http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Power_Icons_Legend
CoH had a very elegant and intelligent system for powers. Rather than focusing on artwork for flash and fashion for power/attack icons and symbols, CoH went in the direction of a simpler and more intuitive system. This system also saved the art team the work of making fancy, flashy artwork for every power when a generic flame and cone rim tell the player that the power is fire breath.
I'd wager to guess they had a program that would allow a user to pick the centre symbol, rim, and colours to make a new icon in moments, and if not, they should have.
What direction is CoT going in this respect?
I think they could mirror CoH again on this one (respecting whatever IP issues may come about): the system is intuitive, resource-friendly, and faster than other power symbologies i've seen in other MMOs.
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^ +1. Fancier is not automatically better. As a matter of fact, simpler is usually better.
And over all at this point I'd say when in doubt or unless there is a really good reason, mirror CoH.
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Unfortunately, due to intellectual property rights, CoT can't directly use this method. However, I'm sure they will try something in the same vein as the team seems to be more focused on substance over flash. And since they just got their engine and are now just getting their assets rolling I'm sure UI refinements are not on the table at the moment. Those decision usually come around deep into alpha and sometimes beta phase, and most definitely on the last polish pass before release. Until then, UI is usually rudimentary, focusing on the under-the-hood structure more than the graphics.
A unified system of symbols certainly aids in the learning curve when picking up a new powerset. I see no reason why a similar system would not be used by the dev team in CoT.
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I never set anything on fire accidentally!
The Titan Legacy - Defender of the Inner Flame
Agreed. A system similar to that used in CoX would be my preference as well. Aside from the time required for artwork development in the more traditional "boxy" system (which I tend to find rather ugly anyway), in other games in the heat of battle I need to try to remember whether the special attack I need is hand with the sword pointing up and slightly to the left, the hand with the sword pointing up and slightly to the right, or the hand with the sword pointing up and slightly to the left with the reddish background...at which point I've usually missed the moment. (Exaggerated made-up example, but that's what most other MMO UIs seem like to me.) The CoX system had the advantage of symbols to indicate AoE, defence, etc. regardless of power-set, so they became intuitive after a while.
Spurn all ye kindle.
On the flip side, for the vast majority of CoX's life, I kept my power icons split up, and in "list order" so that I knew which ones were which.
For me, it took me almost 7 years to realise that the iconography was actually consistent across the board, but even so... I found it relatively hard to *quickly* tell what X ability was... especially when it was still recharging (because no offense, it was far smaller than the "normal sized icon".)
*Shrugs* However with other MMO's I kinda find it fast and easy to tell the difference between them, I guess it helps in that the skill icon in other MMO's is used in the powers ability list... In CoX, it ended up being a really small squished image which I just saw as a dot.
Sounds like you might have benefitted from increasing the size of your power trays if the icons were too small.
Spurn all ye kindle.
I would prefer more of a clock-wipe animation while recharging, the "growing" recharge animation from CoX was about the only part of the UI i did not like
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I never set anything on fire accidentally!
The Titan Legacy - Defender of the Inner Flame
No, it is just that a *glance* I couldn't necessarily easily tell if that was ability X or ability Y (especially if they had similar icons).
That was why I always utilized the "what slot is it in" to actually identify my powers with. At 1920x1080 resolution, I had it slipped down just a little bit, so that I would easily fit my action bars onto the screen (I Had them running across the bottom as well as stacking 3 top bottom right, along with my enhancements/inspirations showing as well.
Clock wipe/show time remaining as an overlay of the icon... whatever. Just so long as I can easily tell how long is left before I can use it again, without having to think "is that 10 seconds to wait or is it still 90 seconds to go..." (of course, that is for the very long recharge powers.
I'm in for recharge overlay and generic symbology for power types. I like being able to tell at a glance if my power is a single big shot, knockback, immob, or burst-fire.
When you say that CoT can't use this method because of IP issues, does that mean they can't use the same specific symbols, or that they can't distinguish power icons with generic symbols? Pretty sure it's the former, but you can never be certain...
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