Faction Based GUI

Post by **turin** » August 18th, 2006, 1:20 am

I think you need to do more than just add an overlay. The base color of the sidebar needs to change for each faction... dwarves would have a stony grey, drakes could have a fiery red, elves a foresty green, loyalists a steely grey, etc etc... I might make a few mockups myself.

Post by **Pic** » August 18th, 2006, 1:32 am

So all in all, a more major overhaul! I see.

[Edit] Thanks for the magic cards

[/edit]

Dragon Master · Post by **Dragon Master** » August 18th, 2006, 2:09 am

It would also be neat to add a little decaration too (thanks Turin for providing examples BTW). Maybe give elves a little vine curling around the side?

Post by **Dave** » August 18th, 2006, 2:33 am

I think rather than make things too elaborate, it'd be nice to concentrate on very different, but simple themes. Like choosing an appropriate texture for each faction.

I think the current dark stone look is suitable for the Knalgans.
The Loyalists could use a lighter-color stone, the classical shade that a castle is built in -- the same as the in-game castle.
The Rebels could have wood.
Drakes could have a green scaly looking texture -- like what the skin of a Drake would look like.
I'm not sure about the Undead and Northerners...but something along the same lines...

David

Flametrooper · Post by **Flametrooper** » August 18th, 2006, 3:11 am

How about something like this? (Elaborated on Pic's mockup)

Post by **Jetrel** » August 18th, 2006, 7:33 am

Dave wrote:I think rather than make things too elaborate, it'd be nice to concentrate on very different, but simple themes. Like choosing an appropriate texture for each faction.

Textures are good, but textures alone don't cut it. Flametrooper has demonstrated this quite well.

Also, you must be extremely careful when picking a texture. Our textures should really be very fine-grained.

Also, the direction that pic was moving in with his first mockup was best. The colors he was using were a bit too wild, but the basic direction of having the scrollwork was great.

Some perfect inspiration could be had from the packaging/menus/et al. that came with those recent LotR movies. Muted, well-articulated, but not the over-the-top stuff that Warcraft has - which, frankly I think we should avoid.

Post by **Darth Fool** » August 18th, 2006, 12:07 pm

Just a word of warning about how the background mechaincs will effect the artwork. Remeber that the images are scaled to fit the available space, so an image that is made from a tile that looks good in 800x600 might get stretched in odd ways so that it does not look good in 1200x1024. Since the side bar is a fixed width, the height of the sidebar will change by >60%, so you need the background to be visibly pleasing when stretched vertically. Other elements that must preserve scale could conceivably be placed in a way that will not be stretched, but it will need to blend well into the stretched background.

Post by **zookeeper** » August 18th, 2006, 1:06 pm

For cool themes, we'd need support for panels and stuff being able to float on top of other elements (with more or less absolute positioning and dimensions). Such as small ornaments running along the right panel edges or positioning UI elements in the corners of the main map, for example putting the turn clock (when it's used) or the terrain movement/defense values in a corner of the main view so they don't take up space in the main top panel (and so that they can be given the space they need, unlike how terrain movement/defense values currently are displayed).

I remembered making an FR about this ages ago, but apparently I hadn't.

Dragon Master · Post by **Dragon Master** » August 18th, 2006, 1:19 pm

Brainstorming:
Dwarves would have dark stone (we all so far agree on this), as an ornament, maybe give them little hanging metalwork ornaments?
Drakes would have fiery red (again, we all agree), maybe make their side bar have flames?
Undead could have a black backround, maybe with bubbles or screaming spectre faces (very faint mind you). Ornaments could include severed body parts or skulls
Elves will ahve green (all agree), I still say a vine wrapping around would look nice.
Loyalists could have a lighter stone with brickwork too. Maybe give them banners as ornaments.
orcs can have a ratty looking brown (like cloth) or maybe a dark wood color with blood paint on it. Ornamnets coul be any sort of trophy a warrior would have pr even small dangling weapons.

Post by **Jetrel** » August 18th, 2006, 2:50 pm

Dragon Master wrote:Brainstorming:
Dwarves would have dark stone (we all so far agree on this), as an ornament, maybe give them little hanging metalwork ornaments?
Drakes would have fiery red (again, we all agree), maybe make their side bar have flames?
Undead could have a black backround, maybe with bubbles or screaming spectre faces (very faint mind you). Ornaments could include severed body parts or skulls
Elves will ahve green (all agree), I still say a vine wrapping around would look nice.
Loyalists could have a lighter stone with brickwork too. Maybe give them banners as ornaments.
orcs can have a ratty looking brown (like cloth) or maybe a dark wood color with blood paint on it. Ornamnets coul be any sort of trophy a warrior would have pr even small dangling weapons.

Uh, no, we don't all agree. Here's an art/design lesson:

Don't set decisions like this in stone. These are "ideas", not "decided courses of action.

When I go into doing a drawing, I generally don't decide something is going to happen X way, come hell or high water. Rather, I decide to try and see if something would work X way, and if it doesn't, I adapt.

Dragon Master · Post by **Dragon Master** » August 18th, 2006, 3:17 pm

It's just brainstorming ideas, and I was picking up on some that many people were suggesting, if you don't agree it's fine.

Post by **Pic** » August 18th, 2006, 10:52 pm

Also, the direction that pic was moving in with his first mockup was best. The colors he was using were a bit too wild, but the basic direction of having the scrollwork was great.

Too wild? Can you elaborate on that so I can try something else?

[edit] I like mockup3 best [/edit]

Post by **Kestenvarn** » August 18th, 2006, 11:19 pm

Don't like the fact that you made the border thick enough to remove the margin and touch the letters.
The grey-green used for the background is incredibly ugly.
Those designs at the bottom look cheap and draw too much attention.

There is a good way to go about this - that is NOT it. Thin, stylized borders and a subtle background should be about as far as this goes.

Dragon Master · Post by **Dragon Master** » August 18th, 2006, 11:57 pm

What's with the celtic style designs pic? I nice leafy color for elves would be nice, a BRIGHT leafy color.

Post by **turin** » August 19th, 2006, 12:19 am

Pic wrote:
Also, the direction that pic was moving in with his first mockup was best. The colors he was using were a bit too wild, but the basic direction of having the scrollwork was great.
Too wild? Can you elaborate on that so I can try something else?

The bright, light blue is kind of off-putting...

About the mockups - I think Kestevarn is right about the margins, and the background color seems too dark to me - we have to be able to read the white text on it fairly easily. You can have saturation without having the colors be overly bright.

I don't think your mockups are fitting for the Wood Elves, either; but they do, IMHO, go very well with teh Sidhe Elves.

I like the celtic flavor...