Aesthetic differences in troops

Low priority

from Elemental Forums

Morning (or afternoon/evening, whichever is more relevant).

Let me prefix this by saying I'm really enjoying this game. It has some flaws (a few times my computer has flat out run out of memory playing the game), a few bugs that need ironing out (it sometimes gets confused when scrolling in and out quickly from the cloth map) and a couple of balance issues (e.g. AoE spells render armies pointless, pretty much). But better minds able to express these concepts more articulately will be able to cover and address those issues in other posts. My concern at the moment is that the troop customisation could do with a bit more aesthetic variety.

One of my absolute favourite things in GalCivII was designing ships. Not just their capabilities, but the look of them, it really made the game amazing in my view, and it personalised the entire galactic empire so much that every game just drew me in. I would create updated versions of craft as weaknesses became apparent and spread them out as I could afford it, to replace their outdated kin.

Unfortunately the aesthetic designs in Elemental are not as available. A unit of elite Trog warriors using crude but effective armour looks the exact same as a unit of highly experienced royal human guards in the same level of armour.

So what could work to fix this is a variety of armour-looks for each level of armour. There could be a pair of practical designs, an ornamental design and a crude design. I understand that this could be a lot of work for modellers and texture artists, but it would do a lot to emulate the sheer aesthetic variety of Galciv2. I also understand that bug fixes, rebalancing and AI tweaking comes first, but still this would be a nice thing to have at some point.

6,621 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

This is partly a bump, partly a new hopeful idea to add to the previous post.

Along with the above mentioned armour variety, perhaps when creating the troops we could have access to a stance-window similar to that which is available when making a Sovereign. I say 'similar' rather than the same, because it would give a limited number of stances appropriate to the weapons the unit is armed with.

For example, when creating a Wraith soldier sent in with poor equipment in vast numbers, they could have a more slouched, hunched over posture. However, when creating a tall, proud human soldier, they could be given a stance more appropriate to such a warrior. It would just add a little bit of differentiation to the troops when they're being created.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I agree that more variety would be nice. Kinda strange that we went from the insane variety and customization of GalCivII to Elemental, which also allows for designing units, but in a much more limited way. The main problem is that you are dealing with living creatures, not ships, so that really impacts what you can do.

 

Here is what would help, in my opinion:

 

1) More variety, especially between cultures. If one culture is refined and artful, let their armor reflect that. If another culture is brutish and crude, let their armor reflect that.

 

2) Give us the ability to add ornamentation to our units. Same thing as GalCivII, really, just small visual touches. So for the refined culture, maybe I can add artful decorations to armor. For the brutish culture, maybe I can add a necklace of bones, spikes, skulls, etc. There needs to be a limit to keep things sane, assuming that too many ornaments will slow down the game, so that people don't make a unit that has 10,000 spikes on it.

 

3) Allow for variety in like-units. Right now, a squad of guys looks silly to me because they all are clones and move in the same way. Take a look at the difference between Rome: Total War and Medieval: Total War. I loved Rome, but I have a hard time going back to it because of the clone armies. In Medieval, soldiers within a unit have a variety of faces, armor, etc. Allow us to do that in Elemental by selecting several 'variants' for each unit, so that you will see different hairstyles, clothing colors, etc. Or, if we want to have an organized, uniform appearance, we can keep variants to a minimal level.

Curtains - Customize Windows with additional styles
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

I really don't know if that's the direction that the devs would go but I agree with the OP.

Adding of some 'flavor' elements in unit design would add a lot.

1) Different armor/shield/cape textures with al kind of heraldic/fantasy symbols - with colours sliders obligatory:)

2) Custom elements (just like in GalCiv2). To add some spikes, banners and similar, resize and/or rotate them.

3) Different body types: fat, skinny, muscular, tall, short... this kind of stuff.

I know implementing 2 and 3 would be much harder then in GalCiv, because of the animation and armours but I thing that is good idea.

 

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting flymar, reply 3
I really don't know if that's the direction that the devs would go but I agree with the OP.

Adding of some 'flavor' elements in unit design would add a lot.

1) Different armor/shield/cape textures with al kind of heraldic/fantasy symbols - with colours sliders obligatory:)

2) Custom elements (just like in GalCiv2). To add some spikes, banners and similar, resize and/or rotate them.
End of flymar's quote

For the first one, being able to alter the textures would be brilliant. Also even just the ability to choose which colours of the pair that apply to the faction would be applied to different colour locations on the unit. In a recent game I used a kingdom with a light grey for their secondary colour, which means that using padded or leather armour looks ridiculous, as they're wearing bright white trousers. If I was able to, say, select if the trousers are coloured determined by the primary or secondary colour, it would be a vast improvement.

