What is "unit-experience-upgrade-effect"?

**econ21** · 05-30-2006, 15:12

I've just noticed in the preferences.txt there is a line:

UNIT-EXPERIENCE-UPGRADE-EFFECT: TRUE

Anyone knows what it refers to? What happens if you switch it to false?

**Barbarossa82** · 05-30-2006, 17:59

It toggles the sparkling, shooting stars effect you see when units gain veterancy on the battlefield. If you turn it off (I certainly do), then you won't see it.

EDIT: It doesn't stop units gaining experience of course, it just removes the realism-destroying, though sometimes useful, sparkling graphic.

**Garvanko** · 05-31-2006, 00:54

So thats what that sparkling effect is about.

Heh. You learn something new every day.

**econ21** · 05-31-2006, 01:22

Originally Posted by Barbarossa82

It toggles the sparkling, shooting stars effect you see when units gain veterancy on the battlefield. If you turn it off (I certainly do), then you won't see it.

Cool - I thought that effect was supposed to be sun glinting on armour or something. It does sound strange but I'll keep it on for now, as I always like to check which units gain experience in a battle.

**x-dANGEr** · 05-31-2006, 07:46

I really find it usefull in MP battles, it lets me know which enemy units got some XP points so I try to dispose them fast. (Via arrows, as XP adds nothing to 'Armor').

**gardibolt** · 05-31-2006, 17:14

I've never seen this effect. I wonder if I somehow turned it off? Or maybe my soldiers just never gain levels.

BHCWarman88 · 05-31-2006, 17:25

I learn something new today,lol..

**Krauser** · 06-01-2006, 03:58

Originally Posted by BHCWarman88

I learn something new today,lol..

Me too :)
I thought it was some warcry thing. In some other games warcries cause the units to glow for a short time.

**Cras** · 06-02-2006, 08:59

I always wondered what it was... at first I thought it was some kind of berserk mode... whenever my opponents had it, I thought oh sh*t! more troops on them!

**Severous** · 06-03-2006, 08:13

Now you know what it is you may also think it strange when some units gain experience.

Routing troops for instance will sometimes glitter with experience upgrade.

Its very hard to get screenshots of this. Pausing the game does not stop the glittering effect wearing off. By the time you see it, zoom in close, print screen the effect has gone.

I love the effect. Not because its pretty but as a sign of success in the 'role play' nature of unit development.

**Seasoned Alcoholic** · 06-03-2006, 09:57

Originally Posted by Severous

Its very hard to get screenshots of this. Pausing the game does not stop the glittering effect wearing off. By the time you see it, zoom in close, print screen the effect has gone.

Are you using Alt+PrtSc to capture your screenshots? Try a realtime image capturing tool, such as FRAPS for example. This effective little tool also provides a frames-per-second (fps) display counter in the top left-hand corner of the screen, which enables you to see how many frames you average throughout various areas of the game (EG loading screens, campaign map, battle map and so on).

As for the unit experience upgrade effects, I'm not a fan of them tbh, they've been switched off since they were first made available in whichever patch they were included with

This topic has reminded me to turn off some other features that dent the realism, such as the green triangles that are displayed under a unit once it has been selected, but I'll probably keep the battle standards in.

I've also prevented berserker units from going into bloodlust mode and chasing anything they see across the battlefield until they exhaust themselves (and are vunerbale to counterattacks). The player should be able to retain some kind of control over any type of unit, but that's just my opinion.

**Severous** · 06-03-2006, 15:34

I take a screen shot with just one button press. 'PrtSc'.

Got a twinkle this morning !

Death of the enemy general screen. Because I didnt have to zoom in I was able to get to the button in time.

**Alim** · 06-03-2006, 22:32

Routing troops for instance will sometimes glitter with experience upgrade

This could be because experience is tracked per man (I think that is the case in RTW). The experience of the unit is average of the experience of the soldiers in this unit, so if low-experience individuals are killed the average experence of the unit will go up.