Aurora 4x

VB6 Aurora => Aurora Suggestions => Topic started by: waresky on July 15, 2009, 03:36:38 AM

Title: GAME ICONS-SHIPS
Post by: waresky on July 15, 2009, 03:36:38 AM

hi Steve.
it's impossible design an ICONS instead a DOT for ships or fleets?
ok this game are same as an Roleplaying so mind fantasy lead the our imagination..
but..an icons for looks more feeling,between an Destroyer or an battleship make more addictive the game.
Sorry for my terrible english:)
hope the concept am mean r become understand for u.

icons for fleets..and for single ships.not 3d,but simply for funny:)

Title: Re: GAME ICONS-SHIPS
Post by: Charlie Beeler on July 15, 2009, 06:54:50 AM

Personally, I prefer not having icons on the system maps.  

I can see were others will prefer map icons, so if added this should be toggledable.  Perhaps on one of the display panels.

Title: Re: GAME ICONS-SHIPS
Post by: welchbloke on July 15, 2009, 08:16:07 AM

Quote from: "Charlie Beeler"

Personally, I prefer not having icons on the system maps.  

I can see were others will prefer map icons, so if added this should be toggledable.  Perhaps on one of the display panels.

I agree, if Steve does implement this suggestion it should be as a toggle option.  There are times when I would like to use something like this, but not in the middle of a major battle; I suspect the screen would become way too cluttered.

Title: Re: GAME ICONS-SHIPS
Post by: xtfoster on July 15, 2009, 06:27:04 PM

Quote from: "waresky"

hi Steve.
it's impossible design an ICONS instead a DOT for ships or fleets?
ok this game are same as an Roleplaying so mind fantasy lead the our imagination..
but..an icons for looks more feeling,between an Destroyer or an battleship make more addictive the game.
Sorry for my terrible english:)
hope the concept am mean r become understand for u.

icons for fleets..and for single ships.not 3d,but simply for funny:)

I always think of the "map" as a RADAR plot, so the number of symbols should be limited. The only changes I would suggest would be along those lines.

1) A symbol for ships (IIRC Military radar uses a U with the curve showing direction of movement)
2) A symbol for missiles (a V with the point showing direction of movement)
3) A symbol for small craft (fighters/gunboats) (Not sure, maybe this one is the V and something else for the missiles?)

Steve already covers Friend/Foe by changing the colors

Title: Re: GAME ICONS-SHIPS
Post by: welchbloke on July 16, 2009, 06:25:24 AM

Quote from: "xtfoster"

Quote from: "waresky"

hi Steve.
it's impossible design an ICONS instead a DOT for ships or fleets?
ok this game are same as an Roleplaying so mind fantasy lead the our imagination..
but..an icons for looks more feeling,between an Destroyer or an battleship make more addictive the game.
Sorry for my terrible english:)
hope the concept am mean r become understand for u.

icons for fleets..and for single ships.not 3d,but simply for funny:)

I always think of the "map" as a RADAR plot, so the number of symbols should be limited. The only changes I would suggest would be along those lines.

1) A symbol for ships (IIRC Military radar uses a U with the curve showing direction of movement)
2) A symbol for missiles (a V with the point showing direction of movement)
3) A symbol for small craft (fighters/gunboats) (Not sure, maybe this one is the V and something else for the missiles?)

Steve already covers Friend/Foe by changing the colors

Points 1 and 2 are a NATO standard representation used by some misson systems; there are however, plenty of other methodologies out there.

Title: Re: GAME ICONS-SHIPS
Post by: waresky on July 16, 2009, 08:34:08 AM

Symbols!
perfect,traingle,etc,etc..

ok for that,for some difference between Capital,Cruiser,Escort Class ships..-Fighters.
Agree

Title: Re: GAME ICONS-SHIPS
Post by: sloanjh on July 17, 2009, 12:06:20 AM

Quote from: "welchbloke"

Quote from: "xtfoster"

Quote from: "waresky"

hi Steve.
it's impossible design an ICONS instead a DOT for ships or fleets?
ok this game are same as an Roleplaying so mind fantasy lead the our imagination..
but..an icons for looks more feeling,between an Destroyer or an battleship make more addictive the game.
Sorry for my terrible english:)
hope the concept am mean r become understand for u.

icons for fleets..and for single ships.not 3d,but simply for funny:)

I always think of the "map" as a RADAR plot, so the number of symbols should be limited. The only changes I would suggest would be along those lines.

1) A symbol for ships (IIRC Military radar uses a U with the curve showing direction of movement)
2) A symbol for missiles (a V with the point showing direction of movement)
3) A symbol for small craft (fighters/gunboats) (Not sure, maybe this one is the V and something else for the missiles?)

Steve already covers Friend/Foe by changing the colors

Points 1 and 2 are a NATO standard representation used by some misson systems; there are however, plenty of other methodologies out there.

IIRC, Harpoon gave you the option of NATO or silhouette icons (I tended to use the NATO icons).  As others have said, if this goes in it would be nice to be able to switch it on or off to reduce clutter.

John

Title: Re: GAME ICONS-SHIPS
Post by: Paul M on July 17, 2009, 05:45:00 AM

I would say nato symbols.  There was a nice computer wargame TacOps I think that had only one draw back and that was the really silly looking silouets rather than some form of nato symbol.  In harpoon the silouets were no where near as useful as the nato symbols were.  The nato symbols convey a lot of information and don't clutter so badly.  

I also wish that the exact interpretation of a contact's numbers were somewhere in the game because I still can never recall what the various numbers refer to specifically...

Title: Re: GAME ICONS-SHIPS
Post by: xtfoster on July 17, 2009, 08:35:17 PM

Quote from: "waresky"

Symbols!
perfect,traingle,etc,etc..

ok for that,for some difference between Capital,Cruiser,Escort Class ships..-Fighters.
Agree

For friendly/known designs that might be OK.
But for Hostiles, you really can't tell much (at first) about a contact...
Even differentiating between ships/fighters/missiles would probably be based solely on speed at first.

Title: Re: GAME ICONS-SHIPS
Post by: Hawkeye on July 18, 2009, 01:12:34 AM

Quote from: "waresky"

Symbols!
perfect,traingle,etc,etc..

ok for that,for some difference between Capital,Cruiser,Escort Class ships..-Fighters.
Agree

While I would like this, I think there´d be a definition problem (ok, not for fighters/FACs)
What for a race, that just developed nuclear pulse engines might be classed as a battlship, would probably be a destroyer for a high advanced race using anti-matter drives.
Perhaps if some kind of dynamic, based on the scanning race´s advancedness (is this a real word?) could be used

Title: Re: GAME ICONS-SHIPS
Post by: Steve Walmsley on July 18, 2009, 04:35:56 AM

Quote from: "welchbloke"

Quote from: "Charlie Beeler"

Personally, I prefer not having icons on the system maps.  

I can see were others will prefer map icons, so if added this should be toggledable.  Perhaps on one of the display panels.

I agree, if Steve does implement this suggestion it should be as a toggle option.  There are times when I would like to use something like this, but not in the middle of a major battle; I suspect the screen would become way too cluttered.

I have played about with icons in the past, using Harpoon as the model. It did get cluttered though which is why I settled for the dots. I don't mind adding icons in the future but it isn't very high on the list due to the amount of changes for v4.1

Steve

Title: Re: GAME ICONS-SHIPS
Post by: waresky on September 09, 2009, 06:11:43 AM

Steve.
Please for more "feeling" on ur game..can put an ICONS ships selection?
DOT r very...puny:)
R so hard to make this configuration?