Log in

View Full Version : New faction colours



Blxz
11-25-2009, 10:26
I'm curious as to what the new faction colours are going to be. I personally can't see pergamon as anything other than teal, although thats likely from too much EU:Rome playing.

One particular thing about this mod is that faction colours don't clash particularly much. Saka and romans, both reds, almost never share a border. This shows good thinking, especially compared to other mods I have played. So I was just looking at the map and wondering what the new faction colours are likely to be.

Anyone want to offer a few guesses? Maybe someone from the EB team is likely to give a few ideas without compromising exactly where the factions are going to be and who they are.

Megas Methuselah
11-25-2009, 10:33
What do you mean, exactly? Mini-map faction colours? Flags/banners?

As for the battle-map and units, I don't think they'll actually conform to any single colour. After all, look at the previews. Unlike in EB1, where some minimal amount of units had their faction colours splashed on them (Epirus, for example), I don't think that'll happen in EB2.

Foot
11-25-2009, 14:00
You can tell the colours of factions from their faction symbols.

Foot

Blxz
11-25-2009, 16:09
What do you mean, exactly? Mini-map faction colours? Flags/banners?

As for the battle-map and units, I don't think they'll actually conform to any single colour. After all, look at the previews. Unlike in EB1, where some minimal amount of units had their faction colours splashed on them (Epirus, for example), I don't think that'll happen in EB2.

Yeah, I was talking about mini-map colours.

@ Foot, so bosphorans are red? You guys seem to love your red. And I couldn't find a faction symbol for the Numidians... Invisible numidians maybe?

Are these colours significant to the factions themselves or do you pick your favourites and just run with it?

bobbin
11-25-2009, 16:22
And I couldn't find a faction symbol for the Numidians... Invisible numidians maybe?


Ahem..https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=117430

Foot
11-25-2009, 16:28
faction colours are decided by our historians, based on a number of conditions. They usually have some special connection, but are also aware of their place on the map near other colours.

Foot

Blxz
11-25-2009, 16:36
Ahem..https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=117430

Great, I was looking in the 'Peoples of North Africa' preview... :embarassed:

Thanks for the info guys.

ziegenpeter
11-25-2009, 18:04
Well since there are even more factions, I wonder if the team considered the two colored minimap.
Every faction has one main colour and a secondary color on the minimap (red and white for Sweboz e.g.)
so that the borders have the sec colour and the rest of the territories the primary.

Foot
11-25-2009, 19:05
We are not planning to use secondary colours. This was decided on for aesthetic reasons, but perhaps we can include the secondary colours we are using in other areas in the descr_sm_factions.txt file so players can make the change themselves if they want.

Foot

athanaric
11-25-2009, 20:22
We are not planning to use secondary colours.

Excellent. Those secondary colours somehow made the original RTW minimap look a bit ugly. EB, meanwhile, has beautiful faction colours. I hope those will remain the same for EB II.

SwissBarbar
11-27-2009, 08:49
Yeah, no secondary colours please....

Darius
11-28-2009, 12:36
Being partially color-blind, I always prefer each factions color to be as different from the others as possible to avoid confusion.

Arkhis
11-29-2009, 14:24
Being partially color-blind, I always prefer each factions color to be as different from the others as possible to avoid confusion.

I myself am Red/Green colourblind, so I can't really see the difference between the Aedui and Rome or Aedui and Sweboz when they border on the minimap :laugh4:

Changing border colours yourself is easy though, it's simply changing the secondary_colour values to something other then the primary_colour values in descr_sm_factions.txt (in the EB data folder (Rome TW/EB/data)). Remember that primary_colour also changes the banners of your armies on the campaign map.

I only ever change the Seleukids though, does anyone else have problem seeing the difference between a fullstack and one unit with the light-grey colour?

DaciaJC
11-29-2009, 17:23
I only ever change the Seleukids though, does anyone else have problem seeing the difference between a fullstack and one unit with the light-grey colour?

Yes, and I am not colorblind.

anubis88
11-29-2009, 18:52
Yeah. The Seleucids have a new colour in my campaigns. I had a kinder surprise once. I thought that the army was made of a depleted unit, and the next day a force of 4000 men attacked me:beam:

WinsingtonIII
11-29-2009, 19:49
I only ever change the Seleukids though, does anyone else have problem seeing the difference between a fullstack and one unit with the light-grey colour?

Oh yeah, I always make sure to click and see how many units are in each Seleukid stack and zoom in really close to try and find the line where the light gray becomes even lighter gray. I had a couple nasty surprises in my Baktria campaign involving that. Maybe I should change the color.

Hax
11-30-2009, 13:12
Change it to a really screaming green or yellow. So you can't miss them when they try and besiege Baktra ;)

Apázlinemjó
11-30-2009, 17:54
Change it to a really screaming green or yellow. So you can't miss them when they try and besiege Baktra ;)

Dark Pink...lul when the Dark Pink Monster overtakes the map...scary.

Ca Putt
11-30-2009, 19:16
you gave me a very good idea. :smash:

oh and for the protocol: I can't see the difference in the AS banner as well.

