Campaign map

[Rodion Romanovich]

I was thinking about doing something with in-game shots too, but at that time I didn't have any skinned units for the mod ready. Your picture looks good, but I don't think we should have that much fire, and rather stick to a realistic-looking color scale, for the sky. A real sky at sunset looks red enough IMO.

For loading screens in general I think a mix of calm natural views and battle pictures would be good for loading screens. Also, for the battle pictures I think it would be cool if we used a more complex terrain and arrange the exact battle scene we want in a custom battle or in multiplayer with each other to get the pictures we want.

[ScionTheWorm]

I agree, the example was really just to illustrate what i meant, it was not as a candidate. I think in-game screens will look great when more units arrive (I can see it; hordes of spear in the background, dust, fire, death) heh

If integrated with some photographs (towns, backgrounds, fire) and some artistic filters in photoshop it would really be something. I think it should be dark, but if not, at least have some consistency in the colors (like vanilla rome with red loading screens, a little boring with one color though..).

I mean a bearly edited in-game screenshot is still just a screen-shot. should be something more. (I think this is actually very important, it sets the mood for the whole experience. agree?)

[Rodion Romanovich]

I think this is actually very important, it sets the mood for the whole experience. agree?

Yes, I agree to that. Unfortunately I felt restricted to make it look more like a painting because the graphics you get on the campaign map and the battle field rendering doesn't look that dark either. I don't know what others think but I'd go for a combination of say 5 edited battle scenes screenshots and around 10 nature pictures from Nordic winter landscapes. The battle screenshots could be really cool if we arranged them well.

Here are some suggestions for new loading screens ideas (some are nature views, others are battle scenes):

1. a small army on a hill in the foreground, looking down on a huge army below in the background.
2. half-way through a chargefrom the best knights into a flank of the enemy
3. some hand-to-hand combat with all units mixed up with each other
4. a burning village with viking raiders running around with torches and swords (this one will probably have to be a combination of own images and in-game screenshots - perhaps it's too complicated)
5. a naked, snow-covered field, with dead bodies lying in the foreground, and a battle scene far in the background
6. icelandic southern coast
7. a norwegian fiord seen from the sea or perhaps from an inland mountain
8. a forest of thin trees edited so it's looks really eerie
9. a Rus siege of Constantinople
10. a Viking siege of Paris

[ScionTheWorm]

1. a small army on a hill in the foreground, looking down on a huge army below in the background
2. half-way through a chargefrom the best knights into a flank of the enemy
3. some hand-to-hand combat with all units mixed up with each other
4. a burning village with viking raiders running around with torches and swords (this one will probably have to be a combination of own images and in-game screenshots - perhaps it's too complicated)
5. a naked, snow-covered field, with dead bodies lying in the foreground, and a battle scene far in the background
6. icelandic southern coast
7. a norwegian fiord seen from the sea or perhaps from an inland mountain
8. a forest of thin trees edited so it's looks really eerie
9. a Rus siege of Constantinople
10. a Viking siege of Paris

Would like to have more teammembers discussing this. I don't feel like white/gray winter landscapes gives the right mood, like the one with the bird (specie: dompap in norwegian?), i think it should either be open and very nice landscapes, something with a specific culture, or something with war (mainly this). I think your suggestions is very good though!!

4. a burning village with viking raiders running around with torches and swords (this one will probably have to be a combination of own images and in-game screenshots - perhaps it's too complicated)

This would be great!

I think screenshots/parts of screenshots should be used all pictures containing troops and military for consistency. We could get really great shots with the "free zoom"-mod (we can zoom out as far as we want + we can get the frog-perspective). With some artistic filters it could easely be integrated with other images, as for instance a burning village. As for colours I agree they should not be as dark as my example, but they should have a tendency to be dominated by one or two neutral colours (I think a little dark-gray-blue would do).

[Rodion Romanovich]

Ok, no dompap then :). I like the village though, it looked good even when resized to cover the entire screen. R:TW uses 1024*768 resolution for the loading screens so some screens I made and thought looked good became ugly when covering the entire screen. I think we could remove the battle of Hastings site image too, and only keep the village. It's the only shot I was completely satisfied with.

[skeletor]

LegioXXX, have you looked in to the user-interface files? Alot of things there have to be canged to get rid of the Roman/greek styles.

If your working on it, I'll leave it alone, if not, i think i have a look at it..

-Skel-

[Rodion Romanovich]

You mean fonts and things such as team number being I, II, III, IV, V etc.? I haven't done any work on it yet, I've been too busy with the campaign map, researching and doing test graphics for faction symbols etc.