Improvements to race creation UX/colour options

[LanceRomancer]

I was watching Age of Wonders 4 | Evil Toad Creation and Gameplay and noticed some things in the race creation screen that could be improved:

• Make all colour options buttons instead of a slider. Sometimes eyes are so small that it is hard to tell what colour you are choosing. A slider is unintuitive for this selection. In previous entries the lighting/scene choices made this even more difficult. Would be much nicer to have eye images or colour swatches, with tooltips like: Hazel, Green (toad), Blue (cat), etc. for added accessibility. There are already colour pickers for "Hair Color Top" and more.
• Option to multi-select "Army Skin Color" & "Army Hair Color". Cats and other species have significant variation in pigmentation of their offspring (even humans do to a lesser extent). It would be nice to have this variety in the game.
  • For example, if I want to create an army of red toads: the red toads don't have to be the exact same pigment, could be a range of shades like muted red, red-orange, etc. that I could select. Even if I could only select 2 or a limited number this would be better.
  • Even for humans, there should be some variety for skin & hair colours. This exists in nature, i.e. Scandinavians can be blond, ginger, etc.
• Mounts should also have some colour options, with the above multi-select functionality.

A few other notes: I'm not in favour of arm length and leg length and feel this will just introduce problems with clipping & animations. I just want anatomically correct humanoid races and would prefer less clipping. Clipping was pretty major in previous entries and limited the customisation options. Sex should just be the symbols again instead of the "Body Type" slider/trend.

 

[Sollis]

I think the sliders are present for the sake of console (and PC?) controllers, this game is designed with deployment on consoles in mind. Sliders simplify deployment to consoles and I think this is the main reason for this feature. This isn't a massive game studio and the development cycle on this game has been three and a half years.

Edit: Removed comment on 'body type' slider.

 

[LanceRomancer]

I think the sliders are present for the sake of console (and PC?) controllers, this game is designed with deployment on consoles in mind. Sliders simplify deployment to consoles and I think this is the main reason for this feature. This isn't a massive game studio and the development cycle on this game has been three and a half years.

As for the male/female slider, I agree - a two-state slider seems ridiculous to me - but we're living in a time where certain political activist groups will dox and threaten developers over this issue. If having a slider keeps the devs safe from abuse, I'm inclined to understand why they made that decision. These people are just doing their jobs and this sociopolitical nonsense is not something they should be obliged to tackle.

There are already colour options that are not sliders for hair colour and other things. So it's already an available option for consoles, would just take a bit of time for picking colour codes or making thumbnails. Adding a tooltip on hover wouldn't be too difficult either. I think multi-coloured armies could be a bit more complicated, but still very feasible for a professional developer.

I don't think using a more accurate term than "Body Type" or using symbols would cause harassment or be ideological. I haven't seen any outrage on the subject or demands to refer to sex as "Body Type". Referring to males and females as "body types" is unintuitive, bizarre and offensive. I think it would more accurately describe something like slim, muscular, fat, etc.

 

[Low]

I agree and also would like to see more colours for banner selection and such, the palette is very weak. This was the same with AoW 3, although there it was later modded in.

 

[Sollis]

I'm all for having more colour options - absolutely - and yes there are color swatches elsewhere. I think that the eyes also change shape and pattern to the pupil of the eye. Catlike eyes and larger pupils. A swatch would work here, but might be a little more complicated to produce than an enumerated list that the slider scrolls through.

Edit: Removed comment on 'body type' slider.

 

[Vibromaster]

I believe body type being the most elegant option in a non binary world.

wether it’s your reality or not it’s important to respect others and it doesn’t necessarily come from a fear of cancellation, simply an evolution of perspective.

No matter where it stem from it should be no skin of your nose.

it can be as simple as respecting the different sensibilities of the dev team and extend this kindness to the players.

It doesn’t have to be a conspiration I swear. And your lifestyle is not under threat.

 

[LanceRomancer]

There's nothing kind or elegant about it. It is jarring & offensive, regardless of intent.

 

[Vibromaster]

Vocal minorities come in all shapes

 

[Sollis]

I believe body type being the most elegant option in a non binary world.

Edit: I will not comment on that statement or statements like it.

Regards to Triumph Jordi, this conversation should remain productive.

Warm regards to all.

 

[Triumph Jordi]

Alright this went off the rails fast. Either the conversation goes back to discussing the UX improvements for the Colour selections, or this thread is going to be closed.

 

[Vibromaster]

What other main colour would you see fit ?

 

[:Charlemunculus]

I love the idea of colour ranges for skin and hair personally. It would add a lot of diversity for unit appearance. Don't know how hard it would be to implement but it would definitely be a nice thing to have if it wasnt a huge headache to do it, even getting to pick 2 or 3 options instead of 1 would make a huge difference imo.

And yeah the sliders feel a lot better with a controller than mouse and keyboard so I get why thats a thing even if it doesnt feel like it makes sense for stuff that is small or with very few options. Not sure how to solve for that in general but I agree that eye colour inparticular might look better as a picker even if sliders were kept for everything else

 

[TulajMnie]

I love the idea of colour ranges for skin and hair personally. It would add a lot of diversity for unit appearance. Don't know how hard it would be to implement but it would definitely be a nice thing to have if it wasnt a huge headache to do it, even getting to pick 2 or 3 options instead of 1 would make a huge difference imo.

The units get certain range of random features like hair colour and helmet (on/off) so it wouldn't work really

 

[:Charlemunculus]

The units get certain range of random features like hair colour and helmet (on/off) so it wouldn't work really

Sorry if this is a silly question, I may be dumb (Im not a programmer and have no idea how any of this works) but is there a reason you know of that randomized skin tone within a range wouldnt work with those other randomized pieces? Like i am thinking if you pick "red" that there are a couple shades of red that could be randomized instead of everyone being the same exact red.

 

[TulajMnie]

Sorry if this is a silly question, I may be dumb (Im not a programmer and have no idea how any of this works) but is there a reason you know of that randomized skin tone within a range wouldnt work with those other randomized pieces? Like i am thinking if you pick "red" that there are a couple shades of red that could be randomized instead of everyone being the same exact red.

I don't see I reason why it wouldn't work but I don't think they went with skin colour shades randomisation, just hair I think.
But on the technical side of things shouldn't be much of an issue I think.

 

[LanceRomancer]

I don't see I reason why it wouldn't work but I don't think they went with skin colour shades randomisation, just hair I think.
But on the technical side of things shouldn't be much of an issue I think.

Oh, didn't catch that there are already hair variations:

Just saw the option for "Army Hair Color" and assumed there would only be one. I don't want completely random skin colours for humanoid races. I still want a distinct race/ethnicity, could just be a minor variation for humans. Hair colour was primary concern and that's already the case. I do want Tigrans to vary like real cats though. Maybe different cats will vary by class but can't find examples. Was just trying to figure out a way to respect these different combinations/customisations for everyone's preferences.

 

[Crimsonraziel]

View attachment 958635

What other main colour would you see fit ?

A brighter shade of red and/or a more distinct brown. If I try to recreate the Circle of Wizards I probably have a slight issue when it comes to fire and earth domain.