This is the American frigate. Old Ironsides, oldest warship in the world still in commission (built in 1794-1797).

Here are the unit files:

Connie (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/Connie.zip)

UPDATE!
Here is the generic version of this ship
Heavy Frigate (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/HeavyFrigate.zip)
Here are the previews:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2242729&postcount=18

Sweet!!! Nice unit -- and I even get the first reply!

RRNut

Nice work as always, Aaglo :goodjob:

Ah, very very nice, and the flag too... Opposite to many others (it seems) I am sort of a "fan" of America, allthough not too keen on their current foreign politics... Whatever, but I am very keen of the US in general.

Can't believe how fast you work neither...

This is the American frigate. Old Ironsides, oldest warship in the world still in commission (built in 1794-1797).


Beautiful unit which will find its way into my game :)



But for the record HMS Victory is the oldest warship in the world still in commission :p

Looks amazing aaglo. :goodjob:

Hmmm... decisions.... decisions... use this as an American unit in the epic game, or no? :hmm:

It looks really gorgeous, btw. I think this is definitely up there as one of your best units

This is absolutely beautiful!! I agree with DPII that this is one of your best.
Just one question, are you planning to make one,without the US flag or should I start editing the flics by myself?I want to give it to other civs as well:)

Yes, I'll make a more generic version of this ship.

Great news:)

Very good... now I'm attending the non-flag version.

@Aaglo:

Are you interested to do a decent napoleonic baloon?

WOW, Looks Great aaglo...the Flag came out very sharp and clear. Great contrast between the Hull and Sails ... it's a beauty. :thumbsup:

It's beutaful!

Awesome... I just have one question... Why is the file called Connie? A nickname for the ship, or something else?

Probably a nickname- Connie, from Constitution...

Yep, it's a nick for constitution. It also makes the ini-file smaller :crazyeye: (actually, I was just lazy, and didn't want to write constituttutututuiton every time - that's one of those words I'm never sure how to spell :mischief: )

Another great unit...

Here is the generic version of this frigate:
Heavy Frigate (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/HeavyFrigate.zip)

Excellent as always, aaglo, but if you're going to make a generic version you may also want to make one with an earlier flag (13 larger stars in a circle). Very minor detail, but it would look better in a scenario.

But it already has the nick-name Old Ironsides.... Jeez how many names does a boat need ;)

Yay! The generic version looks great!
But Hotpoint is right, HMS Victory is the oldest warship still in commision, it was comissioned in 1778.

Hey agloo, excellent job with this. All your units are awesome, in fact I use only one or two units from other people in my various mods and stuff, the dozens rest are from you. I just have a few questions as to your technique, hoping you don't mind.

Do you use the animation abilities of POV-Ray or do you just copy and paste individual image files? I'm starting to make my own units with POV-Ray and I was hoping on getting some tips.

I've got my first one modelled and I'm just starting to work on the animations. A preview should be attached (hopefully)

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Aaglo, this is your best ever. I'm dead serious. If this isn't your masterpiece, I don't know what is. There is no way you can top this (doesn't mean you can't try!) but this is a work of art. It should be in a museum. BEAUTIFUL!

Excellent unit!

I will include it in the new version of The Old Empires.

Rocoteh

Orthanc: I think you should open a new thread for this one in the C&C forum.

Will do, thanks.

Wait, why are sailing ships still in commission? That means they're actually being used, right? Huh?

Wait, why are sailing ships still in commission? That means they're actually being used, right? Huh?

It's currenty permently in port at Boston. It isn't really in service per say, just a symbolic gesture by having the USN own it and man it. But the guns still do fire and the ship still sails, but it hasn't left Boston for years. :)

They use it to train naval officers now, don't they?

They use it to train naval officers now, don't they?

Your thinking of the coast guard ship Eagle. Which is also a sailing ship.

Why would you want to train someone on a sailing ship?

There is also the "Amerigo Vespucci", the italian school ship of navy.

I think the generic version would be great to use as an armed transport during the late middle ages. The gif previews simply remind me of the textbook pictures of all the pilgram ships. A very nice unit to say the least it is just too bad large sailing ships like this had a brief time span of existance. This would be great for a stacked spanish Armada mod or something of that nature.....

You are my new favorite unit creator. Thanks to you my scenario will be much, much better. Your Heavy Frigate is my Ship of the Line.

