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Hero aura/selections


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I was just playing around and made a hero aura selection ring that just uses the basic selection texture feature. No fancy coding on my part. It would visually indicate the radius of the hero's aura.

Unselected:

FeTro.jpg

Selected:

SQZt9.jpg

But there is a problem with this approach:

fVYiE.jpg

The selection ring code uses quads to generate the decal for the texture and clips the terrain often, even with smaller selection textures and radii. It's just more noticeable with larger footprints like this one here (and ships, check out how weird those look along a shoreline), So, we'd need a different approach or increase the fidelity of the selection rings.

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How about just showing an AOM-like visual representation of the aura around the hero and all the units affected by the aura?
that's what i'd personally suggest; perhaps there could also be different auras depending on the culture or background of that hero, just to make it more unique
AoM's aura is not passive, though, it would everwhelm us after a while
i think maybe he meant that the auras would visually be represented by a "heroic glow" around hero units
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that's what i'd personally suggest; perhaps there could also be different auras depending on the culture or background of that hero, just to make it more uniquei think maybe he meant that the auras would visually be represented by a "heroic glow" around hero units

IMO all heroes should have a "heroic glow" to better be noticed on the battlefield. The aura could than be displayed by granting a weaker (less glow radius?) version of that glow to all effected units. The color of the glow could be different depending on the hero. Since one player can usually only have heroes from one civ it could be of the players color and only differ in how light/dark it is. If units are effected by more than one aura that might not be clear from which hero they get a bonus due to an aura though. So perhaps it might be better to use colors only depending on the hero despite the player's color. Guess that has to be tested.

Another way would be to add something to the selection "rings" e.g. to fill them with a color depending on the aura they are effected from and give the glow only to heroes. That selection ring inner color should then be visual all the times even if not selected and so should be quite transparent to not fill the view with distracting rough shapes.

I'm not sure about this but perhaps the glow could only be shown to the player the hero is owned by. That way it would be harder for an enemy to detect the hero.

Edited by FeXoR
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The visual effect don't have to/should not be the only indicator which units are effected by which auras. All buffs should be clearly shown if a single unit is selected. That could for example be placed in the attack and armor tooltip/mouseover. Actually the attack/armor gain by technologies is not shown as well. I think it should be clearly visual what the base attack/armor of a unit is and what the bonus is and where it comes from. It does not have to be shown in the "main" unit widget but it should be somewhere!

Edited by FeXoR
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The visual effect don't have to/should not be the only indicator which units are effected by which auras. All buffs should be clearly shown if a single unit is selected. That could for example be placed in the attack and armor tooltip/mouseover. Actually the attack/armor gain by technologies is not shown as well. I think it should be clearly visual what the base attack/armor of a unit is and what the bonus is and where it comes from. It does not have to be shown in the "main" unit widget but it should be somewhere!

bonuses given by auras (eg, temporary ones) could be shown with golden numbers, like in AOM
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I really don't like the idea of a "heroic glow" in a game such as this. Made sense in AOM, but not in a game that doesn't have magic.

I get your point. I was mainly trying to gather possibilities. What do you propose instead?

At least some visual indicator on buffed units would be good I think.

Another way would be to add some kind of "flag" or icons to the troops over their heads. But I think that will look messy.

Edited by FeXoR
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Are you going to add buffs of a heroes aura dependent of the control group, the units that got the same order at the same time, formations, dependent on range or if the hero is visual to them???

I'm quite confused now...

For me an "aura" is an effect dependent on range to the aura bearer...

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OH! IDEA!

maybe the heroes could have some kind of standard with them as well, specifically to indicate them as heroes (alot of the heroes in Empire Earth carried flags in appropriate time periods), and regular units get some kind of indicator around their feet to show that theyre in the area of effect of the hero's aura (perhaps a generic ancient symbol; perhaps teh sun wheel used in the game's logo? or it could be different for each broad civ (for example, the Hellenic civs would all use the same symbol while the Carthaginians have a unique one)

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