The Mana World Forums

Hey Dave,

I like the idea of white (maybe with a minimal lightblue gradient - blue again ^^) for ice... and gray for metal is also nice (with this glass effect it will look good, I think)...

Nice arguments for the yellow air-icon... I only say in my opinion a light blue (as already said, the water should be dark) will look better. =)

Maybe we have a look at an example with a yellow background soon. =)


// Andi

I'm not going to make a big deal out of the color-thing, if everyone ends up getting crazy about the notion to use yellow for air, etc.. but I think it'd be a good idea to try to avoid using the same colors, however reasonably possible.

So back on topic for a moment, here are my thoughts on the symbols we don't have:

Plant (leaf)
Earth (mountain or chasm)
Metal ( someone suggested a nut.. how about an anvil?)
Ice (Icicle or maybe )

also, regarding the bolt symbol. I think it's too many bolts.

Dave wrote:I'm not going to make a big deal out of the color-thing, if everyone ends up getting crazy about the notion to use yellow for air, etc.. but I think it'd be a good idea to try to avoid using the same colors, however reasonably possible.

So back on topic for a moment, here are my thoughts on the symbols we don't have:

Plant (leaf)
Earth (mountain or chasm)
Metal ( someone suggested a nut.. how about an anvil?)
Ice (Icicle or maybe )

also, regarding the bolt symbol. I think it's too many bolts.

Plant- A leaf would be good
Earth- Chasm or so sort of rock formation ie stalagmite
Metal- Anvil might get confused with and Black Smith job skill we might want to put in later. I would suggest a metal bar or rod like a piece of rebar.
Ice- A icicle or snow flake

For the colors, we could move white to air, gray to ice, and yellow to metal (think gold). Or add cyan/aqua(*) to the list and save yellow for something else. Black might also work for one of the elements.

Hey,

I like the snowflake for ice. A blueish snowflake on a white background will surely look good. =)


// And1

lots of discussion. Indeed water and fire might need some tweaking. With lighting and air I broke my own rules a bit about using border, making it less cartoony. I will ajust it once I'm done with all the icons, then I can try to bring them all into a consistent look. Also the backgrounds need some tweaking too... I do like the sphere-glassy-reflection look, so I would not want to change it. I think it would take away a bit of the magic so to speak.

About the colors. I did a yellow version, and it really takes the clarity away. See attached. I would propose using Aqua for water, and Blue for air. Attached a yellow version and a more blue (than sky-blue) version.

Hey Othello,

much thanks for the examples... pity I still have to say, that I think your first wind icon looks the best of these three...

... actually it's a matter of personal taste, so there's no reason to say, that the others should accept my opinion. =)


// Andi

Hey andy,

Yeah, the tornado is cool, but there is too much detail in it. Reducing the detail however made it much more unclear. I attached a big version of the tornado, just for fun .

Othello

Hey Othello,

yeah that's right, that there is too much detail... it's also nice. =)

But actually I was talking about this one:

Sorry for this misunderstanding. =)


// And1

I think most of us like that one best.. I would not go for yellow

Not that I expect much of a change in anyone's perception of a yellow air symbol, but here is another example, from the board game, "Tower of the Wizard King" .. (it wasn't a very good game, but it came with some neat pieces)

I like the icons dave, the tornado is very clear from that picture.

I also thought of a torrent for water, but it didn't quite look as good as I wanted. I like the earth picture, its very clear. What I notice from these icons are that they all represent force or power in some way, a release of energy. If possible that is ofcourse a good thing to have in the icons. I'll first try to finish the icon-set and then maybe create another alternative for air, and water.

Whats the red sun representing? Light?

My ideas for colors:
Water = cyan
Ice = white
Air = blue
Lightning = purple
Fire = red
Metal = yellow
Earth = brown
Plant = green

The game used the four typical elements. The sun represents fire, though a flame would've worked just as well, or better.

I like the water symbol, but when I began hunting for that image in my backups, I had remembered it looking quite different. I can't recall where the water symbol I'm thinking of, comes from.

I like the idea of using a tornado and I prefer it over the jet / gust, which I don't find to be instantly recognizable, the way everyone else seems to. I suppose it's easy enough to interpret.. a tornado just seems more .. uh .. just more!

Another way to imagine symbols could use larger representations of each element.

[Plant] leaf < tree
[Water] droplet < wave
[Ice] snowflake < icicle
[Air] gust < tornado
[Lightning] bolt < bolts
[Fire] flame < sun
[Metal] piece of metal < larger piece of metal
[Earth] rock < mountain (though I'm still quite partial to using a chasm)

I can understand your reasoning for using cyan for water, but pure cyan is such an awful color. If we're going to ignore strict color-coding, at least shade it down to something a bit more oceany blue-green (like turquoise) That said, I feel the most important aspect of color-coding is to avoid reusing colors and if possible, any colors that are too similar. I understand that Cyan does not = Blue, but it's closer than I think we should get, if we're trying to avoid getting colors mixed up.

While I can understand the use of yellow for metal, something about that doesn't sit right with me. (maybe I just need time to get used to the idea)

For metal how about a metal sheet with rivets in it

Well, I'll try to make some proposals for iron.

In the mean while I tinkered nature together. The problem with that every magic discipline has a color which is the same as the element means that the graphic in the icon usualy has somewhat the same color. So, should I use the same color in the icon as in the background, or should I use different colors? What do you think. Here are two variants of nature. Which you think is better? The only difference is the background color.