Developer feedback requested: Ship Icons.

[eRe4s3r]

But the sidebar (on the left and right as detailed) are going to be a thing, right? You shouldn't use colored flair or color on MK levels there, for one color blind people will set your barn on fire with pitchforks and feathers, and for 2, it adds a ton of visual clutter when you need to display other information.....like info on condense = max, or cloaked / destroyed status...

And a [ ? ] Button would definitely be welcome... ^^

When you say vectorized icons, how exactly do you plan to implement them? Because if you do them weirdly that makes modding them all the more difficult.

[x4000]

Cheers guys.

- Sidebar like AI War Classic will be a thing, yes.  That basically functions as the ? button already in that game, because you can cycle it through by mark level rather than what is on the planet.  Making it a little easier to find instead of extending the sidebar like in Classic might be good.

- In terms of the sidebar, it would never be showing statuses like cloaked, shielded, health, or stance.  Those things are per-squad, whereas the sidebar is showing the overall groups by ship type.  Just like in the first game.

- In terms of using colors or somewhat abstract icons, there's a certain amount of learning curve that has to be dealt with no matter what.  I'm not at all saying "this is the final way, end of discussion" on any of these issues, but I think we've passed the point where we can discuss them in the abstract.  I think we need to get back to the realm of where we can point at icon X and say "that one is just too confusing for xyz reasons," etc.

- As far as vector graphics go, I'm referring to their creation method and overall styling.  Before they ever hit the game, they'll be rasterized.  So from a technical standpoint, it's just transparent pngs like in the first game.

[Draco18s]

- As far as vector graphics go, I'm referring to their creation method and overall styling.  Before they ever hit the game, they'll be rasterized.  So from a technical standpoint, it's just transparent pngs like in the first game.

Will they be moddable? Say, for instance, someone wants generic blips.

[x4000]

- As far as vector graphics go, I'm referring to their creation method and overall styling.  Before they ever hit the game, they'll be rasterized.  So from a technical standpoint, it's just transparent pngs like in the first game.

Will they be moddable? Say, for instance, someone wants generic blips.

Of course!  There's literally not one visual thing going on in there that can't be modded at present.  I guess the asteroid ring, and the direction the sunlight comes from.  And the border ring around the planet area in general.  Every last everything else is loaded from asset bundles, though.

Maybe the logo is one other small exception.  There's really next to nothing, though.

[treyra]

- In terms of using colors or somewhat abstract icons, there's a certain amount of learning curve that has to be dealt with no matter what.  I'm not at all saying "this is the final way, end of discussion" on any of these issues, but I think we've passed the point where we can discuss them in the abstract.  I think we need to get back to the realm of where we can point at icon X and say "that one is just too confusing for xyz reasons," etc.

Agreed. I think the idea of focusing on easily distinguishable icons for general classes and repeated flair symbols for specialization within the classes is probably one of the best ways to keep that learning curve as small as possible. Looking forward to seeing them!

[Chthon]

Hrm... I've been so busy that I missed this. Here's my input. I don't like shield and cloak being words. However there is something else you could do potentially, and default to words if someone turns on a color blind setting:

Shield turns the red to green HP gradient into purple to blue gradient so long as it's under a shield.

Cloak turns the red to green HP gradient into Light grey to dark grey gradient so long as it is undetected.

How does that sound?

Sorry if it's already been suggested, I don't have time to read all 9 pages.

[BadgerBadger]

They're gonna have a version out for us to view in game this week, so we'll be able to review stuff in game

[BadgerBadger]

So how is this item coming?

[x4000]

Blue is done with her icons for the next batch, but I've been caught up in a variety of other things.  I hope to get to it soon, but it's just been kinda crazy around here with Cinth dying for a day or so and then being brought back, and me being hacked and impersonated for a bit, and so on.  I've had some family health issues come up surrounding my grandfather (last remaining one) as well, so it's just been thing after thing.

[Cinth]

Cinth dying for a day

This is not an exaggeration.  I'm not sure how long I was on life support though.

[x4000]

I went conservative on it.  I thought I remembered it was more like a day and a half.

[BadgerBadger]

It's true, you guys have been thoroughly distracted. Has Arcen offended any mad cultists or voodoo priestesses lately?

[x4000]

All I said was I didn't want their pamphlet!!

[x4000]

Okay!  Not to stifle conversation at all -- quite the opposite in fact, but I'm going to lock this thread now.

The new build with the new version of the icons is now in place: https://forums.arcengames.com/ai-war-ii/ai-war-2-alpha-v0-114-'major-gui-and-icons-overhaul'-finally-released!/

I'd like us to have a new thread where a conversation starts with those as a baseline for discussion.  Right now when people come to this thread they already have trouble following what all has been said.  So resetting that should make it a lot easier for people to come in fresh and comment on what the current thinking is.

Thanks!