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RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/9/2006 5:54:40 AM

scout1

Posts: 2899
Joined: 8/24/2004
From: South Bend, In
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OK, until you posted the Germans, I had a question (that covered ALL examples). All the counters (except the germans now) have 6 retangular boxes at the top of the counter. Does these serve some purpose ?

(in reply to Shannon V. OKeets)

Post #: 241

RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/9/2006 6:34:33 AM

Shannon V. OKeets

Posts: 22095
Joined: 5/19/2005
From: Honolulu, Hawaii
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quote:

ORIGINAL: scout1

OK, until you posted the Germans, I had a question (that covered ALL examples). All the counters (except the germans now) have 6 retangular boxes at the top of the counter. Does these serve some purpose ?

I haven't gone into these in detail and I want to. There are a host of different colors associated with the status boxes that tell you the status of the unit. Right now (taken straight from CWIF source code) they mean the following:

1: Sentry, Flying, Selected
2: Damaged, Forced to abort, Disrupted, No pilot, 1st build cycle
3: Loaded, Transported
4: Combat strength doubled, Staying at sea
5: Supply, Isolated
6: Unit has attached note
7: Unit on loan

I know there are only 6 boxes but 7 cases. It doesn't make sense to me either. The mulitple meanings mostly have to do with unit type. For example, box #4 informs about land units being doubled in combat strength (HQ support or engineer) and has the meaning the unit is staying at sea for naval units.

I don't want to get into this right now. It all needs a thorough review. Each box that is colored other than white has associated text describing what the color means for that particular unit. So you get a message that the unit is out of supply as well as seeing the box colored black (I think it's colored black for out of supply).

When I do get to this I will start with a clean slate and decide what information we want to communicate using the status boxes. For example, at first glance, #6 and #7 don't seem important enough to warrant the pixels.

_____________________________

Steve

Perfection is an elusive goal.

(in reply to scout1)

Post #: 242

RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/9/2006 7:25:13 AM

Shannon V. OKeets

Posts: 22095
Joined: 5/19/2005
From: Honolulu, Hawaii
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OK, this is for all you guys that made fun of my last attempt at an anchor for the marine ANTO symbol. Mziln's graphic of the actual marine emblem was my reference.

Attachment (1)

_____________________________

Steve

Perfection is an elusive goal.

(in reply to Shannon V. OKeets)

Post #: 243

RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/9/2006 9:22:17 AM

dhatchen

Posts: 45
Joined: 12/23/2005
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

OK, this is for all you guys that made fun of my last attempt at an anchor for the marine ANTO symbol. Mziln's graphic of the actual marine emblem was my reference.

As one of "all you guys" I simply have to respond. They are perfect, these I like!

In the German SS counters above, I don't really like the red either.

(in reply to Shannon V. OKeets)

Post #: 244

RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/9/2006 1:22:19 PM

amwild

Posts: 105
Joined: 2/9/2004
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quote:

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

OK, this is for all you guys that made fun of my last attempt at an anchor for the marine ANTO symbol. Mziln's graphic of the actual marine emblem was my reference.

Looks pretty good to me. You could try extending the cross over which the anchor lies inside the anchor's flukes and stock, and see how it looks. I think it should look like there is an invisible border around the anchor, not like you've cleared away the dark pixels from the area the anchor goes into.

quote:

ORIGINAL: dhatchen

In the German SS counters above, I don't really like the red either.

I have no problem with outlining to make text more visible, as long as you are consistent with it across all nations' units. As a relative newcomer to WiF, inconsistency in this manner makes me wonder if there is any special significance to this appearance beyond mere visibility. The red against the black is a bit low in contrast, so the red could stand to be more orange.

(in reply to Shannon V. OKeets)

Post #: 245

RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/9/2006 3:02:59 PM

Froonp

Posts: 7995
Joined: 10/21/2003
From: Marseilles, France
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quote:

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

Here is a pass at using red for the German SS non-elite units and outlining it in white.

You can see the pure red in the name of the unit and the alternate yellow in the unit size (XXX) and reserve letter (R).

I prefer the yellow. I find the plain red hard to read and the outlined red somewhat strange compared to the numbers on other units (e.g. the German SS elite also shown here).

Well, I agree that the outlined red is somewhat strange, but I prefer it rather than the yellow. At least those SS look like SS (those from the game).
But I'm sure the pure red would be fine, even if slightly difficult to read, it would not be purely impossible or impairing the game.

(in reply to Shannon V. OKeets)

Post #: 246

RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/9/2006 3:07:27 PM

Froonp

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From: Marseilles, France
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quote:

1: Sentry, Flying, Selected
2: Damaged, Forced to abort, Disrupted, No pilot, 1st build cycle
3: Loaded, Transported
4: Combat strength doubled, Staying at sea
5: Supply, Isolated
6: Unit has attached note
7: Unit on loan

I already posted this in another thread a long time agon, but I post it here again, it may help.
It is straight from the old CWiF help system.

Attachment (1)

(in reply to Shannon V. OKeets)

Post #: 247

RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/9/2006 3:09:03 PM

Froonp

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From: Marseilles, France
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quote:

When I do get to this I will start with a clean slate and decide what information we want to communicate using the status boxes. For example, at first glance, #6 and #7 don't seem important enough to warrant the pixels.

Yes, especially because loaned units already have the color of the counter changed (I posted a picture in another thread, or in this one, don't remember).

(in reply to Shannon V. OKeets)

Post #: 248

RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/9/2006 3:11:25 PM

Froonp

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From: Marseilles, France
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quote:

OK, this is for all you guys that made fun of my last attempt at an anchor for the marine ANTO symbol. Mziln's graphic of the actual marine emblem was my reference.

OK, these anchors are great, as are the ARM symbols

Have you tried not to erase the INF cross on the back of the anchor ?

(in reply to Shannon V. OKeets)

Post #: 249

RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/9/2006 3:21:56 PM

Caranorn

Posts: 424
Joined: 8/31/2001
From: Luxembourg
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

Here is a pass at using red for the German SS non-elite units and outlining it in white.

You can see the pure red in the name of the unit and the alternate yellow in the unit size (XXX) and reserve letter (R).

I prefer the yellow. I find the plain red hard to read and the outlined red somewhat strange compared to the numbers on other units (e.g. the German SS elite also shown here).

To me the red with white outline looks great. The yellow (of the corps/division symbols) is appears almost identical to the white of the elite units. Though maybe all of that is different yet within the game (BMP vs. Jpeg). If it were up to me I'd use the outlined text.

_____________________________

Marc aka Caran... ministerialis

(in reply to Shannon V. OKeets)

Post #: 250

RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/9/2006 4:44:17 PM

Shannon V. OKeets

Posts: 22095
Joined: 5/19/2005
From: Honolulu, Hawaii
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quote:

ORIGINAL: Froonp
OK, these anchors are great, as are the ARM symbols
Have you tried not to erase the INF cross on the back of the anchor ?

A full X confuses the image of the X with the ends of the anchors. I'll try extending it into the middle some more. The length of the X is already a little imbalanced top to bottom.

_____________________________

Steve

Perfection is an elusive goal.

(in reply to Froonp)

Post #: 251

RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/9/2006 5:39:00 PM

buckyzoom

Posts: 69
Joined: 10/31/2005
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SWEET! I really like the MAR unit.

< Message edited by buckyzoom -- 1/9/2006 5:40:04 PM >

(in reply to Shannon V. OKeets)

Post #: 252

RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/9/2006 5:57:04 PM

Shannon V. OKeets

Posts: 22095
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From: Honolulu, Hawaii
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quote:

ORIGINAL: Froonp

quote:

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets
Here is a pass at using red for the German SS non-elite units and outlining it in white.

You can see the pure red in the name of the unit and the alternate yellow in the unit size (XXX) and reserve letter (R).

I prefer the yellow. I find the plain red hard to read and the outlined red somewhat strange compared to the numbers on other units (e.g. the German SS elite also shown here).

Well, I agree that the outlined red is somewhat strange, but I prefer it rather than the yellow. At least those SS look like SS (those from the game).
But I'm sure the pure red would be fine, even if slightly difficult to read, it would not be purely impossible or impairing the game.

I am ready to wrap up the design for the land units at high resolution.

First I want to redo how the colors are stored in the CSV data files. Right now there are 7 colors and one boolean flag for each country. I will expand that to 11 colors and 2 boolean flags. That will simplify the coding and give the players more control over the colors if they want to change them. I will have to make changes to the data files and also to the code, so it uses the new data correctly.

I have a draft of where each of the 11 colors will be used. When I have it finalized, I'll post it.

In my opinion the red doesn't work. Reading the II SS, V SS is easy. Reading the I SS, 8 SS is hard. Reading 'Paris' is very hard. This is at maximum size (level 8) and when the counters are reduced even 1 level, it becomes harder. I want the high resolution counters to be legible at levels 8, 7, and 6, though the last will be pushing it.

Anyway, I'll set the default for the regular SS units as yellow and if the players want to change it, they can.

_____________________________

Steve

Perfection is an elusive goal.

(in reply to Froonp)

Post #: 253

RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/9/2006 7:02:55 PM

Shannon V. OKeets

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From: Honolulu, Hawaii
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Here is my current design document for redesigning how colors are stored in the data files for each country and where they are used when rendering the unit counter images on the screen.
==================================
Unit Colors
(as of January 9, 2006)

There are 3 levels of resolution for the unit counters: high, medium, and low. The high resolution contains the most information and requires the most control over colors. There are 3 basic unit types: land, air, and naval. The land is the most demanding because of the wide variety of unit types within that group.

The colors are stored by country, though there are some subcountries for which colors are irrelevant because they have no units (e.g., Karelia, Bessarabia). The colors for the Communist Chinese are hard coded into the program, as are the colors for airborne, marine, and artillery units. That might change at a later date.

All the colors are stored in RGB format. This is a hexadecimal number of 6 digits. The leftmost two digits are the Blue intensity, the middle are the Green intensity, and the rightmost are the Red intensity. This is backwards (i.e., BGR), but I didn�t design the format. Each 2 hexadecimal number ranges from $00 to $FF (0 to 255). The $ indicates that it is hexadecimal. Pure red is $0000FF; pure green is $00FF00; and pure blue is $FF0000. White is $FFFFFF and black is $000000. The program also accepts these basic colors as clRed, clGreen, clBlue, clWhite, and clBlack. There are about a dozen others available as clXXXX but you can get perfect control using the hexadecimal digits.

Here are the data fields for the colors that are part of each country�s data.

1 Basic color. This is the background color for all the country�s units: land, air, and naval.

2 Icon color. This is the color used for the icon silhouette for the air and naval units at medium and low resolution.

3 Text color. This is the color used for all the numbers for air and naval units that do not appear in circles/rectangles. It is also used for a land unit when writing its name, size (XXX), reserve status (R), and country abbreviation.

4 Strength-movement color for non-elite. The color used for the strength and movement factor for non-elite land units.

5 Strength-movement outline flag for elite. When this boolean variable is true (i.e., -1), the elite unit�s strength - movement numbers are written inside a black outline. This is used for countries that have a very light basic color (#1) so the white numbers used for elite units have higher contrast and can be seen. It is set to true for the Chinese, Italians, and French.

6 Strength-movement outline flag for non-elite. This is similar to #5. It is not used in the default color setting for any country but is available to players for making increasing the contrast for non-elite units. For example, it can be used when using red for #4 for the German SS.

7 Outline color for #6. This is the color that is used for the outline when #6 is set to true.

8 Outline color for NATO symbol for non-elite. Non-elite units use this color for the outline of the NATO symbol and the graphic (e.g., X for infantry, / for cavalry).

9 Outline color for NATO symbol for elite. Elite units use this color for the outline of the NATO symbol and the graphic (e.g., X for infantry, / for cavalry).

10 Letter color for NATO symbol non-elite . This color is used for non-elite units for the M, T, and P letters inside the NATO symbol (for Militia, Territorial, and Partisan units respectively).

11 Letter color for NATO symbol for elite . This color is used for elite units for the M, T, and P letters inside the NATO symbol (for Militia, Territorial, and Partisan units respectively).

12 Interior color for NATO symbol for non-elite. This is the color used for the interior of the NATO symbol for non-elite, non-division units. Elite units have white interiors (exception: Commonwealth member nations do not have white interiors). Divisional units use the color #13. This color is typically a darker version of #1. This color is not used for airborne or marine units. Instead, those units have the hard coded colors for their respective types (light blue and light green).

13 Interior color for NATO symbol for divisions. This is the color used for the interior of the NATO symbol for divisional units. This color is not used for artillery, airborne, or marine divisions. Instead, those units have the hard coded colors for their respective types (light blue, light blue, and light green).

_____________________________

Steve

Perfection is an elusive goal.

(in reply to Shannon V. OKeets)

Post #: 254

RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/11/2006 4:56:15 AM

YohanTM2

Posts: 1143
Joined: 10/7/2002
From: Toronto
Status: offline

Make sure you keep the colours bold for us partially or more colour blind folks. I remember when I was playtesting WaW I pointed this out a number of times. I like the R for Reserve.

Rob

(in reply to Shannon V. OKeets)

Post #: 255

RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/11/2006 5:20:46 AM

Shannon V. OKeets

Posts: 22095
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From: Honolulu, Hawaii
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quote:

ORIGINAL: Yohan

Make sure you keep the colours bold for us partially or more colour blind folks. I remember when I was playtesting WaW I pointed this out a number of times. I like the R for Reserve.

Rob

Check out the posts # 180, 181, 182, 186, and 187. Are all the different nationalities obvious to you?

The last two posts were expressly for the purpose of receiving comments/suggestions/criticisms from people who see colors differently. I have one note associated with those 5 posts concerning a problem identifying unit nationality by color. Let me know if I should have more concerns about them.

You could think of it as a responsibility to all your brethen who see colors the same way you do.

_____________________________

Steve

Perfection is an elusive goal.

(in reply to YohanTM2)

Post #: 256

RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/11/2006 3:13:16 PM

Caranorn

Posts: 424
Joined: 8/31/2001
From: Luxembourg
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The funny part is that the issue of SS non elite unit readability for color blind people has possibly led to a problem for those among us who are not (according to the tests I'm not, I also work on graphic files almost daily and generally consider myself good at distinguishing colours...). But then again Steve's option to include colour outlines is a neat workaround that should in the end make counters legible for all of us.

_____________________________

Marc aka Caran... ministerialis

(in reply to Shannon V. OKeets)

Post #: 257

RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/11/2006 5:36:37 PM

Shannon V. OKeets

Posts: 22095
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From: Honolulu, Hawaii
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quote:

ORIGINAL: Caranorn

The funny part is that the issue of SS non elite unit readability for color blind people has possibly led to a problem for those among us who are not (according to the tests I'm not, I also work on graphic files almost daily and generally consider myself good at distinguishing colours...). But then again Steve's option to include colour outlines is a neat workaround that should in the end make counters legible for all of us.

Thanks. I would like to have the default color scheme work for everyone, but it is pretty close now and I believe other things should have higher priority.

One reason why I am not as concerned as I might be about the difficulty in distinguishing the white lettering for elite SS units from the yellow lettering for non-elite is that there is a much bigger difference between the two unit types. Elite have NATO symbols with white interiors. Non-elite have black interiors, and divisions have gray interiors (see post 253). Those differences are easy to see, so the white/yellow lettering is only a supplemental graphic to differentiate the two.

_____________________________

Steve

Perfection is an elusive goal.

(in reply to Caranorn)

Post #: 258

RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/12/2006 11:36:04 PM

pak19652002

Posts: 280
Joined: 1/2/2005
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quote:

ORIGINAL: Caranorn

The funny part is that the issue of SS non elite unit readability for color blind people has possibly led to a problem for those among us who are not

I'm not sure the Steve's decision to stick with yellow was based fully or even partially on accommodating color blind people. I didn't write and don't remember reading any comments from other color blind people about the SS text readability. Although red text on a black background can be problematical, in this case I did not comment because, frankly, I had an equally difficult time distinguishing the white text from yellow.

To summarize, either option, while not ideal, seems to be acceptable from my perspective and the option to change color schemes adds an additional degree of comfort.

Peter

(in reply to Caranorn)

Post #: 259

RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/14/2006 8:45:46 PM

Shannon V. OKeets

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From: Honolulu, Hawaii
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Here is a current view of the British Isles.

I discovered that CWIF wasn't using the full 68 by 76 pixels for each hex. When I doubled the hex size (width and height) I did not get the 136 by 152 I was expecting. Close examination of the British Isles bitmaps revealed that the hexes were not aligning correctly - about 8 pixels were being dropped and the connections between hexes were off. This was part of the problem with the Hull - Sheffield hexside. The hexes align correctly in this screen shot. That makes the Hull - Sheffield hexside better but I still want the artist to simply clean that estuary out. A thorough dredging seems in order.

Once I got the full 136 by 152 pixels to display for each hex, the antialiasing effects that the artist used for each coastal hex became a visible problem. You see it here where the coastal hexes abut all sea hexes. Once the artist redoes the coastal hexes putting in all sea hexes where they belong (a simple matter), all those stupid yellow hex borderlines will go away, and the coastal hexes adjacent to all sea hexes should look like the two east and northeast of Harwich.

You might notice that using the full 136 by 152 pixels makes the unit counters sit inside the hexes better.

I changed the labelling in the sea boxes and a couple of them are shown here.

I changed the icons for the ports, cities, and resources. The cities and resources still need to be improved, but that is for the artist to do - my graphics talents are limited.

I now have the positions of the icons all data driven. Check out Belfast. I am using 13 positions: center and 12 clock positions. My original thought of using 24 clock positions was overkill. If you look closely at this screen shot you can find an example of an icon for each of the 13 positions (except 5 o'clock). There are 1193 names on the full map. Some of those are for countries and the like, but most of them are for cities or ports. I have put in default locations with cities in the center, factories at 9 o'clock, ports at 3 o'clock, and resources at 1 o'clock. That way I only have to manually set icon placements in congested areas - mostly in Europe and along the coasts.

I repositioned the labels for named locations in the British Isles. These are not final, for I have to put in the railroads yet. However, they kept annoying me every time I looked at the screen. Changing the data is not hard to do, though you have to be careful or the simple comma separated values file can become unreadable by the program.

I took the abbreviations for the country on the counters down a font level. They now match the font size used for the unit names.

The artist has to do the rivers as an overlay and I have to integrate those overlays in to the map as it is drawn on the screen. I have a pretty good idea how I am going to do that.

What I am working on now (as far as the map is concerned) is puting in the railroads. That is an interestng problem to automate because I want them to be curvilinear, not simply straight lines, while at the same time connecting to the icon of the city (or port), in each hex that has one, and simultaneously avoiding all salt water. I am close to finishing the logic design for that routine. A couple of more days of fermentation should let me distill it into crystal clear code.

Attachment (1)

< Message edited by Shannon V. OKeets -- 1/14/2006 8:48:59 PM >

_____________________________

Steve

Perfection is an elusive goal.

(in reply to Shannon V. OKeets)

Post #: 260

RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/14/2006 9:44:24 PM

Glen Felzien

Posts: 91
Joined: 5/21/2000
From: Swan Hills, Alberta, CDN
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This is looking real good. I see the units themselves are fitting into the hex proper. Was this a result of the full hex pixel display? The Port symbol is terrific. Good use of the unit symbol.

The 10-5 armour hex is in fact holding 2 units?

_____________________________

Glen

(in reply to Shannon V. OKeets)

Post #: 261

RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/14/2006 10:08:06 PM

Froonp

Posts: 7995
Joined: 10/21/2003
From: Marseilles, France
Status: offline

That's great work, and I personaly love it, except for the ugly yellow lines at sea, who should disappear, from what you've said.

Some remarks about the map :

The port symbols are great. The major ports on the WiF map have a yellow circle around them, maybe you could add it too for an even greater effect (blue & yellow are good matches).

The factories now look awful, maybe you could try the WiF FE maps graphic which is far better. The resources & factories symbols are much bigger on the WiF FE maps.

The cities, capitals & ports symbols could be slightly bigger. They are bigger on the WiF FE maps too.

The font seems bold, I feel this is too much. Also the texts for the river names should be smaller than the text for the city names.

The units too are great !

I'm sure it would be a blast if the units had slightly very slightly rounded corners, and this 3-D effect I was talking about so much

: bottom & right side of the counter are darker, and the top & left sides are lighter. You don't even need to add pixels to the counter graphic, I think it could work by just changing the color of the surrounding line and make it thicker.

The number showing the number of units of the stack of units could be placed on the side of the stack instead of the top, this would allow for higher stacks being displayed, and maybe to some room for the 3-D effect ?

Cheers, and thank you for the update & the good work !

Patrice

(in reply to Shannon V. OKeets)

Post #: 262

RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/14/2006 11:34:34 PM

Shannon V. OKeets

Posts: 22095
Joined: 5/19/2005
From: Honolulu, Hawaii
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quote:

ORIGINAL: Froonp
That's great work, and I personaly love it, except for the ugly yellow lines at sea, who should disappear, from what you've said.

Some remarks about the map :

The port symbols are great. The major ports on the WiF map have a yellow circle around them, maybe you could add it too for an even greater effect (blue & yellow are good matches).

The factories now look awful, maybe you could try the WiF FE maps graphic which is far better. The resources & factories symbols are much bigger on the WiF FE maps.

The cities, capitals & ports symbols could be slightly bigger. They are bigger on the WiF FE maps too.

The font seems bold, I feel this is too much. Also the texts for the river names should be smaller than the text for the city names.

The units too are great !

I'm sure it would be a blast if the units had slightly very slightly rounded corners, and this 3-D effect I was talking about so much : bottom & right side of the counter are darker, and the top & left sides are lighter. You don't even need to add pixels to the counter graphic, I think it could work by just changing the color of the surrounding line and make it thicker.

The number showing the number of units of the stack of units could be placed on the side of the stack instead of the top, this would allow for higher stacks being displayed, and maybe to some room for the 3-D effect ?

Cheers, and thank you for the update & the good work !

Patrice

Here is another screen shot (individual bitmaps for the coastal hexes have not been done) which I want to refer to when replying to your post. It was taken at level 5 zoom (the previous was at level 8).

The labels for the cities et al haven't been repositioned, so some of them are on top of the icons. Here the labels are not as dominant a visual presence because there are far fewer of them, and the units occupy many of the cities/ports. The reason the labels seemed so overwhelming in the British Isles screen shot was that (1) the British Isles are full of cities and (2) I carefully positioning all the units so none of the names were covered whatsoever. The only one that looks big here is Washington and that is how it should be.

Adding a yellow outer circle around the major port symbol is a good idea. You have a keen eye to have even noticed it - I had to look at the paper map closely to even find it.

I'll make the major port icon slightly larger than its companion for minor ports. I am reluctant to make the resource icons as large as they appear on the paper map for they are very large there. Once the graphics guy redoes them, I'll check how they appear relative to everything else. They are important to game play so care has to be taken that they do not get lost in the background. The other city icons are about the same size as on the paper maps. Their bright yellow makes them jump out from everything else in the hex. Even the small one for Pittsburgh is very noticable, despite being partially covered by the name.

By the way I am going to move the icons for resources into the center position if there are no other icons in the hex. Right now I have them at 12 o'clock - compare the one in Pittsburgh (at 1 o'clock) to the one in the hex next to it (at 12 o'clock). There is another resource 3 hexes below Pirttsburgh which does not stand out. Moving it to the center position will help.

---

The units in this screen shot are all eligible for being repositioned (this is the setup phase). Because of that, they each are outlined in a bright green which is a tremendous help when you need to identify which units can be moved in each phase (many different phases in WIF).

Attempting to add a 3-D effect will interfere with this outline. Either the outline has to eliminated, or be somehow modified to produce both a 3-D effect and an outline simultaneously, or use two different styles for rendering units that can be selected (no 3-D) and those that cannot (3-D). I don't see the gain worth the pain.

The rounded corners also interferes with the status boxes at the top of the units. Rounding just the bottom of the counters will make them look like those Russian dolls that hae another one smaller inside.

The number of units in the hex is slightly off-center. I haven't fixed it since I corrected the hex size. Placing it on the side becomes a problem when it goes to double digits. It will not be as clearly associated with a specific hex. For example, if there are 6 hexes with units in them side by side there will be 5 black rectangles between them indicating the number of units in each hex. It would be very easy to confuse which black box is associated with which hex. Chris' decision to place it at the top is also quite clever because it is right next to the status boxes, which also indicate how many units are in the hex - a good design.

You might note that the stack of units with the battle ship on top (BB) has a couple of black status boxes for units below. They are for a carrier air unit and its carrier; the black status boxes indicate that the former is assigned/attached to the latter.

If you compare how the divisonal 2-3 sits in its hex to how the stacked units sit in theirs, you will see that the additional units descend (up to 4 sets of status boxes are shown). The hex with 16 units in it and the units in the hex below and to its left are as close as two stacks of units ever get - not much room to play around with is there?

Attachment (1)

< Message edited by Shannon V. OKeets -- 1/14/2006 11:35:09 PM >

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Steve

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Post #: 263

RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/15/2006 1:49:42 AM

pak19652002

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The WiFFE river text is italicized. Maybe that would help.

Peter

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RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/15/2006 3:25:16 AM

Shannon V. OKeets

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quote:

ORIGINAL: pak19652002

The WiFFE river text is italicized. Maybe that would help.

Peter

Yes, it would. And a slightly smaller font. I am holding off on that decision until I see the rivers. Then I'll probably change the color to match too.

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RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/15/2006 5:46:40 AM

lomyrin

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The contrast between land and river could be stronger. it ought to be readily seen without a close look at the terrain to make movement planning easier.

Lars

(in reply to Shannon V. OKeets)

Post #: 266

RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/15/2006 9:43:32 AM

Shannon V. OKeets

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quote:

ORIGINAL: lomyrin

The contrast between land and river could be stronger. it ought to be readily seen without a close look at the terrain to make movement planning easier.

Lars

The rivers as you see them on these screen shot maps will be completely replaced. They should be very close to matching the ones used in the WIF FE paper maps, winding about in different hexes instead of being simply wider light blue hex borders.

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RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/15/2006 11:30:08 AM

Froonp

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Steve, and what about your idea of seeing 4 smaller sized counters into a large hex ?
Have you dropped it ?

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RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/15/2006 6:30:25 PM

Shannon V. OKeets

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Froonp

Steve, and what about your idea of seeing 4 smaller sized counters into a large hex ?
Have you dropped it ?

Not at all.

I intend to use the medium resolution for all units types and have it available at zoom levels 8 and 6. Lower than that I do not believe the counters will be inteligible. Essentially, you will be seeing counters the size of zoom levels 4 and 3 in hexes big enough to hold 4 units within 1 hex in a little grid 2 by 2.

I would like to get all unit types finalized at high resolution before developing them for medium and low resolution. My decision on that has something to do with not wanting to advance one part of the project too far ahead of its companion pieces. I can't verbalize this very well, but until all the high resolution units are completed there is a risk that needed changes to them might affect any work done on the lower resolution levels. I am avoiding anything that runs the risk of being wasted effort.

Also, I first want to rewrite the code for: (1) placing units on the map during setup and (2) placing units in sea boxes. Once I have them working correctly, I will have a much better understanding of the code that moves units around and changes their locations, after the player decides where he wants them. The real problem with that code is that it contains an elaborate system for being able to undo all the moves during a phase at any time, in any order. Or at least until the player commits to them all by clicking on the "end of phase" button. I do not want to destroy the undo capability.

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RE: Unit Depictions on Screen - 1/16/2006 7:42:00 AM

scout1

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