[Icehouse] Xeno color mapping for Homeworlds

[Tom Eigelsbach]

Well, having played a bit now, and being in the fortunate (or unfortunate)
position of owning IceHouse Xeno colors and not having the Zendo colors,
I've been trying various ways.  It seems to me that I get utterly confused
if I don't map the Cyan to Blue, as I'm now wired to see any shade of blue
as blue, and for trading colors.  Given that, you can map the other three
colors any way you'd like and it's about the same for me (e.g. you could map
Orange to either Red or Yellow) -- I guess it's down to the aesthetic or
cool metaphor choices -- but if cyan doesn't map to blue I'm going to be
confused and it's going to be hard to play.

Hence, despite the reasoning by Andy and Jacob for their favorite mappings,
I have to go with Andy's reasoning earlier that:
> Indeed, in my experience of playing lots of pyramid
> games, if Cyan is used, absent the Blue, people will call Cyan "Blue".
> With Blue in play, they usually call them Dark Blue and Light Blue.
> ...
> I'm not sure what mapping is the "right" one.  But I feel pretty
> strongly that the "right" one has "Cyan = Blue" in it.

That's my feeling from trying out various mappings as well.
--TV Tom


On 6/4/07, James Hazelton <jameshazelton at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Well that is the question, isn't it. Do we want pieces that will be
> intuitive for new players discovering the game for the first time with Xeno
> colours, or do we want colours that will be intuitive for players who have
> played before and are used to Rainbow colours? I would rather have the
> latter, since new players are going to have to memorize the colours anyway,
> and having purple be grow because it is the colour of retinal isn't going to
> help most players learn it anyways.
>
> In other words, a vague colour-to-meaning correlation isn't going to help
> new players nearly as much as it would hinder Rainbow-vet players who assume
> that light blue works the same as dark blue.
>
> On 6/4/07, Jacob Davenport <jacob at brightestbulb.net> wrote:
> >
> > Andy Looney wrote:
> > > I see his points, but I still favor my mapping:
> > >
> > >     Cyan = Green
> > >     Orange = Red
> > >     Purple = Blue
> > >     Clear = Yellow
> > >
> > > What do you think?
> >
> > Go back to the beginning.  It's not what color is what, but what action
> > is what.  Our original thinking:
> >
> > Blue - Originally the game was "Ice Traders" and John thought the blue
> > was closest to ice, so they trade color for color.
> > Green - grow some new pieces.
> > Red - fire the torpedoes!  Spill blood!  Attack!
> > Yellow - flames from the thrusters as you move from place to place.
> >
> > So, with your four colors, I might suggest:
> > Cyan - blue sky, movement from place to place.
> > Orange - attack!
> > Purple - a peaceful color for growing.  Like green, another chlorophyll
> > color.
> > Clear - Ice Traders!  Change color.
> >
> > YMMV.  But this is how I would approach it.
> >
> > -Jacob
> >
> <http://lists.looneylabs.com/mailman/listinfo/icehouse>


-- 
"Reality is a crutch for people who can't cope with drugs."
     -Lily Tomlin
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