Civ3 may be nearing death (?) but i decided to make a new byzantine set, and then, perhaps, also a classical greek one. :)

Excellent cities...I would love to see your Greek ones as I am toying with Etrusca and phoenicia as Civs...

Any interest in making a European-colonies-in-Southern-Africa one ? :)

ty SpacerOne :)

@Loulong: can you post some pics? Although i trust they are from the industrial era, and i am mostly making medieval stuff...

here is an early prototype of byz size #2

Oooooooh... :worship: :worship: :worship:
really, that´s great! I´ll have to use the classical greek ones in HTS!
btw are you willing to make a mod about the Byzantine Empire´s history, from the late Roman Empire to the Ottoman conquests?

civ3 is not nearign death, that´s an ugly lie! It will be alive as long as we continue modding.

personally I just got into Modding in the last year ( I know I was under a rock) and Civ4 wont have the amazing selection of units/buildings/terrain for a couple of years

personally I just got into Modding in the last year ( I know I was under a rock) and Civ4 wont have the amazing selection of units/buildings/terrain for a couple of years That´s right. civ3 modding really started a year or so after civ3 came out. Until then, the mainstream still was civ2.
But let us not hijack this thread from it´s original theme. The main thing is, is anyone willing to make a byz mod with me? I can´t do it on my own, I have enough with HTS, trying to make munits (with a lot of help from Steph) and school in that order.

Why dost someth of yonder Greek buildingth looketh like the Age of Empires buildings found thither?

Do you mean my byzantine buildings? They are made from scratch. I never use any graphics made by other people ;)

Then it´s pure luck. They are very good.
What do you say about the other question, the more serious one?

No one will ever stop playing civ3 as long as you are contributing with your artistic talent, I'm sure ;)

It looks like you are off to a good start with they byzantine series. You, no doubt, know much more about byzantine architecture than I do, so any building you choose to put in this series will probably be accurate. So I have a suggestion / request - how about a large domed cathedral (or large domed cathedrals). It would be great if you could make the dome(s) on a cathedral blue, or at least I think so.

Also, I'm sorry I sort of disappeared when you were in the midst of making slavic cities. You once again have made an excellent city set though.

I must say that infact i owe a huge deal to RedAlert and his cities, since a lot of his designs have been used by me, and then edited heavily. So the point about not using graphics by other people was meant more like: i dont use graphics from other games ;) I just have gathered a large number of lready made shapes now and so can just edit my own designs so as to create new ones, and so am not dependant on foreign designs anymore ;)

As for the greek cities: i am not sure that i will make them (ok, i probably will) Atm i am working on the byz cities.
I started making graphics for civ3 in a rather antagonistic mode, but it is a lot better to just be happy with contributing something. I am definately looking forward to dling your new industrial (usa) set RedAlert :)
As for domes: i cannot make them :( But i can use one of yours, which are very well made ;)

here is a pic of what sixe #2 looks atm, still far from being completed. It can be compared to the slav size #2 also in the pic

I suspect that i will not change size #2 drammatically from this (the filler street terrain will change). Although it was a bad move to start by making size #2 (now i will have to take things out to make size #1) Size #3 may have a domed building, some of the agia sofia churches or another one.

edit: i altered some more stuff and now it is almost done.

As for the byzantine empire mod: it probably is a bit late for that. I actually have a finished map with cities from the 1360's, but it is very difficult to make. Here is a pic from that, in the venice-byzantine border in the Peloponnesos.

Why do you say that the byz mod is too late?

A mod takes a massive amount of effort, and with civ3 becomming obsolete in a few months, i dont see the point. But more importantly i cannot commit to such a task

I wouldn't be quick to call Civ3 obselete even with Civ4 coming close. It took a while for modding to get done for Civ3 after it was released and even then, most of the major mods were primarily for Civ2. There's still life in Civ3, just as there's still life in Civ2. :)

Civ3 may be nearing death (?)
HERESY! :mad:
:p

I like the design, but they look too.... perfect. Try blurring them a little bit.

Blur them? BLUR them? It took a lot of work to make them look exactly not blurry :)

OK maybe blur wasn't the right word. What I mean is that they look too sharp against the terrain. But maybe that's what you're going for. I guess "soften" was what I meant.

I try not to have them look pixelated. Did you notice anything like that? Because i try to make them look distinct but not obviously pixelated. The civ3 terrain will always look rougher in relation to them though, which sometimes can be annoying but i think that it doesnt look that bad, i mean the city in relation to the terrain :)

I wouldn't be quick to call Civ3 obselete even with Civ4 coming close. It took a while for modding to get done for Civ3 after it was released and even then, most of the major mods were primarily for Civ2. There's still life in Civ3, just as there's still life in Civ2. :)

hey Ogedei ;)
Iirc you are reworking the chinese cities? I once suggested that you make a new set of trees, dont you not like the idea at all? (but japanese art has heavily stylised images of trees)

I haven't gotten back to working on my cities since I've been moving stuff to a new computer. But I'll get back to it eventually. I don't know if I can do trees, though. :)

I must say that infact i owe a huge deal to RedAlert and his cities, since a lot of his designs have been used by me, and then edited heavily. So the point about not using graphics by other people was meant more like: i dont use graphics from other games ;) I just have gathered a large number of lready made shapes now and so can just edit my own designs so as to create new ones, and so am not dependant on foreign designs anymore ;)

That is more or less the way I work as well. Just about everything that goes into one of my cities is pieced together from others' work, which I then edit to get the look I want. Not only that, but I feel I've learned a great deal from other city creators as well. Especially from you and Ogedei, as I have been trying to get better at detailing and shaping with single pixels, which you are both masters of.

