New minimap colors

[niektb]

Hi everyone!

 

There are some issues with the current minimap color scheme as pointed out here: #763

I started working on this as part of Millennium A.D. (as some of you probably already noticed) and decided to split it off and hopefully get it merged into the game.

This is the current state of the mod:

I would like you guys to try it out and give your opinions on it (what do you think about it, where is it already better than SVN, where could/should it be improved and how should it be improved).

v4:

Changelog: Dark orange for bushes, pink for metal mines and limegreen for fauna.

minimap_color_v4.zipFetching info...

minimap_color_a20_v4.zipFetching info...

 

Thanks in advance!

[fatherbushido]

I really like the way there is two "kinds" of colors (one for the ress and one for the players). At first, the pink for animals (as flesh) can be disturbing but after some games it is ok. I just find the orange not enough different from the orange player color.

[niektb]

I've attached a downloadlink for Alpha 20 and a few screenshots with some more players.

[causative]

Just a thought - in addition to more visible resource colors, it would be nice if the minimap showed enemy units much more obviously.  For instance, enemy units in visible range should be rapidly flashing.  New enemies coming into sight should have a chat message "Hostile <civ name> sighted!"  (e.g. "Hostile Gauls sighted!")  It's too easy to get killed and not know it because you were looking somewhere else.

[elexis]

• The metal color should be more distinct.
• Don't really like the pink for animals and berries, but that indeed is a different color.
• We already have flashing of dots for attacked units, so not sure if making more things flash is the best idea,
• but we could have 2 colors for resources (like a green dot with a black border around it) to distinguish
• Also it would be nice if there was a button to toggle between player- and team colors (f.e. allies blue, enemies red, neutral green)

[av93]

+1 to outline some kind of resources, maybe gaia treasures

[causative]

I think flashing dots for attacked units should be replaced with something else.  It doesn't stand out enough for such an important event, especially with the default flash rate which is very slow.  It takes me a few seconds looking at the minimap to figure out where the flashing units are if I'm being attacked.  It would be better to have flashing dots for enemy units (more rapid flash rate by default, like 0.5 sec), and if you're actually attacked, perhaps draw a big red circle on the minimap over the attack location so you can't miss it.  That's what Starcraft does.

[Loki1950]

  Quote

  It takes me a few seconds looking at the minimap to figure out where the flashing units are if I'm being attacked.

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You can click on the minimap to have the main view go to the location of the flashing unit.

Enjoy the Choice

[niektb]

Hmm, I hoped for a little more feedback. Anyone else?

[Lion.Kanzen]

As Graphic desingner I prefer Salmon  color than pink, and the variation must be more orange than pink.

can you make a guide to have quick look, I'll test later.

where is metal mine color? Must be traditional dark yellow or dark khaki with strong yellow.

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this color are based in RGB right? I can show my review? Propose my own, it's little variance.

Edited May 28, 2016 by Lion.Kanzen

[niektb]

@Lion.Kanzen: that salmon is a good one, might improve the aestethics a bit. The metal is dark orange. In yellow it looks to much like the color of the yellow player. 

Install it like every other mod, enable it and play.

Colors are in rgb indeed

 

[Lion.Kanzen]

  On 28/05/2016 at 3:33 PM, niektb said:

@Lion.Kanzen: that salmon is a good one, might improve the aestethics a bit. The metal is dark orange. In yellow it looks to much like the color of the yellow player. 

Install it like every other mod, enable it and play.

Colors are in Hex

 

Expand  

that we will differentiate each other. I need the specific color to from player and from your color pallette. probably the diference between yelllow can be Khaki, mostly of people differentiate them.

see the link.

[Enrique]

In my opinion, if we really want to focus on readability the best option would be a "toggle" button, this would make the actual terrain always the same color (instead of depending of the biome texture)  this way you could set the ideal colors for everything without having to accommodate the minimap scheme to be readable on all possible biome map terrain colors.

[Lion.Kanzen]

the game needs work adding feature buttons for the Minimap.

 

-Toggle off terrain

-Show ally enemy and Neutral at same color (ignoring player colors)

-show Resource color/ toggle of units buildings and terrain

-show Military units units Toggle off the rest.

Edited May 28, 2016 by Lion.Kanzen

[niektb]

@Lion.Kanzen: you can simply open the zip and check all templates with a code editor to obtain the color codes (like notepad++)

[Lion.Kanzen]

ok, I will test first.

[sanderd17]

  On 28/05/2016 at 4:34 PM, Enrique said:

In my opinion, if we really want to focus on readability the best option would be a "toggle" button, this would make the actual terrain always the same color (instead of depending of the biome texture)  this way you could set the ideal colors for everything without having to accommodate the minimap scheme to be readable on all possible biome map terrain colors.

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Terrain can also be important for gameplay. At least the difference between passable and impassable terrain. And when a map is well-made, that difference is reflected in the terrain texture (cliffs for impassable terrain).

The terrain could be faded though, but we'd need to find a good fading function (what operation to execute on the RGB values to fade it).

