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Source code repository of the FreeOrion project.
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GUI: show unexplored systems in a different way #3388

Open agrrr3 opened 3 years ago

agrrr3 commented 3 years ago

Unexplored systems look the same as explored ones (if you sensed a planet) although they are different.

With some latest changes (behind a game rule) all systems show their respective suns - which makes basic exploration confusing (before you saw a question mark for those systems).

A UI hint to distinguish unexplored from explored systems would solve that.

o01eg commented 3 years ago

Maybe send names for explored systems and don't sent for unexplored?

geoffthemedio commented 3 years ago

I'm not sure what you're suggesting be changed... I just tested to verify what I thought you meant, but I don't see the issue. Please clarify under what rule setting you're testing and what should happen that doesn't, and perhaps include screenshots?

agrrr3 commented 3 years ago

I'm not sure what you're suggesting be changed... I just tested to verify what I thought you meant, but I don't see the issue.

In the past if you went to an unexplored system, on the map you would see starlanes go to unexplored systems and that systems would show a question mark until you explore/detect it. Now it shows the sun color, so you cant immediatly see which systems you need to detect/explore - most importantly to uncover further starlanes. Now unexplored systems look the same as empty explored dead ends - so you cant plan exploration by simply looking at the map.

Please clarify under what rule setting you're testing and what should happen that doesn't, and perhaps include screenshots?

o01eg brought up the UI issue, it was bugging me the last real game i played for testing. If I got the communication right you declared sun visibility a feature and added a game rule as feature switch to it (not sure that its in master already). I do not think a game rule is necessary (so i am ok with always knowing star type), but the UI is in need of some improvement for exploration.

I think o01egs suggestion about showing system names (only) for explored systems is already state of the art. It does not work for empty systems though and it I think it is too subtle. One idea: give the system circle a bigger diameter (lets say 1.5 times the diameter) for unexplored systems - it has more empty space inside, which creates a "pull" feeling.

If the enlarged circles feel too "loud" in order to balance that one could make the circle color a bit more "transparent" (probably darker) to account for the extra circumfence (circumfence scales with diameter, so with 1.5x diameter it colors 50% more pixels, so it could be a third less bright - or actually transparent to express the less exact knowledge).

geoffthemedio commented 3 years ago

In the past if you went to an unexplored system, on the map you would see starlanes go to unexplored systems and that systems would show a question mark until you explore/detect it.

With default settings, this still happens: Exploration

agrrr3 commented 3 years ago

With default settings, this still happens:

Ok, so default is old behavior. But what is the point of providing that "Basic System Info Visible" option if we do not want to support it in UI?

geoffthemedio commented 3 years ago

The UI can be adjusted if necessary. I'm just not sure what you want(ed) since what you were saying happens isn't consistent with what I see.

agrrr3 commented 3 years ago

The UI can be adjusted if necessary. I'm just not sure what you want(ed) since what you were saying happens isn't consistent with what I see.

with that game rule enabled there is one unexplored system in this screenshot find_the_unexplored

MichaelCourtney commented 2 years ago

There also needs to be an easy indication of "visited" systems, in the context of the exploration policy

geoffthemedio commented 2 years ago

There is a distinct indicator for systems that have been explored (ie. had a ship in them) by an empire. This isn't ideal as it requires mousing over to see, but it does give that info.

explored_indicators

The issue of not being able to know if all starlanes are known is an optional rule, for which I'll add a warning in the rule tooltip.