Feature Request - Map Coloring

[gingerbear]

I know that when we look at the map, at a certain zoom level we can distinguish among the different shapes and sizes the enemy buildings have.

Still, it would be helpful if there was a little coloring difference among the three sizes, for example:
- small building: orange-ish red
- medium size buidling: red
- large size building: purple-ish red

So people could see easier what kind of enemies to face in a certain area. I understand that different coloring might take away from the unified "grid" experience of the map, but might be helpful, especially if people are looking for certain targets to kill. (Like for the pumped grid-shard collecting technique.)

[hypevosa]

I think it would help to just have the different shapes be different colors at least - right now the sea of red does make it hard to discern building size for me.

Instead of different colors for sizes you could also just make it so that they have different fills. For example:

Small structures have current outlines.

Medium structures have a very thick outline.

Large structures are entirely filled in with their color.

This would also give the feeling of where to meet heavy resistance while looking at the map since you'd literally see the enemy taking up more space.

[rob]

I had originally meant to give enemies a "color" trait as well. So small red triangles would be different from small yellow triangles, and different facilities would affect them. I'm not sure what will happen in this area.

I like the fill idea.

[hypevosa]

Apr 5, 2013 12:48:39 GMT -5 rob said:

I had originally meant to give enemies a "color" trait as well. So small red triangles would be different from small yellow triangles, and different facilities would affect them. I'm not sure what will happen in this area.

I like the fill idea.

I kind of enjoy the way it is now though, where it's not always one facility associated with whatever symbol - it adds a little mystery and excitement to going through a place someone else already explored, though this only really applies to small circles and squares right now. I imagine there will be more than one kind of each size facility in enough time.

Glad you like the fill idea. ^_^

[gingerbear]

I like the fill idea too.

The only concern is, at a certain zoom level the "thin outline" vs "thick outline" could diminish or become disturbing if it is too obvious, same goes for "thick outline" vs "filled".

What I would add to this is that right now every tower has a glowing X in the middle, surrounded by the shape of appropiate size. Now, what is:
- small towers: No X, only a shape (small/mid size)
- medium towers: X, + thin outline (mid size)
- large towers: X, + fill?

That way you don't have to tweak thickness, and maybe open the possibility to further play with the map annotation... (ie only offensive towers get an X, enemy portals get an O, buildings that have to be destoyed for whatever reason could get an !, and so on...)

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I think the color coding of enemies could be also a fun point. However, making it work would probably require a lot of balancing in building tech-tree (like you mentioned), weaponry (you can't shoot a red triangle with a green gun!), and the subsequent modifications to AI behavior... So yeah, I'm not getting big hopes of seeing it in game any time soon.

[hypevosa]

We can't really do much about zoom I don't think, at the point you can determine both shape and SIZE, fill would work to distinguish them, after the point where fill would become a problem is usually where I can't tell the difference between medium and large targets already.

Maybe for medium instead of a thick outline though we could cut the shape in half and fill half of it? That should be easily distinguished regardless of zoom.

[gingerbear]

Apr 6, 2013 7:48:54 GMT -5 hypevosa said:

Maybe for medium instead of a thick outline though we could cut the shape in half and fill half of it? That should be easily distinguished regardless of zoom.

That could work too. Alternatively, filling it full with 50% opacity?

[hypevosa]

Apr 6, 2013 8:32:27 GMT -5 gingerbear said:

Apr 6, 2013 7:48:54 GMT -5 hypevosa said:

Maybe for medium instead of a thick outline though we could cut the shape in half and fill half of it? That should be easily distinguished regardless of zoom.

That could work too. Alternatively, filling it full with 50% opacity?

Is opacity more graphics intensive? Which would be more distinguishable at higher zoom levels? I'd need to know both those answers to decide if opacity would work well too.