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Icon Request: Allies

Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 11:41 am
by Geoff the Medio
Similar to peace: https://github.com/freeorion/freeorion/ ... /peace.png
and war: https://github.com/freeorion/freeorion/ ... ns/war.png

I would like to have an icon for an "allied" diplomatic status.

Also, if some competent artist wants to replace the war icon programmer art, that would be good.

Re: Icon Request: Allies

Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 5:40 pm
by AndrewW
Geoff the Medio wrote:Also, if some competent artist wants to replace the war icon programmer art, that would be good.
You know, I just happen to have a sword I made awhile back just for fun...
War.png
War.png (5.95 KiB) Viewed 9238 times

Re: Icon Request: Allies

Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 6:14 pm
by AndrewW
Geoff the Medio wrote:I would like to have an icon for an "allied" diplomatic status.
allied.png
allied.png (3.09 KiB) Viewed 9235 times
Note, in this case not entirely my own had an idea and decided to see if there was already something to use. But completely open license:

https://openclipart.org/share

Re: Icon Request: Allies

Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 7:53 pm
by Ouaz
The "war" icon posted by AndrewW (the two crossed swords) looks good in-game.

But for the "allied" diplomatic status, rather than a handshake, why not use a shield (as opposite to the swords), meaning each empire will defend/help the other one?

After tweaking this:
diplomacy_icons.png
diplomacy_icons.png (6.36 KiB) Viewed 9229 times

Re: Icon Request: Allies

Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 8:50 pm
by AndrewW
Ouaz wrote:But for the "allied" diplomatic status, rather than a handshake, why not use a shield (as opposite to the swords), meaning each empire will defend/help the other one?
Looks ok to me. Actually thought about adding a shield to the crossed swords (either a small one where they cross or a larger one in the background so the swords would be on the shield) but decided simpler was better at the small size (as is the swords do lose a lot of detail).

Re: Icon Request: Allies

Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 10:07 pm
by Geoff the Medio
If one / both of you can make github pull request, and preferable also a pull request to the assets repository, that would be appreciated.

Also, both standard and mouseover versions of these icons are needed.

Re: Icon Request: Allies

Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2017 10:30 pm
by Dilvish
Ouaz wrote:But for the "allied" diplomatic status, rather than a handshake, why not use a shield (as opposite to the swords), meaning each empire will defend/help the other one?
Although two players who are allied *could* choose to make that a mutual-defense alliance, the actual ingame mechanics for allies all seem to me to be directed towards simple cooperation-type things-- not attacking each other, sharing supply, sharing access to some special resources/facilities (at least, it's my recollection that there are some that get shared with allies). So it actually seems to me that the handshake is more fitting.

Re: Icon Request: Allies

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 7:45 pm
by adrian_broher
I'm a bit torn.

When hearing the term 'alliance' no immediate symbol pops up in my mind. And none of the symbols google spits out for alliance I consider fitting.

I agree that the shield shows too much of an emphasis for a mutual-defense system, that isn't available in this form. However I consider the handshake better fit for any future general diplomacy tab/category/view in the UI.

What do you think about a protecting hand pose?

http://previews.123rf.com/images/mariok ... -Photo.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/50 ... U0vqi.jpeg

This could be used with or without a planet that is wrapped.

However, it may or may not be hard to interpret at this size.

Re: Icon Request: Allies

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 11:00 pm
by Krikkitone
How about overlapping rings (venn diagram style) for a 'non military' alliance.

Re: Icon Request: Allies

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 11:41 pm
by Dilvish
Krikkitone wrote:How about overlapping rings (venn diagram style) for a 'non military' alliance.
Especially if they have an overlap/underlap like the Olympic rings, that would seem like a pretty decent symbol to me, emphasizing the interconnectedness aspect, (and as a minor side-note apparently the 5-ring Olympic symbol was actually modeled after a 2-ring logo made for an alliance of two athletic organizations).

Re: Icon Request: Allies

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 8:02 am
by MatGB
My initial thought was for a handshake and I was looking at various examples when Andrew posted his suggestion: if we do use that then one of the hands should have many fingers that look like claws or something, obviously ;-)

But overlapping rings should work as well, but perhaps not be intuitively obvious. We can of course always redo all the current diplomatic icons when we have a proper diplomacy system, because the current states are just filler anyway, but quite important for our multiplayer group which is giving us such valuable feedback now that helping them out is a good thing.

Re: Icon Request: Allies

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 5:33 pm
by Ouaz
What about a simple ring with a "plus" icon inside:
diplomacy_icons.png
diplomacy_icons.png (6.48 KiB) Viewed 9145 times
Reminds the peace icon, but the "+" icon means there may be an active cooperation.

On the other hand, now, the war icon (crossed swords) needs to be a little bit accentuated, maybe with a red color, or bigger swords.

Re: Icon Request: Allies

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 5:45 pm
by dbenage-cx
I like Ouaz's second proposal since it styles well with the peace icon. White associates closer to neutral to me, so I'd propose either swap colors with peace,
or use a light blue for allied and a darker green for peace (in event of b/g color blindness).

Maybe a similar circle with a jagged cut through the center for war?

Re: Icon Request: Allies

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 12:16 am
by Ouaz
I did some tests:
diplomacy_icons2.png
diplomacy_icons2.png (16.97 KiB) Viewed 9122 times
- I slightly desaturated the current "peace" icon, rather than make it pure white.
- I used the common "traffic light" colors for the "allied" and "war" icons:
> allied = light green circle and "+" inside
> war = red circle and a yellow "bolt" icon inside (everything red doesn't look nice). If you have a better idea than a bolt, let me know. But it has to be an icon as simple as possible, because it is very tiny. ^^ I tried a stylized explosion (like the "blam" icon https://github.com/freeorion/freeorion/ ... m/blam.png), but even a such simple form doesn't look good at this tiny size.

Note: if the "allied" icon is accepted, the light green color should be removed from the selectable empire colors, because the same green color for the icon and the empire's name can be confusing, like on this screenshot (moreover, the almost same green is already used for coloring the pedia links).

Re: Icon Request: Allies

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 7:35 am
by Geoff the Medio
The (+) icon looks a bit too much like an expand/collapse button (eg. in the objects list, though there without a circle around it). I prefer the more distinct appearance of the crossed swords war icon... they don't all have to be circles.