First, I would like to say, that I found those Desert Biome pictures fantastic. I have a question for the community though, does anyone think that the Commander doesn't pop out as much as it should? I.e. Can you pick instantly were he is in the Biome image 1? I couldn't find it straight away, wasn't til they had a few close up images that I was able to pick him.
Do you mean that big unit in the upper middle? Yeah its kinda bland, but as they said, it is only a rough estimate of what the final graphics will be. And i think that the final commanders will be better defined. The commander unit in those pictures is probably just a place holder for something more grandiose.
For me,I think the commander doesn´t pop out because he has no textures at all, only normal body colors.And every Unit and building is blue so...
Also the commander will probably get bigger as you add upgrades. Or you may want to not upgrade him so he doesn't stand out.
That's something that I always wondered. How tall is really a Commander? I remember back when I was modding SC:FA, I was importing a Star Wars Star Destroyer int o the game, and I wanted it to be proportionally accurate. As of reference, I took the introduction video, that shows humans around the commander, and as I recall, it seemed that the commander had around 10 meters in height. After checking the scale in the blueprint, and the size of the Commander model I got a universal unit to meter ratio. But Star Destroyers are just huge, and on Finn's Revenge it was as big as one of the islands almost. So I always wanted to know if the developers made realistic sizes (based on an universal scale), or just made the size "look right". I suspect the latter.
Commanders in SC were ~40m, if memory serves. Someone took the time to track how long a unit took to go from one side of a map to another, then using the unit's speed and the size of the map came up with a rough estimate of 19.something meters per unit of measure. ACUs were 2 units tall. And don't forget, SDs are 1.6 km, so yes, they should be freaking huge in comparison. As to the commanders in this game, I agree they should be bigger than other units, but it would be a kind of nice touch to have them harder to pick out of the crowd ("where's Waldo?") as unupgraded, but more distinguished/noticeable once upgrades that make them more powerful are added on. Kind of a trade off for power.
One of the problems that will occur if a commander is taller than everything; D-Gun won't work properly. When you're tall, you aim down. When you aim down, you shoot the ground.
It doesn't have to be just height Bullet, there are other ways of making it distinctive. Silhouette, colour (maybe a slightly lighter base colour then the rest of the army), animation (the way it moves), sound, etc. All these things can allow you as a player to instantly tell where your commander, and more importantly, spot the enemy commander. I know colour may not be an option (considering the possibility of 40+ players, distinctive colour may be at a premium), but it is worth considering IMO. Anyway, Mavor has indicated that they will have a unique look which is great to hear, I just initially had problems trying to pick out the Commander in the biome pictures.
Well, the commander doesn't need to be spotted that easy since you will have shortcut key to select him. Of course it would be better to be able to look at your base and see your commander walking around and stuff, but I don't see this as a need. Also, I'm curious if we will have bigger units than the commander.
What about identifying enemy commander? I don't think there is a shortcut for that! lol Also: For Backers Only: Scale Tests - Renders
You have a point =) Well, the commander have a custom strategic icon that make it easy to identify an enemy commander. If you are close enough so you don't have the strategic icon, then you are also close enough to identify the commander in the screen. Of course we will see if this kind of stuff works well when you get our hands on the game =)
