Unit Diversity

[Centurio]

I've seen only a few screen-shots, but those I've seen seem to have very similar units in them: one depicted a war between Rome and Britain in which the Romans and British had the exact same units, save for their uniform colors. Perhaps I've been spoiled by Avain's fantastic Varietas Delectat mod, but I was seriously hoping for greater unit diversity. Granted, I'm going off of information assumed from one or two screen-shots from E3, not the final release game. Do you think that Firaxis will make the units more diverse aesthetically before release or will it again be up to the modders to do so?

 

[largedarryl]

I've seen only a few screen-shots, but those I've seen seem to have very similar units in them: one depicted a war between Rome and Britain in which the Romans and British had the exact same units, save for their uniform colors. Perhaps I've been spoiled by Avain's fantastic Varietas Delectat mod, but I was seriously hoping for greater unit diversity. Granted, I'm going off of information assumed from one or two screen-shots from E3, not the final release game. Do you think that Firaxis will make the units more diverse aesthetically before release or will it again be up to the modders to do so?

I have always enjoyed the unit flavor mods as well, but expecting one of the very few Civ traits that has never changed to change is probably getting your hopes up.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Actually, Unit flavors were a key feature of BtS, so I don't think you'd be getting your hopes up in wishing for this trend to continue in Civ5. Don't forget that the graphics you see in demos are almost *never* what they'll look like in the final iteration of the game.

Aussie.

 

[largedarryl]

Actually, Unit flavors were a key feature of BtS, so I don't think you'd be getting your hopes up in wishing for this trend to continue in Civ5. Don't forget that the graphics you see in demos are almost *never* what they'll look like in the final iteration of the game.

Aussie.

That is a good point. I wasn't even playing the base game anymore when BtS came out, so I never really noticed.

 

[AriochIV]

I certainly hope for flavor units... and Firaxis has made a big deal about how the music, architechture and even terrain will be different for the various regions, so it certainly would be nice to have varied units as well. However, the pessimist in me is inclined to doubt it at least for the first release of Civ V... this seems like the kind of thing they'd add in a subsequent expasion.

 

[Dark_Jedi06]

Flavor units, as always, will be up to the modding community to create. The diversity of units they gave us in BTS was paltry compared to the work of the community so I have low expectations on that front.

Hopefully models made for Civ4 will be able to be used in Civ5 as well; if that were the case they'd probably just need a little spit and polish to match the graphical quality of Civ5.

 

[cccv]

According to this screenshot:

Spoiler :

It looks like yes, the units will be diverse. If there's a barbarian_euro, I'm sure there'll be a barbarian_afro, etc.

I agree that so far it hasn't looked much like the units would be very diverse, but I expect that they won't all be white. I'm not sure if that means we'll be able to tell Roman from English, but I'm fairly confident we'll be able to tell Songhai from English.

 

[Danchops]

Also, I've read a number of times that there will be diverse geography graphics, such that Asian and African forests are distinct. It would seem odd to have that it but to not have any diversity in the unit graphics.

 

[grant2004]

If they were following the same diversity model as they used in BTS it would make sense for Rome and England to have the same unit types. They created groups of civs, which shared the same flavor, Europeans, Africans, Asians, Americans, Middle Eastern etc. It's not unreasonable to think that Rome and England would fall into the same group.

 

[12agnar0k]

Well the models are quite small of most screen shots, to be able to tell all thier subtle diferences you might need to zoom in a lot.

 

[Dragonflow]

I hope if they make the units divers they make all unit types divers and not like in BtS where we had divers warriors,axeman,swordsman,bowman,horseman,knights, but all other unit types looked the same.

 

[Schuesseled]

They have already said that different continents will look slighty, so they may well have also includeed different unit models. But if do it based on geopgraphy rather than civ, then troops on your continent will look the same as yours, only if you find another continent will you see a difference in that game.

 

[AriochIV]

If they were following the same diversity model as they used in BTS it would make sense for Rome and England to have the same unit types. They created groups of civs, which shared the same flavor, Europeans, Africans, Asians, Americans, Middle Eastern etc. It's not unreasonable to think that Rome and England would fall into the same group.

Actually in BTS, Rome and England are in different categories -- England is European, and Rome is Mediterranean, and they have slightly different sets of ancient/medieval units. But all civilizations have the same unit set from gunpowder era on, so if we're following the BTS model, that would be irrelevant anyway (assuming we're talking about the riflemen/cavalry/cannon video).

 

[Aeon221]

No one thinks it's racist that he can't tell white people apart? I think it's racist!

Oh and I'm sure there will be some flavor units. I'm just happy that multi units are sticking around. One dude armies was never cool.

 

[Centurio]

I was hoping for Roman units that fulfill a 'Rome never fell' scenario, so Napoleonic Era riflemen wearing legionary helmets instead of bicorn hats for example. For other Civs, like the Aztecs, I expect them to either be disappointingly generic or impressively imaginative; I'd like to see Jaguar Warriors with gunpowder weapons, myself!

 

[Lone Wolf]

The BTS attempt was very half-assed (though there was supposed to be more diversity - every unit diverse 'till Gunpowder - but it was scrapped because the artist didn't have the time to sign all the animations or something). We need diversity in all human units.

 

[BobDole]

The BTS attempt was very half-assed (though there was supposed to be more diversity - every unit diverse 'till Gunpowder - but it was scrapped because the artist didn't have the time to sign all the animations or something). We need diversity in all human units.

Yeah, it would be nice. It was really cool how units looked different for a bit.....and then all of a sudden every rifleman, marine, tank, plane, etc. looked the same. Hopefully if they do it again they actually do it in every era. Doesn't have to be with every unit but if it was done with a few of them here and there it'd be awesome.

 

[Lone Wolf]

Yeah, it would be nice. It was really cool how units looked different for a bit.....and then all of a sudden every rifleman, marine, tank, plane, etc. looked the same.

I'm fine with the same tanks, planes and other machines. Human diversity needs to been done, though.

 

[BobDole]

I'm fine with the same tanks, planes and other machines. Human diversity needs to been done, though.

Yeah, obviously, there's not many ways to really make a tank or plane look different based on regional culture, but units like Riflemen or Marines could look somewhat different. Doesn't have to be anything major, it's just one of those little details that someone like myself appreciates.

 

[Dragonflow]

Some regional diversity would be nice. Like different hats for European and Middle-Eastern Riflemen or a jaguar-skin-coat for Meso-American Riflemen. Just some small details would do wonders.