Forged blades FX - An elegant weapon for a more civilized age

[Canis carcharothias]

'Old fool!' he said. Didn't Manwë tell you what happened to your father?  Die now and curse in vain!' And with that he lifted high his sword and pressed the button, and laser ran up the blade with a hum. 'I am yout father'.

Star Wars is nice, Lord of the Rings too, but they don't match together. I think glowing weapons (the forged blades upgrade) is a graphical effect that I could almost affirm that no one likes. In long games, the old-fashioned medieval warfare finds an end with mighty uruk-hai siths confronting gondorian jedis.

But we need to know who owns that kind of upgrades, specially in multiplayer. So here I propose a few ideas to solve this aesthetic problem:

1. The medal
When units level up, they display a small point or a star (level 5) floating above them. We could use a similar system to get rid of the glowing and put a small marker, in the form of, for example, a little sword or a small marking with different color or shape than the existing ones.

2. The false ring.
When a unit takes the ring, the ring starts to float above them, adjusting it's position when the horde loses units. We could obliterate the shining FX and modificate the model of the ring, reducing it to a small marking, like a tiny coloured circle or a really small model of a sword; so, every upgraded unit will be followed by a small point that sticks to the center of the horde.

3. The false ring, vol 2.
Same as before, but instead of reducing the ring model, we just simply eliminate it and maintain the shining FX, which also adjusts it's position when a unit of an horde is killed. The "central glow" can be made less intense and, also, it can be changed for another FX if we want.

That's everything for now, I really hope this helps to find a solution to the problem, and if not, I hope you come up with better solutions.

And may the force of the Valar be with you. 

[Fredius]

Love your presentation !

I also never liked the glowing effect in the BFME games, so I'm pretty happy you proposed this. To me "The medal" option is the best out of three, but I wonder if it's even possible to add that tiny sword or marking to the unit.

[Odysseus]

Realistically speaking, you are correct. However, Tolkien's universe is not real. It is not uncommon for blades and armours to shine in the light of day and night, especially those with special attributes. It is also the easiest method to reflect upgrades in-game, in my opinion.

The classic saying goes: ''Don't fix what isn't broken''. It will just make things more complicated.

[The_Necromancer0]

I don't really mind the shining blades, it's something I've always found nice but I'm wouldn't be against this idea. I think the idea of a medal similar to the level up system would be the best and easiest option. Really nice proposal though.

[Adrigabbro]

I agree with Odysseus, even though you did put nice effort into your proposal.

[TheFinalMe]

I agree with the OP. The laser sword graphics kind of distract from gameplay and make it somewhat unrealistic. Yet, it really is the easiest way to show that the weapons are upgraded.

My suggestion is that forged blades not have quite as strong a glow effect or as bright a color. A white highlight or lighter blue coloring for the good factions would be a bit less lightsaberish. For the evil factions white or paler red might look nicer.

[Canis carcharothias]

TheFinalMe: I thought about that too; a nice, soft metallic shining could be another solution, maybe it can be a little hard to spot, but it could work too.

You are right, Odysseus, Tolkien world is not real, but it has consistence, which make it more credible, and the masterpiece that it is

I'm not against glowing weapons from a spell of the spellbook or from a unique upgrade for the good old Noldor weapons of the Imladris faction. But having the whole army of Gondor, levy javelin-throwers from Rohan or that filthy rubble from Lossarnach with weapons shining like the light of Valinor is not my cup of tea. It is inconsistent and takes away that dramatism that it can give to troops that really deserve it.

That also happens to the evil forces, the harbingers of darkness, having swords shining, even with the red light of the "Dark Side" , it's kind of out of place.

