Another call for accessibility features
This kind of post has been made before, but it still needs attention.
Ingress prime isn't very friendly for the visually challenged. While I absolutely LOVE the aesthetic, I also don’t have any visual issues. Those that do (like my colorblind brother) find the game difficult to play. To him, the purple of the UI and the blue of the Portals look the same, the roads blend into the terrain, and it is difficult for him to differentiate between the higher level items. Even I have trouble differentiating between a neutral portal and a low level resistance portal.
I’m not saying these things have to be permanently changed. But a little menu in settings that slightly adjusts the color scheme would be helpful. I realize that phones have color correction in their settings, but my brother still struggles to make heads or tails of things even with those enabled (he also has trouble with green and yellow shades).
Accessibility aside, there are a number of other parts of the design that irk the artist in me:
The hack button is slightly darker than the buttons in it’s swipe interface.
The yellow of the portal decay blends in with the green of an enlightened portal, even to those with full color vision.
Low level and high level portals look the same when surrounded by XM. The dark colors of the screen aren’t visible in bright sunlight unless you crank your phone screen brightness to its maximum (which drains battery very quickly).
The color of layered fields is very dull, and it isn’t easy to determine how many layers a field has.
There is no way to visually tell the direction of a link in the scanner.
Fields flash the same color wether their constituent portals are being charged or attacked.
One of The biggest reasons people liked Scanner [REDACTED] so much was because of its visual clarity. In [REDACTED], you could easily tell the direction in which a link was made, the faction (or lack of one) of a portal was evident, and menus were easily readable. A switch in settings that could apply a [REDACTED]-esque theme to the game — wether completely or in part — could make the game more appealing to both those with disabilities and those players firmly in camp [REDACTED].
Comments
To address one of your points, there is a link direction animation in Prime, same as in Redacted. Difference being, the animation now shows the link direction correctly.
There IS? I certainly havent noticed it. What should i be looking for then?
Look closely at the links and there's an animation of pulses. However, I believe in Prime it's in reverse to Classic.
I will also say, the level of aural quality and information in Classic was far better too.