UPDATE#1 - REQUEST - Colorblind color-swap test.

General discussion about the game.
Bele
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri May 11, 2012 8:00 pm

Re: UPDATE#1 - REQUEST - Colorblind color-swap test.

Postby Bele » Tue Nov 13, 2012 6:02 pm

First off, I'm red/green colorblind, not 100% (not sure if you can even be 100% red/green colorblind) but noticeably so in many situations (can tell if I should stop or drive at traffic lights, can't reliably spot a red flower in a green bush, can tell that rebel fighters are orange (they are, right?), can't see numbers/symbols/figures in colorblind dot tests).

I love what you've done with the oxygen levels, skill levels and sector map.
I'm not so sure about the colors for the subsystems, red, white and orange are fine but weapon control and the medbay are unnecessarily dark. On the other hand the extra icons are great.
I hadn't noticed the cross-hair difference before I saw that picture, after checking it out in the game it seems that laser weapons have a brighter/thicker/heavier glow than missiles, or am I getting it wrong? I'm not sure why you'd change the color for the missiles' cross-hairs in the colorblind version when they are the same in the normal one (or am I missing something here? I even checked with someone who isn't colorblind).
Having your own crew's HP as blue would be a lot more intuitive than having the enemy crew's HP as blue. Possibly having the enemy crew's HP go from orange to red and your own crew's HP going from white to blue?
odony
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Nov 12, 2012 9:34 am

Re: REQUEST - Colorblind color-swap test.

Postby odony » Tue Nov 13, 2012 6:20 pm

Very nice job, thanks again! Here is my feedback on each image:

  • system icon/colors: Globally better thanks to the symbols, but I can barely see the X on top of the broken systems, because the brownish(?) color does not stand out much on the background mesh. It should work well on the player system icons which has a darker background though, so I think it's fine.
    The glowing ioned system is actually hard for me to look at, at least on this background. It's probably due to a lack of contrast between the icon, its glow and/or the background. Hard to explain... it feels a bit like the text on the right of this image (to a lesser extent): http://bit.ly/UmzmuO
  • oxygen levels: I cannot clearly see the difference between the normally oxygenated room at the top right and the partially depleted one at the bottom right... pretty much like in the original design. The striping really makes a difference here (assuming the bottom right room is not striped at all, right? ;-))
    Perhaps you could try with thinner or wider stripes for the rooms that are mostly out of O2?
  • xp bars: just perfect now! +1 for orange/blue HP bars with player=blue
  • sector map: looks perfectly good to me, and I never had trouble with these shades of green and red
  • weapon crosshairs: yes the colors are different enough, and +1 for never noticing crosshair color differences in the original color scheme ;-) What does "A" stand for?

You're doing great, it's hard to find words to describe how much better the game experience will be for colorblind people after these small color tweaks!


PS: Regarding all the comments about filters that simulate color-blindness, I still have to see a filter that produces an image remotely looking like the original. Maybe I'm wrong but I always assumed the filtered result was supposed to look the same to me as long as the chosen filter simulates my type of color-blindness ;)
Justin
Site Admin
Posts: 265
Joined: Thu Apr 19, 2012 9:52 am

Re: UPDATE#1 - REQUEST - Colorblind color-swap test.

Postby Justin » Tue Nov 13, 2012 6:24 pm

Quick clarification - the difference in crosshairs is that one is for AUTOFIRE and one is not (the "A" icon one being for autofire). It would be for a potential autofire on a per-weapon basis, we were just worried it wouldn't be clear to you guys.
If you're having hull problems, I feel bad for you son. I've got 99 problems but a breach ain't one.
odony
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Nov 12, 2012 9:34 am

Re: UPDATE#1 - REQUEST - Colorblind color-swap test.

Postby odony » Tue Nov 13, 2012 6:26 pm

EdenNov wrote:On the subject of recoloring, is it possible to have a distinct difference between full health and not full health on the crew sidebar? It would save me the time to mouse over each one to see the numerical value.


Yes I mentioned it too, and I think that's what Justin means when he said:

Justin wrote:- Still gotta do something about leveling up bars (too similar color) and HP bars on the left (though it's not 'necessary')
odony
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Nov 12, 2012 9:34 am

Re: UPDATE#1 - REQUEST - Colorblind color-swap test.

Postby odony » Tue Nov 13, 2012 6:30 pm

Thanks for the clarification regarding crosshairs colors! Adding the "A" is definitely a good idea... I can picture myself trying to recall every day whether the "darker color" represents autofire or manual ;-)
Justin
Site Admin
Posts: 265
Joined: Thu Apr 19, 2012 9:52 am

Re: UPDATE#1 - REQUEST - Colorblind color-swap test.

