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Console Icon Art Revamp!

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  • bobotheinsanebobotheinsane Member Posts: 5 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    Did I miss the going back to grade school console art contest? Sorry, I didn't have my virtual crayons ready to compete!

    In a nuttshell the new artwork was unnecessary and looks god awful...As some have posted above the learning curve to retrain the eyes to something new which takes away some of the appeal of the previous art work.

    I like the previous style of artwork and found it simple and easy to distinguish as for the new style it looks grainy and the similarities to the others makes it even harder distinguish now. Atleast refine the grainy look and smooth the object in the picture. Artwork change is good but make it look cleaner and sharper than the current version. I don't want to look at the current version and always think "I should have listened more to Mrs.Agnew in Art class and refined my inner art talent" LOL :P

    Keep up the good work but please REFINE the current artwork :)

    Thanks
  • frtoasterfrtoaster Member Posts: 3,352 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    crypticttc wrote: »
    H
    Goal 1: Introduce a visual language into these console icons to make it easier to understand at a glance what bonuses that icon grants and what systems they affect.
    Goal 2: Recreate the artwork based on established props and drawings from classic Star Trek publications, like the TNG and DS9 tech manual, to make these items feel more appropriately "Star Trek" for those who are interested in Treknobabble.

    With that in mind, please reference the linked images to see Old vs. New, along with a reminder of what each console does. You'll notice that I've grouped them together to demonstrate similar function, and hopefully you will be able to start to learn the visual language of these new icons quickly.

    The most clear example of this new language is the items which give bonuses to certain weapon energy or torpedo types - they are now all color coded to the energy type they buff. Items that buff shields will have a shield bubble on them and all of the items that buff a science skill will have a little skill bar featured on them somewhere. We've also color coded the console icon backgrounds so it's very clear whether something is a tactical (red), engineering (yellow) or science console (blue).

    There are two contradictory goals when it comes to the design of the console icons:

    (a) Make consoles within the same category appear similar so that one can tell at a glance that something is a energy weapon console, hull plating console, etc.

    (b) Make consoles within the same category distinct so that one can easily distinguish a polaron console from an antiproton console, etc.

    Obviously, these two goals occupy opposite ends of a scale, so one must choose which goal is more important. It seems that Cryptic decided that goal (a) is more important. The question is why. From the comments in this thread, it is clear that many players believe that goal (b) is more important. I think that is the crux of the complaints.
    Waiting for a programmer ...
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  • kain9primekain9prime Member Posts: 739 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    Ummm, yeah, so all the new "Art" you did for consoles...








    ...why?



    Why spend all that time and effort to change them? It looks like a 10yr old did it, plus the playerbase has to re-familiarize themselves with their equipment visuals.


    What was the point? Why do you guys change things that don't need changing? Don't "fix" stuff that isn't broken.

    :rolleyes:
    The artist formally known as Romulus_Prime
  • cgta1967cgta1967 Member Posts: 86 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    there was a big thread about this already...but it got moved somewhere....
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  • thecosmic1thecosmic1 Member Posts: 9,365 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    cgta1967 wrote: »
    there was a big thread about this already...but it got moved somewhere....
    It was moved to Feedback Controls, User Interface, Gateway, as that's the section of the forum dealing with it.
    STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
  • marshalericdavidmarshalericdavid Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    See stuff like this really annoys me changing stuff that was fine but taking so long to fix stuff that needs fixing.
  • edited August 2013
    This content has been removed.
  • thecosmic1thecosmic1 Member Posts: 9,365 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    See stuff like this really annoys me changing stuff that was fine but taking so long to fix stuff that needs fixing.
    Two different divisions of the company. After all, your house painter doesn't do surgery on you - at least not legally. :)
    STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
  • talzerotwotalzerotwo Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    thecosmic1 wrote: »
    Two different divisions of the company. After all, your house painter doesn't do surgery on you - at least not legally. :)



    so that's what happened to the Joker.... :P
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  • yreodredyreodred Member Posts: 3,527 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    kain9prime wrote: »
    Why spend all that time and effort to change them? It looks like a 10yr old did it, plus the playerbase has to re-familiarize themselves with their equipment visuals.


    What was the point? Why do you guys change things that don't need changing? Don't "fix" stuff that isn't broken.

    :rolleyes:
    Agreed.

    I don't get that too, it was totally unneccessary and is just confusing everyone for no aparent reason. No one needed it or even likes it AFAIK.
    I seriously hope other people at Cryptic have something better to do than creating stuff no one has ever asked for.

    talzerotwo wrote: »
    so that's what happened to the Joker.... :P
    :D
    "...'With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured...the first thought forbidden...the first freedom denied--chains us all irrevocably.' ... The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. I fear that today--" - (TNG) Picard, quoting Judge Aaron Satie

    A tale of two Picards
    (also applies to Star Trek in general)
  • rickdias5500rickdias5500 Member Posts: 95 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    Classic "Over the top" fail, one hundred percent. Why has the " revamp " of the icons has failed no more then 6 hr in to its implantation? This is why. AGAIN you have taken it upon yourselves to mess with something that was not broken.

