Unit looks through ages

[SuddenAppearance]

So, I'm just interested in knowing your opinion about a small topic: Units change looks when you change culture, but only when they are upgraded in that same age.

t's not very shocking seeing warriors in classical maintaining the aesthetic of the past culture, as they will be transitioning to swordmans at some point, this even helps making the change of cultures more gradual.

But for me, it's strange in the case of units that do not have an upgrade in one of the ages, as they will maintain the look of cultures 2 ages before the actual one. This way, you end up in the very late classical age with Ta-Seti archers in a celtic army, or, even more, at the early medieval age with an olmec chariot, a greek swordman and a khmer pikeman in the same army.

I know is just a flavor thing, and that the game is inspired in the idea of cultural transitions and multiculturalism, but also, this only happens in a certain set of units that lack upgrades in certain eras, so it's not very consistent. I would love to be able to have a "fully" aesthetically roman, celtic, greek or X army, as you can do in the first age. At the same time, of course, I also find fun the idea of zulu machine gunners in the late contemporary China.

So, what do you think about this? Do you mind this kind of flavor details? if so, would you prefer to have more unit upgrades to change this (classical archer, classical heavy cav...) or simple clothing changes in the unit models when changing culture for those that do not have upgrades?

Cheers!

 

[BuchiTaton]

It makes way more sense to be in the mixed way. If your late contemporary China have some zulu machine gunners is because on some way a chinese group take over the previous Zulu nation, we can imagine some direct invasion or economic/cultural dominance, but despite this is to suppose that the original population would still be mainly zulu. There are way more examples of new peoples despite take over a region end being just the elite or even being diluted on the local population and culture not the other way, the massive invasions over huge areas of America, Oceania and Siberia are more an exception because the technological disparity, but on game you would going to have a multi-cities industrial Zulu empire, there is no way all of them turn on chinese just because.

Also, I still dont understand people that ask for change all your assyrian cities to german names when you change culture becuase if not that "broke the inmersion", I have news, the german nations was not builded over a previous Assyrian empire, and even if it they probably would just change the name to some form of german pronunciation of the assyrian name, unless it is a new city founded at side of an previous razed city.

 

[8housesofelixir]

I like to see more flavor details, however, I assume that will be a huge task for the art team. I don't mind let them focusing on other parts of the art designs first.

 

[mitsho]

Also, I still dont understand people that ask for change all your assyrian cities to german names when you change culture becuase if not that "broke the inmersion", I have news, the german nations was not builded over a previous Assyrian empire, and even if it they probably would just change the name to some form of german pronunciation of the assyrian name, unless it is a new city founded at side of an previous razed city.

Not all of them, but some. If all city names just stay, you will never see Berlin, New York or even Venice in Humankind. In most 4x games I know, new cities just aren‘t founded anymore after the mid-game. Expand is one of the first X after all. So Humankind needs a solution for that, as I don‘t want to play as France without Paris, and it‘s even more strange if Harappa is the capital of my French Empire.

As for the changing unit looks, I don‘t really see the problem here. The Ta-Seti are as much a reminder of your Nubian past as are the Nubian Pyramids and the city names. It‘s okay to have a bit of mix of diversity in your civilization - that‘s what Humankind is all about. (But again, there needs to be elements of the younger cultures as well - otherwise it‘s just ancient Humankind)

 

[Narcisse]

Not all of them, but some. If all city names just stay, you will never see Berlin, New York or even Venice in Humankind. In most 4x games I know, new cities just aren‘t founded anymore after the mid-game. Expand is one of the first X after all. So Humankind needs a solution for that, as I don‘t want to play as France without Paris, and it‘s even more strange if Harappa is the capital of my French Empire.

Sort of small question I will try to ask to a vip, if we continue to found new cities in last eras. If not, we can always rename Harappa into Haraparis.

 

[Stringer1313]

If the status quo is as OP represented, I like the status quo for flavor reasons.

 

[Elhoim]

Sort of small question I will try to ask to a vip, if we continue to found new cities in last eras.

Depends on many things currently, like the map size, places like islands and such that are not easily reached, also you can capture an enemy territory in a war and plop a city there.

 

[Catoninetales_Amplitude]

If I recall correctly, the appearance of your units depends on the culture you played in the era you unlocked them, but if you transcend there are certain rules for how the unit appearance will update (and the same is true for cities).

 

[SuddenAppearance]

And just out of curiosity, Cato, does this means that if I'm playing as greek, and unlock the crossbowman, with the respective medieval european looks, but then I change culture to aztecs, the crosbowman will keep looking european?

If so, if we wanted, we could have an army composed of a zhou chariot, a greek swordman, an aztec pike and a european crossbow all at the same time

 

[Catoninetales_Amplitude]

I actually don't know off the top of my head how the Scientist Affinity's "Research an era ahead" interacts with the unit visuals. I'll have to get back to you on that later.

 

[Narcisse]

In openDev stadia, the Greek medieval units rushed through scientist affinity were mostly generic west Europeans^^ But the Saboteur had an Aztec aesthetic. So I suppose it's in WiP.
I would like to know, and try it for sure at launch, to see how it looks.