Status Bar improved GUI

Production of artwork for the game by regular contributors takes place here.

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JW
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Post by JW »

Off-topic: Eleazar, how did you link to a specific post? Specifically, how did you find the post#? That would be handy to direct people to what I am referencing in the future, thanks.

ps, I think switching hp/xp would be a bad idea (even though I originally thought it may have value), as it seems you agree. I also don't like the look of the extra-thin xp bar.
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Eleazar
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Post by Eleazar »

Cuyo Quiz wrote:Weird. That post wasn't there when i posted, or even after i did. But anyway, if it can't be made to fit in the hex, i'm beaten up in brainstorming, i guess, unless you want to try with other forms such as flat ovals, but that feels almost like streeching it too much.

My apologies.
No problem then, I've faced the annoying out-of-order shuffling that the forums sometimes does to posts.
jw wrote:Off-topic: Eleazar, how did you link to a specific post? Specifically, how did you find the post#? That would be handy to direct people to what I am referencing in the future, thanks.
right-click on the little page icon next to the word "posted" towards the top of the post. you should get an option something like "copy link".
Feel free to PM me if you start a new terrain oriented thread. It's easy for me to miss them among all the other art threads.
-> What i might be working on
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JW
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Post by JW »

Eleazar wrote:right-click on the little page icon next to the word "posted" towards the top of the post. you should get an option something like "copy link".
Thanks!!
Aegis
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A few thoughts.

Post by Aegis »

First post!

In general I think this is great stuff. It's very cool to have this feedback-development cycle playing out here.

I've been playing 1.0.2 for a few days now, and the bars there are good, but the ideas that Eleazar is talking about here are excellent. I think the black-background bars are excellent.

The orb feedback on MP/attack left is a good idea, but I would prefer this be color-coded, rather than depending on shapes. I've got a couple of very high res monitors, and itsy-bitsy icons like those are going to be harder to distinguish than a clear shape that changes color.

Along those lines, I'm not a huge fan of the star/crown icons for the heros in the game. The biggest reason is that of clutter, but more than anything I'd just like to have a more clear indicator.

Has anyone suggested changing the "ellipse" series of graphics to indicate this? Perhaps a star for the leader and a shield/cross for a unit that can't die? I'm no graphic artist, but I could mock something up if you want.
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JW
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Re: A few thoughts.

Post by JW »

Welcome to Wesnoth!
Aegis wrote:Has anyone suggested changing the "ellipse" series of graphics to indicate this? Perhaps a star for the leader and a shield/cross for a unit that can't die? I'm no graphic artist, but I could mock something up if you want.
This, I think, is a very good idea! It would be like when your player gets the ball in old Madden games - the circle changes to a star! Brilliant!
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Re: A few thoughts.

Post by zookeeper »

Aegis wrote:Has anyone suggested changing the "ellipse" series of graphics to indicate this? Perhaps a star for the leader and a shield/cross for a unit that can't die?
Holy crap, that really is a great idea.
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Great

Post by eradicus »

For units to have distinctions, this is great!
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Re: A few thoughts.

Post by Eleazar »

Aegis wrote:Has anyone suggested changing the "ellipse" series of graphics to indicate this? Perhaps a star for the leader and a shield/cross for a unit that can't die? I'm no graphic artist, but I could mock something up if you want.
Actually, yes, it's beensuggested before. I think it's a good ideas in addition to the crowns but not as a replacement for them. Because:

* the ellipses are Optional, and IMHO should stay that way. When TColoring gets more completely applied it should be easy to play the game without the ellipses. At that time i think i'd prefer to play without ellipses.

* the ellipses are often Obscured by the unit and by terrain. "Tall" terrain (like castles and forests) can overlap the bottom of a unit, and a large unit can cover up most of the rest. Concievably the ellipses could be made to appear always above the terrain, but i'm not sure that would look good, and still the unit could cover up too much.
The obscuring issue is more fatal for the idea of using the ellipses somehow as a replacement for the HP and XP bars.

Please note that the any ellipse cannot be larger horizontally than the current ellipse, because of the hex boundry.

P.S. Aegis, welcome. Too often the first post is devoted to proposing that we turn Wesnoth into a radically different type of game that the poster prefers. So you've already distinguished yourself from many newcomers.

P.P.S. hey! my two main points are alliterated. no one can withstand the mighty power of alliterated arguments!.
Feel free to PM me if you start a new terrain oriented thread. It's easy for me to miss them among all the other art threads.
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Tieom
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Post by Tieom »

How about putting the bars on the bottom? Could that work? Haven't seen it suggested / shot down yet...
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JW
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Post by JW »

Tieom wrote:How about putting the bars on the bottom? Could that work? Haven't seen it suggested / shot down yet...
I don't really like it...it looks like the unit is standing on the bars.

