Doktor
Doktor
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(Taken from a comment I left on another discussion (by user Burger) in the "4.5.0 PTB FEEDBACK" forum about the UI and animation changes):
UI
Starting with the HUD, all the information is scattered and unintuitively-placed on the screen. There was nothing wrong with the HUD as it was before- it actually was much easier and quicker to follow with each element's placement and design, especially since it was all neatly tucked to the lower portion of the screen. I would say the only good things added here were the tick marks for the amount of hooks a survivor has been on and the portraits of the survivors each player is running. It's good information to have, for sure. Honestly though, even that looks strange with how the portraits are literally just pictures of the survivors. It's not in-style at all, and definitely makes the game feel more generic. It takes away from the game's personality. If the portraits were drawn in the style of the rest of the icons in the game (such as with the Adept icons), they would fit and look MUCH better.
The status bar of hooked survivors is ridiculously small, too. I had to squint to see how long a survivor had left on a hook in first and second phase/how much longer a "Broken" status had left before entering a dying state, which is not only annoying but detrimental to gameplay, especially with its new placement in the upper left-hand side of the screen, far from the other HUD elements. I don't know if the devs considered this but it actually overlaps with the Discord overlay of calls, so if you're in a call with others, their names will cover the new placement of the survivors' information, whereas it didn't interrupt any HUD elements before.
Ironically enough, I think the changes were made so that the HUD would appear less intrusive, but since it's harder to see and scattered around the screen now, it actually draws attention to itself, making it more intrusive.
ANIMATIONS
As for the animations, they definitely feel unpolished. Although I appreciate the gender neutrality of the some of the new animations (which I'm assuming was done mostly to take away possible advantages of playing female survivors over male due to feeling and handling, but just in general making animations non-gender specific is nice and more realistic), the animations feel jarring, sluggish, and unwieldy. It's cool to see an actual animation for getting up from a dying state, but other than that specific animation, the updates to the other animations feel just unnecessary and rushed. They aren't smooth at all like how the previous animations were, and they give the feeling of being weighed-down, clunky, forced, and slow, so moving feels much more difficult. How movement is perceived is just as important as how it actually operates. Also the static standing animation is very...unnerving, with how still they are. They almost appear confrontational (even lowkey pissed off?), instead of cautious. With all of these new animations, playing survivor just feels way less smooth and satisfying, even unenjoyable, especially for veteran players.
(EDIT: I wanted to add here- the implemented animation that distinguishes a recovering survivor from a survivor laying at rest while in a dying state is a good idea, for both killers' and survivors' information. Something to this effect should be kept.)
MAP CHANGES
I mostly want to discuss the Disturbed Ward and Chapel changes. I know recently the devs have been trying to move map aesthetic more in the direction of "realism" (I think?), but the changes they made to these maps make them look just...INCREDIBLY bland and sparse. Especially the Chapel version of the map. The chapel looked so nice before, it was still decrepit and clearly destroyed/incinerated, but it looked so cool. It was creepy eye candy I would find myself pausing to admire time and time again whenever I was sent there. The outside parts of the map didn't look like an empty wasteland, but a dark and ominous forest. And there was still color in the environment- these planned (now implemented) changes completely wipe the color out of the map and put a wash of desaturation and overexposure over it, making it all very one-note across the entire arena. It's honestly depressing. That was one of my favorite maps because of the visual aesthetic.
The same could be said about the carnival part of the map. It had an eerie, colorful whimsy to it, especially among the darkness of the forest surrounding it and the burnt building looming in the distance. The contrast was fantastic and it was always fun to run through and explore. It felt like its own little world, uncanny in its juxtaposition with the dark, ominous trees around it and contained in a single spot. Now it feels barren, scattered, and lifeless. It's not creepy anymore, just bland, and it simply blends right in to the rest of the map.
These changes only take away from the personality and aesthetic of the game and add nothing in return except a blandness that can be found in other, more generic games with far less aesthetic memorability and uniqueness.
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
Pretty much every single change made honestly felt...unnecessary? And definitely unwanted. Especially in the face of so many other changes/fixes players have been asking for. Time, effort, expenses, and resources could've been put into figuring out and implementing those actually-desired changes, instead of reworking things that honestly didn't need and weren't asked to be redone. The best that came out of this that was actually helpful and wanted (by my understanding) were the hook counters and the portraits of players' survivors, which I and many others have already commented our opinions and suggestions on.
Honestly, I implore the devs to revert these changes to the previous build and ruminate upon the feedback longer before making any decisions about what to implement and where and how. It's very sad to see what happened with the maps, but by far the most damaging changes at the moment (even beyond the HUD rework) have to be the animations. They definitely seem like a downgrade from the fluidity and playability of the previous set. I think reverting these changes and choosing to spend a lot more time polishing reworks while listening to the community and having transparency about the process will go a long way in the success of future updates, as well as increasing trust and strengthening relations with the player base and community.