2.1.x QML - Auto seats rearrangement shenanigans

[Hawne]

Hi, honestly I think this auto seats rearrangement feature is the most unsettling one.

First off, the "holes" (empty seats on the old fixed display) were a direct visual cue to how many players had left the table, allowing for more instinctive assessment on the average stack and play dynamics.

Then, a fixed place for every player allowed for spatial identification of "who does what". That 9 o'clock player was a callsack, the 2 o'clock big bluffer one would be easily spotted on each of t heir moves, and so on. Now with auto redisplay you cannot identify "player positions" as such and have to remodel your reflexes on every seats redistribution.

For those two reasons I think something should be done in order not to impose this somewhat unsettling feature.

The least workaround I can think of would be a text mention of how many people are left in the game, but it does not fix the second "spatial ident" issue. IMO the best fix would be to have this whole auto redisplay as optional, allowing for old style fixed display .

[sp0ck]

I have heard a lot of criticism about the new GUI and also about this new feature.
What I do realize is, that it just takes a few games until you get used to it.

You can still use the old widget client which gets latest bugfixes, but will not be improved in the future anymore.

[Hawne]

What I do realize is, that it just takes a few games until you get used to it.

I beg to differ. You (and probably some other players) may get used to it, but to me it's just as obnoxious as the first I time I came across it. And frankly it's not an incentive to play (to me), quite the contrary.

You can still use the old widget client which gets latest bugfixes, but will not be improved in the future anymore.

Which is why it is important to improve the new client. And again I don't think a decorative improvement which removes two direct visual cues is a win, especially if forced down.

And to be just as blunt as your suggestion, I won't use a deprecated client just to avoid a feature that should have been optional from the start. If this feature is meant to stay with no possibility to turn it off then PokerTH will become less pleasant to me and I don't know how I will deal with that.

You guys have seen quite rapidly that emoji reactions could be an annoyance, and turned them optional. I think it would be wise to consider seats rearrangement as such.

[sp0ck]

Hawne,

I do really appreciate your reports.

But ... I do also ask you for patience. The new client will be improved - no doubt about this. Just for now - with one only real complain - I do not yet see a need to change what you describe as a kind of horror to get used to. Let's see how it works out next weeks.

Kind regards
sp0ck

[Hawne]

I'll be honest: I hate the way you're responding to this feedback.

I brought up two factual setbacks caused by this feature (visual cue to empty seats + spatial identification) and you're boiling it down to me "describing it as a kind of horror". You're using rhetoric and caricature to dismiss my report. Glad you're enjoying the feature but this is not the proper way to respond to user feedback. You may have to rely on other players from now on. Good night.

[sp0ck]

??? I did not mean it offending at all Hawne.
You made clear twice that this feature is a no-go for you. I just reacted on it - not even offending.

EDIT:

I could throw out a lot of technical specs just to explain how important the difference between both clients is: one is drawn static - the other is responsive and has a lot of math for player seats.

But I just reacted on you - asking you to be patient.

[JumlyGurm]

Hawne, do you pay to play at PokerTH? No, then calm down, and go have a hissy-fit somewhere else. But, first, of course, question my use of "hissy-fit" because that's a good back-and-forth.
This is volunteer development. Maybe sp0ck has multiple tasks on the go? I do hobby programming myself. It takes time to implement things. Maybe sp0ck had been scrambling to this point to get the release done and now he'd just like to relax.
And maybe, just maybe, he'd like some appreciation for the effort he's put into all this. Did you consider ANY of that before you "hated" his response?

[BaShFX]

I have to agree with Hawne a bit here.
The points he raised completely negate the crucial aspect of observing the opponents - especially over the entire duration of the game.

This is confusing and a unorthodox method. A strange change in my opinion.

I also find the basic arrangement of the players in the classic version significantly better. That and a few other points are the reason why I continue to use the widget version.
In fact, this doesn't mean the change will remain in place forever. And a transition is currently taking place here. Some changes are only temporary.

I would also like the change right away, but patience is a virtue.

PTH is constantly being further developed. The workload is actually very heavy, considering that it is free and consumes a lot of free time.
They really ought to build a statue of sp0ck—or even a full-scale Enterprise.

And even that wouldn't be enough to truly honor the achievement, because there are so many others being overlooked who do so much for the game without anyone even noticing.

So we should sit back and be primarily grateful that things are moving forward, even if there are certain new features we don't like at the moment.

[sp0ck]

Solved with next release.