loyal icon

[vicza]

Don't you think it would be useful, if loyal units would have some special mark? I mean, leaders have the crown icon. Other who-must-not-be-killed characters have the silver crown (though, I think, the previous icon, blue book, was more logical). If loyal units, too, had some icon, it could help the user to bring more attention to them, trying to promote them and not let them to be killed.

Something like this (see picture). These yellow-black orbs are supposed to signify crossed coins. Well, I'm not an artist... Anyway, looking at this I at once can tell, who of my knights is Haldiel, who of my mages is Elrian etc.

I use this feature about two months, and I can say it quite helps. But I do it "semi-manually", by correcting scenario cfgs. It would be good, if it'd be done automatically. That is, if a unit IS loyal, IS on our side and NOT a leader or a hero (they have own icons), then place the icon for him.

[Chris NS]

I floated this idea about a year ago. I recall that a more popular counter-proposal was to have a feature where you could optionally mark units as you wish, be they loyal, or have a combination of traits you like, or have a holy weapon, or anything else you like. No-one's got round to this yet. There again. it's the start of 1.5 development so now's a good time to suggest these things.

For what it's worth, my campaign uses "Character" markers, which is similar.

[mameluke]

Since loyal is an ability like strong or fast (hope my translation from german is not wrong) I could also think of displaying abilities that the unit has in general.
I admit that this can overcrowd the map but it would be quite helpful.
Then you could see directly e.g. which unit is the fast one.
I often have to click on all units to remember what abilities they have.

If some artist can do some very tiny but meaningful images (there aren't more than two displayed for each unit I think) this could be a powerful option (but better optional).
Cool would be, like holding a button to display this info.

Just my 2 pence

[megane]

It might be a good idea to add a little crown-like thingy to go over the orb, which could be used for loyal units (and thus would need to be distinct from the silver crown). However, I think its use should be up to campaign designers, as the silver crown's is now (i.e. in general, a silver crown means "don't let me die," but it doesn't have to; similarly, this... bronze crown, I guess... would usually indicate loyal units, but not necessarily).

Basically, all that's needed is a little misc/loyal-icon.png sprite, and to convince all the maintainers to take it up.

[thespaceinvader]

I'd love something like this, particularly for Loyal units - there are a number of campaigns, particularly HttT and Northern Rebirth, though others are affected I'm sure, in which loyal units get lost amongst the myriad units of the same type that are non-loyal.

Nice idea =)

Allowing players to tag units as they wish is probably a better way of doing it though - maybe a small tag in the upper right of the hex, up to three letters long, maybe 6 px or so high.

[vicza]

Since loyal is an ability like strong or fast

I'd say it's not like. Strong or fast are random traits. If your strong unit is killed, you can recruit another one. But you can't recruit another loyal unit, so they're more valuable.

However, I think its use should be up to campaign designers, as the silver crown's is now (i.e. in general, a silver crown means "don't let me die," but it doesn't have to; similarly, this... bronze crown, I guess... would usually indicate loyal units, but not necessarily).

Oh, no, not crown again. Silver crown, bronze crown... The crown is symbol of a leader, why other units should have it?

Basically, all that's needed is a little misc/loyal-icon.png sprite, and to convince all the maintainers to take it up.

Or just change the LOYAL_UNIT macro. But there still are loyal units with traits, who need to be defined explicitly...

[megane]

Very well, not a crown then. How 'bout, well, you know. This thing.

Spontaneous thought: I could redo this in magenta, allowing people to recolor it for whatever diabolical purposes they might have.

[Viliam]

Since loyal is an ability like strong or fast (hope my translation from german is not wrong) I could also think of displaying abilities that the unit has in general.
I admit that this can overcrowd the map but it would be quite helpful.
Then you could see directly e.g. which unit is the fast one.

To avoid the map overcrowding, maybe these things should not be displayed always, but only when user presses some key.

[mameluke]

Cool would be, like holding a button to display this info.

Full ack!

[JAP]

How about a golden heart for loyal units?

[Iris]

<3

I love it.

[cretin]

that makes the left side look a bit crowded

[JAP]

Shadow Master: Thank you

cretin: Yes that is probably to big, i think it needs to be about the size of the crowns.
So i tried to make a heart that is as small as possibly (and still recognizable as a heart).
How about this?

[Simons Mith]

Change the shape of the orb? A diamond, perhaps?

[cool evil]

This suggestion might be of some use, but once its implemented, other people who likes other traits/abilities might start to wanting it implemented this way as well. And while we're at it, people will definitely like to be informed about leveled up units, so by theory, we should also give all leveled up units an extra mark or something of that sort.

Let this be discussed so that it may come to an conclusion as to whether this should be implemented or not. I doubt this is going to be solved very soon but i might be wrong.