On the second: One thing that I loved in Medieval 2: Total War, was that as a unit went up in experience, they gained pennants and banners that flew next to the large scale unit banner. While this would be complicated in Elemental due to the unit number differences (seeing four pennants being held up by a single soldier who also carries a sword and shield would leave you wondering how many arms does this guy actually have), it's something to consider.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

I'm of the mind that this matter could be solved easily if cultures themselves were different. It is harder to do with humanoids than it is with spaceships for obvious reasons, but anything is better than nothing.

At the same time, I'm one of those weirdos who actually creates military branches and divisions for his forces, such as an order of elite scouts, knights who safeguard royalty, knights who defend the land, etc. Some things that come to mind are the Starstriders, the Blackguard, and the Path Knights, respectively. I'd love to be able to get units to look differently by giving them unique armor and/or weapons.

I keep thinking about a lot of armor from other games. Just a variance of design, if nothing else. Plate mail made by the Capitars isn't the same as mail from Tarth or from any of the Fallen factions. It'd be nice if armor could reflect that. Furthermore, we do need a lot more options regarding armor.

I'd personally like to see some sort of extremely basic editing for armor. For example, give armor its own tab for aesthetics, and let that tab have various options. Let us place crests, armor spikes, banded layers, and a number of designs that make the armor look like it isn't just the default. Perhaps my soldiers mark with armor that has been fashioned like layered chevrons. Or my neighbor's soldiers all have their national symbol emblazed on their cloaks. Maybe that Tarth army takes the field with spiked armor and a lion crest on their platemail.

Something like that. It'd be great if, aside from general ones, each faction or at least each race had their own limited options. That is, the lion might be Tarth only, while the cobra or dragon belongs to another faction, etc.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Nathikal, reply 5
At the same time, I'm one of those weirdos who actually creates military branches and divisions for his forces, such as an order of elite scouts, knights who safeguard royalty, knights who defend the land, etc. Some things that come to mind are the Starstriders, the Blackguard, and the Path Knights, respectively. I'd love to be able to get units to look differently by giving them unique armor and/or weapons.
End of Nathikal's quote

I'm the exact same. In a recent game as a custom Kingdom faction I had 'Sentinel's (archers) and 'Warden's (Spearmen), who went from 'Lesser X' when equipped with basic leather armour and cheap weapons, all the way up to 'Greater X' when given the best equipment and some magical items to make them even better. Since they did look very similar from a distance, I gave the Wardens the 'Soldier's cloak' item and the Sentinels one of the non-equipment cloak items that had a different colour. Nice distinguishing feature, but it does bother me that to make different units look different, I have to compromise their abilities.

Lately I've taken to giving troops lesser equipment just to vary their appearance. Such as giving some infantry no leg armour, or different types of helmets. It is a bother, but in the war of style over substance I choose style every time.


Quoting Nathikal, reply 5
I keep thinking about a lot of armor from other games. Just a variance of design, if nothing else. Plate mail made by the Capitars isn't the same as mail from Tarth or from any of the Fallen factions. It'd be nice if armor could reflect that. Furthermore, we do need a lot more options regarding armor.
End of Nathikal's quote

I'm a little bit hesitant about this, since I like to try and define the faction as I'm playing it (I often make custom factions) rather than it being defined for me. GalCiv2 and now Elemental are some of the few games where it actually is possible to define your own forces, and changing appearance options based on subrace doesn't really encourage that.


Quoting Nathikal, reply 5
I'd personally like to see some sort of extremely basic editing for armor. For example, give armor its own tab for aesthetics, and let that tab have various options. Let us place crests, armor spikes, banded layers, and a number of designs that make the armor look like it isn't just the default. Perhaps my soldiers mark with armor that has been fashioned like layered chevrons. Or my neighbor's soldiers all have their national symbol emblazed on their cloaks. Maybe that Tarth army takes the field with spiked armor and a lion crest on their platemail.

Something like that. It'd be great if, aside from general ones, each faction or at least each race had their own limited options. That is, the lion might be Tarth only, while the cobra or dragon belongs to another faction, etc.
End of Nathikal's quote

This, I have no hesitation about.