FEEDBACK: Ship Icons/Selection

from StarControl Forums

Originally posted this in the main forum; forgot this sub-forum existed.

 

Maybe I'm the only one having this difficulty, but I often find it a little challenging to pick out a ship during the selection process, and a huge part of that is the disconnect between the ship I've crafted and the icon created for it.

For example:

 

A purely top-down view just doesn't resemble what I built; there are several custom ships that I can only recognize because I gave them very distinctive paint-jobs. 

It might be too late in the development process, but could we please get ship icons that are pointed a little more at the front of the ship? Just tilt 'em a smidge so we get an angle...?

 

Along similar lines: during fleet battles, our ships don't show which weapons they have on 'em, and it's easy enough to forget which ship has which armaments. Oh, sure, we can totally see what we're getting during fleet selection, when actually building our armada...but after we've lost a ship during battle, we're forced to have each ship's loadout memorized when selecting the replacement.

I'd like to see that one revised, too.

 

Thanks! 

19,175 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from StarControl Forums Top

Grr. I responded to this and nothing showed!

anyway, short version: seems like it’s more useful to have a top down view of your ship as a thumb nail?

Reply #2 from StarControl Forums Top

anyway, short version: seems like it’s more useful to have a top down view of your ship as a thumb nail?

No, no; that's the opposite!

What we have now is a top down view, and that stinks; a kind of isometric, from-both-front-and-above view as a thumbnail would be way better!

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Reply #3 from StarControl Forums Top

Quoting BionicDance, reply 2


anyway, short version: seems like it’s more useful to have a top down view of your ship as a thumb nail?



No, no; that's the opposite!

What we have now is a top down view, and that stinks; a kind of isometric, from-both-front-and-above view as a thumbnail would be way better!

Why would it be better?  It seems like it would be less recognizable?

Anyone here want to put together a mockup of the difference?

Reply #4 from StarControl Forums Top

Why would it be better?

Because I've honestly had serious difficulty recognizing from above a ship that I built in 3D. The top-down view just didn't resemble what I'm used to seeing, partly because it makes a ship flat when some vessels are rather tall, vertically. There are identifying details that simpyl aren't visible.

It seems like it would be less recognizable?

Not to me; I get to see the whole ship--which we do see even during fleet battles, since ships bank when they're turning--instead of just the top-down view.

Anyone here want to put together a mockup of the difference?

I thought I had. Posted it up above.

You can see that big tall one at the bottom; you don't get that sense of size from the icon that results. It took me a while to spot it in the ship-selection screen simply because I couldn't see those vertical towers; the icon looks flat.

By the same token, the one above is the exact opposite; it's rather flat, and you don't get a sense of it from the top-down icon; that ship could be any size at all, vertically. 

I just don't get the same sense of the ship I made from the icon we get in Fleet Battles. They don't look the same. And that's just two; there are others, but I've built quite a few, so I only used two examples.

 

Now...um...I have more to say on this subject, but doing so would kinna violate that whole NDA thing. I've mentioned it in the forum where those with access to Chapter One can post; it's in my personal First Impressions thread.