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Zei12345
Zei12345
Join Date 02/2008
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3 things for 1.03

1 typo, 1 fix, 1 idea

February 9, 2008 3:15:53 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Here are 3 things to be considered for the next patch (1.03):

1)
Found a typo in the manual, Chapter "The Main Interface" on page 18 the item 18 "InfoCard" is numbered as 16 in the corresponding image above.

2)
I already mentioned this in the 1.02 thread but here it goes again. Please change the color of the progress bar in the Action Grid, yellow is really hard to see. Example:

Yellow Bar (bad)


Red Bar (better) - dark blue is possibly the best choice in terms of contrast


3)
I'm not entirely happy with the InfoCard as is doesn't directly show the additional hull, shields, damage, etc. values after having completed researches. A simple solution would be to add the improvement in brackets, here is an example:



I can immediately see that the Hull max value is 637 and 37 of those were added through research (Level 1 Hull Reinforcement) and the basic value was 600. Gives me a good estimate about how powerful my ships have become after having invested in research Of course you can apply the same principle to infrastructure and defense.

So what do you guys think?
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Zei12345
Bob211
Join Date 02/2008
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Reply #1 February 9, 2008 3:35:54 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
nice. sounds pretty easy to implement, at least i think it does. hope i see it for 1.03.
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Zei12345
Spartan
Join Date 03/2006
+172
Reply #2 February 9, 2008 3:35:56 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
These are most excellent ideas. You stole some thunder from the review I plan to write after I have time to actually play a game. My limited exposure thus far has netted some points on my list. The ship improvements identification is the biggest one.

I did not catch the manual error however. I assumed it was covered in the errata text file. Good catch. The progress bar color change is a good idea - I wanted green but red works just fine. I was going to suggest red for the damage indicator to replace the yellow color.
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AceMarkE
Join Date 04/2003
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Reply #3 February 9, 2008 3:46:38 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Sounds good to me. Also, I can think of a couple improvements to the research page. It'd be nice if the infocard could show up in the upper-right when you're mousing over items in the bottom-right. Otherwise, it's sitting on top of the stuff you're trying to look at. Also, I'd love to have a visible display of your queued research items. I've often got several things queued up and it's annoying to have to scan both research pages for the little yellow highlighting that indicates the active project. Might also be useful to shuffle items back and forth in the queue as well. Looks like there's room below the research tree areas.
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Zei12345
Zei12345
Join Date 02/2008
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Reply #4 February 9, 2008 4:19:58 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums


The progress bar color change is a good idea - I wanted green but red works just fine. I was going to suggest red for the damage indicator to replace the yellow color.


I guess a not too dark blue would be even better (in terms of contrast), and red could then be taken for damage.
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Predator17
Join Date 02/2008
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Reply #5 February 9, 2008 5:11:23 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Nice ideas. I'll chip in too. It would be nice if there was an icon on UI for all your aircrafts & bombers. When you zoom into a planet that UI option would turn on. Easier to focus all your aircrafts to a single target, if there is room for one that is.
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Zei12345
Seboss
Join Date 04/2005
+1
Reply #6 February 9, 2008 6:46:49 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Something that was mentioned in the Shack review I fully agree with: some techs names are somewhat obscure and unintuitive.
Of course, you get used to it after a few games and it brings a unique touch to the game, but it's still a unnecessary mental gymnastic to remember that "Quick Pulse Streaming" is basically Pulse Gun Mk III (Galciv style). Some tech Mk III may sound a bit bland but it's a no-brainer, and that's all the better in a game where there's so much to do in my opinion.
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PutherJibraan
Join Date 03/2007
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Reply #7 February 9, 2008 7:33:12 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Any chance of high-res textures/effects for those with high-end computers?
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Zei12345
WarlokLord
Join Date 09/2007
+19
Reply #8 February 9, 2008 8:11:38 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
I would simply choose a color for the progress bar that contrasts well with the background colour of a faction`s buttons/icons.

I actually *like* NOT having the bracketted upgrade bonuses in the info bar for my ships/structures... gives the game a more organic and less StarCraftian feeling. I would rather behold a whole hull and just have a 'feel'... a 'sense' of the power of the vessel, than be confronted by a sterile and precise clinical breakdown of the thing`s statistics.

More immersive.

The graphics of Sins Of A Solar Empire on its highest settings are extremely good. Satisfied Quad-corer here.
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Zei12345
Spartan
Join Date 03/2006
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Reply #9 February 9, 2008 8:23:02 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
I guess a not too dark blue would be even better (in terms of contrast), and red could then be taken for damage.


Works for me. The color scheme should be as universal as possible.

Nice ideas. I'll chip in too. It would be nice if there was an icon on UI for all your aircrafts & bombers. When you zoom into a planet that UI option would turn on. Easier to focus all your aircrafts to a single target, if there is room for one that is.


Doh!! another mind reader... I was thinking one for each type however.


Any chance of high-res textures/effects for those with high-end computers?


