Since the resource page went up on the official Diablo III site, there has been quite a bit of discussion about the Demon Hunter's Hatred and Discipline globe. Many people have criticized its colors as being too close to the red and blue of Life and Mana, while other people have come to its defense and noted that red and blue are simply easily distinguishable colors.
In a thread started by our own Sixen, Zarhym made a lengthy response describing the reasoning behind the color choices for Hatred and Discipline.
Official Blizzard Quote:
White and black, for example, would be bad. One purpose of the color scheme is to ensure it's very readable when your focus is on the game world and not the UI. Given the dark vibe of Sanctuary and the way the UI fits in with that feel, black simply wouldn't pop out at all. It'd be much more difficult to track your Hatred (which is the resource you'll be managing most frequently) peripherally when background colors are so frequently on the darker end of the color spectrum. Just the same, the suggestion of white for Discipline seems only to stand in contrast to black which, again, just wouldn't work.
Hatred was given a deep red color to give it plenty of distinction from barbarian Fury, plus red is just an angry color (refer to my avatar and personality). We also mixed in a bit of black with the red to further push Hatred toward the demon hunter's color kit.
Now, given that both resources are displayed in a single globe, it's really important to us that the colors effectively oppose one another. Unlike the color red thematically fitting Hatred, Discipline isn't a concept that has such a universal color representation. As such, the most important thing becomes readability. And the best way to make sure Discipline stands apart from Hatred is to make it color opposite, which is blue. White could have been used, but it would overpower the red-colored Hatred due its value strength (we want the values to be close together) and white doesn’t support the notion of these concepts being opposed to one another. And once again we mixed in some black with the blue to fit with the demon hunter color kit.
As Zarhym points out, its important to remember that you're only really going to be looking at this, or really any, resource globe with your peripheral vision. Otherwise you'll have to be constantly taking your eye off of the action occurring on screen. As a result, the colors have to be extremely distinguishable, which limits the choices more than one might think at first.
Zarhym's response also caused people to point out that red and green, not blue, are complimentary colors. Zarhym was quick to point out that there were other problems with using green.
Official Blizzard Quote:
It's not that we overlooked green, we just definitely didn't want to go with that. It's way too tied to poison in Diablo. It wouldn't feel right.
The same reasoning was also provided for why Blizzard didn't use a green 'voodoo' or 'mojo' resource for the Witch Doctor, which was a popular suggestion. Some mock-ups were even made in this forums thread, and although they look cool, it also looks very similar to your health globe when you are poisoned in Diablo II.
Not only would a green resource globe look a bit too close to a poisoned health globe, but red and blue are actually farther apart on the color spectrum than red and green. By pointing out a post on theSkaBoss, Zarhym pointed us all to a small lesson on the color spectrum, which actually matters more than placement on the color wheel when distinguishing colors.
Blue and red, however... step away from your color wheels and look at a map of the spectrum. You seeing what I'm seeing? The thing about blue and red is that as far as the visible spectrum goes, they sit on opposite edges of the map. (Don't talk to me about violet, violet doesn't get to participate in this conversation.) Blue and red take on a lot of roles as opposites when you start talking to astronomers, astrophysicists, and all those smart people. The simplest example: redshift and blueshift. Basically, if something producing light is moving away from you, it looks more red, and if something producing light is moving toward you, it looks more blue. This happens because of the wavelength of the light emitted is "shortened" or "lengthened" (not really, but that's what it looks like from your frame of reference,) by the object moving toward or away from you, respectively.
Look, the point is that the colors fit together in that ONE orb for the same reason that the colors fit together in two different orbs in the last two games. The colors are just good design opposites.
Many games (including the previous Diablo games) use red and blue as opposites, because what matters most is how far apart they are on the color spectrum, not whether or not they sit across from each other on the color wheel. As a result, if you want to make them as distinguishable as possible, blue and red is really the only choice. For the same reason that they didn't go for a 'yin-yang' design as suggested by some members, red and blue allow you to get a good idea of how much of each resource you have while still keeping your attention on the action.
