Keeping units to scale

[Elensar]

The thought came up while working on an image of a dwarven warrior (with several bits borrowed from better artists than myself).

Does it make a difference (to those who care about graphics) if things are to scale - for instance, destroyers are smaller than battleships, or dwarves shorter than elves and men?

It seems that the general rule is that while big things ought to be big, smaller things don't need to much be smaller - so for instance we see an image of a spearman about as tall as a guy on horseback.

Curious if anyone has paid it more attention.

[bc1871]

I would support the creation of an “Unofficial” policy on scaling for the Scenario League.

[Elensar]

Seems like it would be useful, particularly when adapting graphics from multiple sources.

Not necessary, but convenient.

[McMonkey]

It's pretty difficult to get the scale right because (for example) an aircraft carrier is many time the size of the aircraft it carries but if things were done to scale the aircraft would only consist of a few pixels. Mini Infantry units have been tried in the past with some success though they aren't as easy on the eye as full size units. When you think about trying to get things to a certain scale is a pointless exercise as the units on the map would be thousands of foot tall and there would not be just one of them! I wouldn't get too caught up with scale, they are just representative graphics, imagination fills in the rest!

[Elensar]

Yeah, the main thing is when you have - for instance - units drawn to different scales next to each other.

For instance, having a horseman the size of the default Civ 2 knight next to a dwarf the size of those used in Hurin's old Dagor Bragollach scenario (bigger)

Its one thing with say, carriers vs. aircraft, where the scale would render the smaller thing impossibly small or the larger thing too big, but if its too jarring, that doesn't feel right.

[Arthedain]

If it's a fantasy scenario like Dagor Bragollach and Lord of the Rings I think scales do very much for the atmosphere of the game. If it's modern military, not so much

[McMonkey]

Don't Dwarf's prefer to be called little people?

[Catfish]

'Dwarf's' prefer to be called dwarfs. Dwarves are fine with dwarves. I call them something else entirely when I'm fighting them in Battle for Middle-earth 2.

[McMonkey]

My grammar goes to pot at 1am after a few beers

[GhostOfDisco]

To quote TV Tropes:

Attack of the 50-Foot Pikeman!

[curtsibling]

The units are just meant to be an icon that represents the type of unit.
Naturally we know that the pikeman represents a battalion of perhaps hundreds of soldiers.
The BB probably represents a single ship. But to show the actual comparison in CIV2 would
be totally impossible given the GFX limitations, so it is down to the imagination of the player.