Anyone else seeing more and more over the top effects?

[perablenta]

It's kinda getting distracting as the multiple over the top effects are piling up.

First we had the huge explosions and flying men when they showed the Battle of the Nile. They fix that somewhat.

Then there was the whole thing with the arrow tracers. Then fixed that as well.

Then the large, in the middle of the unit card, status symbol.

Now in these new videos:
1) Massive signes/effects showing the hidden/out of line of sight status over the units banners
2) Silly, looking fireworks shows whenever you use the rally ability above every unit that gets affected
3) Using unit special abilities again has that over the top effect over the units banner
4) 3 meter tall dust clouds when range weapons are thrown and hit enemy units

For me it breaks the immersion and almost makes me feel like I am playing some MMO with spell effect flying all over the place and what not. Total War always had good taste and style, minimalistic but excellent and well placed in the atmosphere of the game.

I honestly don't see the reason for this new direction.

[Jester]

i d bet you can disable them in the options menu, like you could adjust the hud elements in all previous games

[Sol Invictus]

Yeah I really don't like all the bells and whistles. I especially don't like the Floating Eye indicator for the LOS. I expect we can disable that since it is indicated on the Unit Card as well. I usually disable Unit Selection Markers and the Floating Banners also. It is all just too much and distracts from the otherwise nice unit graphics.

[ashbery76]

I like having information about ingame effects thank you very much.Its a game.

[Dan113112]

Good points but I imagine you can turn them off in the options menu. At least I hope so. No need to get upset about it. Its a game after all. Its supposed to be entertaining.

[ptoss1]

It's a game ok?

[caissus]

It's a game ok?

So it's allowed to suck?

[ISG01]

It's a game ok?

So it's allowed to suck?

The point that I think was being made by mentioning that it is a game as opposed to say, a documentary, is that many gamers (hardcore or casual, does not matter) like to have clear visual cues for when things are happening and when they are not happening. If you are hiding several units of cavalry and half of them are visible and the other half are not, it will be much easier to see where the problem is by looking at the battlefield as opposed to the unit cards.

This is basic game design and it is an integral part of the semiotics of gaming and making sure people understand what is going in a game at a glance. This is especially important with Total War where you will have to keep track of 20 (and perhaps soon 40) units in a battle.

I hope that people who do not like it can turn it off, but it is a perfectly reasonable default setting that clarifies what is happening in the game.