A military version:

http://www.smallartworks.ca/Gallery/Hawk/Hawk1.JPG

More angles on this site (http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgurl=http://www.smallartworks.ca/Gallery/Hawk/Hawk1.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.smallartworks.ca/Gallery/Hawk/Hawk.html&h=390&w=640&sz=37&hl=nl&start=199&um=1&tbnid=p_TrSUoHfip7kM:&tbnh=83&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dspace%2B1999%26start%3D180%26ndsp%3D2 0%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dnl%26client%3Dfiref ox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:nl:official%26sa%3DN).

And of course, a transport version would be nice. :)

http://www.monstersinmotion.com/catalog/images/ships/dce1.jpg

Some more pics: here (http://www.smallartworks.ca/Gallery/RUeagle/RUeagle.html)

I even found a lasertank!

http://www.smallartworks.ca/Gallery/LaserTank/Tank5.JPG

A few more angles (http://www.smallartworks.ca/Gallery/LaserTank/Lasertank.html)

Nice pics. I've seen some before.

Do we need space ships for this mod?

Yeah, I don't know how old you are, but I've seen these on TV in the mid-seventies. ;)

These aren't exactly spaceships, but shuttles and an attack craft for on the Moon.
A spaceship would be a nice addition, but we couldn't do much with it except let one hoover above a moonbase (way above) to depict an existing transport line with space colonies or a mission to Mars. If you think we need one, there's material available in the same style as above.

Btw, Woodelf, perhaps you have some inspiration from the pic below for base structures?

http://home.insightbb.com/~ryan.wolfe/Graphics/ArtWork/Moonbase.jpg

That's a terrific pic. The trouble is keeping those connecting tubes looking good in the citysets.

Actually, I thought more of only creating the different structures and ignore the tubes.
In the civ4 cityset system, you'll never be able to let those tubes connect well. Let us just imagine an underground connection system.

There's 9 easily discernable structures in that pic, and most of them shouldn't be too difficult creating, nor be poly intensive.

Yeah, that looks pretty easy. Civics first, then that.

How's this for a quick render shot?

Looks a good amount of unique structures. :goodjob: I think it would be perfect for the non-domed city versions.
A more realistic texture for the final version of course. ;)

Is this a single model, or can you still separate it in different parts so they could be loaded in a cityset .nif file?

9 or 10 individual models that I merged for this render shot. Obviously I'll need to unwrap, map, and then texture it. No GIMP or PS at work though. ;)

A first draft render of the above landing craft. Texturing in the pipe type lattice might prove unfun.

Ah, good... was thinking for a minute you would have to start over. :relief:
No rush either. ;)
With these models, a landingpad and a satellite dish (the existing radar dish model from ???) and perhaps the solar panel model already in the mod we have a basic outlook for lunar bases for the first 2-3 era's. By the way, perhaps the geodesic structure (the dome) could be used as "Palace" instead of a base building? And I would recommend a few antenna's extending out of the tower model. Would do good to represent a sort of "control" building for the city.

Oh, my precious shuttle! :woohoo:

Ahum, serious now... Cockpit shape is close to perfect, engine nozzles -and landing struts are perfect. My only gripe is the central "body". I can't see it clearly but it looks like you used equal size on each of the angles around the body. But I think the side with the airlock door in it should be longer (a person need be able to stand there) and the angles leading to the floor and upper part the shortest ones.

Or else I'm completely wrong looking at the core's angles... :blush:

Ah, good... was thinking for a minute you would have to start over. :relief:
No rush either. ;)
With these models, a landingpad and a satellite dish (the existing radar dish model from ???) and perhaps the solar panel model already in the mod we have a basic outlook for lunar bases for the first 2-3 era's. By the way, perhaps the geodesic structure (the dome) could be used as "Palace" instead of a base building? And I would recommend a few antenna's extending out of the tower model. Would do good to represent a sort of "control" building for the city.

The Area-51 model by Grave has hrochland's dish and a landing pad. And C.Roland did the solar panel so that's good.

I agree that the dome would be a good Palace for now.

Antenna are tricky to make look good, but I'll try. Maybe a thin cylinder is good enough?

