I have 7 items flying in 3d space. They form an hexagon of three opposite elements with the originator in the center. (fire, earth, life, water, air, death and thread) The player can have an arbitrary amount of each between 0 and 25. How do I express that amount without numbers? 0 -> gray, 1-25 -> sizes: 25 steps seems a bit much to show how much there is of each. Absolute precision is not needed, but 25 size steps... 1-25 -> opacity: Same problem, (4/100)% of opacity is a bit too subtle. I need ideas from the creative people, please.

A hexagon has 6 sides. Dividing each side into 4 blocks results in 24 blocks. You could use this as an outer ring for each hexagon, lighting up blocks as the amount increases. If you absolutely must have 25 as a max, you can use the center as the final block.

Anyway, what will these amounts be used for? You say the player doesn't need to know specifically how much, but you know how players are - if it affects their efficiency, they will want to know anyway. Now that I think of it, you could display spells in the same way, e.g. how much they cost. Spells that cost too much could light up red or something, and the number of missing blocks could show up extra bright, so a player can quickly see how much he's missing of a specific resource.

Just an idea. :)

Quote: Original post by Captain P
A hexagon has 6 sides. Dividing each side into 4 blocks results in 24 blocks. You could use this as an outer ring for each hexagon,

I don't understand. They all form an hexagon. as in:

   A  / |          [edit: changed a slash for a line to avoid a forum parsing thing] L   F | T |  W   D  \ /   E

Quote: Original post by Captain P
Anyway, what will these amounts be used for? You say the player doesn't need to know specifically how much, but you know how players are - if it affects their efficiency, they will want to know anyway.

It's a storage, the spellpool.

The player generates a spell, right-clicks it and it goes to the storage. He could theoretically remember every spell he has saved, and an efficient player could have a close idea of everything he has at every time.

Quote: Original post by Captain P
Now that I think of it, you could display spells in the same way, e.g. how much they cost. Spells that cost too much could light up red or something, and the number of missing blocks could show up extra bright, so a player can quickly see how much he's missing of a specific resource.

With Thread, the rest of elements are weaved.
With the rest of elements, spells are built. Those spells will be listed individually, if the player weaves two rays of frost I think I'll show the two spheres stored instead of one and an amount.

However, the player doesn't even know how many kinds of spells exist. He knows how to build elements and the rules to weave other 36 basic spells.

Maybe a circular line around the spheres that grows 2piR/25 for each stored spell...

Maybe the same but made with 25 tiny spheres...nahh

I've tried the atom idea of tiny spheres orbiting around each element. It's pretty, but totally useless to express a readable amount.

You could use a barycentric diagram. Imagine drawing a six-vertexed polygon inside your hexagon. Each vertex would represent a different value. The greater the amount. the closer the vertex would get to the corresponding hexagon corner- or the smaller the amount, the closer it would get to the center.