Steph, I've always loved your cander on things!
What's cander
A mispelled candor?
It can't be canter, I'm not a horse. Gander? No a male goose has nothing to do with the discussion...
You all seem to be arguing about the most ridiculous things though. So the Crossbowman that Sandris proposes has a parabolic angle to it's orientation..Ultimately, does it really matter that much to ya? Plot DID point out rather well that the units stand near toe-to-toe with each other soo...what are yas on about?
It is extreamly important that the angle of the shot relatively to the distance to the ennemy unit is perfect. Don't forget the guy will be flagged with the "range attack animation" that slightly change this distance.
We want a perfect unit, that will give an impression of photorealism (or rather video realism) when seen ingame, especially when the animation is played for a unit which is on top of a mountain range spanning hundred of miles, represented by a single peak graphics.
You see, Plot wrongly remarked that the units stand near toe-to-toe with each other. But they are not! Even if you play on a map with a 400 tiles width, as Earth is 40,000 km of circumference, it means a tile is 100 km. If a swordsman attack the crossbowman, he will be on the edge of this tile (no range attack animation flag), while the crossbowman will stay at the center of his own tile, so that's 50 km away from the swordsman.
I insist that the only reallistic animation for a crossbowman to manage to hit a swordsman 50 km is to shoot at a range of 45° upward. Even then, I still think it's doable only with the help of the wind. A very strong wind. Or perhaps if he is high enough on top of the beforementionned peak.
Our Russian friend here is going out of his way to include you all in the design process and admire his patience in dealing with all of these little quibbles and tiffs we get into.
Indeed, Sandris is doing a wonderfull job and I really appreciate the previews he shows us, and the way he takes our feedback into account.
But I'm afraid he is to busy making the modelling, texturing and animating, and without us to point out some fundamental aspects which are often skipped by most unit makers, such as the wind effect on the parabolic range of a crossbow shot from the top of a peak, he may miss some really important points.
