[SUGGESTION] New Asian Characters

Hi all,

I'm new to the game, and I am very impressed by the work by the developers and artists, and the culture by the community.

As a native speaker of Chinese who learned calligraphy as a kid, I'd like to make a suggestion on the two characters found in the game 力 (force) and 寿 (long life).

It seems that the two characters are meant to be Japanese or simplified Chinese, since both languages have these two characters. However, there's some nuance, and I'll make my suggestion accordingly.

1. I suggest using the Traditional Chinese version of 壽 instead of its simplified (or modern) counterpart 寿.

Most calligraphers write traditional Chinese characters, including calligraphers in China (who use simplified Chinese in their daily life), and even those in calligraphy competition held in Japan. Traditional Chinese in calligraphy represents a long history of aesthetics and tradition. I believe the goal here is to create a fusion of the future and the ancient tradition.

If you think 壽 has too many strokes, 生 (to generate life) is another alternative.

2. The floating 力 in the game has two fonts. Please see the attached picture. One is the actual floating item in the game world (the one on the top), and the other is the one on the HUD (the one on the bottom).

If you look at the two brush stokes of the one on the bottom, they both touch the base line. The one on the top, however, has two strokes of very different lengths -- the left stroke is significantly shorter.

When a character is presented on their own, calligraphers usually make them as balanced as possible for stability. This is the case of the 力 on the bottom.

The 力 on the top looks very unbalanced (and looked like a kid's writing when it's in isolation), and it was probably extracted from a passage. When a character appears in a passage, that character probably looked OK because of its original the dynamic flow in the context.

I suggest replacing the top one with a more balanced version. Either using the bottom version, or choose a better one. I like this one:

(sorry it's black ink on a transparent background, so you may need to see it on a white background http://shufa.supfree.net/x/16391.gif )
because the right stroke goes rounding the bottom, giving it very nice balance, and a sense of force coming from within.

However, there are many others to choose from. See the point below for more options.

3. There are many styles (or fonts, if you wish) of calligraphic writing. (Think about English cursive writing vs. non-cursive writing.)

These keywords are writing styles:

楷書 (regular; thick)
宋體 (formal; thin)
行書 (cursive)
草書 (fast cursive)

You can combine the styles with the character itself, and do a Google image search.

For example, "行書 力" (that's a space in between, and there shouldn't be quotes) as a Google search keywords, should give you 力 in the 行書 writing style.

Or, here's one of many websites that collect calligraphic characters:
For 力
For 壽
For 生

Some of the more cursive writing may be appropriate for the in-game items -- they suggest very fast-paced dynamics.

4. I'm willing to give my two cents if developers/designers of this game are willing to dig deeper here.

Thank you!

Good point you have there. I see the balance issue for the strength icon, however I believe you really have to know a bit about chinese calligraphy to tell the difference of styles for the shield icon. I'd be all for replacing the current strength model in-game to something that resembles the HUD version, or to update both if required for aesthetics. Since the strength model is actually a trivial 3D body, this should not be a problem at all.

I'll ask around in the team how they feel about the icons (the strength on in particular) maybe they have any other plans like replacing it with something entirely different.

Thank you for that very constructive post!

That is indeed a very constructive post.
However, the strength model is based on the logo of the predecessor of Xonotic, so it probably will not stay as the default.

My two cents:
I'm creating new symbols for the Luma HUD theme and the Luma simple items, with the aim to make it easier to understand what they do, even if you don't know Chinese calligraphy

Thank you both. I'll happily help out if there's any need for feedback on Chinese characters in the future.

Sev, I like Luma simple items a lot. It's beautiful, clear, consistent, and much more intuitive.

Halogene, great improvisations you have there!

The 壽 has so many lines in it it looks like blocks on a stick

The 壽 has so many lines in it it looks like blocks on a stick

You are right, @acerspyro. 壽 has too many strokes. Now that I've known the game a bit better than when I wrote this very first post of mine, I don't think 壽 ("life") is appropriate to represent "shield". If we still want to use a character for that, we should use 盾 (shield). I like this one for its very enclosing (and thus protective) feel, which is exactly what a shield does in the game.

By the way, these images were cropped from images of ancient scrolls, so they have ink-blurred outlines. If you are helping out with the characters, it's probably a good idea to smoothen those outlines.


All that said, I thought since we are moving forward (away from Nexuiz), we are likely to ditch all these Asian characters for @sev's much more clear set of symbols. @sev?

All that said, I thought since we are moving forward (away from Nexuiz), we are likely to ditch all these Asian characters for @sev's much more clear set of symbols. @sev?

I just make the icons, not the decisions. But yes, that seems to be the plan.
Realistically, chinese symbols simply don't fit the game style, and are impossible to understand for most players.

I think there was a Strength model with Xonotic logo on it under work somewhere, wondering why that isn't being used :o

It looked way cooler than the old 力 model from Nexuiz.