Btw it’s incredible to see this will from the a large part of the aoe2 community to try as much as possible to turn the game into a soulless UI for the sake of competitive performance, such as replacing trees with horrible clipart etc.
Immersion? Being skilled should also mean to be able to read the game the way it is, the way it looks. Pro quake players don’t replace the enemy models by red rectangle.
You’re right, though I think the fish are fine. The problem is the whales moving in circles.
One solution would be to have the whole circle count as a “whale”, instead of just the whale itself. Another way to make it more visible would be for the whales to expel a jet of water from their blowhole.
It could also be a small group of whales to represent a family or herd, instead of just one whale. This would give it more visibility, as well as realism.
I agree. But maybe we can achieve this while keeping the aesthetics
As @vividlyplain said, the whales are the main problem, since fish are easier to distinguish, abundant and even boats automatically work on them. Maybe the best way to solve this is by the wake of the whale, the foam and waves on the surface covering the entire circle. The alt button is a great addition too
One issue is whales are way too scaled down. It would be a lot easier to see if they were scaled up to a more reasonable size (but keep the radius they swim in about the same so they’re still easy enough to fit on the map).