Solaris theme - a different look for Aurora!

[simast (OP)]

Steps to install:

• Download and install the latest release of AuroraPatch.
• Download this theme and install under Aurora/Patches. Make sure you do not use any other themes as they would otherwise conflict.
• Start Aurora using AuroraPatch executable.

This is an open source project licensed under MIT with code available on GitHub.

[twice2double]

Very nice! Some good ideas in your code that I'll try to add to the ThemeCreator patch to help out future themers.

[Droll]

I like this very much, very easy on the eyes. I particularly like what you did with the buttons, reminds me a bit of Quasar4x's buttons which I think look great.

[RougeNPS]

This looks amazing.

No offense to Steve and his design skills but the random buttons that all have different themes and styles for the UI just doesnt look good in the normal Aurora UI. This i like a lot.

[simast (OP)]

Published a new v1.1.0 version:

• Added space master and auto turns custom button icons.
• Added missing last time increment and active sub pulse selection indicators.
• Some other minor tweaks and changes.

[Droll]

Steps to install:

• Download and install the latest release of AuroraPatch.
• Download this theme and install under Aurora/Patches. Make sure you do not use any other themes as they would otherwise conflict.
• Start Aurora using AuroraPatch executable.

This is an open source project licensed under MIT with code available on GitHub.

Would it be possible to change the event text from the gold-yellow that it currently is? That is the only part that currently still hurts my eyes. Cuz one of the great things you did is the menu text is now Green or grey instead of green and gold-yellow.

[simast (OP)]

Would it be possible to change the event text from the gold-yellow that it currently is? That is the only part that currently still hurts my eyes. Cuz one of the great things you did is the menu text is now Green or grey instead of green and gold-yellow.

This is on my TODO list. I haven't changed that color yet since it is also used for player fleets on tactical map and there is no easy way to separate them. Might just change all yellow text on map to the default text color used in this theme if I don't find a good solution soon, but ideally I would like for player fleet contact text to remain yellow and event messages to use the new default text color.

[Froggiest1982]

The biggest problem with these patches/themes was the same as the old Aurora Mod. for some reason the assigned Commanders and other options are Default as a lighter tone of the preset font color.

So for instance you are using white making it impossible to see what admin is vacant at the eye without using the flag available only, which is extremely annoying.

I like your theme and I think is very well done, just a pass for me though.

[Droll]

The biggest problem with these patches/themes was the same as the old Aurora Mod. for some reason the assigned Commanders and other options are Default as a lighter tone of the preset font color.

So for instance you are using white making it impossible to see what admin is vacant at the eye without using the flag available only, which is extremely annoying.

I like your theme and I think is very well done, just a pass for me though.

Yeah I hadn't noticed this but it is a good point, the light grey text font perfectly lines up with the unassigned admin command positions etc. on the commander menu, which means that you can't tell the difference between them at a glance. I honestly don't mind it as much though.

[Kristover]

Very well done.  I would love for this to be the default color scheme for the game.  I actually don't mind the blue background that is the current default but trying this version out, I think I now want to play this going forward.

[GodEmperor]

FYI : Specify Minerals function cant be used to modify planetary Gallicite because its cut off with that font/interface size.

[simast (OP)]

The biggest problem with these patches/themes was the same as the old Aurora Mod. for some reason the assigned Commanders and other options are Default as a lighter tone of the preset font color.

FYI : Specify Minerals function cant be used to modify planetary Gallicite because its cut off with that font/interface size.

Thanks for reporting - both issues were fixed in the next upcoming version (to be released soon).

[simast (OP)]

Published a new v1.2.0 version:

• Replaced default yellow text color in all places with default theme text color.
• Fixed issue where blue background would still show briefly on time and subpulse control buttons.
• Fixed issue with cut off Gallicite input in system view + SM mode.
• Fixed issue where assigned positions where not easily identifiable in Commanders window.

[Droll]

Published a new v1.2.0 version:

• Replaced default yellow text color in all places with default theme text color.
• Fixed issue where blue background would still show briefly on time and subpulse control buttons.
• Fixed issue with cut off Gallicite input in system view + SM mode.
• Fixed issue where assigned positions where not easily identifiable in Commanders window.

Great update that addresses everything that has been mentioned so far.

I will however say that for this point:

• Fixed issue where assigned positions where not easily identifiable in Commanders window.

The assigned positions look very dark now, some people will have issues actually seeing what the already assigned posts are. If it's possible to keep the contrast between assigned/unassigned positions while improving the visibility of the already assigned posts that would be ideal.

You could try an inverted set up where unassigned positions are their current grey and assigned positions are white. The disadvantage being that it would be initially confusing to players since they might mistake assigned positions for unassigned positions etc. Most would eventually get used to it though I think.

The other alternative would be to have the unassigned positions be white/brighter and have the current grey on the unassigned positions be assigned to the already filled positions instead. However I imagine the reason that this has not been done is because it would affect text everywhere else as well. If there is a way to isolate this to the commander window I guess that would be ideal.

[simast (OP)]

The assigned positions look very dark now, some people will have issues actually seeing what the already assigned posts are. If it's possible to keep the contrast between assigned/unassigned positions while improving the visibility of the already assigned posts that would be ideal.

Thanks for feedback, I will re-adjust the contrast ratio if you think it is too dark right now. But note that I would prefer not to create new styling rules if possible as this increases complexity of the project and maintainability. Would prefer just to swap existing colors instead, so if we want assigned and unassigned positions to have different colors compared to default text - ideally Steve would have to add this different styling as well.

Also note that I want to revisit some of the colors when I will have a bit more time. I haven't done much with Galactic Map for example yet, it's mostly default colors right now.

Another idea I want to explore is to color-code toolbar buttons based on function - you can already see some of my WIP experiments on the first 5 economic buttons.