Circuit network colors
Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 8:45 pm
I love your idea about giving certain circuit network keys intuitive functional characteristics. The color keys driving light color is brilliant. I think this is such a cool way to keep a similar level of complexity in both implementation and UI/UX, while subtly providing another tool for users that want it
I think that you don't get much from providing 9 distinct color keys. Besides color keys, there are already 36+ custom keys. It might be more powerful to lose a few keys, but uncap the range of color options. One idea that's everywhere is 3 axes of a color wheel, and then you could combine the three axes to produce the final color for a light. You could use keys [red, green, blue] with values 0-C to choose any color. You could also dynamically generate colors from multiple sources
I don't know if i fully support my own suggestion, part of what i like about the current approach is its subtlety and simplicity, but i thought i'd share the idea. Personally, my recommendation comes down to if the players using the colorized light feature at all are generally happy with the color choices. If there are a lot of people asking for color X,Y,Z, i'd lean towards a more open-ended system, otherwise these quick options are perfect
I like to use colors as an intuitive symbol for something. For example, ive got a train refueling depo which i decided would operate on a cold war mentality. it'd accept any type of fuel, but will only distribute the best type of fuel it has currently stockpiled. It's nice to have a light displaying which fuel currently has priority, or an error color if none are, but the current color distribution is a rough fit for some fuel types
I think that you don't get much from providing 9 distinct color keys. Besides color keys, there are already 36+ custom keys. It might be more powerful to lose a few keys, but uncap the range of color options. One idea that's everywhere is 3 axes of a color wheel, and then you could combine the three axes to produce the final color for a light. You could use keys [red, green, blue] with values 0-C to choose any color. You could also dynamically generate colors from multiple sources
I don't know if i fully support my own suggestion, part of what i like about the current approach is its subtlety and simplicity, but i thought i'd share the idea. Personally, my recommendation comes down to if the players using the colorized light feature at all are generally happy with the color choices. If there are a lot of people asking for color X,Y,Z, i'd lean towards a more open-ended system, otherwise these quick options are perfect
I like to use colors as an intuitive symbol for something. For example, ive got a train refueling depo which i decided would operate on a cold war mentality. it'd accept any type of fuel, but will only distribute the best type of fuel it has currently stockpiled. It's nice to have a light displaying which fuel currently has priority, or an error color if none are, but the current color distribution is a rough fit for some fuel types