Critique add-on icon for Invisible Enemies

[josteph]

Hi,

I made an SP add-on and I would like to ask opinions about its icon and how I might improve it.

Here is the icon in context of the add-on list and in isolation:

Screenshot_2018-09-22_22-43-03.png (93.67 KiB) Viewed 4119 times

red-ranger.png (12.3 KiB) Viewed 4119 times

IPF:

terrain/mountains/basic-tile.png~BLIT(units/elves-wood/ranger.png~RC(magenta>red)~O(0.6))~BLIT(misc/orb.png~RC(magenta>black))

The add-on makes enemy units invisible in SP, so I wanted the icon to convey "an enemy unit with an active ambush ability". I first tried to use an Orcish Grunt TC'd blue for the "enemy unit" part, but I switched to an Elvish Ranger TC'd red for the "active ambush ability" part. The elf is rendered with opacity 0.6 like it is in-game when its ambush ability is active.

Orcish Grunt TC'd blue:

blue-grunt.png (12.13 KiB) Viewed 4119 times

[ghype]

if only the icon previews could render gif formats, then you could do a gif the transparent effect formt he default ghost line. but wesnoth is not that far yet.

however, you could improve the preview icon by cutting the black orb. I guess it will look better without it.
other then that I cannot imagine how you could possibly show the transparent effect in a single frame.
I think your attempt is quite ok though.

[josteph]

Hi ghype, thanks for the review.

I put the black orb there to signify "enemy unit", because an elf TC'd red is generally a unit controlled by the player. I think without the orb it will look more like the icon for a plugin for making the player's units invisible on mountains, won't it?

What about the blue orcish grunt, minus orb. I think that could work. Maybe I should make the grunt a bit more transparent so it's clear that it's invisible? I think the opacity effect isn't very obvious in the context of the plugin manager, where there aren't non-transparent grunts to compare the transparent one to.

[ghype]

to be fair, it is hard to let the icon speak it self for the add-on. usually thats why we have descriptions of the respective add-on.
the orb thing is afterall a choice of preference, but I cannot think of any other of improving the Icon for this add-on.

[josteph]

Thank you! I'll change this in the next upload.

[Deciton_Reven]

There are classically enemy units that would work fine if you're worried about needing one with an ambush ability. A blue Shadow for example, due to it's nightstalk ability would probably be familiar to players.

[josteph]

A shadow is an option, but I think having a unit that's not normally ambushing drawn with low opacity would better communicate what the add-on does.

Shadow:

shadow-green-grass.png (12.49 KiB) Viewed 3924 times

What about using CROP to show half an Orcish Warrior? Feels like a case of all I've got is a hammer, but I don't know, really.

cropped Orcish Warrior:

orcish-warrior-half.png (12.22 KiB) Viewed 3924 times

Or how about showing the little icon that the player sees when planning a move of a player unit to a location where it would be invisible? I added the red indicator that shows when the player plans a move of a player unit to a hex adjacent to an enemy unit.

hidden+zoc icons, no unit:

hidden-zoc-no-unit.png (11.91 KiB) Viewed 3924 times

IPFs:

terrain/grass/green.png~BLIT(units/undead/shadow-s-2.png~RC(magenta>blue)~O(0.6))

terrain/hills/regular.png~BLIT(units/orcs/warrior.png~RC(magenta>blue)~O(0.6)~CROP(0,0,36,72))

terrain/hills/regular.png~BLIT(misc/hidden.png)~BLIT(misc/zoc.png)