I shall add my thanks to the love that the icons received after the previous redesign!
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Redesigned icons are ace, now I can actually see that Red Science is a broken link of chain, without having to squint.
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Aww, I really liked the black and red designs, I thought they looked so much more interesting and sinister. I admit I find the new set a little bland. I would have liked if they were at least colour consistent, like the other stats.
But you can’t please everyone, and I accept that I am in the minority for this one. It’s usually better to make more people happy.
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I will too sing praise to the changes. I like the new designs a lot. (Hope they find good use for the other designs in a different context because those were also fantastic in their own way)
I would wager that it was probably more like multiple people discussing: “This is a rad idea, look how it captures the disturbing-ness of what you can do with that skill.” “Are you sure they will be able to tell them apart?” “They look pretty distinct. I think it will work.” “What if it doesn’t?” “Then we take the backup versions that look like the basic skills.” “Okay, let’s see what the players think.”
*[Not actual quotes, just figments of my imagination]
I work in software development (not game development, but somewhat close) and design decisions are rarely made with everyone agreeing on it being the best solution. But in the end, you have to see what your users think of it.
Seeing how quickly they changed the icons, I think it is likely they had backup plans but wanted to test the waters. I could be wrong though. What I am pretty sure right about is that FBG is one of the best game developers out there. Not perfect, but they are doing a great job with their games.
[Edit: too many typos]
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(Hope they find good use for the other designs in a different context because those were also fantastic in their own way)
They’re now the icons for the Studies qualities.
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As someone who has been grinding for many months to sell hoards and night whispers for diamonds in order to get closer to owning a hellworm I would feel cheated if that is no longer possible.
I left the game around 2015 as a then endgame player grinding for a Heptagoat and just returned last year. I very much enjoyed building up my railroad but feel that I have a lot of ground to cover to catch up (also still saving for my own cider). Reading this update made me think it may be a good time to leave the game again. Considering that I have a 24/7 job and all I really don’t want to feel bad about a game anymore.
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Am web developer, can second this.
My understanding, from discussion in the Discord, is that the original red icons were designed with the intent of being easily distinguishable to colorblind users. And they succeeded at that task quite well, according to a colorblind player I know. The current icons are actually several steps back on that end, being much more illegible if you’re colorblind, to the point that said player had to write some custom code to add the red icons back in.
It’s tricky, balancing competing needs. (This is a matter of competing needs and not just aesthetics - some users reported that the bright red of the first pass of icons gave them eyestrain.) There isn’t a way to objectively test for eyestrain prevention as there is for colorblind-friendliness (and some of the guidance out there for eye friendliness is complicated) so I feel like they were trying to make the best choices that they could with the tools that they had. As already mentioned by yehochanan, the best you can do is put something out there and act on feedback from your users.
Personally, I think some kind of colorblind-friendly mode toggle would be the best answer here, but that can be easier said than done to implement into the site in a proper way and not the hacky way that custom CSS does.
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My color vision is a little off, not enough that I feel like it affects my life, but every once in a while I’ll completely miss something that was supposedly highlighted in pink, and sometimes I’ll call something “brown” when other people think it’s green.
When I saw all those difficult-to-distinguish icons that made heavy use of red, I kind of assumed they were optimized for people who saw red and green normally. Complicated indeed
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Ah yeah, thank you for your input - that’s another dimension I forgot to address, that colorblindness comes in different forms! (Player I know is red-green blind.) Vision is a mess.
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Sup’.
Very good contributions to the conversation both of you/non-sarcastic
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My only problem with them is the choice of Symbol Colors.
I think it’d make more sense if the colors of the Symbols matched the relevant Color of the
I think it should be
KT=G
MA=P
PC=I
GW=C
SA=A
ARS=Vl
M=Vr
SD=Blank
CS=An Additive form of all seven colors
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Bravo to the FL team on the new icon colours! Thanks for taking the feedback, and making such a nice job of it!
And I like the irony of A Player of Chess. The three possible colours you can choose on the board are white, black or red, yet the icon is green. That’s a clever way to be neutral, regardless of any given player’s alignment!
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Specifics for the Rat Market have been posted:
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May 17th and May 24th: These are the final two weekends of the ‘old’ Rat Market. These weekends will be a Rat Market Jubilee – all items that can normally be sold at the Rat Market will be sellable, so you’ll be able to divest from an existing stockpile, if you have one.
Fair enough, time to drink some coffee and offload the NW and I guess the Crackling Devices.
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Will it be worth it to go all the way to the Khanate if the Trifling Diplomat no longer pays in Rat Marketable currency? Surely not?
We’ve lived so long in a world where items were only really valuable if they could be sold at the Rat Market. It will be an adjustment, to be sure
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Could someone please poke me in a week or so? I want to work on some fan art but simply don’t have the time and it would be nice if one of you could remind me when I do. I accept pokes with fingers, sticks, weapons and keys, of kings or otherwise.
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Looks similar to the way they tamed bone market. Kinda boring, but whatever.
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As someone who is utterly uninterested in all things economical, I couldn’t even read through that blog post without falling asleep… so, yeah, whatever. I never paid much attention to the Rat Market, so probably won’t notice any changes.
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Yup, time to dump everything there! Considering there’s no guarantee for Crackling and Fabs to return, might as well take full advantage.
Remember to convert ivory, ballads, pearls, airags and atlases to devices too!
EDIT: We are, once again, free of the Tribute grind! 
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Question is, who is our new master? And would it be better?
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