Damn, this is quite hard (as meaning difficult)!
The ground part is easy - it's the castle that makes things difficult.

So, what do you think of the first version?

Some info&thoughts:
- it is a castle ripped off from the ground via magic, thus the foundations and part of the surrounding ground has been lifted with it
- it holds two towers: the guard tower (black square tower) and the wizard's tower (red round tower). The wizards tower still needs a pointy roof :)
- considering the animations: will this be used as a genuine air unit or a land unit with all-terrain-as-roads?
- the colours are only suggestive, I'm sure we can come up with better colours :)

Okay, here's the preview:

is it quite hard, eh? ;)

Looks cool. Maybe add some grass?

Originally posted by Yoda Power
Looks cool. Maybe add some grass?

Where to? Ground? Walls? Your pipe :p ?

Originally posted by zulu9812
is it quite hard, eh? ;)

Thanks, I'm doing fine. How'bout you, eh? ;)

Oh and please, try to behave yourself in the future, and say something meaningful for a change :p :crazyeye:

Originally posted by aaglo


Where to? Ground? Walls? Your pipe :p ? Well to the ground, thats usually where grass appears:p

Cool, reminds me of this painting by Rene Magritte:

THe castle looks a bit oddly shaped, although i understand it could be quite hard to give it a more regular form ?

The shape of the castle is because of the shape of the 'floating groundpiece' :)

It would be easier to make it more regular, but that would look quite silly too (because castles/fortresses were almost always done according to the terrain underneath). :p

how about a bit different aproach on the textures?

I think the turret being red is a little bit awkward, but otherwise I think it's good!:goodjob:

Grandraem (sp?) will simply adore you for doing this!:lol:

I feel the ground should have a stronger brown color and the castle should be darker.

Looking good though already. :goodjob:

I quite like the new textures.

Originally posted by Amenhotep7
Grandraem (sp?) will simply adore you for doing this!:lol:

:love:

I do, and the spelling was correct.

aaglo,
I think the bottom of the castle seems to blend a little too much into the ground under it because the tone of both is too close. If possible, I think, as Yoda said, that there could be some darker grass around the base, or, as Drift said, possibly some darker earth around the base of the castle. Or maybe instead of making the rock underneath gray, it could be a little more brownish.
One last thing, I think the tower sticks out a little too much because of the colour.

Sorry for all the complaints. I don't mean it to sound as picky as it probably does. There just small suggestions.:) I do still really appreciate this. Perhaps when it's done, I'll add a statue to the front lawn of the Cathedral.;)

I think the grass should be greener and the walls more towards grey rather than white IMO, but other than that it's looking good :thumbsup:

Quite a crappy quality image (yeah, paint shop "pro" doesn't let me choose the jpg-quality - atleast by default). But the details aren't important.

The colour is everything ;)

Don't worry, the number system hasn't changed - the numbers are just to make things easier for me to remember :)

A selection of twelve colours - which of them do you fancy, which of them do you hate?

19, 24, 25, and 27 are my favorites.

15, 20 and 25 are the best IMOOriginally posted by aaglo
Quite a crappy quality image (yeah, paint shop "pro" doesn't let me choose the jpg-quality - atleast by default). But the details aren't important. Alwyas save as a gif in PSP. The quality is better and the files are smaller.

I missed 15, it's quite nice as well.

Yoda, I usually use either gif or png, but png would have become too large, and gif wouldn't have shown all the colours (since there were a lot of colour schemes, the 8-bit picture was the option I tried to avoid) :)

25.

This would be my favourite :)

what is this supposed to do? be a unit to crush people? a terrain thingy?

It's a floating castle. It floats in the air. and drops some nasty stuff upon the enemy when it passes over.

So it's a flying fantasy unit.

That's actually very good. Flying castles of Dragonlance belong to baddies so a dark color scheme is rather fitting.

I think the very last one you posted is the best. I like the yellow on black. But the ground still needs to be more brownish. It's still too gray. And maybe even have some grass, as it was suggested?

Other than that, it's great.

The color difference 'tween the walls and the, well, ground is too small, methinks.

Otherwise, this seems like 'nother neat unit from the Uberlord.

Yup, the ground could be even more brown. Castle is IMO just right.

Originally posted by Drift
That's actually very good. Flying castles of Dragonlance belong to baddies so a dark color scheme is rather fitting.

I agree with you Drift. And in Mystara only a few civs would be able to pull this off and they aren't all the nicest nations either. Dark is good. That looks great so far aaglo. You are one productive person.

more brown? Hmmm....

