New AVWW World Map And Character Select Previews

[x4000]

Original: http://christophermpark.blogspot.com/2011/07/new-avww-world-map-and-character-select.html

Not a full developer diary today -- but I did want to share a couple of things since it's been a while.  We've got a few full diaries with videos and lots of details coming up before too long, but in the meantime there are a few things that I can show well with screenshots.

New Character Select Screen

The new version uses a fancier way of letting you scroll through your options, plus it also uses the new character portraits.  In general this is one of several examples of how Keith and I have been retooling the various interfaces to be less spreadsheet-like and more visually pleasing.

New World Map Visuals
Yet again, the world map visuals have been redone.  This time it's to make it less boardgame-like and more like a 4X game.  This also shows off the new ocean tiles, as well as some of the generally better seeding logic. The world map is getting pretty close to being final for beta, now:

If you're curious about the ocean tiles: yes, you can move onto them.  However, like some other "hostile tiles" you get sucked right into them.  If you're on a "shallows" section of the ocean (you can pick them out, though they are subtle differences), this isn't a crisis.  There's a lot of dangerous water in the shallows, but also land for you to walk.

If you're not in the shallows... well, your character can't swim.  You pop out in the middle of the ocean and start sinking fast.  There are ways to cross the ocean in this manner, but I'll leave you to discover those in-game when it hits beta!

Until Next Time!
This is just a brief little bit of info, but we'll have a lot more to share next time, including some longer gameplay videos that let you see more how an actual gameplay session might feel.

[Hearteater]

I like the new look much better.  Very nice.

If there was any way to make the small numbers on the tiles less intrusive that would be really nice.  They make the map look too cluttered.  Making them only show up within a small radius of your current location, or only within a radius of the mouse would look nice, especially if they faded out (alpha based on distance from center) instead of just dropping off.

Also, have you considered rounding the unexplored (black) tiles' edges?  It would actually reveal a little of what kind of tile was under it, but in some games it really helps improve the overall unity of the map.

I look forward to seeing more.

[Cyborg]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p98yrT6CCfA

Reminded me of this. Skip to 4:55. 

Not in a bad way!

[x4000]

I like the new look much better.  Very nice.

Thanks!

If there was any way to make the small numbers on the tiles less intrusive that would be really nice.  They make the map look too cluttered.  Making them only show up within a small radius of your current location, or only within a radius of the mouse would look nice, especially if they faded out (alpha based on distance from center) instead of just dropping off.

I was actually experimenting around with that, and had that in place for a day or so.  In the end that just wound up making it feel unclear what was going on -- those little numbers are really the most vital thing to know other than the type of region.  You don't spend any particular time on the world map without considering those numbers, as they determine pretty much everything on how you decide to move around, etc.

I'm not super enthused about having so many little numbers all over the place, though, so I've been considering various ways of getting around that: making it react to the mouse as well as just your character's position, as you suggested, was also something I'd been thinking of.  I've also been thinking I might make it so that stuff that is < your current civ level might just not show a number unless hovered-over, and stuff that is higher might show a specific icon, or something.  But not really completely sure that's what I want to do, either.  Anyway, project for later on for the most part, as we have too much to do to get ready for beta to get bogged down in that just yet.

Also, have you considered rounding the unexplored (black) tiles' edges?  It would actually reveal a little of what kind of tile was under it, but in some games it really helps improve the overall unity of the map.

They actually are rounded a bit, just not a huge amount.  The screenshots unfortunately got scaled down from 1920px wide to 1600px wide (thanks blogger), so that makes everything a bit smaller in general.  I thought about doing a fog-of-war-like effect towards the edges, kind of like the darkness effect in other parts of the game, but for now that would add more GPU overhead and programming work than I want to tack on.  But it's in the back of my mind as a potential future enhancement at some point.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p98yrT6CCfA

Reminded me of this. Skip to 4:55. 

Not in a bad way!

Hahaha.  I missed that one when it was originally airing, apparently.

[c4sc4]

When you uncover a new tile, does it still fade in as before?

[x4000]

Yep!

[Ixiohm]

Thank you for sharing  

I like the new world map. I agree with Hearteater that it would probably be desirable to not have all the numbers visible all the time. Have you considered some kind of borders drawn around the character indicating tiles of higher respectively lower level than the current one? I think this would work well because the way I envision it most of the time you would primarily be asking yourself two questions: “Which tiles can I enter without instantly getting torn in to tiny pieces?” or “Which way should I go to make my life a bit easier?”.

In the attached picture tiles with a level < current tile level – 2 has a green border and bordering tiles with a level  more than two levels above the current tile are marked with a red border. Perhaps even make it possible to choose level of detail [no overlay, borders, numbers]?  

The character selection screen looks good. However, I find the character portraits a bit strange looking (when looked at in full size). The things I noticed: Odd shadow on the neck of the female character, some strange 'deformity' across the male characters mouth, and what supposed to be the skell-bots 'head' I can't make head or tails of at all. It may just be an effect of the picture down sized or my mind expecting them to look a certain way. I hope I´m not too harsh here, but with previous discussions here about graphics I guess I will not be the only one reacting this way. This may not be that apparent in game - when the character is less detailed and there are a lot of other things onscreen at the same time that are moving. But it gets very apparent in the selection screen when the head of the character is the only thing visible and nothing moves.

[zebramatt]

What do the numbers mean? Tile level?

I was also going to suggest colour coding, as it happens!

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Very nice look, still excited for the BETA!

King

[x4000]

The numbers are the region level, which tells you how difficult it's going to be.  In terms of color coding, the numbers are white when you've been into that region before, and more grayish when you have not.

[eRe4s3r]

Maybe the numbers should only show your level difference to the region level (ie +1 +2 +3) and color code it.

Then again, that wouldn't really reduce clutter either unless you abstract it to level ranges 1-5 above your level = 1 skull 6-10 2 skulls... etc if its below you it should be a soothing grey ^^

[x4000]

Maybe the numbers should only show your level difference to the region level (ie +1 +2 +3) and color code it.

Then again, that wouldn't really reduce clutter either unless you abstract it to level ranges 1-5 above your level = 1 skull 6-10 2 skulls... etc if its below you it should be a soothing grey ^^

Yeah, something along those lines is just what I was thinking.

I was also thinking of perhaps just showing the really close numbers normally, plus whatever the mouse is over, then having it show all the numbers when you hold down shift.  Kind of like planet names in AI War galaxies.  That might be what I wind up going with, I'm not sure.