Suggestion about unit icons on map

[darkarchon]

Hello Arcen Staff,

I am personally concerned with the type of icons you have in the game right now.

When you take for example this screenshot:


The icons for the units are partially very hard to distinguish. On the left side it's just a big glowing green blob. So my suggestion here would be:

- remove the glow from the unit icons
- add a black or white border for the unit icons, similar how it is in AIWC

Alternatively:
- make the suggestion above a user defined setting

My main concern is that it might end up being confusing in huge battles with icons overlapping each other, for big unit blobs and so on. A stark contour might increase the visibility and clarity of each unit on the field.

[BadgerBadger]

I think this is a very zoomed in angle to look at things; most of the time I expect you'd be looking from well above, and I hope it will be much cleaner. I'm waiting for the alpha to come to any conclusions

[darkarchon]

I think from above and zoomed out the problem is even more exaggerated, the icons will blend into another. Imagine a blob of ships, you won't be able to tell what icons there are because they overlap a lot.

[lagomorph129]

With all due respect, I agree with Badger.  In the first place, Arcen's whole design to go with the squads was to reduce the number of icons. If you're from AIWC, then you might be tempted to think that every ship will have its own icon. But according to the dev diaries, about 10 ships get an icon. Now, the capital ships sure do get thier own icons, but they're HUGE. I should hope that there will be plenty of clarity distinguishing THOSE apart from the rest of the fleet.

Referencing the final ks dev diary, there are a few points where Chris tries to bring in many ships. Sure, there will be many more than those ships on the much more heavily defended planets, but that's something to worry about later. For now, the clarity necessary is on your own ships, and then they'll fix the issues when it comes to the larger battles.

Final KS Dev Diary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr7R1lyF0Z4&list=PLc2dK5ROW0WBw47b5q2f_h0qB0a3Fgxhi&index=17
At about 10:18, there are many ships on the screen. There are about 40 allied ships, and over 120 enemy ships. Of course, this is a rather moderate example, but there are certainly ways around it without such extreme (not that its all that extreme a suggestion in the first place) changes necessary.

Second Combat (Prototype Squads)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrhDQK9YnRE&list=PLc2dK5ROW0WBw47b5q2f_h0qB0a3Fgxhi&index=18
At about 4:40, there are 100 enemy ships on the screen. Again, it's a moderate example, but I still agree with Badger; wait for alpha.

I completely understand your concern; user clarity. If I could make a suggestion, I'd ask the community and devs whether they think it would be feasible and clear to have the squad icons proportionate to the distance the camera is from the ship (up and down to caps, of course,) considering in the final ks dev diary appeared to have the icons the same size at all times. Maybe even inversely proportionate (smaller when closer, right?) so that they don't get in the way even when allowing a battle to pan out, zooming in to see all the pretty colors.

I've noticed that Arcen have listened to their community again and again, and these people are very creative. I'm sure they'll find a much better way to solve this issue that's a million times better than both our ideas combined, while retaining every bit of flashy polish marketing would desire out of this mechanic.

So, alpha, right?

[darkarchon]

So going with the latest dev video, my concerns regarding this issue have been further manifested.

Just look at this image, this is a view from the top:




Can you quickly discern the units present at the blobs marked in red? I cannot and in the heat of the battle that can be fatal. The icons need more clarity like an outline and not blend into another.

[Draco18s]

Now that is an image and concern I can agree with.