As for the greek cities: i am not sure that i will make them (ok, i probably will) Atm i am working on the byz cities.
I started making graphics for civ3 in a rather antagonistic mode, but it is a lot better to just be happy with contributing something. I am definately looking forward to dling your new industrial (usa) set RedAlert :)
As for domes: i cannot make them :( But i can use one of yours, which are very well made ;)

Thank you. If you need domes, if for this project or another one, I have dozens that you can use if you want.

By the way, this city series is looking like one of your best. Along with the detail on the buildings and the roof (which you are really good at), all the buildings seem placed perfectly together, and that is very pleasing to the eye.

Size #1 could look like this.

Do you think that the cross should be kept or not?

I would say keep the cross.

Well i am not very happy with the cities as they are...
And i cannot really say what the problem is either. Perhaps they appear to be too uncharacteristic? They look rather too much like a barn :lol:

Building-wise there are enough different buildings, and 3 different new churches for the first time.

These look nice so far, but... a Byz city needs to have domes. Many domes. If you don't want to do them by yourself (trust me, it's not that difficult!), you should copy-paste them.

Ok ok ok
i thought that i was going to get away easily, since you are from the west :p

but no luck there it seems.

how about this? :)

For domes, generally this shape seems to work:
(Filled in, the left side would fall into shadow gradually)

Ok ok ok
i thought that i was going to get away easily, since you are from the west :p


:lol: No chance ;) I've only recently become more interested in Byz architecture (and Byzantine history in general). When I was in Greece in June, most of the sites we visited were connected with the classical antiquity, but we also visited the Osios Loukas monastery. I found that extremely interesting, because unlike the ancient temples that was something completely new for me.

Your city looks good, but I have two suggestions
1) I want to see domes! Now the towers still have pitched roofs, where they should have domes on their tops. Als it would be nice if at least one of the buildings had a large central dome. You definitely should try RA's tip.
2) What about making the colour of the buildings to a more reddish tone? After all most Byz buildings were made of bricks.

Looking very good so far. :)

So far, so good. Do you make Wonder Splash Graphics?

Ok, seing that my dream of finishing a byz series fast has sunk into the bottom of the dark pit, i now decided to model three of the local churches. It is them in the pic. The st Demetrius (larger one, on top) the agia sofia (oxidated bronze dome) and the "red church".

http://www.hri.org/MPA/gr/other/thessaloniki/graphics/monuments3a.jpg

But then i think that the sheer level of detail perhaps could justify the city remaining this way? I just looked at the 200% magnification and i felt that it can almost be used as a city by itself, so i am probably keeping this as it is.
The problem with my cities is that they are in a smaller scale than some of the other ones, although i tried to model them in relation to ogedei's.
I still think that we should decide sometime in the future upon some conventions for city making, so that our cities are compatible, and so that not every one has to make a series of everything.
I looked at aion's industrial indian city and definately the centerpiece is wonderfull, but it wouldnt be able to be used along with a city by me. That said my own cities arent even probably entirely compatible with ogedei's, but i still thin that if we could agree on sizes and basic city shapes, we could have a better chance of creating sets that can be used in the same game.

Concerning scale my cities are in relation to Firaxis' cities. For my Indian cities I used the standard mid-eastern set as a base and simply put my buildings upon it. That makes cut'n'paste-jobs a lot easier and it has the result that the shape and overall look of the cities resembles the Firaxis cities, so they fit together well.

Do you want this beast for size #2? It looks more epirotan than overall byzantine, but it is generally ok i think.

Looks great! :) If that's size #2, I can't wait to see size #3.

Hi Psycho ;)
Actually i reworked size #2 a bit, here it is.
I am not sure what size #3 will look like.

There's nothing wrong with the new size #2, but I think the old one looked better. And it certainly looked more majestic. :) But it's your city, so you decide what you think looks best.

Hm, perhaps if this is size #3 you can still like them ;)

Very nice! Good job with the domes, the blue is a nice touch too.

Hm, i finished size #3, although now size #2 looks very weird to me.
Size #3 looks more like a size #2, but i am reluctant to make a huge new size #3...

I am stuck. I was always afraid of overdoing it with a byzantine series. Now i have many different size #2 and #3 around...
This particular set has a different centerpiece for each city.

Looks nice! :) But, as you know, I'd prefer to see the old size #2 as size #3. But that's just me. ;)

Edit: The house to the right in size #3 looks a little weird. I think it's too low and the roof's too big (for a house that low).

I can include drakula's mansion as an alternative size #3 too if you want.

Hmmm, apart from that low house, the new size #2/3 probably looks better. Or does it? :)
What does Dracula's Mansion look like?

The last pic was of the old size #2, which you said you liked :p :D
It just reminds me of some cult movies, and of dracula, due to the strange colours of the main building which in my mind make it look rather cryptic :)

The last pic was of the old size #2, which you said you liked :p :DYeah, but that was yeasterday, I've changed a lot since yeasterday. Today, I like the new one. :) ;)
I can't decide which one I like best, really.

I completed walled #1 (and #1 too ofcourse) :)

Now the only thing remaining is to decide if i will use the current #2, or alter it somehow.