I’m not sure about other players but personally I prefer to see the start time of EDI/HATs in preliminary stage rather than the countdown. This is what has been shown for over a year, and most, if not all, players should be used to it already.
The start time is a very clear signal to when something is going to start, and I can plan my activity to meet that timing.
Countdown is only relevant when something is in progress and has a clearly defined end. This brings to awareness a sense of urgency, especially if the “task” is incomplete.
Also, as a visual cue, with the current visual bug of active EDI nodes still showing the icon as being preliminary but with a countdown timer, when the planned changes make all the clocks on the map countdown timers, it makes it visually impossible to know which nodes are actually active and which are in preliminary stage when the bug occurs and players have to restart the app in order to make the active EDI nodes display the icon of the Elder Dragon correctly.
I would like to see an option to toggle between showing “Start time” and “Countdown to start” for HATs and EDIs, instead of the planned version.
As @Stampeder mentioned, there is a risk of misunderstanding if both the standby state and already active EDI/HAT nodes are displayed with a countdown.
One suggestion would be to differentiate the countdown display colors between the standby state and the active nodes.
Another idea could be to add “SB” (Standby) at the beginning of the display for nodes in the standby state.
Currently, there is a bug where even after the start state is reached, the icon remains as it was before the start, making it indeed difficult to distinguish.
@NianticNY I agree with @Mitsuodeus comments above. The proposed changes would make things problematic with the existing bug. This was prevalent during the recent Triumvereant Elder Dragon event when multiple EDIs appeared within the same area. When multiple EDIs where in preliminary AND commenced state, the icons would not show up correctly. The only way to differentiate between the two states was whether the time was a static number (preliminary) or a countdown (commenced).
This EDI icon bug should be fixed or this proposed changed should not be implemented.
Also, when you tap into the HAT/EDI node, the time inside still shows the start time.
I would rather the start time be shown on the field map and have the time inside the node show the countdown to start. This makes more sense than the current v91 implementation.
If I am at the node, I am ready to hunt, and knowing the exact time it starts in the form of a countdown that’s precise to the second is far more useful than a static start time.
On the field map, we don’t need the precision to the seconds for figuring out which node we want to go to, therefore the static start time is more useful on the field map.
To emphasise this, it’s the same reason why nobody uses a countdown when doing scheduling with a calendar. You specify a date and time for when a meeting starts and that’s it. We don’t count down to the meetings.
You count down when you’re in a competition because failure to complete the objective within the time limit means forfeiting the competition.
Previously, there was a running countdown for an active HAT and a static time for an upcoming HAT. Clear for everyone to see. Now there are two running counters and you have to go into each one to see whether it is an active HAT or an inactive HAT. Total waste of time.
It wasn’t broke and didn’t need “fixing”. Please unfix it ASAP.