Oolite Bulletins

Diziet Sma wrote:

Smivs wrote:

Ha, very good Dizzie

That wasn't me.. it was Svengali wot dun it..

I just included it in my post because I've noticed most of you lot hardly ever spot Svengali's avatar changes..

I stand corrected. Certainly made me chuckle.

Disembodied wrote:

cim wrote:

I keep instinctively reading the scale icons as "higher is better" and then thinking "Oh, scales. Lower is better".

This is true ... it's not obvious whether the icon with a raised human means "this OXP lifts the player" or "this OXP gives more weight to NPCs". The whole idea of scales/seesaw to refer to "balance" is a good one, but at the moment the icons probably need some sort of text explanation. Maybe it would be better to lose the scales/seesaw, and just to have a human figure or a computer icon with a + or a - (or an up arrow or a down arrow) next to it?

Even with the icons, though, I still think it's worth encouraging all OXP wiki pages to carry a short "Effects on Game Balance" section - even if all it says is "Effects on Game Balance: none".

Maybe: 1+2 are only showing that the balance gets altered in favour of xyz. E.g. for 1 it doesn't matter if the Players strength/powers/possibilities are increased or the NPCs decreased. 3+4 are showing that power/strength/difficulty gets raised/lowered for both. I doubt that more differentiation is suitable for icons, e.g. by using different icons for weight changes, power changes, etc.

The short hover text (see the example on the  OXPIconSummary page) can be used to give some details about the meaning, although I don't think that a 'balance changing' icon would need more than a few words. The icons are not there to replace in-depth explanations and I agree that a short "Effects on Game Balance" section really makes sense.

Svengali wrote:

Maybe: 1+2 are only showing that the balance gets altered in favour of xyz.

I'm just not sure whether the first icon - with the computer down and the player up - means "this OXP is tilted in favour of the player" or "this OXP is tilted in favour of the NPCs". Basically, it's not clear (to me, anyway!) whether being up or down on the balance is good or bad ... "up" could be good because it's higher, or "down" could be good because it's heavier. 1 and 2 might be easier to read if the one which means "this OXP is tilted in favour of the player" only had a player figure on it, and the one which means "this OXP is tilted in favour of the NPCs" only had a computer on it, e.g.:

(assuming "up" is good ... )

Disembodied wrote:

I'm just not sure whether the first icon - with the computer down and the player up - means "this OXP is tilted in favour of the player" or "this OXP is tilted in favour of the NPCs". Basically, it's not clear (to me, anyway!) whether being up or down on the balance is good or bad ... "up" could be good because it's higher, or "down" could be good because it's heavier.

Neither 'good', nor 'bad'. I'll try to explain what I had in mind (sorry - I'm really bad at this kind of stuff):

The icon does not show the change itself, it shows that the result of a change causes a shift. So it is not relevant if a weighting has been changed, the strength or other factors. There's also no 'good' or 'bad', only 'a shift happens in direction of xyz'. This way it stays neutral. So if the Player is lifted, the shift happens in direction of the Player.

Better? Or to abstract?

Disembodied wrote:

1 and 2 might be easier to read if the one which means "this OXP is tilted in favour of the player" only had a player figure on it, and the one which means "this OXP is tilted in favour of the NPCs" only had a computer on it, e.g.:

(assuming "up" is good ... )

I think you need both to get the relation right. The seesaw is just the vehicle, a helper, to show the difference.

Being a physicist my opinion of the scales (originally) and later, the seesaw, is that is an OXP "weights" the advantage towards the player (makes it easier for the player to trade/fight/refuel etc) then the seesaw (for example) should have the player closer to the "ground" because the OXP weighs more heavily in his/her favour...

Who'd have thunk this could be so complicated...

DaddyHoggy wrote:

... closer to the "ground" because the OXP weighs more heavily in his/her favour

I think this also. To clarify the "heavier" figure can be larger in the first two icons:

Looks like the seesaw is the problem. It is perfect to relate things to each other, but it implies that it is a weight, not a direction. For a icon on the other side 'up' is usually the 'higher rated' value.

Svengali wrote:

Looks like the seesaw is the problem.

The scales were better, I reckon.

Yes, I tend to agree. The scales are more 'intuitive' than the see-saw.
Alternatively, why not just have a 'human' or 'computer' icon to indicate which is favoured? A human icon means the player is favoured, and vice-versa.

And for those that favour neither?

Diziet Sma wrote:

And for those that favour neither?

Cyborg?

Diziet Sma wrote:

And for those that favour neither?

I'd think they don't need a icon at all.

Then maybe



or

I'm feeling similarly to Thargoid. All the icons don't seem to make things simpler. In the worst case they add a layer of confusion. And the OXPs that I'm concerned about, because they seem "cheaty" to me aren't covered anyway. And they seem to elicit the reaction that it's none of my business anyway to be concerned about other people's OXPs.