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shiny - alternative main menu & UI theme


maroder
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Single-player vs Multiplayer, me thinks either both should use a hyphen or neither, tho I admit I'm not that great in English.

 

Also I agree with Freagarach that the center bar is not ideal. For your background it works somewhat but most existing ones will have important elements cut out. They are fine pieces of art and deserve better ;)

Maybe an approach like the bottom bar could work with a corresponding font or maybe just move those 3 buttons to roughly where they were in the original design. Guess they won't be any less prominent there than if they are dead center.

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1 hour ago, hyperion said:

Single-player vs Multiplayer, me thinks either both should use a hyphen or neither, tho I admit I'm not that great in English.

As @Freagarach hinted, that's less a concern of my mod and more of the main game :D  I only use what is already there.

1 hour ago, hyperion said:

Also I agree with Freagarach that the center bar is not ideal. For your background it works somewhat but most existing ones will have important elements cut out. They are fine pieces of art and deserve better ;)

Maybe an approach like the bottom bar could work with a corresponding font or maybe just move those 3 buttons to roughly where they were in the original design. Guess they won't be any less prominent there than if they are dead center.

And yes, I think I will bring back some transparency to the main/ center menu, but I don't like the idea of moving the buttons to the side again.

For one, the are the most important buttons and positioning them roughly dead center means they are the first thing you notice when looking at the screen, which highlights their importance (contrary to the buttons positioned at the edges of the screen).

Also, moving them to one side would destroy the symmetry I personally find aesthetically pleasing.

But yes, the reason that I made a new background is 1) that I wanted to look at something different and 2) that the old backgrounds didn't work that well with the new menu design :p Maybe I can move some stuff around in the old backgrounds to make it look better tho.

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22 minutes ago, Stan` said:

Missing the dots in 0 A.D. But it's looking really nice. I miss not seeing EMPIRES ASCENDANT somewhere though.

yeah I put the dots there in a draft, but they just seem a little "off". I have to find a position and size that doesn't make them seem too small or the logo to imbalanced.

And for the Empires Ascendant -> same, still searching for a nice place to put it :D

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5 hours ago, Stan` said:

Missing the dots in 0 A.D. But it's looking really nice. I miss not seeing EMPIRES ASCENDANT somewhere though.

 

4 hours ago, maroder said:

yeah I put the dots there in a draft, but they just seem a little "off". I have to find a position and size that doesn't make them seem too small or the logo to imbalanced.

And for the Empires Ascendant -> same, still searching for a nice place to put it :D

0ViSdq7.jpg

Bold, clean, regal^

Also, a great place for mods to put their names.

Edited by wowgetoffyourcellphone
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35 minutes ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

It can easily be translated to "Rise of Empires" or "Empires Rising" if necessary.

He meant russian or asian chars. :) In an old game of mine they'd have all the art assets ready and it'd change depending on the locale.

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I think I preferred the earlier  "pyramid" look to the box, which IMO looks too busy now.The double-border is also inconsistent with the single-bordering of the rest and I think it makes it look a little awkward.

12 hours ago, maroder said:

I have to find a position and size that doesn't make them seem too small or the logo to imbalanced.

Perhaps you could pick a trick from the Roman playbook and have "middle dots". That being said, IMO the bigger "0" and the smaller letters with dots looked better overall. Yes it's more symmetrical here, but I think it looks worse. Perhaps you can find a balance between both approaches.

Other suggestions:

  • I think the text in the top row is a tad dark.
  • You could perhaps push the middle-button-row a little higher (have it split the screen ⅓ - ⅔), this would leave more room for the background, and possibly any information we might want to show there.

IMO this looks great overall and we should consider replacing the main menu.

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34 minutes ago, wraitii said:

I think I preferred the earlier  "pyramid" look to the box, which IMO looks too busy now.The double-border is also inconsistent with the single-bordering of the rest and I think it makes it look a little awkward.

It's a good feedback, but I'm afraid we're going to make moroder crazy with the constant ping-pong between different ideas! :D

Anyway I was the one that proposed a change from that initial shape. I'm considering your observation, but even looking back, I would still think the latter is a better iteration from the initial one - just a personal opinion - .

Those initial angles looked a bit out of place with the rest, and recalled a "modern" look or an iPhone notch, but in general a different kind of "language" from the rest.

I think the feeling of "busy" is given by the size and proportions of the whole thing. I tried a quick mockup in Photoshop reducing the size and prominence of the box and the logo inside it. I think it may be sufficient for the purpose. It's already central with the rest and in a prominent position, so there's no need to distinguish it excessively with an XL size.

 

Anyway, I don't want to chime in further. Moroder has done already an amazing job in itself and also in conciliating all different feedbacks and opinion. I'm fine with either direction. I suggest that maybe the best thing would be for each one to pick the design code and try different solutions, in case. Otherwise I feel like this is going to clash with all different tastes/opinions etc.. 

 

 

homescreen.png

Edited by Radiotraining
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Thanks everybody for your opinions!

Yes, the main points I'm still not satisfied with are the logo / logo background. This is now about the 30th draft I've made and there are always some minor issues (and different opinions from people :D)

should the logo be horizontally centered in / towards the middle of the top menu as seen in @Radiotraining's draft or should it be centered at the bottom line of the top menu ( current version)? How minimal / complicated should the logo background be? How big/ symmetrical / metal looking should the logo be?

Anyways, I really appreciate when someone has the time to make a draft to show me how they would imagine/ like it, so thanks @Radiotraining @wowgetoffyourcellphone

 

1 hour ago, wraitii said:

Other suggestions:

  • I think the text in the top row is a tad dark.
  • You could perhaps push the middle-button-row a little higher (have it split the screen ⅓ - ⅔), this would leave more room for the background, and possibly any information we might want to show there.

will considers that

1 hour ago, wraitii said:

we should consider replacing the main menu.

:D sure, if enough people like this I can make a patch. Otherwise I planned to put it on modio for a26

Edited by maroder
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alright, before I update the mod this time, I just want to show how it would look like.

This includes the adjustments for the following remarks: logo & background box smaller | added dots in the logo | logo background more minimal | brightness of the top menu text slightly increased | position of the center menu shifted towards the top

What is still missing is the 'Empires Ascendant'.

 

screenshot0053.thumb.png.25e1b4fd2477708417c4354bc440829d.png

 

I mostly like how it looks; just the logo background is _very_ minimal now. Maybe I will shift it more towards something like @Radiotraining's draft in the future

Edited by maroder
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10 hours ago, Stan` said:

The width of the logo border seems smaller than the other border.  You might also make the top square extend to the top instead of a closed box.

True, the width should be uniform.

screenshot0058.thumb.png.72c1393bcc07913b10088fb4a19fbdde.png

Extending the edge of the logo towards the top of the screen means also lowering the bottom part of the box to keep it symetrical. So the box looks a bit bigger this way. The other option would be to not center the logo at the bottom off the top menu:

screenshot0060.thumb.png.63e3c3ffead0af2c6f5e3601a4c43b7f.png

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  • maroder changed the title to shiny - alternative main menu & UI theme

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