New unit: Roman Pikeman (22nd May 2005)

[zulu9812]

This unit intended to be used as either the Roman's flavour Pikeman, or to go between the Spearman and Pikeman (a sort of Dark Ages roman)



I went out on a limb here and did some things which weren't in utahjazz7's tutorial, so I'd appreciate extra feedback on the run & victory flcs, sounds and pedia pics.

Thanks, as ever, to utahjazz7 for his great tutorial and ongoing help with pallette work.

If anyone's interested, this unit is inspired by one of the pics in my latest unit request thread (check my sig)

Download Link (868 KB)

[jobiwan7]

Utterly amazing. I love the shield! Great job!

(1st Reply!)

[Bjornlo]

Nice unit I like it. Especially the sheild detail, leg armor and helmet
By feedback, I sure hope you mean constructive criticism. Otherwise ignore everything below the dotted line.


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The leg armor works much better then the chain mail.
The sounds are interesting. The fanfare for victory is very old school and kinda cool. But doesn't fit as well with the current approach to have the unit "say" something.
The Spearman sounds should not be included. Those are copyrighted works, and not redistributable. You simply must remove them immediately.
You can instead using pathing in your INI file to point to the sound files you want to use.
The run animiation has a hitch in the sheild movement. A quicky jerky move near the end. He is moving the sheild faster (farther) after then keyframe then before it.
In the north, North east and east facings his hand inside his sheild looks funny, like he is in the middle of dropping his sheild. Perhaps cover the hand, as a simple fix... or close the hand into a fist, if the hand can do that. Or raise the sheild (bend the arm) like in the attack anim.

The victory looks good.

Dropping the spear/pike in the death is a nice touch.

In the attack anim, he misses his foe. The spear wobbles off target. It goes well to the right. A more machine like straight stab would work better.

The civilopedia icons are nice. The shadow comes forward and is cut off. I would suggest removing the partial shadow or better still move the lighting so the shadow stays in frame.

Hope this is what you were asking for.

[ShiroKobbure]

wow
this is really good, I cant belive this is your early work
I should give Utahs tutorials a try ^ ^
what do you planned next Zulu?

[utahjazz7]

As I said earlier, that shield is awesome. I'm glad that you ventured away from the tutorial. I don't think that it's too hard to make your own animations once you've done something basic like the tutorial. I really like the run animation (walk).

On a side note, I'm not sure, but I think that the victory animation should lead back into the first frame of the default animation, not the last frame of the fortify.
(default>fortify>attacka>victory>default)

I'm also glad that the tutorial is working out well for you. Hopefully some others will follow your lead and start creating units of their own.

[Antiochus VII]

Very nice - I like the run animation a lot, it gives it character

[Cimbri]

GREAT NAKED GODS OF THE NORTH!!!



That’s some amazing work there, Zulu.

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

Could I interest you in the Roman Grenadier Zulu?

[Pounder]

Very Impressive!!

[Plotinus]

I think it's excellent stuff. I love the Chi Rho symbol.

SoG, I actually did some concept art for the Roman Grenadier, but alas, I have no access to a scanner!

[joeskip]

very very nice, especially for just starting out. The shield is a little big, but it looks so cool that I don't mind. Keep up the great work

[Aluminium]

Great one.

[EuropeanFury]

This is by far one of the better units I've seen here....great job!

[Bungus]

I like this one better than the last. A very usable unit, in my opinion, with no glaring flaws. As others have said, the shield looks fantastic, although perhaps a bit cumbersome.
One minor quibble is that your frame size is too small for the attack animation. A portion of the spear dissapears off the edge of the frame in several directions.

Originally Posted by Bjornlo

The sounds are interesting. The fanfare for victory is very old school and kinda cool. But doesn't fit as well with the current approach to have the unit "say" something.
The Spearman sounds should not be included. Those are copyrighted works, and not redistributable. You simply must remove them immediately.
You can instead using pathing in your INI file to point to the sound files you want to use.

New sounds are always cool, though I probably won't use your victory wav.
Including some spearman wav files shouldn't be a big deal. Seriously, what are you going to do with that? If somebody planned on purchasing Civ3 just so he could hear a spearman shout and move his feet, well I guess I stand corrected. Otherwise, bringing up these nickpicky copyright technicalities is just a nuisance. Anybody who would attempt to stem the tide of internet piracy by cracking down on Civ Forum threads containing a handful of half-second long wav files is a lunatic. That's like trying to take a bite of of crime by arresting j-walkers. No offense intended to you, Bjornlo, you probably just don't want the thread closed. And I'm sure you always cross at designated intersections.
That said, referencing the spearman's sounds in the INI file is easier, unless you want to leave out certain wav's of a amb (say, the attackavox.wav because you don't want him to shout while he's attacking).