We [ultra high-end system users]should be getting a super high resoultion pack in the near future if all goes well.
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Zei12345
FraserXVII
Join Date 07/2007
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Reply #10 February 9, 2008 8:45:06 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Sounds good to me. Also, I can think of a couple improvements to the research page. It'd be nice if the infocard could show up in the upper-right when you're mousing over items in the bottom-right. Otherwise, it's sitting on top of the stuff you're trying to look at. Also, I'd love to have a visible display of your queued research items. I've often got several things queued up and it's annoying to have to scan both research pages for the little yellow highlighting that indicates the active project. Might also be useful to shuffle items back and forth in the queue as well. Looks like there's room below the research tree areas.


If you hold your mouse over the research button at the top it does show you a list of research you have queued and what percentage of the active research is done. You can't rearrange them though.
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Unkn0wn-
Join Date 02/2008
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Reply #11 February 9, 2008 8:51:15 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Another addition they should consider imho is listing the amount of Military/Civic labs you already have built at the top of their research trees. I know myself and others have found it somewhat annoying to go look into individual tech research to see how many labs I already have built.

Perhaps interesting as well would be to give a different color to abilities not yet researchable (# of labs not reached yet), abilities researchable but lacking sufficient resources, abilities researchable and abilities already fully researched. (At max.)
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Zei12345
Wizaerd
Join Date 06/2006
+14
Reply #12 February 9, 2008 10:17:13 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
I mentioned this in another thread, but it (the thread) died away with only 1 response, so I'd like to add something here as well...

When I click through my ships/buildings and it says I don't have the required research to build something, I'd like the info card to tell me what research I need in order to build this item in the item's infocard. Some of them appear to have this info, but not all of them.

Personally I feel the game gives lots of great info, but not everything needed in order to make decisions, or not in one spot... Jumping from screen to screen to determine what to build/research next is tedious. Those that memorize every aspect of a game can probably make do well enough, but I've got a lot of stuff in my head, and memorizing everything in order to play a game without references just isn't feasible... at least for me...
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TwiSteDeViLx
Join Date 01/2008
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Reply #13 February 9, 2008 10:20:18 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
I agree with the info box for damage on ships etc, it doesn't seem like the research actually doing anything would be nice to have a little + next to the figures to show how by exactly how much their armor and average damage has been upgraded by.
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ironwill96
Join Date 08/2007
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Reply #14 February 9, 2008 10:31:11 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Good idea, nice to see the effects of research which is something that was mentioned back in beta as well. The progress bar color idea is nice too, yellow is really hard to see on that background (love your example pics too!).
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Zei12345
RonLugge
Join Date 05/2004
+50
Reply #15 February 9, 2008 10:51:02 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums


When I click through my ships/buildings and it says I don't have the required research to build something, I'd like the info card to tell me what research I need in order to build this item in the item's infocard. Some of them appear to have this info, but not all of them.


Generally its pretty obvious for those... You research LRM frigates to get LRM frigates and the like...
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Zei12345
Zei12345
Join Date 02/2008
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Reply #16 February 9, 2008 1:54:10 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Well I just found out the the icons are differently colored depending on the race you play (I only placed with TEC so far) so recoloring the yellow progress bar would probably make it's visibility worse for the other 2 races. I guess the developers would have to add different color values for each race for a perfect solution.

Anyway, if you want to change it yourself you can find the value in "Window\Colors.color", the lines are "minConstruction ffffff00" and "maxConstruction ffffff00" where ffff00 is the RGB value for yellow and you just have to replace it with the RGB value of your choice.
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Zei12345
lordkosc
Join Date 12/2006
+6
Reply #17 February 9, 2008 2:01:17 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
supported!
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Astax
Join Date 04/2003
+24
Reply #18 February 9, 2008 2:01:47 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
I would like some sort of a better indicatino of which level of the tech you researched. The little "1" is really hard to see sometimes.
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Zei12345
LinkesAuge
Join Date 02/2006
+1
Reply #19 February 9, 2008 2:12:21 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
_PLZ_ give us an option for the lobby to turn the joined/left messages off.
Its really hard to chat/have conversations when the whole chat is spammed by those messages.
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Zei12345
Schod
Join Date 10/2006
+1
Reply #20 February 9, 2008 2:29:18 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
I already mentioned this in the 1.02 thread but here it goes again. Please change the color of the progress bar in the Action Grid, yellow is really hard to see. Example:

unfortunately anything you change it to would affect either of the other two races, maybe the box should just be shaded darker there?
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Zei12345
kingberk
Join Date 02/2008
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Reply #21 February 9, 2008 2:35:21 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Also, faster and slower game speeds PLEASE... Make "Very Fast" twice as fast as the current "Fast".
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Zei12345
Zei12345
Join Date 02/2008
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Reply #22 February 9, 2008 2:39:38 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums


unfortunately anything you change it to would affect either of the other two races, maybe the box should just be shaded darker there?


Yes, I wrote that in reply #16.

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ProfCS101
Join Date 02/2006
+1
Reply #23 February 9, 2008 2:40:44 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Good ideas OP.

/signed
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Zei12345
Baleurion
Join Date 02/2006
+10
Reply #24 February 9, 2008 2:56:15 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
why not just have a dark gray or even black build bar? Works on all colors.
sure its, unconventional, but who cares?
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Spartan
Join Date 03/2006
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Reply #25 February 10, 2008 12:13:38 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
For what it is worth, some of us do care and a lot at that since we consider this an art form and presentation is a big factor for the immersion element.
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