Hi,

We're reading you, thanks for your feedback ;)
We understand some of your criticism. We tried to improve some elements, maybe to the detriment of the others...

Just as a reminder, for example the previous weapon icons were:

There were some redundancies and difficulties to differentiate weapon types, don't you think?
I personally was struggling a lot to distinguish lasers and beams. ^^

In the current version, I'm not sure to understand your issue with kinetic and beam.

Maybe it's because of the light-white "ray" behind the bullets of the kinetic?
We could improve that...
Note the directions of the weapons, linked to the defense icons and the gauges in the right panel.

We also try to improve the feeling of progression and power with the new version :

But we agree with you, we could add a number to clarify the level.

Ninakoru wrote:

BTW the new icon desigs are beatiful and elegant compared to the previous ones! (I just don't find them so practical).

I agree! It is nothing about the design I don't like, at least for weapons. It just feels a bit inconvenient sometimes, if you could not figure out right away which weapon you have equipped . Only on support modules it bothers me somehow. Especially the drone it feels like the drone symbol is bending around the box, which feels awkward every time I look at it.

Mysterarts wrote:

Hi,

We're reading you, thanks for your feedback ;)
We understand some of your criticism. We tried to improve some elements, maybe to the detriment of the others...

Just as a reminder, for example the previous weapon icons were:

There were some redundancies and difficulties to differentiate weapon types, don't you think?
I personally was struggling a lot to distinguish lasers and beams. ^^

In the current version, I'm not sure to understand your issue with kinetic and beam.

Maybe it's because of the light-white "ray" behind the bullets of the kinetic?
We could improve that...
Note the directions of the weapons, linked to the defense icons and the gauges in the right panel.

We also try to improve the feeling of progression and power with the new version :

But we agree with you, we could add a number to clarify the level.

Thanks for the comparison.

First: Kinetic weapon module looks to me exactly like the two laser types. The trail or whatever it is is too strong, the whole thing melts together

Difference between the "rest" laser weapons is too small

What is the meaning of the bracket on the side of the module icon? Does it mean anything? How large is the chance that players caught on to this metric if it is any?

Lastly: suggest you rework tech so advanced modules come into play much faster and in larger numbers. As it stand, I would wager that most games only see 2-3 advanced weapon modules, and te

he rest is plain default, thus the seeing of progression via these designs does not come into play

Kangarombi wrote:

mixerria wrote:

An unrelated idea: In the ship designer, when dragging a module from the top bar or from the ship, there could be a highlight on those slots of the ship where it could be fitted to. This is especially important when slots have multiple possible module types and they're already occupied by a module and their background icons are hidden by the module occupying them.

I am pretty sure that is already in the game.

Indeed... Well, I didn't notice it then, I guess.

(Seriously though, how could I miss that? )

Mysterarts wrote:

In the current version, I'm not sure to understand your issue with kinetic and beam.

When you put a weapon type right next to the other is easier to differenciate, and that's what I did when I was confused, just looked at the weapons on the weapon list. But when you are reviewing ship designs, at first sight it doesn't feel clear. This happens with everything but missiles, that were always clear.

Look at old designs, the kinetic was a damn bullet, more clear than that is not possible. I agree that laser vs beams was not clear at all.

BTW the new icon desigs are beatiful and elegant compared to the previous ones! (I just don't find them so practical).

On the numbers for power, please understand there are also modules from quests, and often i don't know if the quest item i found is powerful compared to the one I'm equipping or not.

mixerria wrote:

An unrelated idea: In the ship designer, when dragging a module from the top bar or from the ship, there could be a highlight on those slots of the ship where it could be fitted to. This is especially important when slots have multiple possible module types and they're already occupied by a module and their background icons are hidden by the module occupying them.

Yes, definitely!!!  I've had that same problem and have taken to removing all icons just to see the underlying slot identity.  

I like the idea of highlighting compatible slots, or perhaps the slot type could be displayed offset from the module itself (tho this could get very confusing on a fully upgraded ship.

Mysterarts wrote:

In the current version, I'm not sure to understand your issue with kinetic and beam.

Maybe it's because of the light-white "ray" behind the bullets of the kinetic?
We could improve that...

I would remove the line behind the bullets in the kinetic module icon if I were you. It would help distinguish it from the energy type weapon modules.

Note the directions of the weapons, linked to the defense icons and the gauges in the right panel.

After playing 20 to 30ish hours in the new patch, I honestly never looked at the direction the module icons were facing. For weapon modules I simply knew which were which from looking at the "projectile" in the icon, for defense modules I just looked if it was round or looked like an armor plate. Since for support modules icons direction has no meaning at all it makes it less worth concentrating on the direction of module icons in general.

