We are planning to deploy a small client update before the beginning of TCOOP this Thursday. This update lays the groundwork for more upcoming promotions in 2013 and few beta options are added that we will be looking to introduce to the majority of players with February build. Here are the highlights:
Live View for Ring Games (Beta)We are planning to add a graphical preview of the selected ring game in the main lobby. The existing list of players would still be there as an option. Here is a screenshot of what the preview looks like:
There will be a very accessible toggle between the new graphical preview and the existing list of players – just to the right of the table name.
For now this feature is only added as Beta and to access it you need to first go to “Options” > “Lobby Display Options” and select “Enable Graphical Preview for Ring Games (Beta)”. Once this is activated, you will see the toggle to switch between the two views.
Please do send us your feedback on this new addition!
Game List Font Options (Beta)We are looking to improve the font set up in the list of games in the client. We feel that the current set up is good, but could be updated to improve readability, especially for casual players. To this end, we are planning to change the default look while preserving the option to see things exactly as they look today.
As the first step, we are adding three new font set ups that you can try out and tell us what you like best. You can change the font set up from “View” > “Game List Font Options (Beta)”. The new options are:
- “Microsoft Sans Serif with Row Padding” – this is the current font with few pixels of added row padding to aid readability.
- “Utah” – this a set up that uses the Utah font. Utah is a relatively new font that is designed to be narrow but at the same time very readable.
- “Arial” – this is a set up with the Arial font.
For each of the set ups you can adjust the font size up and down to your liking from "View" > "Text Size".
We would love to hear from you what you find best from the offered choices. Keep in mind that while we might change the default, we will keep the option to switch back to today’s set up.
Preferred Seat EnhancementsWe are enhancing the Preferred Seat functionality slightly. In addition to updating the graphics to the Nova theme, we are also adding two new options: “Auto-center me at ring game tables” and “Auto-center me at tournament tables”. If checked, each option will automatically seat you in the bottom center seat for the respective game type, unless you already have a Preferred Seat setting for a specific layout. For themes that don’t have a bottom center seat, you will be seated in the seat on the right of the bottom center of the table.
We will also make the option for tournaments on by default, while the one for ring games will be off by default.
Speed Filter ChangesIn line with the changes to table speed posted
here, the ring game filters will not have a “Speed” check box anymore. Same applies to Easy Seat. You can read more about those changes and discuss them in the thread linked above.
Enhancing the Groups Feature for Ring Games (TestPokerStars only for now)We are adding different views for the ring game lobbies – this is an enhancement of the “Groups” feature that exists today. The changes for now are only deployed to TestPokerStars and we will be looking to add them to the clients in late February.
In short, we are introducing the notion of “Views” in the ring game lobby and will offer three views:
- Table View – this is the same view as today where all tables are shown in a single list.
- Group View – this is similar to today’s Group view – tables of the same type are grouped together and you can click a “Find Me A Seat” button to play at a table of this type. Here is a screen grab:
Click to see full-size image. |
- Combo View – this view merges the above two views – you see a condensed version of the Group View and once you select a group you see all the tables within this group. Here is a screenshot:
Click to see full-size image. |
We hope you will try out these different views and give us feedback on them, and how they can be improved.
Note: The above changes would only take effect once your gaming client has been updated, which could happen at different times for different players. Please ensure you are running PokerStarsUpdate.exe to get the update.[/list]