0022025: Color code notification boxes according to existing Strength information - Arcen Idea Tracker (Bugs and Features)

ID	Project	Category		Date Submitted	Last Update

0022025	AI War 2	Suggestion		Oct 31, 2019 4:03 pm	Oct 4, 2021 12:28 pm

Reporter	kmunoz	Assigned To	Chris_McElligottPark
Status	resolved	Resolution	fixed
Product Version	1.003 Sortable Objectives

Summary	0022025: Color code notification boxes according to existing Strength information
Description	An idea that came to me during the Steam stream, fleshed out a little more here. Currently, the notification boxes will give you some information about relative strength (with all of the caveats about how sometimes that information is misleading if one of the fleets is particularly good against the other’s units). Specifically, whichever fleet has more Strength gets listed on top, and the one with less Strength gets listed on the bottom. This is a useful quick indicator of relative danger. It’s not precise, it’s not intended to be precise, but it is valuable nevertheless. It’s a quick assessment that leads the player to investigate further if it seems warranted. However, it’s not easily scannable. I would suggest having some subtle color coding on or around the notification boxes themselves, to be more easily/quickly scannable by the player. So, for example, if the enemy Strength is perhaps 2x the player Strength or more, the box could have a red border. If the player Strength is 2x, a green border. (Or perhaps a different pairing of colors, as red/green color-blindness is the most common type.) Maybe yellow for an even match. Perhaps a different color, or an intensity level, when the relative Strengths are below the 2x threshold, but above even match. Maybe when it gets above say 3x it starts a subtle strobe effect on the box. (Again, spitballing examples here.) The main benefit would be that you could simply glance up at the notifications and know some information about the state of play for those systems without having to read the numbers or analyze which Strength is on top. (This is very important against the Nanocaust, which is blue, vs. the player, which is also blue, but slightly different blue, but not enough that it’s easy to tell which blue is which.) The main drawback of course is that the information may be deceptive, and a box marked red might actually not be a problem, and a box marked green might be the source of your downfall in five minutes. The counterpoint to this is that the information currently displayed is already possibly deceptive, and a good/experienced player will discern this. (And new players will figure this out.) Adding a visual “filter” to the boxes doesn’t increase or decrease the level of deceptiveness in any way.
Tags	No tags attached.

Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
Oct 31, 2019 4:03 pm	kmunoz	New Issue
Oct 4, 2021 12:28 pm	Chris_McElligottPark	Assigned To	=> Chris_McElligottPark
Oct 4, 2021 12:28 pm	Chris_McElligottPark	Status	new => resolved
Oct 4, 2021 12:28 pm	Chris_McElligottPark	Resolution	open => fixed
Oct 4, 2021 12:28 pm	Chris_McElligottPark	Note Added: 0062904