Yea, the tilting head problem is something I've been struggling to fix for a long time now. It's a thing that's inherent to the original Grenadier animations actually. And it's something you can see on FFH mages as well. I've tried to address it multiple times in my own modifications to the Mage animation. But what every the guys at Fireaxis did originally to make it they did it so solidly that every time I try things only end up worse. Like permanently sideways head or detached head worse. I am still trying though. And if I manage to create an animation set that does not have the head tilt you'll be the first to know.
Changing the effects is relatively easy. Just make a copy of the relevant animation set and edit the appropriate KFM files by replacing the effects inside the animation with which ever effects you created. That's how I did my fireball ships and the like. If you need an example of how it's done check out my Navy and Effects modules for RIFE.
Or, given that I am currently working on a great number of civ specific units for that mod which includes a whole slew of magic wielders with different color effects (see the Purple fireball in the screenshot) you can wait for me to make my next release and you'll find all the work already done there. If you do that, I imagine you'll actually be able to just take my whole effects module and the animation sets from my unit module and copy them verbatim for your use. The way I make mine is that I create centralized animation sets that point to different effects in my effects module and swapping between them is literally just a case of changing the file in XML. So they;ll be super easy to use. But that'll take a while since I need to finish up some more units.
As it stands the existing crown is still an integral part of the unit. So I'd have to open it up in 3D max to cut it off the head. But that's not hard to do. As in it's 5 minutes as opposed to the hours that it took to make sure everything on the unit works right. And after that you can copy paste what ever you want. I attached the unit to this post.
Did you copy the DDS files too or just the object? If you haven't copied the DDS the religious halo will just show up as a white box in nifscope and won't be visible at all in game. I think.
Send me the NIF's and I'll check them out.
As for staffs and the like, unless they are literally fused into the model such as was the case with Stephanos you can just copy paste them.
I think I found an easier way of changing the specific effects I wanted: I used Notepad++'s Find in Files function to replace every instance of fx_fire with fx_fblu in Gastrius's folder and fx_fblu with fx_fire in Mikel Dylantyr's folder.
The effects I wanted were all commonly used for other units. I had already switched them in at least one place in Gastrius's model. The issue is that such effects are referenced a dozen times per model and the files are buried nested within trees so I had trouble finding most of them. Things became much simpler once I realized that Notepad++ could read and write to nif files. Even though most of the file looks like complete gibberish, the names of dds files referenced within the nif were clear.
Now I am wondering though about changing the color effects for some other units. Herve, for instance, would look better with green effects than blue.
I might end up using the crownless Stephanos model for Mikel. I did not at all mind him having a crown, but if might be nice for him to differ more from Badb. I definitely want to keep the crown on Badb, both because Kael called him a king and because it reminds me a little of a snowflake.
What I was talking about doing was not removing the crown from the Stephanos model or replacing it with some other crown, but rather adding that crown to a different model. I wasn't actually thinking of taking the crown from Stephanos himself bur rather using the Crown of Command model, which is the same crown without anything attached.
I've successfully pasted the Crown of Command into a reskinned Corlindale model for Laroth, but found that it just hovers in place rather than staying on top of the unit's head. (Even if it it did move with the head I'm not terribly impressed with the unit and am still looking for a better option.) I'm still very much an amateur with modelling software. How would I make it move with the head?
If I were to copy and paste staffs, how would I make sure they stay in the unit's hand rather than hovering off to the side?
There were a lot of staffs I'd like to switch around but I cannot remember what most were at the moment.
The staff I was least happy with was Herve's. Herve (Member of the Imprimatur Council, Kylorin's student in Nature Magic, a Fey from long before the Ljosalfar and Svartalfar split) is a reskin of the Svartalfar Druid, but in more Ljosalfar colors. I don't like him having the Svartalfar crescent moon as the head of his staff. I would rather him use the staff from the Ljosalfar Archmage, Druid, Mage, Adept, or High Priest of the Leaves. (I listed those in order or preference but would settle for any of them; only the last two have the staff as a separate branch from the body of the unit.)
The clerics of the Brotherhood of Wardens currently use reskinned models from the Order High Priests, with the valkyrie spear tip included for the normal Warden of the Weak but the whole staff removed for the Calabim Blinded Brother UU (who are strict pacifists that refuse to fight for any reason, even to defend themselves or others). I would much rather use the staff from the Elohim Mage (which is topped with an Owl, a symbol of Sirona) for both of them, but that one is an integral part of the unit's body too.
Soqed Hozi used a reskin of the Elohim Adept, which has no staff, but I would like the hand that does not carry her holy book to hold a ceremonial mace (since canonically she used one to beat her twin sister to death.) Stephanos's scepter would probably do fine.
I'm thinking my Emrys unit (a reskin of a Profane) might look better with the staff from the Sheaim Mage instead of from the Profane, but that staff is also part of the same model and probably not worth the effort to separate.
When I tried copying the halos I included custom dds files to show the icon of the new religions my mod adds. They show up in nifscope but are invisible in the game.