This has to be the best ship ever created for Civ3 and one of the most useful too :) Now I can get rid of that rubbishy original frigate that came with the game! Yay!

Hey there, aaglo... I know you're always working on something, but i thought if you might be interested in doing it, could you make a version of this with black sails and a jolly-roger? I want to have a unit called "pirate admiral" and your frigate here is a perfect model. But if you don't have time and you don't mind someone else doing it, maybe there's a hand willing to go up for it.....???


anticipatorilly appreciative

I suppose I could. :)
Perhaps this pirate-version should be a bit smaller than these two though.

Great!!! :dance:

As for how large to make it, I'm thinking this "Pirate Admiral" unit will be a force to be reckoned with, on par with other units like the heavy frigate here and the ship of the line which i'm going to have come with the same tech. Basically, it's going to be an upgrade to the Privateer. So not much smaller than what you've already done here. But if you want to play around with a few versions, I won't stop you!!! ;)

Actually she leaves her berth several times a year, esp on July 4th although it has been several years or so since she left the harbor. She is however the oldest commisioned ship that can still sail. If I am not mistaken the Victorys hull is encased in concrete.

Here I am, nearly a year later. I feel like I'm a year late and a thousand $ short. I wish that I had found this sooner. It is TRUE that the USS Constitution IS the OLDEST operational COMMISSIONED warship afloat. I believe that she has remained commissioned since launch, a claim that Victory can not make. She is used for training much in the same way as USS Eagle - mostly to teach midshipmen the finer art of sailing (a practice that has much more to do with teaching snap decision making and instant order following rather than any modern need to use sailing techniques). In 1998, on July 22nd, the Constitution sailed again under her own power for the first time in about a hundred and ten years. I was there when she came in from that sail at about 1930 hrs. The reason why the date is significant is that it was the 200th anniversary of her maiden voyage - She was sent on her first mission on that day in 1798.:salute:

The USS Constitution is one of six frigates built under what is considered to be the first real US naval bill, signed by President Washington on 3/27/1794. The bill had been in serious discussion since 1790. It was put into play to address a growing problem not only with Moslem pirates, but with European Naval ships stopping and impressing sailors off of American merchant vessels using false accusations of desertion as their reason. The other five frigates were Constellation, Congress, President, United States and Chesapeake.

Constitution, President and United States are/were 44 gunners, built specifically to be an overmatch in single ship encounters with large frigates of other nations. These ships were also designed to be able to engage weak enemy lineships under certain conditions. Congress, Constellation and Chesapeake were 38 gunners - still an overmatch for most enemy frigates but a tad smaller than the 44s.

The Constitution was launched (after several failed attempts that began on 9/20/1797) on 10/21/1797 in Boston, Mass. It took nine months [after launch] to outfit [giving it masts, sails, crew, provisions, ordinance, etc.] the new ship for sailing. The process was reasonably timed, given the difficulties which faced the new nation.

When Constitution sailed in 1798, her orders were "to seize take and bring into any Port of the United States...any armed vessel sailing under Authority from France". The conflict between France and the US cropped up over illegal impressment and right of trade stuff. It became known as the "Quasi-war with France". The French were mortifyed when their former ally went after French ships and the "war" lasted until a treaty was signed in Sept., 1800.

USS Constitution, however, carried out her orders well during the conflict, despite a shakey start under Captain Samuel Nicholson. He succeeded in capturing a vessel by 12th September (98) but it later turned out to be English, so Nicholson was not in too good an odor by the time he returned to Boston on the 10th of November. In late December, after repairs to the bowsprit, Constitution sailed again. Read 'A Most Fortunate Ship' to find out what happened after - you won't regret it. Constitution played a pivotal role in the West Indies and served as a convoy escort with plenty of encounters with the enemy to keep her busy. (Dates and stats. from "A Most Fortunate Ship" by Tyrone G. Martin)

HMS Victory is in permanent drydock and has been since 1922. You are correct, Paladin, she IS encased in concrete. Not enough is known about sailing ships o' the line in this day and age for her to ever sail again. She was finished (by the hull) in 1765 and (I think) commissioned in 1767 or 8. She was 40 by the time of Trafalgar, but still slightly older than her much more famous Captain from that battle, Lord Nelson. His fame became hers, and her survival to this day is a direct result of her having been Nelson's Flagship at Trafalgar. (The 200th anniversary of Trafalgar has just passed by - it was fought on Oct. 21st, 1805, coincidently the Constitution's "8th birthday"). Were it not so, she would probably be a mere footnote in history, as nearly every one of the lineships that served with her are today. None but Victory survived WW 1. Her service after Trafalger declined into some horrible treatment during the 19th and early 20th century and it is a wonder that she survived at all. Today, she symbolically serves the English Navy much in the same way as Constitution serves the U.S. :thumbsup:

