My suggestions:
Hope this isn't too harsh but for me this change is totally not working.
I'm sorry to say that i don't like this change either, i really struggle to see it as an improvement because i don't find it more aesthetically appealing than before nor more easily readable. I'm not in any way against a change in graphics but for now until these get improved i would very much like to keep playing on the older version. Also i don't know if this happened to anybody else but on my mobile buildings just don't show up and it's impossible to play.
The graphic change is very low quality in my opinion. The original version was much cleaner. These graphics would push me away from the platform personally.
The original graphics were terrible, it was like looking at a spreadsheet. I had to mouse over everything for about an hour to know what I was actually looking at before I was confident I could start playing the first time.
There is no way something who hasn't played Gaia before could learn how to play using the original graphics, now I wouldn't be afraid to introduce someone to the game on this platform.
Yes they could be improved to be clearer. But in no way should the old version be the default.
Thank you so much for your feedback!
We've learned a lot in just a couple of hours ;)
@zuli thanks, that's a great solution. I would be happy to test and give feedback on any new concepts. Please considering putting usability first in graphics improvements and any changes in the ui for that matter. The recent new gear icon sliding options menu is a good example of a great improvement imo.
The old graphics are only applied to some things, but where they do they are clean, readable, and work nice on mobile. There is nothing wrong with them.
I would suggest to keep that and apply the same style to the text only tech tiles, boosters, etc.
For example, the old way of the eco tech tree is so much better than the new.
@cneessen you are seeing that the old one
is better than the one?
@zuli ye definitely, the contrast is lost between player markers and the icons on the tech steps making it nigh impossible to see who is where on the tracks. Could work if you'd make the new icons less sharp so the player markers stand out proper.
I do however see a huge improvement of trying to get rid of the text only icons for the tech tiles. I had a real hard time getting used to them when I started playing, and I played many gaia games before joining the app. I can imagine that new players will simply run away at first sight.
One complaint i often heard from newer players is the absence of building costs displayed on the player board, maybe that’s something you could think about adding in the graphic update, also i would like to add that giving the option of switching between the more abstract layout and the more realistic one is something i’ve never seen on any online boardgame implementation and it’s really great !
I agree with riverhorse that the new colours are really harsh.
I like the way the new buildings look on the map and on the faction tiles, but the turn boosters, power/ciq actions and tech tiles do actually make one's eyes sore.
(though I agree on the fact that having graphic rather than textual cues on the boosters and techs is an improvement... it only needs some restyling imho).
What do you think about these changes?
-> Stronger building shadow on the map
-> Muted resource on tracks, shadow on the player tokens on the tracks, bigger player tokens, smaller tech tiles, more space between tech tiles and the research tracks, grey background on tech tiles, actions below research / scoring board
-> Stronger buildings shadow on the player board
-> Muted resources on the player board
-> Different booster color
I really like the darker shadows on the board!
I would adjust the width of the tech tiles so they match the tech track. They appear to be floating and don’t associate with the board.
Might have to reduce the size of the imagery on them to fit, but I think it would be a huge improvement to have everything line up.
Also, could we code it so that the tech tiles back ground color match the same color as the tech track? I know that isn’t in the board game, but would be an easy visual association we could do on this platform.
Sorry, my english is bad, I'm from Hannover, Germany. :-) The graphics are great! A huge compliment! Of course, graphics and symbols can be read international. That's a big advantage. I hope, US-Americans know the meaning of "international" ... ;-)
Great site! Joe (Flavour-Text: I'm a (not very significant) member of the team, that developed Terra Mystica and all around it since 2011. And I'm happy to see all you boardgame-freaks playing it on and on.)
Thumbs-up! I think, important values, for example the vp on round-boosters or federation-tiles, could be bigger (against the margin or cut the edges), because they are really interesting. :-)
@coyotte508 Attached is a mockup I created quickly in powerpoint (horrible spacing/alignment/etc.). I created it mostly just to get it out of my system as I was curious what it would look like.
What I did:
Not quite sure how I feel about it myself, but perhaps it's of use for you so I'm sharing it here regardless. Hope it helps and keep up the awesome work, it's much appreciated!
Running stream of thoughts:
-Arrows and plus signs should be smoother icons. check some options here that fit thematically: https://www.freepik.com/search?dates=any&format=search&page=1&query=arrow&selection=1&sort=popular&type=icon
-On Mobile "PASS" on booster tiles and advanced tiles gets compressed.
-RD scoring: Would shade them from light to dark R1> R6, helps visualize progression
-The Gaiaformer icon should match the gaiaformer icon on players boards and on the map
https://www.freepik.com/free-icon/hexagon_916872.htm#page=1&query=hexagon&position=3
This Icon would work nicely on players boards as there are 3 'Gaiaformers'
0 Gaia formers all 3 icons are hollow
1 Gaia former and 1/3 icons up in player color on board
3 Gaia formers and 3/3 icons indicated in player color on board
If gaia former is off player board and on map corresponding Icon could be in grey scale.
-the VP Gear icon has too many edges for small screens, esp on the boosters - would opt for a simpler icon? Is it a vector image? Could explain compression. A star has less points and would fit thematically, plus other games use stars as a VP icon https://www.freepik.com/free-icon/star-with-five-rounded-points_692623.htm#page=1&query=points&position=4
-Personal Pref: Would keep the clipped top right corner on tech tiles and advanced tech tiles. The Power Actions and QIC actions should be purple or green respectively
I hope this is helpful, I really love this game and am so stoked there is this version I can play it on. You guys are doing an amazing job and I appreciate your openness thus far with the community.
@cneessen Interesting effort but it seems that in your attempt to make things consistent, you have made them confusing. Too many undifferentiable geometric shapes. To me it looks more confusing than just text. The colour system also doesnt feel consistent with the rest of the game. The original bright colours might seem too garish but throwing them away in favour of non related colours seems to go in the wrong direction.
@theriverhorse Not sure about your other suggestions but the idea of using a gear was to reference the irl game points (which is based on a gear). That said, a star for vp might work too. I will think about it and see if I can work up an example.
@Robert-Shepherd Yeah I don't think that using the planet/building icons like that works well in combination with the current resource icons. Too many squares and circles, circles in circles, and squares inside of circles. Even if you write it out it's confusing :)
Sidenote: It's a mockup made in powerpoint so you'd have to imagine the colors being the same as used on the current tech tree.
That said, I do like the simpler icons without perspective and gradients overall much better considering the overload of information that the board tries to convey to the user. I'm not saying I like my icon proposals better, cause I don't think they are any good. But that the style of the current icons matches the platform (mobile) the game is played on better, in my opinion.
What's interesting, to me, if you compare the current (text based) with the new updated visual style proposal is that my attention is directed to different things.
Good luck with the next steps!
Hey, We have a first draft of the revised UI ready for test.
You can see it and play with it in the dev site .
To enable the new UI you need to select the Use alternate UI option in the panel
This alternate UI is also using the 3D buildings, and you can switch to the flat buildings
checking the Use flat buildings option in the panel.
Let us know your feedback!
@zuli i used to play at Firefox mobile. Some imagens doesnt load there. Love It.
@lucardoso288 It should largely be fixed now (except for one of the QIC action, but it's going to be fixed too).