Excellent ! Wonderful job Aaglo !
I think the colors are good ; and that grass is not really needed, because Flying Castle should be a bit desert because of high altitude, and people in there are certainly nobles who takes tributes and taxes in goods to the poor peasants who plow the lands beneath... (and the different color of one tower, in first version you put, could have been a sorcerer one which would explain that this piece of moutain can flying above our heads)

Are you planing a Gulliver Giant ? A Laputa special flying town ?
(btw another one with Miyazaki "Castle in the Sky" design could be a good idea... forget this idea, i'm no designer so I can't actually imagine how hard it can be)

I think that last version is great. Though I think you should make the grass a bit lighter.

The mix of brown and green looks good to me on that preview. Nice patches of grass that survived the event of pulling the castle form the ground. It looks good to me.

Grandraem has been wanting this for as long as I've seen his sig. He even threw the request in with mine for my mod. :) It's about time he got that wish. I love fantasy units.

:goodjob:

I'm through with suggestions. :)

Now, how does this thing attack? Volleys of arrows? Lobbed boulders? Fire from the sky?

Sorry to litter this thread again (that's where I'm good at :lol: )

There's something I forgot from the previous previews. Let's see if you can guess what it is ;)

BTW, should that addition be added to all those things that are similar :mischief: ? I think not, then it would become littered, no?

I know! You've lightened the grass!

Seriously, I like the change.

The top of the mages tower looks much nicer now. :D

EDIT: I would just leave it on the mages tower. Makes it stand out more. :goodjob:

The last prev is real neat.

The last preview is perfect :)

Yep, this is propably too much :lol: :D

Arf... both are beautiful, but I think the one with only one roof is the nicer...

Yeah, just a little. It still looks nice, but the the one with only the mage tower topped is best I think. Although that is not so bad, :hmm: maybe you could make both? If that's not too much.

I wonder, aaglo, if you ever thought to try your hand in Airships? The Heldann Freeholds have a really interesting one. Stop rambling tjedge!

Back to the castle, If you made the last version and the one before it, that last one could go to Glantri while the other would be good for Alphatia. Even in DragonLance the Dragon Highlords killed each other so a variety might not be too unrealistic. If you are interested in doing that anyway. Just a suggestion.

Actually, by changing the tower tops, you can have 3 different units for 3 different cultures... Just an idea :)

About the animations:

- Default: nothing special - it just hovers in the air, only slight movement up & down

- Run: the default animation can be used as run animation

- Attack: this is a tricky one. If it's going to be used as an air unit, then it could use some sort of bombard animation (the castle flies over enemy unit, dropping something on top of it - like burning oil). But if it's going to be used as a 'land unit', then it should propably have some sort of ranged attack: a volley of arrows, it could throw boiling/flaming oil, or some sort of magical lightning... So the attack really needs some thinking here. All suggestions are appreciated.

- Death: turns upside down and crashes to the ground :p

If it's made a land unit, it would be cool to have something magical like lightning or fire balls. Maybe some arrows and burning oil in small portions to go along with it. I'd go with the magic attack first since most likely every flying castle will have a mage to guide it.

If made into an air unit, it could have a large transport ability and the bombardment could be something like fire and lighting I would say.

In my opinion this shouldn't be an air unit in terms of Civ3 so we could scrap the bombardment animation.

My suggestion would be to use 2-3 different ranged attacs. For exampe: arrows, lightning, fireballs. :)

Having it as an air unit would imply hit-and-run sort of attacks that, well, are somewhat less ponderous than I'd expect from a a castle, even if it's a floating one. So, some sort of ranged attacks seems the most called-for - a hail of arrows and fireballs might do the trick.

The most neat for modders, however, would surely be providing both bombard and attack anims. I do realize this would rather increase the amount of work required ...

If a bombard anim is made, burning oil sounds like a neat idea.

Or, if we're dealing with a more bizarreristic fantasy world, it could just land on it's target, flattening it!

I really don't think any modder wants a castle zooming past its target dropping rocks/oil/whatever. So I believe doing bombard anims would be total waste of time.

I would prefer it as a land unit myself. Too bad there still isn't a stinking land transport flag. What's a guy got to do to get that installed.

I don't think a castle would make a good air unit in terms of Civ3 anyway, it would be better as a land unit.

Yeah, I also would think that a land attack is most called for... :)

Three attacks sound good, like Drift said. The design looks great whatever attacks you make, though! Fine work thus far. :thumbsup:

It can be use sphere bomb: take a look on Swift's Gulliver, about the floating isle of Laputa.

I think it looks neat, and I prefer the version with all pointy towers. :) I think an arrow attack sounds silly, better with magic...

