I don't think separate iconic models are needed

Suggestions
1

I have to admit I see no purpose in having separate iconic models with lowered level of detail while we can simply use regular models with lower scale. With more and more entities added it becomes almost impossible to distinguish iconic models of different objects and eliminating separate iconic models reduces the amount of work needed to make a new entity.

The only situation which makes sense to use separate iconics are plants because storing them without a pot is a bit weird, but furniture and construction elements don’t need them at all.

2

I like the iconics.

3

But it is hard to distinguish between different types of doors and windows without models showing at least some level of detail.

4

Most models are ugly when scaled down or are simple more cute when small in low resolution.
I usually use the main model in iconic when it already fits in a 1x1x1 cube. Else I just use magicavoxel function to lower the resolution into a 10x10x10 model and polish it manually.

5

Erm, I think it’s the opposite actually, so let’s leave that up to taste. It’s actually not the aesthetics what I find the problem here.

  1. It is hard to distinguish between iconic models of different entities because they all get similar in low resolution.
  2. As you mentioned: to get acceptable low-res iconic models manual processing of the models is needed, what complicates the workflow.

While the aesthetic improvement is controversial I see serious technical flaws of the idea so I would seriously consider dropping it completely.

6

I don’t think it is needed to individually differentiate one item from another. We can simple open the place menu with P and get the item from there, nicely organized in categories. Or we can simple click in the stockpile to have a similar menu where stocked items are categorized.

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7

Well, I like to know what Lings are carrying without opening their character sheets to see backpack contents.

8

Oh, for that case we can simple click on the item and check it in the unit frame. I think the same thing would be need for any item in a stockpile even if it had their main models scaled down, because they would still look similar to one another at that size.

9

This again involves clicking and checking. The main advantage of rendering the iconics is that you don’t have to do anything and yet keep an eye on things. Besides, I often use fast speed and chasing an iconic in Lings’ hands with the cursor can be tedious if zoomed out.

10

I agree, but let’s be fair. @Pawel_Malecki’s argument that they are somewhat redundant holds so far. Apart from this I haven’t seen a good agrument for iconics, apart from special cases.

Although while I’m thinking of it, there is a reason. You could instead just scale things down to the right size, but all the things have different sizes, which means a lots of different scaled down voxel sizes in a stockpile. That might make it look bad. With the iconics, you don’t have the clutter of different voxel sizes.

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11

If we are truly looking at optimizing the game, lower detail models usually means less polygons being rendered on the screen. That alone is a pretty solid trade - off for more detailed iconics.

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