GFX Mod: Better Color Coded Planet Summary buttons / Font

[eRe4s3r]

This mod is as of 2.001U officially part of the releases, so you don't need to dl it separately anymore ;p



A little change to the planet summary (The tab to the right of the screen that displays your ships/turrets/stuff)

Easily identifiable icons now - 3 Arrow heads = moving ships | rotated square = non-moving

Red = Military
Green = Civilian

Dark blue = Neutral (groups etc.)

Extract PlanetarySummary.rar into
AI War\Images\PlanetarySummary
overwrite (make backup of the directory first ,p)

Just something my personal preference (Notice that i am not using the new font so your version will have different font ,p)

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Also attached is the font (arial) from previous releases with modified fontsize.xml (which is required since fonts changed) This fontsize.xml has only 4 sizes (10-12-14-16) and its not 100% to my liking, but for now tis all i will do with font ;9

This is just an extra in case you want to have old fonts back but don't want to edit the xml file yourself

[x4000]

I have to say, I really love your mod for the planetary summary!  That really makes things sooo much easier to see.  I'll integrate that into the actual main game with the next prerelease (S), I think it's so helpful.  Thanks for putting that together!

[eRe4s3r]

I have made revision to the version above.. improved contrast of the icons and made it red/green weak friendly (by basically shifting green and red slightly ;p

With Rev02 i am really happy now

[I-KP]

Actually, that's damn handy.  Bravo.

[eRe4s3r]

x4000 if you have the time would you consider adding a txt file where each unit type could be assigned a unique icon in the planet summary (not sure how simple/hard that would be...

It would be pretty nice to have.. not world shattering priority of course

I hope i don't step on anyones toes by the way - the original icons weren't bad, just ... impossible to read in the fray and when opening them i noticed how they were sorted so color coding was the logical answer

[x4000]

x4000 if you have the time would you consider adding a txt file where each unit type could be assigned a unique icon in the planet summary (not sure how simple/hard that would be...

It would be pretty nice to have.. not world shattering priority of course

Probably this isn't the sort of thing I'll have any time for any time soon, as it would be quite a rewrite in general of the planetary summary... I'm not sure how useful that would be, in the end, because having too many icons gets to where the categories are too plentiful to be meaningful.

I hope i don't step on anyones toes by the way - the original icons weren't bad, just ... impossible to read in the fray and when opening them i noticed how they were sorted so color coding was the logical answer

Not at all, those are great.  I like the revised versions, too.

[eRe4s3r]

Well its good as it is

Though i'd love different button/icon for starships... and golems

[x4000]

Well, how about one for something like "Major Offensive Ships" that would include Starships and Golems?  Not sure what the colors/icon would look like, but if people like the idea and you feel like putting together a graphic for that one, I'll code it in.

[eRe4s3r]

Well heres 4 icons Take a pick

(1 for Civilian High Priority and 3 for military..)

Kinda running out of ideas though

Don't mind the naming, i just randomly typed it..

SHighPriorityMobileMilitary.png is what i would consider pretty nice for golems and starships - but fortresses might benefit from the 2 red dots and AI special buildings would benefit from having 2 green dots

But well.. lots of possibilities with the icons

I can do a green version of that -> SHighPriorityMobileMilitary.png as well , also of the other military icons i just posted..

[Echo35]

Kudos! I was going to add it until I saw X's post about putting it in the next patch. Definitely much easier to read than trying to squint at the little icons.

[Spikey00]

Awesome work, eRe!  (:

[doctorfrog]

This is really quite marvelous. AIW can really benefit from thoughtful little GUI enhancements like this, things that modify the existing interface to make it more useful rather than adding yet another on-screen widget. Bravo!

While I'm at it, I have to also thank Chris for adding feature enhancements such as this to the base game as well as the expansion. I was really irritated when Stardock neglected to backport some engine enhancements released in GalCivII's final expansion pack, back to the original game and first expansion.

EDIT: Full disclosure: I have indeed pre-ordered the expansion pack. 

[quickstix]

I remember the days when I needed a microscope to read the planetary summary.

Looks great, can't wait to try it out.

[x4000]

While I'm at it, I have to also thank Chris for adding feature enhancements such as this to the base game as well as the expansion. I was really irritated when Stardock neglected to backport some engine enhancements released in GalCivII's final expansion pack, back to the original game and first expansion.

EDIT: Full disclosure: I have indeed pre-ordered the expansion pack. 

My pleasure!  Unified codebases for the win, I don't even have to think about back-porting, it just happens.

[zebramatt]

My slightly red/green colourblind eyes are having a bit of trouble with Rev02.