===[COMMITTED]=== Persian Unit Texture Upgrade

[Sundiata]

Honestly I think the colours are supposed to look a little washed out/faded/natural/subtle/organic... Especially for basic troops. Champions and Heroes could have more saturated colours but the common foot folk are supposed to go to battle, not a royal banquet. The toned down saturation makes it more historical looking, while the highly saturated ones make it look more cartoony. 

I think the highly saturated player colour all over the place works well for games like Empires Apart, which is much more stylized and orientated towards fantasy-history, but it doesn't work so well for a game like 0AD that achieves a relatively high degree of visual "realism" for a game of this specific type.

Overly saturated player colour all over the place can easily become an eyesore on maps with increasing levels of naturalism. I understand that there is always a trade off between playability and aesthetics, but I think this is too much. 

[wackyserious]

New scale armor texture for the Achaemenids.

In-game screenshots showing some of the new textures.

[Imarok]

3 hours ago, Sundiata said:

I think the highly saturated player colour all over the place works well for games like Empires Apart, which is much more stylized and orientated towards fantasy-history, but it doesn't work so well for a game like 0AD that achieves a relatively high degree of visual "realism" for a game of this specific type.

Visual "realism" is good but it's for the bin if you don't see ata glance to which player a unit belongs. 0ad is still a game and not a history simulation. (Of course we should aim for the best historical accuracy. But only as long as it doesn't hinder the gameplay too much)

I know the view on this issue also heavily depends on whether you are more a competitive player or a casual. (Maybe we should just have an option to switch between two variatons: One with 100% accurate textures and one with accurate textures and distinguishable player color. Will be much effort and not sure how easy to implement ;))

[Sundiata]

1 hour ago, Imarok said:

I know the view on this issue also heavily depends on whether you are more a competitive player or a casual. (Maybe we should just have an option to switch between two variatons: One with 100% accurate textures and one with accurate textures and distinguishable player color. Will be much effort and not sure how easy to implement ;))

I like that, and I guess, to a degree it's already being done (Vanilla - DE). I'm sure such an option is doable and wanted. I'm not holding my breath for the next alpha though  

 

[Stan`]

22 minutes ago, Sundiata said:

I'm sure such an option is doable and wanted.

Wanted, yes apparently. Doable... Heh. 200+ textures to remake... Plus every single one of the actors to change... 

[Lion.Kanzen]

20 hours ago, Sundiata said:

Having an expandable more detailed version of the mini-map would be cool huh...

yes i proposed something similar.

Spoiler

 

[Nescio]

People are free to create mods with enhanced textures, but I don't think it's a good idea to include two versions in the main distribution; the art/textures/skins/ folder is already close to 1 GB.

There must be cleverer options; cf. Unit Silhouettes.

[coworotel]

Isn't it possible to just have two sets of player colors? You choose "standard" or "saturated" (DE colors). Without changing the textures.

Edited April 29, 2019 by coworotel

[Stan`]

Just now, coworotel said:

Isn't it possible to just have two sets of player colors?

That's a bit easier to do. 

[coworotel]

4 hours ago, wackyserious said:

 

I agree with the playability people, those units above are very hard to tell to whom they belong if you are desperate with 2 armies invading your base and killing your women.

[Lion.Kanzen]

1 minute ago, coworotel said:

I agree with the playability people, those units above are very hard to tell to whom they belong if you are desperate with 2 armies invading your base and killing your women.

• battalions can help to distribute troops.
• call to the arms button to take all fighting  forces you have.

can be more proposes to improved this.

[coworotel]

Just now, Lion.Kanzen said:

call to the arms button to take all fighting  forces you have.

Oh what is that? haha

[Lion.Kanzen]

Just now, coworotel said:

Oh what is that? haha

is similar to AoE button iii i proposed many years ago. basically panic button to select all military units even if are not idle.

is some old ticket now.

https://trac.wildfiregames.com/ticket/1364

[coworotel]

2 minutes ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

is similar to AoE button iii i proposed many years ago. basically panic button to select all military units even if are not idle.

is some old ticket now.

https://trac.wildfiregames.com/ticket/1364

That's a good idea. With a keyboard shortcut too.

[Nescio]

16 minutes ago, coworotel said:

Isn't it possible to just have two sets of player colors? You choose "standard" or "saturated" (DE colors). Without changing the textures.

You mean the player colours as defined in simulation/data/settings/player_defaults.json? That's very easy to modify; you can also use diplomacy colours (customizable under Settings/Options/In Game). However, it won't make much of a difference if a texture hardly contains any player colour.

[Sundiata]

15 minutes ago, coworotel said:

those units above are very hard to tell to whom they belong

Really? They're blue. Blue all over them... Could not be any other player than blue... Unless, maybe red? Nah, pretty sure it's blue!   

But yes, it does really seem to be a matter of personal taste   

 

21 minutes ago, coworotel said:

Isn't it possible to just have two sets of player colors? You choose "standard" or "saturated" (DE colors). Without changing the textures.

Cool idea...

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

1 hour ago, coworotel said:

I agree with the playability people, those units above are very hard to tell to whom they belong if you are desperate with 2 armies invading your base and killing your women.

Part of the problem too is that texture artists have been straying from the established formula and using saturated colors for the diffuse texture and not neutrals. Another problem is that truly units don't need 10 textures for every unit and rank. For proper visual randomization you really only need about a maximum of 4 variations (see many of the house sets), and even those should be relatively similar (don't mix linen armor variants with bronze armor variants, etc.).

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

@wackyserious I do like the textures though. Let's see them in game.

[wackyserious]

I was not able to push the commit yesterday. Whole body was in pain, spent too much time during a swim. I will see if I can do it later, I am just doing some final checking on the textures

[wackyserious]

You would love the textiles with the scythian motifs, what do you think of having the Sogdian archer textures for the Athenian scyth_archer champ, by the way?

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

15 minutes ago, wackyserious said:

You would love the textiles with the scythian motifs, what do you think of having the Sogdian archer textures for the Athenian scyth_archer champ, by the way?

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Scythian_archers

Should probably gather up some light/medium Scythian armor/fashion sources.

Edited May 1, 2019 by wowgetoffyourcellphone

[wackyserious]

Note: Old screenshot. The contents are outdated.

@wowgetoffyourcellphone what about the these wide-hued tunics?

Immortals will no longer have light armor as seen above. The unit will be having iron and bronze scale armor.

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

7 hours ago, wackyserious said:

Note: Old screenshot. The contents are outdated.

@wowgetoffyourcellphone what about the these wide-hued tunics?

Immortals will no longer have light armor as seen above. The unit will be having iron and bronze scale armor.

I've been using these texture in DE for a long time already. lol

I gave the "quilted linen" textures to other units, while keeping the scale textures for them. I also have 2 versions of the Anusiya. First, they start out robed in their palace garb, then you can upgrade their armor to "Campaign Panoply" to get them as you see there. 

 

Here are my bebe bois:

 

(One more mention of how badass they'd look in a battalion with a standard bearer dude on their right position of honor.)

Edited May 1, 2019 by wowgetoffyourcellphone

[wackyserious]

Significant changes from those textures and the new ones are the new scale texture with proper spec map and I removed the playercolor belt. I should also recreate the scale cuirass with linen shoulder pads

[Lion.Kanzen]

this concept design is simple to fill RTS request