[ARC] Menu Discussion

Just a question: Is the planet going to spin?

The main menu is going to reflect the behaviour of the body ingame. If it spins ingame it will spin in the menu.

I'm still really iffy about this.

How would you depict half-way explored planets then ~scio?

Plus, there are plenty of other ways to show dynamic menus that change based on your progress in-game.

well, you have to read posts to understand.

http://gotrol.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d350d8g

I said it before.

Gotrol wrote:

well, you have to read posts to understand.

http://gotrol.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d350d8g

I said it before.

I saw this, And I know this. My point was, as I said before, I don't like the idea of having the menu be big splotches of black/question mark. Scio said it'd just be backlit. I was pointing out that backlighting doesn't cover partial exploration.

And am I the only one who thinks that dramatic veiws of a certain planet is a little over-used?

Tenebrarum wrote:

And am I the only one who thinks that dramatic veiws of a certain planet is a little over-used?

Nope, you aren't.

I like the idea of multiple menus. Again, see my list.

Allright, so it's between a dynamic menu that reflects progress overall or a dynamic menu which reflects progress indirectly by cycling through different locations/objects/creatures player visited/created (reading Tenenbraum prev posts).

Or it can always be a simple static menu with a fixed background.

Tenebrarum wrote:

I'm still really iffy about this.

How would you depict half-way explored planets then ~scio?

Plus, there are plenty of other ways to show dynamic menus that change based on your progress in-game.

I don't have a problem with people knowing what their planet looks like from space when they haven't discovered all of it- it's not going to show them much in reality.

~sciocont wrote:

Tenebrarum wrote:

I'm still really iffy about this.

How would you depict half-way explored planets then ~scio?

Plus, there are plenty of other ways to show dynamic menus that change based on your progress in-game.

I don't have a problem with people knowing what their planet looks like from space when they haven't discovered all of it- it's not going to show them much in reality.

Maybe it would put borders to the unexplored continents on the map?

My biggest issue with it is that it's so overdone. Seriously. I see the dramatic planet thing everywhere. Everywhere. Even when it has nothing to do with the game. It's really boring and uncreative. Spore was creative, showing the entire galaxy which remained persistant through each game. However it failed to show the developement we're talking about. Let's do something new.

Name me one game which has a dynamic evolving and developing Celestial Body for its main menu. It isnt dramatic, in my opinion, its relatively informative and, well, it looks good. It connects fine with the "theme" of this sim as well.

I am not against your idea of a "changing" menu displaying different locations, but how is it more original than this concept? It has been used before.

If you come up with any more ideas I will be happy to try and implement them.

Gotrol wrote:

Name me one game which has a dynamic evolving and developing Celestial Body for its main menu. It isnt dramatic, in my opinion, its relatively informative and, well, it looks good. It connects fine with the "theme" of this sim as well.

Civ IV. Cortex Command. World of Goo. Hundreds of Space MMOs.

Gotrol wrote:

I am not against your idea of a "changing" menu displaying different locations, but how is it more original than this concept? It has been used before.

I'm not tied to my idea. It was a suggestion, and given the nature of the menu being called for, I don't particularly idolize it.

Gotrol wrote:

If you come up with any more ideas I will be happy to try and implement them.

If I come up with more ideas, I will let you know. However, I ask everyone else to keep thinking as well.

Idea 2: Your organism. Wandering about a small environment, probably the test area from the OE and TE. This would be a great way not only to show off progress, but to show off your creature's personality as well. The idle animations would be those of your race, reflecting the nature of your play. Post sapience you'd have your creature with any clothes you have made for him, maybe the most common ones in your nation.

The reason it's cliched is that it looks so dang good...
I think that we should maybe do a shatter menu, with each shard having a little movie going on within it that relates to your game. I still like the planet best though.

~sciocont wrote:

The reason it's cliched is that it looks so dang good...
I think that we should maybe do a shatter menu, with each shard having a little movie going on within it that relates to your game. I still like the planet best though.

That actually sounds fantastic. We could even have an opening animation where the shard comes into veiw with the Thrive logo, then shatters into the peices. It would also be really easy to make a low-grade menu with too.

Wow... I really, really like that. I can see it now. It's quite impressive, and kinda gives a sense of nostalgia with every little vid being something I remember. I suppose that's another reason I don't like those planets. They're too broad for me, as a human, to really comprehend. It's like the difference between a game that says "This is your home. You love it and will die for it" and a game that let's you induvidually examine each part and grow to love it before tossing you into the fray. I mean, I grow more nostalgic looking at a picture of the church in my home town than if I look at a map of it.

As a compromise, perhaps we could do this:
First game: ???
Pre-sapience: Shows local environment of Player Race(PR? PO?). Organisms present.
Pre-Space, Post-Sapience: Shows capital city SC.
Space and up: Gotrol's planet concept.

Thanks, Rex.