Friday Facts #348 - The final GUI update

[valneq]

The "logistics" icon still uses the ancient cargo wagon design (see also the logistics techs in the current version). I hope this will be fixed for 1.0!
fff-348-new-gui-styles.png

At some point it was mentioned (not sure where the source is) that the technology icons will be touched again (redesigned?) after all entities and item icons were done. This icon is from the logistics tech, so it should be done in that later round of polishing. After all, many techs and these crafting category icons make reference to entities and items in the game. So it would be backwards to overhaul tech icons before items and entities are finished.

[RobertTerwilliger]

So finally I decided to put my foot down, call it good enough and say no to the constant stream of changes.

Fair enough.
In my native language there is a proverb:
"Better is a foe to good".
It means, you always can do better, but at some point it becomes wasteful usage of resources (including time, for sure).

[xenoscepter]

They seem to me like something out of a Mobile Game, at least aesthetically.

It looks almost... cartoon like.

[Illiou]

I think most of the new icons look really great, good work!

Some constructive criticism I have:
Most critically, the (what I assume to be) nuclear reactor doesn't really work for me. It reminds me mostly of a radioactive diving helmet with bonfire logs behind it...

Diving helmet.png (10.94 KiB) Viewed 7188 times

Maybe the main problem is that the perceived scale is way smaller than a building. I think it would need some features that reinforce that it's actually a huge building.

Secondly, the already mentioned engine does not remind me of an engine at all. At first I thought a more obvious depiction could be something like the electric engine but with more parts around it. Then I thought, maybe something like a one cylinder motorcycle engine would work well. Especially with this characteristic headsink.

Engines

Lastly, a few small things:

• The battery is not particularly intuitive for me, but I guess I can get used to it. Maybe making it look like it's two round batteries strapped together rather than one block would help?
• The sulfur looks a bit off. At first I thought it's the color (green tint?), then I thought the shading may add to that.
• The rocket silo could show the rocket, that would make it clearer what it is. I mean, that's what it ultimately looks like.
• I agree with others that the locomotive and rail car are too square, it looks kinda silly and unrecognizable.
• The strong contrast that the inner shadow of the steel bar produces makes them too attention-grabbing in-game.
• The way the conductive traces on the electronic circuits protrude even more unrealistically than before bothers me.

I would trade all of the art and sound changes for functionality polishing. Blueprint book library and a creation date displayed on the save game loading screen at the very least and sort on that date would be nice. Every time I want to start playing with a major mod, I resist because I already have 20 BP books and it is already a chore to find anything. I also have lots of save games and cannot tell which ones I played last. Annoying and gives a feeling of unfinished functionality.

Yeah, the fact that the save dialog doesn't show dates boggles my mind every time.

[sthag]

There is this icon for the fluid section in the menu which always tricks me in thinking it's the section for science packs.
Is it planned to change this for the final version?

I'm talking about this:


mmh, no bottles just drops


ahh, there are the bottles (packs)

[Khagan]

There is this icon for the fluid section in the menu which always tricks me in thinking it's the section for science packs.

+1. Always.

[valneq]

There is this icon for the fluid section in the menu which always tricks me in thinking it's the section for science packs.
Is it planned to change this for the final version?

I am convinced it is on their agenda. I can repeat once again, the current round of icon updates were for items. The crafting or item selecton icons will (and have to!) depend on what the finalized versions of the items will look like. You can easily see in your own screenshots that the other category icons do not reflect the new icon set, either. The devs must be aware of the fact that all these icons need to be changed in order to give a coherent look and feel.

[Mion]

and Coal Liquefaction looks messy with ingredients overlayed
Oil drop looks simply dirty Maybe separate a drop and coal like this?

+1 for this.
In addition, this new Coal liquefaction icon contributes to some trypophobiс feelings.
It will be good to separate a drop and coal.

[Asterix]

Wait... The final GUI update? So... The rest of the UI will remain untouched?

- No little button to toggle the minimap on and off without going through three menus each time?
- No scrolling the contents of the logistic networks and chests, or hovering to see the tooltips?
- No additional zooming out of the god view so that you can at least have it at the same zoom level as the player view?

These are three things off the top of my head that would QoL updates, most significantly for modded playtroughs such as AngelBob, and basically any mod that introduces significant amounts of additional items. It gets to the point where you cannot see the entire content of your networks. Toggling the minimap helps, but it's clunky, and even then, sometimes the space just isn't enough.

If this really is the final GUI update... It seems a little lacking compared to the rest of the game.

