Discussion on AI attitude colors

[OneBinary]

Hi All,

Does anybody else get confused by the current AI Attitude Icon colors? I know I do, so I'd like to open a discussion and get feedback on what everybody else thinks.

Current Scheme:


I often forget what silver and blue correlate with, and at the resolution I run Civ at, it can be difficult to see the smiley expression (especially the blue one). I was thinking about making a color scheme that would be instantly recognizable based on the color, something like:

Friendly: Bright Bold Green - Big Smiley
Pleased: Duller Green, but not dark green - Normal Smiley
Cautious: Yellow - Straight Mouthed Smiley
Annoyed: Orange - Frown Smiley
Furious: Red - Angry Smiley

The idea being the instantly recognizable green == good, red == bad (as it used throughout the interface). The only one I'm not sure about is Pleased. I like yellow for Cautious because in general yellow means just that, caution.

I dunno, just an idea, what do you guys think?

 

[Cammagno]

Hi All,

Does anybody else get confused by the current AI Attitude Icon colors? I know I do, so I'd like to open a discussion and get feedback on what everybody else thinks.

Current Scheme:
View attachment 162808

I often forget what silver and blue correlate with, and at the resolution I run Civ at, it can be difficult to see the smiley expression (especially the blue one). I was thinking about making a color scheme that would be instantly recognizable based on the color, something like:

Friendly: Bright Bold Green - Big Smiley
Pleased: Duller Green, but not dark green - Normal Smiley
Cautious: Yellow - Straight Mouthed Smiley
Annoyed: Orange - Frown Smiley
Furious: Red - Angry Smiley

The idea being the instantly recognizable green == good, red == bad (as it used throughout the interface). The only one I'm not sure about is Pleased. I like yellow for Cautious because in general yellow means just that, caution.

I dunno, just an idea, what do you guys think?

I fear that each smiley comes with its own color...

 

[OneBinary]

I fear that each smiley comes with its own color...

I'm not sure I follow. The smilies (and other icons) are defined in GameFont_75.tga.

 

[ruff_hi]

just as long as we can line the smilies up with text colour so GLANCE looks good.

 

[EmperorFool]

I'm in favor of the proposal as long as we cover Ruff's stipulation about aligning them with text colors.

In the BUG extensions I've been creating, I've used these colors:

• Green: good for you
• Yellow: bad for you
• Cyan: so-so for you, default

The only reason I chose cyan is that it stood out better in the scoreboard as text. I'm fine with choosing a different color.

Similarly, normal red text is difficult to read on the dark backgrounds of the map and screens. That's why I went with yellow.

So I would suggest altering OneBinary's suggested colors thusly:

• Friendly: green
• Pleased: cyan
• Cautious: gray (current smiley)
• Annoyed -> yellow
• Furious: red

I don't like two shades of a single color for Pleased and Friendly.

The reason I like Cautious (neutral) as gray is that it's the absence of color (of course that's wrong, but most people feel that way about white and gray). Anything that deviates from that (good or bad) should have color.

I never liked yellow for Friendly as it should be green, but it did make some sense because the typically "happy" smiley face is a yellow face. I'm cool with ditching that, though.

My only concern is that a lot of people are used to the current color scheme. I won't have trouble switching, but I'm used to learning UIs all the time. Sure, we could include the old icons as well, but that's subpar. There is a point where you have too many options, and I think I crossed it by having the text colors for so many screens.

And then we need someone to create the icons. It can be done in any paint program, but you'll need to put it into the TGA file. I can do that last part if only the colors are changed, but I'd prefer someone else do the whole thing (it'll happen faster, that's for sure).

Also, if anyone's going to do it, please tell me first so I can send you an updated TGA with grayed-out versions of the icons for the scoreboard. That way if we ever want them they will already be in the file.

 

[Roland Johansen]

I prefer the suggestion from OneBinary because it has the usual colour transitions: add blue to yellow and you go towards green, add red to yellow and you get orange.
Green-orange-red is also normally used for traffic lights. Yellow seems a good transition colour between orange and green.
So it somehow feels a natural colour selection.
I must admit that grey also seems a natural selection for a neutral setting.
Green-Yellow-Grey-Orange-Red would also work for me.
Cyan is a weird one in the line-up in my opinion. It just doesn't naturally fit in between the other colours.

But if there are problems with implementing something like that, then I understand. It would for instance be weird if different screens in the game use different colours for the same attitude or if the smilies in the glance screen can't get the same colours as the numbers.
I can adjust pretty easily to a different colour scheme.

 

[EmperorFool]

I agree that cyan doesn't really fit, but yellow in the U.S. has always indicated warning or danger. In a traffic signal, yellow (it's not orange) means "exit the intersection if you're in it, and don't enter it if you can stop safely."

While the attitude is called "Cautious" I definitely think of it more as "Neutral", and gray fits with that. Then again, an AI will attack you even if they're Pleased, so maybe yellow makes sense for Cautious.

I do like orange, but I think it might be very close to yellow in the text.

 

[Roland Johansen]

I agree that cyan doesn't really fit, but yellow in the U.S. has always indicated warning or danger. In a traffic signal, yellow (it's not orange) means "exit the intersection if you're in it, and don't enter it if you can stop safely."

Argh, you English speaking folks have always been weird. You also use your feet to measure the distance of stuff and some of you want to drive on the left side of the road. Weird guys, those English speaking folks.

While the attitude is called "Cautious" I definitely think of it more as "Neutral", and gray fits with that. Then again, an AI will attack you even if they're Pleased, so maybe yellow makes sense for Cautious.

I do like orange, but I think it might be very close to yellow in the text.

The text can be an important reason to go for certain colours.

At least we can probably all agree that green = good and red = bad. As long as the colours in between these extreme colours are somehow logical in-between-colours, then I'll be fine. I admit that what I consider logical in-between-colours is a bit vague and my opinion is only one among many.

 

[EmperorFool]

One selection that would be totally logical purely on a color-basis is this:

• Green
• Cyan = Blue + Green
• Blue
• Magenta = Blue + Red
• Red

But is blue okay for Cautious? Blue is usually associated with sadness.

 

[Cammagno]

One selection that would be totally logical purely on a color-basis is this:

• Green
• Cyan = Blue + Green
• Blue
• Magenta = Blue + Red
• Red

But is blue okay for Cautious? Blue is usually associated with sadness.

I prefer your previous one:

Friendly: green
Pleased: cyan
Cautious: gray
Annoyed -> yellow
Furious: red

It is perfect for me.

 

[Roland Johansen]

One selection that would be totally logical purely on a color-basis is this:

• Green
• Cyan = Blue + Green
• Blue
• Magenta = Blue + Red
• Red

But is blue okay for Cautious? Blue is usually associated with sadness.

It is a logical colour selection purely based on colour-basis. But, I agree, blue is often associated with sadness, especially in smilies. So, blue for cautious and cyan for pleased is a bit weird. (all in my opinion of course)

 

[ruff_hi]

red is hard to see on the default civ4 background. Magenta is even worse.

 

[EmperorFool]

red is hard to see on the default civ4 background. Magenta is even worse.

But light red and fuscia (light magenta) might work. Bright colors generally work against the dark blue backgrounds and in the scoreboard.