Proposal: New Colors for Versailles?

[NoPunIn10Did]

New Colors for Versailles?

As much as I love this site, I've never been a huge fan of its map color schemes. Some of this is just a matter of taste, but I have pretty frequent trouble with the Versailles map in particular.

It's admittedly difficult to find 14 dissimilar colors that will work for both maps and units. It's even more difficult to choose colors that have some level of meaning for the countries, especially since so many nations have similar flags and military uniforms.

The current Versailles color scheme, however, has several pairs of colors that I find extremely difficult to distinguish between unless I'm staring at them side-by-side. Some of this seems to be that nearly all of the 7 minor power colors are just lighter tints of the 7 major power colors.

UPDATE: Proposal Withdrawn
I have some other ideas how to make units more distinct without such drastic color changes, so I'm tabling this for now.

Proposal

After development for War in the Americas is complete, I'd like to see about tweaking the existing Versailles map and units to fit a more diverse color profile, potentially with each country having a quasi-meaningful connection to the colors used.



I've mocked this scheme up using a Classic map (since that's what I had available). Accordingly, Egypt's color is shown in Syria.



There would still be some similarity between colors, particularly as they appear on the textured map, but I think this scheme provides more distinction than what we have currently.

[Big Gun]

No, No, No!

More later.

[Strategus]

Bleurghh!

[Strategus]

Come back Andy Warhol. All is forgiven...

[NoPunIn10Did]

Bleurghh!

That bad, huh?

Is it that the colors are too different from one another? The current scheme is a set of muted pastels, but I see that as part of the problem: they don’t vary enough in saturation.

[Big Gun]

NoPun - as much as I love and respect you, here you're going too far. With respect - please stop meddling with the website!

The colours on the Versailles map are just fine. We've been playing with them for years. Everyone understands them. Sometimes "Change Management" can be a real pain in the arse. Please stop it!

Thanks for considering my opinion. I've played a few games of Versailles here...

Gun

[NoPunIn10Did]

NoPun - as much as I love and respect you, here you're going too far. With respect - please stop meddling with the website!

The colours on the Versailles map are just fine. We've been playing with them for years. Everyone understands them. Sometimes "Change Management" can be a real pain in the arse. Please stop it!

Thanks for considering my opinion. I've played a few games of Versailles here...

Gun

Okay, I hear you.

What if there was just a tweak to some of the existing colors that are very close to one another?

I'm thinking of the following pairs:

• Egypt & Spain
• France & Rumania
• Turkey & Czechoslovakia

Nothing as dramatic as my original proposal, but these colors really are frustratingly difficult to read, especially when it's just the units sitting in neutral territory or water.

[GhostEcho]

I haven't played Versailles for a while, so I don't remember the current colors, but there are issues with this proposal:

- Russia is a lot brighter than the other powers - but if you darken it, easy to mix up with Czechoslovakia
- Britain and Poland look quite easy to confuse
- All of these blue-ish pairs look easy to confuse: France/Sweden, Egypt/Sweden, Greece/Sweeden, Italy/Greece

I'd be a bit surprised if that's actually an improvement on the current map, honestly.

[asudevil]

I can’t tell Spain and Egypt apart well but I barely play it so I don’t care

[marotta]

I play mostly Versailles and I have found myself repeatedly trying to move another players pieces and wondering why the system won't respond. England, Spain and Egypt are especially confusing and the three colors I mostly confuse. Depending one which of the three monitors I am playing on they can be indistinguishable.

I would turn the button from pretty to ugly if that meant they were more understandable. After all, diplomacy is always a game of turning lots of colors into just one or two.