Elephant animation: elephant weren't charging...

[Trifna]

I may be a little wrong but I'm wouldn't be that sure about it...

As I know (well not principally), war elephant weren't meant to charge when attacking, so the present animation is kinda weird. But I think elephant DID charge cities' doors. But citiesgenerally put giant spikes on their dooes to prevent such. It's the archers or else in the basket on the elephant that should attack more. This way of animating war elephants was same in Age of Empires.

[Trifna]

Apologies

Sorry, I misinterpreted something. The movement of the elephant's head isn't an attacking animation but seems more to be a stationary animation. Thus, the attacking animation isn't necessarily a charging elephant.

Apologizing

[SerapisIV]

I don't like that Elephants require no resources at all, especially as we have already seen elephants on screenshots as a source of ivory. If you're going to have horse-units require horses, why not war elephants require elephants?

[TechWins]

A basic elephant unit should have been included, as well. If the war elephant becomes available when the tech for knights is discovered then it is very unrealistic. If the war elephant doesn't become available when the tech for knights (pre-knight era, ancient) is discovered then the game could be unbalanced. What I'm proposing is that the war elephant should have been toned down a bit in stats and only become available when the tech for elephant is discovered. It just seems strange that only the Indians will receive the elephant. The game is about re-writing history you know.

[Dauphin]

IIRC Hannibal drugged up his elephants before battle, to get them in a hyperactive and violent mood. They then charged and trampled anything and everything in their way.

The only job of the rider was to smash a chisel into an elephants skull (hence killing it) if it was about to trample his own men.

Granted that's Hannibals tactic not necessarily the Indians, but the principle holds.

[Christantine The Great]

What I'm proposing is that the war elephant should have been toned down a bit in stats

That's against the whole point of having special units! The Greeks have the best defensive unit that is only topped by the pikeman, an age away. That's unbalanced since it will take you more of an effort to bring down a Greek's defences.

War elephants were several times more powerful than the next most powerful ancient unit. Therefore they are on par with a Middle Age unit. That's the Indian's best bet to get out of their subcontinent and harass the nearby Persians and Chinese.

See what I'm trying to say?

[Mongoloid Cow]

Yeah, but their units will go obsolete in the next age, so their advantage over other civilizations is gone as a new civ can have a chance. And what about the Americans or Germans who will get their special unit in the modern ages? They'll have an advantage then, but wouldn't have had much of one before. Firaxis would have got rid of them if it unbalanced the game play.

[m_m_x]

it looks like the elephant has a big eye on his head.... (its the shield).

[Edward]

I agree with Trifna. All the UU animations in the Civ of the Week are the "standing around tapping your foot" stationary type animations.

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posted by TechWins
It just seems strange that only the Indians will receive the elephant. The game is about re-writing history you know.

By this logic (and many would agree with you) all UU's work against the re-writing of history.

Based on Firaxis's comparisons, I assume that both the war elephant and the rider are alternatives for the knight and that both become buildable exactly when the knight would have become available for the respective civs.

I think that (unlike the Golden Ages) the UUs are kind of cool since they add flavor to the different civilizations (like city styles, backgrounds, default city names, etc.). I'd have been happy if every civ had the same ancient units (i.e. same stats), but had different names and graphics for them. A Persian "knight" should look different from an English one.

[isaac brock]

I think that the indians shouldn't have to have a resource for the elephants. Otherwise, where's the benefit? Well, actually I suppose a higher attack would be nice too, but i don't mind them not needing resources

[RobC]

Originally posted by Edward
I agree with Trifna. All the UU animations in the Civ of the Week are the "standing around tapping your foot" stationary type animations.

Actually, if you move your cursor over the animation of the UU, it will change from the 'tapping foot' stationary animation to an attack style animation (true for all the UUs: the hoplite thrusts spear, the elephant gores, etc.)

[Cyclotron]

How is it graphically possible to make a unit that takes up only one tile charge? It already gores... what the hell do ya want? Please, be reasonable with your requests the next time you post!

[Provost Harrison]

Elephant animation: elephant weren't charging...

So you didn't have to pay?

Seriously though, if you have watched some of the videos and the screensaver, you know that a battle is displayed between the two units by them having a bit of a fight, and the elephant banging his head against his enemy whilst the other unit swings his sword looks quite effective.

[isaac brock]

Listen, if there was any reason in these peoples' requests, there would be no civ 3 forums. calls for reason are not appreciated

[TechWins]

See what I'm trying to say?

Yeah, I see what you are saying, but you obviously don't see what I'm saying. I'll restate my previous post here to make it more clear.

The War Elephant will become available for the Indians most likely when they discover the technology for Knights. That would mean that the War Elephant will be a unit of the Middle Ages instead of the Ancient times. Now to counteract this occurrence, a basic, Elephant unit should have been created. The technology for the basic, Elephant unit would come about in the Ancient times. The basic Elephant unit could be 4/1/2 and would requre the resource of "ivory" for creation. The stats of the basicc Elephant unit can't be too high and requiremental because it is an Ancient unit (same stats as Civ2 Elephant unit, excluding resource requirement). When the Indians gain the capabilities of building the basic, Elephant unit they will instead be receiving the War Elephant as their UU. The War Elephant would be 4/2/2 and require the resource of "ivory". This is far more realistic and in my opinion more interesting.

Now do you see what I mean?

By this logic (and many would agree with you) all UU's work against the re-writing of history.

Yes, that is true but that is not what I was intending on my point. My point is that every Civ should have equally oppurtunity to build every unit, except a Civ's CSU (I like the UU idea and always have, actually). Plus, every Civ should have equally oppurtunity to build the basic unit of a Civ's CSU, excpet a Civ should not be able to build the basic unit of their CSU. Having the units work this way is much more fair to all Civs.