[scooter010]

Bildschirmfoto von 2020-05-26 16-16-17.png (9.93 KiB) Viewed 6927 times

Mk1 Personal Battery

Bildschirmfoto von 2020-05-26 17-23-05.png (10.66 KiB) Viewed 6927 times

Mk2 Personal Battery

???

Bildschirmfoto von 2020-05-26 17-23-17.png (7.68 KiB) Viewed 6927 times

???

Bildschirmfoto von 2020-05-26 17-23-12.png (6.6 KiB) Viewed 6927 times

"raw" Battery???

Bildschirmfoto von 2020-05-26 17-22-57.png (8.69 KiB) Viewed 6927 times

Battery for electric network

[Illiou]

In addition, this new Coal liquefaction icon contributes to some trypophobiс feelings.

Damn, now I know why my eyes kept jumping back to this icon. It also looks a bit like eyes somehow.

[5thHorseman]

In addition, this new Coal liquefaction icon contributes to some trypophobiс feelings.

Damn, now I know why my eyes kept jumping back to this icon. It also looks a bit like eyes somehow.

I can't unsee Albert Einstein.

[fenix2777]

They seem to me like something out of a Mobile Game, at least aesthetically.

It looks almost... cartoon like.

Yeah cartoon looking icons its sad We are loosing the vibe.

[xeln4g4]

Overall a very good job! But ...

New icons i can not stand:

- Engines: both normal and electric
- Modules (still using old ones pre 3d)
- Coal liquefaction (look like a little face it's terrible!!!)
- Battery (i will keep using the old beloved "copyrighted" one)

Some other i am trying to get used ... but maybe i will go back to originals (i.e.: concrete, loco ...). I am very classic person, tend to stick with what i like first.

Can't say the same for the sound part ... hate to say it was better the old way for most part. Personal laser sound "laser-beam.ogg" it's total mess ... did you intend to annoy your players with that??? Please fix that one soon!!!

[Overlord218]

Hi! I think, all people appreciate amount of efforts you put in icon but here some problem:
New icons too brigth and "soft" like plush toys (especially nuclear reactor, pumpjack, heat pipe and some others). Old icons were "rust" and feels like they was literally hand-maded. Rust and dirt on old icons doesn't look like some "cosmetic feature only for aesthetic" it looks like nature thing.

[posila]

community-be-like.png (253.58 KiB) Viewed 6652 times

I don't mean to offend anyone, I just wanted to show some of the old and new icons side by side and have some fun with it

Icons were being designed as "caricatures" of entities they represent for a long time now. The original nuclear reactor icon back from 2017 was caricatures as well. As Vaclav wrote in FFF: "Reworking all icons is a gargantuan project, but redoing individual icons can be very quick and done silently without breaking any mods" - if you don't like overall style, unfortunatelly that's not something we are able to act upon, but we will try to improve icons about which lot of people feel like they are not good representation for items they are associated with.

[5thHorseman]

community-be-like.png

OH. That's a HEAT PIPE.

I swear I thought it was laser beams. I don't mind the style at all but the "+" is pretty important for me for recognition. I mean, now that I know it doesn't matter but I'd never have thought of it myself.

[steinio]

community-be-like.png

OH. That's a HEAT PIPE.

I swear I thought it was laser beams. I don't mind the style at all but the "+" is pretty important for me for recognition. I mean, now that I know it doesn't matter but I'd never have thought of it myself.

If there just would be any overlay which shows the name in crafting menu...

[5thHorseman]

community-be-like.png

OH. That's a HEAT PIPE.

I swear I thought it was laser beams. I don't mind the style at all but the "+" is pretty important for me for recognition. I mean, now that I know it doesn't matter but I'd never have thought of it myself.

If there just would be any overlay which shows the name in crafting menu...

I've not loaded the game since the update dropped because I've been very busy IRL. But none of this changes the fact that some of the icons are less then recognizable.

And FTR 99% of the icons look fine to me. I'm not too hip on the engine, heat pipe, Albert Einstein coal liquefaction, electric mining drill, or a few others but that's only because the icons stray so far from what the items look like in-game.

Except coal liquefaction as it doesn't have an actual look in game. The proposed icon just freaks me the hell out.

coal-liq-soon.jpg (3.67 KiB) Viewed 6579 times

[Drury]

The item icons looking minimalistic is fine by me given they're kinda, well, minimal by nature. I mean, you don't want a lot of details on things that appear en masse on belts and in cramped inventory grids. In fact, one of the worst offenders on this front had been the old battery redesign, which felt too visually noisy with the colored wires and LEDs, so glad that's fixed.

also, objective facts: