Showing defense ratings on units.

[zookeeper]

It seems there is not enough resolutoin on the bars to have them look like well rounded dials.

Based on what?

[Zhukov]

It seems there is not enough resolutoin on the bars to have them look like well rounded dials.

Based on what?

I think he's saying that because your bars have an absolutely chronic case of the jaggies.

Anyway, I think it could work. Getting the bars out off the units would be nice.
I really don't like the idea of forcing some kind of eclipse to show leaders etc. Don't know about other people, but I would delete the image files just to get rid of it.

[JW]

Try using some transparency with the border. I'm guessing it's very possible to make the thing look smooth. In fact, it has to be. I defer to Jet to explain why (and how).

[Eleazar]

Sorry,
i don't think any of these bar ideas are good, though some are worse than others.

[turin]

Sorry,
i don't think any of these bar ideas are good, though some are worse than others.

This response is just hilarious.

BTW, I agree with Eleazar.

[Naeddyr]

You're just saying that because your minds have been warped by the conspiracy.

Besides, neither does the horizontal-in-their-faces stick look good either. We just want to help you!

[zookeeper]

If someone happens to judge the idea as unfeasible because of some damn jags in my mock-up image, then I'd suggest such a person should not be hanging around this forum but be getting some treatment to his or her ailments instead.

[Simons Mith]

@Eleazar Cruel, but accurate. For myself, I'd tolerate a non-vertical bar, as long as it was at least straight. Having seen the various bendy bars, they're a good attempt to get round a UI problem, but, as you say, nothing so far has been good enough to replace what we currently have.

Here's an idea, although one that just moves the problem. Ditch the hit point bar, have a damage bar instead. This means an undamaged unit with no XPs and no damage would need NO indicator bars at all. That would reduce the clutter a bit - after all, most of the time one tries to keep units intact, and heal them when they're hurt. So rather than having a unit with a full HP bar being unhurt, we'd have a unit with a full damage bar being (one point off) dead.

[Edit] From a UI persepective, it means that any full bars mean 'watch this unit'; XP bar nearly full means it's close to levelling, damage bar full means it's close to dying. The downside is, you can't tell if a unit has extra hit points from resilience until it's already badly hurt enough to kill a non-resilient version of the same unit.

[Elvish_Pillager]

The downside is, you can't tell if a unit has extra hit points from resilience until it's already badly hurt enough to kill a non-resilient version of the same unit.

Not so; the bar would appear in its entirety, empty, first, and fill up as the unit was damaged more.

[Simons Mith]

The downside is, you can't tell if a unit has extra hit points from resilience until it's already badly hurt enough to kill a non-resilient version of the same unit.

Not so; the bar would appear in its entirety, empty, first, and fill up as the unit was damaged more.

Only if HP (and XP) bars with contrasting backgrounds are implemented. Even then, a decision could be made not to display damage bars at all unless a unit is damaged - after all, Intelligent units are not (currently) displayed with their shorter XP bars until they have actually gained some XPs. Damage bars would be slightly more consistent than the current arrangement, (and you could argue the toss on that), so overall there's really not much to choose between the two options.

[Eleazar]

@Eleazar Cruel, but accurate.

I'm not trying to be cruel, or to mock anyone's attempt. I was just trying to simply state my opinion.

Here's an idea, although one that just moves the problem. Ditch the hit point bar, have a damage bar instead. This means an undamaged unit with no XPs and no damage would need NO indicator bars at all. That would reduce the clutter a bit - after all, most of the time one tries to keep units intact, and heal them when they're hurt. So rather than having a unit with a full HP bar being unhurt, we'd have a unit with a full damage bar being (one point off) dead.

[Edit] From a UI persepective, it means that any full bars mean 'watch this unit'; XP bar nearly full means it's close to levelling, damage bar full means it's close to dying. The downside is, you can't tell if a unit has extra hit points from resilience until it's already badly hurt enough to kill a non-resilient version of the same unit.

Great idea! Damaged-ness not Healthyness is the most critical thing that our on-unit UI needs to express. With this idea, low HP becomes much more visually arresting— nearly a whole red bar rather than a few red pixels. When a unit is damaged, the whole length of the bar should appear, otherwise it's impossible to gague how damaged a unit is. I really see no significant negative in hiding the bar when a unit is fully healthy, that too is a useful way to communicate full health. Not to mention it allows a less cluttered battlefield.

This should be adopted no matter what other changes do or do not get commited.

[JW]

I like this new idea. If "hurt" bars are implemented I'd like to see how they look with straight bars for a while, and then maybe consider curved bars after a time if it could still improve the look.

But yes, remove them at full hp I think.

ps, great idea.

[Flametrooper]

If we're still on repositioning the HP/XP/damage or whatever bars. they could go above the unit, near the top of the hex, where most units don't have anything. Obstructs units less, if that's you're worry.
I mean, they're okay where they are, I suppose. But I'm just throwing in my repositioning idea: Straight, horizontal bars, above a unit's head.

[Eleazar]

If we're still on repositioning the HP/XP/damage or whatever bars. they could go above the unit, near the top of the hex, where most units don't have anything. Obstructs units less, if that's you're worry.

I'm annoyed enough at hearing bad ideas from other thread being repeated, to do a demonstration of how bad this idea is.

1) the bars have a much shorter maximum length, because of the narrow space at the top of the hex.
2) Once the bars come on, they will always chop off the head of tall units.
3) In a crowded battle-field any bars on the very edge of the hex- will be nearly half-way between 2 units, making it much less obvious which bar belongs to which unit.

[Simons Mith]

If we are going to have disappearing damage bars, I would also suggest swapping over the positions of the XP and HP bars, and placing the orbs above the XP bar. Reason being, the XP bar, once it appears, is more 'persistent' than the damage bar. You can have a fully-healed unit with any number of XP, (so the XP bar would be visible, the damage bar not) but it's harder to contrive a damaged unit without XP as well. After all, an attack even by a level-1 unit does guarantee 1XP, but doesn't necessarily cause any damage. Attacks by level-0s do muck up the system slightly, I admit.