Turn Summary

[Brit]

I've been wanted to add this for a while - it's a turn-summary system. Right now, when you're deep in a game, you get a lot of sighting and combat notifications. I wanted to add a more convenient interface to the game to let players see the information overlayed on the map. Press the "turn summary" button and the information appears on the map for about 10 seconds (or you can press the button again to make it disappear).

I also considered doing things like automatically zooming out so that players could see all the events overlayed on the map. (Which I may also add at some time.)

The green diamond is sightings of neutral cities or resources.

The yellow diamond is sightings of other player's units, cities, resources, etc.

The red circle is combat.

This will let players see where action going on, and also help players avoid missing-out on some sightings or combat.

Feel free to add any comments or feedback.

If you zoom-out the map, this is what it looks like:

[hoolaman]

Can I suggest using a different colour scheme, the current one is very colourblind unfriendly.

The light green and light yellow diamonds look identical, consider a dark green/light yellow or a even sky-blue/light yellow or something.

http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/vischeckURL.php

[kaburke61]

Hi Brit,

I think that would be a great idea. I also would vote for the auto-zoom feature, otherwise I assume as currently envisioned, you would have to zoom out to see them all manually, or move around the map at current zoom level and re-hit the button to make sure you have seen them all? (Or I guess it could just auto-step around at the current zoom level to show them all - probably more of a coding issue.) As long as the auto-zoomout remembers where you were as far as zoom level and place on the map is remembered and restored after viewing, that would probably be the best implementation.

[Brit]

Can I suggest using a different colour scheme, the current one is very colourblind unfriendly.

The light green and light yellow diamonds look identical, consider a dark green/light yellow or a even sky-blue/light yellow or something.

http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/vischeckURL.php

I hadn't thought of that. I originally had a darker green, but it looked too close to the terrain color. The difference between the yellow diamonds and green diamonds isn't that big anyway - both indicate sightings, just different kinds of sightings.

I tried the link, but I think I'll have to setup a special webpage to view the image - it won't let me view the battlefront forums.

[Brit]

Hi Brit,

I think that would be a great idea. I also would vote for the auto-zoom feature, otherwise I assume as currently envisioned, you would have to zoom out to see them all manually, or move around the map at current zoom level and re-hit the button to make sure you have seen them all? (Or I guess it could just auto-step around at the current zoom level to show them all - probably more of a coding issue.) As long as the auto-zoomout remembers where you were as far as zoom level and place on the map is remembered and restored after viewing, that would probably be the best implementation.

Right now, you can hit the "turn summary" button and then click the middle-mouse button to zoom out. Although, not everyone knows this, and not everyone has a middle mouse button. I suppose one system might be to zoom out if and only if not all the events are visible in the current zoom. I had one idea to zoom out and center at exactly the level that would show all game-events, although that gets a little more complicated to code. Anyway, when players zoom out, they can click the left mouse button or the middle mouse button to zoom into whichever location the mouse is hovering over - which is probably better than zooming back to the old location.

[Brit]

Can I suggest using a different colour scheme, the current one is very colourblind unfriendly.

The light green and light yellow diamonds look identical, consider a dark green/light yellow or a even sky-blue/light yellow or something.

http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/vischeckURL.php

I was able to get the vischeck site to work. I was pretty surprised how the image looks under Deuteranope color-blindness. Under the colorblindness simulation, I have a hard time telling the difference between all three indicator colors (red, yellow, and green). Actually, my brother is colorblind, but I hadn't seen a demonstration like this before.

[hoolaman]

I can't say really whether the site gives a perfect representation and it might be rather extreme.

I'm I guess mildly red-green colourblind, I can see the difference between that green and yellow if I concentrate, but often very light greens look like bright yellow to me.

I don't have a problem with a bright red, I can see that clearly, but I know people who can't see the difference between red and green traffic lights.

In general, Blue and Purple, Dark Red and Green and Light Yellow and Green where the brightness and saturation is similar will be hard to tell apart for most colourblind people.

Consider visual cues other than colour to be on the safe side eg. circle, diamond and square as well as red yellow and green.

[Brit]

I can't say really whether the site gives a perfect representation and it might be rather extreme.

I'm I guess mildly red-green colourblind, I can see the difference between that green and yellow if I concentrate, but often very light greens look like bright yellow to me.

I don't have a problem with a bright red, I can see that clearly, but I know people who can't see the difference between red and green traffic lights.

In general, Blue and Purple, Dark Red and Green and Light Yellow and Green where the brightness and saturation is similar will be hard to tell apart for most colourblind people.

Consider visual cues other than colour to be on the safe side eg. circle, diamond and square as well as red yellow and green.

This is what the image looks like under VisCheck:

There does seem to be a difference in brightness between the red, green, and yellow. I guess what's happening is that they combine the red and green primary colors into a single color: yellow. This explains why red, yellow, and green all look similar. (Yellow is a combination of red and green.) I suppose adding varying amounts of blue to the colors might differentiate them a little bit.

[rich12545]

You might make them all red but different shapes. Circle, square, hexagon. That might work.