Updated this so it would work with any UI scaling, with other misc changes.

Also added additional buttons to change Share Mode and Balance without going into options menu.

Player color menu will only show available colors that are still left, because that annoyed me.

For those who've never used it, it's simply shows the Teams separated into two columns with each team rating and game count to more easily see the balancing.

there is a drop drop down menu with different sort options so the proper opposing slots are matched up. This unfortunately will not line up slots perfectly in all maps, but it still makes it easier to balance the teams if not the slots.

It reverts to default single column for non team games, or if you disable it from Team Sorting Menu.

Readme.txt has more details on install, and other changes. Click the the download button in upper right to download the zip file.

Nov 27th - added quick swap from current patch and other misc changes

Dec 22th - renamed file to kyros.nxt to work with new patch

May 8th - 2022 - currently works. added in what I could from current lobby.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iLzboy6N6AHiSoTA-EEHi2ZWosSu2OsF/view?usp=sharing

Redux Strategic Icons Small.zip
Redux Strategic Icons Medium.zip
Redux Strategic Icons Large.zip

These come in small (1080 res), medium (1200 res), and large (1440 res).

I've worked primarily on what I call the large set to work on 1440 res, but even those icons are smaller than what ASI called medium. The goal was to rework them to to have less white highlighting and to have icons standout without being too obtrusive. Though some icons are made bigger for strategic reasons, such as ACU, nukes, etc.

You can find these in the mod vault, but since un-scouted icons and support commander icons do not load, you need the additional nxt file loaded into c:\programdata\faforever\gamedata folder in order for those to show up.

Whether you download the main mod from here or the vault, it has to enabled in mod manager, same as any other mod.

If there is interest I can work on a huge set for 4k, but I don't have a 4k monitor to test.

I've tried to keep the small set as close to original size, but in many cases they are a bit larger, with more pronounced shading, so some may still prefer the original size for attack units, but you can simply delete the icon_land,bot,ship,sub icons from the custom-strategic-icons folder and keep the structure and or land icons that you prefer.

Many of the icons have slightly different sizes, profiles, to help distinguish them, but its subtle difference.

For example, ACU's have individual icons to help those standout.

Also included are T4 icons from IKIT.

Feel free to modify as you see fit.

Here is alternative download in case the uploaded files don't work.

Redux Small - 1080

Redux Medium - 1200

Redux Large - 1440

It would be nice to have control over which icons would take precedence in foreground focus. i noticed when modifying files, that sometimes the wrong thing would overlap, e.g. the mass storage would block out the mex, but i'm not sure what caused it.

Or at least a notification that the units went to you, sometimes you are deep in battle and not paying attention.

Or a lobby option that splits units equally so as to not give one person crazy eco, but maybe that is too much to implement since this is meant to be small suggestion.

while i use the advanced strategic icons mods, with the medium icons and in higher resolution, the overlap can be an issue in certain situations. A big thing I didn't like with them was that the white border could be obnoxious with a lot of units, and other items such as storage around mexes was less discernible when zoomed out.

which is why i modified the icons to make them a little less garish. Where possible, I adjusted some icons to be slightly different size to differentiate tech levels, etc. other icons such as t3 gunship and t3 bomber, i changed the tactical icon because i couldn't tell them apart when zoomed out.

here is my take for anyone that wants to give it a try, just backup your original file in case you don't like. all based on medium set, since i run a higher resolution.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BztpHQoY-zDCZccRLE_zJ370G9kwl-fX/view?usp=sharing

As much as I like the draggable queue (and i understand it has bugs) sometimes i really just want a build this unit right now, and then go back to the previous queue, without fiddling with it. Yes i know you can stop all but one current unit and then add unit, but then there goes my queue. Would be nice to have a hot key (alt maybe?)- click unit, and then back to more important things.

While the borders are probably intended to help differentiate it at a glance, I agree that these borders aren't really necessary, or there is simply a better way to go about it. Maybe I'll try and modify the default icon set to bridge the gap between the two to find a happy medium. I wish the icons were vector based.

I don't mind taking a crack at putting together a different set of icons, though it would take time, i've already done it for my own amusement on the medium set of ASI but like others have said, the visibility of units is still quite a bit hit or miss.

It seems that many players are fine with how the general units/tanks/arty and such appear, and many of the complaints stem from the other icons just being "TOO MUCH" visually, which is a fair complaint. I felt the same way when I first used them and while I did get used to them, many times its just a wash of icons.

So I think perhaps just starting out with like others have said with TML, nuke, acu vs sacu ( which i already did for myself) but also perhaps the TML, radar, are still not subtle enough.

what are thoughts on what a good compromise should be? I personally like having the mexes a little more distinguishable, but maybe ASI design just isn't it. I changed my Engies to have 1, 2, and 3 visible because I can't see the little tech lines zoomed out, but maybe that is also too much. I linked that above.

