Would appreciate some quick feedback

Thanks for the feedback!

Dots: I'm going to make each a unique shape, as well as in a unique position along the line, to help colorblind players. Even with color vision, those green and blue dots look too similar.

Outline: Funny, they do have outlines, but the vector lines show up far more crisply than do the pixel output lines. Gotta thicken those up! when they call something a "hair line", they aren't kidding around!

Side text: The side text needs to be readable, since the upside-down text is pretty much standardized, and the number tells players all they need to know to use it. The side text, placed upside-down, would be really tough to read.

Grid: Let me work on this. The color could also be a factor. It's amazing how much of a difference in visibility the grid has when turned different colors.

Thanks all! I'll change these up, and present the new versions. It's important to have the cards very functional, since I want combat to be pretty quick, and there are a lot of things going on.

The orientation of the text is to make it clear when you choose to use this aspect of the card, as opposed to the colors, or other traits. The cards are placed face-down (like cribs in cribbage) in groups. The topmost card of the group shown the elements you'll use from that fleet (illustrated by the silhouettes and the name of the card), and this card must show the color symbol matching the location of that fleet. Other cards after this are upside-down, showing time committed to this strategy with these forces (increasing their effectiveness). Other right-side up cards give a bonus only if they match the strategic "phase" of the war that controls that mission, shown by the three listings on the side.

It sounds complex, I know, but, given that it's almost all visual, it takes a lot of words to explain it...

I'm still working on the new look of the cards. Stay tuned!

Okay, here's an updated card, with a black and white duplicate so we can consider full color blindness issues.

Changes:
>Color dots replaced with icons in unique locations, with unique colors,and unique shapes.
>The grid is a bit thinker, and makes the figures stand out better.
>The silhouettes have a bolder outline.
>The commitment in years is shown as an icon (the planet going around the sun a complete orbit... geddit?).
>The War Phase bonuses along the side are now icons as well.

I hope this is cleaner. The JPEG is a bit blurry, but the icons should all look distinct. And no, the ships in the tiny side icons are not meant to indicate particular types of ships (though they are really tiny silhouettes), they're just meant to give the impression of generic fleet activity.

More feedback, please!

Josh: That does look cleaner, with the circular buttons. The reason I didn't do that in the first place was I was afraid it would look a bit "X-Boxy", if you know what I mean. But it looks pretty good. I agree on the X being more distinctive.

recidivx: Glad to have feedback from someone with actual color-blindness, if you don't mind me saying so. I used to have three people in my playtest group with one form or another of color blindness (if you can believe it). Ah, the good old days!

I'm afraid your post is a perfect example of why this is such an important consideration, desing-wise. I think what you're interpreting as "shadow" are the active colors, while the inactive colors are shown as black shapes.

Are the designs Josh posted clearer?

I'll await your feedback before sending another round for evaluation. This is very important, since these symbols are to be used on all componants, especially the color coded symbols.

Soulbeach and FateTriarrii: I'm going to make the side icons more distinct by placing a number (or letter, or something) with them, and giving each a box to seperate it from its fellows. In actual game terms, though, there are only three sets of these side icons, so it isn't like there's a huge mix you have to individually interpret because they can appear in any combination. They can't. The icons will be in one of three triplets.

Here's the third style card in color and grayscale. The color icons now go down on side, to make them easier to see in a fan, while the three phase icons are now larger, and along the bottom. I think these are clear enough without further numbers, now. The title is larger, and the silhouettes are far more distinct. Comments?

Nando: I use a similar system of symbols, normally. I use a small circle (or solid-filled circle) for one, a hollow circle for two, a triangle for three, a square for four, and a five-pointed star for five.

Then that's the final look of the combat cards. Thanks all!