Microbe GUI

Graphics
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I love the look of the new GUI plan.

One thing, however, with the reproduction button, I don’t know whether the meter is coming down or up but the darker bit should be a lot more transparent because it doesn’t fit with the rest of the GUI. Maybe start with the button being a darker shade (but with the same transparency) when the meter is empty, but the button fills up with the same colour as the rest of the GUI, as the reproduction meter increases.

@NickTheNick What are these checkpoints you speak of?

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Looks good so far, code shouldnt be too difficult.

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That could work.[quote=“NickTheNick, post:120, topic:111”]
The compound icons used to be larger width than the bars beside them, which I think was far nicer looking than having the icons be the same width as the bar. I presume it was just a stylistic choice you made between them, so it’s your call.
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With both next to each other I find the larger icons a bit clunky. The smaller ones came about due to the way I was snapping to pixel dimensions. They’re still clear even at such a small scale, but I can change it if people want it.[quote=“NickTheNick, post:120, topic:111”]
I’m a little undecided on the reproduction meter being represented by the editor button. I can see why you’d want to do that because it allows to drop the bar entirely, but at the same time it does make the Editor button look a little strange, and I think there are several checkpoints in the reproduction meter’s progress, that might not translate well into being visually represented in the editor button’s fullness.
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True. The new design was based on @stealthstylel’s suggestion (with the orientation rotated to represent the button “filling up” with compounds. The checkpoints could still be added as markers on the button but I think that would be a little cluttered. Perhaps a bar is the best option after all.[quote=“NickTheNick, post:120, topic:111”]
How is fossilize different from save?
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For the NPC microbes, it is save. For your own, it overwrites the species details but unlike save doesn’t record the compound levels or other attributes of your individual at that moment.[quote=“NickTheNick, post:120, topic:111”]
Fun fact, you misspelled compounds in the compounds panel :slight_smile: , but more importantly, is it necessary to have that panel titled “Compounds”? I ask because I’m undecided on the merits of that as well.
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Derp. :confused: Good spot. I mainly put a title there because there was a lot of free space at the top of the panel which couldn’t be filled by another bar (since it’s thinner than the rest). It could be removed really.[quote=“stealthstylel, post:121, topic:111”]
One thing, however, with the reproduction button, I don’t know whether the meter is coming down or up but the darker bit should be a lot more transparent because it doesn’t fit with the rest of the GUI. Maybe start with the button being a darker shade (but with the same transparency) when the meter is empty, but the button fills up with the same colour as the rest of the GUI, as the reproduction meter increases.
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It’s supposed to be going up, as if liquid is filling it. Disabled buttons will be dark, so the logic was that the editor button would progress from grey to blue as it gradually approached availability.

2 Likes
124

I just want to point out that i really don’t like the idea of ATP and health being condensed into one bar. While a lack of ATP will affect your health, taking damage to your cell’s membrane will not immediately reduce your ATP levels.

I think it would be better to have ATP more like a hunger or stamina bar. Otherwise getting poked by a pilus could mean certain death since your membrane being damaged magically and instantly saps your energy and thus your ability to escape.

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ATP and health isn’t condensed into one bar. The health bar is up in the corner, while atp is in the compounds list. Though I do agree the two should be relatively near each other, as a lack of ATP will begin killing your cell.

1 Like
126

Could ATP be represented in both the compound panel and under the health bar? Or would that be awkward and pointless?
If so, I’d rather have it as a bar underneath health, as it may be hard to spot quickly in the compounds bar.

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The atp could have a yellow highlight so that it is easy to tell it apart from the other compounds in the panel, though that might not look too good.

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Yellow might blend with the bright green of the atp bar

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For your potential consideration, bur has made some insightful suggestions on the community forum:

http://thrivegame.freeforums.net/post/16624/thread

1 Like
130

I’ve had a go at updating my editor design to match the new aesthetic:

Editor Draft 4.png1200×680 634 KB

  • I tried to keep as many buttons in similar locations to the environment as I could. Overall it looks alright, but I’m not sure about the upper right corner, especially the placement of the save and load cell buttons. Are they even needed?
  • Since we don’t have icons for the organelles yet I left their selection options in the right panel blank. Thermoplasts are in this example unavailable. I also used ~sciocont’s old editor concept for the cell in the middle, which is why it has no endoplasmic reticulum.
  • I added some basic stats to the bottom bar, since otherwise there was no use for it.

Otherwise, see my earlier layout post for the other design decisions.

