Those Gold Points

posted by on 3 comments
So, a lot of people get confused when they receive their first gold point, as they don't really understand what it's for. To solve this problem, we've come up with a few solutions, but for once, we can't seem to agree on which one we think is the best!

Can you help us decide?

Option #1:


Keeping it as it is. Yes, this is an option as well. You get a gold point, but there's no way of telling what it's for until you've leveled a spell enough times to unlock its use - in the meanwhile you just have to keep guessing, or forget about it.

Visually, it's probably the best looking option.

Option #2:


Added silver and gold points to the leveling bar for clarity. This should make it clear that you can use gold points to level skills, but it could still confuse players: they get a gold point, and see that it can be used to level their skills, yet somehow they can't use it yet?

We worry that with this option, players will believe that they can use silver and gold points to level skills simultaneously, and in the worst case scenario, believe it's a bug or get frustrated when they can't use them.

Option #3:


Graying out and putting a lock on the gold part of the skill bar. Our hope with this option would be that people will understand that they can use gold points to level skills, but that they're locked for now. Once you've put your 5 silver points in a skill, an animation + sound effect will play which unlocks the next 5 points (making the skill bar look like the one in Option #2).

Probably the most informative option - if people understand the visual cues - but also possibly the least visually pleasing.
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3 comments:

  1. Alex Ryan15 August 2015 at 08:42

    you could also try something like this https://gyazo.com/cae19d0fd51e184d11f3785a8d965f85
    to keep the simplicity with just a little more of a cue.

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  2. Anonymous15 August 2015 at 11:18

    Out of those options I like Alex's the most.

    My preference would be to have the skills "level up" kind of like an XP bar. I think that would also make it clearer to new players that there are different "levels" (charges) of skills.

    Example: http://i.imgur.com/thYr9Uu.png

    Only downside here is that you might be confused when bronze level skills look silver and silver level skills look gold, but that's an issue anyway.

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  3. War Fist15 August 2015 at 12:23

    I have a couple ideas that MIGHT work, but instead of trying to write a paragraph (or an essay), I will simply list the ideas out.

    -- Use Option #1, but gray-out the second half of the skill bar and affix a Gold Lock (or the Gold Point symbol) to it.

    -- You could also gray out the portion of the UI that displays the Gold Point count as long as the player hasn't invested 5 silver points into a skill. This may be less necessary if you choose to place a grayed out Gold Point symbol over the grayed out portion of the skill bar.

    I think I had a couple more ideas, but after typing the above two out I didn't feel like anything else was needed. I hope this helps. :)

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