This was discussed elsewhere in a broader sense. But I wanted to start a new discussion about Luminari's user interface for rooms, and particularly the use of colour.
At the moment we have some pretty diverse use of colour across the connected areas. Ashenport in particular can be really challenging to navigate. In a single room you can have multiple colours within the title, description, map, exits and then each mob can have it's own colours as well.
In this post I'll just include one example of the colour style that appeals to me. I think this is an area where Achaea really shines. Achaea activates its "brief" mode by default but also uses different colour text for the room title, weather, description, mobs/players and exits. This means that the rooms are easily "skimmable" and you can find the information quickly. As an aside, the format reduces the "mob spam" as the mobs are kind of incorporated into the desc, at the end in turqoise (not suggesting that as a change, just pointing out their solution).
Something to note is that this colour scheme is consistent across (almost) the whole mud. Changes to these colours generally mean something BIG. By using a pleasing but limited palette, the occassional use of colour becomes meaningful.
I'll post a few more examples from other muds below.
6 replies
dewinter
Ansalon takes a similar approach but has a colourful prompt. I haven't ventured far into Ansalon in a while but this was consistent within the newbie school and I thought it worked really well.
dewinter
A few of you will know more about this than me but Toril seems to use a different colour for a whole environment (in the screenshot you are inside the tavern and then walk outside onto the street). I am not sure how consistent this is across the world, with such an old build I would assume it's not but it did make me think about us using a colour scheme for different room types across the world- indoors (city), outside (city), wilderness, indoors (zone, built structure), inside (zone, nature), outside (zone). This could extend further to the planes etc.
dewinter
Another approach is the bare-bones, no colour look. New worlds - Atteran and Genesis sprung to mind here. I have included a Genesis screenshot.
dewinter
And finally the bright colours approach - green, yellow grey. I have added screenshots from Aardwolf and Forgotten Kingdoms for this example.
dewinter
Ok... So the examples are just to give something concrete for us to discuss. I think the launching point for colour in the game has to be the room titles/desc/exits and mobs. That's assuming the channel colour is easy to change. At the moment, the CHAT channel colour is used a lot for example, which is confusing.
My main thoughts are as follows:
- Consistency is key.
- Muted but legible palettes work best (that may be a personal preference)
- The use of a limited colour palette increases the impact of colour if it is used sparingly.
- I realllllly like the Achaea approach here, but again that is just a personal preference.
What does everyone else think?
Ornir Elunari
Dewinter,
You and I come from the same school - Minimal color, just enough to define and allow for easy skimming. I feel this is important because when things happen, they happen FAST and it is much easier to navigate and keep track of what is going on if things are consistent and simple.
I am also a big fan of minimalist design in games.
I took a look at the code and it looks like we were aiming at our feet the entire time we were putting it together - Stripping out the colors is going to be a pretty big job, since every message, every line is pretty much sent with color codes embedded.
For example:
When you see a mob, the long description and the name are displayed in one place, any status effects are displayed elsewhere, the symbols at the front are displayed in a separate place, etc.
This is true for everything, more or less.
I may begin with just room name and desc - try to strip the color and just make the name green and the desc grey, or whatever we decide WRT color palette. We need to keep in mind that Zusuk is color blind (as are some players, most likely) and some palettes are very difficult for color blind folks to parse effectively.