Why do units light up?

[war is hell]

Why does the unit have to light up when I click on it? Is there a way to turn it off? Its really an eyesore...Great mod by the way

[bobbin]

So you know you've selected them

probably hardcoded so no luck in changing that i'm afraid.

[miotas]

Do you mean the green arrows? They can be turned off, I'm guessing it's something in the preferences file, it was done automatically when I installed BI.exe so I've never found out how to do.

[bobbin]

Its called DISABLE_ARROW_MARKERS.

[Ludens]

Disabling the arrow markers does not remove the "illumination" effect, BTW. There is no way to get rid of that, unfortunately.

[war is hell]

I'm not talking about green arrows, i'm talking about units lighting up like a bulb when i select them. It seems to be hardcode, thats unfortunate. Im a big fan of the hyper-realism and the "illumination" effect looks rather silly to me. You would think creative would of come up with cooler mechanism to tell me the unit I just clicked on. whats that sweboz chicken?

[antisocialmunky]

... there's other good way to do it unless you have any suggestions on how it should be done. I cna't think of any off the top of my head.

Honestly that's the first time I've seen poeple talk about THAT.

[mountaingoat]

Why does the unit have to light up when I click on it?

this is the almighty beam of light than is sent from your computer to the battlefield ... the light surrounding the unit acts as a type of brainwashing beam .. with this activated you can then order your unit of Sphendonetai to counter charge a group of elephants ...

[war is hell]

"the roman formation loses its order, a crowd of thousands pushes forward into hannibals center, the fate of empires hangs in the balance. Hannibal frantically searching his unit cards... The African infantry light up, signaling to hannibal they are ready to be ordered into the enemy flank...

[Hax]

whats that sweboz chicken?

It started off as a minor typo. Moros was talking about the varied unit rooster of EB2, to which I responded with something about chickens. That's the story.

[antisocialmunky]

There'd better be sweboz roosters in EBII. We all know how deadly incendary chickens were at the Teutoburger O_O.

[bobbin]

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence!

[Whatever Scortamareva]

Im a big fan of the hyper-realism and the "illumination" effect looks rather silly to me. You would think creative would of come up with cooler mechanism to tell me the unit I just clicked on.

I think the illumination effect is pretty good; it serves it's function well and is fairly subtle. Alternatives are probably hard to come by, especially with an attempt to focus on realism, perhaps the unit's banner could wave or something.

Can't you just get into the habit of pressing enter after you give your unit a command? Then, with no units illuminated you can fly around the virtual battlefield without a care in the virtual world.

[war is hell]

I think the illumination effect is pretty good; it serves it's function well and is fairly subtle. Alternatives are probably hard to come by, especially with an attempt to focus on realism, perhaps the unit's banner could wave or something.

Can't you just get into the habit of pressing enter after you give your unit a command? Then, with no units illuminated you can fly around the virtual battlefield without a care in the virtual world.

I didn't know I could deselect a unit with enter. Thats helpful. It's been a long time since i've played rtw.

If EB made there own game though, I don't think they would have the units "illuminate", ever...

How would the imperator of antiquity be able tell which unit is which, order them around and what not? Different standards or something?

[Whatever Scortamareva]

I didn't know I could deselect a unit with enter. Thats helpful. It's been a long time since i've played rtw.

If EB made there own game though, I don't think they would have the units "illuminate", ever...

How would the imperator of antiquity be able tell which unit is which, order them around and what not? Different standards or something?

Well the whole ordering units around and such is pretty ahistorical, in reality units would likely have set instructions to follow during the battle and the general would spend his time lolloping around doing his own thing.

There are bits and pieces of evidence pointing to actual communication being used on the battlefield as a means of ordering certain units to do certain things, but this is often seen as experimentation for the most part. It was probably more a cased of positioning well and screaming 'charge!' at the right moment.

Though i'm no expert on this, I better wait for the more knowledgable EBers to comment

[Ludens]

You've got a point, but the general wasn't quite that useless. Battles did last quite some time, so a general would have had the opportunity to order formations forward and backward, although any complex manoeuvres would have had to be pre-arranged. Positioning at the start of the battle would have to be pre-arranged as well.

[antisocialmunky]

Caesar several times rallied his routing troops by charging into the fray and shaming his men.

[Aemilius Paulus]

Caesar several times rallied his routing troops by charging into the fray and shaming his men.

Except that one time in Roman Greece, atDyrrachium (which would be more Epriote than Greek, but I beleive the Romans called it all Greece, up to Makedonia).

[war is hell]

Well the whole ordering units around and such is pretty ahistorical, in reality units would likely have set instructions to follow during the battle and the general would spend his time lolloping around doing his own thing.

There are bits and pieces of evidence pointing to actual communication being used on the battlefield as a means of ordering certain units to do certain things, but this is often seen as experimentation for the most part. It was probably more a cased of positioning well and screaming 'charge!' at the right moment.

Though i'm no expert on this, I better wait for the more knowledgable EBers to comment

True, but on the computer battlefield we are not just simulating the role of commander, we are simulating the role of the unit officers who acted on there own initiative once the pieces were set in motion...

[Whatever Scortamareva]

True, but on the computer battlefield we are not just simulating the role of commander, we are simulating the role of the unit officers who acted on there own initiative once the pieces were set in motion...

I suppose, but in any case it's hard to make any comparisons to how battles were really fought and how we fight them in EB, since the RTW battle system is simply a RTS 'version' of ancient battles.

