key. We'll see how much of a frustration this is for people before we decide if we want to provide a click-to-submit affordance.)

Enjoy!

* Feature not limited to Sammiches

UPDATE: We gave you a button to click on!

Posted 14 months ago by eric Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • I love how receptive and responsive the staff are toward player requests. Glitch may have the most helpful staff of any browser-based game I've played to date.
    Posted 14 months ago by zZzZzZzZ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Love it for donating, but feeding does result in more clicks/keystrokes. 10 planks was a nice amount to feed bats to produce 2 guano. Now I have to type in '10' and hit enter.

    It would be nice to have the best of both worlds - the preset amounts IN ADDITION TO the custom amount. It'd be a big long dialog box, but still.
    Posted 14 months ago by Joe Blow Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Brilliant! Thank you so much for this feature!!!
    Posted 14 months ago by IxÆoN Subscriber! | Permalink
  • yeah, it is super sexy, but what joe bloe said, only for grinding.

    also, this update made me all hopeful that we would be able to use the keyboard to control crafting dialogue boxes for some reason.  i can only hope that is on the list you guys are making your way through.  :)
    Posted 14 months ago by katlazam Subscriber! | Permalink
  • OMG — we went 50 posts without anyone saying this takes all the joy out of quantity picking! ;)

    Joe Blow (and others) I'm not sure I understand the clicks or mouse/keyboard switching parts, but that's mostly because I don't know why anyone would use the mouse for anything (except maybe some drag-and-drop actions, like giving to a player). Can you explain how you use it a bit more?

    E.g., for me: it's "press enter ->[optionally choose item to interact with] -> get menu -> use arrow keys or keyboard shortcut to choose item from menu -> either (use arrow keys + enter key to select ALL or 1 or cancel) or (type the quantity I want, hit enter).
    Posted 14 months ago by stoot barfield Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yay!  Won't have to buy seeds now.  Was way too tiresome to get them from piggy plop before but now... yay!
    Posted 14 months ago by Reni's Mum Subscriber! | Permalink
  • May I suggest a rubber gloves addition to the wardrobe so I won't have to get my hands dirty pawing through the plop for seeds ;D
    Posted 14 months ago by Reni's Mum Subscriber! | Permalink
  • OLD: Enter, E for feed, select food item, click 10 == 2 guano
    NEW: - Enter, E, select food item, type 1, type 0, Enter == 2 guano

    Somewhat worse in that its a laptop with no numeric keypad, so I'm hunting and pecking east and west a lot :) Clicking is easier than using arrow keys and faster with this keyboard layout.

    I understand that while 10 is an amount that works for me in a specific case of guano hunting, 15 might be the magic number some other action, etc. It could be that 10 is overkill for other results to occur (feeding for plops, but in the case of gunao hunting, 10 is a magic number. So I guess I'll have to live with it, unless 10 turns out to be magic for more things than not.

    Overall, I like it much, much more than I don't. Guano and feeding would be the 2 things that I see being more tedious. This is more than offset by donating being much less tedious.
    Posted 14 months ago by Joe Blow Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Kirkpad, stoot: I know I can do all the actions with the keyboard and there's plenty of other complex game actions where I'm 100% keyboard cos it can make things so much easier. I love a game/application where I don't have to touch the mouse and appreciate the care that's gone into making Glitch keyboard drive-able.

    Just that for this particular use case the mouse felt the most convenient before. I think it's because a substantial part of the interaction is visually locating and selecting the appropriate food item from a dialog that probably contains 30 or more other images. This stage is really rapid & instinctive (for me at least) with a mouse, but all the arrow-keying around is a bit painful - especially when you're repeating it half a dozen times.
    Posted 14 months ago by Snazzlefrazz Subscriber! | Permalink
  • TY TY TY !!!!   Haven't tried it yet so I may be back with additional comments :)
    Posted 14 months ago by Qizara Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Actually, having it remember the last custom value (instead of half of current inventory) would work too. This way I'd just have to hit enter instead of continuously doing '1', '0' 20 times in a row.
    Posted 14 months ago by Joe Blow Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thank you guys and gals for implementing this, it's really helpful.
    Posted 14 months ago by Demetra Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Stoot, You can't navigate the map with the keyboard :-(
    Posted 14 months ago by Dasher Subscriber! | Permalink
  • FINALLY! THANK YOU!!!!
    Posted 14 months ago by Cerulean Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm with all the finally & thank-yous!!! (No more stress from dropping bags in front of shrines to donate specific numbers...)
    +1 for this great additionale feature!!
    Posted 14 months ago by BumbleBeez Subscriber! | Permalink
  • thanks! <3
    Posted 14 months ago by Natalia Subscriber! | Permalink
  • this is soooo fantastic and cannot be underestimated.  It changes almost every action, from refining without juggling items to feeding pigs to donating exactly what you want to shrines... just awesome!  Huge addition to the game.
    Posted 14 months ago by FlirtyvonSexenhaven Subscriber! | Permalink
  • + about a million

    Tiny Speck Rocks!!
    Posted 14 months ago by Firestone1960 Subscriber! | Permalink
  • stoot: "E.g., for me: it's "press enter ->[optionally choose item to interact with] -> get menu -> use arrow keys or keyboard shortcut to choose item from menu -> either (use arrow keys + enter key to select ALL or 1 or cancel) or (type the quantity I want, hit enter)."

    I tried it that way, but I ran into the same problem I do with the Give and Donate menu: It's too unwieldy. At least, I find it so. There are too many items and they are in no sort of order -- I have a hard time FINDING the item I want to feed the pig, and then it's annoying to have to arrow down and over like 10 times.

    So instead I mouse with my right hand and keyboard with the left:

    1) MOUSE Drag food from inventory to piggy.
    2) MOUSE Click in number field.
    3) KEYBOARD Type in "3".
    4) KEYBOARD Type "ENTER".

    It's not bad for me. But I'm a freak who moves around via WASD on a dvorak keyboard, so I may not be a representative sample.

    SPEAKING OF THAT GOSH-DARN HUUUUUUGE INVENTORY MENU... Why can't Donate, Give, and Feed bring you back to your existing inventory, maybe with a differently shaped/colored cursor to make it clear that you are within the Donate/Give/Feed process? Then it won't take me forever to find the item I want to Donate/Give/Feed, at least, since I'll be interacting with my inventory the way I organized it.
    Posted 14 months ago by Vortexae Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thanks everyone for explaining — it helps!

    We'll always be spending some of our time on UI/tweaks/fixes like this because we don't want the UI to get in front of the game, so it will also be getting better (sometimes slowly, but: same direction).
    Posted 14 months ago by stoot barfield Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I love this!
    Posted 14 months ago by Garney Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Now my piggies shall be fed without frustration :)

    Also cool for when I want to donate all my huge stack'o'planks to a shrine, but keep one back for splankings.
    Posted 14 months ago by Lukie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I dunno. This takes all the joy out of the game for me. I enjoyed having no exactly right choice at my disposal.

    o.o
    ^--^ <==== Poker face
    Posted 14 months ago by Quirk Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Vortexae: "and they are in no sort of order"

