Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: [1] 2

Author Topic: Numeric display of quality modifiers  (Read 1311 times)

Quatch

  • Bay Watcher
  • [CURIOUSBEAST_ GRADSTUDENT]
    • View Profile
    • Twitch? Sometimes..
Numeric display of quality modifiers
« on: March 10, 2010, 10:45:08 am »

I'm thinking about quality modifiers, the *sword* and all. I just can't keep the progression straight, and even sometimes keeping the ordering of finely-crafted and superior straight bothers me. In addition, the symbols used occasionally are rendered wonky by tilesets (I am aware this will be fixed in the all-unique graphics issue).

Why not have an option to enable a numeric quality level, in the same fashion as displaying numeric depths of water and magma.

Ie:

*4*sword instead of *sword*, or something to that effect.
Logged
SAVE THE PHILOSOPHER!
>>KillerClowns: It's faster to write "!!science!!" than any of the synonyms: "mad science", "dwarven science", or "crimes against the laws of god and man".
>>Orius: I plan my forts with some degree of paranoia.  It's kept me somewhat safe.

zwei

  • Bay Watcher
  • [ECHO][MENDING]
    • View Profile
    • Fate of Heroes
Re: Numeric display of quality modifiers
« Reply #1 on: March 10, 2010, 10:53:52 am »

I'd hope that full graphics support will allow you to make custom tiles for quality levels, which would allow you to make them numbers instead of symbols.

Silverionmox

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Numeric display of quality modifiers
« Reply #2 on: March 10, 2010, 05:48:57 pm »

I'd avoid to use numbers specifically for it (numbers get bland more quickly), but fully support customizable quality level icons. Customizing the number of quality levels would be cool too.
Logged
Dwarf Fortress cured my savescumming.

Fetus4188

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Numeric display of quality modifiers
« Reply #3 on: March 10, 2010, 07:00:37 pm »

Personally, I'd like something along these lines: , both numeric and iconic.

Also, an init option to configure where the quality icons appear (before, after, before and after)
Logged

Trigonous

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Numeric display of quality modifiers
« Reply #4 on: March 10, 2010, 07:05:36 pm »


This.  I learned using a tutorial that had me download May Green's tileset, so it's really hard for me to play with the ASCII graphics, and it's impossible to tell what stuff is.
Logged
So of all the things you can do in DF, it's the fractal artifacts that make you think dwarves are crazy.

Never mind the magma falls, the atom smashers, the cog-and-axle turing-complete computers, or the colonizing of Hell itself... all those are fine, but man, those recursive artifacts! Where do they get such ideas?

Pilsu

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Numeric display of quality modifiers
« Reply #5 on: March 10, 2010, 07:39:47 pm »

More intuitive symbols would indeed be in order. War games are popular these days, so how about something like this?



-
Don't much care for the haphazard piles of plus signs myself.
Logged

PhilbertFlange

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Numeric display of quality modifiers
« Reply #6 on: March 10, 2010, 07:55:52 pm »

More intuitive symbols would indeed be in order. War games are popular these days, so how about something like this?



-
Don't much care for the haphazard piles of plus signs myself.

I have to say I like this idea. I would also be for the addition of this as an init enableable title that would go next to a dwarf's name indicating their highest rank. It'd be nice to see exactly how far from legendary (and therefore exempt from rent) a given dwarf is, so you can get some to level quickly to assign them their rooms.
Logged
When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.

When Dwarf Fortress gives you lemons, you mod them to have [DAMBLOCK:80][FLIER][FIREBREATH].

Quatch

  • Bay Watcher
  • [CURIOUSBEAST_ GRADSTUDENT]
    • View Profile
    • Twitch? Sometimes..
Re: Numeric display of quality modifiers
« Reply #7 on: March 10, 2010, 11:50:22 pm »

Oh yeah, the rankings for job proficiency are far, far worse. I like those + icons, and the chevrons, both achieve what I wanted in terms of clarity.
Logged
SAVE THE PHILOSOPHER!
>>KillerClowns: It's faster to write "!!science!!" than any of the synonyms: "mad science", "dwarven science", or "crimes against the laws of god and man".
>>Orius: I plan my forts with some degree of paranoia.  It's kept me somewhat safe.

Capntastic

  • Bay Watcher
  • Greetings, mortals!
    • View Profile
    • A review and literature weblog I never update
Re: Numeric display of quality modifiers
« Reply #8 on: March 11, 2010, 12:33:24 am »

How about instead of numerics which realistically don't mean anything, we move towards better descriptive text?
Logged

Kilo24

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Numeric display of quality modifiers
« Reply #9 on: March 11, 2010, 01:05:42 am »

Then we'd have to read the description to figure out the quality of the item.  I can't say that's a good idea.

+s and the chevrons both work fine for me, and I'd also like to see something similar on the skill names (maybe even the same thing, if it's versatile enough using different symbols or coloration.)
Logged

zwei

  • Bay Watcher
  • [ECHO][MENDING]
    • View Profile
    • Fate of Heroes
Re: Numeric display of quality modifiers
« Reply #10 on: March 11, 2010, 06:57:09 am »

Personally, I'd like something along these lines: , both numeric and iconic.

Also, an init option to configure where the quality icons appear (before, after, before and after)

Actualy, game does something similar already:

zero lines -> one line -> two crossed lines -> three crossed lines -> three paralel lines (sigh) -> four crossed lines with circle.

Anyway, option is to also use one symbol that s color-coded

Item Name
Item Name
Item Name
Item Name
Item Name
Item Name

Which would make it easier to scan larger lists for items of certain quality.

Norseman

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Numeric display of quality modifiers
« Reply #11 on: March 11, 2010, 10:06:05 am »

I think both ideas are good. Why not combine color-coding and counting systems to make it obvious? We have poor, well-crafted, finely-crafted, superior quality, exceptional, masterful, and artifact, so we need 7 colors. To be intuitive, I think it would be best if the 7 colors represented the colors of things of varying values.

Red - Cancel, not acceptable, bad, not valuable at all
Dull grey - rock, not very valuable
Dark brown - wood, more valuable than rock, but still not very valuable
Copper - Semi-valuable metal
Silver - Valuable metal
Gold - Very valuable metal
Purple - The color of royalty and nobility, only the best

This should be pretty straightforward, though I suspect my color set can be improved upon.

I don't think the chevron idea would make sense for item quality. Chevrons traditionally indicate military rank. For dwarves, I think the appropriate symbol should be either hammers or picks.
Logged

praguepride

  • Bay Watcher
  • DF is serious business!
    • View Profile
Re: Numeric display of quality modifiers
« Reply #12 on: March 11, 2010, 10:12:53 am »

To me, the icons are fairly intuitive...

Blank = nomral
- = one step above normal
+ = two steps (see, there's two lines instead of one)
* = three steps
E = four steps

I could see the arguement about switching *'s with the E's because if you count lines, E has fewer lines then *'s...
Logged
Man, dwarves are such a**holes!

Even automatic genocide would be a better approach

Norseman

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Numeric display of quality modifiers
« Reply #13 on: March 11, 2010, 11:27:13 pm »

I've made a sample of my color scale and counting system. What does everyone think of this?

Logged

praguepride

  • Bay Watcher
  • DF is serious business!
    • View Profile
Re: Numeric display of quality modifiers
« Reply #14 on: March 12, 2010, 12:04:11 am »

I think the counting works well, the colors not so much.
Logged
Man, dwarves are such a**holes!

Even automatic genocide would be a better approach
Pages: [1] 2