BI Demo Comments

[Lonely Soldier]

I just DL'ed and played through the demo then...

All I can say is U G L Y units! OMG they were hideous.

The Franks particularly! Thank God for RTR!

[Kurando]

All I can say is U G L Y units! OMG they were hideous.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I am almost certain that the colours are not historically accurate in some cases.

It is my understanding that purple colouring could only be gathered from a particular type of shellfish in those days, and that the process of making purple dye was both labour intensive and VERY expensive. In brief, there is no way that an entire Roman battlegroup could be outfitted in purple regalia. Hence, purple was known as a "royal colour" because only nobility, or the very rich, could afford a touch of purple on their garments.

Maybe Orda Khan or one of the other historians could confirm this, but I'm pretty sure that such was the case back then.

[Zenicetus]

The colors bother me too. There are too many primary "digital paintbox" colors. It's a Crayola version of the ancient world. I don't know enough about the history of dyes to be certain, but it seems to me that the range of colors for clothing, shield paint, etc. would have been at least somewhat limited, and probably further away from the pure primaries we take for granted today.

BI (and RTW too) has the look of the early Technicolor movie epics, where all the colors were bright, bright, bright. More modern historical movies tend to use a dulled-down palette, which (historical or not) I think looks better. There is also more (simulated) dirt and dust on everything in most modern historical movies. That's another thing lacking in the look of RTW/BI. All the soldiers are just way too clean... like they put on freshly laundered uniforms for drill inspection in a training barracks, instead of wearing the same thing after a months-long march through enemy territory. Dulling down the palette would help kill that "freshly laundered" look.

[Orda Khan]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I am almost certain that the colours are not historically accurate in some cases.

It is my understanding that purple colouring could only be gathered from a particular type of shellfish in those days, and that the process of making purple dye was both labour intensive and VERY expensive. In brief, there is no way that an entire Roman battlegroup could be outfitted in purple regalia. Hence, purple was known as a "royal colour" because only nobility, or the very rich, could afford a touch of purple on their garments.

Maybe Orda Khan or one of the other historians could confirm this, but I'm pretty sure that such was the case back then.

The colour Purple was indeed regarded as the colour of nobility and I must add that I am honoured to be mentioned by one of our very own 'royal' members ( as in April 1999 ) It is so good to see the original members such as yourself, Kurando, still posting at the Org

.......Orda

P.S. I doubt whether each soldier would look exactly alike either, there is only so much that can be achieved by a game and colour coordination in order to identify your army is ok by me

[Kurando]

The colour Purple was indeed regarded as the colour of nobility and I must add that I am honoured to be mentioned by one of our very own 'royal' members ( as in April 1999 ) It is so good to see the original members such as yourself, Kurando, still posting at the Org

You flatter me with your complements, Mongol + the fact that I am still around after this long is due to two reasons:

1) That Tosa and company have kept the site going, and that the quality of the org patrons and moderators is always top notch.

2) That the Total War series itself is such a superb group of games. I think that BI is just another progression in this series and it keeps getting better. S:TW delivered the goods and R:TW was unquestionably a masterpiece.

..

As per the colours I'd have to agree: the main thing is establishing identity on the battlefield + historical accuracy is a distant concern. I recall that the original Shogun totalwar movies featured units that were so colourful that we nic named them "smurf armies" so Richie and the dev team toned them down a bit. I think the trend back towards more colour in the battle groups is clearly evident in BI, and this is a mixed blessing.

As per Lonely Soldier's contention that the units are ugly, I'd have to agree and say that too is a mixed blessing; nonetheless I'd be more worried if the Barbarians were pretty... Heck, the are barbarians after all!