Uniques now purple in nightlies

[Magnate]

maeglin is still dark gray

and greater balrogs are still violet

aren't you happy i'm massacring the uniques?

For consistency, Atlas and Maeglin are now purple, and Greater Balrogs are light red. One good thing about this thread is that the 256-colour patch is now high on the agenda ...

[Nick]

One good thing about this thread is that the 256-colour patch is now high on the agenda ...

In practice you can only really distinguish one or two shades, so it's more like a 32 colour patch. It's still very well worth it, though.

[Magnate]

In practice you can only really distinguish one or two shades, so it's more like a 32 colour patch. It's still very well worth it, though.

It's funny you should say that - I remember when S went to 256 colours, and it felt like there were only roughly twice as many as before. How is that, when the human eye is supposed to be able to distinguish several thousand colours? Is it because we don't see them side-by-side, and we can't distinguish them if they're not?

[will_asher]

It's funny you should say that - I remember when S went to 256 colours, and it felt like there were only roughly twice as many as before. How is that, when the human eye is supposed to be able to distinguish several thousand colours? Is it because we don't see them side-by-side, and we can't distinguish them if they're not?

Probably the human eye can distinguish colors easier when they're not on a computer screen.

[Nick]

How is that, when the human eye is supposed to be able to distinguish several thousand colours? Is it because we don't see them side-by-side, and we can't distinguish them if they're not?

I think so basically, yeah.

[Obsilium]

Experience shows me that Ar-Pharazon the Golden hasn't metamorphasized into Ar-Pharazon the Purple yet (unless I'm hallucinating)...

[takkaria]

It's funny you should say that - I remember when S went to 256 colours, and it felt like there were only roughly twice as many as before. How is that, when the human eye is supposed to be able to distinguish several thousand colours? Is it because we don't see them side-by-side, and we can't distinguish them if they're not?

S didn't make use of 256 colours... indeed the number actually used is only 26 or 28 IIRC. 256-colour support was just having the ability to use more, if desired.

[d_m]

S didn't make use of 256 colours... indeed the number actually used is only 26 or 28 IIRC. 256-colour support was just having the ability to use more, if desired.

Not to let the cat out of the bag, but it went from 16 to 28 colors... the same jump that V is expected to make any minute now!

[tom042]

I have to say I strongly dislike this change. I think learning about the uniques is one of the more satisfying aspects of learning to play the game. In a game innately filled with unfair deaths, learning from them that certain race/color combos should be treated warily is one thing that at least seems to justify them. I can't recall any instances where I've ever really lost track of a unique while fighting, I mean, whether you're meleeing or targeting, your focus will stay the same in spite the addition of extraneous monsters. Also, it isn't clear to me that all uniques should be easily distinguishable on a "realism" basis; I mean, why should an adventurer who hasn't encountered them be able to tell without consideration that Lungorthin or Moria are different from all the other Greater Balrogs around.

My biggest real problem with it though is just one of flavor. I mean, it seems uniques ought to be at least as diverse or moreso whereever possible relative to other monsters, and that includes appearance. Making them all the same color seems to just lump all uniques together into a generic "boss monster" race, to say nothing of the visual offence (however tenuous) of having Al-Pharazon the Golden and Ancalagon the Black be purple.

I feel like having already had the option for anyone truly bothered by the issue of confusion to interact with colors and fix it for themselves ought to moot this issue.

[Rizwan]

I would like to suggest a compromise .... leave all uniques the colors that they were originally but just give them a purple hat or something like that. Problem solved uniques stay the same color but now we can differentiate them from other similar monsters

[Derakon]

Silly, but actually there'd be a way to approximate it -- just give uniques an umlaut or other accent. I don't know if Angband's current display supports accents like that though.

[d_m]

Silly, but actually there'd be a way to approximate it -- just give uniques an umlaut or other accent. I don't know if Angband's current display supports accents like that though.

Unfortunately I don't think that's currently feasible.

[Magnate]

Unfortunately I don't think that's currently feasible.

That would require moving to unicode, which is a whole other piece of work from just adding more colours.

But since we now have more colours, people can expect uniques not to look identical in 3.1.2 ...

[Derakon]

Doesn't Hengband support Unicode? Seems like that'd be worth moving into "mainline" (a.k.a. Vanilla) at some point.

[Magnate]

Doesn't Hengband support Unicode? Seems like that'd be worth moving into "mainline" (a.k.a. Vanilla) at some point.

Well, any of Takkaria / me / d_m / Marble Dice would be happy to test and commit a patch for V, if anyone felt like making one. Looks like a lot of work to me though!