Slitherine

i will ask how can i change the color...
VPaulus silver plate look good...
or just what program i should use???

Sebastiansc wrote:i will ask how can i change the color...
VPaulus silver plate look good...
or just what program i should use???

It's not as simple as that.
I've used photoshop to invert the "colours" on the auxiliar plate. So the numbers stayed black.
That can only be implemented by the devs.
However maybe there's a compromise.



If for you this is a better solution than the original, then I can do it. You'll only have too replace a file.
But I cannot judge this because fortunately I'm not colour blind.
I left two auxiliar plates with the original style, for you to compare.

That looks great VPaulus. Can the same be done with the Allies? Maybe with light green for the Allied Aux units? Core units would likely need to be a darker green then. There will probably be some sort of expansion in the future that will let us play an Allied campaign, so they need a way to distinguish them as well. If they all used a light and dark contrast for Aux and Core units, then they could all have the nice looking gold border (the silver border would be unnecessary).

AgentX wrote:That looks great VPaulus. Can the same be done with the Allies? Maybe with light green for the Allied Aux units? Core units would likely need a darker green then. There will probably be some sort of expansion in the future that will let us play an Allied campaign, so they need a way to distinguish them as well.

You can change the colour plate to what colour you want. What I cannot change is the font colour. So as long as you choose a colour to contrast with it, no problem. That means that the background colour on the plate shouldn't be very light.

VPaulus wrote:You can change the colour plate to what colour you want. What I cannot change is the font colour. So as long as you choose a colour to contrast with it, no problem. That means that the background colour on the plate shouldn't be very light.

Ya, I'm thinking the current color green is light enough and could become the Aux color. Then, a darker shade of green for the Core. For the Axis, exactly the way you have it: black for the Core and gray for the Aux. And, don't you think, if a light/dark contrast was used for the Aux/Core, then all units could have the nice thick gold border? The thin silver border wouldn't really be necessary at that point.

Here's the file.
It's in "Panzer Corps\Graphics\Overlays". The file is called "strplates.png".
Don't forget to do a backup of the original file before copying the new one. This way you can always revert to the original.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/wuau87

Without the golden border:




I prefer the original.

How about the gold border around all units, including the Aux units? They would still have the gray strength shield, though. Aesthetically, the gray strength shield with a silver border doesn't look quite right.

Don't like it. Besides it doesn't make much sense.
Besides we have again the problem of distinguish well the Aux from the Core.

OK, it was just a thought and needed to see a representation. Thanks for putting that up. However, I can see the difference and I don't think people who are color blind would have a problem seeing the difference between black and gray. What's Byeohazard's thoughts on what's been shown by VPaulus? Any of these solutions good for you?

I might have a contribute to share shortly.

gatto wrote:I'll try this combo, dark black for german core units and light green for allied core

(ehm.. I'm using imageshack for images, I don't have the add image button when posting... is it possible or am I blind? )

Would you be able to show this version with German core and Aux units and the alies core and aux units in the same image? The Alied core units may look very close to non core German to colorblind people..I would need to start my game to see or if you are able to upload an image as requested that would help. The Black is very easy to distinguish for though. A combonation of Black for core and bright yellow for non core axis.....and say dark blue for allied core and grey for non core I believe would be easy for me to see. but probably too "wild" for most folks so an option for it as discussed sounds great. These color combos to me are what seem to be very different from eachother. When I see colors like green and brown and light grey and red on the same map.....oh boy...very hard to tell what is what. Color blindness is a bit hard to explain.
I really liked the black though.
as a side note.....I really appreciate the attention I am seeing on the matter. This game is a labor of love and that is really clear.