    One, the interface that people have known for years has allowed people to identify and recognize things at a glance. Now it guess at what rainbow colored thing your looking at . they all look the same no real differences of appearances. It looks like someones 3 year old ate a box of 64 count crayons thew ,them up all over the place.

    Two for the cannon part , well you really should not even be speaking of canon things and star trek in the same breath. In 2 years you have put some much un- Star Trek things into this game is not even funny anymore. from all the sloppy stupid carries that shoot combat pets that cater to the laziest of people to the total omission that you really don't know what is a Romulain and what is not. it's not even star trek anymore. not to mention the Klingons. to be honest the game is best summed up in this matter of captain Kirk meets- Pokemon -meets star wars. you are so far form the mark canon wise that some chewed up icons is not going get you there.
  • thratch1thratch1 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    See stuff like this really annoys me changing stuff that was fine but taking so long to fix stuff that needs fixing.
    yreodred wrote: »
    I don't get that too, it was totally unneccessary and is just confusing everyone for no aparent reason. No one needed it or even likes it AFAIK.
    I seriously hope other people at Cryptic have something better to do than creating stuff no one has ever asked for.

    The Art Department at Cryptic aren't the people doing bug fixes, you know. It's all probably one guy who re-did the icons, because it's his job and he was dissatisfied with the old icons. If he decides to make new icons, it's not going to slow down the guy trying to fix the bug that unseats your Department Heads or whatever.

    Frankly, I like the new icons (especially the tactical ones -- none of the old energy boosting consoles looked like they made any sense, whereas now the icons depict more what I'd expect to see from a prop).
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  • marshalericdavidmarshalericdavid Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    thratch1 wrote: »
    The Art Department at Cryptic aren't the people doing bug fixes, you know. It's all probably one guy who re-did the icons, because it's his job and he was dissatisfied with the old icons. If he decides to make new icons, it's not going to slow down the guy trying to fix the bug that unseats your Department Heads or whatever.

    Frankly, I like the new icons (especially the tactical ones -- none of the old energy boosting consoles looked like they made any sense, whereas now the icons depict more what I'd expect to see from a prop).

    They aren't spending enough money to get people to fix bugs enough but are paying people who are doing things that don't need to be done like these crappy icon changes.
  • thratch1thratch1 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    They aren't spending enough money to get people to fix bugs enough but are paying people who are doing things that don't need to be done like these crappy icon changes.

    How do you imagine it works? That they hire a new person on for every little thing? Do you know whose job it was to redo the icons, how long it took him, or what his other duties are? Maybe he did them a little bit at a time, or maybe he did them in his off time (as happens fairly often in the game industry). You don't know.

    It's a harmless change, and the only reason you're complaining is because you're completely ignorant to the way things work.
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  • thutmosis85thutmosis85 Member Posts: 2,358 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    They aren't spending enough money to get people to fix bugs enough but are paying people who are doing things that don't need to be done like these crappy icon changes.

    Yeah they should move the dollar on a string from the Art Department over to Bug Fixing .... srsly first think then speak ...

    Whats your point ... fire the Art guy, to employ another "Bug Fixing - guy" ... guess you're the first to complain, when the next stuff (i.E. Season 8 ) hasn't any icons ....
    Patch Notes : Resolved an Issue, where people would accidently experience Fun.
  • kain9primekain9prime Member Posts: 739 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    thratch1 wrote: »
    Frankly, I like the new icons (especially the tactical ones -- none of the old energy boosting consoles looked like they made any sense, whereas now the icons depict more what I'd expect to see from a prop).
    I strongly disagree.

    In either case, it seems a bit unbelievable and rather asinine to have a single person in the art department arbitrarily decide to change things. And whether or not he does anything with the bugs is not the point I see being made - it's the money, time and effort being allocated to that guy, as opposed others who could or should be doing things which actually improve the game.

    :rolleyes:
    The artist formally known as Romulus_Prime
  • marshalericdavidmarshalericdavid Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    thratch1 wrote: »
    How do you imagine it works? That they hire a new person on for every little thing? Do you know whose job it was to redo the icons, how long it took him, or what his other duties are? Maybe he did them a little bit at a time, or maybe he did them in his off time (as happens fairly often in the game industry). You don't know.

    It's a harmless change, and the only reason you're complaining is because you're completely ignorant to the way things work.

