Make armor and engine tabs stand out more

Just the other day, I joined a server with some newb who had only been on for a few minutes, to find a game that should have ended, but didn't. He was on BE, had all kinds of research, level 3 turrets everywhere, and all refs but 1. I joined NF, to find 2 repair stations, a VF that was far away from the barracks, only the top level category researches (chemistry, physics, biology,) and only 1 ref. My ass should have been thoroughly kicked. But, the guy on the other team obviously didn't know how to put better armor on his tank, because his heavies dropped like flies to my light tank. In the middle on the game, someone else joined his team, and he didn't know how to use armor either. Long story short, I won (by charging into their base with a med tank), but that should not have happened. I was seriously out-teched and should have been eliminated before I got past coolant engines. The armor and engine tabs are easily overlooked (even I didn't notice them when I first started playing the mod.) They should either stand out more, or should be mentioned as a tip during map loads.

 

I guess it just goes to show how experience is the most valuable factor, not wanting to sound elitist.

If they had "RTFM", they would have known straight away, and although the tabs don't exactly jump out at you, I don't think they should have to. Didn't they notice that there were research options for "armor" and "engines", yet no way to use them on their boomtanks?

Perhaps Bodrick could include a tip on it in his loading screens.

 

I didn't notice the armor/engine tabs for 1 and a half months since I started playing Empires.

 

I noticed it the first time I opened that menu
btw. opening the menu is the "real" problem.. the screen in the VF is easily overlooked and knowing where to press V is not really that obvious..

 

"You can choose the weaponry, armor, and engine of vehicles you are about to construct by selecting the respective tab in the vehicle customisation screen."

 

I found out in October....

 

I have to agree, when I started playing this game, it took me a while aswell to notice the other tabs (not a few months, more like a few hours :p), I did read the manual before playing

 

I didn't notice at first, either. However, it was fishy, saying as text kept popping up saying "Adv. Coolant Engine Research Complete", and I eventually scrutinized the menu and found them easily, within a day or so.

 

When I started playing the Empires even on me it took some time to figure out how to have other things on vehicles.

I thought those tabs were some sort of list things and under them would read the engine and armor and weapons which you have currently on.

I took good look to the menu and found the customize button and after that took look again to those tabs and understood how they worked.

It took few hours at me too but not to see those buttons but understand how to use them.

 

As long as i'm on the subject of making the game more noob friendly, there should be some kind of obvious indicator that shows that there's more research options under those top level researches. Many noobs haven't figured this out yet.

 

Well, you can only be a noob for so long. The best thing to do when you first play a mod/game is to experiment with its many options. It's called experience. I admit I didn't useit until later, but that was because I was always in a hurry to make tanks. But I disagree with the "it should be made more obvious" idea; there's a Customise button right smack near the middle and that is NOT hard to find. If anything, the Next and Back buttons need to be easier to see; they're so far down, half of the button is off the screen! But that's my opinion.

 

I'm sure these noobs found the customize button. I don't think dual railguns are part of the standard options on the BE heavy :p. But seriously though, the game needs to be a tad more noob friendly if Empires is to keep a decent playerbase, and these suggestions are just one part of it. Bodrick's loading tips also play into this, as well as the tutorial map which I hear is in the works. But no matter what you do, there will always be people who jump right into the game, some more catious than others.

 

They need to look less like words and more like tabs, in my opinion. If it LOOKS like a tabbed interface, it'll get treated like one.

 

I found out everything immediately, but I had this strange obsession with Regenerative and Bio Diesel. Even as a commander that was the first thing I always went for.

 

As long as you have bigger chassis, regen works great

Regen on a Jeep? near useless.

Much of the empires UI could be easier to use

 

OMG, those are tabs? Why didn't anyone tell me!!! :p

I agree that in general the interface should be made more intuitive. This also includes making the dropdowns look more... idunno, dropdownish? Took me a while to find the class-specific skills when I first started playing.

Another idea is to not use tabs and drop-downs at all. The screen real-estate is currently taken up by those thick fancy borders and pretty pictures. I bet if you slimmed down the interface, everything on the Vehicle and Skill screens would fit on one page. I'll try playing around in Photpshop and post the results if I come up with something interesting.

 

Took some time, but here is what I meant:
Vehicle Build menu:


And Skill Selection screen.
Scout:


Engineer:


Rifleman:


and Grenadier:


Let me know what you think.

 

This would definately make it stand out moar. I like it but... something about the look of the scrolling area for the weapons, engines, and armor looks... off... It looks like its popping out out the screen, and that doesn't make sense when it is supposed to scroll. So if you invert that effect, it would look better

 

Skill selection looks fine, but the vehicle screen looks too cramped.

 

You could put the engine and the weapons in the same image. That may make it less cramped.