Change shape of passive skills to lessen confusion of new players

When helping a new player over the weekend, found that they were attempting to drag a non-active skill to combat bar. Specifically ranged combat.

That got me thinking how other games avoid that. Typically the passives are shaped differently than the actives to give visual reinforcement.

That may be a good idea to implement here.

 

SotA uses colours to denote the type of skill, from the player guide:

• Red skills are active offensive abilities used on enemies.
• Blue skills are short-term self buffs and are usually defensive in nature.
• Green skills heal or restore the target and can be used on yourself and allies.
• Yellow skills are crowd control and debuffs.
• Grey skills are innate upgrades that do not need to be used and are always in effect.
• Purple skills are miscellaneous abilities that don’t fit neatly into a specific category.

 

• Red: Sith.
• Blue: Guardians.
• Green: Consulars.
• Yellow: Sentinels.
• Grey: Fallen Jedi.
• Purple: Samuel L. Jackson.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

• Red: Anger
  
• Blue: Calm
  
• Green: Courage
  
• Yellow: Greed
  
• Purple: Love

 

Anyhow, by using shape as well as color they can boost visibility and improve color-blind accessibility.

 

Love this idea - especially for the Bard Tree - a lot of those skill icons look very similar to me.

 

So much for accessibility for those with color blindness.