Friday Facts #238 - The GUI update (Part II)

[Klonan]

https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-238

[Jürgen Erhard]

This looks just different for difference's sake. No, different or "new" isn't automatically better.

What is striking compared to current is it's much brighter, much more "screaming". I like the current more subdued look. Well, maybe it'll be moddable. Hint: it *better be*.

[Nemoricus]

The main issue I see with the tech tree as it is lies in the icons. They're very busy, and while they look nice up close, when viewed from a more distant perspective, it's difficult to quickly identify which technology is which. The icons should be revisited, with an eye towards making them readily distinguishable in play.

[Rhamphoryncus]

Whoa. My first thought was how different it looked. My second thought was that my eyes were drawn to the icons rather than the beakers, exactly as it should be!

It might be possible reduce the noise a bit more by removing the line between the beaker section and the icon section, just having a fade from the bright background to dark background.

[bobucles]

How can you research pocket fusion but not have land mines? The nerve!

It would be nice for research potions to have unique shapes. It's more of a color blind feature but it can add some personality to the beakers themselves:
Red: thin glass
Green: Classic round
Blue: Triangle beaker
Military: Ammo or grenade shaped beaker
Production: Belt/arrow or square shape
High tech: Light bulb shape
Science: Star/moon shape

[jaworeq]

So if we're getting a queue, will I be able to click on some further tech and have all the required techs queue up?
For example, if I wanted to queue up accumulators, batteries could be automatically added to the queue.

[Termak]

I love the new look of the GUI, i have always liked clean UIs.

[chris13524]

If not already, it may be worth adding a maximum size to the research queue. This prevents players from planning out their entire research flow which kind of ruins the fun. Just a thought.

[IronCartographer]

More combat robot tiers? Getting rid of the exponential costs, while incorporating uranium rounds perhaps?

As for the UI, I'm conflicted. The consistency and increased detail will be welcome, but those mockups...kind of look like skittles melting together to form brown.

One quick suggestion is to remove the shadows from the centers of the tech icons (unless they represent planned, individualized improvements to the icons), but keep the highlight seen on the moused-over one. The shadows detract, but the highlighting works well.

[daniel34]

I personally had problem understanding, that the Queue button is actually a button on a first glance.

Agreed, I actually had to read the FFF a second time (this time thoroughly and comparing the images) to find the Queue button since it's visually not very distinguishable from the other states. Also the text seems misleading, "Queue" could mean the queue itself (noun) or the action of queueing the item (verb), it might be better to rename it to "Add to queue" or similar to make the intention clearer.

Which brings me to another point that you should consider when finalizing the design: Translations.
Queue is a short word in the English language and can be used as noun and verb. In German it's usually translated as "Warteschlange" (noun), and it cannot be directly used as a verb. "(add) to queue" is usually translated as "Zur Warteschlange hinzufügen", which I'm certain does not fit into the current space.

[Deadlock989]

This already looks like a big improvement. Readability/contrast is very important for a lot of us, we don't all have 20/20 vision (hint hint: mod portal font and colours, especially discussion text). It would be nice to have configurable colour schemes for GUIs like the research tree as well, I'm not colour blind myself but I know a few people that are, and red/green issues are the most common.

[Loewchen]

This looks very nice and thought through, the "Queue" and "Queued" difference with the pressed button and changed text is too subtle imo. I hope the train UI will get a complete makeover, with symbols for the waiting conditions right next to the stop names.

[DanGio]

I like :
- the queue, of course. As Jaworeq said, auto-queue intermediate research seems a must.
- featured tech integration in the tree. It just amazes me.
- progress bar in the research card.
- the darkened science packs area.

I dislike :
- vibrant colors. Well in a way, I like that amplified contrast. But that green, wow.
- "tech number x" diagonal strip. It looks as it was more important that the tech itself.

I don't care :
- that the "Combat robotics" tech requires now 4 times more science packs.

The queue button :
What I really want is a way to queue a tech without moving the mouse. Can do it from the left panel ? Like by double clicking on the card or anything ?

[trad_emark]

STANDARDIZE PLEASE!
confirmations to bottom right! buttons that look like buttons!

[trad_emark]

I am very pleased to hear that you are actually thinking about the CONTRAST.

blur the background and make it darker.
(for example, current chat is almost impossible to read!).

[BratrilliantG7]

I love the GUI changes so far, and the addition of a Queue system will be incredible. There are only two gripes I have with the current look:

• 1) The contrast between the dark borders and backing on the list and tree and the light border on the Queue section is a bit too much. That light grey doesn't really mix well with the rest of the screen in my opinion.
  2) That "Queue" button on the selected items in the tree is hard to decipher. My first guess when I saw the first picture was that Combat Robotics was actually queued already, but then I looked over at the queue and it wasn't there, which left me confused. While I'm not sure how to make it seem more like a Button like Kovarex wants, a quick way to ease that confusion I felt would be to make the Queue button follow the color scheme you've already got in place for available technology:

  Yellow for available, orange for queued, red unavailable, and green researched.

  Make it yellow instead of orange, since the orange is what implies it's already queued when it's not.

[Zavian]

Actually I think change the label of the queue button to read "Add to Queue", that would reduce instances of misreading "Queue" as "Queued".

[muzzy]

Just one thing: that black blur near the borders inside of widgets (item slots, research buttons), KILL IT.

If you really NEED to have it, please render the effect to make it look physically reasonable instead of just slapping a cheap blurred bevel/inset effect.

That goddamn blur of black is making it literally impossible for me to play the game.

[Omnifarious]

My reactions are these:

• Wow, that's pretty and nice looking.
• Hey, a queue! That will certainly be helpful.
• Hmm, I would've thought a color progression that reflected the state progression would be more in order. Red -> Orange -> Yellow -> Green = Unavailable -> Available -> Queued/Researching -> Researched, though I suppose a case could be made for red and orange indicating that the items couldn't be queue. But then green?!
• Oh, he says there's some kind of problem with confirmation buttons? Confirmation buttons? Where? I can't see any confirmation buttons. Wouldn't you just drag research items up into the queue?
• Oh, the queue things have little x's underneath them. I guess that's how you'd cancel something. If I were actually using the GUI I'd certainly notice that and draw the right conclusion.
• Where the heck is the 'confirmation button' he's talking about? I mean, it just looks like you should drag things, which I would find a little irritating, but that looks like what you should do. Where's the button?
• I really like the way level numbers show up so well now. I could hardly see them before.
• Horizontal scrollbars? I hate those things! What are THEY doing there? There should never be horizontal scroll bars.
• Where's this confirmation button? I still can't see it.

[Nexarius]

Could you add a background on new chat lines? it's sometimes really hard / annoying to read if the background has the same color.