5 Likes
131
  1. What are the processes in the editor? Are we allowed to actually explicitly tweak compound rates, rather than change them implicitly by adding and upgrading organelles? If they don’t actually have a purpose, I would suggest replacing the processes button with a split save button.
  2. I don’t think we need the +NEW button in the game editor. That is just something for the freeform editor, since after just one or two generations you will have too much organelles to delete them all and start with a new cell. Even then, why would you want to start over your cell? I propose changing the NEW button with a test button.
  3. Now we have moved test, save, and load, I propose making that the death stats button, whatever it’s called. For those of you that don’t know what I’m talking about, there was a suggestion a while back that shows you info from the CPA system, such as this species killed you so many times, you mainly eat this species, you keep running out of glucose and dying, etc…
  4. Are we absolutely certain we want the organelle box on the right? I feel like it’s a bit counter-intuitive as the average person reads from left to right, and virtually all games have a parts list on the left.
  5. Fantastic job on the organelle info panel, that one looks perfect.

I’ll try to edit an image to show what I mean.

EDIT:

1 Like
132

If i am going to be honest I like oliveriver’s concept more. The structure doesn’t feel TOO counter intuitive, and its organised well enough to be able to find all the concepts you need to find. The overall aesthetic is beautiful and If i were to play a game like thrive id want that.

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It’s the same screen as the processes one in the environment. It gives you an overview of every process your cell can perform, so I think it’s useful to have in the editor too. Not essential but it’s good to have an at-a-glance look.[quote=“TheCreator, post:131, topic:111”]
2) I don’t think we need the +NEW button in the game editor. That is just something for the freeform editor, since after just one or two generations you will have too much organelles to delete them all and start with a new cell. Even then, why would you want to start over your cell? I propose changing the NEW button with a test button.
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But the GUI will be the same for the freebuild editor, except various buttons may be available or unavailable depending on which you’re in.

Yeah, I see your point and I was going back and forth about it. The issue then is it overlaps with the menu/whatever other button we put there. It could be done either way really.

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AHmm. Nice job on the designs guys.

I prefer Oliver’s version just a little bit more I think, although I have a couple of thoughts:

  • I’d move the save and load buttons against the straight one of the main menu button.
  • I don’t like the symbol on the test button, but I’m not really sure what it could be other than the written word ‘test.’ I’ll think about that.
  • Like Oliver said, the organelles panel has to be on the right, otherwise it would overlap with the buttons in the bottom left. If this wasn’t true I would prefer it on the right.
  • If we have a panel that gives you info about how you are interacting with CPA and stuff I think it should be called ‘stats.’
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For the record, I’m going to try implementing this design into the game over the next few months. I’m quite busy but most of my Thrive-related free time will go towards it.

2 Likes
136

I have to agree with @TheCreator here, the parts box should be on the left. As he said, people read from left to right, you want the most important information, or at least the information that will be used most, to be on the left side of the screen. Especially since the parts have to be selected first then placed, it would feel weird pulling it from right to left as opposed to left to right. I think I like @Oliveriver 's set up better though, aside from the awkward placement of the parts panel.

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I’ve used my environment (with added main menu) to start creating an imageset file:

ThriveGeneric.png2001×1001 85.8 KB

Thanks to proper planning this time, all the dimensions are nice round multiples of 10 pixels and everything is spaced out, so there shouldn’t be any weird image clipping and everything should fit together properly! Even the icons are positioned in imaginary boxes 40 by 40 pixels to make moving them about easier. My initial layouts above were all blocky because I knew I’d arrive at this point needing some structure.

I’ve written an imageset text file. The only difficult element so far is the lower bar. For it to match the screen properly it’ll need to stretch, so if the entire thing were recorded as a single image the angles of the corners would break and not match with the corners they have to fit into. Instead I’ve chopped it into three, the corners and the rectangular centre, with the centre stretching as needed. I hope that works properly in-game.

I’d like to be able to test this in-game soon, which will also require layout files. However, if another Lua script links to an element which isn’t there (which will be the case since I’m removing all the old stuff) CEGUI throws a fit, so I need some way to disable pretty much every GUI-related function. @Moopli do you know any way of doing this?

4 Likes
138

I unfortunately don’t think that is possible. The closest you can get is to set the sizes for all the pieces in the image set file to 1by1 and then move them all to the zero position. This way all the elements will be there so the game won’t crash but at the same time you can use a new image and the old GUI won’t obscure the window. Then you will slowly restore the buttons by setting their dimensions.

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Great work Oliver!

We’ve now had 2 people for right and 2 for left for the organelle panel (unless I missed someone), so I’ll throw my lot in to say although I don’t like the overlap I prefer to stay with the convention and keep it on the left, it just feels unnatural for me to see it on the right. However, if we can’t come to a conclusion on it I think we should just leave it up to the person who implements it into the game, and then through playtesting we can see whether its better to move it or not.

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Since the organelle panel is just a GUI element, I vote to let the player toggle between “left handed panel” and “right handed panel” in the options menu.

2 Likes