Mining Camp Looks too Similar to Lumbercamp?

Observed another 2v2 match where someone not only built 1 mining camp, but two mining camps on their tree line. At first I thought this is just a noob problem, but honestly their models are similar. Even compared to the AoE2 lumbercamp model. Each of the models have a massive crane which at a glance, might make it hard to tell them apart. It might be a good idea to make the model not have a huge crane, but instead a hatch with a pulley going underground?

They did notice the wrong resource drop-offs and eventually deleted both mining camps, but by then their eco was quite behind.

I would guess the player was from Aoe2 and he repeatedly pressed the wrong button, as in Aoe2 the lumber and mining camps have switched positions.

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It is pretty common, about 1 out of 4 games I observe, someone places mining camps on their tree line. I even fell for this when I did my first 2v2 pve match. Perhaps swap their position on the build list might help as well?

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I’d guess it’s just a result of the UI icons all being the same color (gold), 2-D, and minimalistic, abbreviated, symbolic, caricatured artwork representations of the actual items.

During Tech Stress, I always had to inefficently stop and think about the icons before pressing them to make sure I was clicking the correct one. Lumber camp and mine were particularly problematic for me

For me it had nothing to do with icon position relative to AoE2’s or the buildings’ appearance in viewport, but those could be improved… it was all about icon appearance

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Sounds like some UI changes would also help

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They look quite different. The issue is the hotkeys are flipped from aoe2 causing a lot of people to get it wrong due to muscle memory.

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True, just like the blacksmith icons these two buildings have similar icons, tool in the same angle on the left, resource on the right.

One time I mistook the lumberjack icon‘s wood for a coin…

Compare that to the mill.

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Yeah, I think I often see at quick glance ‘coin’ for the lumber camp icon, and possibly a stack of wood for the pile of gold; and attempts to try and ‘un-see’ or ‘unlearn’ that during Tech Stress was futile

I also often see ‘arrow feathers’ (archery) for the farm icon :sweat_smile: Wooden wall vs. stone wall, wood gate vs. stone gate, and wood tower vs. stone tower weren’t too easy either

Personally, I prefer immediate recognition and usability over contemporary aesthetic beauty fads for my RTS buttons

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Yeah, I mean I played age of empires 2 when I was a youngster. I come from starcraft2 and I always have to do a double-take when grabbing buildings from their selection. Thank goodness for hotkeys!

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True!

I think we should all pause to appreciate how well that UI screenshot I just posted goes with the forum’s new AoE4-themed look, though :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

(Really, it goes pretty well with it… but, yeah, in-game, please no! :confused: )

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