Top Panel UI Opinion

[Obelix]

The version/build information might then be placed between the ressource information and the emblem.

[Thalatta]

On 28/08/2026 at 9:28 PM, manowar said:

Screenshot ideas below for what I had been thinking for re-using the top ribbon space, or a kinda dropdown from the diplomacy icon

The problem I see is that that's only taking Ceasefire into account. What about other events, like the ones you mentioned at the beginning?

To solve that (and other issues mentioned), here my take on combining what I liked most of your ideas ("Ceasefire" should be also in green):

And objectives without a time limit could follow below.

Edited August 30 by Thalatta

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

8 hours ago, Obelix said:

The version/build information might then be placed between the ressource information and the emblem.

Just have it show up when you take a screenshot. 

[manowar]

On 30/08/2026 at 11:50 AM, Thalatta said:

To solve that (and other issues mentioned), here my take on combining what I liked most of your ideas ("Ceasefire" should be also in green):

This is an interesting take. In my version I was aiming to show diplomacy related items (ceasefire) under the diplomacy icon and match related items (wonder/regicide) under the match settings icon. I'm not sure if you mean for it to be permanently visible or visible on hover? But if permanently visible it could replace the wonder notifications that normally show in the top-center text notifications area. 

I like @Obelixidea of putting (a more concise) version string to the left of the main shield AND @wowgetoffyourcellphone we can have the version string added to the screenshot name as described already. 

I think I should try to implement these ideas in my mod for testing.

[Thalatta]

41 minutes ago, manowar said:

In my version I was aiming to show diplomacy related items (ceasefire) under the diplomacy icon and match related items (wonder/regicide) under the match settings icon.

I'm not sure how that would fit, and if it does, I guess it wouldn't be ordered by remaining time, which seems quite important.

 

41 minutes ago, manowar said:

I'm not sure if you mean for it to be permanently visible or visible on hover? But if permanently visible it could replace the wonder notifications that normally show in the top-center text notifications area.

Personally, I dislike top-center notifications, it seems cleaner to me to show them on the corners (which corner depending on which type of notification).

I would make them permanently visible, but detachable/reattachable by right-clicking on the main icons (which now does nothing). That is, using my example, if one right-clicks on the Match Settings icon, the three "Wonder" notifications disappear, and reappear if done again. Then one has fast and easy control of what wants to be shown.

[manowar]

I have made some changes for ideation - specifically:

• Eye of Horus icon button: This toggles a gameStatus panel on/off
• gameStatus Panel:
  • Displays the time elapsed and ceasefire remaining (as the current dev overlay does)
  • Displays any win conditions that may be enabled i.e. relics, wonders, last man standing, regicide
  • Displays the coundown timers for wonder win and relic win
• Key combination Ctrl-Alt toggles the panel
• No icons to the left of each line as yet

Also ignore my coloring of the other two icons as that is from another part of my mod that wouldn't apply to this.  

 

 

[manowar]

Screenshot from nomad wonder game tonight:

[Thalatta]

29 minutes ago, manowar said:

Screenshot from nomad wonder game tonight:

Maybe placed on the corner? 34:44 appears twice after all, and maybe 22:11:24 could be placed on the very right of the "Elapsed" notification line.

Could the notification panel length be automatically adjusted according to the length of the notifications? The word "Wonder" takes another line.

Could the notification panel size be automatically adjusted according to the number of notifications? There's a big empty chunk blocking the view.

Could the notification panel be made transparent (or kind of removed)? I don't see why it's needed, it could work like those center-top notifications.

Personally I wouldn't use the Eye of Horus because it's a strong reference to one civilisation in particular.

[manowar]

6 hours ago, Thalatta said:

Maybe placed on the corner? 34:44 appears twice after all, and maybe 22:11:24 could be placed on the very right of the "Elapsed" notification line.

The time in the top right is the dev overlay that most people do not switch on - that is what this is aimed at replacing. It cannot be at the absolute right as tech research icons appear there.

6 hours ago, Thalatta said:

Could the notification panel length be automatically adjusted according to the length of the notifications? The word "Wonder" takes another line.

The panel can be made wider but you cannot take account of the length of usernames

6 hours ago, Thalatta said:

Could the notification panel size be automatically adjusted according to the number of notifications? There's a big empty chunk blocking the view.

I could check that but there could be a performance hit. I was considering a scrolling text box for the content. The point about this version is the whole panel can be toggled with a keystroke or clicking the icon. So if it gets in the way you can switch it off.

