There is something that I dont unterstand about people.
Lets talk to see if I can get it...
Look at Game of Thrones TV show, you have the Lannister house for example, they use red armor with red cloaks and details in gold with a lion symbol right?
Or look at the Stark house, dressed in chainmail with white cloaks, or the Nightwatch all dressed in black or the house Arryn dreesed in blue with the moon and the eagle in white, etc,etc.
All their army is dressed like that because they belong to the Lannister house or Stark house,etc they show their house colours.
When they clash on a fight you will see a bunch of red guys fighting against a bunch of white guys, they need to be different, heck extremely different between Lannisters and Starks but Lannisters need to look all the same because they belong to that house.
How is possible that you guys never heard of army uniforms? Because if you are aware of how real armys looks your complains are out of place.
When you see an army on a movie for example how are they dressed? dint look all the people similar but with something that make the recognizable as the same faction?
Of course in one army there are different proffesions and roles..
You have pikemans, archers, swordsmans, knights, etc,etc.
But they all of them use their house uniform that make them belong to his house so at the end they look ended similar but with different weapons and slightly different variations of their house uniform to represent their roles.
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Ok, now that I explained that..
What I did for TOME is create all the proffesions for an army but dress them in the same uniform, I just change armor parts and weapons to represnt their different roles on the army, but all of them NEED to look like if they are on the same team.
If you take Gondor for example and compare the archer vs the champion you will not find to many differences, but they are there.
Check Battles for middle earth game, wich differences do you find between the gondorian swordsman and the archer?
Let me answer you: nothing, one uses sword and shield and the other a bow...
Do you wanna know why proffesionals game developers like EA choosed to do that?
Because the archer and the swordsman belongs to Gondor and they NEED to look similar because they BELONGS to Gondor.
I am clear with this? because my english is bad and perhaps people think that I am mad but the truth is that I cant find the correct words to explain myself
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Now lets compare what I did in TOME with the vanilla game since people keep comparing it I dont know why.
TOME is a new game using Genie engine you guys need to understand that.
In AOK there are like 42 units and thats it, they where designed in a way with no special recognizable details and they look all pretty much "standard" so that way they can be reused by every civ with no need to create civ specific graphics.
They differentiate the armys using just player colours but all the units all the same no matter if you are french or celt.
In TOME you differentiate your armys because your units will have all specific unique civ graphics and they also will have player color... how that cant be better?
If you play as Mordor you will see orcs in your armys, if you play like Rivendell you will see elves in your armys.
Lets go back again to the vanilla AOK, it was an easy and cheap trick to do what they did, because with 42 units they developed like 18 civs reusing the same graphics over and over. The people like it that way and they believe that all the mods should be like that and they even call it accurated.
So lets be honest it was a good job for 1999, but lets take this simple example:
The champion in vanilla aok, he looks like some guy with heavy armor... ok that is ok for east europeans, west europeans too perhaps, but when I play civs like mayan or aztecs they look really out of place.
The vanilla game is not perfect they designed a really nice cheap system but is not perfect. When you play with Sarracens the cavalry shouldnt look like that, etc.
In TOME all the civs have his own unique army.
The original game have 42 units that looks different from each others but 18 civs that all look the same.
In TOME you will have like 160 units that will look similar to each other if you choose to compare all rohan units for example, but you will have 18 civs that all look different.
In TOME if you see the champion from Mordor he will look extremely different if you compare it to the champion of Dale for example.
In TOME, the units looks like if they belong to an army and they are dressed with the colours or the armour of the civ that they represent. Yes between the archer and the champion you will not see to many differences but they are there be leather armor vs heavy armor, different helmets or the lack of them, etc.
So to finish this when you play in TOME you will play with units that look like this:
See them? they are from the movie.. all dreesed similar but with different weapons, they BELONG to Mordor.
See them? another screen of the movie, all dressed similar bu with different weapons, they BELONG to Gondor.
So I was clear or not?
No? Ok more pics of how armys looks:
http://www.worldaffairsboard.com/attachments/ancient-medieval-early-modern-ages/9847d1203302744-most-effective-ancient-military-fighting-style-30667038.jpg
http://media.ove.cybermage.se/2010/09/on-marsch.jpg
http://www.miniatures.de/medieval/dba-army-151-teutonic-knights.jpg
http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/6912/dateashigaru.jpg
http://www.history.army.mil/brochures/Afghanistan/Images/39.jpg Lol at this one, you guys have the best example of uniforms here.
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@RedstingV: I dont understand.. you said that you like the orcs units now.. but I never changed them I posted that pic long time ago.
I am curious, could you link a pic of the units that you where complaining because it is clear that you where referring to others.
I will like to understand.
@lostLEGION: "highly pixelated graphics."
I am getting tired of this... really..
I am starting to think that people dont know what pixelated means so I will post a pic:
Ok now that pixelated was explained where the hell my units looks like that? all of them have a smooth texture, so far I never noticed this kind of pixelation on any of my works so if somebody that keep complaining about this could explain better or post a screenshot and highlight where the pixelated stuff are I will really apreciate it.
Otherwise I really dont get it.
"They look really cool that is an effing FACT (lol don't argue with that). They are highly detailed and historically accurate but but they aren't exactly easy to recognize in a competitive game with chaotic battles going on everywhere."
This is because you have been playing with the same units since when the game was released, if you actually give it a try to the HD mod and spend time learning how the new units looks you will not have that problem.
In the HD mod all the units looks really different from each other, they where trying to follow vanilla aok design that have 3 different pikemans versions, the HD mod is the opposite of TOME.
@Jatayu: If you read this wall of text you will understand why I did that.
@Mr Wednesday: "But everyone insisted that all units needed civ specific graphics. Now people are complaining the graphics to units are too similar, and that is because they were all designed to look similar so you could have civ (or at least group) specific graphics. Pretty much confirms what I've always known; you guys don't know what you want."
People need to watch the movie again, last time I checked the units belonging to the same civ army all looked similar:
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I am really busy with my RL jobs lately. I live in a turistic zone and we are on the winter vacations so that means that I work a lot during that time, but also the constant complains really doesnt help me to want to come back.
Is this ever going to end?
I dont think so.. all of you really have the power to frustrate people lol.
Everytime I decide to check the forums is just to discover a new complain.
I really wish that one day all of you guys decide to make your own graphics so I can be the one complaining like crazy about everything that you guys made it would be funny to be on the other side.
AOK was a game that I really liked and have lot of fun modding it, but to be honest I hate this game now and all the stuff related to it... so good job everybody