Ships of various strength and defence

[KGB]

Pillager,

Do you think it will be a lot of players? Just curious since you've noticed it but I've paid no real attention to that fact.

Obviously *way* in the future it would be cool if there were enough units in the game to have a game consist of a completely themed set (medieval, far east, ancient Rome/Greece, AD&D) etc. I know Piranha/SnotlinG have even mentioned the potential for players to eventually upload their own units so you could get themed sets based on WWII or Outer Space like War2 had.

That's why I'm curious about your thoughts on having a few units from a lot of era's/genre's at this point in the game since each progressive Beta introduces a few more unit/city/terrain graphics.

KGB

[Pillager]

KGB,

Who knows how many folks would be turned off, we will likely never know...because they won't stick around. However, there are a couple of forum threads that lead me to believe that there are some current players who would prefer it if the wacky-factor was toned down a bit.

Themed sets are something to look forward to. Loved that aspect of warlords II. One of my few gripes about DLR was that it lacked WII's editors. I would have preferred a good unit/terrain editor to all them fancy graphics.

[piranha]

I remember when I started out playing Heroes 3 and around every corner there was a shining chest of gold and some harp flute melody with every step. I thought everything looked way to cute. Then I got used to it and thought it was fun.

There may be people put of by a flying castle dripping of lava or mixed themes. Haven't thought about that.

I think its fun with games with a bit of personallity and not too realistic in every approach, I loved the most bizzare commanders in master of orion 2 and there was a game called chaos overlords a long time ago that had some of the craziest units ever. Must have been those garbage pailkids that got as a kid


When I was searching for a person who could draw the castles I also looked at buying 3d models and render. Some of them look awesome but I wanted painted graphics. I found one guy who sold a package of 7 different castles very detailes and realistic most of them with a pretty detailed and perhaps they are more in the style you would prefer pillager?
http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/cas ... 3ds/259577
http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/3d- ... set/351435
http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/I ... /ID/225237

[Pillager]

Piranha,

I think that going with painted graphics was a good call.

I loved them MOO2 commanders too...Brainiac (the mound of eyes) was my personal favourite.

Actually, those castles are too historical/medieval for warlords IMO. There is nothing wrong with fantastical looking castles...but there are levels of fantasy and you need to decide what type of fantasy world this game is based in. Is it a low fantasy world (with only a bit of magic)...or a high fantasy world (where magic is everywhere, castles fly and wizards and gods unleash nuclear death)...or is it somewhere in between.

I think that making a few decisions about what kind of setting you want would help tie the theme together...

When? What time period does your fantasy setting (loosely) correlate to? What technology level is available? Having galleons is fine, but if you do...you should probably ditch the catapults and go with cannon, and perhaps some musket/arquebus armed troops. Go with a conquistador/musketeer/pirate themed fantasy world. Some fantasy settings have taken this course (warhammer being one)....although that is set slightly earlier than the age of sail.

Where? What culture(s) is your fantasy world based on? I see no problem in having several cultural influences. But, having every different culture represented in a single nation becomes ridiculous. If you want to take the civilization route, then have different units/graphics for the different colors. So, if my home is a Middle eastern palace, my heavy cav don't look like late medieval german knights.

Magic level? How prevalent is magic. If the magic level is low, then there really shouldn't be a nation of flying, lava dripping castles. If the magic level is very high, then ditch the low level troops...formations of spearmen mean nothing in a world where wizards are powerful enough to make entire cities fly. how do knights attack a flying city? They simple can't...never mind the lava.

Even a drab fantasy setting is pretty damn colorful, so I don't think you would be losing much by adding some logic and consistency.