Idea for a future integration of skins on units

[djezer]

The idea goes like this. having the possibility of having units that cycle through a series of skins (.tga files) as they are produced. Basically this means that artists can make variations very easilly (changing the tone, details, etc) to give the game more realism and personality without too much effort or strain to get this variation.

This means we could produce horsemen with horses of diffent colors, one blacksmith could have a mustache, and the next one that is produced has none, but has black hair instead. Dragons could come in various colors (I can make color variations in 2 seconds in gimp, I've tested this out on a couple of occasions.

So this means no extra modeling, just tweaking of the skins (.tga files) and some code to cycle as units are produced.

Hopefully this could be programmed in a way that the game autodetects multiple skins (ie the filename + numbers 1-n or 0-n) or in a way that this info could be included in xml files.

I hope this doesn't require too much programming, because I think it would be cool, in that it would add a lot of variation in the game very quickly. At least I know I'd be productive in that area.

I'm curious to hear what you all think.

[djezer]

I just realized that skins could be cycled through depending on HP. Imagine a knight is created all brand new, but when he comes back from the fight, he has the skin with scratches and dents in a few key places.

Mages could come back with burn marks and things like that.

[hailstone]

Sounds like a good idea but I don't know how it would be coded. I think you have talked about two different features. One being random textures to make units seem more unique and the other to have different textures depending on conditions.

[Jamesgamer]

The idea goes like this....................

So, what you are saying is that if i create 10 battle mages some may have moustashes, different eye colors, different shaped hats, etc?

and 10 dragons may have like longer horns (do dragons have horns? >_>), shorter wingspans, different colored wingtips, etc?

Hmmm... sounds interesting... I like it    

[ZaggyDad]

So, what you are saying is that if i create 10 battle mages some may have moustashes, different eye colors, different shaped hats, etc?

and 10 dragons may have like longer horns (do dragons have horns? >_>), shorter wingspans, different colored wingtips, etc?

Hmmm... sounds interesting... I like it Idea Razz Smile

I like the health idea more, tho Very Happy

No, he meant only what the unit looks like. If the dragon were to have different length horns (or whatever), then it would need different models.

[djezer]

I think the first one to tackle might be the skins reflecting status (health, battle damage, type of damage, etc.)

If that can be done, we can have visual feedback on the state of health of the different units.

As far as changing polygons for each unit, I think the energy should be spent creating new units.