Facings, colours and accuracy.
Hi everyone!
My first post here, and hopefully I won't be touching on anything already answered/discussed. Played (and loved) RTW, BI, RTR () and M2TW when they all came out, and have been dreaming about a 18th/early 19th TW game all along (Did a bachelor on napoleonics, and do national archive research on my countrys armed forces of 1700-1815).
Waiting for a new desktop to be able to play ETW, but can easily say, as noted many times here already, that the uniforms, even for Great Britain which received most of the research effort, are way way off from their historical counterparts (at least for the history buffs out there, the same ones that downloaded RTR and the various accuracy mods for M2TW?).
I have no doubt that the eminent modders on here will attempt to put this right during the coming months, which brings me to my suggestions and thoughts. Before I start, I am fully aware that compromise is the name of the game, so I will try to stay realistic.
Also: please, no uniform/faction detail discussions here, apart from example using, I think they belong in the historical research section of the forum.
I have no idea wether any of this will be possible within ETW, but here goes:
1) All factions as they are in vanilla need virtually all-new skins and flags (or dare I say "colours", as in regimental flags + correct national flags). I think most people on TWC would agree with this, either out of historical interest or just the joy of playing with some of the amazing skins and other mods that some of you guys on here are able to turn out. I believe a lot of the "clone" complaining on here would disappear just by having at least one correct skin for all troop types of each nation.
2) Eras
A lot happened uniformwise between 1700 and 1799. Is it possible to introduce (example) three major changes, a la Marian Reforms for all relevant factions? Mainly changing skins, but maybe also tweak stats to allow for new developments/recessions etc.
1700-1740: Early, relatively simple, with few differences between nations. "National" colours like red for GB are emerging, but many armies/units are still clad in the natural wool grey that later evolves into the white of Austria, Spain etc, irrespective of unit nationality, the key to recognition is in facings and colours/flags + stuff like the "feldzeichen" sprig of leaves in Austrian hats., and sashes/armbands (like in "for King or Country, although the uniforms are more modern)
The current ETW pikemen seem quite representative of the general style.
1740-1770: "High" period, Prussia takes the lead, and this is very much reflected in the uniforms of the rest of Europe too, military thinking at the time seems to have incorporated the idea that "if I dress my army like them, they will fight as well as them."
1770-1800: Late period. Some armies stay very conservative, others change their appearances based on practical experience (Brits in North America and India), or random fancies by their rulers (The Swedish "national" uniforms of 1779 or the Russian "Potemkin" uniforms of 1786).
3) Uniformity.
As written in many posts since ETW came out, this is the age where uniforms actually appear and become the norm, the vanilla game appears to reflect this, but in a way too bland/non-researched way.
But: during each of the three periods mentioned above (very roughly) there were basically one type of line infantry uniform pr. faction, one artillery uniform, and one cavalry uniform (and then there would be one basic cut of uniform for horseguards, dragoons, cuirassiers, light dragoons, hussars, lancers etc).
The point is: the difference between a states units was most often (yes I'm generalising here) in the facing colour (cuff, plastron, turnbacks, collar) and button colour (silver or gold).
Additional variation would be types of lace (or no lace), etc etc etc, but the uniforms were basically the same.
Correspondingly, the flags of the unit would often reflect this, like the British system where one regiment with green facings also would have a green regimental flag with a small union jack in the upper corner(yes, and also a full size union jack kings colour), blue facings = blue regimental colour, etc etc.
Without getting into more detail: The system is quite similar for most european nations, which leads me to my main question: with historically correct national skins for each troop type as a foundation, would it be possible to include a in-game "console" for changing the facing colour of the unit?
Now I'm not asking for the full palette out of MSpaint (or the ridicoulos total amount of any nations combinations from the era), but the most common facing colours, like red, yellow, blue, green, orange, maybe two shades of each of these, with regimental flags (where appropriate) automatically changing with this... not the same I know, but it's the same principle as customizing your carcolour in a car game, and I believe it is possible in the long awaited (enormously delayed?) HistWar: Les Grognards http://www.histwar.com/ ,although with a much bigger choice of customization for each unit).
In my humble opinion basic correct skins, with the possibility of changing between 5-8 basic facing colours in-game, maybe even coat colours for units like hussars + a few accurate special units (example: irish, swiss) with differing uniforms would both break up the "clone look" that some complain about, and at the same time increase the game quality enormously for the history immersion gamers, while giving a much more correct picture of an army on the battle map.
In RT and M2 this could have been solved by assigning different colours to units from different cities, with the new province system I don't see this as a possibility, and I guess putting in 50 identical line infantry units with only differing details in eg. Paris is not an option.
What do you think?
regards
J.v.E.
PS: I have no mod experience beyond reading here and understanding some basics, so please don't flame me for ignorance if what I wrote is completely silly.
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Originally Posted by Dux Eboracum
