[kovarex] [0.16.2] Map colors: major visibility issues

[Lav]

I find that the colors used for global map in 0.16 are nearly unplayable.

Resource patches are the most important map feature. Yet half of the time they're practically invisible on the background of terrain colors. What's worse, it feels like resource patch colors have been made more muted compared to 0.15.

[Loewchen]

Post a screenshot showing what you mean please.

[Serenity]

The red circle contains a tiny patch of stone that you can't see on the map

With the green circle you can see the checkerboard pattern on the large map, but not on the minimap. I also couldn't really see it in the map preview. It was only the irregular outline that made me thing it's a stone patch. Otherwise the color is the same that brown/grey terrain in the north-west

[Inglonias]

I don't know if I'd call this a bug so much as I would a mistake. It definitely needs fixing.

The color of stone on the minimap in that screenshot is 127, 111, 85 (RGB). The color of the area around the small patch on the main map is 123, 109, 82 (RGB again)

I'm no colorist, but that is WAAAAAAAY too similar. Each individual color value differs by, at most, 4 out of 255.

[Sparen]

I personally think that the colors that are used for terrain have suddenly turned brown and gray compared to 0.15, which had more 'vibrant' colors for the terrain. The contrast used to be better.

[Serenity]

Here is another good example. This is a relatively large (1.9M) stone patch. But you can only really see the upper part that's on the darker terrain. If you know it's there it's also possible to see the rest, but otherwise your eyes kind of move over it

[V453000]

We’ll revisit the terrain colours, thank you for the report.

[Lav]

I'll try to post a few screenshots myself tomorrow.

In addition to stone, there are frequent issues with coal (vs darker terrains) and surprisingly iron (not frequently but still).

Stone was sometimes hard to see in 0.15 too, but not to this degree.

Even copper is hard to detect sometimes though not due to merging colors - more because there are too many high-contrast color transitions now, so the contrast between copper and surrounding terrain is actually less drastic and the eye simply "glances off" it.

Now that I think of it, another factor might be the forests - they create a "checkered" texture similar to that of ore patches, which may contribute a lot to camouflage of nearby ores.

[deef0000dragon1]

Suggestion for this: allow players to adjust map colors themselves in the options.
Extension to this would be the ability to load a config file that has the colors and settings.

I am ... less than thrilled myself about certain choices on map coloration, and would like to be able to set, if not each item(again, in a config file or something), each set of items that already group to a color.

[Fraisev*che]

Yes I agree something should be done about this!

Another idea that could be great would be to have an option to have an icon of the resource type hovering at the center of each patch on the map. It would catch the eye easily and allow the player to make choices quickly. It might even be greater to also show the size of the patch alongside the icon just like stack sizes.

[IronCartographer]

Another related suggestion: Map search box, for resources at least, and maybe even for machines with a certain recipe assigned.

Submitted here: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=57010

[HurkWurk]

i would recommend always outlining resource patches. or having a toggle. the white/black outlines would highlight the resource patches very nicely for players to see on the preview map.

[BenSeidel]

Anyone ever played Seven Kingdoms?
In that game the mini-map had 3 visual settings
1) Fully drawn
All items, including the terrain types were drawn.
2) Flat map
Land is gray, water is blue and all obstetrical (cliffs & water), buildings, towns & units were drawn
3) minimum
Land is gray, water is blue and only buildings, towns & units are drawn

[Inglonias]

Has this been worked on? The reason I ask is because it feels like stone patches are now much brighter on the map than they once were.

[ethernal]

As long as we talk about colors - FLUIDS - WATER and LUBRICANT are way to similar and fluids in general could be more vibrant (in pipes for example).

[kovarex]

The map versus resource colors seem to not have these problems anymore.

I created a test, that checks all resource colors versus tile colors, so we should notice if it happens again in the future.