Stardock & Ironclad UI and gfx designers better pay attention to this video

LoL posted a nice video recently (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiSNHAJHu-c) on the importance they place on the connection between gameplay and the visuals associated with that, as well as general accessibility concerns.

I can [alas] use Sins as a textbook example of how to do most of that poorly:

hard-to-see weapons fire effects, especially on the TEC side
weapons with long [burst] timers (5-7 seconds) with no indication when they'll fire next
illogical relation between displayed gfx and actual firepower discussed for example in https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/427922/page/1/ and https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/455240/page/1/#3473612
units that are difficult to see and/or distinguish from each other; the Rankulas nanites come to mind as the most serious offender here

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I agree that gameplay and visuals are important and a game should clearly represent its mechanics visually whenever possible.

But in Sins you can zoom out very far and rotate the camera in every direction, where in contrast in LoL your camera is "locked" to a specific heights and angle, making it far easier to balance with the visuals.

I do agree though that Sins is not the best example of good visual design and gameplay connection.

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Volt_Cruelerz

Join Date 06/2008

+115

While this applies on a theoretical level, since you're never zoomed in close enough to pay attention to this, particle effects are irrelevant.

Sins weapons are DPS hoses on any realistic scale. You don't need to know when exactly the damage is dealt so long as you know the average.

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