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Mods / Re: Elf Faction 0.9 Released
« on: 5 October 2009, 01:27:37 »
I found this mod today and wanted to post my thoughts on it. Just wonderful! From the beautiful song to the tree units and buildings 
There's also a good amount of units and upgrades, more than even the official tech / magic have. A big +1 for adding this officially in Glest Advanced, once it would be ready for such a thing. I always believed there should be more factions in magitech, and this would be a perfect third one imo.
There are many things which I think should be changed though. Here is my list of thoughts on ups and downs (using version 0.9):
+ The first thing I liked was the music. That song is just wonderful, one of the best I heard for a game of this type. Hope lots it will stay.
+ Love the green nature-like icons, they give a nice feel.
+ Love the looks and architectures of most buildings, though I think most of them need more tweaking overall. Also like the Grey Elf Archer's model, very elf-looking.
- I think the Magol Hedir is the most unsuited unit for an elf faction. He doesn't look like an elf imo, and the way he walks holding that sword like a serial killer doesn't look elfish either
- Player colors are very hard to see on the Grey Elf Archer. I'd suggest making his whole blue shirt team colored, and the currently team-colored line light blue instead. It's also hard to see the colors on most buildings from above... an idea could be making parts of the leafs on some trees team colored around the top.
- Corral: I think there are several issues with this building. First thing that caught my attention was the untextured area on the flat part of the rooftop around the glass sphere. It's also too big, as it has been mentioned. Not sure how its size could be reduced without making it look too small compared to units when looking from up close. Also a tree growing on the side of the building doesn't feel like a good idea for an upgrade to me. Maybe the Corral could have a small yard (without making it larger) and the tree growing there instead.
- I think the Wood Guard and Tree Of The Heavens are too much alike. They're both trees who attack enemies around them. Although I think the Tree Of The Heavens is nice, it might be better to only leave the Wood Guard to avoid this similarity.
Some very minor bugs I noticed: The Grace and Gold HUD indicators need to be swapped... in all factions Energy / Food comes first on the display. Wood Guard has an empty space between the Attack Off and Attack On buttons, and the Forge has a Meeting Point although it produces no units just upgrades.
A thought about the "elfs shouldn't cut trees" issue as I seen the discussion a few posts ago. I mostly agree with this and it came to mind the second I tested this faction. However in this case, it would indeed unbalance the game and make no sense to remove the wood resource (you still build using wood after all). My solution to this would be a different animation for harvesting wood, instead of hitting trees with the axe. Maybe each elf could run their hands around it until they are loaded and return to deposit... I think that would help most in making elves less cruel to trees.
There's also a good amount of units and upgrades, more than even the official tech / magic have. A big +1 for adding this officially in Glest Advanced, once it would be ready for such a thing. I always believed there should be more factions in magitech, and this would be a perfect third one imo.There are many things which I think should be changed though. Here is my list of thoughts on ups and downs (using version 0.9):
+ The first thing I liked was the music. That song is just wonderful, one of the best I heard for a game of this type. Hope lots it will stay.
+ Love the green nature-like icons, they give a nice feel.
+ Love the looks and architectures of most buildings, though I think most of them need more tweaking overall. Also like the Grey Elf Archer's model, very elf-looking.
- I think the Magol Hedir is the most unsuited unit for an elf faction. He doesn't look like an elf imo, and the way he walks holding that sword like a serial killer doesn't look elfish either
- Player colors are very hard to see on the Grey Elf Archer. I'd suggest making his whole blue shirt team colored, and the currently team-colored line light blue instead. It's also hard to see the colors on most buildings from above... an idea could be making parts of the leafs on some trees team colored around the top.
- Corral: I think there are several issues with this building. First thing that caught my attention was the untextured area on the flat part of the rooftop around the glass sphere. It's also too big, as it has been mentioned. Not sure how its size could be reduced without making it look too small compared to units when looking from up close. Also a tree growing on the side of the building doesn't feel like a good idea for an upgrade to me. Maybe the Corral could have a small yard (without making it larger) and the tree growing there instead.
- I think the Wood Guard and Tree Of The Heavens are too much alike. They're both trees who attack enemies around them. Although I think the Tree Of The Heavens is nice, it might be better to only leave the Wood Guard to avoid this similarity.
Some very minor bugs I noticed: The Grace and Gold HUD indicators need to be swapped... in all factions Energy / Food comes first on the display. Wood Guard has an empty space between the Attack Off and Attack On buttons, and the Forge has a Meeting Point although it produces no units just upgrades.
A thought about the "elfs shouldn't cut trees" issue as I seen the discussion a few posts ago. I mostly agree with this and it came to mind the second I tested this faction. However in this case, it would indeed unbalance the game and make no sense to remove the wood resource (you still build using wood after all). My solution to this would be a different animation for harvesting wood, instead of hitting trees with the axe. Maybe each elf could run their hands around it until they are loaded and return to deposit... I think that would help most in making elves less cruel to trees.
This is the log now: