Brad Wardell's views about technology, politics, religion, world affairs, and all sorts of politically incorrect topics.

The more I work with the beta of Elemental the more I think we need to integrate info cards into it.  Those of you who have played Sins of a Solar Empire know what info cards are. They are one of the major game UI innovations that Ironclad has introduced to the genre.

The idea is that when you mouse over something, a “card” appears on the screen that gives detailed information about it. They’re kind of like super tooltips.

Well, for Elemental, that’s what we’re looking to do too. In this case, I’m thinking we should have them look like cards:

image

So the idea is that you could have your units on screen, mouse over them and see the card. Same for improvements in cities, artifacts, etc. It means a lot less click click click. 

It also gives another opportunity for players to customize something that has a practical use because they could, when designing units, have some control over the info card and thus be able to make distinctive cards for units they want to be able to recognize at a glance.


Comments (Page 4)
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on Oct 08, 2009

There probably will be no update today. There was a comment from the frog where he said that they were leaning toward dropping it. This due to the fact that it takes time to make and release, and they had other pressing stuff to finish.

Patience young sovereign!

on Oct 11, 2009

MouseOver is great. Reducing unnecessary clicking is very welcome.

on Oct 12, 2009

Raven X
Quoting Wintersong, reply 32If you are going to talk about card design, please avoid MtG. L5R owns (I miss being able to play or collect my Battle Maidens ).

Also, the ones I saw in that pic for the magic screen were nice (for starters?) so I hope for some really flavored cards for the different things. It would be sweet!!!


Never heard of this L5R, what is it? What's wrong with the style of cards from Magic:TG?

Quoting KellenDunk, reply 35Or for those in the know "Tragic:The Garnering"....


I agree.  In this case "in the know" referred to a spoof of MTG in Fallout2.

on Oct 12, 2009

KellenDunk


"Tragic:The Garnering"....


I agree.  In this case "in the know" referred to a spoof of MTG in Fallout2.

Ahh yes, I remember that.

on Oct 12, 2009

The infocards are a good idea. Can we include diplomatic relations on there, too?

I rarely remember to check the diplomatic screen when playing this kind of game, so it's always a surprise when one of the AI factions suddenly declares war on me. Having the information on an infocard would keep everything on the main screen and make it more likely for me to come across it while playing.

This doesn't have to be anything too complicated; a small section on the card that lists the unit's faction's stance towards you along with any other factions they're currently allied or at war with would be fine.

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