From Blue (Arcen Staff): What do you think about the Social Hammers?

[Blue]

Hi guys!

So there's been some opinions involving the Social Hammers.

http://i.imgur.com/v0bGV2o.png

So the question is, what do you think?

They're suppose to represent three angles of the same aspect.

Goverment, Commerce and Culture.

The trick is, they need to be recognizable as the same, while still being unique.

Here's a good link to a mantis report on the issue.

http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=16855#c42068

So what do you guys think?

-Blue

[Cinth]

The icons themselves look like the icons in .877 already.  The background looks different and pretty neat.  Am I missing something subtle here?  Admittedly, I'm half blind when it comes to stuff like this

[jerith]

The icons themselves look like the icons in .877 already.  The background looks different and pretty neat.  Am I missing something subtle here?  Admittedly, I'm half blind when it comes to stuff like this

Those are the current icons, and the background is the usual HUD translucency with a few tiles of coastline behind it. Blue's asking for opinions about what they should change to, because Chris and I are far too easily distracted by Superman and YouTube musicals to be useful.

[crazyroosterman]

aside from changing the icon for commerce(which has  already been mentioned) apart from that I duno problem I barely pay attention to them expect when its time to spend my points at which I just click on the nearest one I find its probably a consequence of having played this game for so long so as I've mentioned else were in July I intend to take a  break from this game for a few weeks it'll probably be for the best really.

[Cinth]

The icons themselves look like the icons in .877 already.  The background looks different and pretty neat.  Am I missing something subtle here?  Admittedly, I'm half blind when it comes to stuff like this

Those are the current icons, and the background is the usual HUD translucency with a few tiles of coastline behind it. Blue's asking for opinions about what they should change to, because Chris and I are far too easily distracted by Superman and YouTube musicals to be useful.

Now you say that and I can see the coast line in there 

Here I am thinking, maybe something new being presented and I'm just missing it   

Honestly, the whole upper left area should just be rethought and redone, because it's overloaded with information (imo of course).

[mooncows]

Personally (and i may be on my own here) I enjoy the hammers. There simple, and do exactly what I would want a UI element to do. The only complaint I would have would be for the commerce hammer. I dont really have any suggestions at the moment, but ill brainstorm while i play tonight

Edit: And to add clarity to my post, the problem i have with the commerce hammer is i feel it least conveys what it represents. The other 2 hammers are solid tho, keep them in my opinion

[Tolc]

Maybe keep the hammer symbol, but add a small "subicon" (like the arrow of Windows' link files...dunno the real name, but I hope you know what I mean) in front of it that's another symbol. Something like a small crown for government, a small coin or bank note for commerce and something similar for culture (only thing that comes to mind is a music note...played too much Civ recently  )

[kasnavada]

The internet must be tired. No one yet claiming that he's colorbilind and that they all look the same ?
 

I'm not colorblind, but that would be my reason for never doing colorswaps. Encasing them in one "distinct" box (with social progress feel) and with 3 different icons could work.


Actually, I'd be for a rework on the top-left area, tied to a rework of the building bar - I don't think those can be independantly changed. I think the issue with "hammers" would solve itself by doing so. Now that I've played a bit, I can find the icons and the buildings and start to understand how they're working, but I shouldn't have to in the first place - and both of thoses were very confusing when I started the game for the first time. I already suggested that: http://arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=17060

[ptarth]

They've always looked fine to me.

Perhaps rotate them so the government hammer is oriented to the left, the commerce horizontal, and the social to the right?
It also depends if color is going to be added to the descriptions of buildings to help identify government, social, an commerce. If it is, then you don't want to diverge from the current colors.

[Shrugging Khan]

I'd say use a laurel wreath to symbolise Social Progress in general, and use left-, centrally and right-oriented colour-coded hammers within a laurel wreath for Gov, Commerce and Culture.

It's stolen from somewhere, but I can't recall where.

[jerith]

Maybe hammer and laurels for government, hammer and coin for commerce, and hammer and <something> for social?

[MayhemMike]

tbh I think they are fine. Not spectacular but functional

[Blue]

Hi guys!

Excellent feed back here, thank you very much.

Ultimately I really like the laurels idea, and I think that may just be the element I'm after!

Those are the current icons, and the background is the usual HUD translucency with a few tiles of coastline behind it. Blue's asking for opinions about what they should change to, because Chris and I are far too easily distracted by Superman and YouTube musicals to be useful.

Haha, I enjoyed reading the banter.

The internet must be tired. No one yet claiming that he's colorbilind and that they all look the same ?
 
I'm not colorblind, but that would be my reason for never doing colorswaps. Encasing them in one "distinct" box (with social progress feel) and with 3 different icons could work.

This is an excellent point, thanks for reminding me!

-Blue

[Cinth]

How about instead of a subicon as suggested, the hammer sits on it rather than the accents it has now (or the other way around).  So like a hammer on the laurels or laurels on the hammer, dropping the green/yellow/blue accents in favor of the specifics?

I'd also find a way to incorporate whatever type things are chosen into the social progress window so it ties them together nicely.

[Blue]

How about instead of a subicon as suggested, the hammer sits on it rather than the accents it has now (or the other way around).  So like a hammer on the laurels or laurels on the hammer, dropping the green/yellow/blue accents in favor of the specifics?

I'd also find a way to incorporate whatever type things are chosen into the social progress window so it ties them together nicely.

I think this is a pretty good idea, yeah.

We wouldn't want it to get to cluttered.