[Enrique]

  On 28/05/2016 at 5:18 PM, sanderd17 said:

Terrain can also be important for gameplay. At least the difference between passable and impassable terrain. And when a map is well-made, that difference is reflected in the terrain texture (cliffs for impassable terrain).

The terrain could be faded though, but we'd need to find a good fading function (what operation to execute on the RGB values to fade it).

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That's the why of the toggle. It isn't the ideal map type to play, but it is meant to locate resources that could be difficult to differentiate because of the terrain colors. IIRC the AOE had a toggle to switch between resources/military/somethingelse excluding all other things (map colors didn't change, but all other things in the map disappeared) I think we should aim to something similar.

[Lion.Kanzen]

ok , I will totally honest with you, is very confusing scheme, may be because traditional color in mostly of RTS are same.

• the Animal color is great, only try to add my suggestion.(the meat and fish)
•   Reveal hidden contents

  

   

   

• the Worst metal mine(orange?)
•   Reveal hidden contents

  

  my proposed with metal, more associated with gold.

  Success, abundance, wealth,

  http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/color-gold.html

   

• why green(lime) color for fruit source? but why prefer red or hot / warm color.
    Reveal hidden contents

  here you can found what kind of food are associated with color.

  http://blog.modernvintageattic.com/archives/color-psychology-food-and-nutrition-rainbow-color-cravings/

  “The perception of red has evolved in such important events and experiences,” says Elliot. “Red is the colour of ripe fruit...

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_human_colour_vision

  Food Foraging

  Researchers have found that trichromacy has advantages over dichromacy or anomalous trichromacy at further distances. This is believed to occur because visual cues such as shape decrease for colour vision as distance increases for targets of a smaller size. Using tests for spotting fruit pieces in bushes at distances of 1, 4, 8 and 12 metres, observations have shown that human trichromats tend to have advantages viewing fruits over dichromats and anomalous trichromats from distances at the 12 metre mark. From an evolutionary standpoint for the natural selection of trichromacy, this indicates that spotting fruit from long distances during visual search tasks was more advantageous than picking fruit at short distances, such as within arm's reach.

  https://www.quora.com/If-red-is-a-comparatively-rare-color-in-nature-then-why-has-the-human-eye-evolved-to-have-more-than-60-red-cones-1-5-blue-cones-and-the-rest-green-cones

  Blue – Short-wave cone
  Green - Middle–wave cone
  Red - Long–wave cone
  
  The "Red cone" or Long-wave cone actually is sensitive to colors from purplish-blue through green and yellow to red.
  
  Although birds and fish have trichromatic vision, like us, most mammals don't – just the primates.  One theory is that primates regained trichromatic vision because the ability to see reds helps identify fruits and other foods that were not as important to non-tree bound mammals.

  ___

    Quote

  It can be a valuable aid in determining when fruit is ripe.  It also makes it easier to find orange-red fruit against a background of green forest foliage

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  http://anthro.palomar.edu/primate/color.htm

  __

  https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-new-brain/201104/why-we-prefer-certain-colors

  Brown and olive green were significantly less preferred than orange or yellow.  Bright reds, blues, and green, were the most higly favored colors.  The results of the study produced a sort of "color wheel" ranking of the 32 colors, but it's not the color brown that repels us from drinking brown tomato juice.  Brown colored chocolate milk does not evoke the same psychological revulsion.  The problem with this test is that the colors were not associated with objects.

  here a varierty to choose as fruit color.

  

   

   

[niektb]

At first I had the dark orange for the bushes, pink for the metal mines and limegreen for the animals. Would it be better to revert to that?

[fatherbushido]

I was first disturbed then I understood it as pink for flesh and limegreen for vegetables.

[causative]

In my opinion, just make all food sources (animals, berries, fish) the same bright color.  It's simpler that way and it reduces the chances of having one of the colors similar to something else.  The way the game is now, it's difficult to see animals and fish that are such a dim brown, so that to find animals I don't even look at the minimap.  If they were bright orange like the berries they would be much more visible (except for the collision with the orange player color).

[sanderd17]

The problem with that is that different food resources need different ways to gather them. F.e. skittish animals can only really be gathered by cavalry, fish need fishing boats, for berries it's better to use females, ...

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

  On 29/05/2016 at 3:38 PM, sanderd17 said:

The problem with that is that different food resources need different ways to gather them. F.e. skittish animals can only really be gathered by cavalry, fish need fishing boats, for berries it's better to use females, ...

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Minimap is quick reference, not comprehensive. Bright orange color or brown color can denote food resiurce and player investigate with camera.

 

In AOE 3 there was also some minimap notification when your scout found certain type of resource. 0 A.D. can expand on this idea. (the game lack many kind of notifications overall, perhaps a dedicated thread to this)

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

Also, if you see here, you will see player things are above everything else:
 

Same should be for 0 A.D. minimap. Trees are not so important to be above any player thing (like territory lines).

Edited May 30, 2016 by wowgetoffyourcellphone