Different Art for HN units?

[MacGyverInSpace]

When the Svaltafar cast their world spell, their nationality is still quite apparent to human players. Perhaps certain units with HN promotion should have their art replaced with a cloaked figure of some kind?

I'm not sure if the code allows for this without some crazy hijacking of the upgrade mechanic involving duplicate units i.e. HN Scout, HN Whatever. . .

 

[Kael]

When the Svaltafar cast their world spell, their nationality is still quite apparent to human players. Perhaps certain units with HN promotion should have their art replaced with a cloaked figure of some kind?

I'm not sure if the code allows for this without some crazy hijacking of the upgrade mechanic involving duplicate units i.e. HN Scout, HN Whatever. . .

Is actually really easy to do (and one of reasons we moved unit art to promotions). We just haven't implemented it yet.

 

[MondSemmel]

In that case (if that doesn't happen already), shouldn't HN units lose their racial promotions? If there's only one elven civ in the game, the owners of HN units with the 'Elven' promotion would still be obvious (to human players).

I'm not sure if (temporarily) sacrificing these promotions would be worth it, though. It would be ideal if they would retain their racial abilities somehow but they would be hidden to other players, but that's probably not possible.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Give all the racial promotions <PromotionNextLevel>PROMOTION_HIDDEN_NATIONALITY</PromotionNextLevel>. That would mean they keep their racial promotion and the associated combat benefits, but these promotions would not show while they have HN.


Hmm...On second thought, I think that might only hide it when the unit is selected, not in a mouseover (which is the only way to see a rival's units promotions anyway). So, it would be harder to know your own race, but your rivals would still be apparent. Oh well...

Xienwolf has added a tag that makes promotions not show up. Maybe he can come up with a way to hide races while HN

 

[xienwolf]

That would be quite easy to do (just have to slip in a || (isRace && Unit->isHN) at the right spot), but rather pointless until there is unique art for units which are HN.

Though having unique art while HN would also be pointless unless it is a single unit art no matter who it is that is HN. ie - all HN units show up as a "Jedi in full Robes" looking unit. Otherwise you still are quite aware of who that HN Freak or Alazkan belongs to. Course, the unit name could still give that away, so it'd be nice to have it change the displayed name as well, but then the stats give it away.... (in other words... you can ALWAYS tell, except with Animals and generic units, and in the case of the animals, they are already not an issue)

 

[jwin]

I don't think they should be completely unidentifiable or lose racial identifiers. You aren't going to cut the ears off your elven HN units, or make the dwarves taller so no one will recognize them. Once one is killed, the enemy will at least know what race they are. It is a disadvantage to the Svaltafar that there aren't many elves around, though.

I would get rid of the unique graphics, though. You would likely give them different clothes before they headed out.

 

[uberfish]

Well, "a player has cast Veil of Night" is a bit of a giveaway anyway. So are HN commando units.