Additional quality graphics: Quality Trim

[wretlaw120]

TL;DR

Add a "trim" to most machines where quality does something important, to help distinguish them in a more diegetic fashion.

What?

Quality, without the little dots, is utterly unreadable. I also think that the quality dots add visual clutter. So, I suggest this:

quality_trim_1.png (648.14 KiB) Viewed 1265 times

And here's what a super spaghetti factory might look like (with no SA buildings because... I'm not from the future).

quality_2.png (3.36 MiB) Viewed 1265 times

Hopefully, one(two) image(s) is(are) worth a thousand words.

Do note that I am not an artist, so it looks terrible. It's the idea that counts, ok?

I would think that the implementation would be an additional mask on top of the machines, with the color being determined by the quality level.

Why?

Looks fancy, makes higher quality machines graphically distinctive. Includes the ability to appreciate your factory's quality even with alt mode off. (because *some* of us like looking at and appreciating machine graphics sometimes :V )

Also, this does not need to be mutually exclusive with the dots in alt mode. I would suggest two tiers of quality dots showing up, like, normal and verbose dots or something, with verbose dots showing up on machines with trim when turned on, for colorblind users.

[AkaraVortex]

Idea itself is interesting, however such visual distinction just should not be done with trims.

Quality naming was claimed as unfitting from the beginning, but for names and icons this is fine and easy to grasp. However machines in the game look heavy and industrial, serious even, and this is foundational part of a game. But adding color trim to machines makes factory look more like cheap gaming PC where there are more LEDs than performance.

Also this is quite a pain for mod makers to keep up with, an maybe even for main dev team themselves.

I would done in a fashion that there is not a trim mask, but rust / dirt / dim procedural mask on machines, so higher quality items look more shiny, while lower quality ones more rugged, rusty and shabby. But probably this is even harder to make.

I appreciate and understand your suggestion and also want to have some visual upgrade for better quality, but I still has to come up with a good idea.

[Brathahn]

i would really like this idea as a mod! maybe the devs can add some magic to the game so a mod can alter colors of buildings like turrets or cars get the color of the player?

[Shadow_Man]

+1
Great idea. Devs, make this as an toggleable option.

[mmmPI]

1) It look appealing, made me think of : https://mods.factorio.com/mod/reskins-bobs

2)Using only the trim for when just the quality is different, unlike in the mod where the whole machine except the trim is changing color also make sense to me , to show "just the quality" is different, not the tier of the machines, i like the logic

[Koub]

Do remember that Wube are constantly requested adaptations for colour blind people - and are even sometimes kind of blamed for not accounting more for the colour blind.
Replacing the dots by a colour sliver would be an additional step towards the "colour blind people will struggle with it", which isn't desirable.

So I guess the suggestion would transform into "well, just implement and keep both as options", which would double the work for little added value.

[Illiander42]

Do remember that Wube are constantly requested adaptations for colour blind people - and are even sometimes kind of blamed for not accounting more for the colour blind.
Replacing the dots by a colour sliver would be an additional step towards the "colour blind people will struggle with it", which isn't desirable.

So I guess the suggestion would transform into "well, just implement and keep both as options", which would double the work for little added value.

They've already got the dots.

Adding trim doesn't mean taking away the dots.

[Koub]

Adding trim doesn't mean taking away the dots.

I was under the impression it was what OP requested with this part :

Quality, without the little dots, is utterly unreadable. I also think that the quality dots add visual clutter. So, I suggest this:

Apparently, I missed the very bottom of OP's suggestion, I (re) discovered right now, my bad.

[Brathahn]

Do remember that Wube are constantly requested adaptations for colour blind people - and are even sometimes kind of blamed for not accounting more for the colour blind.
Replacing the dots by a colour sliver would be an additional step towards the "colour blind people will struggle with it", which isn't desirable.

So I guess the suggestion would transform into "well, just implement and keep both as options", which would double the work for little added value.

i really dislike this type of thinking... just because some minority will not profit from this, shouldnt mean that you have to cripple your product for the sake of pleasing everyone.
instead of making the base game "worse", why not let the color blind people create their own mod to improve the visibility?

[Stringweasel]

Add a "trim" to most machines where quality does something important, to help distinguish them in a more diegetic fashion.

This is an awesome idea! I also dislike the "artificial" dots and prefer information to be given to me through the world itself.

[Sliverious]

i really dislike this type of thinking... just because some minority will not profit from this, shouldnt mean that you have to cripple your product for the sake of pleasing everyone.
instead of making the base game "worse", why not let the color blind people create their own mod to improve the visibility?

There is the aspect of inclusivity that is an increasingly important aspect in product offerings in all industries. Whether you agree with making that effort or not on a personal level, a company has to make a reasonable commitment to inclusivity to perform in modern markets. Personally I dislike the current dots and will look to replace them with a mod such as this thread suggests, but for WUBE the argument may well be the other way around: let people who dislike the dots create a mod to remove them.

[aka13]

has to make a reasonable commitment to inclusivity to perform in modern markets

Or it's a completely made up thing, just like many things before it, and a marketing fad which does not relate to performance in the market at all.
You can never tell, until you see the sale numbers, and not the marketing gimmicks.
Happens a lot more often, then a person unrelated to s&m might think.

For me a good compromise would be the trim, and the dots for alt mode. Same as the beacons work currently, where you have visual changes on the model, as well an indicator for alt mode.
Trim definately sounds fun!

[Sliverious]

has to make a reasonable commitment to inclusivity to perform in modern markets

Or it's a completely made up thing, just like many things before it, and a marketing fad which does not relate to performance in the market at all.
You can never tell, until you see the sale numbers, and not the marketing gimmicks.
Happens a lot more often, then a person unrelated to s&m might think.

Fad or not, there is a business case for it and the same one that makes big companies change their logo's to rainbows during pride month: it is a low effort optimization for a marginal improvement. I do agree that the sales numbers will have to show this, but it is very hard to do something like principal component analysis on why people buy things. Might as well try some low effort strategies like these.

Anyways, the whole business and sales side of things wasn't really my point to get into. I like OPs idea to add some non-intrusive indicator, whether in the base game or as a mod.