    They're in alphabetical order as of a couple of weeks ago, if that helps.
    Posted 14 months ago by eric Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Huzzah! 
    Posted 14 months ago by Merrylegs Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yay for quantity picker. :)
    Posted 14 months ago by TrentSkunk Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I saw this in game before I saw this post and I *love* it!!  :-D  Thanks!!  
    Posted 14 months ago by Reba Subscriber! | Permalink
  • eric won 1 internets today
    Posted 14 months ago by Mr. Dawgg Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thank you so much for implementing this feature. It is far superior to the previous method! With that said, here is a semi-critical analysis of the details: I tried this out on feeding piggies and donating to shrines: it is most convenient to use the mouse to pick the item from the list of possible items in the inventory, since it's faster than scrolling through them with the arrow keys. Then we have to switch back to keyboard to type in the amount to select and hit enter to accept it. The least amount of switching back and forth between the keyboard and mouse is optimal. If you are fine with the default number and don't want to enter in a new one, than being able to choose it with the mouse rather than switching to the keyboard to hit enter would be nice. I tend to use the keyboard 50% of the time, and the mouse the other 50% of the time (give or take some sort of uncertainty I can't bother to calculate), so having options for both is always good for me. Therefore, I would vote for adding in a "submit" button. This would be helpful for those that don't know what they're doing, as well, because everything else in the game has a submit button and it won't necessarily be obvious that this particular interaction requires hitting "enter".
    Posted 14 months ago by Shepherdmoon Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yea!!!  This is absolutely great!!!
    Posted 14 months ago by Cabinwood Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Love this. Thanks so much.
    Posted 14 months ago by nhex Subscriber! | Permalink
  • There has to be one Negative Nancy post so I guess today its me:
    I'm not a  fan...I use my mouse mostly so typing the amount then hitting enter takes me longer and just feels awkward.
    And tonight I had many instances where I almost donated the wrong amount or almost dropped the wrong amount.
    And finally at the end of my night, I went to drink an earthshaker and somehow instead of clicking "just one", I accidentally ended up drinking 10...BIG WASTE...
    I like the old way better.  Jus' sayin'
    But hugs anyways for all the updates. :)
    Posted 14 months ago by Gadzooks Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I agree with the assessment that an OK button would be nice for the mouse.  I notice I also used the mouse to select the item from the list, and going back to the keyboard to confirm was clumsy...but still an improvement!
    Posted 14 months ago by Biff Beefbat Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Great idea!

    My opinion, though, would be that it would be nicer to have the custom area appended to the bar that gives a few choices (Like it was previously) - so you get the quick-buttons for fast, unspecific actions, and a custom bar for when you know what you need! Because sometimes, I really do just want the quick twenty button.
    Also, I would agree that you need a mouse-ok button, and agree with those saying they use the mouse in shop/donation interfaces (though they're about the only places I use the mouse).

    It just seems like it would be quite slick to have the quick buttons, then have the custom-field fit in the last button-space, with a little OK bar as the button quarter of the button.
    Posted 14 months ago by Azh Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1 @ Azh
    Posted 14 months ago by Gadzooks Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1@ Azh I like the idea but the method is clumsy to use.
    Posted 14 months ago by Leithwyn Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Every time I try to type "3" when feeding crops to pigs, it types it as "33" and I have to keep a close eye on it and fix it over half the time. This doesn't happen anywhere else (I checked), so it isn't my keyboard at fault.

    I have no idea how that would only happen in this game, but that's what it seems to be doing.
    Posted 14 months ago by Biohazard Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Leithwyn

    Yeaah.. I don't know about the specific layout idea, but I figured I'd throw it out there :)
    I don't know how well it would work to put the OK as a bar under the custom field, but having all the options at once, you're going to have to worry about the length of the bar/it getting huge..

    Another option would be to just add a little 'Check' button between/to the right of the + and - buttons for the custom field - that would probably be more compact, though slightly harder to hit (Probably not meaningfully so?), and a check would be a pretty clear 'Submit' symbol, I would think.
    Posted 14 months ago by Azh Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Azh

    I didn't mean your idea was clumsy but the way it is now. I sold all my beryl instead of part of it because it doesn't seem stable. I'd rather have either set quantities or a "type your own" quantity that is an empty box. Using the enter key instead of the quick click is distracting too. Too many actions for a simple transacation.
    Posted 14 months ago by Leithwyn Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I agree... althugh I'm mostly keyboard and the current system works for me, the partial implementation of mouse controls is weird and annoying.  A simple little "tick" button next to the picker would work fine!  Even better would be scroll up and down in the field to change amount proportionally :3

    But either way this is an awesome idea. keep em comin! :D
    Posted 14 months ago by FlirtyvonSexenhaven Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I think the main ergonomic problem is that I select my items in the inventory with my mouse button, and then the number picker pops up now and I enter the number desired with one hand and the other hand is still on the mouse expecting to click for confirmation.