So, after those lengthy and sometimes sarcastic explanations, what do you think about the Demon Hunter's resource globe? Has your opinion changed or does it remain the same? Feel free to discuss your views in the topic below.
I know everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I honestly cannot see what everyone was complaining about with the whole red/blue, black/white issue. Perhaps colour means a little less to me than others, but let's face it, it's their game, they can put whatever colours in there they want as long as it gets the effect across that they are different resources and, as stated, they can be effectively monitored peripherally. To me, a little common sense would say that black for hatred, with the mostly dark environments we've seen so far in-game, would be very ineffective and require at least a momentary glance away from the action to see if it was running low.
Overall, I think all the globes look good, with exception to the wizard's, clearly OP.
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I don't hate my parents, I don't get drunk just to spite them.
I have my own reasons to drink, I think I'll call my Dad up and invite him.
The only problem that I have with the resources for the DH is when he/she calles out they don't have enough hatred or discipline for that and I think that just sounds way to silly for a diablo game.
I was always ok with the DH Resource. Although, the mention of the WD's resource makes me think... Mana is propably a way better resource for the Wizzard if you're following every other game known to anyone, since mana is known to be used to cast spells, and wizzards are known to be spellcasters. The voodoo idea for the WD is an amazing idea for them, even if you don't use green! I understand that everyone was suggesting green for it, but that was proven to not be a good color, but why not go with a mix...? Arcane power is a great mix of color, and I believe doing the same thing for voodoo would be great. I suggest a main color of green, orange, or blue, with a complimentary color of yellow, red, orange, or violet.
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My one complaint is in the blackness of the blue orb. If the red is supposed to be all dark and hatey, the blue should be swirling with lighter, more peaceful white(although still be mostly blue, again something it is not), not be even darker than the red.
"Mana is an indigenous Pacific islander concept of an impersonal force or quality that resides in people, animals, and (debatably) inanimate objects. The word is a cognate in many Oceanic languages, including Melanesian, Polynesian, and Micronesian."
Considering that the etymology of the word is from the pacific islands and not europe/asia, I think that mana fits for the witch doctor in a way that people don't realize. It's really not a western word at all.
I like it, but i'd prefer to have the red shifted slightly toward orange just a tad more then it already is, and shift the blue just a tad towards purple, and maybe increase the dark shadows in them a bit. But they do look good as they are.
I see what you're saying... But people still and always will put wizzards and mana together because of how many games do that.
Yeah, I agree that people have a strong association with mana and a Wizard, and it is completely valid. I personally feel that the subtlety of their choice to go with mana is cool, though I happened to be born on a Pacific island. =D
Even so, I didn't know that mana was a pacific island word until I looked it up last night, haha.
Actually what pisses me off is how much in detail Blizzard would go into for something so small of a detail while other major controversies don't always get the attention like this.
I must say, Blizzard one up'd the community on this one. I was at first totally siding with Sixen and the community when it came to the globes of those 2 classes. However, Blizzard brought up points that are actually really relevant.
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"I want to say something but I'll keep it to myself I guess and leave this useless post behind to make you aware that there WAS something... "
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
I don't really mind the DH colors but I had a choice one of them would be Brighter. Either hatred would be more like a fire and/or Discipline a lighter blue to further separate it from hatred.
On the other hand I would have loved to completely do away with mana. Voodoo or Mojo seem a bit silly for Diablo but I would still welcome them just as a nice change. On the color side of things I get that green is poison but what is wrong with Black. Yea it might be harder to see against the dark background so put a glowing line on the top like the DH hatred and black = dark and death leading perfectly into Voodoo magic in my head
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In a thread started by our own Sixen, Zarhym made a lengthy response describing the reasoning behind the color choices for Hatred and Discipline.
Official Blizzard Quote:
White and black, for example, would be bad. One purpose of the color scheme is to ensure it's very readable when your focus is on the game world and not the UI. Given the dark vibe of Sanctuary and the way the UI fits in with that feel, black simply wouldn't pop out at all. It'd be much more difficult to track your Hatred (which is the resource you'll be managing most frequently) peripherally when background colors are so frequently on the darker end of the color spectrum. Just the same, the suggestion of white for Discipline seems only to stand in contrast to black which, again, just wouldn't work.