6 hours ago, Thalatta said:

Could the notification panel be made transparent (or kind of removed)? I don't see why it's needed, it could work like those center-top notifications.

 The background is transparent (80% IIRC). Without it the text is very difficult to read especially when the background is grass or trees - or snow for that matter.

6 hours ago, Thalatta said:

Personally I wouldn't use the Eye of Horus because it's a strong reference to one civilisation in particular.

ah bummer - I liked it.

 

In any case these are just ideas aimed at addressing a single issue. It would be up to the devs to implement. At the moment I have them in a mod. 

[Thalatta]

1 hour ago, manowar said:

It cannot be at the absolute right as tech research icons appear there.

Is there an option for "tech research icons appear there"? I've never seen this. In any case, I would use the absolute corners only, and if left with no choice, the middle edge points. But right now you have upper notifications appearing from four different places, which seems too much.

 

1 hour ago, manowar said:

The background is transparent (80% IIRC). Without it the text is very difficult to read especially when the background is grass or trees - or snow for that matter.

Seems quite dark and taking a chunk of a building, but maybe more things have to be behind it to see. And it's hard to read because, as many have complained and should be solved, in general the font size of the game is too small. Bigger font with black edges should remove the need for any panel.

[manowar]

You don't have these tech research progress indicators ?

[Thalatta]

11 minutes ago, manowar said:

You don't have these tech research progress indicators ?

Agh, my bad, I forgot about those...

Well, for starters, there are some things that are already quite suboptimal in vanilla:

The upper left is reserved for system messages. There are so many things that could be fixed that I don't even know where to start, but to keep it simple right now, I would place those tech icons lower, at the same level as the group icons on the left, and with the same separation. Then you would have space for your notifications.

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

https://gitea.wildfiregames.com/0ad/0ad/issues/9171

I'd like to advocate some more for the About page and moving the build information there. If it's useful for screenshots to show the build info, then have it show up with the game's logo at the bottom right corner (currently Alt-K toggle, but it could be automatic for screenshots) when the screenshot's taken. Any chance to keep the HUD clean and organized I'd like to take it (within reason of course, which is why we're having this conversation). 

 

(Put it in the bottom right)

 

*I'd actually like to have a new Options section for Screenshots (Show UI? Show Version? Target Folder, etc.)

[Stan`]

1 hour ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

I'd like to advocate some more for the About page and moving the build information there. If it's useful for screenshots to show the build info, then have it show up with the game's logo at the bottom right corner (currently Alt-K toggle, but it could be automatic for screenshots) when the screenshot's taken. Any chance to keep the HUD clean and organized I'd like to take it (within reason of course, which is why we're having this conversation). 

Just to be clear, I'm not strictly against it. My point is that you can't assume how people will take screenshots. And so if the presence is conditional then it might not be here

 

[Thalatta]

1 hour ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

*I'd actually like to have a new Options section for Screenshots (Show UI? Show Version? Target Folder, etc.)

Considering what @Stan` just said (I'm in the same page of wanting to know the version, particularly in a state of constant development), what about having the option of not to show the game's logo, but always show the version below it? I'm in favour of the rest of what you said.

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

14 minutes ago, Stan` said:

Just to be clear, I'm not strictly against it. My point is that you can't assume how people will take screenshots. And so if the presence is conditional then it might not be here

 

It would show up by default when taking a screenshot, but have a toggle to turn it off in the Options menu.

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

6 minutes ago, Thalatta said:

Considering what @Stan` just said (I'm in the same page of wanting to know the version, particularly in a state of constant development), what about having the option of not to show the game's logo, but always show the version below it? I'm in favour of the rest of what you said.

Right, if we really wanted it to, we could have the option to toggle off the logo, but the build info would always show up (no option to toggle off).

[Thalatta]

25 minutes ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

Right, if we really wanted it to, we could have the option to toggle off the logo, but the build info would always show up (no option to toggle off).

Just in case, I meant when taking a screenshot. For the player to constantly see it could be optional.

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

1 hour ago, Thalatta said:

Just in case, I meant when taking a screenshot. For the player to constantly see it could be optional.

Right, my opinion as well.

[Stan`]

11 hours ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

Right, if we really wanted it to, we could have the option to toggle off the logo, but the build info would always show up (no option to toggle off).

Can't have this too, for trailers need an option to be disabled, (doesn't have to be user facing though)

[Dunedan]

On 25/08/2026 at 12:52 PM, manowar said:

It is not easy to identify if Wonder Win or Regicide is active - I have seen this determine matches

  The same is true for other game settings, be it activated cheats, relics win, last survivor or something else. For everybody unsure there is already the game settings page, which can be opened with a single click in the game. In my opinion that's absolutely sufficient (although the information could be provided in a nicer way on that page).

On 30/08/2026 at 11:18 AM, Obelix said:

The version/build information might then be placed between the ressource information and the emblem.

There is no place for that with the smaller resolutions we support.

On 30/08/2026 at 8:15 PM, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

On 30/08/2026 at 11:18 AM, Obelix said:

The version/build information might then be placed between the ressource information and the emblem.

Just have it show up when you take a screenshot. 

Aside from the mentioned problem that players might take screenshots using other tools, there is also a problem when players want to make screenshots documenting visual bugs where dynamically adding something to the taken screenshot might affect the shown bug. It's also potentially confusing or annoying for players who just want to take a screenshot of what is shown on the screen.

On 05/09/2026 at 9:28 AM, manowar said:

On 05/09/2026 at 2:57 AM, Thalatta said:

Could the notification panel length be automatically adjusted according to the length of the notifications? The word "Wonder" takes another line.

The panel can be made wider but you cannot take account of the length of usernames

You can dynamically (re)size it, based on its content.

18 hours ago, Thalatta said:

There are so many things that could be fixed that I don't even know where to start, but to keep it simple right now, I would place those tech icons lower, at the same level as the group icons on the left, and with the same separation.

No matter what, I believe that'd be a nice improvement in terms of UI consistency.

12 hours ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

*I'd actually like to have a new Options section for Screenshots (Show UI? Show Version? Target Folder, etc.)

This might be over-engineering the screenshot functionality. Mind that 0ad is a game and not a screenshot taking utility. On the other hand I like the possibilities of that.

On 31/08/2026 at 2:47 PM, Thalatta said:

Personally, I dislike top-center notifications, it seems cleaner to me to show them on the corners (which corner depending on which type of notification).

I kind of like the wonder notifications, so right now I'd vote for showing the ceasefire information there as well.

[Thalatta]

Another take at this, considering all kind of notifications I can remember, and all that has been said:

 

My changes (just by clumsily editing images):

1) Tech icons at the same level as group icons.

2) Website moved under logo, and moved version information to the lower right instead (that background should be transparent).

3) Chat moved up and left, not to clash with the group icons*.

4) System messages aligned with chat, moved down to where the panel would appear, and filled upwards. A bit of a weird position since it's not part of the actual game, ideally shouldn't display anything (besides saved game notifications, I guess).

5) Top centre notifications moved to the upper right, mirroring the chat.

6) Notifications like FPS mirroring the system messages.

7) Observer options moved to the left upper bar. This works hand in hand nicely with the following point.

8) Hero icon moved to the centre top and a bit left position. When following a player, enemy Heroes could appear on the centre top and a bit right position.

9) Victory condition icons on the right upper bar (the white numbers could change colours if wanted):

-Ceasefire: with time remaining (I'm not sure if any additional info can be added in yellow).

-Wonders: with shortest time to someone's victory, and number built in yellow**.

-Relics: with number captured, and total in yellow.

-Regicide: with number remaining, and total in yellow (not that useful but whatever).

-Clock: with match time remaining (if a mode requires so), and time elapsed in yellow***.

 

Notes:

*If group icons become more tree-like to accommodate battalions (as I proposed), the chat would still have at least 6 or 7 lines before clashing with them.

**Notifications could additionally appear in the upper right for every minute remaining of the last five minutes of anyone to victory, and become a permanent countdown when a minute remains (or whatever times are considered appropriate). There's space for that, and notifications should be ordered according to time remaining.

***A "-" (dash) could be used if a mode is not active (besides, I think someone mentioned it's not possible to remove icons, but if it is, icons for deactivated modes could be removed, and in that case the clock would be optional to have, depending if one wants to still see time elapsed).

Edited 2 hours ago by Thalatta

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

6 hours ago, Dunedan said:

Aside from the mentioned problem that players might take screenshots using other tools, there is also a problem when players want to make screenshots documenting visual bugs where dynamically adding something to the taken screenshot might affect the shown bug. It's also potentially confusing or annoying for players who just want to take a screenshot of what is shown on the screen.

Then one would disable the UI for such a screenshot and the build info wouldn't show anyway