My god man. That is exactly what this game is missing.



That would be both consistent and concise. Though, tooltips may be needed for n00bs.



Rating thread 5 stars

I absolutely agree with you Prophet and have struggled with this myself - fantastic idea!

I play in the 1920x1200 resolution nad I have no issues with text being small at all

This would really, really make a big user friendly difference! Definitely a +1

yes, +1 to this, would definitely be helpful.

All my FIDS are in this one, do eet.

Yep great idea +1



I have to say that i really dislike the timed aspect of the combat though. I like turn based games because i like to consider options carefully without having to rush. I think the card selection in combat should pause the action giving time to think..... rant over

I love the battle card system. But one problem I have, especially mid-to-late game, is trying to read all the tiny text and pick a card before the phase timer expires. It is really hard when it get to 10 or 12 cards.



How about replacing the informational text with symbols? We already have symbols in-game for all three types of weaponry, and all three types of defenses. Replace the text with the corresponding symbol. For example: Weapon Overclock give +40% Kinetics damage and -20% Antimissile Interception. Replace "Kinetic damage" with the Kinetic symbol (row of shells) and "Antimissile Interception" with the Flak symbol (flak truck).



To denote the difference between friendly and enemy effects, you could change the color of the symbol.



Thoughts? Opinions? Mild rantings of the criminally insane?



EDIT: To get an idea of what I mean, check my post here: https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/12223-symbols-on-battle-cards

Really great idea tbh. I've been staring myself blind at the cards and when it comes to some of them I'm still not sure what they do due to cryptic wording. xP Not to mention that I hate playing computer games with my reading glasses on.. <.<



EDIT: Though I'd like a pause option during battle, as mentioned above, and I think it might be beneficial to the game, I also like the idea of the battles actually being real time with little time to maneuver. To me, this reflects the actual pressure of a commander having to make decisions on the fly.

I've had some similar thoughts (though with new simpler symbols where the defenses and offenses have a consistent similarity), as well as some others:

• I was also trying to decide on some sort of secondary color usage to go with some Battle suggestions I've been considering...like not specific colors for each type of weapon and defense, but having the image being white and some other color, like for impact/explosion, in a unique shape to help make it eye-catching.
  
  For example, for the weapons: like having Red-to-yellow gradient explosions of different shapes in the bottom right, and a straight line (laser), dotted line (kinetics), pointed shape with little flame trail (missile) going from top left towards the bottom right, with a focus on clarity of the shape for quick identification.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I also think a further change in the cards to have a standard symbol for Defense, Offense, Engineering, and Sabotage based on the existing (faint and hard to see) color scheme is necessary to aid in identification.
  
  One way to implement my thoughts on this would be to have 4 lines with each symbol and the text (Defense, etc.) under it on the left in the card selection window, a tinted background, and the list of the cards of that type following, with the bottom right of each card showing a "right-striking" lightning bolt type break through a color coded symbol for what it counters. Lines could spill over, but having it being a convention of the UI that it shows a partial fading out image of a card along with a tall triangle arrow shape on the left and right if there are more selections seems like it would be necessary for how the collection of options can grow.
  
  I have other ideas for that like the mousewheel scrolling the row under the mouse for quick access and thoughts on how to sort the list.

Hrothgaar wrote:
EDIT: Though I'd like a pause option during battle, as mentioned above, and I think it might be beneficial to the game, I also like the idea of the battles actually being real time with little time to maneuver. To me, this reflects the actual pressure of a commander having to make decisions on the fly.

True enough, but with the current battle maneuvers simply being "fly towards each other" there's already limited strategy involved. Plus having to choose the next card during the current phase it means i spend a lot of time staring at the choices and missing the actual battle - although this idea of simple icons might help there.

AtoningUnifex wrote:
True enough, but with the current battle maneuvers simply being "fly towards each other" there's already limited strategy involved. Plus having to choose the next card during the current phase it means i spend a lot of time staring at the choices and missing the actual battle - although this idea of simple icons might help there.

I agree here too!



Suggestion in addition to the icons and complimenting it:



It would be better if we just loaded up a Pre-Battle Deck thats linked to icons on a Bar much like many mmo action quick-slot bars you just press a key to activate Card X,Y,Z or whatever from 1 - 0 F1 to F12 on your keyboard or using the mouse and have a seemless more interactive experience. The action bar can get tucked away off to the left, right, top or bottom of the screen and not interfere with the, atm, Rinse and Repeat scripted battle graphics we have before us.

+1 on this as well, I cant believe no one came up with this already

I agree, I think the simplification of the battle cards would help but I'm still personally unsure of why the devs felt they needed a timer in a singleplayer game at all. Multiplayer perhaps but I don't see why players should be pressured into making rapid choices in singleplayer in a turn-based game.

Thanks for the support! It seemed like a sorely needed concept, but I wasn't sure how others felt.



I realize that not every line on the battle cards fits this suggestion. We could replace the Weapon Type Damage with symbols, but what about Accuracy? Maybe there they could create new symbols. Or they could keep those as text. I think just replacing the common phrases with symbols would go a long way to helping out the player.



You could also add a Key or Legend at the bottom of the battle card window, telling what each symbol means. I play at 1280 x 1024, so there is plenty of space. Does anyone play at a lower resolution and think this might be a problem?

AtoningUnifex wrote:
Plus having to choose the next card during the current phase it means i spend a lot of time staring at the choices and missing the actual battle - although this idea of simple icons might help there.

I know someone did suggest having the battle pause whenever you are selecting your battle card. Or simply adding a pause key for battles. I was all for it. Like you, I miss most of the battle while picking cards. I say give me time to pick my card. That way I can watch all the pretty pretty pew-pew action.



EDIT - Here it is: /#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/12629-suggestion-pause-combat-while-chosing-battle-actions

demalion wrote:
I also think a further change in the cards to have a standard symbol for Defense, Offense, Engineering, and Sabotage based on the existing (faint and hard to see) color scheme is necessary to aid in identification.

One way to implement my thoughts on this would be to have 4 lines with each symbol and the text (Defense, etc.) under it on the left in the card selection window, a tinted background, and the list of the cards of that type following, with the bottom right of each card showing a "right-striking" lightning bolt type break through a color coded symbol for what it counters. Lines could spill over, but having it being a convention of the UI that it shows a partial fading out image of a card along with a tall triangle arrow shape on the left and right if there are more selections seems like it would be necessary for how the collection of options can grow.

I like your ideas for the battle card types a lot. I wish they were grouped in 4 lines as you describe. And it makes sense to extend symbol usage to card counters.

GC13 wrote:
I support this, though your "Yes!" option is a touch too enthusiastic for me.

My strained eyes disagree with you.