Dev Blogs II Discussion

It's too bad the flashlight isn't part of the GUI.

lol

 

Looking forward to it .
The GUI is the part of Empire that needs changes most in my opinion.

 

Hey Kylegar!

It's great to see that some work is being done to improve the GUI. I'm looking forward to seeing the new changes

On a related note, I've recently posted a concept for a new vehicle customization menu in the suggestions forum. Here's the link to it if you're interested.

http://forums.empiresmod.com/showthread.php?t=6351

 

Doggeti has created some great concepts for the new GUI, what Kylegar is doing will let us impliment them.

 

in the spirit of discussion... i wish to introduce you to

THE SCOURGE OF EMPIRES...

the following content may not be suitable for children....



okay, it's a boring subject. i'm talking about drop down menus here people!

before you think this is some sort of personal vendetta or grudge against a seemingly innocent thing, I want to say that this comes from experience working as a designer and having read a book (all the way though ) on design. i did a graphics course for a bit and it SUCKED.

the core of it:

drop down menus have ONE place in this world. those of you using firefox may see one top right of your screen now. this is to compact and hide away something that is constantly on the screen. to compact and hide away. they deliberately hide all information from you, so you can't see what's there. constantly on the screen where screen space is very expensive.

what they're currently used for is just a method of providing the user with a choice, which can and should be done in other ways.

-they look like info boxes
-so new people often don't know they have options
-they hide information
-takes several clicks, including a forced pause while the user reads the information
-emphasis again: takes many more clicks. even in an office appliction you wouldn't waste the user's time with extra clicks, but in a game where every second counts it's significantly bad - and who hasn't been killed trying to customise a vehicle?

so the moral of my story is: when the GUI is redesigned; don't include any more drop down boxes.

 

Yeah, that should be a given.

 

Yes! YES!

 

here here!

also the ability to manually change the level of transparency in the options menu or a similar menu.

 

Oh, Trust me, thats something I want to do away with

 

Agreed SO hard. I was wondering when they were finally gonna get rid of those things.

 

gg, its almost the end of summer.

 

That's alright, we live Empires anyway. Seriously, anybody seen my calculator?

 

I broke it
Tried to find a replacement before you'd notice it, but ...

*runs away*

 

okay, picking up this thread again because of new stuff...

first off, it looks LEGENDARY. truely amazing. definately next gen.

but i honestly honestly don't think that there should be anything on the HUD that you don't always need to be there. i'm talking about the skills and the building/tank counters. I really think the skills are easy enough to remember, even for a newbie, and the counters would be much more fit for the "map" visible when you press M. if they are going to be on the HUD, they should only appear when you're near the tank/building limit. because honestly, what is the point in them? it's just taking up screen real estate.

it can't just be me. does anyone else here ever actually regularly check the tank counter?

 

I agree with sandbag all the way: great designs, but still some baggage there that is cluttering things a bit.

With the potential that this new GUI system brings, would it be possible to give players a transparency slider (ala Unreal Tournament)? I'm assuming that team-based colour-coding is a definite 'yes'.

P.S. Those armour/engine icons are the best I've ever seen. GJ!

 

The rifleman symbol looks very out of place.. probably the thick lines .. or maybe it's the fact that it's not really a "shape" like the other ones.. it has some blank space while the other ones are solid.


Also, wtf are the "doctrine" skills?
And why is the light tank named "small"? That sounds very lame imo

Oh and nice paper nuke heavy lolz

 

It's a proposed feature that's under consideration.


Keep in mind that these images are strictly concept pieces.

 

I gnaw on puppies it looks nice. Will you be able to change the colour of your HUD via the options menu?

 

that "would you like to be the commander" box
bet there will be many games without a comm