Late game unit appearance

I have yet to see all the available units in Medieval II, but I noticed that many units lose their unique appearance in late game as they get armor upgrades.

As an example, Teutonic knights and Norman Knights , which look fantastic with their default armor, turn into feudal knights when their armor is upgraded.

It would be nice if they retained a bit more of their unique appearance than just the shields.

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...tonicearly.jpghttps://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...ormanearly.jpg

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...utoniclate.jpghttps://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...normanlate.jpg

RANT !!!!

I agree 100%. It's freaking ridiculous to upgrade and see Hospitallers turn into any other scrap metal on horse back. Annoying as hell. It's why I actually DON'T upgrade, often. At least the armor should have something unique. Specially English Knights, WOW ! Now they really look terrible once in plate.

RANT OVER

Agreed. Although to some degree they are supposed to get plates and look more similar (as plate is the most advanced armour).
I would like to think though, that individual units should keep some sign of originality, such as a cross engraved on the armour for teutons and a pot helmet or a different armour design for normans (to make them look different from dismounted chivs in your example)

Yeah at the very least a distinguishable cross, ornament or other symbol. I think the whole thing needs to be worked on a bit. Plate is too similar across the board for mounted knights IMHO. Different armor designs would be ideal.

At the very least, Teutonic and Hospitaller could still wear their uniform(robe?) over the new plate armor.

I would hate that to happen to me but i never get to upgrade grade armour anyway

Yeah or how about a cloak ? You can still wear that. I still favor unique armor design as best solution.

yeah using a cloak would look good

Well, I usually play as the Russians, and they actually flow more historically. I like that they incorporated the litchina and prilibits.

Here's a pic I found on the net of some Russian reenactors:

http://www.xenophon-mil.org/rushisto...armor/var3.jpg

http://www.xenophon-mil.org/rushisto...armor/var3.jpg

I dislike that the Teutonic Knight's lose their cross emblazoned cloaks but at least they keep their emblazoned shield. I do agree, it would be nice if they kept their cloaks.

Tschüß!
Erich

Nice pic Smith.

Hmm the cloak staying with plate armor is probably moddable. I'm getting ideas and....


.... I'm going to sleep before I lose any more sleep.

Well aside from exceptional units like the Teutonic Knights, the fact is Western European soldiers in the late Middle Ages looked pretty much the same wherever you went.

Quote:

---

the fact is Western European soldiers in the late Middle Ages looked pretty much the same wherever you went.

---

So then why all these different types of soldiers? You'd have to make their armor different OR make them all become a uniform multicultural unit "Generic Knights" unit when you get plate mail, if you want the game to make sense.

I think once the units are fully upgraded they should all look like this:

https://img45.imageshack.us/img45/12...movie03vs9.jpg

"
So then why all these different types of soldiers? "

Because obviously the developers decided they didn't want every Catholic faction to have exactly the same men-at-arms. They could well have just given all of them Feudal Knights, Chivalric Knights and Gothic Knights and they would have like men-at-arms did in their respective eras. Take a man-at-arms from the English War of the Roses and he probably would have the same as an Italian man-at-arms from the same period, one reason for this being that when possible knights or squires in Latin Christendom got their armour from a select few internationally renowned armourers.