Hatred was given a deep red color to give it plenty of distinction from barbarian Fury, plus red is just an angry color (refer to my avatar and personality). We also mixed in a bit of black with the red to further push Hatred toward the demon hunter's color kit.
Now, given that both resources are displayed in a single globe, it's really important to us that the colors effectively oppose one another. Unlike the color red thematically fitting Hatred, Discipline isn't a concept that has such a universal color representation. As such, the most important thing becomes readability. And the best way to make sure Discipline stands apart from Hatred is to make it color opposite, which is blue. White could have been used, but it would overpower the red-colored Hatred due its value strength (we want the values to be close together) and white doesn’t support the notion of these concepts being opposed to one another. And once again we mixed in some black with the blue to fit with the demon hunter color kit.
Zarhym's response also caused people to point out that red and green, not blue, are complimentary colors. Zarhym was quick to point out that there were other problems with using green.
Official Blizzard Quote:
It's not that we overlooked green, we just definitely didn't want to go with that. It's way too tied to poison in Diablo. It wouldn't feel right.
Not only would a green resource globe look a bit too close to a poisoned health globe, but red and blue are actually farther apart on the color spectrum than red and green. By pointing out a post on theSkaBoss, Zarhym pointed us all to a small lesson on the color spectrum, which actually matters more than placement on the color wheel when distinguishing colors.
Many games (including the previous Diablo games) use red and blue as opposites, because what matters most is how far apart they are on the color spectrum, not whether or not they sit across from each other on the color wheel. As a result, if you want to make them as distinguishable as possible, blue and red is really the only choice. For the same reason that they didn't go for a 'yin-yang' design as suggested by some members, red and blue allow you to get a good idea of how much of each resource you have while still keeping your attention on the action.
So, after those lengthy and sometimes sarcastic explanations, what do you think about the Demon Hunter's resource globe? Has your opinion changed or does it remain the same? Feel free to discuss your views in the topic below.
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I know everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I honestly cannot see what everyone was complaining about with the whole red/blue, black/white issue. Perhaps colour means a little less to me than others, but let's face it, it's their game, they can put whatever colours in there they want as long as it gets the effect across that they are different resources and, as stated, they can be effectively monitored peripherally. To me, a little common sense would say that black for hatred, with the mostly dark environments we've seen so far in-game, would be very ineffective and require at least a momentary glance away from the action to see if it was running low.
Overall, I think all the globes look good, with exception to the wizard's, clearly OP.
I have my own reasons to drink, I think I'll call my Dad up and invite him.
I'm an adult now... (TPOH)
The colors are fine as far as I'm concerned.
But that's just me...
-Fallen
They should use at least different colour on DH and WD, one can be Cyan and the other blue...
Yellow or Brown can be used for WD aside from Cyan...
Also don´t forget that the surface color of hatred has a yellow shimmer which to me makes it so easy to follow in game play.
"Mana is an indigenous Pacific islander concept of an impersonal force or quality that resides in people, animals, and (debatably) inanimate objects. The word is a cognate in many Oceanic languages, including Melanesian, Polynesian, and Micronesian."
Considering that the etymology of the word is from the pacific islands and not europe/asia, I think that mana fits for the witch doctor in a way that people don't realize. It's really not a western word at all.
Yeah, I agree that people have a strong association with mana and a Wizard, and it is completely valid. I personally feel that the subtlety of their choice to go with mana is cool, though I happened to be born on a Pacific island. =D
Even so, I didn't know that mana was a pacific island word until I looked it up last night, haha.
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
On the other hand I would have loved to completely do away with mana. Voodoo or Mojo seem a bit silly for Diablo but I would still welcome them just as a nice change. On the color side of things I get that green is poison but what is wrong with Black. Yea it might be harder to see against the dark background so put a glowing line on the top like the DH hatred and black = dark and death leading perfectly into Voodoo magic in my head