Expand and Exterminate version 0.42

[AF]

And there's all the other GUI rubbish. Just look at BAs lolui and then move back to default GUI land in EE.. *shudders*

[1v0ry_k1ng]

You never did value my opinion, and most people on the lobby think you're just doing this to bait me, since doing it the way I advocate will take too much time and thus in a comparison, I won't be able to stand up.

oh dont be so menstrual, I would not waste hours of my own time tediously making icons in paint just to make you cry 'but I wanted to make them, bbaaaaawwwwwww'. If this hasnt already occurred to you, the reason Im making an icon scheme for EE is because I want to play EE with proper icons. the reason I am less than impressed with you is because you keep posting shit like this:

[quote="neddiedrow"]What you're making will look bad and won't add to playability for many people.[/quote]

[Das Bruce]

when you havnt seen them ingame to know. comment constructively, or not at all.

You've posted atleast four screenshots of them in game, we can clearly see the style you have gone for and we've explained why it is bad. You simply ignored the constructive criticism given and I, for one, am tired of your trollish behaviour.

[Google_Frog]

I don't really care what they look like as long as they're unobtrusive(so no coloured borders), easy to tell the difference between units and reasonably easy to learn.

From what I've seen so far my only critique is that the AA icon and rocket icon may look too similar. I haven't seen them both from far away but they both have a diagonal line pointing in the same direction.

A horizontal line would work well for laser.

[smoth]

didn't bd just submit a widget that allows for alternate sets? I say IK should make his set and you guys can let the players decide to use what they want. Honestly, and if you guys want to make a different set you make another one and add that also to EE...

what is the problem?

[1v0ry_k1ng]

You simply ignored the constructive criticism given and I, for one, am tired of your trollish behaviour.

what was your constructive criticism again? oh yeah, your one post two pages back:

[quote="Das Bruce"]Ivory, are you having a laugh?[/quote]

how remiss of me to ignore such a valuable contribution, fuck you.

Yes, I have never done anything on icons before so my first attempts are inevitably going to be scrappy. Yes, there is plenty of room for improvement and a real need for feedback, but 'feedback' doesn't constitute as 'I want my posts dogged with your stupid bullshit.'

ontopic

a spiky flare with a line coming out of it? or just a line?

@ Google: im pretty stumped with the AA icon, because AA units NEED to be instantly recognizable in a group for speedy panic selection. if it was just the letters AA it wouldn't fit in the other icons.

gdltankaaa.png (3.55 KiB) Viewed 3588 times

gdltankc.png (4.67 KiB) Viewed 3589 times

gdltankr.png (4.91 KiB) Viewed 3588 times

also wondering if diamonds would look better if thinner.
to put how it looks atm into context:

no icons:
http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/8213/screen054.png

icons:
http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/6604/screen053.png

both screen shots taken at 1680x1050 and are cropped, not re-sized, taken at rough play height zoom.

[Das Bruce]

what was your constructive criticism again? oh yeah, your one post two pages back:

Ivory, are you having a laugh?

how remiss of me to ignore such a valuable contribution, fuck you.

That wasn't criticism that was incredulity, I seriously wasn't sure if you were proposing this as a viable alternative or exposing everything wrong with the vast majority of icon sets.

Attachment:megalulz.jpg [157.31 KiB]

Even you seem to find your efforts laughable.

[1v0ry_k1ng]

[KingRaptor]

you guys are such comedians

I think the diamond background works but is ugly. If you're using the background icon to indicate chassis/tech level, make those for the other chassis types/levels and we'll see how well it works. The weapon icons in general should probably be bigger.

Otherwise, you could just ditch it and leave the weapon icons "naked" (they'd have to use thicker lines then though).

[smoth]

didn't bd just submit a widget that allows for alternate sets? I say IK should make his set and you guys can let the players decide to use what they want. Honestly, and if you guys want to make a different set you make another one and add that also to EE...

what is the problem?

[AF]

Use a plane icon, a generic plane icon. The user can tell between a land unit and an aircraft.

The problem comes with ships.

As for coloured borders being intrusive, that depends on how subtle the colours are and how big the borders are. A 1 pixel 50% alpha forest green border will not intrude as much as a 2pixel lime green border.

I would suggest even adding borders that are at 5% alpha that you conciously cannot see without looking for them, because it will still impact subconciously.

[Google_Frog]

@ Google: im pretty stumped with the AA icon, because AA units NEED to be instantly recognizable in a group for speedy panic selection. if it was just the letters AA it wouldn't fit in the other icons.

Well icons that fit with each other too well are hard to tell apart. Though looking at the screenshot there seems to be enough difference between AA and missile.

[smoth]

make it a pyramid of As maybe?

[Neddie]

Like this?

[smoth]

space them out a bit

[Army Unit]

.....

if you think about it, I kinda started all this.

......

[1v0ry_k1ng]

I think the diamond background works but is ugly. If you're using the background icon to indicate chassis/tech level, make those for the other chassis types/levels and we'll see how well it works. The weapon icons in general should probably be bigger.

Otherwise, you could just ditch it and leave the weapon icons "naked" (they'd have to use thicker lines then though).

I really do not like siloettes for icons, they look scrappy- imo best icons are a symmetrical shape. How to make the diamond less ugly? or what alternative shape to use?

chassis/level is shown by size (the same icon but 50% bigger per level)

maybe having a's is the wrong approach altogether, assumably any player putting in more than an hour or two will memorize the icon/unit whatever it shows. guess it could just be a weapon icon like the others, though im fairly stumped by what the weapon insigna should be

[Google_Frog]

Otherwise, you could just ditch it and leave the weapon icons "naked" (they'd have to use thicker lines then though).

I preffer borders. When naked icons bunch together it's hard to tell what anything is due to all the overlapping.

maybe having a's is the wrong approach altogether, assumably any player putting in more than an hour or two will memorize the icon/unit whatever it shows. guess it could just be a weapon icon like the others, though im fairly stumped by what the weapon insigna should be

Leave it as is. I couldn't read the As in your screenshot but I could see a black line at the top of the diamond that can be used to tell what the unit is.

[AF]

Your most effective tools with recognition are the following:

• shape
• colour
• size
• contrast

These 4 aspects are orders of magnitude more powerful than anything else you cna put forward.

You have already nuked colour. Your icons are all the same contrast, and you have standardized on a single shape. Thus you have ruled out 3 of the 4 mechanisms of fast recognition in the human brain, and focused solely on size. Your icons inside the icons can contribute to shape a little but theyre at a huge disadvantage.

[Army Unit]

You guys are going overkill about all this.

It's not like the player needs to know what unit it is exactly, they just need to know it's there and if it's land, sea, or air (for me at least) The only time I really care is if it's AA or what type of aircraft it is, especially if I'm the aliens.