    It shows that adding things that did not need to be added to the game had been authorized to be implemented into the game. Yes it is possible that someone could of spent free time working on these changes but why had they been approved to be put into the game? If it was not off time work it was on time work that could of been better spent.

    It is harder to identify items. The icons just don't look that good compared to what they had been. I am not completely ignorant to the way things work I just don't like the way things are going with this game things keep getting worse and worse.
  • thratch1thratch1 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    kain9prime wrote: »
    I strongly disagree.

    In either case, it seems a bit unbelievable and rather asinine to have a single person in the art department arbitrarily decide to change things. And whether or not he does anything with the bugs is not the point I see being made - it's the money, time and effort being allocated to that guy, as opposed others who could or should be doing things which actually improve the game.

    :rolleyes:

    So, you want to what... fire this guy? Without knowing what his job is? What if this is the same guy who paints all (or a lot of) the textures in the game?

    Do you even know how much time it took to do these icons? Have you ever done professional digital painting? Do you know how much money, time, and effort went into it? How can you equate the new icon artwork with anything else in the game, without first knowing what actually went into it?

    Again, you guys are all making ignorant assumptions. It's fine if you don't like the actual artwork, I don't care if you hate it, but for God's sake stop talking about the allocation of "money, time, and effort" without bothering to learn a single thing about what you're talking about.
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  • badname834854badname834854 Member Posts: 1,186 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    I have to agree wit the OP - I mean, are we just making **** up stuff for the Art Asset people to do now?

    - There was no need for it.
    - There was no desire for it.
    - It adds no benefit.
    - It only adds confusion.

    To Wit: "It does not bear fruit. it does not serve Vaal."
  • marshalericdavidmarshalericdavid Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    kain9prime wrote: »
    I strongly disagree.

    In either case, it seems a bit unbelievable and rather asinine to have a single person in the art department arbitrarily decide to change things. And whether or not he does anything with the bugs is not the point I see being made - it's the money, time and effort being allocated to that guy, as opposed others who could or should be doing things which actually improve the game.

    :rolleyes:

    Yep it is the perception of priorities and money being spent that is the problem. This makes it look like they are wasting money making changes to things that needed no change wile not spending enough on things that do need changes like bug fixing.
  • badname834854badname834854 Member Posts: 1,186 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    I posted this in the Discussion thread, so please excuse any dupes when the eventual merge-hammer comes into play:

    I have to agree with the OP - I mean, are we just making **** up stuff for the Art Asset people to do now?

    - There was no need for it.
    - There was no desire for it.
    - It adds no benefit.
    - It only adds confusion.

    To Wit: "It does not bear fruit. it does not serve Vaal."

    That said, I remember when they first deployed the new "Graphics" at ESD that looked like someone did them in MS Paint. Gah.
  • thratch1thratch1 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    Yep it is the perception of priorities and money being spent that is the problem. This makes it look like they are wasting money making changes to things that needed no change wile not spending enough on things that do need changes like bug fixing.

    "hurf durf hey you digital painter guy, go fix bugs"
    "But I don't know anything about coding..."
    "you're fired then durf hurf. hey coding guy, you can use MS Paint, when you've finished making that bug worse than it was before, go paint some new ships. WE'RE GONNA SAVE SO MUCH MONEY"

    and then we have Sweet Bro & Hella Jeff: The MMO (but without the irony).

    Learn something about how game developers work before typing again, please.
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  • thutmosis85thutmosis85 Member Posts: 2,358 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    This makes it look like they are wasting money making changes to things that needed no change wile not spending enough on things that do need changes like bug fixing.


    Pretty sure the Art guy is not a Mexican Day worker they just picked up from the corner, so they'd have to pay him anyway ...
    Patch Notes : Resolved an Issue, where people would accidently experience Fun.
  • marshalericdavidmarshalericdavid Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    thratch1 wrote: »
    So, you want to what... fire this guy? Without knowing what his job is? What if this is the same guy who paints all (or a lot of) the textures in the game?

    Do you even know how much time it took to do these icons? Have you ever done professional digital painting? Do you know how much money, time, and effort went into it? How can you equate the new icon artwork with anything else in the game, without first knowing what actually went into it?

    Again, you guys are all making ignorant assumptions. It's fine if you don't like the actual artwork, I don't care if you hate it, but for God's sake stop talking about the allocation of "money, time, and effort" without bothering to learn a single thing about what you're talking about.

    I never said to fire anyone just don't know why these changes had been made. Why had they been approved to be added.

    It does not matter how long they took they should never of been approved to be installed into the game. They cause bad perception for the game. They make things harder for people to identify items.

    No ignorant assumptions. Ignoring that this causes bad perception for the game is being ignorant.
  • neoakiraiineoakiraii Member Posts: 7,468 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    I think what Thomas did wa a great thing, you can even see what type of weapons the alloy can protect against just by looking at the picture now...but people are going to whine anyway
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  • starkaosstarkaos Member Posts: 11,556 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    Changing Icon art seems to be one of those tasks given to new employees so they can get used to the job or done by an experienced employee for an afternoon's work. Changing icon art doesn't take much time to do.
  • nikkyvixnikkyvix Member Posts: 241 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    It shows that adding things that did not need to be added to the game had been authorized to be implemented into the game. Yes it is possible that someone could of spent free time working on these changes but why had they been approved to be put into the game? If it was not off time work it was on time work that could of been better spent.

    It is harder to identify items. The icons just don't look that good compared to what they had been. I am not completely ignorant to the way things work I just don't like the way things are going with this game things keep getting worse and worse.

    So you're arguing because the project managers ok'd the art department (which with games like this tends to have much more downtime than the systems department) to replace the icons. Why didn't you say that before joining the mob cry of anger at Cryptic for not fixing other bugs in lieu of changing art assets?

    Completely separate the art department from the portion responsible for your gripes: The systems department. Art assets have nothing to do with your invisible torps, or your line latency, or many other systems and math-oriented issues that STO is plagued with. They have people crunching on those bugs too..not nearly as fast as we'd like, sure, but they have their job. They just don't have time to reassure us every freaking day about what specifically is being repro'd and tested on as if we were paranoid and suspicious relationship partners.

    If you disagree with the icons, then disagree with the icons. But don't allow yourself to fall into an armchair critic's assumption that every department is responsible for everything. Just because project managers didn't stop progression and adaptation of the entire game to fix its bugs doesn't means they are ignoring bugs to work on art. That's not how these businesses work.




    tl;dr Project managers are like Commander Riker: They don't ask Counselor Troi, Guinan, Lt. Worf and Doctor Crusher to stop what they're doing to go assist LaForge in engineering. :) Every department has their tasks. Keep everything relevant.
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  • talzerotwotalzerotwo Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    As a person who's goal it is to move into the art and graphics field (concept and technical... star trek ship design? cool) I found some of the word choices in this thread upsetting.

    Who are you to say fire the guy, just off the cuff. Learn some manners. Is sto overrated as an mmo? Yes. Does the handle of Star Trek help it out? Yes.

    When you have a limited amount of resources, and there are different departments that work apart, one cannot generalize a whole team as being the cause of of current issues. Current issues are primarily a lack of proper testing and balance. Making things more visually appealing have little do to with that. As much as I would like to say it was a failure of the a particular individual or department, I won't. Rather it is because there is/was a lack of sharp direction... there are too many cooks in the kitchen, and the majority of them aren't cryptic employees. Too early on, they listened a needy group of folks, when in fact they should have just taken a note out of Jenna Marble's book and said

    Pipe the **** Down.

    Unfortunately, now there is too little of any testing or listening going on. Nothing's perfect, I would say hurry up cryptic, it's been a couple years already hasn't it?

    Don't get me wrong, I'll never buy another cryptic game (unless again it has star trek slapped onto it), but knocking on a the problems of a game that's totally unrelated to an art department project is totally the wrong way to go about it. Go back far enough, everything would have pretty much looked the same, or terrible (remember those older galaxy level ship variants?).

    In short, Leave Britney alone, allocating tasks to an art department of sorts has little to no effect on the current state of the game, you need to turn your attention to whoever runs quality/balance control... then look at that person's boss and see if he or she is being squeezed hard by their uppers. :o



    Edit: on a side note, I misread the "fire the art guy", it wasn't written by marshalericdavid, but rather implied indirectly by another person's post who disagreed with his view. My apologies, but some of the other stuff still makes sense.
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  • thecosmic1thecosmic1 Member Posts: 9,365 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    I never said to fire anyone just don't know why these changes had been made. Why had they been approved to be added.

    It does not matter how long they took they should never of been approved to be installed into the game. They cause bad perception for the game. They make things harder for people to identify items.

    No ignorant assumptions. Ignoring that this causes bad perception for the game is being ignorant.
    Whether you like the changes or not is irrelevant. Cryptic wanted them changed and gave the orders to the UI artist - ThomastheCat.

    You seem to have some concept that if you don't like it everyone must not like it. That's not the case at all. As I always say in threads like this: If you get 1,000 people to agree with you on the forum, and there's 300,000 playing the game, you've managed to get 1/3 of 1% of the player-base to agree with you.

    No one is going to like everything added or changed in a game. That's just the truth of it. But doing 1 thing in a game has nothing to do with something else not getting done.
    STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
  • marshalericdavidmarshalericdavid Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    Why did someone approve these changes to be added to the game?

    Why are bug fixing not being approved more then silly things like these icon changes that are totally not need?

    People might think I am just a ignorant person but people are being ignorant to the perception things like this have on people.
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