UI:
It would be nice if it was clearer on the patent list with the icon whether the patent is held by this company, or if the product is locked out by the patent.
I see that “off patent” has its own icon - something like that. Maybe be worth using different colours. i.e. Blue for owner, Green for off patent, red for locked-out.
Function:
Slightly more effort, but how about a patent allowing sale of that product, but the patent holder gets 20% (or whatever) of the combined value. Maybe even have two types of patent, one that blocks entirely, and the other that allows sales but takes 20%. You’d use the former when the competitor is flooding the market, and the later when you can’t be bothered to build out yourself.
Not sure if this is what you want/mean, but the “AI patented” icon and the “player patented” icon ARE different. Color differences might make it more obvious, but I’m pretty use to telling which is which. The mouseover makes it even more obvious of course, but requires… mouseover.
3 patent icons - including the “off patent” you mentioned.
There are also icons for “patentable” - i.e. no patented yet and w/in your current patent level and for “patent in progress” (I’m pretty sure - but don’t have a screen shot).
I hadn’t noticed, it took a while to spot the people-covered icon was different - there’s poor visual design there (most in the game is excellent, this bit not so much).
That said, on the AI page, the symbol shown even if they own the patent is the lock, not the rosetta. A bug?
