Author Topic: Clearer capture indicator  (Read 15501 times)

Offline Jazzza

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Re: Clearer capture indicator
« Reply #15 on: December 18, 2013, 10:17:46 pm »
I like the icons you use and the use of segments, however I'm still worried that they're too small and it'll be too hard to see them on a dark background. Can you try it with a different stroke than white?

Offline Thomas

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Re: Clearer capture indicator
« Reply #16 on: December 18, 2013, 10:20:29 pm »
I think the difficulty in this is getting a lot of information represented in such a small icon without needing to make it too large and distracting. Showing who owns the point, where the point stands in the 'tug of war', how many ships are on the point, if it's converting, etc.

The inside symbols probably aren't needed, as the ship counter and ring around the circle let players know who owns it, and if it's being contested/blocked. Although they do make it look a lot more interesting than just the ring. Right now the ring turns blue when blue owns, red when red owns, and white when it's neutral.

Although that'd really just bring us back to square one, but instead of a ship count number being displayed, it'd just use the wedges.

If I had to pick, I think Djinn's design is more visually appealing than the current system as well as more effective.

Offline The Djinn

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Re: Clearer capture indicator
« Reply #17 on: December 19, 2013, 01:26:04 am »
I think the difficulty in this is getting a lot of information represented in such a small icon without needing to make it too large and distracting. Showing who owns the point, where the point stands in the 'tug of war', how many ships are on the point, if it's converting, etc.

Yep. This is definitely the issue.

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The inside symbols probably aren't needed, as the ship counter and ring around the circle let players know who owns it, and if it's being contested/blocked. Although they do make it look a lot more interesting than just the ring. Right now the ring turns blue when blue owns, red when red owns, and white when it's neutral.

Actually, the reason that I opted for the symbols in the center was because I wanted an immediately obvious indication that a capture was taking place. The radial circle that fills isn't always immediately obvious, so I wanted something that says "HEY! CAPTURE IS HAPPENING!"

Offline The Djinn

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Re: Clearer capture indicator
« Reply #18 on: December 19, 2013, 02:06:02 am »
I like the icons you use and the use of segments, however I'm still worried that they're too small and it'll be too hard to see them on a dark background. Can you try it with a different stroke than white?

I could, but these are simply mock-ups to test the concept. If we find one we can definitely say is an improvement I can work on visibility.

Here's take 3: this is probably the simplest treatment to date. It reduces the "incrementing circle" to a simple timer, shows ship presence via colored bars around the circle, shows current point priority by the central color, shows capping/decapping by the color of the text, and shows contesting by a dramatic and obvious change of the ring color itself.

I do not think I can minimize this information any further. That said, colors and pieces can be tweaked if the information isn't clear: I want there to be very little (if any) confusion as to what the state of the game is at any given point.


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« Last Edit: December 19, 2013, 02:07:56 am by The Djinn »