[Melkor Bauglir]

I have to be honest: I am no enemy of realism, but I kind of like the lightsabers^^
This is mainly because while heavy armor can be shown relatively easy, forged blades are much harder to show ingame -instead of a full body armor you just have a blade or even something smaller like a pike. So there is no real way of showing forged blades directly at the equipment, therefore some FX is needed -as e.g. your idea would basically keep this phenomenon. I personally don't mind these glowing blades (especially because they are much more discreet than in the original game where they indeed looked... interesting to say the least ), because in my opinion it is definitely better to have a FX directly connected to the weapons than a rather unrelated one just for the sake of not having lightsabers. This is especially a problem because most leadership or status effects are already circling or surrounding the units and it can already happen that they are not shown simultaneously. If we now add even more surrounding FX, this might cause other problems: I myself would find it not less annoying if my entire army is constantly posing as a modern literature vampire -I certainly prefer Star Wars over this, possibly even the prequels!

Greetings
Melkor Bauglir

PS: To be honest though, your original post sounded hilarious! The first sentence I was thinking "Hughh? What is he talking about?". Then even I understood...

[Odysseus]

Yeah, it took some time for me to catch on as well, but I lol'ed. Good stuff.

[LordDainIronfoot]

I too have no problem with the Shining  Blades but I think the Color for Each Kingdom or Race could be different!? :-)

Greetings! :-)

[CragLord]

I agree that current situation is a bit out of place when we are taking about glowing effects.
It is totally out of place that common soldiers have these glowing weapons. There is really weird and out of place.
I am also aware from lore that in Tolkien's world, exist glowing weapons, but they are not for world wide use. Only special magical weapons (which weren't so great in numbers) had ability to glow, but only to glow in special situations. So that argument is pretty "out of place" when we speak about upgrades for common soldiers.
So I really find this topic reasonable.
Main problem with weapons is that upgrading process is something which should make weapons stronger in consistency terms (greater damage in game). But how we can present that upgrade that in game?
Glowing effect is one really easy way to do that, I am not so found of it, but I am aware of that. Concerning your suggestions about adding some special symbols above battalions, I am not so found of that, simply I am more for some visual consistency change, and other upgrades don't have this kind of upgrade effect, so I am against it.
The most "logical" thing is to make new models for every single unit, or new skins of weapons which will correspond to forged blades upgrade of that unit. More shining skin etc.
Problem with that (beside it is enormous time consuming job) is also maybe a number of required new weapon's models. So, this is maybe suggestion for some "better" times.
I also want to say that I support idea of making visaul upgrade effects lesser in glow.
That is really something I found reasonable for now. If we take into consideration that different between old, rusty sword (blade) and new one is mostly in metalic shining effect (beside sharpness), I am supporting this suggestion.
Set of colors used in this suggestion is also something which should be discussed.
I would more prefer pale white color instead pale blue for good forces, something which is more correlated with metal shining of new forged blades. About evil forces, I am out of suggestions.

Regards,
CragLord

[Canis carcharothias]

And what about some simple color change for the blades of the weapons? From a metallic grey to an almost white. It will work well with almost every faction, except for Isengard and their dark uruk blades. Maybe we can make those even darker (from steel gray to almost black). It's subtle, visible (more than some existing heavy armours) and more realistic than the current lightsabers. 

[Elite KryPtik]

Don't fix what isn't broken. At least, not until all the factions are released. Everybody knows the tried and true glowing weapons, changing it would throw a lot of people off who are less observant. No point in changing it as far as I can see.

[CragLord]

And what about some simple color change for the blades of the weapons? From a metallic grey to an almost white. It will work well with almost every faction, except for Isengard and their dark uruk blades. Maybe we can make those even darker (from steel gray to almost black). It's subtle, visible (more than some existing heavy armours) and more realistic than the current lightsabers. 

That is also one resonable&nice suggestion.
I support it.
It would be nice change for some of later versions of mod.
Of course, if in the first place visual changes you proposed will have some normal visual noticeable effect.

Regards,
CragLord

[Gnomi]

Sorry, but this change wouldn't help at all.^^ We had this once for a few units and it was impossible to notice within a short period of time - you had to spend multiple seconds when you looked at an army to see if most of them/only a few/none of them had forged blades. The blades are way too small to recognize this very fast. This was very frustrating for everyone who played MP. Therefore we have added the fx again, but with a much lower effect.

A change can still be made, but a simple skin change won't help, most of the weapons are just too small.^^