Unit cards - what do you think??

[* Matolo Swazulu *]

So with the reveal of a new picture today, what do we make of the actual unit cards, NOT the whole of the interface.
Don't forget, as there are more units in the roster, then they will scale down the cards.
But do you like the style for the Romans? Just interested to see how y'all feel about it, nothing more. Personally, I like them.
Videos:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKSkBEJ_wrM or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvXCx...HiznWQ&index=3 or

Picture:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

So far, we have only seen Greeco-Roman style unit cards, so there will be variation between factions and cultures and therefore our judgements must be a little reserved.

So hopefully this thread has helped to guide them on their changes and act as feedback.
Changes include:

• change the white background so it doesn't stand out as harshly.
• add a man counter to the unit card.
• make the cards more different so they can be told apart faster.
• Change the shade of red to a slightly darker tone
• reduce the size of the black void where there once was a unit

An example of what changes could be implemented: courtesy of = Vastator = (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/membe...15380-Vastator)


10/5/13 update: It looks like CA are confirming the use of the greeco-Roman stylised unit cards. They are unlikely to change now:
If you look carefully on the pack of cards that you'll get in the collectors edition, look at the pictures of the soldiers. This further points to CA sticking with and backing this style of unit card.

Picture of Punic Wars playing cards:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Let the duel begin!

[Rebel_Caesar]

I hate the new unit cards they're ugly and hideous. They can't possibly change it or improve it because they just can't. It's small tiny things that will make the game HORRIBLE, but I will still play it and enjoy it even though I overreact over every small historically inaccurate thing, like how the unit cards don't look Roman enough, even though they are just unit cards...

[I2ain_2_Battle]

i was never really that crazy about the style they used in shogun 2, but over the years i got used to it.. i guess I'm more a traditionalist. but the deck of cards look cool, i just would hope more of a distinction between the artistic representation of the roman legionaries.

[Eofor]

The red on them needs to be a darker shade. Also I'd rather they use a different art style for each culture.

[Stavroforos]

I'm not too thrilled about them, but they won't really be noticeable after a few battles anyway.

[john duca]

my interest is the gameplay , graphics and as many features as possible..unit cards and other minor things are nothing for me...

[Toho]

I like the style but it is extremely difficult to tell units apart, the pictures look almost identical.

here is what I suggested in the other thread.

there could be more body coloring than just black, adding more colors could certainly help, avoid using the same position, make the pieces look more distinct.
perhaps some parts of the armor (instead of black) could be colored as gold, silver or bronze to differentiate the units further like gold helmet, gold shield decorations, gold shoulder pads are my first cohort, (and so on).

THAT would help a lot with how a player can make a distinction between unit cards and it takes little effort.

[Sir Furlong]

Not a huge fan of them, hopefully the final product will be better.

[Sharpe]

They are great - nice to see original artwork.

[jakeswe]

Would rather have mosaic style, brighter and more colors than just two. But they would not be bad after some tweaks.

[Haincz]

Simple and stylish - for me OK

[Sol Invictus]

They look like utter crap imo. I had no problem with the style used in S2 but this new style just doesn't cut it.

[B-DizL]

I like how they are kind of stylized and they look like art of that period.

[flippingdesks]

Meh, It's not even in alpha yet so we don't know fo sho if it'll be good or not till very later. I honestly don't like them, but even if they don't change them it won't stop me from buying the game.

[Augustus Scipius]

Meh, It's not even in alpha yet so we don't know fo sho if it'll be good or not till very later. I honestly don't like them, but even if they don't change them it won't stop me from buying the game.

The game is surely at alpha by now. Release is only five months away if there is any truth in that article about the novel.

Unfortunately after all the usual whining and bashing, CA might replace the unit cards with something less unique and creative. Which would be a damn shame really. I am surprised people hate the unit cards so much. One would think all the history fanatics here would love unit cards that resemble real pottery art.

[Lancy]

From a multiplayer perspective,

Change of colour when the card is selected is fantastic and makes it very clear which unit is selected (unlike in some of the newer games such as ETW)

The artwork is nice, but for the purposes of MP it's not as practical as having a picture of the actual in game unit would be. For that purpose the original RTW's cards were better, since you could very easily tell at a split second what was what. But they're still nice and I'm sure I'd get used to them.

[tungri_centurio]

i like them, maybe a bit to arty,good difference between color of selected unit

[TrizzyG]

They don't show enough information as of now.

They also look very rigid. Some improvements needed.

[nomercysniper]

Not sure how much work this involves, but CA could put this as a battle setting when you start a campaign? Unit card design - Pottery or picture? Cant imagine much effort to knock together a picture of the unit?

[Anna_Gein]

This style of unit cards is an interesting idea but it needs a lot of rework. The major grief is the colours. Especially the white for the back ground as it is aggressive to the eyes and makes the whole card difficult to read. Greek Ceramic painting followed simple colours coding until the Hellenistic era : black and some kind of red (sorry I could not find better word in english).

This would give the Black Figures :

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

And the Red Figures :

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

As you could this colour coding does no make the painting as difficult to read as CA unit cards. So CA artists should really be as much faithful as possible to the style they want to reproduce.

Of course more colours could be use.

Minoan painting :

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Roman painting :

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

One important point would be to be faithful to the colours tone. Darker shade would do far better as it would makes the cards more clear. It is pretty much the reason why NTW cards were better than ETW cards.

Here an example of modern reproductions. Imagine the same cards with this colour code.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Better no ? So if CA choose code colour composed of three colours they should use this shade of black, red and cream. Cream could be the background colour as it is the most neutral colour. Then CA could alternate black or red as primary/secondary colour of the unit painting itself.


About the UI itself don't really understand why there is so much space wasted between the unit's stat, the unit cards and the map. As it is right now the unit cards could get more and so be more clear.

As it has already been told command and ability buttons should be up the cards and not down. And CA should not forget the automatic organization of the cards order by type and enable the player to reorganize it as he wish by including a manual command. ETW UI was an epic fail on this later point.