Also, I didn't know the ellipses were optional! :shock:
I don't really see why tihs is...
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Post by Tux2B »

JW wrote:
Tieom wrote:How about putting the bars on the bottom? Could that work? Haven't seen it suggested / shot down yet...
I don't really like it...it looks like the unit is standing on the bars.

Also, I didn't know the ellipses were optional! :shock:
I don't really see why tihs is...
It rather looks strange, indeed.

And they weren't ellipses (or at least they weren't by default) in some older versions.
"There are two kind of campaign strategies : the good and the bad ones. The good ones almost always fail because of unforeseen consequences that make the bad ones succeed." -- Napoleon
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Re: A few thoughts.

Post by Aegis »

JW wrote:Welcome to Wesnoth!
Thanks, JW! Glad to be here. :)
Eleazar wrote:
Aegis wrote:Has anyone suggested changing the "ellipse" series of graphics to indicate this? Perhaps a star for the leader and a shield/cross for a unit that can't die? I'm no graphic artist, but I could mock something up if you want.
Actually, yes, it's beensuggested before. I think it's a good ideas in addition to the crowns but not as a replacement for them. Because:

* the ellipses are Optional, and IMHO should stay that way. When TColoring gets more completely applied it should be easy to play the game without the ellipses. At that time i think i'd prefer to play without ellipses.

* the ellipses are often Obscured by the unit and by terrain. "Tall" terrain (like castles and forests) can overlap the bottom of a unit, and a large unit can cover up most of the rest. Concievably the ellipses could be made to appear always above the terrain, but i'm not sure that would look good, and still the unit could cover up too much.
The obscuring issue is more fatal for the idea of using the ellipses somehow as a replacement for the HP and XP bars.

Please note that the any ellipse cannot be larger horizontally than the current ellipse, because of the hex boundry.

P.S. Aegis, welcome. Too often the first post is devoted to proposing that we turn Wesnoth into a radically different type of game that the poster prefers. So you've already distinguished yourself from many newcomers.

P.P.S. hey! my two main points are alliterated. no one can withstand the mighty power of alliterated arguments!.
Eleazar, I find myself soundly smitten by your alliterated arguments. :P

Seriously, though, I see your points and agree that terrain and unit graphics obscuring things would be a pain. I looked up the thread on TColoring with Darth Fool so that I'd know what you were referring to in the other point. I would agree that total team coloring would be superior to the ellipse system that is currently in place. I also think your idea of the ellipse being used as a highlight for the currently selected unit is a good one.

So... I'll throw our another idea about the crown effect. How difficult would it be to code a semi-transparent star behind the hero(s) all the time? I see that it is used for some of the magic effects in the halo directory. Here's an example of what I was thinking of. Very clear, outside of the old hula-hoop system, and not obscured entirely by any terrain effect.


Image


For what it is worth, Eleazar, I do have some pretty radical ideas about what I might do with the Wesnoth system if I were in charge. But I'm not. So I'm happy to just make a little suggestion here and there that I think might help out. It's a cool gaming system and I love the open-source format and the community that is tweaking it. Good stuff.
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Post by Tux2B »

Aegis, your idea is interesting, but it hides a lot of the terrain (not, of course, if you use transparency). And it also looks a little weird... TColors and new HP bars have already changed quite a lot in Wesnoth graphical symbols, and your idea is rather, well, odd, when you play Wesnoth since a long time and that you've gotten used to how it was before.
"There are two kind of campaign strategies : the good and the bad ones. The good ones almost always fail because of unforeseen consequences that make the bad ones succeed." -- Napoleon
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Post by zookeeper »

This is what I primarily had in mind concerning the different halos. Another thread could be started to discuss these, though. And sorry for the miserable mock-up, but I'm sure you'll get the idea anyway.

PS. Couldn't the problem with terrain possible obscuring halos be solved by having the obscured parts of the halo be drawn dimmed (or somehow diminished) on top of the obscuring terrain (like with 50% transparency). Could possibly be difficult to code, though. This could of course be applied to units, items and whatnot getting obscured by terrain.
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JW
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Post by JW »

Is there an option to turn Team Color off? I don't like the way some of the units look with it. I don't know what color would be used instead of the TColor though...

And that mock-up is what I think would be best - but that's just my opinion. And since the ellipses are apparently optional....

:?

That star would need some work though.
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