
At the bottom are two possible sets, one varies in total size, one doesn't. The shapes are based on Josh's previous work. The more complex the shapes are, the larger(more complex) the fleet is.
I didn't mean to just show fleet size, but also liked how different formations or maybe different ship types, working as a group is suggested in those Icons.The Silent One wrote:One objection, though... the shapes don't convey the fleet size easily
That is assuming, the number of ships is the most important thing, which might not be the case. Maybe not the size is important but the strength. A single ship might be stronger than 10 others.M4lV wrote:In order to keep track with growing ship numbers in fleets in later tech eras, one should let the program sum up all ships on map and take this number to define small, medium and large fleets
I like having the icons vary by size. But i also like how silent's icons more clearly separate "size" and "type"... whatever "type" is.pd wrote:Different fleet icons for different sized fleets.
At the bottom are two possible sets, one varies in total size, one doesn't.
If a ship is in a system this turn, and is leaving the system, what difference does it make whether the ship was in another system last turn (which I assume is the meaning of "continues to travel")?eleazar wrote:Left: A fleet queued to leave the system.
Right: A ship that continues to travel.
Sorry, my example wasn't really making my point. Sometimes the left and right sides of my brain don't talk to each other enough.Geoff the Medio wrote:If a ship is in a system this turn, and is leaving the system, what difference does it make whether the ship was in another system last turn (which I assume is the meaning of "continues to travel")?eleazar wrote:Left: A fleet queued to leave the system.
Right: A ship that continues to travel.
If a fleet is actually on a starlane, and thus rendered in the position it actually is in the universe (as opposed to fleets at systems that are rendered on the corners of the system icon), then the fleet could actually point in the direction of the starlane it's travelling on, rather than only pointed left or right. You might want to play around with that to see if it looks decent...eleazar wrote:Ships that "are continuing to move" are on StarLanes. Not as in my previous example.
The purpose of pointing the icon in different directions is to avoid the ambiguity that can occur especially at smaller zooms where ships on starlanes very close to the planet look like they might be in one of the in-system positions, or when stars are close together, and it's not clear if a ship is in the lower left corner of one star or the upper right of another.
I feel like that all the time.eleazar wrote:Sometimes the left and right sides of my brain don't talk to each other enough.
I'm not sure what you meant, but here's what it made me think of:pd wrote:Maybe the "ownership" rings could be useful for displaying fleets as well? Just a thought.
I think they will tend to look better like that. Even if we don't put the currently in-system ships inside the circle the chances for confusion are much sighter, i.e. only when the starlane is near horizontal.Geoff the Medio wrote:If a fleet is actually on a starlane, and thus rendered in the position it actually is in the universe (as opposed to fleets at systems that are rendered on the corners of the system icon), then the fleet could actually point in the direction of the starlane it's travelling on, rather than only pointed left or right. You might want to play around with that to see if it looks decent...eleazar wrote:The purpose of pointing the icon in different directions is to avoid the ambiguity that can occur especially at smaller zooms where ships on starlanes very close to the planet look like they might be in one of the in-system positions, or when stars are close together, and it's not clear if a ship is in the lower left corner of one star or the upper right of another.
The size/power could be indicated with something like the bars from Silent' example. Until we know more about our fleets the type of "head" on the icon could indicate what sort the biggest or most special ship is.Geoff the Medio wrote:Separating how level / size / power of fleet and how type of fleet (however that's defined) are indicating would also be a good idea.
I think we are very much in the brainstorming phase, so any answers are provisional.pd wrote:I really like this. Some questions: What happens if there is no fleet at a system? No ring? What happens to the starlanes in this case? Or should a white/grey ring be used?
Should this be a permanent thing or an overlay, that the user can toggle on? Any idea how this could work together with ownership rings, without getting too confusing?
edit: I just noticed, that those are perhaps meant to be ownership rings. With my initial suggestion I thought that such rings could perhaps be used to display the fleet strength at a system. I'm not sure if this is what you did in your latest mockup or if the rings show ownership just like in the other thread. In this case, I still like it a lot.
I don't think we want something quite as involved as a counting system, but we could use some of those visual ideas to make some easy-to-read icons.shrinkshooter wrote:We could use a compressed counting system with the icons involved, like this: