Since I've commented on various sites on threads discussing the new user interface (UI) enforcement, seems only logical I would make a dedicated thread. This is not a thread to suggest improvements, there is another dedicated thread for that, this is purely so people can share their opinion on the new UI.
For the better part of a decade I have been playing Supremacy 1914, sometimes with random people I met, other times with friends, hell even with family when I first started. I always thought it was unique, a game with an experience I had never seen before, matches that lasted for months, movements took hours or days, engaging in political and strategic discussions with other players, but after a while I saw other games that did the same, worked exactly like Supremacy 1914, but there was something different, the execution.
What set S1914 apart from competitors?
Gameplay was very similar with a few key differences, most noticeably how rewarding it was.
The almost MSpaint-like looking map was a bit striking at first, other games had posh polished graphics with smooth edges and minimalistic icons, on S1914 it all seemed rather old and basic. Ironically that was its biggest strength. Big territories that stood out on the map, almost slapped you in the face everytime you zoomed out of a map and saw a massive empire expanding, menacing looking chimneys of factories that meant your days were numbered when fighting against a more industrialized nation, the impending doom of ports and railroads appearing signaling increased economic growth for your friends and foes, the forts getting bigger and bigger signaling strongpoints in the map for your allies.
All other games just looked like someone smeared melted butter over a TEG board, with washed out boring graphics that barely showed the increase in size of someone's territory and nothing else, gameplay felt bland and unrewarding, people just logged on to see the progress and then left, high contrast to Supremacy where myself (and most if not all the people I've played with) stayed looking at their games for several minutes at a time, the game is slow paced so nothing would change in the span of 10-30 minutes, but something just kept people hooked, the way the game looked and operated.
I've had countless ads from other games pop up over the years, I've tried a few but never stayed in any of them, always kept coming back here, something was just better, I couldnt pin quite what is was, until the new UI came. Now Supremacy 1914 looked like every other vanilla washed out unoriginal game out there, with bland colours, smooth 3D sprites for units/buildings and minimalistic designs for icons the game just wasnt what it used to be. Interactions are clunky, all seems like tabs placed everywhere, everything is more uncomfortable and more cumbersome to do, just access to actions in general is harder, the reading of information is harder, it is plain worse, what was once a game with easy going UI has now become a cluster of modernized graphics and misplaced interactions that made the game impossible to play in comparison to its former self.
At first I thought "well the game is still the same, only new UI that is it" but after 2 months of trying, I just quit playing, 7 years after I started playing Supremacy 1914.
The new UI was more "posh" for sure, but it was impractical, ugly at certain aspects, removed a lot of features the old UI had and most importantly, the game just looked like nothing, the map was ugly with washed out darker colours, sprites for buildings were reduced to almost invisibility, the game didnt feel rewarding at all, not only was it a pain to play, but it wasnt even rewarding, I went from spending several minutes in each game managing my army to just going in to rearrange my troops and build a couple things and just going to do something else.
The game isnt as engaging, isnt as rewarding, isnt as intuitive and easy to use as the old one. Pure gameplay wise its still the same, but the new UI just murders the only thing that set Supremacy 1914 from other copycats. That is what the game looks like right now, a copycat of the old one, improved upon nothing, just slapped some bad UI on top and ready to go.
Why isn't Legacy Mode an option?
I came back to Supremacy 1914 a few months later after fiding out you could still play the game on Legacy Mode, I thought "hey win win", everyone had access to Legacy Mode, new players, old players you name it, until last year (I think) when Legacy Mode was restricted only to "veterans". I thought it was a bit unfair, specially since I had brought some new friends on board to play the game and they preferred Legacy Mode over the "standard UI" but I guess it wasnt that heartbreaking for them since they only started playing recently, at least for one of them, most of them quit, a few because of the enforcement of the new UI, which brings us to today.
Yesterday Bytro removed completely the access to Legacy Mode, from my brief interactions with the game devs (and to sum it up nicely) it was because it was too expensive and not too many players used it. They thought well barely anyone uses Legacy Mode and its costing us a lot of money so why maintain it, right? WRONG.
Players didnt "choose" the new UI, you didnt give them an option, you pushed this rushed, ugly looking impractical UI on the playerbase because it took a lot of money and time to develop and you didnt just want to scrap it despite knowing it was bad, the only people that PICK the new UI are low attention span 10 year olds that prefer FORM OVER FUNCTIONALITY. You allegedly took "years" of suggestions yet I see none are implemented or even considered, its just as bad as it was when it was introduced. I have already made a list of things that could be improved but everytime I go in to check on my active (and last) games more and more things pop into my head, there is really no coming back from how bad it is, should have just worked over the old one instead of making a brand new one from scratch.
Despite the time and effort put into the new UI, which im sure Bytro did with good intentions, it just doesnt work, people have endlessly complained about it and you didnt even give new players a chance to use it, you've fallen victim to your own fallacy that people CHOSE the UI rather than face the fact YOU FORCED IT ONTO THEM,
You have them no option, no trial period, no nothing, you slowly restricted access to Legacy Mode because you knew it was BETTER and people were starting to complain about not having access to it or them outright ignoring the new UI.
People who've spent years, money and time on this game are being slapped in the face with this, quite frankly, garbage UI that just makes Supremacy 1914 as bad, or hell even worse now, than its competitors. The new Ui is ugly, impractical, counter-intuitive and super bugged. Its not only enraging the fact that this UI was pushed despite its countless flaws, but Bytro's attitude towards the whole ordeal its just infuriating, long time loyal players, hell some even money-spending players are just being hit with this trash cause they want to make ads with this posh bland looking UI to attract new temporary players that just go afk into 10 different games and have no notion of the game whatsoever, im not sure whether to define it as betrayal or sellout.
I hope the best for them, I do, I always saw Bytro as the ones that did things right, took time and made good improvements to the game over time, the game at its foundation is still the same, but lets face it, more than 10 years after its release there are countless copies and with this new UI, there is nothing setting them apart, Supremacy 1914 has unfortunately become just another strategy game. I still hold a little faith, but I wouldn't hold my breath