Concepts for Color-Blind options
Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2024 6:21 pm
I lurk on the forums, but I've seen discussions and mods to help colorblind players. Now, I am not colorblind myself, but I think accessibility is important, so I wanted to brainstorm some ways the game could be more friendly to colorblind players with more visual shorthands, and should not be difficult to implement from a technical standpoint so players who don't want these features can turn them off.
Inserters and Belts
In the field, give inserters a black colored band (I believe this would make it stand out visually against the colored areas) around the two segments of the moving arm, in the shape of an ^ or >, to indicate the inserter's speed in the same manner as belts and underground belts. Burner inserters have none, normal inserters have one, fast inserters have two, and stack inserters have three. For the upcoming bulk inserters, have one and two bands but at increased thickness.
In the menu, differentiate between them by small sideways > signs in the upper-right corner of the icon, once again none for burner, one for normal, two for fast, three for stack, and one and two thicker symbols for incoming bulk inserters. For long-handled inserters, use a -->, easy shorthand to indicate range.
I'd also suggest this system be applied to belts - yellow belts have more frequent yellow arrows on them, reds have them a bit more infrequent, and blue have them least frequent. In the menu icons, yellow belts have one arrow, red have two, blue have three. Undergrounds already have > markings on them, just recolor them a little to pop out more and once again go one-two-three. For splitters, there's a little less real estate for color, but it could still work - a single vertical stripe down the middle of the inserter's V shape for yellow, two on either side for red, three for blue. In the menu once again use arrows in the upper-right corners.
Products
For circuitboards, currently there are three wires running along their length, and that lends itself easily to a visual indicator - green circuits have a single wire, red circuits have two, and blue have three.
Modules, change the formation of the lights on them - left-right diagonal for efficiency, right-left diagonal for speed, clustered in the middle for productivity.
Explosives and cliff explosives, change one to have a single white band around them. Alternatively could just flip or rotate one of them, as-is I wouldn't mind a slightly different icon anyway.
Science packs - different shapes of flasks could be used, if there is a willingness for new models. There's the current one, simple vials/tubes, rounded bottoms, etc. Alternatively and more simply, you could stamp a letter on them for their type - A, L, M, C, P, U, S. This could also be applied to logistics chests - A, B, P, R, S.
Firearm magazines, once again the number of stripes on the side of the magazine - one for tier one, two for armor-piercing, three for uranium. Shells already have color differences one could see, as do rockets, they could simply be made to cover more of the projectile. I'd also make explosive shells have more of a rounded head to make them easier to tell apart from piercing shells; rockets have a smaller profile and fins, so I don't think confusion would arise. Poison and slowdown capsules, I'd make slowdown dark red instead of yellow for better contrast.
Fluids
I think this is the big one that would be a pain, since there's so many fluids in the game. For menu icons, I'd keep the droplet icon already in use for crude oil, use two smaller droplets side-by-side for heavy oil, and three smaller droplets in a triangle (like the heavy-to-light cracking icon) for light oil; the heavy-to-light cracking icon could be changed to two drops with an arrow pointing between them, as this is the only fluid-to-fluid icon one has to worry about keeping track of. For water, a faucet icon with a droplet coming out of it. Finally for lubrication, a droplet being dripped between two gears, kinda similar to the light oil-to-petroilium gas icon, but the gears should make it different enough. Alternative, could be a droplet dripping down from between two gears.
Then comes showing these differences in pipes and barrels in the field. Once again could stamp letters on barrels and pipes - C, H, Li, P, W, S, Lu. A bit more complex, but, barrels could have different lines along the side - one for crude oil, two for heavy oil, three for light oil, four for petroleum. Water could be zero lines, and sulfuric acid, and lubricant could be horizontal lines, one and two.
-------------
I'm very open to feedback, especially from players who are colorblind, on what people think of these ideas and if they have their own.
Inserters and Belts
In the field, give inserters a black colored band (I believe this would make it stand out visually against the colored areas) around the two segments of the moving arm, in the shape of an ^ or >, to indicate the inserter's speed in the same manner as belts and underground belts. Burner inserters have none, normal inserters have one, fast inserters have two, and stack inserters have three. For the upcoming bulk inserters, have one and two bands but at increased thickness.
In the menu, differentiate between them by small sideways > signs in the upper-right corner of the icon, once again none for burner, one for normal, two for fast, three for stack, and one and two thicker symbols for incoming bulk inserters. For long-handled inserters, use a -->, easy shorthand to indicate range.
I'd also suggest this system be applied to belts - yellow belts have more frequent yellow arrows on them, reds have them a bit more infrequent, and blue have them least frequent. In the menu icons, yellow belts have one arrow, red have two, blue have three. Undergrounds already have > markings on them, just recolor them a little to pop out more and once again go one-two-three. For splitters, there's a little less real estate for color, but it could still work - a single vertical stripe down the middle of the inserter's V shape for yellow, two on either side for red, three for blue. In the menu once again use arrows in the upper-right corners.
Products
For circuitboards, currently there are three wires running along their length, and that lends itself easily to a visual indicator - green circuits have a single wire, red circuits have two, and blue have three.
Modules, change the formation of the lights on them - left-right diagonal for efficiency, right-left diagonal for speed, clustered in the middle for productivity.
Explosives and cliff explosives, change one to have a single white band around them. Alternatively could just flip or rotate one of them, as-is I wouldn't mind a slightly different icon anyway.
Science packs - different shapes of flasks could be used, if there is a willingness for new models. There's the current one, simple vials/tubes, rounded bottoms, etc. Alternatively and more simply, you could stamp a letter on them for their type - A, L, M, C, P, U, S. This could also be applied to logistics chests - A, B, P, R, S.
Firearm magazines, once again the number of stripes on the side of the magazine - one for tier one, two for armor-piercing, three for uranium. Shells already have color differences one could see, as do rockets, they could simply be made to cover more of the projectile. I'd also make explosive shells have more of a rounded head to make them easier to tell apart from piercing shells; rockets have a smaller profile and fins, so I don't think confusion would arise. Poison and slowdown capsules, I'd make slowdown dark red instead of yellow for better contrast.
Fluids
I think this is the big one that would be a pain, since there's so many fluids in the game. For menu icons, I'd keep the droplet icon already in use for crude oil, use two smaller droplets side-by-side for heavy oil, and three smaller droplets in a triangle (like the heavy-to-light cracking icon) for light oil; the heavy-to-light cracking icon could be changed to two drops with an arrow pointing between them, as this is the only fluid-to-fluid icon one has to worry about keeping track of. For water, a faucet icon with a droplet coming out of it. Finally for lubrication, a droplet being dripped between two gears, kinda similar to the light oil-to-petroilium gas icon, but the gears should make it different enough. Alternative, could be a droplet dripping down from between two gears.
Then comes showing these differences in pipes and barrels in the field. Once again could stamp letters on barrels and pipes - C, H, Li, P, W, S, Lu. A bit more complex, but, barrels could have different lines along the side - one for crude oil, two for heavy oil, three for light oil, four for petroleum. Water could be zero lines, and sulfuric acid, and lubricant could be horizontal lines, one and two.
-------------
I'm very open to feedback, especially from players who are colorblind, on what people think of these ideas and if they have their own.
