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Author Topic: RTS games: aesthetics and visual customization of troops  (Read 2800 times)

megaloptus

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RTS games: aesthetics and visual customization of troops
« on: September 01, 2012, 12:04:51 am »

The best example I can come up with for the concept is Warhammer: Mark of Chaos. While flawed and somewhat limited, you could edit the armor, the colors, even their shoes. Sadly, this feature was wasted on a lackluster game.

I'm specifically looking for another game where you can directly customize what your individual troops look like. I'm not looking for a game like W40k, where you can modify the color and abilities.


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Hanslanda

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Re: RTS games: aesthetics and visual customization of troops
« Reply #1 on: September 01, 2012, 12:07:21 am »

Hmm. I can't think of any right at this moment. Usually it is just stuff like in Medieval Total War II: Hey, I got full plate! Now my dudes wear a limited variety of what is obviously full plate!
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Sean Mirrsen

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Re: RTS games: aesthetics and visual customization of troops
« Reply #2 on: September 01, 2012, 12:48:15 am »

Visual customization of units is usually not present in RTS games, primarily because individual units in RTS games are usually expendable. I.e. there's no point in selecting a frontline grunt's shoelace color if said grunt it going to be pancaked by tank tracks five minutes into the battle. You're looking for RTS/RPG hybrids or RPGs with RTS elements, like Mount&Blade or Dungeon Siege. Unfortunately, I can't remember any RTS games that allow visual customization separate from functional customization, i.e. you can make different variations of tank in the Earth 21X0 games, but you can't paint them, you just switch components around.
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Tellemurius

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Re: RTS games: aesthetics and visual customization of troops
« Reply #3 on: September 01, 2012, 01:07:08 am »

Visual customization of units is usually not present in RTS games, primarily because individual units in RTS games are usually expendable. I.e. there's no point in selecting a frontline grunt's shoelace color if said grunt it going to be pancaked by tank tracks five minutes into the battle. You're looking for RTS/RPG hybrids or RPGs with RTS elements, like Mount&Blade or Dungeon Siege. Unfortunately, I can't remember any RTS games that allow visual customization separate from functional customization, i.e. you can make different variations of tank in the Earth 21X0 games, but you can't paint them, you just switch components around.
warzone 2100 would be the only game on my head for what you are asking

Hanslanda

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Re: RTS games: aesthetics and visual customization of troops
« Reply #4 on: September 01, 2012, 11:45:38 pm »

Hey, Mount and Blade 2 or the latest expansion pack (whichever is newest) allows you to choose your soldier's arms and armor. I don't know if this includes colors, but there's a good size list of equipment to choose from, including guns, swords, axes, spears/polearms, etc. It gets to the point where you have 'Infantry' mounted on horses, wielding muskets, wearing Winged Hussar armor.
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Orb

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Re: RTS games: aesthetics and visual customization of troops
« Reply #5 on: September 01, 2012, 11:54:20 pm »

Spore?  :P

On a serious note, you could try RTS MMOs. May have to pay for it, but it's probably there.
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Sonlirain

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Re: RTS games: aesthetics and visual customization of troops
« Reply #6 on: September 02, 2012, 03:40:07 am »

The closest thing to your request i can think off would be mount and blade with certain mods (Freelancer troops in Floris and companions in general).

I think Homeworld 2 let you make your color schemes and logos for your fleets.

Warhammer 40k DoW 1 and 2

Partially true for Metal Fatigue Warzone 2100 andEarth 2150/60 but all modifications there are purely practical (so don't try using anti energy armor against bio weapons because it looks pretty cause it won't work in the slightest)
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Digital Hellhound

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Re: RTS games: aesthetics and visual customization of troops
« Reply #7 on: September 02, 2012, 04:49:20 am »

Oh man, I have to dig up Mark of Chaos again. T'was such a cool game. Though I had loading screens that lasted, like, half an hour each.

Anyway, I can't think of any that allow equipment customization. Dawn of War 2 has excellent color customization and armor patterns, though, as does the first game and its expansions. You could say DoW2 has equipment/appearance customization, but only in the campaign with the RPG mechanics.
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