Today, I'm revealing my first supreme commander mod:
Refined Strategic Icons
Inspired by Shadow's 'Advanced strategic icons' mod, my mod does the same thing but with different underlying goals. If you don't like the default ones, and mine doesn't do it for you either, check out his. (And if you STILL aren't happy, they aren't hard to make yourself.)
Why did I make this mod?
Overall, I like the default icons. They are simple and tell me a lot at a glance. However, I wished they where more liberal with different shapes and symbols. Some important things (like nukes) can be easily missed and many units share the same shape which isn't all that helpful when your glancing around.
Goals
- Keep the same style as default icons
- Improve visibility of key structures/units
- Diversity the icons so that they are easier to distinguish quickly
Key Differences from Shadow's Mod:
- Rarely added color to the icons [(anti)nuke/e store) and subtle when done
- Fewer symbols changed (and no inner-white boarder)
- More shape changes
- No size change
That's the pitch. It's a quick install, so I highly recommend taking for a test drive. At first is will seem odd and likely fugly. Watch some replays and it quickly starts to jive and then you'll be jarred when you watch a default video on youtube.
Below is the mod, a full change log, and a (terrible) picture. Feel free to post comments, things that need to be fixed, other requests and the like.
Cheers!
Installation
- Download file
- Extract to ...\Supreme Commander Forged Alliance\gamedata
- ???
- Profit
For steam users, the default file path is below:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Supreme Commander Forged Alliance\gamedata
For non-steam users:
C:\Program Files\THQ\Gas Powered Games\Supreme Commander - Forged Alliance\gamedata
Change log (also in file)
Shape Changes:
Transporters = Inverted (Isosceles parallelogram, long side down)
Missiles...
...Sub-Surface = Pentagon w/rounded bottom
...Surface, Navel = Pentagon w/rounded top (non-existent in vanilla)
...Other = Pentagon
Artillery = Kite
Symbol Changes:
Artillery...
...Structure = Enhanced crosshair w/horz. lines
...Other = Enhanced crosshair
Missile = Missile :gasp:
Anti-missile = Missile with broken strips on side
Anti-Arty. = Enhanced Crosshair w/slash (non-existent in vanilla)
Engineer Structures = Default w/petina
Misc. Changes:
Anti-Air and Air now share '^' symbol. AA is not longer a 'rounded ^'.
-Literally a pixel difference and few units actually nativity have a '^'
T3 Subs/Nukes are marked w/red
-As are anti-nukes
Anti-Navy bombers now have rounded corners (fits with navy theme of rounded corners...)
Mexes have different symbols for each stage for quick readability
E-storage has a yellow dot in the middle of it
T3 Direct Fire Ships (battle ships) have red markings
-Sera T3 battle ships can make nukes
Shield Disruptor Icon fixed (not pulled right from the game so doesn't really mater.)
If you hadn't noticed, non-existent unit icons are supported
Yea, yea, this pictures not extremely helpful... I'm not on my gaming computer and that's the best I got for the time being. If you wouldn't mind grabbing a screen shot showing off the different icons... Else I'll update it when I can.