Cannon hits

[Gunfreak]

Not sure if you can do this with sprites, but it would be cool to have a special graphics when a group of soldiers gets hit by a shell, you know if it hits in the mits of the unit, you se a few soldiers getting thoughn into the air or atleast away from the formation

[norb]

Good idea, I would love some of that myself. If I could do it without needing any new art I would, but I don't think that I could make it look good. My thought is that it would end up looking stupid and fake unless we fully animated it.

[ironsight]

Gunfreak Wrote:..when a group of soldiers gets hit by a shell, you know if it hits in the mits of the unit, you se a few soldiers getting thoughn into the air...

Good idea gunfreak!;) Maybe NSD has already thought of this?

While we're at it, might as well have some severed arms, legs and heads laying about also!:ohmy:
What else would be cool is an option to leave subtle solid shot 'n shell impact holes in the battlefield similar to dead bodies.

[ironsight]

Norb, i don't think it would have to be animated all that much keeping in mind when a shell goes off thars a lot of smoke 'n fire fogging the dynamics.
Just a glimpse(s) of some large unidentifyable debris 'n maybe bodies in mid air in the middle of the smoke during the initial shell burst... and the aftermath when the smoke settled, there'd be the mangled result. Might be a good tradeoff if nothing else.

I agree a complete animated movie-like thing might end up looking stupid and cartoonish.
But i think if its done right with a de-emphasis on flying bodies and an emphasis on the aftermath, it could be made to look cool.

In TC2M the shell burst sprites already do something similar to this with dirt debris flying around.

[Little Powell]

norb wrote:

Good idea, I would love some of that myself. If I could do it without needing any new art I would, but I don't think that I could make it look good. My thought is that it would end up looking stupid and fake unless we fully animated it.

Norb - Like in TC2M, when a gun crew takes a casualty, you can see a crewman fall over. Does this happen in the new game? If so, maybe this animation can be changed to have the flying bodies and debris when they take a casualty from an enemy arty unit. Just not sure how big of a task that will be.

[bedbug]

Welllllll, we do at least have shell hits now:




The problem as I see it with guys doing anything but throwing their arms up in the air and keeling over (which we do have) is ya gotta do it for every uniform type.....and we don't want "the slows". Its always a ballance between play-ability and eye candy.:unsure:

[ironsight]

bedbug Wrote:The problem as I see it with guys doing anything but throwing their arms up in the air and keeling over (which we do have) is ya gotta do it for every uniform type.....

No bedbug, not a real detailed Ringling Bros. Circus Flying-Summersalting Trapeze Act type of thing!:dry:
Just all kinds of 'foggy-hard to identify' large'n small debris pieces flying about in the camaflauging smoke.

The shell hits would be a generic 1 size fits all as i sort of mentioned below. The smoke 'n fire would see to ghosting any details.

Its the aftermath that'll put it all together in the 'Theatre of the mind'....you've already shown dead bodies with different uniforms.

[37th_Tennessee]

Honestly, if you're looking for realizm....the artillery hits are fine the way they are. Shells were fired mostly overhead anway, so that they would burst, causing lead fragments to rain down on the enemy line. The explosions, and people flying through the air you see in hollywood is.....well hollywood. The groudbursts that are represented in hollywood are pretty inaccurate, and are just for entertainment. I'm not saying that shells didn't explode on the ground, it just didn't happen as much as hollywood predicts. The dirt and debris though would be realistic. Because Solid shots very often skipped across the battlefield like a stone across a pond, and each time it hits the ground, it does so with such force that it kicks up a ton of dirt, dust and debris. One has to remember these shells aren't the same as the ones that were used in WWI or WWII, they didn't have primors that were triggered when hitting the ground(for the most part) So often the ground explosions one see's in hollywood...were't actally explosions at all, but the result of a 12 pound solid shot as it skips across the ground.

It would be more realistic to see the men ripped to shreds, rather than fly through the air. (which I think it would be awesome to see a gory Civil War game....the Civil War as always been represented in media far too......clean.)