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Allied and neutral monsters in tiles version of DCSS are visually distinguished by green halo effect. However, it often blends with monster and/or background. It's difficult to recognize fealty of Frozen Spectre even with healthy vision, and it is hard on people with visual impairments. Many builds rely on allies that may often have hostile versions of themselves on given level, so this is kind of big deal.
Here is a table that demonstrates this issue. Daeva in 4th row is shown without holiness halo for comparison.

Old versions of Crawl distinguished allies with heart. I assume it was changed because it obscured other statuses, such as confusion. Or maybe it blended with red monsters. Still, it doesn't blend as badly as green halo, and icon could just be moved down. Besides, separate icons for charmed and permanent allies would also help cut a lot of e[x]amining in some scenarios.

I changed it because, in a big mass of allies and enemies, it was very easy to lose track of the red hearts. The green circle is not perfect, obviously, because some monsters have big round tiles that obscure it, but I think it's easier to see the vast majority of the time. For instance:

Did you notice at first glance that the wizard two steps northeast was not friendly? It took me a second to pick out the 3 hostiles mixed into the middle, and this is one static image where I'm specifically looking for the hearts. The green circles make similar situations much easier to read.

might be a case where it would be best to change some monster tiles(wraith,dragon simulacra) and remove holiness halo from holy monsters.

The best option is to put the circle in front, seriously.

Why not a square instead of a circle, like with autopickup? That would always be visible.

i also don't miss the hearts, it was really easy to confuse enemies and allies especially when you had an ally of the same type as a monster on screen

Shtopit wrote:Why not a square instead of a circle, like with autopickup? That would always be visible.

I'd go with this. If possible, make the square outline a bit thicker, I think it's currently just a 1 pixel border, maybe up that to 2 or 3 so it stands out more? But even just reusing the autopickup border is a good start.

What about mirroring ally tiles (make them look right instead of left)?

Very little difference to freezing wraith and green death.

ontoclasm wrote:I changed it because, in a big mass of allies and enemies, it was very easy to lose track of the red hearts. The green circle is not perfect, obviously, because some monsters have big round tiles that obscure it, but I think it's easier to see the vast majority of the time. For instance:
Spoiler: show

Did you notice at first glance that the wizard two steps northeast was not friendly? It took me a second to pick out the 3 hostiles mixed into the middle, and this is one static image where I'm specifically looking for the hearts. The green circles make similar situations much easier to read.

I don't think the issue here is about hearts, it's about having several things on the screen. Besides, green circles don't actually make reading that different:

Shard1697 wrote:might be a case where it would be best to change some monster tiles(wraith,dragon simulacra) and remove holiness halo from holy monsters.

All simulacra blend with ally halo, because they are blue. Besides, it doesn't just blend with monsters, it blends with most floor tiles, including something as commonplace as water.

Floodkiller wrote:What about mirroring ally tiles (make them look right instead of left)?

Shtopit wrote:Why not a square instead of a circle, like with autopickup? That would always be visible.

I think it's worth trying too, even if things may get messed if they start gathering in checkered patterns:

Also, I was thinking about applying hue filter to allies, but I'm not sure if crawl engine is capable of that. Besides, it would obscure green monsters, although bullfrogs and green deaths aren't that dangerous when this becomes relevant.

I like the hue filter idea the most, but the rectangle would probably be easier to implement. Maybe a dotted green square to distinguish from items.

I'd like to hear from someone with UI design experience (although the proposed ideas seem pretty good to me as they are).

Another very visible option would be a huge X or cross, or Φ on your allies. It would solve the problem of an enemy surrounded by squares looking like an ally.
Superimposing a circle might be easier, however.

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Allies and accessibility in tiles

Allies and accessibility in tiles

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Re: Allies and accessibility in tiles

Re: Allies and accessibility in tiles

Re: Allies and accessibility in tiles

Re: Allies and accessibility in tiles

Re: Allies and accessibility in tiles

Re: Allies and accessibility in tiles

Re: Allies and accessibility in tiles

Re: Allies and accessibility in tiles

Re: Allies and accessibility in tiles