    But now I would have to shift my right hand to the keyboard to press enter then return it to the mouse in cases where I am selecting another item from my bags. It's something that definitely can be accustomed to but you might still want to offer options for people with different play styles. A confirm button in the pop-up beside the number typing box would cater to people with different play styles.

    I wonder if this affects left handed people less or more. But would be interesting to know.
    Posted 14 months ago by Supermerlion Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Agree.  I think a click-to-finish option would be a big help!  I love the change, but I'm still getting used to it.  A couple of time I somehow fed my piggies the whole load rather than the 3 I intended!
    Posted 14 months ago by Hawkwell Subscriber! | Permalink
  • A great update indeed!
    However, I don't think I have used it extensively enough to make up my mind on mouse/keyboard issues.
    Another option would be to keep the default number values, and make the count box appears (and replace the numbers) only as the player starts to type a number.
    Posted 14 months ago by Lemo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Or... how about an Option for players who prefer the older system (10, 20, 30)?
    Posted 14 months ago by The Black Chicken Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1 @Lemo
    That's sounds like a great idea! It would solve the space issue :D
    Posted 14 months ago by Azh Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I noticed that if I put in a three digit quantity, the last digit overflowed so I got two digits on the first line and one on the second. A little disconcerting but I can live with it. Click to enter would be a desired requirement but not mandatory.
    Posted 14 months ago by BarryW Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I really really like the possibility to pick quantity i like, BUT i'm too used to pick 2,3,5...or other standard qty's especially for food. Usually i eat 2 paninis and every time i need food qty picker shows 3-5-6 in the field. I need to edit it to 2 and press enter.

    I will be alot better dialog to be "all,one,2,5,10,20,qty picker", so we got a hybrid of both.
    Posted 14 months ago by Lilla My Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yep - I got the overflow onto 2 lines things too and it did take me a while to twig the 'press enter' thing but it's a fabulous development.  Also, is it sneakily a lot cleverer than it appears?  When using it to choose to eat a number of food items from the same stack, the number appearing in the selector seemed to always be just right to fill up my energy completely (or is that an amazing series of coincidences..?)
    Posted 14 months ago by Moonspoon Subscriber! | Permalink
  • stoot, nobody said that there was *joy* in quantity picking per se, but yeah, it does have to do with mouse vs. keyboard switching. and while i definitely appreciate the sentiment about 'why would anybody even use a mouse anyway*' and totally love the extent to which you've made the game keyboard-friendly, there are times when i have a crappy un-ergonomic laptop setup and i find it easiest to play the game mostly with the mouse, space bar, arrow and enter keys. i realize that is my problem and not yours but at the same time i can't be the only one, as is evidenced by others in this thread.

    what about a couple of unobtrusive +/- 1 and 10 buttons? i know this is easier said than done, and that the new design is pretty sexy! but i think it could be tweaked just a wee bit to make it both keyboard and mouse friendly.

    * keyboard controls for crafting menus pretty please? ;)
    Posted 14 months ago by katlazam Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Stoot, if you're still checking this thread... you're comment "I don't know why anyone would use the mouse for anything" is right on the money for me. However, my biggest request in that regard is tabbing through the open group/individual chat windows in the top right section. While I thoroughly enjoy being able to use the Tab key or Ctrl+Enter to go from game to local to an open chat, I would REALLY like the ability to not have to use my mouse to switch between the people and groups I have conversations going with. Something like Ctrl+Shift+Enter,  Shift+Enter or even changing Tab or Ctrl+Enter to go between those would be AMAZING!

    You guys are the best!
    Posted 14 months ago by Dr007 Subscriber! | Permalink