I'm making this in a reply to the thread, rather editing the original post... Because I am admittedly having too much fun with this and don't want to clog the first post up with so much.
So, I wanted to go back and make a mock up of the '5 dragons per row' setting. But also, I wanted to see what each of the suggestions would look like combined, or worked into a lair layout. Because a single row isn't really a good example of how these might look, and it might be easy to assume something would look good when looking at only a single row, but when seeing it combined into multiple rows it might be easier to notice any potential issues with the concept.
I really am largely making these mockups for fun, because it's really cool to see my lair presented in a different way. But I think actually seeing how something like this might look might make it easier to tell whether or not any of the suggestions would really be workable, I guess.
So here is the larger, multi-row mockup
From putting this together and looking at it... I have a few thoughts on the overall look/practicality of it...
1) The 1-wide text spacers are impractical.
(At least in the '5 dragons' layout - where they are slightly smaller)
I personally really like the way they look, but I can imagine they might be a nightmare to actually use for people who want to write more, especially in this layout. They would have to have a tiny character limit just to fit
And the mention of a character limit is a fair point as well, because our lair tab descriptions can expand in size until they reach their character limit. Having an input area for text that is a very strict, set length and width might be difficult to implement, even in the larger text boxes.
I think that - although nice - the smaller text boxes may not be viable. I could see them possibly working exclusively in the '4 dragons' layout, but I'm not sure how easy they would be to use. I still really love the idea and the look of 2 and 3-wide text boxes, though. And the 1-wide spacers aren't too bad on the 4 dragons per row, for the most part.
I know it was mentioned that text spacers might be worth ditching overall, and I would totally understand if implementing them would be more trouble than it is worth, but I think they would be incredibly useful, and I love the way they look... So I'd like to stick to my suggestion for them. Just because I enjoy them, admittedly. But I think I'm going to (at least on the '5 dragons' layout) ditch the idea of 1-space text spacers. Unless, of course, the Devs can find a way to make them work!
I just think being able to present your lore more directly in your lair will make it easier for other players to consume it. Text box limits will still mean players have to keep it 'short and sweet', but put it more front and centre. Shorter snippets of lore directly in the lair page will be easier for other players to engage with than long lore posts or paragraphs and paragraphs in dragon bios. And it could serve to encourage other players to read each others lore as well!
2) The colour spacers are a little awkward.
They just kind of sit there, being colours. Not only that, I feel like they make the page incredibly busy by virtue of being just whole blocks of colours that can have multiple different colours. I tried to see how two colour blocks would look next to each other in this image, and I personally think that it looks strange.
3) The scene/background images are a little strong, with a lot of contrast.
Users have mentioned already in the thread that they might also be overwhelming to look at, and I can definately agree when you have everything all together.
An edited mockup
So here is my edited mockup, based on these observations.
Colour Spacers - First of all, I think that maybe limiting the colour spacers to one colour per page might be a good idea. Whilst it might be a shame to no longer make pretty rainbows with the colour spacers, it might make them less visually overwhelming. I chose green for this example.
One singular colour means that the page will also remain more consistent throughout. It limits creativity a bit, but I think it helps to prevent colour spacers from becoming a visual headache to others.
However, in favour of multiple colours allowed per page... Allowing multiple colour spacers may help to create gradients between dragon colours. Which could be useful if you want your lair to look cohesive, but you lack certain in-between colours.
Scene Spacers - I added an overlay to the backgrounds to make them more muted. The contrast is no longer as heavy and overwhelming. They blend more into the background and therefore have less of a chance of being difficult to process.
Lightened Boxes - This is just a personal thing, but I found the lair page to overall be easier to process with slightly lighter boxes behind the dragons.
My primary reason for lightening the dragon boxes was, with all the additional things going on, the dragons begin to blend into their own backgrounds. I personally find it much easier to look at the page when I can clearly see the dragons in front of their boxes. Though, admittedly this was an issue I had with the boxes before - and I don't know how many people share this feeling. So this edit might be somewhat related to my personal preferences rather than an actual improvement.
Different "styles" of line spacers - In reference to
Tserin's suggestion I wanted to see what different styles of line spacers could look like. I borrowed an asset created from site art by
Poisonedpaper. Technically speaking, this is not a line in any sense of the word. But the idea of art based dividers that are elemental (and those being either lines, or wreaths in this case) is a great thought and I think it works well.
I applied an overlay to it, to make sure that it is not too vibrant.
Anyway, this is my new addition to the thread, and I'll link back to this post on the first post. I just didn't want to make the very first post any longer than it already was.
Thank you so much for all the responses! This idea popped into my head suddenly this morning, and I admit it's what I've been thinking about for a lot of the day, so I appreciate hearing everyone's thoughts.
