Flags! more variety than a change of color

-> What i might be working on · Post by **Eleazar** » October 25th, 2006, 4:52 pm

I'd like to see more unique flags in the game customized for factions or races. I think it give teams a bit more personality. The game currently supports custom flags for campaigns, but so far as i know, only tSG and SotBE use them.

Below is my contribution to this cause. Animation really isn't my thing, but i think it works.

I've used the exact same green color that the standard generic flag uses, so i think it should be color shiftable without changing much code.

I haven't commited these because i've been out of touch for a while, i don't want to mess up preparations for 1.2. Also non-campaign-specific flags should probably be given their own folder in "images". IIRC frame aggrees that the "terrain" folder is already overcrowded and should be reserved for graphics that are controlled by the terrain CFGs.

Post by **Eternal** » October 25th, 2006, 4:59 pm

As great as it would be, it has a problem.
In Shrouded and FoWed you can see what you're facing by just finding an enemy-owned village without any enemy units nearby.
IMO though, even in real life I'd be pretty sure wether a village is under orcish, undead control, but WinR so...

I'm all in for unique flags for each faction. It'd bring more neatness to this game.

Post by **zookeeper** » October 25th, 2006, 5:08 pm

Yeah, this is something I've been wanting to get done post-1.2 for a long time.

The flag you've made looks good enough for a faction flag. However, note that the flag doesn't, IMHO, need to be a waving flag. I can imagine that undead, for example, would erect a sort of a flagpole decorated with skulls and bones, maybe with an eerie blue/green flame burning at the top, or something similar, instead of a flag. Dwarves/Knalgans could have something resembling a stone monolith.

It might be desirable for KISS purposes to use flags for all, of course, but at least alternatives are something to consider.

I don't think it's a real problem that you could tell the opponent's faction by just seeing one of his villages before one of his units. It's not very common in MP anyway.

Tomsik · Post by **Tomsik** » October 25th, 2006, 5:09 pm

Nice idea, adding some variety can't be bad.

kshinji · Post by **kshinji** » October 25th, 2006, 6:19 pm

You mean, like:

Code: Select all

[faction]
id=pwnxorz
...
[flag_animation]
...
[/flag animation]
....
[/faction]

?

-> What i might be working on · Post by **Eleazar** » October 25th, 2006, 6:22 pm

Eternal wrote:In Shrouded and FoWed you can see what you're facing by just finding an enemy-owned village without any enemy units nearby.

I'd call that a feature.

Zookeeper:
I think there's a lot of variety possible without going quite as far as stone monoliths. Some "flags" might be streaming strips of cloth. Others might look like roman standards. Or a shield afixed on a pole. Some might not fixed so they don't flap around much. The elves might have a living, growing flag-staff.

kshinji · Post by **kshinji** » October 25th, 2006, 6:37 pm

undead flag

gren is tc, red is background. On forum it looks even worse, than on my computer

kshinji · Post by **kshinji** » October 25th, 2006, 6:45 pm

Next try

fire does not even look like fire...

Tomsik · Post by **Tomsik** » October 25th, 2006, 6:46 pm

I think undead flag should look like a normal exept being rotten and having a skull on top of stick it is hang on.

kshinji · Post by **kshinji** » October 25th, 2006, 7:02 pm

Next try ;-P

kshinji · Post by **kshinji** » October 25th, 2006, 7:14 pm

Actually, i just noticed that Ezealar's flag was undead. I like it much more than mine.

Dragon Master · Post by **Dragon Master** » October 25th, 2006, 7:20 pm

Eternal wrote:As great as it would be, it has a problem.
In Shrouded and FoWed you can see what you're facing by just finding an enemy-owned village without any enemy units nearby.
IMO though, even in real life I'd be pretty sure wether a village is under orcish, undead control, but WinR so...

Actually, in shroud/fog you can't see a village change it's ownership until a unit lifts the fog around it. So no problem.

Love the idea, give drakes a large brazier with burning flame.

Oreb · Post by **Oreb** » October 26th, 2006, 12:16 am

Dragon Master wrote:Actually, in shroud/fog you can't see a village change it's ownership until a unit lifts the fog around it. So no problem.

Love the idea, give drakes a large brazier with burning flame.

But you can see if a enemy unit takes one of your fogged houses, for the flag disappears.

Post by **turin** » October 26th, 2006, 12:25 am

I like the idea of flag variations. But it is also important to have them immediately recognizable as markers for what side the village is owned by. Thus, IMHO, stone monoliths and some of the other ideas are right out - you can't really show tcolor on a hunk of rock. And having them all have some sort of cloth flowing in the wind makes them more recognizable.

So, variations are good, but they should all be modeled around the same basic idea - a long stick in the ground with tcolored streamers coming off of it.

JW · Post by JW » October 26th, 2006, 1:33 am

turin wrote:IMHO, stone monoliths and some of the other ideas are right out - you can't really show tcolor on a hunk of rock.

Painted rocks.