The building of 44 gun frigates is an innovation that was invented by the shipwrights of the United States, principally one Joshua Humphries, though some say that Josiah Fox was principal. Whoever it was[I'm of a mind that teamwork amongst many played the primary role], the ships were made of live oak with less than two inches between the primary ribs at a time when foreign navies allowed as much as two or more feet between same. This made the first American Frigates tremendously strong.

The nickname "Old Ironsides" was coined by US sailors during and after Constitution's engagement with the British frigate Guerriere during the War of 1812, after it was noticed that enemy cannonballs had literally bounced off her hull. USS President was just as strong, as it took THREE English Frigates to subdue her to capture in 1814, and she had a damaged rudder from a storm she had gone through a few days before! :hatsoff:

After this and other actions in the War of 1812, the navies of Europe followed suit and had 44 gunners of their own. It is interesting to note that despite the gun rate, Constitution ACTUALLY set sail with 60 cannon on her decks, not 44. She was fast and a good sailer, equaled only by the USS President when it came to getting where she needed to be. She is, and hopefully will continue to be, 'A Most Fortunate Ship'. :salute:

Your graphics are very good. I like them very much. It is too bad that Civ 4 will eclipse Civ 3 before everyone gets a good long chance to figure out how to add and play the latter to it's full potential. I figure it will probably be some time before I know editor graphics programs well enough to add any of my own 'wish list' units. Oh. well. at least I can enjoy the ones that you and others have made. I'm sure we can all look forward to seeing some great CIV 4 units from you in the future as well. I suppose that might be just as fun.:D E Strongblade

I know that this is a dead thread - heck - I put in the last post nearly a year ago. As I recently began playing and moding C3C again, I thought I would share my civilopedia entry here as an incentive for people to use this unit. To use it, just copy it wholesale here in this post and paste it in your C3C civilopedia folder ( or PTW etc.).

Here it is:

#PRTO_HeavyFrigate
^
^
^The [HeavyFrigate] is a frigate that was specifically designed to take on vessels of a larger size. Using speed, superior fire power and
heavier construction techniques, the vessel was actually strong enough to take on lesser ships-of-the-line under certain conditions.
^
^A coastal city needs both $<LINK<iron=GOOD_Iron> and $LINK<saltpeter=GOOD_Saltpeter> in its
$LINK<Strategic Resource=GCON_ResourcesS> box to build Heavy Frigates.
#DESC_PRTO_HeavyFrigate
^
^
^The Heavy Frigate was first built by the fledgling American Navy in order to combat the Mediterrainian pirates.
Also refered to as 44-gunners, the designers, Joshua Humphries and Josiah Fox, were determined to build a ship that would
prove to be an overmatch to foreign nation vessels of the same class. The idea was sound, as the 44s proved themselves time and
again throughout the many years following their launch dates in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The idea of Heavy Frigates
quickly crossed national boundaries, as friendly nations began taking the lines from the vessel and adopted them to their own use.

Enjoy!

PS - The 44 is NOT a replacement for a Man-o-War. The Man-o-War was actually used to describe the large armed vessels of earlier centuries, namely in the 1600s. By the time of the Georgian Navy (roughly 1725 to 1840), ships of large size (in most National Navies) were refered to as Ships of the Line. These "wooden walls" were what the British used to become masters of the ocean by 1805. The Man-o-War looked nothing like a Ship-o-the-Line, although the one that is labeled as such in the game looks like a Ship-o-the-Line {SOTL}.

Even 44s could not take on the majority of these monsters, some of which had upwards of a 120 guns and were two, nearly three times the size of Heavy Frigates. The SOTL also was capable of Heavy bombardment and I give mine both Blitz and lethal sea in my editor. Anyone who has read about Trafalger or the Nile would quickly understand why I do this. :D

Hey, thanks for the briefing (yeah, I didn't notice it a year ago :lol: ) and for the civilopedia descriptions :thumbsup:

Hey, aaglo!

