@Wintersong: Let's stay on topic? My pointing out that not everyone likes this graphical style was not intended as an insult; your message however is.

If you don' like what I'm saying - that these graphics look less than mediocre - try and defend the graphical style instead of insulting a poster.

Just want to express my full support for art direction,since i agree  most strategy games look too similar nowadays.Picture above is some sort of test render,i guess,but still i dont understand why you have more then one light casting shadows in scene,looks confusing,to me at last.

I must say I like those screenshots. It's the best and most detailed so far. I must admit I was a bit worried about the water color style, but these ones look fancy indeed.

I actually have to second this. I hope that when all the buildings are put into the game they will be consistently scaled.

That said I love this new artwork. It looks absolutely amazing. Although I have to ask... what is that missile silo-looking thing? Does anybody else think it looks like the UEO nuke silos from Supreme Commander?

Edit: One more think: it looks like the roof on the L-shaped building to the left is floating above the rest of the building..?

I think the style looks great.  Some elements are missing, and others look a long way from finished, but I can't complain about the style.

Alright kids the game is over a year away so ya these are just the graphics now and not even in beta or the final product so its a good start... thats all that needs to be said. Have a cooled one on me... and lets start a bar fight!

First of all... as far as I know, this isn't even alpha... pre-alpha if not pre-pre-alpha. One thing I like that seems to be showing is how different some of the styles are in different zoom levels... Way out it is like a LOTR map, a bit more in and it looks more realistic, while still retaining the fantasy feel of the design. I really like the way these are designed, since in many strategy games zooming out looks more like a satellite image than anything else (if you are allowed to zoom out at all), making finding what you are looking for much more difficult. This seems to be a very nice blend of 'OOHH PRETTIES!' at a level where it can be enjoyed and 'YAY! I CAN FIND WHAT IM LOOKING FOR!' in a way that it can be appreciated.

It appears that way... although by the looks of it, it is a two story building. The height seems to be about the same as the top of the two story portion of the building with the fence. I would guess there are large pillars in the center of the 2nd floor... something like so:

|-----------------------------------|
|        X           X           X        |         from top down, with X being pillar locations
|               |----------------------|
|               |
|       X      |
|               |
|------------|

and like this from the side:
 /---------------------------------------\
/_____________________________\
         I               I               I
|-----------------------------------------|        with I being pillars
|                                                   |
|                                                   |
|                                                   |
|_____________________________|

And if I were to guess... It is a market square, the fenced building is a place to train cavalry, the big one is a keep, and the little one... kinda a bad angle to guess, would have to see 3d version

I quite like both of the pictures that Yotix linked to above.  The first one is simple, but I quite like the style, and the second is a just a character concept, so it's showing equipment and character more then exactly what the character will look like in game.

Also, for the first picture, they have mentioned several times that shadows and perhaps other elements will still be added to the look.

Lots of games try to be realistic but to be honest none of our computer hardware is capable of rendering graphics realistic enough to fool our eyes just yet. If you aim for a goal then you can achieve a high degree of graphical realism but if you reach too far then you end up with three things. Brown, Bloom and Boring.

Question then- what would a better graphics card get you over those Pixelshader 2 cards?

I'm still doing my laptop shopping (Yes, I know a desktop would be better, but I need to be able to port this to work to play at work)  Just trying to get a nice laptop that will handle this like butter, not overheat, and not cost over $1500.  Hard to find though.

Stylized art is always something I approve of if it's done well.  Character in art is more important then polygons.

GalCiv2-style building tools for buildings will be awesome.  Any chance for creature/unit creation with a similiar system?  And don't worry, I promise not to yell "S****"; I know Stardock was working on this before that came out.