Show remaining turns for effect on bottom-left panel

[b2198]

This would reduce a lot the necessity to be opening the unit details every time you need to check how close an effect is to end, to know when to refresh it (specially important for mineral carts, since they are only consumed if you apply their buff on a unit that doesn't have it yet).

Visual concept (could be improved, probably by increasing a little bit the height of the panel or moving the texts a tiny amount to give it more space, and with a slightly bigger font):

[Stratego (dev)]

nice idea, what about some little dots maybe?

(the numbers take too much space imho)

[b2198]

Something like this?


It's simpler, and more compact, which I think are the main points of that panel, so it makes sense, but what about longer effects, with 5 or 6 turns for example you could get a second row of dots, but how would you show something like Build Road, with its 40 turns duration?.

[Stratego (dev)]

yes, but it does not seems so visible... maybe i had a not so good idea

[b2198]

Well, visually I prefer the dots (probably would have to increase them a little bit, though), I just don't know how bigger numbers would be displayed effectivelly with them. Maybe with 2 types of dots, a larger square for "10"s and a smaller circle for "1"s?

[Stratego (dev)]

nice idea,

alternative ideas:
- what about something around them showing how many left? i mean a square or a cirle that shows less and less amount ? (maybe still showing the originals but with grey.
- what about color coding? a little bar under it show if it last long or very last turn like a health bar but (can be under them too) - so red: 1 turn, yellow 2 turn, green more turns.

[b2198]

What about both?


I like this one even more than the dots (could have used some transparency on the circles and better positioning, though), the only downside being that effect icons would need to be a more spaced, so there would be room for less of then inside the panel.

[Stratego (dev)]

yes sort of.

i thought something "around" theicons not over them though.

[Stratego (dev)]

i emailed lol

[Stratego (dev)]

ok new ideas here

colored backgrounds: shows color in red and yellow background (red=1 turn, yello=2 turn all other are without color. also list ordered by number of turns left)


indicator bar over them:

(here again only the yellow and the red is important.)

[Stratego (dev)]

please everyone tell us which version he likes.
here are the current options
- numbers
- dots
- circle or bracket around
- colored backgrounds
- indicator bars

[makazuwr32]

Dots: on my phone with 4.5 inches diagonal will literally be invisible so for me out of option.
Not like for own reasons.

Numbers: maybe if they are shown before indicator it will be fine. So number of turns left than indicator.
Might be fine.

Circle: probably not a good idea as well for me due to small display.
Not like for own reasons.

Colored backgrounds: it also might not be good but for other reason — some indicators may and even will use color of background so they will blend with some variants of background. For example poison indicator with green background.
Not like for technical reasons related to images of indicators.

Indicator bars: this one might be one of the best variants actually if we will expand a bit height of bottom left part of hud. But i suggest to add few more color options: red — 1 turn, orange — 2 turns, yellow — 3 turns, green — 4 turns, light blue — 5+ turns, white/blue/purple or any other non-black color — aura-based effect.
With expanded color idea will vote for this variant.

[phoenixffyrnig]

Yeah, I think the indicator bars would probably be the clearest option considering the size of that stat box in game, and all the different coloured and shaped effects icons there are.

[Puss_in_Boots]

Indicator bars

[b2198]

Seems like I'm the only one that liked more the appearance of the colored backgrounds lol, but I guess that could conflict with the colors on some effects' icons, so it makes sense to use indicator bars above them instead.

I also like the increase in number of colors makazuwr32 proposed, but I have a slightly different suggestion for them, I think it should be:
1 turn -> red
2 turns -> orange
3 turns -> yellow
4 turns -> yellowish-green
5+ turns -> green because green should be the highest

aura-based -> no bar

[Stratego (dev)]

Seems like I'm the only one that liked more the appearance of the colored backgrounds lol, but I guess that could conflict with the colors on some effects' icons, so it makes sense to use indicator bars above them instead.

I also like the increase in number of colors makazuwr32 proposed, but I have a slightly different suggestion for them, I think it should be:
1 turn -> red
2 turns -> orange
3 turns -> yellow
4 turns -> yellowish-green
5+ turns -> green because green should be the highest

aura-based -> no bar

not only you, i like the background version the best too

[Stratego (dev)]

also i think no more than 2 is needed, a 3 turn or above is irrelevant there imho, if you want exact u see in unit stats

[Endru1241]

Colored indicators may be very visible and all, but I think they could make some misunderstandings.
First of all - when we have 1 or 2 turn effects they would always be shown as red, orange.
And secondly - player may look at effect indicated by green bar and think it's something good, even while it may be debuff. And of course the other way around with red buffs.

If we are limiting info to relevant 3 informations:
1 turns left - no bar indicator
2 turns left - single square or single bar
3 or more - 2 squares or 2 bars
And by square I mean something with the size of half of lower case letter height.


Or going with something similar, but a little more intuitive - the same but showing +1 and total number of turns as greyed out, so:
1 turns left - single black rectangle or bar and 1 or 2 greyed out if effect originally lasted that long
2 turns left - two black rectangles or bars and 1 greyed out if effect originally lasted that long
3 or more - 3 black rectangles or 3 bars

[b2198]

Colored indicators may be very visible and all, but I think they could make some misunderstandings.
First of all - when we have 1 or 2 turn effects they would always be shown as red, orange.
And secondly - player may look at effect indicated by green bar and think it's something good, even while it may be debuff. And of course the other way around with red buffs.

If we are limiting info to relevant 3 informations:
1 turns left - no bar indicator
2 turns left - single square or single bar
3 or more - 2 squares or 2 bars
And by square I mean something with the size of half of lower case letter height.


Or going with something similar, but a little more intuitive - the same but showing +1 and total number of turns as greyed out, so:
1 turns left - single black rectangle or bar and 1 or 2 greyed out if effect originally lasted that long
2 turns left - two black rectangles or bars and 1 greyed out if effect originally lasted that long
3 or more - 3 black rectangles or 3 bars

Good point, I can see some people being confused by that.

Adding onto the second suggestion, over 2 turns total could get a + sign afterwards instead, like this:

First effect: 1 out of 2 turns
Second effect: 3 or more out of 3 or more turns (so also for something like 4 out of 5, it should only grey out the + sign when there are 2 or less turns left)
Third effect: 1 out of 3 or more turns

[Endru1241]

Plus sign may not be possible.
In smallest scale (original size) I am talking about 2x2 pixels square. Double attack indicator is actually only 6 pixels in width as original.

Btw. Small original size may be exact reason why this panel appears so pixelated.

[Stratego (dev)]

I think any indication overthe image is not that good because
- we have no extra space
- the view will show "complexity" so not that "clean"
so we can try figure out new ways
------------------------------------------------------------------

New ideas:
"flashing": i mean you dont see anything new but the whole indicator flashing or a little something flashing on it (not nevcessary over it - we dont have much space the make new sections)

so
"flashing icon": when 1 turn icon flashes or fades out-and-in
"flashing mini indicator": when 1 turn a 2x2px red dot (or a little red exclamation mark) flashes, when 2 turn 2 red dots flashing (or fades out-and-in)
(so we can think of some animated over or under-image too)
"flashing background": when the background coloring (eg. red) is flashing or pulsating

[makazuwr32]

Probably second is the best.
Flashing dot under or over the indicator.
Alas may i propose to use 2 colors: red for negative effects and green for positive?

Also i like proposal of endru — if it will show up 2-3 dots above or below indicator of effect depending on the base length of effect and fading out one after another depending on amount left.
It even may be red/green for remaining amount of turns and gray for passed turns.

[Puss_in_Boots]

Why not reuse assets and use the same numbers that countdown production countdown spell durations as well?

[Endru1241]

Why not reuse assets and use the same numbers that countdown production countdown spell durations as well?

Probably because of size.
They are 13x13 pixels.

Bigger than most effect indicators.

[Stratego (dev)]

Alas may i propose to use 2 colors: red for negative effects and green for positive?

i think that information is not needed here

----------------------------
A new idea maybe not that good (i dont even like it lol):

printing like this:
1:▓ ▒ 2: ▓ *:▒

or something like this.

[Stratego (dev)]

also i made a try so we can check in game (AOS dev) with blinking (when last turn) on
- unit itself (on map)
- in quick info on bottom left

tell me if u like it or we should go back to extra imaging.
(i also mostly ruined the whole game in last few days as an attempt to on-demand-load unit jsons - naturally i made a switch that is turned off for this build - so lets see if i ruined something everything should work as earlier)

uos 10

[Stratego (dev)]

a fixed version uos 5

[b2198]

Just tested it, seems like a good solution for me. Some ideas:

-add a lower frequency blink for 2 turns remaining

-if all effects on a unit are blinking, make the multiple effects icon blink too (and if one is blinking slower than the other, make it blink at the lowest frequency of its effects)


-maybe make it so that they don't fade entirely when blinking, so that static images of the game will always show the effects over the units, otherwise we would have to screenshot very precisely or make a video to explain some things. (That axe thrower has a hero song on it, for example, but it's barely visible in this screenshot)

[Stratego (dev)]

i think varied frequnecy just will make it feel not right to players
we should only have one, btw we can tune that if this is not the best current is (in a loop):
0.3sec fade out
0.3sec fade in
0.2sec delay

maybe make it so that they don't fade entirely when blinking

we can try, what alpha?
now blinks
- on unit on map from 1 -> 0
- or on infopanel
-- if unit has actions 1 -> 0
-- if unit has no actions 0.7 -> 0 (this in info panel case only)

[b2198]

I completely forgot about this topic during the past few weeks...

i think varied frequnecy just will make it feel not right to players
we should only have one, btw we can tune that if this is not the best current is (in a loop):
0.3sec fade out
0.3sec fade in
0.2sec delay

Fair enough. Maybe increase the fade out and fade in times a tiny bit, so that it blinks a little slower and is not as distracting?

we can try, what alpha?
now blinks
- on unit on map from 1 -> 0
- or on infopanel
-- if unit has actions 1 -> 0
-- if unit has no actions 0.7 -> 0 (this in info panel case only)

I'd say maybe something between 0.2 and 0.5 as a minimum for the alpha.