Xen of Onslaught - Suggests

[The Witch King of Angmar]

Originally Posted by Darvin

Frankly, I think Dawn of Fantasy is a great name, and (sorry to be woefully blunt) but your suggestions just suck. I don't think I would ever buy a game called "Dragons and Warring Nations".

Woohoo! Go Darvin! I think the custom armies or nations would be too much for an online game as well as being to overpowered. I agree that the name stinks.

[OrleanKnight]

You guyys are ultimately neglecting that the suggestion was to call the game DAWN right?

[Darvin]

If there is any stage consider it, now may be good of time as any

Certainly now is the time to make such considerations. Personally, I'd rather see a "paper doll" type system where you choose what type/colour of shield, helmet, sword, etc that your soldiers will carry and use, but not the model remains a default one. This keeps the variety you're seeking, while still keeping the workload on developers low and a certain degree of standardization that the game needs.

You guyys are ultimately neglecting that the suggestion was to call the game DAWN right?

We're talking exclusively about the other suggestion now, so don't worry about it. As much as I was blunt with you earlier, I'm not the kind of guy to hold such things against you. And Witchking, there's no reason to rub it in for him. I think we all agree about the name thing, but one clear comment is enough.

[The Witch King of Angmar]

Originally Posted by Darvin

Certainly now is the time to make such considerations. Personally, I'd rather see a "paper doll" type system where you choose what type/colour of shield, helmet, sword, etc that your soldiers will carry and use, but not the model remains a default one. This keeps the variety you're seeking, while still keeping the workload on developers low and a certain degree of standardization that the game needs.



We're talking exclusively about the other suggestion now, so don't worry about it. As much as I was blunt with you earlier, I'm not the kind of guy to hold such things against you. And Witchking, there's no reason to rub it in for him. I think we all agree about the name thing, but one clear comment is enough.

Lol sorry. I usually don't do that but I was in the mood. Lol I apologize for that. Anyways...... I think the system you came up with Darvin is really good. I like in BFME the system they used in that. Some of the units look really good in some of those colors. Ex: Rohan in green and Gondor in blue.

[frankein_fish]

Originally Posted by The Witch King of Angmar

Lol sorry. I usually don't do that but I was in the mood. Lol I apologize for that. Anyways...... I think the system you came up with Darvin is really good. I like in BFME the system they used in that. Some of the units look really good in some of those colors. Ex: Rohan in green and Gondor in blue.

Yeah that was quite a good system

[OrleanKnight]

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos used the Paper Doll system, and frankly it didn't really amount to much in the form of customized units. You realized that even though you can chance the look of the armor, and build the unit with different delments, colors, and and maybe even so slight facial differences -- it didn't amount to much at all in a satisfactory form of customization.

For in the end, the unit it just too small to really make visible changes. However, if you were to offer the ability to replace that unit with anoither one completely, that offers more of a feeling customization. Even more so if you can change the skin and colors of the unit itself.

So far a lot of the points which aim to de-bunk my idea, don't really have much to them. All I'm hearing is mainly "Too much work" or "Unbalanced". Well the first is for the Dev-Team to decide that, not you -- and secondly, Balance is not an issue when you're just dressing up an already balanced unit with a new model.

[The Witch King of Angmar]

Originally Posted by OrleanKnight

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos used the Paper Doll system, and frankly it didn't really amount to much in the form of customized units. You realized that even though you can chance the look of the armor, and build the unit with different delments, colors, and and maybe even so slight facial differences -- it didn't amount to much at all in a satisfactory form of customization.

For in the end, the unit it just too small to really make visible changes. However, if you were to offer the ability to replace that unit with anoither one completely, that offers more of a feeling customization. Even more so if you can change the skin and colors of the unit itself.

So far a lot of the points which aim to de-bunk my idea, don't really have much to them. All I'm hearing is mainly "Too much work" or "Unbalanced". Well the first is for the Dev-Team to decide that, not you -- and secondly, Balance is not an issue when you're just dressing up an already balanced unit with a new model.

Personally I don't think this hs a very big issue. I am looking for gameplay not unit colors. Whatever system they use is fine with me.

[Darvin]

Well the first is for the Dev-Team to decide that, not you -- and secondly, Balance is not an issue when you're just dressing up an already balanced unit with a new model.

You're certainly right that it's for the developers to decide, but that doesn't mean I won't say what I think.

Balance is often oversimplified by people who talk about it. Colours and aesthetics have a considerable impact on balance if they are not approached carefully. For instance, the "earth tones" often camouflage on the mini-map and render you nearly invisible to the less attentive eye. The units may be identicle stats-wise to everyone else's, but they have this special property due to their colours. Anyone who would claim this is not an advantage is just being foolish. Without some system (such as the large icons used in supreme commander) to distinguish "earth tone" colours from the back ground surroundings it's just not practical to allow someone to play with them.

I think you're being way too critical if you think a paper doll insufficiant. I can understand that many features aren't apparent at a higher zoom, but in reality at such zoom you're not going to be able to make out any details anyways. Moreover, I don't think you realize how little option you will get in your system. How many models do you think you'll get for each unit? Suppose there are about twelve (a low-ball guess) units per faction, and there are the four factions. That's around 50 units. Last I checked, it's very not trivial to go through the full range of developing a single unique model, from concept art to the finished product. Even if there are three options per unit (frankly, a paper-doll system will offer far more than that could), that raises the bar to 150 unique models to develop. That's a considerable increase in workload for what is really a very moderate gain. I think you'll get far more variety out of paper doll than you ever could out of entirely different models.

[Ryan Zelazny]

OrleanKnight, thanks for explaining a little bit more about the system.

I don't think we will be employing it however, as Darvin has pointed it out it is quite a bit of cost for very little gain. If you do want custom models, you could always create your own after release, or re-skin the stock ones and your army would appear different. The other players wouldn't notice your model change but atleast your getting what you want. I understand the want to show off a custom thing to the online world, but it's really not feasible when we look at how much money and time it would cost to implement such a system.

[The Witch King of Angmar]

Originally Posted by Ryan Zelazny

OrleanKnight, thanks for explaining a little bit more about the system.

I don't think we will be employing it however, as Darvin has pointed it out it is quite a bit of cost for very little gain. If you do want custom models, you could always create your own after release, or re-skin the stock ones and your army would appear different. The other players wouldn't notice your model change but atleast your getting what you want. I understand the want to show off a custom thing to the online world, but it's really not feasible when we look at how much money and time it would cost to implement such a system.

Hey OrleanKnight, if you want all that so much you could just make a mod for the game once it is released. Nice point Dravin about the camo. I mainly play BFME and usually never see anything like that on there.