I'm not sure about the unit officers idea either, I can't imagine that if there were unit officers for each unit, that they would have significant influence over what that unit did, apart from maybe keeping order in ranks.

I reckon these officers acting on their own initiative would only happen in the case of emergency, for example if the commander was killed or fled, or if the battle was clearly a losing one.

But anyway, part of the reason I love EB and RTW so much is because we don't fully know how battles worked or how men communicated on the battlefield (with exceptions, like Caesar's descriptions etc.), and that's why ima keep playing it

[war is hell]

I suppose, but in any case it's hard to make any comparisons to how battles were really fought and how we fight them in EB, since the RTW battle system is simply a RTS 'version' of ancient battles.

I'm not sure about the unit officers idea either, I can't imagine that if there were unit officers for each unit, that they would have significant influence over what that unit did, apart from maybe keeping order in ranks.

I reckon these officers acting on their own initiative would only happen in the case of emergency, for example if the commander was killed or fled, or if the battle was clearly a losing one.

But anyway, part of the reason I love EB and RTW so much is because we don't fully know how battles worked or how men communicated on the battlefield (with exceptions, like Caesar's descriptions etc.), and that's why ima keep playing it

Well the RTW engine is a far cry from a realistic depiction. I know that.
Honestly I was just appealing to the historical fanaticism so prevalent on this website in order to get a quick answer. What really bothers me is the fact that the illumination effect ruins the beautiful skins that make this mod exceptional. That and the fact that i was tired of searching for a unit not in my field of view to "hold the divine light" while I zoomed in and witnessed the mayhem. Thank God for enter!

Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm fairly sure "officers acting on there own initiative" is a direct quote from Goldsworthy. It might have been Keegan or Hanson or all three. I don't feel like looking up. How accurate there deductions are is up for debate. I'm not a historian. I doubt they have any reason to make stuff up without any hint of evidence. Goldsworthy suggests that the flexibility of the manipular legion is what made it so successful.

As far as never knowing what the ancient battle field was like, that is true. We can however make deductions based on artifacts and the nature of man in general. And since he is largely the same animal now as he was back then that should give us a close estimate and we'll just have to use our imaginations to fill in the rest.

Officers in modern combat often act on there own initiative, why wouldn't they in the past? I'm not implying they blatantly disregarded direct orders or anything of sort. But if an unfortold crisis occurs(i think warfare in general contains many of them) I think everyman would do what is necessary to save his own life or the lives of his comrades. I would think that such men would have been applauded by the commander for such bravery.

[Celtic_Punk]

its a visual aid so that you can see whom you are selecting. it helps a lot when you've got large armies of the same type of unit. even still it helps at all times. when i zoom in to watch the battle I deselect and watch the carnage unfold.

If you want rid of this you are silly.

[DaciaJC]

If you want rid of this you are silly.

If the default was no "lighting-up", and I asked that units be lit-up when selected, would you call me silly as well?

I urge you to avoid putting others down when they don't share the same opinion as you.

[Celtic_Punk]

I said he's silly, i didn't insult his mother... I could have said much much worse... it was more in jest than anything... Please don't be so uptight.

and if your hypothetical situation was true... i'd join you in saying "hey i'd like something to tell me how far my unit extends, and where it is and which one i'm selecting..

so my answer would be no... i would not call you silly.

[war is hell]

its a visual aid so that you can see whom you are selecting. it helps a lot when you've got large armies of the same type of unit. even still it helps at all times. when i zoom in to watch the battle I deselect and watch the carnage unfold.

If you want rid of this you are silly.

What's silly is this is the only thing you could contribute to the thread. Why don't you reserve such drivel for 4chan or another cesspool?

I know what its for. Double clicking takes me directly to the unit. I don't need the "illumination special ability " in order to play. I wanted to turn it off and couldn't figure out how.

Now I know why this community is so small.

I'll ignore you from here on.

[Whatever Scortamareva]

What's silly is this is the only thing you could contribute to the thread. Why don't you reserve such drivel for 4chan or another cesspool?

I know what its for. Double clicking takes me directly to the unit. I don't need the "illumination special ability " in order to play. I wanted to turn it off and couldn't figure out how.

Now I know why this community is so small.

I'll ignore you from here on.

Hahaha what? He called you silly, man up, its not a big deal.

And anyway, I find it hard to believe that you'd be able to play as well without knowing which unit was selected. Also there's the problem of selecting multiple units using the 'hold down lmb and drag', because a lot of the time it selects unwanted units, and if they didn't light up, how would you know?

There's also the issue of, when in battle, if you see on the user interface thingy at the bottom of the screen that a certain unit is losing a lot of casualties, how would you know which unit this was (if say you had a lot of the same type of unit) if you needed to withdraw/send a few reinforcements to it.

Double-clicking has uses if your units are spread out, but if it's turned into a brawl with lots of units fighting each other, double-clicking becomes pretty obscelete.

Are you really sure you'd be able to play without the illumination effect?

[DaciaJC]

Hahaha what? He called you silly, man up, its not a big deal.

That was unnecessary.

Are you really sure you'd be able to play without the illumination effect?

If, in the post just above you, he clearly said that he is able to play without the effect, why must you doubt him?

[Ludens]

The original question has been answered, and I doubt leaving this thread open will produce anything good.

Thread closed.

Apologies to war is hell that his discussion was derailed in this manner.