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Post by ATP Kraken on Oct 4, 2016 21:30:21 GMT
So I had a idea on how to retain some of the shard style: mixing diagonal and concave edges, with few right angles if any. Mock-up:
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Post by Oliveriver on Oct 28, 2016 20:55:22 GMT
The new GUI is taking shape in-game, and it already feels a million times better than the old one. See my post here.
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Post by serialkiller🌴 on Oct 28, 2016 22:30:23 GMT
The new GUI is taking shape in-game, and it already feels a million times better than the old one. See my post here. Wow that's amazing ! I'm honestly in love with that gui <3 I love how the whole thrive aesthetics evolved since I downloaded my first version (0.2.X) . Are you going to implement the new main theme version as well ?
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RoboTrannic
Spacefaring
haunting deviantart
Posts: 1,005
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Post by RoboTrannic on Oct 28, 2016 23:10:22 GMT
i like the lay out but things like the main the lower left corner icon and the health bar feels forced in
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Post by Oliveriver on Oct 29, 2016 16:18:48 GMT
As soon as I get it finished, yes. RoboTrannic I'm not sure what you mean by "forced in". What would make it better?
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Post by mitobox on Oct 29, 2016 16:23:44 GMT
RoboTrannic I'm not sure what you mean by "forced in". What would make it better? I think he means that it doesn't look like it serves much of a purpose (which goes against the minimalist design). Is it the new menu button?
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Post by Oliveriver on Oct 29, 2016 16:29:20 GMT
Yeah. It'll show a regular overlay menu rather than the weird expand one we've had so far.
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Post by ATP Kraken on Oct 30, 2016 1:46:26 GMT
[atp_cheers_03.wav] I still feel that menu button should have a beveled upper right edge.
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Post by Lanky Giraffe on Nov 20, 2016 19:33:20 GMT
The new GUI is taking shape in-game, and it already feels a million times better than the old one. See my post here. Looks awesome but the Thrive logo box in the bottom left and the intro box feel too square, perhaps maybe change the edges of them to make it look like the rest?
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Post by Oliveriver on Jan 30, 2017 20:20:06 GMT
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Post by Mouthwash on Jan 31, 2017 8:18:56 GMT
It's been a long while since I was on here and I don't remember what I said last time about the GUI. So I'll just give my immediate impressions as a player: I have no problems with how this looks; it creates the atmosphere perfectly while remaining completely unintrusive. Regardless, there are some genuinely puzzling decisions in terms of how it presents information. The health bar is all the way at the opposite corner of the screen from the other bars, which makes it difficult to focus on them both (plus that DNA coloring is really off-putting and the numbers on all bars need to be bolded at the very least). Also, what is that tiny ATP tracker doing right down there by the menu button? I don't understand why you think that things as basic as health and energy shouldn't be right beside each other. Look at how Skyrim does it- they don't have numbers but you can't help but look at them. There's also a tremendous value in color-coding things to help players create an association. Look at your cell editor. It's just so uninteresting to someone who doesn't already know what roles mitochondria or vacuoles play in the game. I think that could be solved by shading their buttons different colors (green means health, purple means poison, blue means speed, etc.) as well as separating their costs and names by either color or font so they catch the eye better. I'd also love to eventually see a drop-down description of what each one does when you hover over them. Finally, your tutorial popups are kinda hard to read given that they are white text on a light blue background and the environment is light blue with white bubbles. Spore's tips had black, bolded text on a yellow background and they worked perfectly. Maybe that would hurt your theming, but I still think this could be done better. That's all I have to say. Please don't interpret it as grouchy nitpicking, I have only the best intentions and I think you did a great job overall.
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Post by Omicron on Jan 31, 2017 16:42:14 GMT
It's been a long while since I was on here and I don't remember what I said last time about the GUI. So I'll just give my immediate impressions as a player: I have no problems with how this looks; it creates the atmosphere perfectly while remaining completely unintrusive. Regardless, there are some genuinely puzzling decisions in terms of how it presents information. The health bar is all the way at the opposite corner of the screen from the other bars, which makes it difficult to focus on them both (plus that DNA coloring is really off-putting and the numbers on all bars need to be bolded at the very least). Also, what is that tiny ATP tracker doing right down there by the menu button? I don't understand why you think that things as basic as health and energy shouldn't be right beside each other. Look at how Skyrim does it- they don't have numbers but you can't help but look at them. There's also a tremendous value in color-coding things to help players create an association. Look at your cell editor. It's just so uninteresting to someone who doesn't already know what roles mitochondria or vacuoles play in the game. I think that could be solved by shading their buttons different colors (green means health, purple means poison, blue means speed, etc.) as well as separating their costs and names by either color or font so they catch the eye better. I'd also love to eventually see a drop-down description of what each one does when you hover over them. Finally, your tutorial popups are kinda hard to read given that they are white text on a light blue background and the environment is light blue with white bubbles. Spore's tips had black, bolded text on a yellow background and they worked perfectly. Maybe that would hurt your theming, but I still think this could be done better. That's all I have to say. Please don't interpret it as grouchy nitpicking, I have only the best intentions and I think you did a great job overall. I do agree with what you're saying, except for two things: The colored icons and the colored text part. First of all, I don't agree with the colored text one, as the player will still have to learn all the colours, and because there are only two organelles which do the same thing (thermoplast and chloroplast), there will be as much colours as organelles. Second of all, using those different colours will probably result a rainbow on your screen, with 8 differently coloured icons on your screen. As for the text, I myself don't have any trouble reading the text, and I think it'll look really ugly to have a different colour (as for Spore, those colours are probably chosen to help the younger children read the text, as those were the people they advertised to, so it isn't really a good example for this more "mature" game)
