Clear drawing of armies and colours

[JDLH]

I find the display of armies on the map hard to read in some cases. There are two main problems:

1. Hard to see the colour. The digits of the number of armies on a country are drawn in the colour of the occupying player, and this is the only clue to the occupier's identity. The number "1" is narrow and doesn't give many pixels to display the colour. Some colours are very similar. For instance, I have a hard time distinguishing dark blue and green. The worst case is a blue "1" on one country, and a green "1" on the next country. It can cause me to think a continent is fully occupied when it's not, or not when it actually is.

2. Hard to visualise the number of armies. It would be nice if one could look at the map and see at a glance where there are clusters of armies, and where the occupation is thin. Sure the number tells this, but graphic shapes communicate at a glance even better.

I suggest coming up with a set of graphic shapes that convey 1 army, 5 armies, and perhaps some others, and a scheme for drawing multiples of these shapes to indicate say 1-20 armies. Beyond 20 it would be OK to draw the graphic shape for 20 -- that means "many". And beyond 5, draw the number of armies on top. The shapes should be drawn in the player's colour with black shadows. They should offer plenty of space to show the colour. And perhaps they could be customisable via images supplied by the mapmaker or something.

This could still use the present scheme of having the map designate a point in each country where the armies are drawn. Just group the army shapes around this point.

For example, let -o- stand for the shape for one army, and ~()~ stand for the shape of five armies.

Code: Select all

1 army:    -o-         
2 armies:  -o-  -o-   
3 armies:  -o-  -o-
              -o-

4 armies:  -o-  -o-
           -o-  -o-

5 armies:  ~()~
6 armies:  ~()~  -o-   
7 armies:  ~()~  -o-
              -o-

8 armies:  ~()~  -o-
                 -o-  -o-
9 armies:  ~()~  -o-  -o-
                 -o-  -o-

10 armies: ~()~
           ~()~


etc. It's hard to convey graphics in text format, but perhaps you see what I mean.

Comments?

[moz976]

IMO that would really clutter up the map and on some map there is really no space to waste. I like seeing exactly how many armies are on a specific country. If the color's are the problem you might try Troys script. But that wouldn't help the speed of your scanning to look for weak spots.

[zip_disk]

Adding symbols does nothing to change identification of ownership of the armies but does make it more difficult to figure out what the hell they mean. Plus you think arbitrary symbols make it easier to identify troop clusters rather than printed large numbers of armies?

[Hoff]

I agree that the numbers should be made more easily identifable and same with the colors. Maybe simply changing the text of the numbers of making them bold will solve this problem. But having symbols instead of numbers is a terrible idea, sorry.

[JDLH]

I see some people aren't as jazzed by the idea of visually representing number of armies as I am.

It is possible to improve the visibility of the player colour while sticking to compact display and using numbers to represent size of army. The trick is to draw a background shape, e.g. a circle or oval, in the player's colour, and draw the number of armies in black or white on top of it. This gives a nice big area for the colour.

I think drawing the numbers thicker, bolder, but still limiting the colour to the digit bodies will fall short of the goal. A "1" is a pretty slender shape, no matter how you embolden it.

[sully800]

As Moz alluded too- look for tr0y's greasemonkey script if you haven't already. http://www.conquerclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6672

That link is for the color blind version which prints a letter on the map to help identify the army colors. I think thats a more elegant solution than anything you suggested (especially because there would be no room for many symbols on most maps) because most people can read the numbers just fine. I know I have no trouble distinguishing the different colors, so perhaps the color blind script is all you need.

[JDLH]

As Moz alluded too- look for tr0y's greasemonkey script if you haven't already. http://www.conquerclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6672

... I think thats a more elegant solution than anything you suggested (especially because there would be no room for many symbols on most maps) because most people can read the numbers just fine. I know I have no trouble distinguishing the different colors, so perhaps the color blind script is all you need.

I'm using the colourblind version of Tr0y's greasemonkey script, and I even tweaked it a little bit. It does not meet my desire to have the colours drawn larger and easier to see. It draws letters by the numbers, and the letters take more time and effort to recognise than a block of colour would.

My requests stand.

You say that "most people can read the numbers just fine". Tell me more about that statement. Has someone conducted a poll or something?

In any case, the real issue is, would drawing the colour on a background shape be better than drawing it on the digits? And would be sufficiently better to justify the effort? Any evidence or comments on that issue?

[AndyDufresne]

As sully stated earlier, it wouldn't work in some maps due to the given space allotted for the numbers is sometimes small.

As for the 'poll', no official poll has been conducted other than before Troy's script came out, there were a number of people who had trouble with the colors. Once he made his script available to the public, this issue hasn't been brought up until now.

We are considering tweaking the colors perhaps, we'll see what happens.


--Andy

[sully800]

To be fair, JDLH has a somewhat decent suggestion in that you could make a background circle the size of a typical army shadow and have that be the players color with a white or black font.

However some maps don't include any army shadows, and in some, a solid background color for the circle could completely cover up the territory, text or connection which would pose a problem (especially on the most crowded maps).

As for my comment that most people can read the numbers- that wasn't based on a poll or anything. I've just been here for a few months (after the color blind script was made) and I can't recall any threads about people having difficulty seeing the army colors (at least not distinguising green from blue- I know some maps are too dark to read the dark colors easily). Anyway, when there is a large problem or concern around here we general see many similar threads popping up. Since there has been little to no attention brought to this issue I gather that most people are not experiencing problems.

I understand that having to read a letter every time instead of being able to view the color may be a hassle. However, game play is still very possible for you with the color blind script, it may just take a split second longer to identify a given country's color.