daveytheduck
New member
With the new batch of heroes released, I've noticed a substantial upgrade in the art quality for the ability icons. Can the older ability icons get a touch-up? A lot of them could use some love.
For example, the newer icons have a unique texture in many of them and feel more stylized than the older icons. They're still simple for the most part, but you can tell that more care went into them. They work with the art direction of the game as a whole really well. I'm not really good at describing in detail about what I feel is special/cool about them, but I hope with the side-by-side of the new vs old you can kinda see what I'm trying to showcase here. They feel more painted/printed on, it's more unique and separates it a lot from other hero shooters' silhouette style ability icons.
While I do think a lot of the older icons hold up pretty well, such as dynamo's and pocket's, I think there are a lot of ones that could use a small update and I think all of them having that sort of "painted/printed" texture, or even a texture/style unique to the hero would be pretty cool and add a lot of personality to them.
There is also a lot of older ability icons where you can clearly see the art cut off in a box shape, worst example of this I can think of is Abram's Siphon Life icon, you can see exactly where the image cuts off, and it looks really bad.
Here are some specific hero icons I have notes on:
Wraith:
- Her ult icon is probably the most outdated-looking icon in the game IMO, not only is it just reused from the drop urn prompt, it makes the ability seem way less cool than it is, I feel like it should be a big hex symbol, or someone being thrown, or show magic chains, honestly anything but this boring one that looks like you're catching a ball.
- I think her 1 and 3 are fine for the most part, maybe her 3 could better showcase that it adds spirit damage to your gun now via a buff or hex-looking symbol near it
- Her 2 icon has always looked silly to me, it looks like she just took a step to the left, I wish it looked more dynamic
McGinnis:
- Her icons feel like they're doing the bare minimum, like, they showcase each ability perfectly fine, but they don't really have any style or detail, they come off as bland/basic.
- For her 2, the icon doesn't match the cannister McGinnis uses at all; it looks like a test tube or a potion. I think her 2 icon would be better if it was more accurate and showed how the cannister sprays healing stuff downwards maybe.
Mo & Krill:
- Combo just needs a whole new icon really badly, it doesn't fit the ability, it doesn't fit the style of the any other ability icon, and it doesnt even fit Mo and Krill with the weird cowboy boot kicking someone in the head, it's just not good. If I had to redesign it, I would make the icon front-facing mo and krill with krill holding out his gun with a lightning effect coming from it (or whatever laser thing he uses in the ult), and Mo looking ready to grab you
- I honestly have no idea what scorn even is, and I wish there was some kinda explaination as to what mo/krill is doing when you press it. Like, I don't think this one needs a new icon that badly I just wanna go on a tangent about how strange this ability looks and feels, is it a spell? Is this something moe can do or is this a thing krill does to help him? The only thing Mo and Krill do when you press it is Krill doing the item use animation so it's anybody's guess. The icon being mo's fist makes me think it's something moe is doing but idk, its weird.
- 2 is fine and 3 I think is ok, although I will say until I started analyzing the ability icons, I didn't realize sand blast was sand being thrown at a gun, it always looked like 2 nailed together pieces of wood to me. idk if that means it should be tweaked, I just thought it was worth mentioning.
Misc. suggestions
- Warden ultimate icon just doesn't fit him, and it doesn't look that cool anyway. I really hope that with his redesign, the police siren is replaced with something else cooler looking.
- Sinclair's assistant icon should change depending on which Sinclair you're playing. It would be nice if there was an icon for Henry when you're playing as Savannah.
- Bebop grapple arm should be a hand grabbing someone or the hand being cast out with the rope behind it, not a hook, since, despite what the icon shows, Bebop is grabbing people with his arm. (unless ofc bebop's redesign involves a hook arm)
For example, the newer icons have a unique texture in many of them and feel more stylized than the older icons. They're still simple for the most part, but you can tell that more care went into them. They work with the art direction of the game as a whole really well. I'm not really good at describing in detail about what I feel is special/cool about them, but I hope with the side-by-side of the new vs old you can kinda see what I'm trying to showcase here. They feel more painted/printed on, it's more unique and separates it a lot from other hero shooters' silhouette style ability icons.
While I do think a lot of the older icons hold up pretty well, such as dynamo's and pocket's, I think there are a lot of ones that could use a small update and I think all of them having that sort of "painted/printed" texture, or even a texture/style unique to the hero would be pretty cool and add a lot of personality to them.There is also a lot of older ability icons where you can clearly see the art cut off in a box shape, worst example of this I can think of is Abram's Siphon Life icon, you can see exactly where the image cuts off, and it looks really bad.
Here are some specific hero icons I have notes on:
Wraith:
- Her ult icon is probably the most outdated-looking icon in the game IMO, not only is it just reused from the drop urn prompt, it makes the ability seem way less cool than it is, I feel like it should be a big hex symbol, or someone being thrown, or show magic chains, honestly anything but this boring one that looks like you're catching a ball.
- I think her 1 and 3 are fine for the most part, maybe her 3 could better showcase that it adds spirit damage to your gun now via a buff or hex-looking symbol near it
- Her 2 icon has always looked silly to me, it looks like she just took a step to the left, I wish it looked more dynamic
McGinnis:
- Her icons feel like they're doing the bare minimum, like, they showcase each ability perfectly fine, but they don't really have any style or detail, they come off as bland/basic.
- For her 2, the icon doesn't match the cannister McGinnis uses at all; it looks like a test tube or a potion. I think her 2 icon would be better if it was more accurate and showed how the cannister sprays healing stuff downwards maybe.
Mo & Krill:
- Combo just needs a whole new icon really badly, it doesn't fit the ability, it doesn't fit the style of the any other ability icon, and it doesnt even fit Mo and Krill with the weird cowboy boot kicking someone in the head, it's just not good. If I had to redesign it, I would make the icon front-facing mo and krill with krill holding out his gun with a lightning effect coming from it (or whatever laser thing he uses in the ult), and Mo looking ready to grab you
- I honestly have no idea what scorn even is, and I wish there was some kinda explaination as to what mo/krill is doing when you press it. Like, I don't think this one needs a new icon that badly I just wanna go on a tangent about how strange this ability looks and feels, is it a spell? Is this something moe can do or is this a thing krill does to help him? The only thing Mo and Krill do when you press it is Krill doing the item use animation so it's anybody's guess. The icon being mo's fist makes me think it's something moe is doing but idk, its weird.
- 2 is fine and 3 I think is ok, although I will say until I started analyzing the ability icons, I didn't realize sand blast was sand being thrown at a gun, it always looked like 2 nailed together pieces of wood to me. idk if that means it should be tweaked, I just thought it was worth mentioning.
Misc. suggestions
- Warden ultimate icon just doesn't fit him, and it doesn't look that cool anyway. I really hope that with his redesign, the police siren is replaced with something else cooler looking.
- Sinclair's assistant icon should change depending on which Sinclair you're playing. It would be nice if there was an icon for Henry when you're playing as Savannah.
- Bebop grapple arm should be a hand grabbing someone or the hand being cast out with the rope behind it, not a hook, since, despite what the icon shows, Bebop is grabbing people with his arm. (unless ofc bebop's redesign involves a hook arm)
Last edited:
