for example this is what the above icons for someone who suffers from protonopia (red blindness) looks like
the circles stand out less now. If you had different icons like for example (different swords as craftmanship improve)
AoEIIIâs time period makes these upgrade icons sometimes less obvious than ones in a time dominated by swords, bows, plate armour etc. but still designers did a decent job.
I really like artsy theme of deep blues and golden accent and I that style could be married with type of icons many people are talking about.
Just imagine light, blue filter or or some 80% transparent gradient map + these golden outlines used in some art or promo materials. It would still fit the game and make icons more interesting and/or easy to read.
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Im unsure about the specific needs color-blind people might need, however i think starcraft made a good effort at making their techs make sense.
The tech tiers had different colours as well as a number of stars on them.
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I canât name them, because I havenât bothered paying any attention to their names, but I can tell you exactly what they do, and guessed correctly what they did before even reading the tool tips. Honestly even after hundreds of aoe2 games I am not sure can name all the blacksmith techs offhand.
I would probably make the pips a bit prominent though.
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Bloomery, Decarbonization, Damascus Steel.
I will never forget those techs now because I spent hours editing that video⊠11
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That would have been great if theyâd done that. Re-implement AoE 2 to bring the engine up to date so it doesnât run at 10fps in multiplayer when bottlenecked by other players, you can rotate the map, smoother unit animations, make it server authoritative so people canât cheat etc. Add in some enhancements that the majority will agree are enhancements, such as adding the ability of units to go on top of walls. Instead it feels like theyâve tried to make so many elements in 4 different to 2 just for the sake of it. Not better, just different, and some things I feel are distinctly worse.
I just hope that a truly definitive edition of AoE 2 can be made eventually.
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but but they said is a historical game⊠lol
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naming them wasnât the point, it was more of what the icons donât really represent what youâre going to improve on your unit (unlike AOE 2 and 3 and other RTS games)
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hahaha you got em! Yeah it just feels boring/lazy design overall just 3 dots to define the difference between vs the others.
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Definitely agree! Here at least they are trying to make it look different and more distinguishable from each other. (not regarding the color blindness player needs but its better execution than AOE IV) I myself have to look for the icon and analyze is this the melee one or the ranged one that Iâm looking to upgrade for.
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The icons totally represent what you improve on your units though, far better than the aoe2 ones.
I can definitely see the argument though that the silhouettes of the different types can look too similar at a quick glance.
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you already know my sentiments about AOE IV but yeah terrain, units and UI all look like different games mashed into one. As much as Iâd like to think the UI was given some sort of thought (cause they clearly designed it in such a peculiar way), I still think the execution overall was pretty poor and lifeless when compared to all previous UIs (especially the icons). It lacks thematic cohesion with the historical time AOE IV is located in, do you think thatâs probably why it feels so out of place within the game itself?
For example another RTS game I play a lot (its more an RPG with a slight RTS mechanic base building side missions) Spellforce 3 the UI matches the fantasy âmiddle earthâ setting of the game, sure it wont win any prizes for design or originality but it gets the job done(although maybe not for colorblind people in mind and even though it does take a considerable chunk of screen real estate, Iâm not a fan of, but it ainât lifeless)
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the thing is AOE IV is being pushed forth as an efficiency system of hotkeys, unlike previous AOEs icons you can clearly distinguish what the upgrade does without having to stare at it (or count circles). If hotkeys are what the developer is pushing for players to use more often than in previous installments of the game (which yes they had hotkeys), you need to have more clearly defined icons than these monolithic designed ones. Because they designed themselves into a corner if you look at the unique chinese tech upgrades unless you hover over them its really hard to tell what they upgrade
unless you actually hover over them or play Chinese often at a glance you canât really tell what they upgrade for you
Reload drills for example let bombards shoot faster, meanwhile reusable barrels reduces the cost of nest of bees and pyrotechnics expands the shooting range of all your gunpowder units. But the barrels look like a a bundle of sticks and not rocket barrels. and pyrotechnics looks more like a leaf than an explosion with a plus sign and looks like it more belongs at the mill for a farming upgrade than a siege upgrade (obviously since its all located in siege workshop not going to be that difficult to distinguish that it must upgrade some type of siege weapon).
But even then if you distinguish it as an explosion with a plus sign, to me at least it seems to do a better job to represent that you will be getting bigger/larger damage (or explosions) than it does of representing the expansion of the range of gun powder units.
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Grimlore (Spellforce3 developers) already won the award for the best graphic
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The problem with this is youâre taking a subjective like or dislike of something and applying a qualitative judgement to the effort that went into the product.
Things arenât lazy just because you find them poor. Poor grammar or spelling in a paper would be akin to the icons not being there, or with obvious defects (like, say, having a sword missing from one of the three upgrade icons).
I understand your dissatisfaction for sure, but I think itâs important we separate out âI donât like theseâ / âI donât think they do the jobâ from âthese are poorly-madeâ (which has the inference that the people working on them were). Iâm not saying this is intentional btw at all, itâs just an argument Iâm trying to make. Itâs very probable you see it differently!
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icons are always like this, unless icons deal with very common subjects in the UI like menu, add, collapse, subtract, network connectivity, traffic signals etc, they will never make much sense. Here we are talking about topics that most people donât deal in daily life. I agree AOE players do have an interest in history, but the real artifacts come in various shape, sizes and form and if you visit a museum daily you might get to know what it is.
Human brain exactly doesnât say itâs what but they associate things with each other, they know it might have something to with metal, fire, weapons etc. To exactly know what it does,text is the only way, icon cannot say it is going to do +2 damage. If you add a tier number, but make it look like a gold icon, it is a text based icon.
Subject specific icons are very hard to be intuitive and it all depends upon the amount of exposure to various subjects a user has.
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Games exist to entertain. They are about as subjective a thing as I can imagine. Iâm just trying to explain my subjective distaste for this game. Iâm not asking anyone to change their opinion.
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Since weâre on the topic of UI upgrades. The entire UI is horrible, needs a complete revamp imo. I donât know if they can get it done before launch though. And I do know what upgrades are whatâŠfor HRE. I just memorized where they were so I didnât have to scan the UI to find the one I wanted,
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If you think AOE 4 has cartoon graphics and AOE 2 or AOE 3 is smth different then youâve never played AOE.
Mental model??? You guys have no mendal model. Either you are AOE 2 fanatics or AOE 3 fanatics, and are totally incapable of enjoying the whole saga with its differences and innovations. AOE 3 was ahead of its time, and it is people like you who stopped it from getting even further. And now even AOE 3 fans are doing the same.
If you make the game similar to the classic games âit looks like a remakeâ so âwhatâs the point?â. But if you evolve with a new game then âit is too differenceâ, âthis doesnât feel like AOEâ.
AOE 4 has done great at trying to find a middle ground for the AOE community, introducing stuff from AOE 2 and AOM/AOE3, plus new ideas. Making a game that can fit most of the AOE fans out there. Iâm sick of having AOE (the best strategy saga) as a lame niche full of AOE 2 players that donât just enjoy a classic, but have actually pinned themselves in the 90s.
WORSE GRAPHICS? Are you blind enough not to recognise that the AOE community is full of people with shit PCs becasue theyâve been playing games from 1997 up to 2005? AOE 4 aims to be the game for all the widest audience possible, including all the AOE one. The better graphics you add (Total War/Spellforce-like) the less people you will see on the community. We want AOE 4 to be a welcoming title, not a titanic paywall.
PD: I do agree the UI needs a rework. Tech and unit icons without different colors is smth that looks bad and looses readability.
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Would you actually call AoEIV ahead of its time though?
Some prevalent complains that I have seen are that AoEIV feels outdated, too safe, doesnât stand to nowadays standards, regressed back, copies AoEII or AoEIII too much, lacks innovation, character, creativity and so on, among other things. I donât think its case is similar to AoEIIIâs at all.
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