Perhaps people can provide their own versions to find something that could become a new default if it's popular enough. No reason we can't crowdsource this.

We discussed this a bit one the other thread. TML, sacu and nukes are obvious choices.

I changed both the t3 gunship and t3 bomber to use the armored t3 bot x emblem instead of the + because it was easier to see at a glance. The T2 and t3 gunships are especially hard for me to distinguish zoomed out but this small change helps.

Making some icons, a pixel wider, while subtle helps to differentiate tech level.

I would personally like to have kennel drone engies be able to have different icon from default engineers.

I plan to test the default icon set to see what pixel size starts to cause overlap issues, and to test different sizes to increase visibility without adding clutter.

I would also like to point out that some of ASI issues is that the white borders are just too pronounced in some cases and making them thinner worked for me.

Cptant. I put a sash over sacu. Simple but easy to spot.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iLzboy6N6AHiSoTA-EEHi2ZWosSu2OsF/view?usp=sharing

This is up to date as far as current additions and bug fixes.

I am not the author of the mod. I just added the current changes to it.
With the exception of Chat code and the layout, it has all the same code as the FAF lobby, so there shouldn't be any major issues, at least there isn't for me.

I tried decoupling the chat code to be more in line with FAF but i wasn't able to do it.

nowadays since the FAF lobby has rating shown in chat, and the ability to move players around via map or by clicking the #'s, it is not as necessary to have this, especially with the auto balance button, but it is a nice visual touch to see the teams side by side.

I am not able to do it, but a new method that simply just arranges players from highest to lowest where you can tweak it from there would be nice to have. The current method where it aligns players by slots doesn't really tend to work in most maps anyway.

but that having been said, the link in the original kyros post, i update when i add changes, so keep that in mind if you continue to use it and it breaks after a patch.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iLzboy6N6AHiSoTA-EEHi2ZWosSu2OsF/view?usp=sharing

This is up to date as far as current additions and bug fixes.

I use this mod primarily for the right click to upgrade mass extractor as a time saver, and have become accustomed to how that behaves. the mod frequently conflicted with another mod and caused issues that i can't recall, so i simply stripped out all the extra functions, and it literally only can be used to upgrade the mass extractors for me now. The teamshare mod takes care of nuke overlays for me now.

So if the option to right click mass extractors to upgrade existed in base game and works the same way here,, i wouldn't even need the mod as it exists now.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JJUNAbRUvRKI2KkmeVbtqD2OLfU9pXT9/view?usp=sharing

for anyone who just wants the mex click function only

https://www.indirectsound.com/downloads/IndirectSound_0_20.zip

requires x86 visual c++ 2010 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999

messed around with other settings. didn't seem to have any effect. Ambient energy sounds prob a bit too pronounced when zoomed in.

so I discovered at least something!! I ran FAF on an old XP computer just to see how it behaved. Even on XP with various sound cards, Realtek, Sound Blaster, etc. it was much the same. Clearly it didn't support multiple speakers back then either regardless of what i tried.

However in the dsound.ini that goes along with the dsound.dll file, there is an option called milesCompatibility = false. Setting this to true absolutely has an effect. With virtualization turned on and/or Spatial Audio, or 5.1 speakers, etc, the ambient noise that is so overpowering when zoomed out, goes away. Perhaps it's a little more pronounced zoomed in close. Maybe some of the sound effects are balanced a bit different.

But clearly having an effect nonetheless. There are multiple settings that may tweak the sound even further in dsound.ini that i'll investigate, or if you have an app that gives you custom EQ for games, that can be tuned further.

Didn't have any crashes or other strange things in the last week I've used it. Perhaps this can be of use to others. Maybe some audiophile will give it a test and will notice differences that my poor ears cannot.

If i find time this weekend, i think I'll dual boot XP and 10 on an older computer. Get a baseline and compare the differences if any, assuming i can find my old 7.1 setup.

You would need to place the file in c:\programdata\faforever\bin\ for this to work in FAF

I recently came across this website http://www.indirectsound.com, which is an app aimed to support old d3d/eax games. I tried it, and it did create a log file indicating that it is loading when FA launches. While spatial sound option still can't be enabled. I did enable the 7.1 surround on my headphones ( that would normally cause the same issues as enabling spatial sound) and with this running everything sounded normal. Enabled virtualization in enhancements, and everything still sounded normal.

I do not have a set of surround speakers currently to test out, so i can't test any speaker options beyond stereo, but perhaps someone can report back and see if this works?

I'm aware of this. This is reproducible for me on a fresh install. Merely offering something that works for me in hopes it helps others.

I had no end of trouble getting sound right until i installed apo equalizer, and using the sfx/efx option when enabling it for the sound device, in addition to 16 bit and disabling surround.

Can also install companion peace GUI equalizer to control levels to get the effects tweaked.

Until i did this sounds would be missing or overpowered even in 16bit stereo.