Blueprint Book Covers
Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2019 3:29 pm
As of v. 0.17.66, blueprint books do not have good covers. Take a look at the screenshot attached. I have 7 blueprint books, and I am never able to tell which book is which by just looking at their icon. I have to resort to reading their name every time, otherwise I am completely unable to recognize anything.
The reasons are at least threefold: First, the covers are very similar to each other, all a blue book with a blueprint icon. Second, the icon for each book changes depending on which blueprint from it was last selected, meaning that the cover for any given book changes just as frequently as you have a need to use the book. Thirdly, changing the selected blueprint in a book changes the ordering of the book in your inventory (automatic sorting enabled). This leads to the jarring situation where not only are all books similar in appearance, but they also change in appearance so any hope of forming a visual memory for a specific book's cover, or even for the order of the inventory itself, is completely gone.
Fixing any one of these issues would improve usability a lot. For example, allow book covers to be colored similar to trains and train stations. Alternatively, allow covers to have a static picture on them. Ideally even, allow for both to be possible at the same time. Fixing the ordering issue is not as influential, but would still meaningfully contribute to usability.
The reasons are at least threefold: First, the covers are very similar to each other, all a blue book with a blueprint icon. Second, the icon for each book changes depending on which blueprint from it was last selected, meaning that the cover for any given book changes just as frequently as you have a need to use the book. Thirdly, changing the selected blueprint in a book changes the ordering of the book in your inventory (automatic sorting enabled). This leads to the jarring situation where not only are all books similar in appearance, but they also change in appearance so any hope of forming a visual memory for a specific book's cover, or even for the order of the inventory itself, is completely gone.
Fixing any one of these issues would improve usability a lot. For example, allow book covers to be colored similar to trains and train stations. Alternatively, allow covers to have a static picture on them. Ideally even, allow for both to be possible at the same time. Fixing the ordering issue is not as influential, but would still meaningfully contribute to usability.