Postby Justin » Tue Nov 13, 2012 6:33 pm

Ok. It looks like i need to find some better colors for the off, partially damaged and damaged (and Ioned) for the system icons. The "x" helps.... but the colors could be better. I think the problem is for the lower system icons to stand out against the somewhat darker background they all need to have a certain lightness. That means there's a pretty limited range of value to play with (medbay being an example of 'too dark'). Anyone have color suggestions? I'll try and come up with some more mockups to test regardless.

The rest of the stuff would be a general improvement it sounds like.

The player ship's circle icons since they also have the power bars which show how damaged a room is and I assume that's totally readable since damaged power bars have a line through them. Therefore I wouldn't be putting the "X" above the circle icon if there are power bars (since it's uglier). The "x" next to the icon within the rooms would need to stay for both enemy and player.
If you're having hull problems, I feel bad for you son. I've got 99 problems but a breach ain't one.
Bele
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri May 11, 2012 8:00 pm

Re: UPDATE#1 - REQUEST - Colorblind color-swap test.

Postby Bele » Tue Nov 13, 2012 6:39 pm

odony wrote:PS: Regarding all the comments about filters that simulate color-blindness, I still have to see a filter that produces an image remotely looking like the original. Maybe I'm wrong but I always assumed the filtered result was supposed to look the same to me as long as the chosen filter simulates my type of color-blindness ;)

Not necessarily as the same kind of misrepresentation of colors will happen with the filtered image as well as the original, basically as if you ran the image through the filter twice. At least I assume that's why the color blindness filters never seem to be "correct".

Justin wrote:Ok. It looks like i need to find some better colors for the off, partially damaged and damaged (and Ioned) for the system icons. The "x" helps.... but the colors could be better. I think the problem is for the lower system icons to stand out against the somewhat darker background they all need to have a certain lightness. That means there's a pretty limited range of value to play with (medbay being an example of 'too dark'). Anyone have color suggestions? I'll try and come up with some more mockups to test regardless.

The rest of the stuff would be a general improvement it sounds like.

I'm not worried about the player ship's circle icons since they also have the power bars which show how damaged a room is. I assume that's totally readable since damaged power bars have a line through them.

Let's answer this backwards!
The power bars are fine as is due to the different images for powered/no power/damaged and blue with lock for ioned.
As for the system icons the colors aren't really all that important because of the extra icons, possibly make the dark ones a little bit lighter and maybe make the orange a bit less washed out.

Justin wrote:Quick clarification - the difference in crosshairs is that one is for AUTOFIRE and one is not (the "A" icon one being for autofire). It would be for a potential autofire on a per-weapon basis, we were just worried it wouldn't be clear to you guys.


Yellow/Red is never a problem for me, can't speak for all colorblind people though. An additional icon is almost always a good idea for increased readability and an A for AUTOFIRE makes sense.
ilikemilkshake
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Sep 16, 2012 12:15 am

Re: UPDATE#1 - REQUEST - Colorblind color-swap test.

Postby ilikemilkshake » Tue Nov 13, 2012 6:57 pm

Justin wrote:Anyone have color suggestions?


The main thing is that there needs to be a good deal of contrast. Dark on dark colours or light on light colours won't work and using colours that are close on a colour wheel is no good either.

Looking at this:
Image

The reason the target on the left is easier for me to see is because it's a bright colour on a dark background. (Lots of contrast)
Whereas to the right, you've got a red target on the dark background.
(Not so much contrast)

So applying that to elsewhere it shouldn't actually make too much difference which you use as long as the colours being used aren't too similar.

Also as a side note:
Justin wrote:It would be for a potential autofire on a per-weapon basis, we were just worried it wouldn't be clear to you guys.

Would it be at all possible to have a more complex autofire, instead of when firing as soon as it's ready?
So for example, have it set so that a laser will fire only when it and your beam weapon is ready and then your beam weapon will only fire after the lasers have fired?
HighScore - 4502
undergroundmonorail
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2012 6:00 am

Re: UPDATE#1 - REQUEST - Colorblind color-swap test.

Postby undergroundmonorail » Tue Nov 13, 2012 7:16 pm

One quick question: Is there a possibility that we can turn on these things separately, rather than an all-in-one "colourblind" package? I'm only mildly colourblind and there's a couple elements of this I'd like, but all of them together seems a bit annoying to me.
odony
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Nov 12, 2012 9:34 am

Re: UPDATE#1 - REQUEST - Colorblind color-swap test.

Postby odony » Tue Nov 13, 2012 10:23 pm

Justin, as you asked, here's an attempt at color suggestions for off, damaged, broken and ioned. It probably looks terrible, but here I can easily tell the various colors apart, both on the medium-dark enemy background and on the plain black background.
I initially tried to only alter the lightness of your colors, but the ioned one ended up being too similar either to the ON or to the OFF colors. So I finally changed it to something completely different, and had to keep it quite saturated and dark to avoid going too close to the ON color (light blue/cyan are basically white for me). The broken and off colors were made respectively lighter and darker so they stand out on the enemy bg and the black bg too.
Not sure if that helps you much, nor if that works well for other colorblind people?

Image