BRRROOOOWWWWNNNNN

[Insurance Salesman]

Rome 2 looks good. REALLY good. Especially for a game that's still in alpha. The massive scale of cities, the realistic way that soldiers move (bar some wierdness with the group fighting) and the lighting effects all combine to give an epic feel to the proceedings that I think even Shogun 2 lacked. Hats off to CA, this is their best effort yet.

But the color scheme. God, that brown-grey drab color scheme. I understand that it's an artistic choice, but personally I think it's a bad one. Remember how the developers mentioned the diverse cultures and uniforms of the Roman era? The Carthigians, the Gauls, the Egyptians (kinda, I'm guessing they weren't EXACTLY like the greeks), and more await you on the battlefield! Except you won't be able to tell them apart, because they'll all look like brownish-grey blobs with enough bloom to blind the Sun itself. Hell, it might even be hard to tell units apart without being able to see colors like the grey of a wolf pelt, the red of a roman tunic or the (blue? never played Rome 1) color of auxiliaries.

Those majestic cities I mentioned? They'll be brown, drab and lifeless without color. The natural world won't be any better, with the vibrant greens, reds and blues of nature replaced with the color of mud and stone. And the sea? Neptune may be blue, but the true color of the god would be drab-brown in this world.

If CA wants this color scheme, then that's their choice. It does give a good sense of apocalyptic despair, and for the trailer I think it worked pretty well. But on the campaign map, all it will do is make every place look the same and make the game boring (and harder) to play. Please, CA, give an option to those who want color. I want to see the visual worlds you create.

[IGdood]

Didn't someone mention that's what things look like when a city is on fire?

[Insurance Salesman]

Didn't someone mention that's what things look like when a city is on fire?

Um, I didn't see much fire in that city. Plus the soldier's uniforms looked brown and drab even before reaching the shores. It's the color scheme, not distortion by smoke or anything.

If you mean that color scheme only gets applied to battles in destroyed cities, however...

[triptyck]

well, i also found it more difficult to distinguish troop details because of the hard lighting and heavy tinting.

but from what I understand, the gold/brown tint of the lighting is a function of the battle's locale in the North Africa. I would assume that they're playing with distinguishing atmospheric effects in different geographic regions.

and also, I think the effect is more pronounced/harder on the eyes because we're viewing a lower res video than our monitors would run the game at.

[HusKatten]

and also, I think the effect is more pronounced/harder on the eyes because we're viewing a lower res video than our monitors would run the game at.

This makes sense

I do agree that they have put a little too much colour in the lightning, but it may be just for show now during this alpha hype period.

[Påsan]

As an insurance salesman, you should perhaps look into making thread titles that builds towards your point with the thread rather than "BRRROOOOWWWWNNNNN".

Other than that, I disagree with everything

[HusKatten]

Insurance: It has already been stated that the "colour-themes" depends on where in the world you are. In Africa you will have this brownish colour, and in Gaul the colour will change. Its their new lightning system that lets them project different kind of lightning depending on the time of day and where you are fighting geographically.

.

[Insurance Salesman]

Insurance: It has already been stated that the "colour-themes" depends on where in the world you are. In Africa you will have this brownish colour, and in Gaul the colour will change. Its their new lightning system that lets them project different kind of lightning depending on the time of day and where you are fighting geographically.

.

Oh.

Well, I still think it doesn't look very good. The color scheme really makes Carthage look drab and boring, which is not the feeling you should get from one of the largest and most prosperous cities of the time. It should be grand!

[a tw player]

That's how the lighting would be at a certain time of day, with smoke/dust in the sky, in North Africa.

[Swerg]

Brown + bloom = reality

Didn't you learn ANYTHING from 2006?

[RabidTurtl]

You may want to read this thread. Post 5 explains the brown color.

[atheniandp]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

To say that the Rome II screenshots were not inspired by this at least in part would be an outright lie. But I doubt the whole game will take this approach so nothing to worry about yet. Though it is overdone, hopefully it'll just be a feature of the Battle of Carthage rather than something common.

[agent 47]

Its one type of lighting, there will be loads of different times based on the weather, time of day and environment, just like any warscape based total war title.

There has always been around 4-5 for each time of day in conjuction with 4-5 weather types and environment types like arid, temperate, tropical etc.

[DarthShizNit]

As someone who's desert like state spent most of the summer on fire, I can say that that color scheme is as dead on as you can get.

[Kinjo]

Way better then the ultra bright florescent colors of the past, to be honest I like the nitty gritty look. Hopefully we won't see pink Parthians or other stupid ass florescent faction colors.

[Ichon]

This colors scheme while not ideal is far better than most other TW games so far.

[johnny_b_good]

I hope this is only for Africa... They can show us gameplay Rome vs Gauls etc, not only scripted Carthage battle.

[Goudvinger]

I'm sure it has something to do with the time of the day and the climate in which the battle is portrayed.

[Kinjo]

I happen to live in a desert and yeah everything is brown even the people. In the evenings even the sky can have a gold/brown color. I imagine most of the people who are complaining about this has never been to a desert region.

http://www.favillephoto.com/pics/sou...ona-sunset.jpg

[Argon Viper]

Being from California, I agree with the coloring; when the northstate is on fire, the air and the lighting look exactly like that. Also, I had no trouble telling the units apart. The Romans were wearing dark chain mail and their traditional crimson, and the Carthaginians were wearing a cotton colored white. Even from a distance, I could tell that the dark was Roman and the light Carthaginian.