We will have alert levels which can be activated on the ship. Traditionally alerts seem to be Red, Amber and Green. But as i was creating the buttons for these and realising it takes too much room to write the colour as text on the button, it may not be very good for those who are colourblind.
(https://produnogames.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Alert.png)
So we could have either High, Medium, Low Alerts levels (Although they are still fairly long to write on the buttons when we have very little space). Instead i was thinking of having Level1, Level2, Level3. Represented as L1, L2, L3.
Any other thoughts on this?
If possible, a way to recolor the alert buttons in-game?
As for the `L1`/`L2`/`L3` concept, in my opinion it'd work quite well.
I guess the next question should be how many alerts do we need? It could be we only need a L3 (Red Alert) which means everyone should haul it back to the ship! Do we really need other alert levels? I guess no alert could be normal.
I feel like...
- "Danger": Haul ass back to the ship and to stations.
- "Ready": Everyone forced awake and to work on things.
You might also include a visual cue (blinking - long - short) or audible (beeps or "danger, danger ... Will Robinson"). Perhaps a default setting with others being able to be toggled on or off in options.
I like the flashing or audible because it acts as a distractor where simply changing a color may go unnoticed.
I'm guessing you'll eventually want more than three.
I kind of like the idea that mixes something like a weather alert system versus defcon alerts and the weather is more about preparing for badness and defon about time to engage the badness.
The National Weather Service Alert Criteria: [Picnic - everything is cool] Watches [meh, could happen - cover the jam)], Advisories [likely put some stuff away], Warning [it's gonna hit the fan - make like a tree and leaf]
Where Defon is readiness to engage: DF1: immediate response DF2: Engage in X time; DF3: Deploy in X time; DF4: above normal readiness; DF5: chillin liken normal (or picnic time]
I guess the warnings would likely be for invasion (baddies) as well as malfunctions (ship readiness) and though green and red are clear - the yellow I might prefer a little more discrimination in terms of how long can I wait to not attend to the issue.
Lots to think about here! For now i have just used red alert. We can add more in the future. Though still feel free to discuss anything else you can think of here regarding ship alerts. We can certainly add more in the future and improve functionality.
A basic idea may be to use different shapes as well rather than just rectangles. Or if you prefer, use symbols inside the rectangles to signify increasing levels of danger.
It's a game, so I think simplicity is a must,
Normal= no alert
Ready= yellow
Action stations= red
Something along those lines.