View Full Version : Europa Universalis II Unit Conversion Preview & Problems


spincrus
Sep 22, 2003, 02:36 AM
I guess there are two primary reasons, why talented unit creators here at Civfanatics refrain from converting any units from Paradox Entertainments' Europa Universalis II.


1. It's hard, especially when it comes to optimize the palettes and the transparency; doing "nearest color" doesn't always give the best effect, and besides, frames aren't divided by borders (in fact, they are stuck together). Also, all frames for different directions of a certain unit differ in size.

2. The attack animations only have two directions! Well, kind of obvious for those of you who have played EU2 already, but still, it looks silly when someone attacks you from NW, say, and the unit shoots NE.


Still, I tried to do a Janissary unit for a personal mod of mine, but also wanted to share my converted unit on these forums.

Many of you, who like to play the game as historical as possible just like me, are desperately in need of a janissary unit for the Ottomans, IMO. Again, for most of you, there NEEDS to be a janissary unit for the Ottomans, just as there should be a longboat for the Scandinavians (Vikings), a unique longbowman for the English, an improved cavalry unit for the Germans (this exists, can't recall who made it though), a special Egyptian trimere (this exists too, thanks to aaglo) and so forth...

Here is a sample walk animation I converted from Europa Universalis II for the Janissary (this version to replace the Musketman, whereas the piked ones could replace pikemen; but still, historically, Janissaries were armed with muskets, or bows/arrows before the discovery of gunpowder). The Cossacks conversion of the janissary is, although nice looking *I'm sure there is also quite a bit of effort in there, so I respect that*, is unhistorical.

http://www.spincrus.com/other/janissary-preview.gif
(He's actually walking in a higher pace, I was just too lazy and tired to open Animation Shop, sorry if this has caused any inconvenience in your part.)

Please tell me what you think. I would love to hear ideas from all of you, on how to actually solve that "two-direction attack animation" problem. This will benefit all modders, I would assume.

Thanks in advance.

spincrus
Sep 22, 2003, 02:41 AM
Two other things;

I searched for an existing thread on this particular problem, but couldn't find any.

Also, I have considered doing some sort of copy-paste, using the head of this unit (with that unique hat, called "poshu" in Turkish) on already existing other units, such as the musketmen, pikemen, or even medieval warriors.

By the way, the name "poshu" is also used for the headwear the natives use in South-Eastern Turkey. It's likely that the name for the military headwear derived from that.

LouLong
Sep 22, 2003, 06:30 AM
Actually there is already a converted janissary (by Steph) on this page :
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=50408&perpage=20&display=&pagenumber=2

and a janissary pike too.
Don't want to make you stop your conversions though !

spincrus
Sep 25, 2003, 04:43 PM
Oh, thank you, I completely forgot about the second pack of cossacks conversion units... I've seen a janissary on the first one, converted by Smoking Mirror, but the unit itself (not the conversion, so no fault of Smoking Mirror in any way) isn't good.

I might, however, convert some 18th-19th century Polish, Turkish, Prussian, Austrian, French, British riflemen, and even some Indian and Asian units of the 15th centuries or so...