Tell friend from foe

[Onionfighter]

Having been in a large battle recently, the thing that worried me most was our own guys killing each other. In the heat of battle, it is really difficult to tell friend from foe, and trying to use mouseover to identify each person is just too time consuming.

What I propose is an option to create a green outline around people in the same group as yourself. This would be similar to the outlines used to see behind stuff, but green. The button to toggle this could be next to the buttons that toggle claim and village sight.

Since I am talking about team UI, I would like to mention that having portraits of the people in my group are not particularly helpful. Having the memorized name of the person would be more useful. Same for combat with people.
It would also be helpful if the flower menu that appears when clicking on the team portrait were to appear more toward the center of the screen. As it is, the buttons are often unreadable and/or unclickable.

To the moderators: I think this idea is important, so please feel free to banish any off topic crap.

[Potjeh]

That sounds good for basic friend or foe recognition.

But it'd be really neat if you could also tell who is who at a glance, because I found myself looking at another character and thinking it was me a couple of times in that fight. Shields and cloaks are perfect for painting in geometric patterns. Nothing fancy, just stuff like making left half of your shield blue and the right red, or a red cross on a blue field etc. Since it's just coloured fields, it wouldn't require too much art (just apply different colour masks on different parts of the shield). And party/aggro icons could use a full coat of arms (shield colour + heraldic charge), because portraits don't really say much.

Sorry to bring heraldry into this, but I think it's relevant. Of course, we should just have the green outline until it's implemented.

[Fjorn]

Maybe make the outlines the same color as they are in your kin list?

[burgingham]

In general I am with you guys, but problems due to the heat of battle in this slow and dull combat system...hmmm...

[sabinati]

i'm generally support of this as well. i also agree with potjeh, heraldry would be preferable, but i think is more of a long term goal.

should the toggle be near the party interface? or should this be for any kin, not necessarily in party? i like fjorn's idea of having them be the same color as kinlist as it's congruous with the existing system. maybe just toggle names always on? or the outline? or a... what's it called, like a circle around the feet?

[theTrav]

I'm in favor of uniforms/heraldry over "UI magic"

I think you can already achieve a good level of uniformity in your guys by all wearing the same equipment. It would be nice to be able to paint/dye stuff to further customize it, I'm pretty sure that would be all that is required though

[sabinati]

I'm in favor of uniforms/heraldry over "UI magic"

I think you can already achieve a good level of uniformity in your guys by all wearing the same equipment. It would be nice to be able to paint/dye stuff to further customize it, I'm pretty sure that would be all that is required though

yeah but what happens if both sides show up to the party wearing the same dress? you know, the cute pink one.

[theTrav]

yeah but what happens if both sides show up to the party wearing the same dress? you know, the cute pink one.

Then it's a cluster fuck and much hilarity ensues.
I'm not convinced that sort of thing should be completely prevented, if the enemy has good intel, or good luck, or you just picked dumb, common colors for your gang, then it's reasonable for people to get confused in a big brawl.

Before the Raeg wagon arrives, I'm not a PvP player, so however you guys end up resolving this doesn't impact me in the slightest, I'm just making observations and voicing opinions from off to the side

[Potjeh]

Actually I think that the being able to put on the enemy uniform is a plus. It can by circumvented by having your troops bring another set of cloaks with them. Home and away jerseys?

*edit*
Another nifty thing would be highlighting a character when you mouseover his party/aggro icon. And I think feet circles are the best highlight.

[springyb]

If none of the other ideas, make it so you can toggle names shown on and off. Or if that's too much, always show the name of someone you're in combat with.