[Suggestion] Mercenary Aesthetics

[SaharaDrac]

A lot of suggesetion threads recently whilst we wait for beta. So to jump on the fad, I thought I'd create one just for the heck of it too. But unlike the others, this one would be much easier to implement.

Now, I don't know much about how mercenaries look in WoL. However, if the elite units look exactly like regular units, I would be quite disappointed. Moreover, it'd be difficult to tell them apart from your regular units. So, taking a cue from SC1 and taking into account existing content, here are my ideas to help improve the mercenaries' appearance in-game:

• Give the mercenaries no team color/black. Aside from making them easier to pick out amidst your army, it only accentuates the fact that they're not really part of Raynor's crew but are in fact neutral.
  
  
• Instead of giving them Raynor's Raiders' decal, have each mercenary group carry one of the myriad other decals that will be included. For instance, the Kel-Morians will carry the KMC decal and the Devil Dogs could carry a Diablo one, etc. I feel this adds a lot more personality to them.

Any thoughts?

The special mercs completely stand out in the campaign. /thread

[MattII]

Different decals only, team colour is too integral to gameplay (I never liked heroes being a different colour in SC).

[mr. peasant]

The special mercs completely stand out in the campaign. /thread

How so? Please elaborate.

[Kimera757]

Different skin, different unit color (as opposed to team color)*, different sizes, "hero glow" or "useless" aura... there were so many ways of making a unit stand out in Warcraft III.

*Eg firebats are red, marauders are black, the non-team-colored part of the model. You could easily control this in Warcraft III. Didn't know there were blue-green gnolls, but Snarlmane was one.

[Eligor]

We know we can manipulate team colors without having to create new textures. We also know we can add decals on top of these existing models, even in multiplayer again without the need of new textures. Therefore, it should be possible to assign specific decals to specific mercenary groups in single-player.

I meant textures that are unique in the non team coloured parts of the unit. For example, a black Wraith instead of a usual metallic one (team colours still applied as usual).