I have seen the announcement trailer for AoE:DE and several screenshots. I am under the impression that the developers are going for a more realistic graphic style for the definitive edition than the original. As a result the graphics for the definitive edition are muddy, gritty and darker. Would it be possible to dial down the muddy graphics a tad and bring out some brighter accent colors so there is more contrast on the map for easily identifying individual units, especially when zoomed out?
I dunno, so far I like the graphics.
It’s much better then a lot of these “modern” RTSs where you could barely spot a unit properly.
This one looks ok, so far though…
The building models and unit sprites look awesome up close. The buildings look weathered and the unit armor looks worn. However all of this extra detail looks dirty or muddy when zoomed out. I’m not suggesting that all of the building models and sprites should be redone. If some of the extra wear detail could be faded or blurred from the units and buildings, the units and buildings would look sharper when zoomed out.
I very much agree. I like the new models and textures overall but they definitely lack color and crispness. Visual feedback is incredibly important in an rts and any muddiness will make it taxing to look at over time. I hope this is something that is easy to fixed with a few color and filtering tweeks - I don’t think any assets needs to be redone. We just need a crisper picture with units and player colors standing out more, and more color variance across the screen. Right now everything blends too much together resulting in a soft and dull look.
Currently AoE:DE’s color palette looks very much like the one in Cossacks 3. And while I enjoy that game it is certainly boring to look at over time and tiresome for the eyes too. It’s way too bland.