Kudos on a great unit but I feel I must point out a serious hours long problem (much of it due to my ignorance) I had in getting it to work. I attempted the HeavyFrigate version. I used the Kraken tutorial to get it in to My Mod (after fumbling like the 3 stooges for about a day) and debugged into a test run.

Each time I tried to shift f1 the new unit on to the map, my message told me that it could not find the .ini file. Boy was I flustered! Here is what I found out:

I suspect that the ini file for the Heavy Frigate is corrupted! I believe I lucked out to correct it, although the way that I fixed it seems to back up my suspicion. Unless there is a way to put an ini into the wrong place inside of a folder, I can't think of any other explanation. This is what I did:

I came back here and downloaded the "connie". I then put a copy of the connie ini into my Heavy Frigate folder. I opened the suspected corrupt file and the connie ini file and changed all of the connie graphics references to HeavyFrigate (I didn't touch the wav files). After dumping the old ini, I changed the name of the connie ini to HeavyFigate and voi la - as soon as I bugged her up, she suddenly ran as smooth as silk.

As I did not change anything but what I've described, I don't know what else to think. If you have a way of testing this theory, perhaps you can prove me wrong or right. I am, I admit, curious but I'm also not experienced enough to get into the deep workings of individual files where the whys and why nots are concerned. :( On to other, upbeat things. :)

You REALLY did an awesome job on this unit! You see, I only recently figured out how to get a new unit to actually work inside of the game, and your Heavy Frigate was my first success. I pounded the problem over a year ago and gave up in ignorant frustration, deleting the whole game and not even reloading or playing it until about a week ago.

The hiatus seemed to pay off, as I came back to it understanding a lot more about computer games and how they work than I could have imagined a year ago( I didn't stop gaming, just Civing). I have decided to stay with Civ3C now that I understand moding better because I don't believe that the complexity of the game merited introducing a Civ4 so quickly - IMHO, C3c and its concepts did not get enough time before it was shuffled aside. Of course, this is probably not the case for those who started playing C3 on day one, but that's how I feel. Anyhoo, back to the the requisite kow-towing.:worship:

I can see just by this unit that you are certainly worthy of every award you get. I believe that I will hit your library as soon as I get my Panther and Sturm Tiger loaded (success in this came last night - the Sturm Tiger was a B#@%H! Panther was easy.). All this and the continued feeling of awe that I'm experiencing over how good your unit is aside, I have only one minor/teensey-weensey request that will enhance the accuracy of this unit immensely. You may ignor it, of course, but it is a sound idea. I present it from my historical knowledge base point of view, which is extensive.

I think you should rename connie to be a "44 Gunner" - 44 for short. There were three classes of Frigate built by the US Navy at the turn of the 18th century - 44s (Constitution, President and United States), 38s ( Congress and Constellation) and a 36 (Chesapeake). The 44s were lined out (plans taken down) by both the French AND the British, so the vessel is NOT civ specific.

(In an aside, the British offered to return the President to Teddy Roosevelt at the turn of the 19th century [they having captured it in 1814 after a bloody fight that nearly destroyed two of their frigates and heavily damaged another - a fight started after Pres had broken her rudder when a squall temporarily ran her aground!] but Teddy turned them down because he did not want to take back a ship that had lost! The British scrapped it. :( - real anal, Teddy...)

I know that this would seem to make the Heavy Frigate unnecessary but - NOOO - because you could rename the Heavy Frigate a "38 Gunner" (38 for short) as there was not very much difference in the actual appearance of the vessels.

A 38 was still considered a Heavy Frigate because the average Frigate at that time was 24 to 32 guns, which means that you would not actually have to change the name of Heavy Frigate - No one would see a difference except in the game/editor files for speed, offense and defense. (The 44s hit harder and were mucho fast for what they were - the President was the fastest of all 6 of the first frigates.)

I spent alot of time studying the Georgian, early American and European Navies to learn this stuff and I have never come across a historical reference of the era that called "Old Ironsides" the connie - this term is associated with the USS Constellation in its Aircraft Carrier form, if memory serves me correctly. Hence the reason that I make this humble request.:D

All that aside, I want to say "Great Job" :thumbsup: again and assure you that I shall be paying much closer attention to your library page. Congrats on a unit well done! ;) :) :D

EStrongblade