Status icon inconsistencies

[LemurFromTheId]

Mostly because of the skill overhaul the status icons for Cover, Guarded and Bulwark are now confusing and inconsistent.

See the picture below:

Clearly this should be fixed, but... how, exactly?

An obvious solution would be to have three separate icons for all three. The downside of this is that the UI gets polluted with icons: you might have Forest, Cover, Guarded, Bulwark, Entrenched and Evasive hovering over multiple mechs. I think that's a bit much.

Another possible solution might be having three separate icons for three possible damage reduction totals: 20%, 40% and 60% damage reduction. Then Cover, Guarded and Bulwark could be all replaced with just one of these icons in those hovering markers, while we'd still get to see the full details if we right-click on a mech to open that enemy information box.

Any thoughts or ideas - or am I the only one who's semi-permanently confused?

 

[Siven80]

Yeah, i was confused too, still am really, i keep having to mouse over to read the tooltips cos they are all different.

 

[mjbroekman]

UI consistency is definitely needed. Good catch on this. Please put it in the suggestions forum or a bug report.

The bug report will be seen faster. This is a UI bug.

 

[yrrot]

The icons on the mech's status bar appear correct.

The icons on the status box appear incorrect (bugged). Those are using the old bulwark icon, and have cover listed twice (or was the tree icon for difficult terrain?). Definitely a bug.

 

[Prussian Havoc]

Great catch! I have caught my self surprised when targeting the OpFor ~ expecting 20% DR, but getting 40% and vice versa. : (

 

[LemurFromTheId]

Oh, I almost forgot my own thread!

Yeah, I guess I should just make a bug report... but I thought this subject could, perhaps, also benefit from some discussion. Specifically: do we actually need so many different symbols floating above the mechs, or would it be less distracting and more intuitive if Cover, Guarded and Bulwark were combined into simple 20%/40%/60% icons, and only shown separately when you open the enemy UI panel.

Guarded state, of course, is special in the sense that it can be broken with a melee attack, so it's something players will need to know about, but would it be enough if you can see it by right-clicking the target, or do players need to see it at a glance?

The icons on the mech's status bar appear correct.

The icons on the status box appear incorrect (bugged). Those are using the old bulwark icon, and have cover listed twice (or was the tree icon for difficult terrain?). Definitely a bug.

I don't think either are entirely correct, at least not unambiguously. Neither of them use the new Bulwark icon, and the forest icon only implies cover, but carries other meanings as well. The question is: does cover need it's own icon?

And really, the "hollow shield" and "full shield" symbols (or whatever they're called) aren't very intuitive at all when you try to figure out what the difference is.

 

[yrrot]

The full shield on the mech status bar is the new bulwark symbol without the up arrow.

The full shield in the status box is the old icon for guarded(?). Subtle difference, but the old guarded symbol doesn't have crenelations like the new bulwark symbol does.

Still a bug that the status box and bar aren't displaying the same symbols for the status effects, though.

 

[Amechwarrior]

I'd say just post the bug report with the conflicting icons and not worry about the solution as much as getting HBS eye's on the problem.