Vpaulaus very big thanx for vfast reply...
im just wake up ad download image for replace...
prefer new look plate.

maybe this time dont mess wit core and aux )

Byeohazard wrote:

gatto wrote:I'll try this combo, dark black for german core units and light green for allied core

(ehm.. I'm using imageshack for images, I don't have the add image button when posting... is it possible or am I blind? )

Would you be able to show this version with German core and Aux units and the alies core and aux units in the same image? The Alied core units may look very close to non core German to colorblind people..I would need to start my game to see or if you are able to upload an image as requested that would help. The Black is very easy to distinguish for though. A combonation of Black for core and bright yellow for non core axis.....and say dark blue for allied core and grey for non core I believe would be easy for me to see. but probably too "wild" for most folks so an option for it as discussed sounds great. These color combos to me are what seem to be very different from eachother. When I see colors like green and brown and light grey and red on the same map.....oh boy...very hard to tell what is what. Color blindness is a bit hard to explain.
I really liked the black though.
as a side note.....I really appreciate the attention I am seeing on the matter. This game is a labor of love and that is really clear.

In this image there are german core units and the german tank which is aux, all allies are core. I'll try to change with the colors you sugested.

The problem is the contrast between the numbers and the background.
Of course this would be only for you or other colour blind people.




Maybe we could alter the shape of the plate for the auxiliar units. But that would probably be too radical.
Let us see what Kerensky has up his sleeve.

Personally, I very much favor different color plates for different nations. Black Germans, Red Russians, Olive Americans, Brown British, Blue French, and so on.

As for AUX units, a combination of different looks and different text, because any design of just colors doesn't help the color blind.
Unfortunately thing means 400 units need 'aux' coloring, which is probably too much to ask for.

That might be a solution, however what most people wants (those who complains about this), is an instant recognition in the tactical map.
That might be achieved by altering colors in fonts and plates, by having different plates shapes for aux and core or by adding for example an icon above the plate. Above all, it must be visual.
I have that instant recognition in the game, and I would hate it, if I didn't have it.

Kerensky wrote:Personally, I very much favor different color plates for different nations. Black Germans, Red Russians, Olive Americans, Brown British, Blue French, and so on.

As for AUX units, a combination of different looks and different text, because any design of just colors doesn't help the color blind.
Unfortunately thing means 400 units need 'aux' coloring, which is probably too much to ask for.

Keep in mind we color blind people still see colors. In your example above Black for germans and BRIGHT red for Russians would be easy to distinguish. Olive Americans and brown British may prove difficult to distinguish from one another depending on the shade of the color. Red could get confused with the brown but if the red is bright red it should be fine. Blue for the French would be easy to telll from all of them (unless you put in a purple which could be confused with the Blue). This is my experience...there are different types of color blindness...I believe red /green is the most common. I think I'm a little worse than alot of people and suffer froma combonationof types......but I still see colors.
An older but well known game Alpha Centauri had a color blind patch released for it...although it didnt help me much...I went back to playing stock colors. The games Bad Company 2 and Call fo Duty:Black Ops have modes for color blind people and each of those games makes a world of difference for me when I run the color blind option.

Muddy terrain and normal terrain look the same to me. As long as the little circular current weather indicator applies to all the tiles (not some tiles are normal with some muddy...patches of mud) then as long as I pay attention I should be ok. I can recall a few times on a weather change I wondered why my planes would not shoot and my units didn't move long distances but then noticed the rain symbol...so it is helpful as long as I dont miss the info.

I think a major problem is the distinction of the "core frame" to the background.

I like the idea of colors per nation.
But per unit the number of colors should be restricted to 2.
One for the background (nation), one for other information (strength, core...)
So given that the background color tends to be dark and the contrast color is white, that should stay.
But the "core information" should then be white as well.
Then make a thin nation color frame around it, for contrast on snow maps, and its done.

AUX units would then just miss the white frame and the thin nation frame around it.

Alternatively the frame could stay the same size for aux and core, but eg core units get brackets around it, so that the height is not affected.

[ 15 ] or >15< or so for core units. It s not like we have a horizontal space issue for those strength boxes

And by the way, I dont want to be able to distinguish enemy core and aux units...