Latest UI Updates

Discussion in 'Art' started by Devourawr, Dec 7, 2016.

  1. Devourawr

    Devourawr Member

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    engineer menu, tested and ready to be dragged+dropped
     

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  2. Devourawr

    Devourawr Member

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    I think my mistake was just adding files and letting you guys look at them, because I forgot nobody here plays Empires :cool:

    I'm about to start work on the buttons, but I think it'll be nice to have a commander view which isn't very mish-mash between the old style and the new, finally.
    1351390910887.png
     
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  3. Kidpaler

    Kidpaler Member

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    Can you color code the buttons please? And make the "research" button stick out the most?
     
  4. Devourawr

    Devourawr Member

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    No, it's just a reskin and they all access the same file, so everything regarding buttons has to be uniform. Sorry
     
  5. Devourawr

    Devourawr Member

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    Buttons done in the same style as the others, all comm changes grouped together in this zip for dragging/dropping.

    The next big comm change would be the GUI popups for scrolling over vehicles/buildings, but that would be a fair amount of work and need someone taking good quality shots of the models, so won't be done for a while. The amount of devtime I have can be measured in minutes, but if anyone thinks something really needs changing drop me a line here and I'll look into it.
     

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  6. Devourawr

    Devourawr Member

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    Does anybody actually download these and play around with them in the game or am I just wasting my time? :P

    Anyway, Max helped me out and I've added them all into the repo, so you should have them in your game by the next patch whether you want to or not. Enjoy
     
  7. Avatarix

    Avatarix Member

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    not really, I love the icons but Hud never really looked good to me and is looking well and i dont know how to change it
    so ill just enjoy new icons because they are good
    kudos4u
     
  8. Neoony

    Neoony Member

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    I did try them. They are definitely better than default.
    I like the changes, even though they seem very subtle.

    Iam definitely ok with having them in the game :)

    But if you wanna have people trying those. You might wanna post comparison pics and make an easy copy paste release .zips instead of people needing to figure out where the stuff has to go.
    Just make it easy to copy paste straight into the empires folder :P
    Or this way they are discouraged to try those because of 2 reasons. No idea how it really looks and no idea where to put it.

    And also...you have to dig in the thread for all your part releases.
    But just saying :grinnf:
     
  9. Devourawr

    Devourawr Member

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    Those are good points, but I'm too lazy to update the OP when they'll be in the next patch anyway :P

    Don't forget if you have suggestions on things that I haven't done/really should redo, I'm all ears. I keep coming up with ideas for the Infantry HUD only to constantly scrap them, so if you know how things should be (and not just a reskin, we can make in-depth changes) just dump your ideas.
     
  10. Ranger

    Ranger Member

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    My to-do list would be a vehicle customization overhaul and teammate names on the field and all other icons that reduce your sight when you're trying to aim at long distances. Sadly, both would need code support so rip renger.

    You've done well so far, but I would prefer if other devs assisted you so your efforts would make practical changes to dis videogame.
     
  11. Devourawr

    Devourawr Member

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    I might have some time to do a little work. Anything seriously buggy or just looks like shit in general? I think I saw some weird behaviour with the vehicle crosshair being resized, and I know the ammo counter has been changed and looks weird, but they're code things that (I think) I can't do much about

    EDIT: looks like all the things in this thread, except the commander research icons, weren't merged into the main game yet anyway. So that'll be nice
     
    Last edited: Jul 9, 2017
  12. D.D.D. Destroyer

    D.D.D. Destroyer Member Staff Member Moderator

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    The new vehicle crosshair is too dominant and it's very easy to confuse it for the main one. It needs to be made less prevalent, my suggestion was increasing its translucency.

    Of course it'd be best to tweak the actual crosshair but given how long it's been with this one, I don't think that's doable anymore.
     
  13. JustGoFly

    JustGoFly Member

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    Couldn't you just revert the old cross hairs?
    The mods that don't work are never reverted. Why ?
     
  14. JustGoFly

    JustGoFly Member

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    Also about the commander research. I had heard it was being changed to improve it's effectiveness for new players. This also has not happened. Nothing that's been done makes it easier for new players. What would work is a sensible fast key selection, then move the icons any way you like because those coms that learn how to make fast selections won't use the icon view. They would choose F2 R C A - For Com View, Research, Chemistry, Absorbant. A logical fast key selection could be implemented, then when helping coms you can simply tell them the fast key for the research.

    Moving things around is not improving the effectiveness and has screwed all those coms that didn't read the menus, they know them from memory. So swapping ML with MG was just cruel. I've since fixed this with key bindings. It was quite humorous watching guys build a field of MG turrets I laid out in S bend. And my researching three armors instead of an engine and weapons - just because you decided to move things around. I'm used to each release randomizing the effectiveness of armor and weapons, but doing this in research and build menus was very odd. Was the implemented to benefit new players by screwing the veteran coms?

    Did you get any feedback from players that normally play this game and command?

    A good developer peer reviews their work with those that have input before the development is started. Those that "have a good idea" and just go off and develop it are going to be wrong often. I attempt to ALWAYS have a customer, who is a consumer of the final product.
     
  15. D.D.D. Destroyer

    D.D.D. Destroyer Member Staff Member Moderator

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    I can't comment on turret types because I simply can't remember but the research item placements are only changed when they are moved around the tree to a different branch entirely.
     
  16. Lazybum

    Lazybum :D Staff Member Moderator

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    Not quite, they get placed according to their order in the research script, starting from the top and going clockwise. So you can easily shift things around in a branch if you want, though you can't make your own client side research tree because it's going to use whatever the server has in that spot you pick.

    JGF, as an aside devo here has no control over this, he's just making art stuff. So this might be a bad place to make that type of comment, could go by unnoticed. A legitimate complaint would be I don't think that electrical tree icon represents the electric tree at all. I know it's a circuit board thingy, but no one's going to either know that or guess that considering how it looks. You'd be better off doing a small IC at an angle, but personally the old tesla coils were identifiable. Even if you didn't know it you could guess electric from the little lightning bolts popping out of it.
     
    Last edited: Jul 10, 2017
  17. Devourawr

    Devourawr Member

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    I had nothing to do with the crosshair beside making the texture. I can make it more transparent though, I'll look into it. I could easily change the shape too, would like to make it less compressed, but again I'll have to find out what's possible or not. Do you have something against the semicircles? Would sqaures be better?

    No idea what you're on about.

    This I can do, I think it was Paradox who also said it needed a change. I made it the wrong colour anyway somehow, I'll make some new examples and post them here for feedback, thanks
     
  18. D.D.D. Destroyer

    D.D.D. Destroyer Member Staff Member Moderator

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    The smooth edges of the texture are fine, it looks nice on its own but doesn't go well with the barebones red lines of the original crosshair.
     
  19. Devourawr

    Devourawr Member

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    This is absolutely true. I will redo it, and make it fit in with the simplistic vibe. The only problem is making it clear that it's separate to the "real" crosshair, which actually does the firing. I'll have some free time Sunday to throw together some ideas and we can pick and choose (and probably test) what works. I'm leaning towards a rectangle based (to give more vision), less pixellated one, which only shows the corners with a minor black glow behind them (1-2px) to differentiate them from any background, but we'll see how it goes.
     
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  20. Kidpaler

    Kidpaler Member

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    I'd suggest just a simple white circle that the regular crosshair fits inside of. A simple whiteish gray circle is super simplistic, not confusing, and it would allow you to know its freelook while having the firing crosshair move towards the center of it.

    [​IMG]

    Something like that. When you are free looking, an empty circle shows where you are looking. If you sit still, the turret catches up and aligns the crosshair inside of the circle.

    Edit: Right now, it is REALLY confusing because it takes up quite a large part of the screen, with no clear indication of where the true center is.
     
    Last edited: Jul 14, 2017
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