Portraits look amazing now. I hated the ugly goblin portraits from CK1. Good work, Paradox!
wondering if their expression (Smiling, angry etc.) change dynamically with Traits. So if someone is aggressive, arbitrary, cruel etc. then he'd be more Mean-looking.
It looks much better now. Don't forget to give some characters full beards.
I like the look of the new faces, with the added headgear. I was wondering in the Swedish image, why some mayors are bareheaded and others are wearing mail coifs? Does this reflect military education on their parts or is something else involved? Thanks.
Well, consider the many required facial expressions if one was to have say 15 different eyebrows, and multiply them for the what...40 or how many traits are in the game, and add to that the same amount for women, for several looks (european, arab). That's 2400 eyebrows, if every trait was to have seperate facial features. Even with only half of the traits having distinct eyebrows it would be 1200 eyebrows in game, plus 1200 foreheads, ears, mouths and so on. Not very practical. So portraits stuff is either dna inherited or scriptable. Anyway, in real life a nice guy can be born with mean looking eyebrows, and a mean guy can look ever so kind, so it's realistic enough.
No-no, that's what I corrected you that he wasn't saying. It's not about their actual face, that's genetics. It's their expressions. For example in Dev6 THIS GUY looks very depressed and THIS GUY looks a bit surprised with his mouth open like that. That led to some questions about them reacting to their situation. So if someone gains a trait then his demeanor would change a bit (so if someone has content and happy traits he'd be smiling, but if he's sarcastic it could be a smirk thus contorting his normal smile sideways). Nothing with his actual appearance.
But since it's not true 3D I guess you compile the images after the fact (like the portraits in CK1, where you had things like the DNA-Maker that let you pick noses, mouths etc. Individual images), so contorting the face of a pre-existing character would be a lot harder? Just clearing that up, hopefully. Personally I don't mind a generalized "I'm feeling OK" look.
What I loved from Crusader Kings was that my own family's COA was there but I'm not sure if I want it to be randomised. Will they be truly customised - in that I will be able to customise them?
The portraits look amazing. I am already beginning to plan my starting game, a Swedish county in either Stettin or Reval are what I will aim for.
I hope they are not properly 3D, but just look 3D. Does it say in the newsletter?
If they are actual 3D faces, I can probably put up with them anyway.
edit: There is a question mark over the image of that characters spouse which might suggest that we don't have the entire details of everyone's court, which is interesting!
Looks really good and not out of place, which is a hard thing to get right. props
lol.. ah perceptions, how the shift with time..On another note, I like the fact that some people are now liking the portraits better [...] The faces you see now is of the same batch of work as the last ones released. Hehe. Nothing has changed regarding the faces yet, so I'm glad you're liking them better.
That covers my question perfectly. Thanks for the answers. I think it is a smart design choice. Keep up the good work, and maybe you can leak us some pin-ups of Queens, Duchesses, and petty wenches ready to show it all ;PShort answer = faces are dna controlled, anything else would really require true 3d faces (or a bad solution where all sad people have the same face..not good).