Visual indication of effects.

posted on August 8th, 2011, 5:57 am

I know I haven't been too active on here this last week or so, as I mentioned I've been on the SOTS forums instead.  And there's one thing I'd like to steal from them and suggest to you.

Kerberos studios has a policy of always visually representing ship damage and effects so that health bars and other UI elements are secondary.  They think you should always be able to see what's going on at a glance.  And while this isn't completely practical for Fleet Ops, I think we can learn from it.

I suggest that abilities that have an effect over time should also have a visual effect that, if possible, matches the duration of the effect.  For example, when a Romulan Griffin uses Sensor Jammer, the ships that are affected should continue to have the gold sparks until their weapons or sensors come back online.  When a Stealth Field or Fleet Supply ability is used, it should likewise endure as long as the effect is active.  Right now it is VERY hard to tell when one effect ends and it is time to use another, or whether your ability with a chance to disable the enemy has actually worked.  If you just put a little green glow around borg ships that have Order to Chaos on them, that would make the ability WAY more user-friendly, and result in a better game all around.

posted on August 8th, 2011, 11:11 am

you are right, usability is a very important matter. we'd really like to improve special weapons with visual aids for the player, however currently armada lacks the tools to properly implement such the way we'd like them to be.
more input on this topic is welcome

posted on August 8th, 2011, 3:17 pm

Hm, well, a large amount of special abilities can actually be coded already to display better visual aids (like Sphere Regeneration, self targeting cannonimps, replacelweapons - etc), I guess it's just there hasn't been enough time yet, as it is quite hard to make such (good) animations from what Optec has said. 

As for specials that effect units differently based on (like debuffers) I take it is not yet possible to make Effect Icons trigger an animation on the ship... would be nice if more ordnances could use particleArt/some other effect-based command to display some animation for their duration 

posted on August 8th, 2011, 3:39 pm

Yeah, I can see two problems that need to be overcome.

First would be the fact that such effects don't last the same duration on every ship as determined by system value (Although positive effects like fleet supply or replaceweapon effects would be much easier)

The second is the fact that it's just much easier to find people willing to make free ship models than it is to find free special effect makers.  Do they even use the same programs as static modeling?  I'd be interested in learning how to do it but it could be a long time before I have something good enough to contribute.

((By the way, since we're on the topic, I want to mention that the generix spectre's green shield thing is wicked cool looking.  Kudos to whoever made that!))

posted on August 8th, 2011, 4:19 pm

Yes, that's why it would be nice for the buff icons (which last for the length of the ability) or the ordnance (which also lasts for the length) make the effect - the weapon icon (the firing item) is responsible for things like the Fleet Supply animation, but that only works out if it is supposed to last a specific amount of time for all ships (which in this example is the same across all vessels however...). Optec makes nearly all (if not all) of the animations (Implosion was one he was quite fond of) - both ships and animations take a good deal of time and skill to make, but animations can be quite painful to get into a nice looking state.

posted on August 8th, 2011, 4:46 pm

Is it possible to make a "buff" icon for unfriendly effects?  In most cases people wouldn't have time to mouse over it and get a description but the icon picture could at least show you when it ends and make it easier for future work...

Ohhhhh I think I see the problem. Is it possible to make it so the first icon goes in a certain place and the second one goes next to it, etc?  Because if the icon position isn't flexible you'd have to reserve a spot for every icon that can possibly go on the ship...

posted on August 8th, 2011, 5:10 pm

This is indeed an hot topic for me and sooner or later i would like to add buff effects to all relevant abilities. sadly thats quite a sensible topic, as too many or too dominant effects would make the game look like a comic fantasy advanture, rather than star trek

posted on August 8th, 2011, 5:26 pm

Right, not to mention how it can look when a ship is affected by 2 or more abilities at the same time 

What program do you use to create the effects we have right now?

posted on August 8th, 2011, 5:35 pm

as with most models in Fleet Operations: 3dsmax and corel photopaint

posted on August 8th, 2011, 5:40 pm

sadly thats quite a sensible topic, as too many or too dominant effects would make the game look like a comic fantasy advanture, rather than star trek

maybe it could be toggled with an option. completely speaking for myself, i would love tactical animations or a tactical overlay making things such as buffs very obvious but not looking like trek. could say that the player controlling the ships is the fleet admiral ordering people to move from a computer interface, and the computer would give information with an overlay.

and anyone wanting more realism or taking screenshots could just turn off the fancy overlay.

reminds me of some first person shooters where you can choose the level of hud icons you want, such as bullet counts and arrows pointing to nearby allies etc.

posted on August 8th, 2011, 6:40 pm

What would be really nice would be when (if successful) the team glowy color toggle is added in that it could also toggle an effect icon buff on each ship - I.E. maybe even simple small icons would be shown hovering above the ship, like are on ship miniimage display. It would be useful, and not obscure the UI nearly as much as all the explosions and animations (which can get to be too much sometimes).