Will it ever be possible to have flying units on TW?

[Desperado †]

Title says it all.

[B. Ward]

Yes, if you can create the model, skeleton, and animations for such units.

[Aradan]

Adding a 3rd dimension to the battle-map would make the game very complicated, and as we have all seen, the AI is already struggling to handle 2 dimensions with 3d models/animations.
Plus, flying units would only be *necessary* in a modern era game, the "principles" of which would be quite different than the ones TW games so far are based on, because the type of warfare is fundamentally different. I don't think TW style is 'compatible' with this sort of gameplay.

So, I'd say no.

Talking about actual flying units, not regular ones that only look like flying.

[Turk]

Its possible,There was aflying Carpet Unit they just made the Elephant Model not visible and it looked like it was flying

[Augustus Lucifer]

As has already been said, if you have a good enough modeler who is also a brilliant animator, you can give the impression that a unit is flying. You can't actually make them fly though, which implies altitude changes separate from the attack animation, and the ability to go over structures rather than keeping to pathfinding.

The best example of a flying unit is the Nazgul in wlesmana's Lord of the Rings: Total War modification, which actually does a fairly good job of looking real, but of course still hits the engine limits, such as being stopped at the gates by an invisible wall, and following the path through buildings.

Cheers,
Augustus

[Lysimachos]

As has already been said, if you have a good enough modeler who is also a brilliant animator, you can give the impression that a unit is flying. You can't actually make them fly though, which implies altitude changes separate from the attack animation, and the ability to go over structures rather than keeping to pathfinding.

The best example of a flying unit is the Nazgul in wlesmana's Lord of the Rings: Total War modification, which actually does a fairly good job of looking real, but of course still hits the engine limits, such as being stopped at the gates by an invisible wall, and following the path through buildings.

Cheers,
Augustus

And being hit by melee units while seemingly flying high over them.

[Desperado †]

Ah. I understand. I guess there really isn't much of a need for them, seeing as Total War is historically accurate and dosen't go ahead of 1900's (or at least I hope they wont).

I was just thinking about dragons and such.

[Jubal_Barca]

The flying carpet was my work, and yes, it was an elephant. Despite the fact I can't model. Or animate.

Adding a third dimension would not necessarily be necessary if the engine were designed correctly; AOEIII/AOM has no z axis at all but has tons of fliers - they just hover at a set height. If it were possible to have units hovering it could work...

[HouseOfHam]

I think they're also a mod with flying dragons. Can't remember if it's LOTR or FATW or some other fantasy mod.

[Aradan]

It's LotR-TW, it has "flying" Fellbeasts. Great animations.