I just finished reading through the latest rounds of feedback, and we've discussed the situation internally in depth now. So here's where we're at now, and the options we're considering with the icons:

1. First we hear from many of you the difference between NPC and player ships is simply too subtle with the new icon set, and we're right now experimenting with alternatives to separate these groups more, maybe adding entirely new shapes for NPC ships to make them more clearly stand out from players.


2. 90% UI scaling is definitely an issue, but a tricky one to solve. We we know its an underlying rendering issue that's been around much longer and not caused by the icons themselves, but one that's been suddenly and very clearly illuminated by their release. We want to keep 90% scaling as a option, but at the same time acknowledge that it will never look as good or be as cleanly supported as the other modes. We're also looking into whether we can easily add texture filtering which will make the icons smoother and slightly more readable at 90%.


3. We also hear the general usability concern that item "groups" are not as clearly differentiated as with the old set (crosses vs brackets, vs Xs) and that many new icons are too detailed to identify quickly. In the previous iteration the ISIS-based overview icons were pulled back for this very reason: they were too difficult to quickly make out at the smaller Overview size.

While we've added many new icons for separating types within a group, it has been at the cost of taking slightly longer to identify which group has appeared on grid (A player ship, NPC, or drone). It's also exacerbated by as-mentioned eyesight/accessibility problems and quick blob identification of a shape. I think this is at the root of many of your concerns, and we're now looking into what can be done to make groups of items slightly more distinctive, potentially giving people the option to use simpler group icons for brackets that's closer to the old system.


4. We're meeting with the CSM later this week to discuss much of this feedback, and I'm sure many of your concerns will be represented as well. Either way the significance of this and your well reasoned responses in this thread aren't lost on us. I'll keep poking in here to keep you guys updated on any further actions coming with regards to the icons.

Hey everyone,

Apologies for the silence about the icons but we have been following this thread with great interest.

We have been listening to your feedback and discussing where to go from here. We had a very productive meeting with the CSM last week about the current icon situation and the release of them. There will be a blog coming out once we have dotted the i's and crossed the t's where we will explain why we changed them and improvements we plan to implement from the feedback received on this thread.

Please keep giving us the constructive feedback you have supplied so far.

What logical reason was there to change the icons?

More here.


What they want is total chaos.
Simple.

Looking at the post count for this thread, I see a huge number of posts are from about 30 unique characters with 10 or more posts each, that have probably been repeating the same opinion in different words, over and over again. I'm no exception, crossing into the 10-post category with this one ;)

CCP takes more into account than forum feedback to decide what to do, and, sometimes they don't go with what's popular. I'm looking forward to what they come up with, in regards the 90% scaling and NPC icon tweaks proposed in the new dev blog.

Just an idea...

CCP, if you are really interested in knowing what people think about the new icons and how strongly they feel about the issue, why don't you create a poll and link it prominently from the launcher? I recall participating in a poll on new features in EVE published by CCP before...

Trust me when I say there is a lot more pissed people than you can see in this (already monumental) thread...

The poll might be super simple like

Choose one from:
A) Love the new icons, keep the old ones buried.
B) Mixed bag, no strong feelings either way.
C) The new icons don't work for me, roll the whole thing back.

and as an extra yes/no question:
D) Make using the old icons an option.

This should provide you with data enough to possibly reconsider your current course of action (or a solid justification to tell all of us in this thread very plainly to shut the **** up because we are clearly just an insignificant, even if vocal minority).