67 replies to this topic

[robnkarla]

Yeah, I'm not looking for 30 different fx.....I've thought about it but that would be way too insane even for RJ.

As far as the stacking thing, how it worked in the code in BFME1 was that there were levels of buffnuggets. You can check it out in the buff.ini to see what I mean.

Basically there were 3 level of stacking. Each additional leadership FX basically added a new model (exldrshpinftry1, exldrshpinftry2, exldrshpinftry3). It worked really well but with all the different sizes/shapes/placements of the units in BFME2 iI can't seem to get it to work correctly and look good. I'll try it again to see if will work, as this would be ideally the style I like.

I know I'm probably so circular on this, but this is probably one of the biggest decisions for the mod in overall look. So if we can do the stacking thing I think it would be great. If not, really I'll leave it up to you on what you would like to do. Just come up with what you think looks the best in your opinion for a faction and show it off with vid and/or screens.

Robert J.

[Devon]

Like I said, imo go for sparks except for super high lvl stuff, and they can stack different colors.

As for the leaderships themselves, I would base them more and what that particular hero was known to do, if anything. For instance;


Erkenbrand could give speed leadership to all herald units.

Some of the dwarves can give armor leadership to buildings, or make them built faster.

Faramir or another archer hero could give range or improve stealth leadership.

Boromir should also give resist fear, seeing as everyone as has it. Fear is kind of pointless atm though

Damrod should be removed too, no point atm.

[Gothmog14]

Seeing the old BFME Leadership would be great. IMO, try to get that stacking effect back, the FX in BFME were great.

I agree with Yoda, Faramir should give Range or Stealth Leadership, while someone like Boromir should give Armor, depending on what they do (or did). I also agree about Damrod, he's like a duplicate Faramir right now.

[Grizzlez]

Well i cant remember what the bfme1 leadership was like-and i dont have the game installed on my new comp

[Gothmog14]

The stacking effect Rob was talking about a couple of posts above is what I meant .

[robnkarla]

All right, I've been playing with with fx and I really like the Glorious Charge type fx and tints. Let me know about what you think as I really might head down this path:

There are a couple of options with this:

1 - Brighter tint - for stacking you can increase the brightness/color of the tint
2 - particle fx glow - I can make the glow stronger or larger. This is the piece that I'm working on to see if we can use this as it's hard to do one particle systems for all types of units
3 - particle fx stars

Edit - pics removed - see below.

I'll work on trying to show some screens on how they all work together and see what I can do. But these are my favorite looks for leadership so far.

Robert J.

Edited by robnkarla, 29 January 2008 - 08:20 PM.

[robnkarla]

Sorry for the double post, but I wanted to high-light the information contained in here.

What do you think of this leadership? I like it the best so far, but what do you think:

Single Leadership
Double Leadership
Triple Leadership
Triple Leadership + Stars

Glorious Charge

This can be re-colored or adjusted per facion, will this work for you?

Basic fx with Mordor:


My biggest concern with this would be increased lag.
Robert J.

[Grizzlez]

I do like that, but as you said lag may be an issue, also i never really understand why orcs leadership should be a light colour-id think a black leadership fx might be better for them. But let me know when you decided

[Allathar]

For the increase of lag we'll have to see how that turns out. I don't think I will have a problem with it, since I have a very good pc, but others might notice a lowering of fps more than I do.

[robnkarla]

Now that I've had time to think about it there should not be much lag beyond what there is currently. It uses the same type of fx (a buff model) as it currently, only it replaces the glow around the feet with the glow up higher.

As for the fx for Mordor and such, that was just a screen showing what it looks like with another faction, but I'm going to work on an overscheme (that kinda mimics the forged blades fx):

Rohan/Elves - Different shades of gold
Gondor/Arnor - More of a white (Blue for arnor elves)
Dwarves - Silver
Wild - Green
Isengard - Red
Mordor - Red & Try to do a black fx
EvilMen - Harad - Green / Rhun - Yellow/Orange
Angmar - Blueish

I'm going to work throug the fx on these, but it should work out.

Robert J.

[Gothmog14]

Ohhhh, I like that FX. Very nice, though I don't really agree with you on some of the colors . IMO the FX should match the color of their flag (I.e. Isengard should be Grey/Black, Mordor should be Red, Harad as Yellow-ish Red, Rhûn Orange, and Green for Rohan/Elves). That doesn't really matter though .

[robnkarla]

I'll think about what to do for the different colors for the factions.

Overall what I'm setting up now:

All FB colors, banner glows, & Leadership FX will start as the same color (This will just set the canvas I think to have everything in place. From there we can adjust and choose what works best.) If we want to have Leadership FX & Banner glow be the same color but different from FB, that works. If they should all be individual that's fine as well.

I'm planning on doing quite a few sweeps through all the units to ensure consistency and over-all look, and this is just part of it.

Once I get all the Leadership stuff done then I'll release the next private beta to give everyone a chance to test it out.

Note: Be sure to check the videos of the FX and comment so I can get everyone's opinion - hehe, don't make me set up a poll

Robert J.

[Shikari]

Yep, that definitely works, and I agree with all the colour suggestions. Very nice. Looking forward to seeing it in different colours.

[Grizzlez]

WaterTornadoFX

[Allathar]

Hm, I'd give Isengard a white fx (Saruman the White, The White Hand).

[Shikari]

Water Tornado's looking excellent. Nice work Grizzlez

[Devon]

I really like tier 1 and 3, but I'm not liking the lighten up. It makes the nice good skins that were donated/made look like cartoon figures and brings back memories of the original's house colors I also dont see what purpose the sparks atm serve, so I'd say:

Tier one: sparks, whatever color fx will be
Tier two: current tier 1 that rob showed
Tier three: as is

I'd also give Gondor gold, as that was what they had in bfme1, but maybe cyan would look nice. Harad should definatly not be green, I'd say orange, with Rhun yellow. Uruks actually looked ok with the gold too Angmar should be purple.

Nice job Rob!

[robnkarla]

Added this topic and the Elves topic to the main forums.

Robert J.

[Nertea]

A bit late, and somewhat radical, but why not drop the individual leadership FX idea? Instead apply the fx only to the hero generating the effect - this would decrease lag somewhat (far less fx to render) and "clean up" the units, focusing attention more on the battlefield than the various glows. I don't think it would affect gameplay much as BFME2 isn't really a micro intensive game and the need to know whether a unit is at the edge of leadership range isn't as prominent.

You could have unique leaderships per faction/hero too... like a stylized white tree border for Gondor heroes, with incorporated stars for an attack leadership, shields for defence, etc...

Something like the attached picture maybe as an example of a gondor defensive... scribbled that in a minute.

Attached Images

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[Dalf32]

im not a big fan of that because i like to see which units are being affected so that i can spread out my leadership (moving heros around, rallying call/war chant, tainted land/elven wood, etc.). my vote would go to individual leadership