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Post by ATP Kraken on Jan 31, 2017 22:41:19 GMT
I'll just say that Spore utilized a limited palette for ability icons. Red for all combat things, green for socialization, and blue for movement. Our system should use purple for reproduction units (and later on social things), blue for identified limbs and movement organelle, gray for structure, red for combat/destroying stuff, green for senses, and yellow for nourishment in an "abstraction mode" of view. concept
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bur
Multicellular
Posts: 22
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Post by bur on Feb 1, 2017 2:18:17 GMT
Looks great! I definitely agree about colour coding. Make all the compound names in the tutorial and the help menus bolded and the same colour as the compound icon/bar. Maybe slightly tint the organelle icons in the colour of the in-game model. Thing white borders could be used to make sure they stay contrasted from the icon background. Example: " ATP is automatically made in your mitochondria (purple organelle) out of oxygen and glucose." quick mockup: This is probably planned (or already implemented but not shown in video) but tooltips for all compound bars and organelle buttons would be nice
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Post by ja1cob on Feb 1, 2017 3:39:49 GMT
I am really excited by this. I actually couldnt contain my excitement when I saw the pretty colored bars and how practical they are. I think this will be one of the defining features of thrive's GUI. Good job dev team! Keep up the work
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Post by Oliveriver on Feb 1, 2017 20:42:15 GMT
The health bar is all the way at the opposite corner of the screen from the other bars, which makes it difficult to focus on them both (plus that DNA coloring is really off-putting and the numbers on all bars need to be bolded at the very least). I'll concede it's difficult to focus on both, but in future the health bar will flash red whenever taking damage so the issue might be reduced a little. Where would you suggest the health bar and compound bars go, considering moving themwould involve displacing other buttons and breaking symmetry with the editor? I personally like the DNA fill but will make it a bit more transparent. Without it the health/mutation bars look bland. Emboldening the text is possible but tricky, since CEGUI needs an new font file, and a new font definition file for italic and bold variants. Also, what is that tiny ATP tracker doing right down there by the menu button? In future that lower bar will contain a horizontal scrollable list of all the organelle bars the player has selected to have close to hand (see here), so the tracker is supposedly temporary. Although now I think about it, a permanent mini ATP tracker next to the health bar might work. I think that could be solved by shading their buttons different colors (green means health, purple means poison, blue means speed, etc.) as well as separating their costs and names by either color or font so they catch the eye better. I see your point, but this risks confusing colours between compounds and organelles. We're having trouble finding enough distinct compound colours as it is. We will definitely have major guidance on organelle functions in the form of tooltips or info windows in future. Finally, your tutorial popups are kinda hard to read given that they are white text on a light blue background and the environment is light blue with white bubbles. Noted. I don't think black or bright colours would match the aesthetic, and I'm reluctant to use the blue of the rest of the buttons unless the panels are made to look like buttons - given the way the tutorial is coded with the tutorial panel changing size willy-nilly, this would wreak havoc with the bevel sizes unless the buttons were dynamically defined, and I don't know how to do that. I'll try working with other shades of white or blue. Please don't interpret it as grouchy nitpicking Apologies but it's kind of hard not to given the overall tone. Your points are valid but you could phrase them a little differently, both here and in other similar posts.
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bur
Multicellular
Posts: 22
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Post by bur on Feb 2, 2017 9:23:04 GMT
Where would you suggest the health bar and compound bars go Maybe just put the health bar on the left side of the horizontal compound list? Something like this: The menu button should be rectangular then though. Makes more sense to have gameplay related buttons (suicide/processes) and interface buttons (menu/pause) grouped respectively anyway imo. Here everything you need to play the game/use the editor is at the bottom, and everything that takes you away from the game/editor is at the top. In this layout I'd put the editor tabs on the bottom of the organelle list, or put the organelle list on the right side of the screen. One more thing I noticed: the selected organelle button in the editor should look different from the disabled/unavailable buttons. Add a border or light it up a bit or something.
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Post by Mouthwash on Feb 2, 2017 21:37:09 GMT
I'll concede it's difficult to focus on both, but in future the health bar will flash red whenever taking damage so the issue might be reduced a little. Where would you suggest the health bar and compound bars go, considering moving themwould involve displacing other buttons My personal idea? A big green bar on the bottom toolbar, twice as thick and 50% longer than the current bar, which shrinks at both ends when you take damage. If you're looking to save on space, a clock-like wheel that depletes in a circle. Should there be a bar in the editor, though? Bars convey information quickly during gameplay but they just don't seem like a necessary feature outside of it. I think that if plain bars are good enough for Skyrim, then they are good enough for Thrive... but if you're determined to have something else, then maybe you could just fade the DNA pattern a bit so the shades of green don't clash so much. I genuinely couldn't think of a better way. My writing is blunt and doesn't lend itself to diplomatic phrasing (maybe that's a consequence of all my years of debating at Civfanatics).
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Post by keyboardstalker on Jul 10, 2017 23:50:15 GMT
Why not have customization options for the GUI? Implement different styles that can be interchanged in an options menu with different settings for each type, that way you could keep the current GUI and also implement others if it doesn't satisfy everyone? Maybe have one that's a "stylish" GUI and another one that's more functional.
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Post by Oliveriver on Jul 11, 2017 6:43:18 GMT
Why not have customization options for the GUI? Because that's a whole lot of extra work for something which should be unnecessary if the base GUI is designed effectively.
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