Artifacts and works of art icons should be different

[VainoValkea]

Like they say, great minds think alike.

 

[digrosz]

If there's a big enough demand on it, and they find it useful, it's possible thye might add it, not to brag, but I swear I proposed the idea of adding a UI gizmo that tells you who is taking their tur, and guess what, a patch or two later, and it was added!

Then I have to thank you: that thing is bloody amazing

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

Then I have to thank you: that thing is bloody amazing

Haha, don't, it might turn out that it wasn't even me, but I did post something along those lines before it was implemented.

 

[NukeAJS]

I find myself at the culture (Read- theming screen) for too long. There must be a better way to organize the great works/artifacts.

Basically, a work/artifact has three pieces of information -- civilization/CS, type, and era. The civilization/CS icons already exist in the game. They are in the drop-down menus on the swap screen. At the culture screen (theming), the icons themselves should be represented by the appropriate civ/CS it belongs/belonged too. The era it is from could be represented by the shade of the icon. Dark for ancient, and light for information (or some other color scheme). The type of work would be displayed next to the building along the top of the screen. So a museum would have an artifact and an artwork icon next to it and a opera house would have a musical note etc. As for making a distinction between artifacts and artwork ... I dunno. Maybe the border around the icon?

Like I said, I find myself searching, basically mousing-over icons, to find information. It feels like busy work and it's definitely not fun. I don't have any problem with actively theming my stuff, I like that there's an active part especially the swapping. But having 30 museums can be a nightmare. Especially if I capture Uffizi or The Louvre and have to hunt through 50 icons to find three specific works of art that I know I are somewhere on that big screen.

 

[Teodosio]

Like I said, I find myself searching, basically mousing-over icons, to find information. It feels like busy work and it's definitely not fun. I don't have any problem with actively theming my stuff, I like that there's an active part especially the swapping. But having 30 museums can be a nightmare. Especially if I capture Uffizi or The Louvre and have to hunt through 50 icons to find three specific works of art that I know I are somewhere on that big screen.

My thought exactly!

 

[eric_]

I agree. I think an arrowhead makes the most sense.

As for hunting for info, that would still be an issue. So, an arrowhead (or whatever) icon for artifacts, and then some indication of era and civ of origin for art and artifacts would be great, too.

 

[VainoValkea]

I agree. I think an arrowhead makes the most sense.

Why not the archaeology symbol? I think that one makes the most sense, as the other works are represented by the same symbol as the unit creating them.

As I said earlier, I think the icon for the work/artifact should show all the vital information of the item - type, nationality (color coding or symbol like in swap screen) and era.

 

[eric_]

That makes sense, too, VainoValkea.

 

[Ryoga]

If you ask me those icons are a horrible waste of space. We have a single icon for all works of art and artifacts. That icon could tell so much more.

- type (different icon for art and artifact)
- nationality (color coding)
- era (a little text or something?)

That would present all the important stuff about a work at a glance, instead of them all having this stupid tooltip to check.

I approve of this especially the first point.

For the rest, I propose this:

Nationality should be shown on the icon's borders reflecting the color of the nation.

Era should be shown by the color of the icon itself. One idea could be using different gradients of the current color, the brighter is the color the more advanced is the era. (Because the future is bright).

 

[eric_]

I like that...the most important thing in the context of the culture screen is knowing whether or not items in a set are from different eras and civs...and the borders for civ and icon color for era would convey that.

I'm thinking the borders would be striped so both civ colors would be represented (cultural border color + territory overlay color)

 

[Zaimejs]

I am totally on board with this idea. When they said they'd have archeology, I thought that the pieces would be unique to the game you were playing... like if there was a battle, you'd find this or that. Doesn't seem to be that sophisticated. But icons showing what you found would be so much cooler. And colors for civs... great... even some little mark for era. It would mean a lot of custom icons, but it would make that whole game components so much more enjoyable and easy to use.

Pretty complicated as it is.

 

[DuseCutter]

Just posting to support this idea. I found myself struggling last night to figure out why I wasn't getting certain themeing bonuses. I probably spent more time juggling that than playing the game that session. (I'm in the middle of my artifact finding phase right now.)

 

[pilot00]

Well, to be honest the text and the tooltip are quite informative (if you find them that is), but that said I had thought exactly the same. They should change the Icons and find a nice way to represent the era as well. Dare I say redesign the whole screen? The icons are hopelessly small.

 

[eric_]

I probably spent more time juggling that than playing the game that session. (I'm in the middle of my artifact finding phase right now.)

FWIW, I did that a lot last night, too, and considering it to be part of playing...I really enjoyed it [perhaps sadly ]!

I can live without icons for each and every possible type of artifact, but a pop up screen telling you exactly what was found at a dig site would be a nice, somewhat immersing touch. The background could just be some generic dig site.

As it is you have to go to the culture screen to figure out what you found, which is kind of annoying (of course, it helps ensure that I remember to visit the culture screen and check on my theming bonuses, so there's that).

 

[Yzman]

I am not quite sure how this would work considering that both can take up the exact same slots. Maybe the actual artifact could have a different icon but would would you show on the museum or wonders that can take both?

 

[VainoValkea]

I am not quite sure how this would work considering that both can take up the exact same slots. Maybe the actual artifact could have a different icon but would would you show on the museum or wonders that can take both?

Some combination of the two icons would be the most logical. I was almost going to say I'll leave this up to the UI experts of Firaxis to decide but they came up with the current interface so...

 

[OmniPotent42]

+1
Any idea would work as long as it is distinguishable from another artifact.

 

[I_qua_I]

I am not quite sure how this would work considering that both can take up the exact same slots. Maybe the actual artifact could have a different icon but would would you show on the museum or wonders that can take both?

I'm quoting myself but this was my suggestion for dealing with this issue in another thread.

That's why I proposed a split graphic for the slots. There could be a line drawn diagonally from, say, the lower left corner to the upper right one with the painting symbol in the upper left triangle and the artifact symbol in the lower right. This would mean that either a painting or an artifact could go there (so no problem with The Louvre/museums).

 

[Mozzington]

I agree with OP.

 

[oddtail]

Well, add me to the people who like this idea and would like to see it implemented.

As to the specifics:

1) Either a broken column or the Archeology symbol would work;
2) I like the idea of giving the icon a little number (or a little letter? A for Ancient, C for Classical, M for medieval...), and I think nationality could easily be reflected by colour. I don't think a colour for era AND a colour for civilization would be a good idea. Even if one is for the icon and the other for the border.