Unit graphics - are they culture-specific?

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Hi, a question from someone who hasn't got the game yet: How are non-western units represented? Do Zulus and Boxers look different from European riflemen?

I certainly hope so, since I recall that EU had culture-specific units as well, and they would be just as relevant for this time period (if not even more so, due to the wider technology gap).

 

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from looking at all the screenshots posted here, no.

 

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So, you mean the Zulus now shop at GAP and carry imitation rifles around? Bummer, I'd say. But it was done correctly in EU, right (I never got round to playing it)? Why the sudden change in philosophy?

 

[Demetrios]

Originally posted by Spanky
So, you mean the Zulus now shop at GAP and carry imitation rifles around?

No, the Zulus worked in the gold and diamond mines and bought real rifles. Isandhlwana is romanticized as spear-carrying savage hordes against a the rifle-carrying British, but the Zulus had loads of the latest rifles for the battle...

 

[unmerged(11254)]

Originally posted by Demetrios
No, the Zulus worked in the gold and diamond mines and bought real rifles. Isandhlwana is romanticized as spear-carrying savage hordes against a the rifle-carrying British, but the Zulus had loads of the latest rifles for the battle...

Yes, I'm sure you're right - I was exaggerating to make a point. But still: I'm sure that even the Zulus didn't have European-style uniforms, even if they did have real rifles.

And what about all the other African warriors that the colonial powers were up against? What about the Chinese and the Ottomans? Actually, for the time period concerned here, what about the Native Americans even? They all warrant depicting in their individual look. I'm just wondering why, since this was apparently done in the previous games, Victoria all of a sudden takes a step back in terms of visual realism? It doesn't make sense.

 

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Well, there are provisions for nation-specific army graphics, so if you feel artistical you can make some of your own, though I agree that some spear-wielders would have been nice...

 

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Well, but that's great news, then. I assume it means that the system is still the same, just that nobody had the time to make the units?

Too bad the units are animated, which complicates things, but get this: Does anyone remember Age of Rifles, the old wargame set in the same period? The author, Norm Koger came up with a brilliant way of providing for an almost unlimited variety of units: a paper-doll system in which various parts of the uniform and weapons could be altered independently of each other. Even better: the game displayed the soldiers on the battlefield in practically the same way as Victoria: as columns of troops from an isometric viewpoint, and from eight different angles.

So, in theory, one could take screenshots of Zulus, Boxers and what have you from that game and use them as a basis for units in Victoria...