33 replies to this topic

[Nazgûl]

As you can se in this archived old topic, I've always hated the Forged Blades glow. Besides I never knew why the hell we keep we EA name "forged bades". They should be called Upgraded Weaponry, since not all weapons even have blades

Anyways... first I changed the red ones into all blue. Next try involved getting rid of all Star Wars-ish color all together and change all glow into suble white. The problem with this is that each and every g*d d*mn model had to be edited in a 3D program for this to work, and a lot of coding had to back it up. Robnkarla helped and the improvement was great. I still don't like the glow though, as it still makes the weapons look like lihtsabers. So... for this beta I had definite plans to use the Banner Carrier glow instead, as a marker for the FB upgrade. But, that would still mean a lot of hordes running around with glowing FX. Especially in the dark. Yuck! So in the true spirit of SEE, I'd like to MINIMIZE all FX and only use it where it's best fitted. Like in magic spells, etc.

Today I think I thought of a perfect solution though... What if we simply made the BC's actual banner change color/symbol? With a significant change in banner look, you'd easily distinguish which hordes have been given the FB upgrade, or not. If we make the BC a prereq for HA, this would work beautifully!

If you disagree, I'd like to hear constructivly why, and what you suggest instead, if NOT the FB glow alltogether (cause it will go regardless)

Edited by Nazgûl, 05 November 2010 - 09:28 PM.

[Prince of the Dark Forest]

Great idea! As we can't really see much difference between FB units and non-FB units based on the unit skins themselves (like we can for HA), I guess changing the banner skin would be a good alternative.

[Sûlherokhh]

True. I am all for it.

[RalphDamiani]

A clever solution!

[Masterbadeend]

Correct me if I´m wrong, but the BC is the only way to notice the troops have FB?
If that´s so, then what if two bataljons fight a medium war, one with FB and one without, they wil mess up and you can only see which BC has FB, but you can´t keep the troops apart .

[khamulrulz]

interesting.... having BC as prereq to HA and FB is an interesting solution.

my only other suggestion would be to just edit the FB to make them shinier and brighter, and the original blades duller. that way, the upgrade affects their weapons, like HA upgrades units' armor.

i'm not sure about the whole banner carrier thing, because units with fire arrows and poison weapons actually have visible upgrades on the unit itself. that's why i suggest editing the blades themselves.

[Nazgûl]

Fire Arrows and Poisoned Blades are not the same thing as Forged Blades...
Upgrades usually are:

- BC (Banner Carrier)
- HA (Heavy Armor)
- FB (Forged Blades), PB (Poisoned Blades) or FA (Fire Arrows)
The new banner texture would be the indication for FB only (or "Upgraded Weaponry" as I might call it). Fire Arrows have the fire FX, and Poisoned Blades have the green poison FX... Those fit rather well. But any form of glow for the weapons look just silly. Espescially with orcish rusty weapons like hammers, axes, etc...
- If the BC is a prereq, you'd always have a BC (except in very few cases... can't think of any atm though, lol) that could display a different banner.
- You'd also have the ToolTip, in case the BC is dead at the very second you want to check the horde.

As a side note: I will make sure all BC's have the Heavy Armor upgrade always, since they can't upgrade with the horde... BC's should be special dudes

Edited by Nazgûl, 09 November 2009 - 07:37 PM.

[Jonasking]

Go for it!

[Mordor Slayer]

Loving the idea. Less FX is a good idea, I hate too many glowing effects myself.

[khamulrulz]

i think all bc's have something special on top, like skulls for mordor, or a crow for isengard. maybe regular units have just the banner with the cool thing on top removed, then once they get their weapon upgrade the banner gets the thing on top. this would be the same for archers: they would get the cool thing on top of the banner when they get flaming arrows, as well as the flaming arrows fx. forged blades would just get the bc change, because you can't really tell if a blade is "forged" or not. unupgradable troops, like yeoman archers would not get the cool horse on top of their banner because they are "not trained enough". what do you think?

[Sûlherokhh]

When i get my say, flaming arrows will be overhauled completely. Good bye running around with arrows on fire. Settle down, light a coal pan, stick your arrows in and empty your quiver. Nothing to be done in a hurry for sure.

Edited by Sûlherokhh, 10 November 2009 - 03:45 PM.

[Prince of the Dark Forest]

Good idea Khamulrulz!

Also, Sul, that's very interesting... Perhaps, as a drawback of flaming arrows, you could reduce the fire rate (it would take time to ignite each arrow before firing). That would make the upgrade a little more balanced and realistic.

[yams in a can]

Yeah, you could make the fire arrows a "one time" shoot ability (like black arrows for Dale Archers). A replacement would be steel tipped arrows. Everyone probably uses iron tipped, so still would make it better. Steel was definitely in Middle-Earth, I think the bows used by the Numenorians (Gondorians and Arnorians) were made out of steel, so why not the arrow tips?

[Prince of the Dark Forest]

But that would limit the amount of hilarious burning death animations (the wargs are the funniest IMO )... I would keep the flaming arrows, or even make it so that both upgrades (steel-tipped and flaming arrows) are available for research and you either upgrade a horde with steel arrows or flaming arrows. Steel arrows would offer more damage, whereas Flaming arrows would have a chance of burning enemy, but have a slower fire rate.

[Nazgûl]

I think what Sul meant is just that - a special ability, like Black Arrows, etc. We could have FA work like that... you click the button and you get FA for a lttle while, instead of all the time: Same thing with Poisoned Arrows and Blades really. Ads to the realism of SEE

But that's for later...

For this Beta, most likely, only the FB will be changed this way...

[isledebananas]

What kind of idea are you going with on changing the banners. Are they gonna be kind of dark and dirty before the FB upgrade and then cleaner afterwards or are they gonna gain some kind of symbol on top of the banner?

Cocerning FA I'm with Prince on this one. The time it takes to light your arrows on fire should reduce the rate of fire as that makes the most sense realistically.

[Nazgûl]

I'm not sure yet, but some kind of symbol or graphical indication for the upgrade

[khamulrulz]

here's an idea for the forged blades upgrade. i saw this in the dwarf holds update on moddb.com, although i'm not sure about your relations with them, and if you would agree to this. since these are supposed to be very special blades, why not have runes inscribed on them.

they would be very subtle, and have the following runes: tengwar for gondor and the elves; cirth for the dwarves; a more simple form of cirth for dale units, rohan, moria, and isengard; the one ring inscription for mordor; and rhun and harad would have the movie writing system from the easterling armor (http://en.wikipedia....ling-script.jpg).

i think that this way it shows that these "forged blades" are actually superior, on the blade itself. this is much better than a mysterious lightsaber glow, and also links with the tolkien universe and the movie. the book states that when anduril was reforged, runes were added to it, and the movie shows this with tengwar runes on the pommel and cirth runes on the blade.

[isledebananas]

I don't think that should be done that rune thing on the blades is really unique. It should be left for only to Dwarf Holds team and whatever extra mods that team will make. If they give permission I don't think anyone will complain but I its so unique I don't think they will part with it. For FB I think somewhat more polished looking weapons plus Nazgul's idea for some change to the banner carriers is best. However, that will be tough because there will have to be a regular skin, a FB only skin, a HA only skin, and a FB + HA skin.

[khamulrulz]

well we can't doubt the dev team's effort, so once they get more numbers, i think this could be possible (i would go with either more polished looking blades or runes)