Elephant Countdown Timer in E3 Video Interview

[jhcena1985]

Minutes 9:02 in the E3 Video Preview a countdown timer is present when the player select the elephant unit...What it is for?

[Gugg]

Think you can show on the image where the timer is? I can't seem to find it. I may just be blind

[jhcena1985]

Think you can show on the image where the timer is? I can't seem to find it. I may just be blind

It is in the bottom UI, last command on the right...

[jhcena1985]

Here it the same screenshot with the timer highlighted...

[Gugg]

Ah there we go. I'm not sure. Maybe it's a certain amount of time your elephants can spend in constant battle without going amock, which according to the screen seems to be around 200 seconds.

EDIT: Now that I think about it. A special ability seems more likely, yeah.

[Eofor]

Special ability probably.

[freakkriek]

it was told in interview, it's a rage meter
consider it a warning before they rampage

[[N2]Kami]

So they can only fight in 200 second? Before they became a killing machine?

[-=PHX=-Hades]

So they can only fight in 200 second? Before they became a killing machine?

I don't think it's so much how long they can fight. Certain things make them go crazy faster, like fire arrows, flaming pigs (I think they're back, right?). So I assume it's more of a "meter" till they go nuts and kill everyone.

Or it's a timer for some type of special ability.

[Bearnation54]

Maybe it's a special ability like flaming arrows had a timer in shogun 2

[DogSoldierSPQR]

Think about it, guys, it's probably a controlled rage power up. You click it, Elephants go mad for 30 seconds until they resume to normal combat until the timer expires and the ability becomes available again.

[|Sith|Galvanized Iron]

Think about it, guys, it's probably a controlled rage power up. You click it, Elephants go mad for 30 seconds until they resume to normal combat until the timer expires and the ability becomes available again.

That would be utterly idiotic since everyone knows that the bain for any elephant commander was their elephants amoking.

[DogSoldierSPQR]

That would be utterly idiotic since everyone knows that the bain for any elephant commander was their elephants amoking.

Then why don't you enlighten us all as to what it is? The only thing I can think of that has a timer is power up, which were in Shogun 2. For an elephant unit, there is not much else they can have other than something like what I said. I never said running amok. I meant an ability where their abilities can be boosted and they can be immune to running amok or even getting scared in general for a short amount of time.

[Zeybek]

The rage meter that leads to the elephants running amok was called 'internal' in the video, i.e something we can't see, so its not that. Plus as has been pointed out the very idea of 'click here to make your elephants uncotrollable' button is pretty silly.

[Lockcaps]

Some kind of special ability.

Mutation: Mumakil - transforms the elephant into a mumakil for 30 seconds.

[|Sith|Galvanized Iron]

Not Mûmakils, it turns them into Yubtseb Elephants:

These mysterious creatures from the middle principalities of farthest Terra Nova are the children of of Gnitekram, the God of Shiny Things That Man Does Not Need But Desires Anyway. Dark and foul are the ceremonies that summon them; great and scary are their tusks; terrible is their gaze; unwashed are their riders; cruel and unforgiving their masters. Flee in terror. Run for the hills.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

For those who don't know, these were an Easter Egg in the original RTW. Yubtseb is Bestbuy backwards and Gnitekram is Marketing backwards. Ironically it seems that CA with their pay-to-win DLC mania themselves have been enthralled under the spell of Gnitekram in recent years... But this was from a time when CA was still pure and untainted. lol. Amen.

[Ser Hodorius]

The players at E3 demo play had 10 minutes to win the battle, if I know well. Maybe the counter is for that purpose.

[[N2]Kami]

A big bad ass elephant with a bunch of Cretan archer?
BEST ****ING THING EVER.

I had never heard about them for all these years.