Oh, my precious shuttle! :woohoo:

Ahum, serious now... Cockpit shape is close to perfect, engine nozzles -and landing struts are perfect. My only gripe is the central "body". I can't see it clearly but it looks like you used equal size on each of the angles around the body. But I think the side with the airlock door in it should be longer (a person need be able to stand there) and the angles leading to the floor and upper part the shortest ones.

Or else I'm completely wrong looking at the core's angles... :blush:

I think the angles on the top and bottom are the biggest, but I can easily extend the sides as well. Not a big deal, but it isn't the easiest pic or color to tell from.

Haven't you found the link underneath the pic? It shows more angles on the website.

Looking at it myself, I see the bottom is supposed to be completely flat, not going up a bit to meet the sidewalls.

I found it now. :p

I knew that looked familiar. My mom loved Space:1999. Landau kicked butt!

:lol:
Well, good luck. :D

The Area-51 model by Grave has hrochland's dish and a landing pad. And C.Roland did the solar panel so that's good.

I agree that the dome would be a good Palace for now.

Antenna are tricky to make look good, but I'll try. Maybe a thin cylinder is good enough?

If you still have the SMACX pictures given to us in the other thread, perhaps the typical U-shaped antenna of the Angels would do... and perhaps this thin cylinder could have a blinking navbeacon on top? :cool:

Erm, the Area-51 model has a runway, not a landing pad.
With a landing pad I mean something like you created before, but flat on the ground instead of being supported by pillars.

Sounds good.

Is Teamcolor doable on a cityset ?

WOW! There's an idea! :eek:
I'm sorry, I don't have the answer on this.

I've never done team color, but that a good question.

How's this Geo? My texturing is a bit hasty, but it doesn't look horrible. Too bright?

One smilie: :woohoo: :thumbsup: :goodjob: :cool:

Yeah, I know, that's more but hell what a model!

Thanks Geo.

I'll most likely upload it as is and let other people finish the texture if they want to.

What we need here (to make this unit a real turn-on) is a willing animation-creator to give it a lifting/landing sequence and of course a move animation.

What do you think, would we be using this unit as a upgradeable warunit? In this case battle animations are needed too.
And will we let it act like a plane, or like a helicopter? (air)mission based or like normal units?
In any case, in its most basic form, it should be a transport unit.

I was thinking transport only. Maybe I could eventually do a lift/drop kfm series. :hmm:

Cool for me. Wow, you're finally thinking of upgrading your artist skills? :p

Well, lifting and lowering an entire unit can't be that hard. Can it? Adding bones and movable limbs is beyond my grasp I think.

Lifting, landing, hovering, moving forward and defending/being destroyed. Those are the basic animations if I haven't forgotten one.

Being destroyed is a tough one.

Yeah. Well, defending could be the mirror from moving forward. Instead of putting the nose a bit down (like a chopper) lifting it up and hoverering a bit backwards. Destroying... well, I guess a simple(?) explosion would have to do. Hard to imagine smoke coming out of a damaged shuttle on a place without any atmosphere.

It could always just disappear. :p

I think I'm terrified of animations to be honest.

You could of course always outsource the task. ;)
(perhaps try first to link the helicopter ani's to it?)

Thread for Eagle here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=217159) Geo.

I put 2 nifs in the download; one starting on the ground and the other hovering.

Cheers! :goodjob:

Thread for Eagle here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=217159) Geo.

I put 2 nifs in the download; one starting on the ground and the other hovering.

Perhaps this post by Chamaedrys is of use to you?

Hi!

Great model. It's good to see new ship models and new modders:)
I can help you with the animations and the darkness.

about the darkness:

1. Open your ship in the nif viewer
2. click "Geometry"
3. click "NiProperties"
4. open the "NiMaterial property"
5. set the all the values for Ambient, Specular and Diffuse color to 1.0
6. save it

about the death animations:

1. Open your ship in the nif viewer
2. add the destroyer
3. look at the scene graph of the destroyer
4. put your model into NiNode "DUMMY_Destroyer_Hull"
5. change position and size of your model so that it fit with the destroyer (more or less)
6. open NiNode "Damage_Boat_Texture"
7. delete the Nitrishape inside.
8. save the destroyer.nif under a new name. This is your model with destroyer animations.:)

Greetings

Chamaedrys

Yeah, but now I have to finally open the nifviewer... :hide:

Hey Geo! The Eagle has 2 animations; run and idle! My first ones. d/l link here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=4740).

:cooool:
So, are we going to use it as an air unit or as a land unit like a helicopter?

A non-combat helicopter maybe?

It really looks to me like it would make a good troop transport hellicopter like in civ III.
Allow it to load some units onboard and cross impassible terrain.

'kay. That's decided then.
Now, what types of promotions will we give it? Combat promotions sound a bit silly, but increased movement and increased sightrange sound obvious.

Fair enough. The funny thing is that when I made the Run animation I was thinking "Run Away, Run Away!". I don't think that's what Run does. :lol:

It does raise/lower in idle.

How about a promotion that gives it a chance to defensivly retreat against slower opponents? (SDK modification required) So that it can "Run Away"

Well, if this is possible by tinkering with the sdk I'm all for it. To my knowledge retreat was only possible with movement points left while attacking.

I'm sure that it is possible, I just don't know how to do it myself.

Yeah, I'd love the retreat if being attacked option. Not all the time, but transport ships should know how to flee.

What sort of colony craft do we want?

I'm fiddling with animations for FoundCity so I need to know what type of craft will be settling a lunar city.

I like the idea of a descending pod that unfolds as the city is founded, but that means that the colony ship will need to be airborn in transit. Or, I could put an old Apollo type pod on a flatbed transport and have it "launch" upon founding a city and descend to the new city location. Well, maybe I could...

Or, I could put an old Apollo type pod on a flatbed transport and have it "launch" upon founding a city and descend to the new city location. Well, maybe I could..
I kinda like that idea.

What sort of colony craft do we want?

I'm fiddling with animations for FoundCity so I need to know what type of craft will be settling a lunar city.

I like the idea of a descending pod that unfolds as the city is founded, but that means that the colony ship will need to be airborn in transit. Or, I could put an old Apollo type pod on a flatbed transport and have it "launch" upon founding a city and descend to the new city location. Well, maybe I could...

Woodelf, we share the same vision. :cooool:

Damned empath !

That'll be my attempt tomorrow then. :)

I am currently working on a artillery unit that is supported by and moves with 4 rockets (I'll attach a pic of the model later as I left it at home).

I intend to add a full line of animations for it and I have a few questions (note: I do not have civ on this computer to check some things out so some of these may sound obvious):
Do we have to follow one of the animation flow charts in the examples givin us of the units in the game or can we make our own?
Can we make our own effects or do we have to us the ones already in the game?

Do we have to follow one of the animation flow charts in the examples givin us of the units in the game or can we make our own?

Don't know.

Can we make our own effects or do we have to us the ones already in the game?

You can put your own effects ingame. It's been done many times before.

I am currently working on a artillery unit that is supported by and moves with 4 rockets (I'll attach a pic of the model later as I left it at home).

Cool.

I intend to add a full line of animations for it and I have a few questions (note: I do not have civ on this computer to check some things out so some of these may sound obvious):
Do we have to follow one of the animation flow charts in the examples givin us of the units in the game or can we make our own?

I know you have to use the exact numbers given. Sharick's tutorial is wonderful to explain this. But you don't need to use every animation. As for creating new animations not covered by Firaxis codes I have no idea.

Can we make our own effects or do we have to us the ones already in the game?

No idea, but Geo answered. :p

I'm hoping for a green laser beam effect at some point.

Here is a rendering of the unit I am working on. (Modeled and rendered in autoCAD)
152646

Looks nice. Can you export that into Civ4?

I can import it into 3ds max easily but in oder to export it to civ 4 I need 3ds max 6,7 or 8(I already used my trail time for 3ds max 7). I am currently using the trail for 3ds max 9 but I cant get the civ 4 plugins to work with it:mad:

I was just looking at the effects included with civ 4 and I found some really interesting ones that I have never seen in the game (like empblast and emploop)

If you send me the file I can import into Max7 and then export as a nif. Animations might prove problematic this way though.

A textured render preview of my forthcoming colony ship for SotM. I still need to make the vehicle to transport the lander and then do a silly animation for it, but it's close.

I like it already. :goodjob:

What do you mean with another vehicle?
In other news, this model as it is could be used as the first "moonhopper" before Eagles come in. Limited range and such in comparison, or strictly as an air unit with 1 load capacity if that is possible.

I was planning on "escorting" this on the back of a tracked vehicle to have it go from tile to tile. When you hit "Build a City" the lander would leave the other vehicle and settle onto the tile. That might be too ambitious for now though...

If we use just this for a colony ship here are some questions:

What level does it travel? High, ground, midlevel?
Does it need animations? If Yes, which?

I was planning on "escorting" this on the back of a tracked vehicle to have it go from tile to tile. When you hit "Build a City" the lander would leave the other vehicle and settle onto the tile. That might be too ambitious for now though...

If we use just this for a colony ship here are some questions:

What level does it travel? High, ground, midlevel?
Does it need animations? If Yes, which?

I should travel using the rocket on the bottom at a high altitude. Animations are always a good thing (almost always).

Edit: we should only use this model for the first era and have a more high tech model for later eras (similar style to the eagle).

I have no idea how I'll accomplish that matthewv, but I can try.

If I import an ICBM or cruise missile from Firaxis maybe I can make that work.

I have no idea how I'll accomplish that matthewv, but I can try.

If I import an ICBM or cruise missile from Firaxis maybe I can make that work.

Or you can wait till I made the rocket effect for my unit.

That works too! Or I could send you my files. ;)

What if we could make it a "drop" unit that settles on the spot where it lands? No movement, it simply starts at a base (don't forget the rocket exhaust ;) ) and founds a colony where it lands. Then you "only" need the departure animation, the landing animation and the collapse in a base. (like the normal settler does with smoke and stuff).

I go with Matthewv's proposal to use an eagle-like unit for a next-era colony pod. Just give it a distinct texture around the cargo area and you already have something rolling. And this also means that from the Eagle-era onwards bases can be founded where-ever a player wants. Only the "hopper" stage is limited to the air-range from the starting base.

What if we could make it a "drop" unit that settles on the spot where it lands? No movement, it simply starts at a base (don't forget the rocket exhaust ;) ) and founds a colony where it lands. Then you "only" need the departure animation, the landing animation and the collapse in a base. (like the normal settler does with smoke and stuff).

:wow: That would be so cool. Really, really cool. I have to admit that I don't know how to do the departure or landing animation. I could easily make it drop down for the founding animation. I've never messed with effects either.

I go with Matthewv's proposal to use an eagle-like unit for a next-era colony pod. Just give it a distinct texture around the cargo area and you already have something rolling. And this also means that from the Eagle-era onwards bases can be founded where-ever a player wants. Only the "hopper" stage is limited to the air-range from the starting base.

I'll have to revisit this unit and see if I can actually re-texture it and animate that cargo base. I might have joined it together...

I'll have to revisit this unit and see if I can actually re-texture it and animate that cargo base. I might have joined it together...

Hell, if you could pull this off we would have the coolest animation of the whole game. I suddenly have visions of promotions which dictates what type of module this eagle has. Colony transport, infantry transport, vehicle transport. :D

Infantry transport has an opening/closing airlock on the module. Colony (settler) transport leaves the whole module behind and collapses into the base (wonder if we re-use the eagle or not) and vehicl transport is a simple platform with stuff on it dropped down + the vehicle unit(s) in it.

We could even use Eagles as a way to transport supplies (food/hammers) to other bases.

:wow: That would be so cool. Really, really cool. I have to admit that I don't know how to do the departure or landing animation. I could easily make it drop down for the founding animation. I've never messed with effects either.

Mmm, perhaps a hint to put you on the right path: if you can open up animations from existing models, perhaps the space elevator animations could show you the way? The pod there goes up and down along a thread. So basically it's the same movement. And if we put it as an air mission...

:hide:

Slow down tiger! Knowing this means I need to redo the model a bit. I think it will look cool though eventually.

RRRRAAAAAWWWWWWW!!! :D

Mmm, perhaps a hint to put you on the right path: if you can open up animations from existing models, perhaps the space elevator animations could show you the way? The pod there goes up and down along a thread. So basically it's the same movement. And if we put it as an air mission...

I don't think you can open up existing animations like you do a nif. Even so they don't tell you the magic code to label the animation when you resave it.

We'll look into it. :)

If you ask me, doing your own animations for mechanical units is easier than using existing ones. The actual animation part is very easy. The hard part is setting up all the bones and skin properly.

Animations aren't difficult, but I don't see codes for exactly what Geo wants.

You can fidget, idle, run, attack, die, surrender, found city, but I'm wondering how to make a unit raise up and know enough to come down in another tile. Does Civ4 even do airlifts like that? I never play beyond 600AD.

That's why I like to do this as an airmission. When the unit is selected it raises up much like the eagle does but only higher and higher and when the target tile is selected where it is supposed to found a new base, the game automatically shifts to that spot and then the landing+settling animations plays. So there's no need to have the unit perform an arc to another tile or something. Just up, down and settle.

If you want to see for yourself how the game does this, just give yourself an air unit in the worldbuilder and let it scout/attack within its range.

0 moves for the settler, droped by the eagle ?


Ooops, 1000th post :yup: :banana: :woohoo: [party] :band: :beer: :trophy: :king:

Yeehaa, another Emperor has been born! :dance:

That's why I like to do this as an airmission. When the unit is selected it raises up much like the eagle does but only higher and higher and when the target tile is selected where it is supposed to found a new base, the game automatically shifts to that spot and then the landing+settling animations plays. So there's no need to have the unit perform an arc to another tile or something. Just up, down and settle.

If you want to see for yourself how the game does this, just give yourself an air unit in the worldbuilder and let it scout/attack within its range.

Ok. I've never done this in CIv4. :blush: So long as you can XML it to work like an airmission I'll be thrilled.

So my lone animation for this unit would be the Found City one that consists of it raising and then lowering. This will happen after it's completed it's airmission and the player pushes B. I don't think we can combine the end of the airmission with the founding of the city, can we?

Ooops, 1000th post :yup: :banana: :woohoo: [party] :band: :beer: :trophy: :king:

:whipped: Back to work. :p

Congrats

0 moves for the settler, droped by the eagle ?

The Eagle would be a second-era unit or so, I propose to let later-era settlers or be a separate Eagle model which disappears when founding a base, or simply have a settler unit which can be transported by an Eagle. If the latter has moves or not I hadn't thought of.

Your confusion is perhaps that the first-era settler would be a sort of 1970ish moonlander which in my proposal would indeed have zero moves but has the airmission stuff so it can 'fly' to a given tile within its range and found a new base.

I doesn't know this mod well but I can still produce something valuable for it. It was a simple suggestion.

Ok. I've never done this in CIv4. :blush: So long as you can XML it to work like an airmission I'll be thrilled.

So my lone animation for this unit would be the Found City one that consists of it raising and then lowering. This will happen after it's completed it's airmission and the player pushes B. I don't think we can combine the end of the airmission with the founding of the city, can we?

I would need to study airunit xml myself to see how it works. ;)
Okay, this is what happens when a player selects an air unit in a vanilla civgame:
He activates it, and it hoovers above the city while a actieradius overlay appears on the map around the city.
He presses one of its airmission buttons and selects the tile where he wants the unit to perform this mission.
The game jumps to the selected plot and the unit appears out of nowhere so to speak and flies from left to right over the plot while it plays it recon/gunfire/bombarding animation.

Now, what I propose would be the following:
The player activates the freshly build settler'landingcraft' in a base, the settler starts to lift off slowly and keeps on raising while the radius overlay appears.
The player presses the 'found city' button on his plot of choice within the actieradius.
The game jumps to this plot and the player can see the descending settler unit. When the unit has landed, the new city is founded with the typical smoke collapse of the vanilla game.

Essentially I think you should be able to link the collapse with the landing sequence. In the vanilla game the settler plays an animation of its own (he kneels down and opens his backpack) once the found city button is clicked.

I doesn't know this mod well but I can still produce something valuable for it. It was a simple suggestion.

Oh sorry. 0 moves would be fine with me. It actually makes sense since founding a new base on the Moon needs more stuff then founding a base on a habitable world.

I'm going to give it a quick whirl Geo. I'll at least have fidget, idle, and settle animations. If it requires airunit XML then I'll defer to the master. :pat: