UFO:Alien Invasion

Development => Artwork => Topic started by: eleazar on February 01, 2008, 03:07:57 am

Title: Highlighting selected units
Post by: eleazar on February 01, 2008, 03:07:57 am
Against a various backgrounds, such as a strongly patterned one, it's sometimes rather hard to tell which soldier is selected, simply by the stronger green color.

I'd suggest the shape change more or less like so:

At-a-glance understanding is much easier.

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Title: Re: Highlighting selected units
Post by: SpaceWombat on February 01, 2008, 12:30:33 pm
For me it does not feel like the shape is that important. A bolder circle would be enough. Maybe a colour change or some kind of animation would be nice (selected soldier's circle pulsing yellow or something).

I do not know what's possible with the engine though.
Title: Re: Highlighting selected units
Post by: BTAxis on February 01, 2008, 12:55:51 pm
I agree with SpaceWombat here. Maybe a slightly thicker circle color-cycling between green and white?
Title: Re: Highlighting selected units
Post by: Kildor on February 01, 2008, 01:53:58 pm
may be between green and yellow will be better?
Or moving dashes?
Title: Re: Highlighting selected units
Post by: Psawhn on February 01, 2008, 05:16:01 pm
I agree that thickness of the circle should be enough, combined with pulsing green/transparent or green/white. (Or maybe dark green/light green).

Something else that'd be nice are fainter (maybe about what we have now) green circles around all (unselected) friendlies (and red around enemies, blue, yellow, etc), that increase in intensity as you zoom out. When zoomed out fully, the actual models would be too small to make out properly, but coloured circles would give you a good glance at your overall tactical situation. (And throw in a hotkey to turn these circles on/off, for screenshot-takers.)
Title: Re: Highlighting selected units
Post by: SpaceWombat on February 01, 2008, 07:05:24 pm
Right now in night missions I sometimes have problems to find the enemy without clicking on the spotted aliens display (upper right). A red circle around an enemy could be useful as well as blue circles around civis.
There could also be a checkbox in the main menu to change these settings (colours, boldness... but I do not want to stress you  :D ).

This would be a big advancement for the tactical overview in my opinion.