I like it a lot with either the pointed tops or barbed tops. Looks awesome aaglo!:)
I actually like the pointed tops more, but if others prefer the barbed top, that's great as well.
Top class work! :goodjob: :goodjob:

I think it would be best as an air unit that transports land units. After all, the castle can't take a city, the soldiers inside would have to come down and do that. All the castle would be able to do would be to bombard with missile weapons and magic.

As for the attack, I think lightning would be great, or fireballs, or oil, or arrows, or pretty much anything that could be rained down on enemies.:)

Does this look very silly?

It looks nice IMO, though shouldn't it be fired from the tower?

Looks good but I kinda imagined it originating from one of the towers/turrets. As if the mage casting the spell was in there.

Could also have some support from archers or catapults. Though that might make it look cluttered

It is coming from the tower - from below the tower :p

Okay, I'll see if it could be emerge from the top-castle of the tower... :hammer:

I think it would be better if it came from the top of the mage tower. Apart of that, the green glowing effect is really cool and the "green lightning thing" perfect !

This thing looks great! I would use it rather as a replacement for default city graphics in a fantasy mod. Great work again Aaglo!

Verax

:mad:
God friggin' damn! This is far from easy... :wallbash:

I would think that this is the best I can do. Or else I have to make some severe changes (or leave the whole thing be)...

The problem is, that if the lightning is to leave from the tower, it cannot go in straight line...

Unless I'll just make it a flying unit (the bombing animation is separate file)

I kinda think a connon attack would be better, but hey, that looks good too.:)

I really like the little flash of light coming from the turret window before it fires out.:)

Hmm... actually it isn't that bad.
And I could get a way around the 'stupid curve' in the attack:
- move the wizards tower a bit, and
- make it a bit higher (so it can shoot directly to the ground)
- put the whole castle a bit closer to the ground

.. yep, those'll do it :)

The lightning changing direction in mid-air doesn't bother at least me in the least. Looks good. :goodjob:

And draw a line (no pun intended) if you feel like this is starting to be tiresome instead of fun. :)

I'll have to go against the current here and say I don't really like that attack anim. :(

I'd probably like a hail of smaller missiles - magical or normal - better.

Assuming I've not placed byself to firmly in your bad book now, what about the death anim? Any chance of having it turn upside down and crash?

I like it a lot Aaglo! But, I think that the attack looks sort of like a cat, maybe just change it a tiny bit?

I think it looks great in that last preview, but I'll wait and see what you come up with next. It sounded better anyway. I think Grandraem is right about it being an air transport unit. That makes a little more sense to me. I don't want to make things too difficult, though I'm sure you will draw the line somewhere.

How about a Lighting bolt that goes straight up and comes back down as a number of strikes.

Looks great aaglo. Don't worry about it too much. It looks great as it is. You've done an amazing job.:)

Hi!
I did the changes (mentioned in the post above) yesterday, and I think It turned out great. I even tested the default.flc in the game, and it was quite nice.

- I moved a bit the towers inside the castle
- I added one smaller square tower (because there was quite a lot free space inside after the re-organizing)
- The wizards tower is much higher now
- The attack animation looks quite nice

I think I could think about doing some other types of attacks too, like:
- hail of arrows
- somekind of fireball-attack
- lightning attack described by Marcus Saurano could be nice too...

So far it sounds great to me. :jump:

Looks great. Although I'm a little late, I might suggest it look more EVIL looking. Acctually, a "good" looking AND an Evil looking one would be great. The attack animation looks fine to me. Great work!

Well, finally I think I've got a good fireball-efect made with povray. Darn - now I feel like I would like to do most of my unit attacks again :lol:

But I propably won't - just for some good older units - like the siege cannon (i think the attack anim on that is crap in it's purest form :lol: )

And another unit to be updated is most certainly the turtle ship:
- it is too light in colour
- sails could be better
- civ-coloured flags could be better
- attack could definitely be better :lol:

But those updates are coming after (and If) I finish this castle ;)

@Kindred72
You are a little late, but your request/comment in that form isn't very descriptive :lol: - EVIL looking :confused: how? Darker? Engulfed in flames?

I think it currently looks quite fine (oh, I think I didn't mention, that now all the small towers have the 'cap' on :) )

Why are you teasing us so? People want pictures! :lol:

I will give you pics, when I have something to show you :p

Show us now :p!

I can't imagine what this looks like in text...

Any idea yet on an ETA for this one aaglo?:)

(I'm getting too impatient).:D

Good Job aaglo!

Soon. soon. But I don't know about the sounds. I think I won't do them at all.

here's an ingame pic.

:eek:




Breath...taking!

Don't worry about sound. Maybe someone could ask Vuldacon to do them, he seems to be good at finding unique sounds.