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GUI and Colors

vazquez595654

Arbiter
Joined
Jul 21, 2005
Messages
1,090
Location
Malta
Crichton's Dialogue with adjustable transparency?

No. Probably not. it looks great, and I prefer to have dialogue in game, but since this game is going to have so much reading, it will eventually get annoying to have the dialogue and the answers so far apart.

I guess Space Rangers 2 would be a good example of the intricacy of the dialogue this game will probably have, and a seperate background with plenty of space and less distractions definitely made it easier to concentrate on the missions.
 

Monolith

Prophet
Joined
Mar 7, 2006
Messages
1,290
Location
München
I prefer Sovy's version.

Crichton's Dialogue is alright but some less transparency and a frame would add much to it.
 

FrancoTAU

Cipher
Joined
Oct 21, 2005
Messages
2,507
Location
Brooklyn, NY
I prefer some kind of version of Crichton's Dialogue screen since you don't have that little itty bitty graphic screen in the current version, but I think its a moot point since VD like the separate screen.
 

Paranoid Jack

Scholar
Joined
Jul 3, 2006
Messages
186
Sovy Kurosei said:
Paranoid Jack said:
I didn't think it would happen.. but I agree with Claw the white is too bright and hurts my eyes... may be due to my LCD. Whites are brighter and darks are darker on a LCD in my opinion.

Is this a bit better? Don't mind the JPEG artifacting. :wink:

Oh, yeah much much better. Looks good to me but then the original isn't bad either.

So if I had a choice I would pick Sovy's version of the original stats screen lay-out. Though I'm not sure I like Crichton's version of the dialog screen. The text isn't too bright but over-all its less appealing to the eye and harder to read than the original version. Just my two cents... :wink:
 

Bradylama

Arcane
Joined
Jul 24, 2006
Messages
23,647
Location
Oklahomo
Stone backgrounds make the whole "hand-written" feel of the character sheet seem way off. I don't think anybody chiseled that roughly and finely.
 

Fryjar

Augur
Joined
Sep 6, 2005
Messages
176
Have you considered adding some dark green colours to the frames?
I experimented a bit with that and I think giving them a moss-covered look would keep the overall decaying/hand written theme but add some distinction to the screen.
 

Fryjar

Augur
Joined
Sep 6, 2005
Messages
176
Well,of course it needs polishing,but something along those lines...
I also somewhat altered the text font and slightly changed the colour, so that it's a bit easier on the eyes .

http://aod.scriptmania.com/aod1.jpg

And did you think about using monotype corsiva as a font for the letters instead? I think it fits quite nicely to the setting...
 

galsiah

Erudite
Joined
Dec 12, 2005
Messages
1,613
Location
Montreal
I find Sovy/vazquez595654's version more readable than the original - better with the toned down contrast. I do like the p&p feel of the original, but the numbers don't jump off the page quite so readily.

As Claw already noted, I don't see anything wrong with the horizontal attributes, since they don't change during the game. It's most important to have a clear presentation of the stats the player will be looking at most often. After the start of the game, he's bound to be looking at skills... much more than attributes.
The horizontal attribute presentation keeps them nicely out of the way of what's usually important.


Crichton's dialogue screen idea looks a lot better than I imagined it would. Worth a thought.

However, I don't think the main issue here is the way it looks, but rather the impression it creates (and how functional it is, of course). I'd guess that a separate screen would tend to put more emphasis on each individual dialogue being an important event in its own right. On the other hand, Crichton's would give a more continuous feel to quests.

If each dialogue were of little importance, and often served as some kind of way-point, I'd definitely prefer Crichton's. However, given that dialogues are important, I'd think I'd prefer a separate screen. That way they have more of an important-event feel, rather than an incidental-encounter-while-walking-around feel.

Perhaps that's debatable, but I think my main point is right: the look is less important than the impression/emphasis it creates.
 

Monica21

Scholar
Joined
Oct 16, 2005
Messages
214
I like it the way it is. The parchment look and black text is appealing and easy on my eyes.
 

Faustus

Novice
Joined
Jan 20, 2006
Messages
28
Why not use one of those nifty concept art images as a backround for your UI? I think most people agree that they are easy on the eyes. It's an fairly easy thing to do and if you make the controls transparent it looks pretty cool. I played around with it a little to make sure it is easy to read. Here's a thumbnail link to the full image.

 

galsiah

Erudite
Joined
Dec 12, 2005
Messages
1,613
Location
Montreal
Certainly worth a thought.
[Although I've had that image as my desktop background for a while - I might get confused :)]
 

galsiah

Erudite
Joined
Dec 12, 2005
Messages
1,613
Location
Montreal
It'd be nice. I'm no background image elitist, so I'll happily put up with stretching / low res..., but an improved look is always good.
 

Faustus

Novice
Joined
Jan 20, 2006
Messages
28
serch said:
I like the background image idea, but I'd implement it over the original parchment and as a drawing made with a soft pencil. Maybe a scanned image of the first concepts could serve you.

You could do a lot of different effects with GIMP or some other editor to play around with whatever style you prefer. If you'd like to maintain something similar to the existing color scheme:

 

Fryjar

Augur
Joined
Sep 6, 2005
Messages
176
I think it's a great idea to have one of those pictures for the main character/attribute and the dialogue screen.
When it comes to the ingame gui though (the one that is displayed when you are walking around), I think you should stick to self-contained art, rather than a piece of a bigger picture.
I would suggest, considering to implement this clay-piece background from the edges of your homepage. I think, art wise, it looks fitting,appealing and still subtle enough not to distract from the displayed texts.
 

jeansberg

Liturgist
Joined
Apr 5, 2004
Messages
173
I am all for this idea. The character screen looks much better now. It might be a good idea to use these kinds of artistical screens around the game, to give graphics whores a break from the game engine. :P

But really, that art is beautiful and I think it provides such a nice RPG feel.
 

Hazelnut

Erudite
Joined
Dec 17, 2002
Messages
1,490
Location
UK
I think that the background image sucks... :|

But then, as long as I can easily read the numbers & letters, I don't really give a shit.
 

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