Coloured flags?

[sparrowhawk]

Here's a thought that I imagine will cause a little furore

As an option, would you like to see the various players' armies have colours that identify their owners. So at the start of each game, each player would be allocated one of four colours at random (blue, red, gree, yellow). Non-aligned lords would have white flags.

One problem is that I am not sure how to show flags when a battle is underway, unless I choose another colour altogether in that case.

Anyway, it's just a thought, and I need to do a few other things higher up the to do list, such as the remaining bugs.

[Matija]

Yes, that would be nice.

I don't know if it happens to the others, but I sometimes see an army approaching and I am not sure if it is mine or not, so I have to go through all the lords to find out.

In battle, simply show all the colours participating.

[sparrowhawk]

The problem is that I need to have pre-created gfx for the armies, so creating every possible combination of coloured flags would be a bit of a chore. Unless maybe the flag colours are only discernable at 2 locations distance.

[celebaglar]

The said:

The problem is that I need to have pre-created gfx for the armies, so creating every possible combination of coloured flags would be a bit of a chore. Unless maybe the flag colours are only discernable at 2 locations distance.

I think that should be the case anyway. I know that sometimes we can forget where all our armies are and so be unsure whether an approaching army is an ally or not, but that's part of the charm of the game for me.

Also, one thing to be considered is that this will make the recruitment ambush almost obsolete, as the further away the flags are visible from, the quicker one will know if the army at a citadel has been recruited or not, therefore doubling the distance of a getaway.

[Natmus]

Celebaglar said:

I think that should be the case anyway. I know that sometimes we can forget where all our armies are and so be unsure whether an approaching army is an ally or not, but that's part of the charm of the game for me.

Also, one thing to be considered is that this will make the recruitment ambush almost obsolete, as the further away the flags are visible from, the quicker one will know if the army at a citadel has been recruited or not, therefore doubling the distance of a getaway.

I agree with Bill here. Using the Allies page it should be fairly easy to locate all of your forces in a given area, and thus determine if an army some distance away is yours or an enemy.
And most especially the recruitment ambush is one of the best parts of the games, approaching a citadel only to discover that one, two or perhaps three enemy armies occupy it, and you have no more time in the day to get away
Being on the good side of such an ambush can be funny too ;D

[sparrowhawk]

True, true. I do like a good ambush as well. Though Ali, Andrea and Fernando have all got the better of me on that score recently.

That's why I suggested it as an option, but of there is little enthusiasm for it, I don't want to spend too much time on it.

So 1 for, 2 against so far

[Matija]

I didn't think of the recruitment ambush. It ABSOLUTELY must be kept.

[sparrowhawk]

Remember, it would be an option, not the default. I thought that it could help newbies maybe.

[Perun]

If it's an option, I'm for it.

[queex]

Maybe the flags could be tied to the lord, or to race, rather than the king? This would help eliminate some confusion while still allowing recruitment ambushes.

[celebaglar]

Queex said:

Maybe the flags could be tied to the lord, or to race, rather than the king? This would help eliminate some confusion while still allowing recruitment ambushes.

There are far too many lords to have effective colour coded flags (unless you introduce simple banners).

I particularly like the idea of doing colour coded flags dependent on race. It should be clear from some distance what type of army you are seeing, if not who it belongs to. Differentiating between cavalry, infantry and mixed armies would be harder, but that would be nice too.

Again though, I don't see how this will avoid the ambush implications. If you have more than one lord waiting at a citadel, often they might be of different races, so race coloured flags would give the game away.

That takes me back to the idea I had some time ago treating citadels, keeps etc as "containers" separated from their actual location. These would have a capacity (say, 10000 for a citadel), and armies inside the citadel would not be visible from the outside (as in the original LoM). If there are more armies present than that, then some would have to camp outside and would therefore be visible.

Not that it would be that easy to implement properly.

[Matija]

I like the idea very much. I'd even make the container twice the capacity of the garrison, before the army is shown. Or perhaps somewhat higher for citadels and lower for keeps.