Personal Units Identification Difficulty, is it just me?

Started by 1EasyGamer, August 09, 2010, 06:50:54 PM MT

1EasyGamer

It's a problem for me when there are 4 or more players involved. I can easily identify the teams at a glance, the square coloring works very good for me but when it comes to individual units many times I find myself having to put the mouse over which also works very good but it is just not optimal to me. I would like a way to be able to see the whole picture at once and be able to know without a doubt which ones are my units without having to mouse over it. I know I am not color blind :) I have heard some other people have an issue with this also but again maybe it's just me. I don't think anybody is going to complain if you add something extra for identification of personal units. I am sure you have other stuff to work on, this is not crucial but maybe you can eventually do something for it if other people are also having issue with this. I hope I am not annoying with all my posts.

Ross Przybylski

Quote from: 1EasyGamer on August 09, 2010, 06:50:54 PM MT
I hope I am not annoying with all my posts.

Absolutely not!  If anything, post more!  I want to make Hero Mages the best it can be- the more feedback the better.

To address your concern, and get others feedback as well, I'll copy over my earlier post:

Your personal units are always distinguished by the personal color you picked on actual their clothing, while your team is distinguished by the color of the box around each unit.  If you have trouble finding your units on the board, remember that you can mouse over their portraits on the upper left and they will highlight and look up at you. 

Perhaps it would help to have an optional setting to highlight the shade of the space underneath your own units as well?
Manager of D20Studios, LLC

Ross Przybylski

As a side note, it was actually quite challenging coming up with the existing solution.  I took a good look at other RTS games (Warcraft, Dawn of War) to see how they handled this solution.  In both games, you're only distinguished by one color or the other (your personal unit color or your team color).  This works well in these games due to Fog of War (any ally units are always visible to you, and enemy units are shrouded in darkness until you actually encounter them in battle).

But, in Hero Mages, everything on the board is visible, so we needed a solution where you could see both aspects simultaneously (which units are yours and who are your allies).  I think we've got a good start so far, perhaps it's just a matter of further emphasising the differences.  What do you guys think?
Manager of D20Studios, LLC

Tampit

I like the highlight idea and I think it's enough of a visual cue to asses your situation
You will have colors to see which players are playing where and square for the teams
And highlight for yourself however I think its best to make the highlight the same color as team otherwise it might override the team cue or in case of ffa the color you have

1EasyGamer

I think the Highlight idea considering what Tampit said of using the team color might be a good improvement to try.

Warmage

hmmm well I have played this game for awhile now and sometimes I still goof up where the starting points are at, specially on new boards. I do think it could be a little friendlier to spot your units specially on some custom made boards.

I liked the idea of a colored tile probably transparent under the units - at least starting turn so at quick glance you can see your color and where units are.

I think maybe instead of a team color - the identifier could be a shape ?
one team square one circle ? so the individuals could be marked with a color under them for starting turn and the shape of the color would designate team.

Tampit

Warmage the idea here is to quickly asses your own units so the highlight is for your units only!
Otherwise things could get cluttered and the borders are enough for the team members

Warmage

Tampit you wouldnt want to be able to to see the placements and such of the rest of your team ? in teams mode

I think it might help I have seen lots of players charge first turn at their own teammate lol


This might help on custom boards the most - some funky starting points out there


space

Maybe a simple flash of your three units at game start would help... Just to make them obvious to get you started.


Ross Przybylski

Quote from: space on August 11, 2010, 07:44:40 AM MT
Maybe a simple flash of your three units at game start would help... Just to make them obvious to get you started.

Interesting idea- this way it draws your attention but doesn't become distracting on future turns.  I actually like this the best so far- other players thoughts?
Manager of D20Studios, LLC

Tampit

Maybe keep it along the game and only appear when its your turn and when you spend all the units actions movements it becomes inactive to that unit
You could also color code it(or you could use the team color)
Green fresh unit
Purple stun/immobilized
Yellow attack, sprint and abilities
Orange attack no sprint and abilties
Red only abilities
Nothing no action available
Also when the game starts maybe you can flash your team borders once(like starts at a bigger rate and thinker lines and minimizes to how it is)

Ross Przybylski

Quote from: Tampit on August 12, 2010, 06:50:00 AM MT
Maybe keep it along the game and only appear when its your turn and when you spend all the units actions movements it becomes inactive to that unit

We've experimented with having indicators that inform player which actions have been used/are available but found that it turns out being even more confusing- especially since there are many situations where you could use an action/ability but would be wiser to stay put or reserve your energy for other actions.

Quote from: Tampit on August 12, 2010, 06:50:00 AM MT
Also when the game starts maybe you can flash your team borders once(like starts at a bigger rate and thinker lines and minimizes to how it is)

This is another good possibility.
Manager of D20Studios, LLC