Conquest of Elysium 3 dev log

[WraithLord]

Then maybe some nice frames with different design per class?

[Edi]

Originally Posted by WraithLord

Then maybe some nice frames with different design per class?

If we do get those, it won't be for the release version. The scope of things to be added in patches is greater than the scope of the new things that we can expect to be added at this late stage in the development, given that the release date is just a week away.

[ArkhanTheBlack]

I dont think background screens would work well. We have some great variety in the images. Background screens would just make it hard to see. And the effect of some units, such as shades, would be ruined. They are a dark grey and give the impression of their invisibility in the combat

Yes, that's the reason why you have to use a combat window.
The combat window has a clean dark background color, but the background surrounding the window would be the map or a background image. I think the red background color of the unit description windows would even offer a much softer contrast. Black is a bit extreme.
Info windows are used by most strategy games nowadays, even by CoE3, therefore I'm a bit surprised that it wasn't used for the fights.

[Edi]

I very much prefer the black background that CoE3 uses. The background inside the infoboxes is actually dark gray, unless opacity set to 0, in which case the background is black.

I rather intensely disliked the Dominions 3 red background, it made all graphics seem indistinct and blurry. The Blue GUI mod was a little better, but not a whole lot.

Some of the sprites in CoE3 are the exact same ones as in Dom3, but they look so much better on the black background that I thought they were entirely new sprites (Sirrush, Watcher).

You can even see it when you turn opacity up to max and the background is dark gray instead of black, the visual quality immediately becomes worse.

[ArkhanTheBlack]

Well, it's indeed grey(checked it with paint). I guess the redish appearance comes from the red panels in some of the windows.

I'd also keep it diplomatic. Just use a good looking background for the units. ;-)
However, I wonder, if the unit images look so much better with black background, then why wasn't it used for the unit images in the description windows?!
Actually I like grey better than the pitch black. Black is not a natural background.

However, the actual point wasn't the background color of the units but that it was used for the whole screen.
Just keep it in a combat window and you have both, good unit contrasts and a nice background.

[WraithLord]

Originally Posted by Edi

If we do get those, it won't be for the release version. The scope of things to be added in patches is greater than the scope of the new things that we can expect to be added at this late stage in the development, given that the release date is just a week away.

Makes perfect sense. Thanks!

[Ragnarok-X]

Watching some videos im wondering why the scaling system from d3 was killed. In dom 3, a normal human had all 10s to represent him. That way it was easy to gauge the power of a skeleton or troll. It seems in CoO3 even dwarfs only have strength 4 or 5. Why the rescaling ?

[Edi]

It's using the same scaling system as in CoE2. I like this system better. Besides, once you play for a while, gauging the relative power of units becomes second nature.

[Gandalf Parker]

Not sure. Might be because its CoE2 being redone so some of the game is pre-Dom3. Its Dom3 that changed things.

It might also be that the increased range in Dom3 made things harder to balance, and more micro-managery. Just guessing

Edit: Edi beat me at the same time

[Ragnarok-X]

I understand that, but still.
Firstly, from a lore angle, scaling everything by 10 is easy. if a human is 10, then a orc is pretty much 12, maybe 13, while a elf is likely 8 to 9.

But if the base is 5, the relationship becomes more difficult.
I always liked all the details in Dom3, and the ability to imagine a creature by comparing its stats to a human always appealed to the nerd in me.