Darius
12-04-2009, 08:02
Yea it's pretty frustrating when playing EB1 and you end up bordering an empire with a very similar color to yours. I'm forced to eventually conquer them just on principle so that when I look at my mini-map I'm not forced to periodically make sure who owns what.

Horatius Flaccus
12-04-2009, 15:11
You could just change the faction color of that faction, it isn't that hard.

Blxz
12-04-2009, 16:05
You could just change the faction color of that faction, it isn't that hard.

Thats blasphemy. If they were any other colour they just wouldn't look right =)

ziegenpeter
12-08-2009, 12:58
True. This is madness.
Although I recently made the seleukids a bit darker.

SwissBarbar
12-08-2009, 15:30
Madness? THIS IS EB

B-Wing
12-08-2009, 20:11
While we're talking about factions having similar map colors, I am a bit puzzled by the number of factions represented by various shades of brown or tan in EB1. Lusitania, Getae, Macedonia, Sarmatia, and Saba all use this rather uninteresting color. And three of them start adjacent (or nearly) to one another. I know nothing about the historical accuracy of these colors, but I certainly don't find them very endearing in the game. :)

Now that it's been suggested, I think I will alter their colors for my own game. Thanks!

Horatius Flaccus
12-08-2009, 23:03
Come on, the browns don't really look alike.

B-Wing
12-08-2009, 23:34
Come on, the browns don't really look alike.

Well, it's not so much the similarity that I dislike as the unattractiveness of it. Maybe "unattractive" isn't a very accurate term, but brown/tan is a boring color to me, and having 5 blobs of it on the mini-map is less than ideal. I'm not complaining, just suggesting.

Blxz
12-09-2009, 10:01
Madness? THIS IS EB

" This is SPARTA!!!"

Is that what you were going for?

EDIT: WHOOOO, just checked uni results and I passed. Sucks being a tourist this week, got no one except you guys to tell. =)

ziegenpeter
12-09-2009, 10:02
While macedonia is clearly black to me, I guess brown-ish colours are the colours of many (natural) materials used back then. Clay, wood, undyed textiles etc.
But actually I think you are right, some of them could be pimped, since a factions colour does not represent the common peasant of this faction but (to me) more the nobility and hence could be a bit more lively/royal.

Horatius Flaccus
12-09-2009, 17:44
Actually, Macedonia is really - really - dark brown, so he is right about that.

athanaric
12-09-2009, 18:05
But actually I think you are right, some of them could be pimped, since a factions colour does not represent the common peasant of this faction but (to me) more the nobility and hence could be a bit more lively/royal.

Actually, the matching, sometimes desaturated colours are something of a trademark of EB, and make the minimap more peasant for the eye. Remember RTW vanilla with those godawful, neon industrial colours? I prefer things as they are in EB I.
Also, while people in ancient times liked to dress in colourful ways, they didn't have our industrial, (over-)bright colours at their disposal.

That said, the Lusotannan colour looks a bit... unbecoming, when they conquer half of Europe.

B-Wing
12-09-2009, 18:48
Could be my monitor settings, but Makedonia is clearly brown to me, though they are the darkest of the five. Black actually sounds a lot better, though, so I think I'll make them that. :cheesy: I believe that was their original RTW color anyway.

I'd also like to mention that I do really, really like the fact that in EB each faction's territory are represented by only one color (well, except for the rebels, but that is fine) instead of two. Makes the mini-map much clearer, especially in places with dense or winding boundaries. :thumbsup:

Krusader
12-11-2009, 00:07
Some of the faction colors were simply kept from vanilla or altered slightly.

The new factions in EB2 will use colors that are not in use by nearby factions, like Pergamon who will use purple. Closest faction with similarish color is Baktria.

ziegenpeter
12-11-2009, 16:01
Meaning POntos won't be purple anymore and Hay not light blue...:sneaky:

Ca Putt
12-11-2009, 16:20
just what I thought :DD

B-Wing
12-11-2009, 17:24
Oh dang, I did like Purple Pontos. :nice: I liked Armenia's color, too, but I was really hoping they would adopt the Artaxiad Dynasty's standard's color (as represented in Wikipedia).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artaxiad_Dynasty

Not sure what you call that (red-purple?), but I think it would look nice on the campaign map. 2 cents deposited.

Saxby
12-11-2009, 23:34
I love that i can't tell how many men the selucids have! (same with france in E:TW). Its always a nice supprise when i realise its only 1 unit and a really heart stopping shock when i realise my town has just been attacked by a full stack when before i was wondering what they were doing attacking me with 1 unit. Makes everything much more interesting.

Krusader
12-12-2009, 00:20
Meaning POntos won't be purple anymore and Hay not light blue...:sneaky:

Just shows how easy it is to forget the little guys :wink:

Well, from the alpha tests we done it seems the colors are different enough with Pergamon's purple being different enough to distinguish it from Pontos and Hayasdan. Although if people complain that the colors are too alike, there might be changes.

ziegenpeter
12-12-2009, 06:54
Oh dang, I did like Purple Pontos. :nice: I liked Armenia's color, too, but I was really hoping they would adopt the Artaxiad Dynasty's standard's color (as represented in Wikipedia).

YOu will probably never see them, although they look great: The Artrix Dynasty wasn't royal until the early 2nd century bc, so way after the campaign beginning.