Text legibility and user interface

[Albertvs]

First of all, THANKS, thanks a lot for this great mod! During all these years I have enjoyed playing EB1, reading (lurking) the forum and learning history from your posts.


I will focus my (constructive) criticism in text legibility in general.


While they are not bugs, I think they are issues that don't help enjoy all the rich in-game content. They subtlely make the game more uncomfortable to play.


Hey, apart from the awesome graphics, you have put a lot of effort and care into the texts and descriptions. And I'd want to enjoy reading those paragraphs! As for me, this mod is not only about battles, but also about learning and reading an interactive history book.

1. Blurred text.
That makes reading faction descriptions tiring. Look at the detail when zoomed.
In general, I notice it though the entire game. Could the font be changed for another clearer one (I mean neat, not so bold) ? I admit, a bit subjective...


2. Low Contrast
Observe those income or trade numbers. Very difficult to read!


3. Mouse-over text.
You cannot read the name faction in this. Over-transparent?



4. Units statistics.
How many men are there? (the 2nd, 3rd and 4th after the captain. Are they 10? 16?) Compare with EB1, the selected FM had a clear 26.



5. Missing spaces in descriptions.
After "Polis" and "Trade income". I've seen it after many words in bold or italic within descriptions. Do you see?


6. Laser-green trade routes and inter-continent bridges/paths.
They seem not integrated in the map and look a bit like the flashing arrow banners. I think in EB1 they were also nicer. Compare this.

In this last image, one can also appreciate that the text was much clearer. I found the transparent informative city text in the map to be nicer and neater than in EB2.

Well, that is enough. All these things are not so important as in-game balance, AI, cavalry charging, etc... but perhaps are a lot easier to fix and surely help us love this mod even more!

I appreciate your effort. Thanks for it!

[abou]

Thanks for the feedback. We'll see what we can do about this.

[Poppis]

I have to admit this was the first thing I noticed when I started playing. It's obviously not THAT big of a deal compared to all the other stuff that needs to get fixed but it still feels a little awkward to read after EB1. I think the latin text that are in italics are probably the worst.

[Funeh]

Yes I agree with this... I guess its much more visible on large screen with high resolution. But on my 17inch monitor I cant read any unit/province description, as well as historical backgrounds... Which I would like to very much!

[Moros]

Yes I agree with this... I guess its much more visible on large screen with high resolution. But on my 17inch monitor I cant read any unit/province description, as well as historical backgrounds... Which I would like to very much!

Yeah I actually have this problem playing on my insanely large desktop monitor. Less so on my laptop.
But it is something we indeed will be looking to improve on.

[Walincas]

Yeah I actually have this problem playing on my insanely large desktop monitor. Less so on my laptop.
But it is something we indeed will be looking to improve on.

Nice to read that, it's a minor inconvenience atm. but we're already being spoiled by the mod, so getting a little more goodies won't hurt.

-And thanks for the very desciptive post and pics Albertvs, you are spot on imo.

[abou]

I actually don't think it's minor. Considering just how much work went into the text so that players can learn and understand mechanics, it is a big deal.

Without a doubt, some complaints have little merit. But there are some very valid concerns brought up (as in this thread) that we really do want to address. Our beta team went from about a dozen to several thousands overnight. We're getting some great feedback. We don't know if we can fix the text problem, but we'll try.

[Revan The Great]

I generally don't have an issue reading things, but I also have good eyes and I'm relatively young.

What I do have an issue with is actually the text windows that appear when looking at a character's traits. The background of this window is too transparent, and sometimes the text gets lost in the background. Again, not sure if this is something you can change.

[Walincas]

I actually don't think it's minor. Considering just how much work went into the text so that players can learn and understand mechanics, it is a big deal.

Without a doubt, some complaints have little merit. But there are some very valid concerns brought up (as in this thread) that we really do want to address. Our beta team went from about a dozen to several thousands overnight. We're getting some great feedback. We don't know if we can fix the text problem, but we'll try.

For me it's minor, I respect that some people have major issues reading it, depending on their monitor/eyesight, but for me - it's a minor inconvenience, although I would much prefer it to improve of course.

[Funeh]

Yeah its not really minor for me also... As abou said, considering the time that was given to the texts and all, I would like to study it all because that way you enjoy your game much much muc more

[TheStranger]

Yeah its not really minor for me also... As abou said, considering the time that was given to the texts and all, I would like to study it all because that way you enjoy your game much much muc more

I can only agree! In the bug thread I asked if this is normal, but it seems that most players have problems with the font. Although it is readable it is not very enjoyable to read and after a few minutes the defocused font hurts the eyes.

It would be a big deal if the EB team could fix this.

btw. very good opening post. I wanted to start a similar thread these days but had no time. Albertvs made it even better

Although I have to say that the two screenshots from EB1 are in a lower resolution than most people play nowadays and the picture isn't stretched. EB1 on 1920x1080 was also a little blurred and fuzzy, but the font was easier to read.

[binarystar]

I just wanted to bump this as I feel this is an important fix (hopefully) that the team is aware of.

[Gigantus]

Temporary fix for legibility: rename the EBII\data\font folder to revert to vanilla fonts. This may improve matters until a fix is available.

Don't forget to reverse the renaming before applying any fixes

[Butt]

If you switch to a font with a white border around it, that would fix the unit cards at least.

[binarystar]

Temporary fix for legibility: rename the EBII\data\font folder to revert to vanilla fonts. This may improve matters until a fix is available.

Don't forget to reverse the renaming before applying any fixes

I tried this, but it causes the game to crash after the opening cinematic.

[Arokfridr]

I tried this, but it causes the game to crash after the opening cinematic.

Renaming descr_font_db.txt in ebII/data worked for me.

[binarystar]

Renaming descr_font_db.txt in ebII/data worked for me.

Thanks! That worked

[TheStranger]

Yeah it works thank you. Nevertheless I hope the EB team looks into this matter. For me it is the biggest "bug", if you can call it that.

[Gigantus]

It's a matter of finding a suitable font that can be used for small as well as large font. that can only be determined after converting it to CUF format and therefore might take a bit.

[binarystar]

It's a matter of finding a suitable font that can be used for small as well as large font. that can only be determined after converting it to CUF format and therefore might take a bit.

I actually don't mind the fonts, they just need to be bolder and more crisp.