We also try to improve the feeling of progression and power with the new version :

But we agree with you, we could add a number to clarify the level.

Progression is pretty clear, besides the "filling" of the sides of the turrets in the icons... I just noticed the difference in these fillings by now, to be honest. Maybe a better difference would be achieved by having empty and completely filled turret sides per sub-stage? (one sub-stage for each amount of guns per turret)

An unrelated idea: In the ship designer, when dragging a module from the top bar or from the ship, there could be a highlight on those slots of the ship where it could be fitted to. This is especially important when slots have multiple possible module types and they're already occupied by a module and their background icons are hidden by the module occupying them.

Hello guys,

so I just want to see how the overall feel of the community regarding this topic is, so I would appreciate if you let me know what you think.

With the new Update 3 we got new icons for the various modules (weapons, suppport and so on...) you can apply to ships. I personally can't make myself a friend with them, and I would wish to see the old icons back.

The new Icons have lost a lot of personality compared to the previous ones, which you could clearly determine. Especially the Weapon modules are almost looking the same and I feel especially the engine modules got a big downgrade (I mean just a box with an arrow...?, the old one was at least giving you the feel of an engine...). In general most of the modules look very similar and are mostly just a big cube with a, compared, tiny symbol that tells you what it is, which makes it difficult to find different modules quickly. It could already be better if you maybe take away the boxes and just use the icon (e.g. for the drone).

Overall, I liked the previous icons a lot more and would prefer to see them back in the game.

Let me know what you think about it.

Best,

Kangarombi

I totally agree. Yes by now I got used to it, but as a beginner you almost always have to hover over the icons to see if it is a beam or kinetic...

Also, if you don't mind consider maybe upvoting the topic, so it stands out to the Dev's.

To me is not a matter of visual pleasure, the weapon modules are not practical.

I can't differenciate clearly between beam/kinetic. I liked more the previous icons also.

Yes you get used to it, but that's not a good point, as you want any new user to have the most friendly and clear experience possible.

I also would like a small number in the icon to tell you the weapon tier something like (T3) or (3), you you can clearly see if your weapon/armor modules are a bit outdated.

I add until now, all GUI of the game are made with a 256*128 tile.

And I would prefer the Modules GUI come back to this standard format.

ALSO : use colors could be nice for an easy see. Just look at endless legend icons about weapons, armor and accessorys.

twimpix wrote:
It is only a matter of getting used to. I did after one game. Might not have been too happy with them at first but now I say they're good.

I agree that you get used to it after sometime, but I still feel as if the aesthetics especially for the support modules are just to generic. I got used to the visual of the weapon systems by now. However, I still think that it was easier to determine Energy from Kinetic weapons... 

After all I just want to add, that this is all a personal opinion and the majority of people might see it different. I just want to state the way I see it at the moment.

I am not familiar with the look of the previous version, but the current one still strikes me as confusing and ugly after 2.5 games.

Why?:

1. They all look the same with the square symbol as a basis - this is visual redundancy and does not help differentiation.

2. The base squares also do not help immersion. They are too spread-sheet style. I could imagine these in Stellaris which has god awful (or rather non-existent) art style, but funny enough, even there you have nice distinguishable images of the turrets, rockets and whatnot

3. The system currently seems to rely on the concept of the player having various advanced tech, and thus differentiation would mostly be based on the color itself (blue, yellow, green). There are two huge problems with this:

- You should never ever make your base art boring to begin with, else why would the player care how the rest is looking like? Spolier: it is the same with a hint of color in some cases. Current base icons (especially engine and shield) look as boring as humanly possible

- Most players will not research enough edvanced tech to make the modules roster interesting. Not due to the above, but because of how technology is researched and when it becomes available. Managed to wipe the galaxy up with my empire focused on research and while dominating the others with my fleets both in number and tech, I still only had l2 moduels with special resoruces!

The contrast with Endless Legend is huge (a game I cannot praise enough). If one takes a look at the ship cannon images there, and compares those with what we have here so far...

Lets just say that looking at those guns gets my fantasy going. It is stylish, visually satisfying (even one base tech level) and fits the lore perfectly. Can we say anything of the sort from the one that is to serve the same role for Endless Space 2?

New icons are really bad. Square design don't work for making beautiful graphics.

Also, they look all a little same, and it's difficult to see what is energy, what projectiles, etc.

I really don't like these new icons. They look like an amateurist game one.

I have to say, I totally disagree.

Strong colors gives life to the UI, which is needed, and help to quickly find the type of module you want and the associated strategic resources.

The orientation of the image depending on the weapon type is neat and usefull.

Yes, the graphics are highly stylized, but this is for a better readability.