Factories button's images...

[AnonyMouse]

Hi, I have factories in my game but I have troubles displaying their buttons. Units and other buildings are a bit schematic so I cant put a shot of the factory in that button. I cant drow its profile (like units are and other buildings) because there is nothing speciphic they have very similar profiles. Factories are producing mixed units with some exceptions. Almost each of them has antitank, antiaircraft, etc so I cant use special symbols which represents units abilities; and they have 6 slots I cant draw all of them in the button they become small and most of them are not clear. Repairing units is ok, lets say I will put table with 6 boxes in the button and will draw repairing symbol in one of them. But with armored cars with machineguns with different calibers, 20 mm cannon, 45 mm cannon short, 45 mm cannon long, it become impossible.
I need 4 buttons, others are easy (one producing only aircraft, other specialised too) and difference between them is that factory 2 is producing stronger and heavier military machines than factory 1, factory 3 than factory 2, etc, but they are producing also engineering machines and they are not grading (is that the right word?), they are for different purposes. For example Factory 1 produces supply unit, factory 2 repairing unit, factory 3 a commander...
I cant solve this problem for long time and it seems buttons with signs 1, 2, 3, 4 are the best solution for now. But they are boring.
How could I represent factories in buttons? Any brave ideas? I could use an iso-drawing too althought it is not used in any other buttons but...

 

[Phil Strahl]

So you are talking about a RTS kind of game, right? Do you have a screenshot of what it looks right now? Because I am really having a hard time following all these details in your post, but from what I gather it seems like you have a lot of different little icons and symbols in your game already. Have you considered to put some of this information right on the units itself, e.g. that players can instantly see the differences on the unis, e.g. stronger units are darker, or cannons have a different length depending on their caliber, etc.?

 

[AnonyMouse]

Yes, it is RTS. Here is a screen of different buttons - old, and the bottom one is the newest, where the bottom 2 are obsolete because I decided to make factorie specialized but later removed that idea, cant find a screen with version with digits buttons only.

Here you can find more images: http://www.gamedev.net/gallery/member/134494-pleistorm/
Units icons are different story, the problem here is the buttons for "Build a factory here". The first image (the top one) is for illustration what style I am using. First row of all menus below is for other buildings, not factories. (The 1st from right on the bottom, which shows bullets (rounds) is just for testing, some old stuff too).
As you can see on the top each machine has its own symbol but it is not sure I will keep these symbols as they are not very informative. I had an idea to put these symbols in "Build factory", all 6 to one button, but military symbols means actually nothing you cant understand what is the machine except you know it well already and even I cant remember them.

 

[Yal]

If you can't tell the factories apart at a glance, there might be deeper problems than just how to represent them in the GUI, just saying. You might want to actually make the factories at least look different so the players can associate each function with a different shape, and then make the icons based on the building's profile.

• Factory 1 provides supply units, so it should be mostly open and have a visible stack of crates and barrels outside; this is 'supplies' its supply units uses.
• Factory 2 provides repairing units, so it should have a visible wrench logotype/sign on it since wrenches are the universal symbol of repairing things. It could also have chimneys that create green smoke or something to symbolize repair, I guess.
• Factory 3 provides commanding units, so it should have gold-colored details and a bunch of flags to look pompous and in command.
• You've not told me what Factory 4 makes, so just make that look run-down and polluted with lots of smoke coming out of it so it looks different from the others.