Kudos to Thomas “ThomastheCrypticCat” Marrone and the advance warning that major changes to the Bridge Officer abilities are coming during the 5th Anniversary Event.

Changing icons at any time can be a difficult and frustrating process for developers.  Add to that process a fan-base which admittedly doesn’t take change very well, and can be very vocal that any change is a bad one.

While we do anticipate a transition period for everyone who has gotten used to the old icons over the last five years, it is our hope that the new designs are much easier to learn than the old ones. The new icons will be going to Tribble before they hit Holodeck, so interested players can test them there and provide feedback. We have also included a complete look below of all the planned icon changes, contrasting the old and new. Please take a look and let us know what you think! We’ll be looking at feedback and making adjustments building up to the anniversary event.

– Thomas “ThomastheCrypticCat” Marrone Jan 09, ’15

So far, I think they’ve hit the ball out of the park.

Standouts: All of the offensive powers are clearer and more concise, and the Attack patterns have a greater indication of what they do.

Subsystem attacks have always been a ‘hit and miss’ for me, never quite sure what I was targeting during the heat of combat.  These new icons solve that problem for me.

Loving the new Gravity well.

What do you think?