It seems to me the Breed menus need a bit of a redesign. It is far too easy to press the wrong button when you're tired or ill or someone's competing for your attention. And if you *know* it's hard to use, you get all stressed out as soon as you see the first "partner" button (I think that's what it says, I can never remember these things), because you've pressed the wrong one before.
The primary problem is it's too easy to agree to the wrong partner. The text of the first menu's button is too similar to the text on the next menu's button you would click if you wanted to agree to the nearest cat. You think you have another menu to go but then Oh no! you've partnered your cat to the wrong partner! Absolutely devastating if you also set auto-repartner before you realize your mistake.
Make the button texts more different? Highlight the name of the cat you're agreeing to in a different color? List the cat you're agreeing to on the button itself (if that's even possible)? I don't know.
Color change is not possible. But adding a row of empty buttons should add sufficient visual difference to reduce error.
Two other specific areas where it's too easy for people who are new, fatigued, or distracted to do the wrong thing:
- If the person is at the screen with "One Time" and "Repartner", if they suddenly realize the wrong partner will be set, it is far too easy to interpret "Repartner" as "choose a different partner". So then not only does the cat get paired to the wrong partner, it is perpetually partnered to him/her.
One remedy that would solve a couple of the common partnering issues would be simply putting the "Repartner" button in its own menu. If we have to go after it deliberately, it's much less apt to be mistakenly clicked.
- After clicking "One Time" (and I assume "Repartner") there is a menu with "Back" and "Breed Off". That "Breed Off" button is why the occasional person suddenly discovers one of their cats doesn't have breeding on. --It's too easy to interpret as "close menu". "Breed Off" shouldn't even be on this page. The person has just gone through the steps of partnering their cat and now here's a "Breed Off" button. Yikes!
I'm an auto-pilot person with dialogue menu's and computers in general and surprisingly enough I rarely make mistakes.
The only thing which went wrong every so often was me removing the trashcan from my desktop instead of emptying it but this is luckely reversable and had clearly to do with the location right on top of empty trascan or under it in the menu.
I agree, the breeding menu leaves room for mistakes for those who are on auto-pilot like me.
I'd like to see the "Repartner" button marked with a less ambiguous word. The Repartner button effectively creates LIFETIME partnership, unless you buy the Breakup Drink. One might misunderstand that "Repartner" word, and think it means, "Partner these two again?" And think, "Oh sure, i partnered them last week and it was fine, so i'll repartner them this week." Maybe change that label to "Eternal Bond" or "Life Partner" or "Forever Partner" ? Really, "One Time" and "Forever" make a pretty good contrasting set of choices ...
The term certainly can be confusing. The issue is a clear term which fits in the character limit (ISTR you only get 9 characters).
What we need here is a (free) "magic break-up bottle" which only works within the first few days of the perma-partner option.
User clicks "Repartner"
Display "You sure?", user clicks "Yes" automatically.
Display "Now you're screwed, so here's a bottle to fix it" and hand the user a magic break-up bottle good for that pair, only, and only for 3 days.
User rez's bottle, does the thing for it, and, for weeks afterward, remembers to avoid "Repartner" at all costs
Since the change to autofetch a partner if you select partner in the menu i have spend thausands of lindens for break up bottles. Sometimes the cats dont fetch the closest ones and get partnered wrongly. And since i am like Kay "auto-piloting" i click to fast yes. so yeah. hello break up bottle
so possible a 2nd "are you sure" question would be cool....or even a free break up bottle ^^
(09-18-2013 07:29 AM)Julia Merosi Wrote: [ -> ]Since the change to autofetch a partner if you select partner in the menu i have spend thausands of lindens for break up bottles. Sometimes the cats dont fetch the closest ones and get partnered wrongly. And since i am like Kay "auto-piloting" i click to fast yes. so yeah. hello break up bottle
so possible a 2nd "are you sure" question would be cool....or even a free break up bottle ^^
It just happened to me yet again this morning. Cat picked his old partner who was out of his range. I had to buy a breakup drink, and the cat STILL wants to pick his old partner. I've submitted a ticket on it. This is getting out of hand. And now CSRs are saying the picked cat will be the old partner (if in range) or the closest cat. This isn't a good thing. And it still is broken, because his old partner is definitely out of his range.
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I think it's high time that "unpartner" button was added to the menu.
We have many potions and almost all can be said to satisfy a whim but needing to unpartner is in most cases no whim, due to a too easily made mistake which i really don't think it's fair that we should have to pay to undo.
It's much too easy to make this mistake so in fact in many cases i don't partner till the last minute to be sure that it's the paring i want to do and when i'm sure i'm properly awake and alert but it still happens to me. I've only ever bought the potion a couple of times, i refuse to in general and prefer to shrug any mistakes off until the next breeding round.