I'm not colorblind, but I find the red-on-black messages hard to read.

[Markus5]

I'm not colorblind, but I find the red-on-black messages hard to read. I tried the colorblind settings, but didn't see any difference.
Any suggestions? I'm tired of putting my nose on the screen and squinting.

 

[j51]

Red on black like that is hard to read for many people not just people with colorblindness and it is simply poor UI design. It’s probably a result of whatever the heck happened behind the scenes with the UI team. Firaxis should fix this.

 

[Sagax]

That specific tone of dark red on top of the dark grey background was certainly a choice…

 

[Skojardu]

Welcome to death metal logos. Black metal tends to be more white on black, but ugh... never thought I would bring this up regarding a Civ game

 

[Disgustipated]

Don't get me started on the religion icons below the city banner. I cannot see the red ones at all. Did the new patch change these red icons? I haven't had a chance to play the new patch yet. They are so hard to see.

 

[Brutus2]

I made a post awhile back in the mod request forum asking if anyone could make a mod to change this but so far no takers. What an extremely poor decision by the designers. I really wonder with all the hours the devs and QA must spend playing this game do they really not notice this or think it looks good?

Here is my mod request post. Feel free to add a comment or like over there, maybe if it gets more attention a modder might take it on:

Post in thread 'Mod Request: Change Red Text Color - Please!'

Apr 11, 2025

Did you try the option under Accessibility for color blind? You can select from Protanopia, Deuteranopia, Tritanopia. If it's a problem despite using the appropriate setting then I would suggest reporting it as a bug. If nothing else you could turn on text to speech then it will read it to you when you hover the cursor. It would be nice if they had a hotkey to toggle that in case you don't want it reading everything. You can set how long you have to hover for it to start reading.

That isn't to say you shouldn't pursue a mod. Rather bugs should be reported so they, at least, know about...

• Brutus2

• 

 

[Kwami]

Don't get me started on the religion icons below the city banner. I cannot see the red ones at all. Did the new patch change these red icons? I haven't had a chance to play the new patch yet. They are so hard to see.

The my units stand in front of them! Especially with short city names. Terrible!

 

[Niallism]

I made a post awhile back in the mod request forum asking if anyone could make a mod to change this but so far no takers. What an extremely poor decision by the designers. I really wonder with all the hours the devs and QA must spend playing this game do they really not notice this or think it looks good?

Here is my mod request post. Feel free to add a comment or like over there, maybe if it gets more attention a modder might take it on:

Post in thread 'Mod Request: Change Red Text Color - Please!'

Apr 11, 2025

Did you try the option under Accessibility for color blind? You can select from Protanopia, Deuteranopia, Tritanopia. If it's a problem despite using the appropriate setting then I would suggest reporting it as a bug. If nothing else you could turn on text to speech then it will read it to you when you hover the cursor. It would be nice if they had a hotkey to toggle that in case you don't want it reading everything. You can set how long you have to hover for it to start reading.

That isn't to say you shouldn't pursue a mod. Rather bugs should be reported so they, at least, know about...

• Brutus2

• 

I think it's inescapably clear that QA were not given enough time to play this game, or were simply ignored.

 

[Markus5]

Brute force edit of default.css.
Not actually sure which attribute controls this. There are 35 unique colors in the file. I found the color that matches. This color is used all over. So, I changed them all.
Tomorrow, I'll try to narrow it down to the attributes that matter. Maybe all of them do..
Editing default.css is not cool. Not sure how a mod would update or override an attribute in default.css. I don't even know how to create a mod.
But, this proves that it can be done.

 

[Xur]

I dont think it's the used colour that is problem. I think the problem is that they put an opacity on the disabled blocks. You can see the images are also almost gone. IFAIK they also had this problem in civ6 at some point - I think they fixed it then.

 

[Markus5]

They are using a gradient color. It fades to the edge of the letter. This makes a softer look. I would prefer a sharper look.

 

[Rob Airdrie]

I'm not colorblind, but I find the red-on-black messages hard to read. I tried the colorblind settings, but didn't see any difference.
Any suggestions? I'm tired of putting my nose on the screen and squinting.

I had the same issue and increased brightness on my monitor which worked considerably

 

[NickTheGreek!]

It is unforgivably awful, this should have been fixed pretty early. I guess they are waiting for the new UI designer, after they fired the one who created this mess.

 

[Niallism]

It is unforgivably awful, this should have been fixed pretty early. I guess they are waiting for the new UI designer, after they fired the one who created this mess.

In my experience, the fault rarely lies with the worker, but with corporate decisions or corporate culture. It's much more likely that the UI designer(s) weren't given enough time/money/staff, or were just ignored.

 

[NickTheGreek!]

In my experience, the fault rarely lies with the worker, but with corporate decisions or corporate culture. It's much more likely that the UI designer(s) weren't given enough time/money/staff, or were just ignored.

For sure, just wanted to vent off a bit because it is a pretty awful text/background color decision

 

[Brutus2]

I don't want to make assumptions and I'm not looking to attack or blame anyone. I do appreciate Marcus5 making an effort to change the colors. The white is so much better. I don't know anything about modding but hopefully someone can find a solution. I'm thankful mods are an option for all of us to customize the game in whatever way works for us.