UI Theme for BUG

[Zyxpsilon]

As recommended by EmperorFool, i'm starting a new thread to discuss skinning of BUG.

I have already made a few things here & there with basicly whatever i could get my drawing skills on.
This Link provides a quick glimpse over what's been done so far. There's also the cursors & buttons which have extensive potential for specific features. Some zips have been given to them also about these.

IMHO, Bug is all about Red+DarkGrey (or even other hues!) skins & items. Generally speaking, i really feel BUG deserves a good_solid_great skin & theme of its own with as much unique graphics as possible. Although your taste(s) may differ, it's always nice to have such interface changes & enhancements to play with.

Anyone willing to work at it is most welcomed to share their thoughts (and snapshots, files, graphics...) below.

Here is the initial buttons set to start you with.

 

[Zyxpsilon]

Ooooppss... Buttons can be found in this post!

 

[ruff_hi]

I haven't looked at this yet so take this comment with a grain of salt ... we should also include changes to some of the general art work (graph background, starting splash screen, etc).

 

[NikNaks]

As the resident graphics artist on BUG, I guess I should be involved somehow.

I had a large plan for BUG involving massive changes and moving things around, but that's maybe too complicated.

I've downloaded the icon pack, but I can't open any of them. It's probably just an issue with the Paint.NET software here at school, but perhaps something's wrong at your end. In any case, could you point out where they are on the screenshots?

 

[Zyxpsilon]

The starting screen(s) are kinda tricky IMHO, since the only place it makes "sense" to use anything would somehow be the Dawn_of_Man phase or the initial wide-screen big splasher... but, it's what - a second_a_half on - and pouf it's simply gone. Knowing also that Vanilla/Warlords/BTS are simultaneously accessed at times, i wonder if it's worth trying juggling with complex intros.
I've got the tiny Bug_Cursor_Waiting_Animation + the reddish pointer as cues right now & i feel it's good enough. But, you may like a more complete introset -- feel free to make an attempt and submit.

As for current Buttons (this is a resized set for the 28x28 area framing)...

Mostly, Icons & Cursors could be a key component to indicate users they're into BUG itself. But, as you say NikNaks... extensive UI changes can also be important enough to "enhance" the whole gameplay experience. One more reason why i feel a specific overall theme has to be integrated. Mine is GREY_like, yours may differ.

But technically, all & every aspect of the interface should certainly be considered for skinning stuff.

 

[alerum68]

So we'll also need the new BUG Icon for the Main Screen. I'd also suggest this would be a perfect time to either move buttons from the packed right-side of the screen, to the left, and / or, resize the border where the buttons are houses. I know it's unrelated, but there was also a dynamically sized advisor screens, and I think we should snag the snippets from them to make ALL the advisor screens dynamically adjust size.

 

[Zyxpsilon]

...resize the border where the buttons are houses.

I've seen other solutions such as simply dumping the Victory/Pedia/Statistic icons to the left - but, i'd be more interested with widening the box & spires in order to align the current rows while "thinking" about adding new stuff on the left if need be.
EmperorFool mentioned also that he'd like to have a formal menu underneath the current perspective slider with some BUG options (and shortcuts to the essential assets, i believe) which is a great idea too.

My approach to this whole thing is more about graphics & UI changes but any particular enhancing to the gameplay tools would certainly be welcomed. Python stuff though.

Dynamic calibration is always a must_do for certain areas, given... but if the BUG is to become uniquely skinned, one should design the basic UI first and then, think about adding features to it.
Again, Red-Grey combo is a fundamental starting point which doesn't necessarily have to be alone since i feel dynamic skinning can be done as proven (partly) by Blue-Marble attempts.

I'd also try moving (and reframed to fit the default 32x32 sizes, btw!) the PLE buttons away or slightly higher on the bottom tab... it feels clumbered as it is.

 

[EmperorFool]

3.19 widened the top spires to make room for the extra button, and I'll pull that into BUG. I didn't earlier only because it means adjusting the 3 bars and research icons differently for each resolution (PITA), and I didn't write the multi-row code to begin with, so I wasn't that familiar with it.

Keep in mind that a lot of people are red/green and red/gray or green/gray color-blind. I think keeping with reg/gray should be safe, and it goes with the red/black bug icon. I think the red/green on the +/- buttons is a little extreme; I can barely make out the +/- on the buttons. Also BULL adds 0% and 100% buttons for min/max values (I reused the same +/- buttons but NikNaks created ++/-- buttons). Perhaps lighter shades of red and green would be better, or just color the +/- but keep the gray button.

I'm all for redoing the PLE area. I cheesed and didn't shift the unit icons up when I added NikNaks's buttons. It will be hard to increase the button size since they are pretty cramped at 1024x768.

 

[Lord Tirian]

Keep in mind that a lot of people are red/green and red/gray or green/gray color-blind. I think keeping with reg/gray should be safe, and it goes with the red/black bug icon. I think the red/green on the +/- buttons is a little extreme;

Make the coloured on hover/pressing. Gives you the visual feedback if you're going to change something, otherwise it's in the background and doesn't look so busy.

Cheers, LT.

 

[alerum68]

That's a good suggestion LT.

 

[Zyxpsilon]

Strangely i had made a few more sets of +/-; Blue_Yellow & Purple_Cyan just for kicks.
But, i'm all for a type of hover hue upon selection as recommended by LT. I found that the grey only solution felt a bit lame thus why i needed to somehow sharpen the focus with complementary colors.
I didn't know 3.19 had fixed the spires width ratio... on my copy, the icons are still overlapping on the right side panel.
In the meantime, i've been trying to alter some of the TGA files themselves to create a new specific UI "feeling" too.
More about this later once i have a decent package of files to submit.

 

[EmperorFool]

3.19 fixed the spire width, but BUG didn't pick up that fix yet.

 

[Zyxpsilon]

Okay, here's the whole set of +/- Buttons implementing the hover feature for all three GR,BY,PC coloring variations. I've also given you the plain GREY.