GREAT IDEA! Good Work. Thanks

@zoot666 -- good to hear!

Yeah this mod simply swaps out art from vanilla...no changes to any code or setup or anything. Should be one of the most compatible mods that can be :D

Great mod! Working fine for me on 1.3.0.2 beta channel with Mordechai's XL Mod Beta.

Crashes on galaxy generation. Cheers

@Tanaka -- I'll take a look. Does it crash upon galaxy generation? Crashes on start-up?

So I only have the refreshed mods enabled and one of them is crashing the game with the new DLC not sure which?

Looks like no new resources with new DLC (Atuuk & Weekarus). No updates needed.

@AnalFury -- Thanks, friend! Will do :D

@Snaxxor -- Appreciate it! Yeah I stole the "colored background" idea from DasTactic and his DW1 mod. Happy to keep the theme going!

'I'm just a dad gamer with limited time for hobbies who enjoys tinkering with his games.'

- another dad gamer here, keep up the good work man! And if you need some support just ping me!

dude this is crazy how QoL stuff like this isn't in the base game, this mod is amazing.

@EddyVegas -- all good. was just talking through some thoughts, myself :D

I do wish I could do more...bump up the size of some UI elements--even the gif-type thing could be cool to add a little glint or shine to the super resources.

Yeah our DW2 team modding advocate is working on some new modding tools that should make a few things easier for DW2 modding. As of now it's still pretty tricky

@salemonz obv kidding about the gif...

"the "1 advantage" ones all sort of blur together" well that's my point! you did the right thing by giving them all 1 color, that's my point, when you're playing all you think is 'oh more good stuff yes i'll take it'.

well if they ever get modding to the point where it doesn't break my brain, i'll do a thing that expresses my idea.

again, great job on everything but especially those symbols, it makes the game way better.

@EddyVegas -- you're good :D I don't mind the suggestions. I do agree. It would be great to give incentives for exploration and play with resources.

The game doesn't let me do fun things like gifs. Boo!

I will probably add a new color for Caslon since "fuel" is kinda its own thing.

I agree, there are a LOT more resources than there were in DW1...the "1 advantage" ones all sort of blur together. What's tricky is the game gives me that TINY little spot to display resources in the UI ... something like 15px by 15px ... I've tried subtle color changes and they can be difficult to differentiate, unfortunately

i can't edit my post, but thinking about it some more, finding resources is like opening chests in Diablo, but with an unlimited inventory. you open a chest, there's a yellow and a blue. i promise you the 1st thing you think is 'ooh a yellow'. dopamine. the blue is fine, you can always sell it, you're not dismayed by it, every little bit helps. same here. getting more resources always helps, you can always trade excess, so why not go for the excitement of getting a purple? i'm sorry man, i'll shut up now.

@salemonz just thinking about how one plays this game with automation and exploration alerts. when do you really get excited when discovering resources? mainly caslon, and those super resources (which are rare). but have i ever gotten excited about +2 development or +3 growth? nope. just give it to me (or not, if it's too far away or i already got plenty), next!

so to max out the dopamine fun, i would (if i had the time and talent) make all resources that only give 1 advantage its own, maybe dull color, no matter what it helps. then make the color more intense for things that give 2 advantages, then go crazy on the super resource color to make it stand out from the pack. i understand this gives less information than your system, but again, i wonder how much people who play with automation really care about which exact thing they're getting?

and of course caslon should be some animated gif.

@EddyVegas -- DasTactic recommended Caslon maybe having its own background color to denote "fuel". I'll look into that. Might make it a bit easier to pick out :D

Yeah modding in DW2 is still a bit of a pain--definitely not something you can just pick up and run with like DW1. I'm hoping the new editing tools I hear about help lower the bar to entry for other folks to make more mods!

hi there, thanks for responding. you know, after playing with it for a while, they are all canisters, so i guess i complained for nothing. still, it seems like at least caslon should get some kind of special thingy. :)

an online friend turned me on to your tutorial, it's very well done, but really too much of a hassle. so thanks for doing it for me. i tell ya, the symbols mod really makes the game better, it's not just cosmetic. bravo.

@EddyVegas -- Hey friend! I did move away from the round icon, yes. I was trying to visualize gas in some way. I suppose I could have done something like a cloud or some such...but I was having fun with the sci-fi canister/container approach :D

I did try and make a tutorial on how to create bundles for use in DW2 mods. DW2 uses asset bundles created in the Stride Game Studio platform. Mods in DW2 usually contain files that reference what bundles are included in them. There are some loose xml files that can also be included in mods that modify the xml files in the DW2 game /data folder. But bundles are what you need to alter art assets/models/etc. Xmls are usually to change stat values of things.

I tried to outline the process of creating bundles on a forum post on Matrix Forums. It's not the easiest thing to do, unfortunately.

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11899&t=400864

i expect there is no step by step teaching on how to do this because i(ve got my own (possibly not so good idea.

can i just suggest - you got away from round icon = gas in the stock symbols. the geometric shape tells me it's gas at a glance. finding some kind of round thingy to represent gasses would help me play the game better. other than that, the mod is fine, good even.

@Iron Dice -- Thank you, friend! Super stoked people find value in it!

Another solid Refreshed mod.

Thank you @caratacus :)

I realize the DW2 team is busy with tweaking AI and automation and fleets and all of that. Sprucing up/changing art is probably not high on their priority list. Happy to step in and add that bit of optional polish to certain areas--especially with stuff like resources and colored backgrounds, which was a thing via mods back with DW1. Maybe they'll make the colored backgrounds a vanilla feature, but for now we'll just do the mod thing :D

Wanted to add a note of appreciation for all your 'refreshed' mods - they're very cool. The dev's seem to be allergic to doing anything that increases immersion and engagement with DW2. Thankfully your mods do!

@trappist -- yeah you'd have to redo the images. The game just loads an image...doesn't split into layers or parts or anything.

I love the coloured backgrounds, but I think I prefer base-game graphics. Wonder if it'd be possible to have just the backgrounds. This would likely be a pain though, not as simple as dragging and dropping the images :p

Thank you! <3

Thanks all :)

Just updated the cover image today. Nothing else!

AI TRIGGER WARNING lol

Those looks great, thank You!

@BJ Haha! Thanks! Hope it enhances your game experience a bit!

"<<< AI TRIGGER WARNING >>> Mod author is a dirty human sellout who uses generative AI platforms to generate aspects of mod content." I found this very funny. And thanks for the mod, I'll definitely check it out!

The colors are a great idea, should be integrated in core game. (I cannot edit my post.)

Great, big THX.

@salemonz Oh, I got you))
DW1 was the game i have spend most of playtime compared to other games. But i used Bacon mod with Extended AI, plus some graphics changing ,exept resource icons. I like vanilla.)
But in your mod, i must say - the icons are much better! Thanks again!

@Teranos -- I could see that, sure. I'm in the US, so "green" often means "money" to me :D I also was coming from Distant Worlds 1, where a popular mod there had yellow background for super luxury resources. I'll tinker and see what might work better from a color-scheme standpoint :D

Great! Thank you! By the way, if the icons ,that add income bonus had yellow background and super luxury resources had green, as it mostly ,related to health of population, maybe it would be even better?) What do you think?

thanks! love it. definitely a must-add to any modlist going forward

Excellent

Be sure to thumbs up the mod if you like it.

Awesome. Love seeing mods for DW2

Thanks all!

I was able to tweak things a bit a couple of days ago. I shrank down the icons a bit to give more negative space so the backgrounds were a bit more visible. I also tried to re-do a couple of the resources to give them more distinct shapes (or in the case of one of the fur pelts, I just rotated it 45 degrees so it was a diamond-ish shape instead of another square...ha!).

Working on some other DW2 mods. The hope is I can make things a collection. Most other mod plans are simple art asset swaps.

Hope you all enjoy!

Nicely done! A fine addition to the mod list.

Normally I don't comment or d/l icon mods.....but i must say nice work!

@Rebelkid -- Thanks friend! I'm working on new versions that are easier to decipher when smaller...which is most of the time we see them.

@Mordachai -- Haha! Competition was fierce ;)

These are some amazing Icons.

Best resource image replacement mod for dw2! ;D