Originally Posted by Bjornlo

In the attack anim, he misses his foe. The spear wobbles off target. It goes well to the right. A more machine like straight stab would work better.

I noticed this too, but only in the north and south views. It's not real obvious in game, just something to keep in mind next time.

Originally Posted by utahjazz7

On a side note, I'm not sure, but I think that the victory animation should lead back into the first frame of the default animation, not the last frame of the fortify.
(default>fortify>attacka>victory>default)

Yes, victory ideally should end having the unit in the same position as the start of the default. And Utah, what do you mean you're "not sure"? You've made dozens of units! Although you don't seem fond of doing victory animations all that much..

[zulu9812]

Originally Posted by Plotinus

I think it's excellent stuff. I love the Chi Rho symbol.

SoG, I actually did some concept art for the Roman Grenadier, but alas, I have no access to a scanner!

Well spotted! I specifically chose that design for a post-catholic-conversion theme. I know that the civ-fashion seems to be to just dress the unit in roman clothes, give it a gun (or whatever) and/or stick a crest on it, but I wanted to go for something a bit more real-world historical, whilst still hypothesising as to how Roman culture & tech would develop.

I've actually been thinking about a Roman Musketeer - I could stretch to a Grenadier, but without any grenade throwing (just straight musketfire). Two stumbling blocks would be the smoke for the gunfire and the reload animation - that's going to be fiddly and I try and stay away from fiddly things at civ-scale.

Plotinus, if you could somehow get to a scanner (library? university lab? internet café?) that would be a big help. I already have a picture in my mind, but any thought of yours are definitely welcome. I'm not promising I'll make it, but it would fill a gap in my mod as well. You don't happen to have a link to the original discussion thread, do you?

Originally Posted by joeskip

very very nice, especially for just starting out. The shield is a little big, but it looks so cool that I don't mind. Keep up the great work

The shield is purposefully big for 2 reasons:

1. It's best to oversize such things at civ-scale so that the shield emblem doesn't get distorted or otherwise unviewable.

2. I figured that the Romans would still use Pikes in a turtle/phalanx formation, thus big shields are a must. Additionally, I thought that the Romans would pick up shield tips from other cultures, e.g. the Saxon shield-wall.

Bjornlo, I've taken your comments about the run animation onboard and I'm changing it. Likewise, utah, with the victory animation. I'll also see what I can do about the attack.

[jobiwan7]

Originally Posted by zulu9812

I've actually been thinking about a Roman Musketeer - I could stretch to a Grenadier, but without any grenade throwing (just straight musketfire). Two stumbling blocks would be the smoke for the gunfire and the reload animation - that's going to be fiddly and I try and stay away from fiddly things at civ-scale.

If you might be making the Roman Grenadier, could you possibly consider a gladius animation? I think it was Xen who suggested that the Roman pilum (javelin that was thrown before the charge) would be eventually replaced by muskets.

[Hikaro Takayama]

Originally Posted by zulu9812

I've actually been thinking about a Roman Musketeer - I could stretch to a Grenadier, but without any grenade throwing (just straight musketfire). Two stumbling blocks would be the smoke for the gunfire and the reload animation - that's going to be fiddly and I try and stay away from fiddly things at civ-scale.

Zulu, the best way I found to do smoke with poser stuff is to just render it without any effects (but with a recoil animation in Poser), then using PsP, paste in the files (or every other file) of the smoke sequence that Kinboat uploaded as a new layer with 50% transparency, and where the smoke should be in front of the unit, I just copy that row of animations from the first layer and paste it in a third layer over top of the smoke. It actually isn't that hard once you got the feel for it. I used a similar technique when I created the fixed version of the American Conquests Prussian Fusilier, and If I can find the properly sized smoke sequence images, I'll upload them.

[Xen]

very, very, very cool! Plans on making more roman units? perhaps you woudl be interested in creating a (western) Roman man at arms? I have more then a few nice ideas to toss around with you, shoudl you be interested

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

Originally Posted by Plotinus

I think it's excellent stuff. I love the Chi Rho symbol.

SoG, I actually did some concept art for the Roman Grenadier, but alas, I have no access to a scanner!

Darn....but if it looks like what I'm picturing it to look like....I'm impressed..

[Plotinus]

Originally Posted by zulu9812

Plotinus, if you could somehow get to a scanner (library? university lab? internet café?) that would be a big help. I already have a picture in my mind, but any thought of yours are definitely welcome. I'm not promising I'll make it, but it would fill a gap in my mod as well. You don't happen to have a link to the original discussion thread, do you?

It's at http://forums.civfanatics.com/showth...=116535&page=3 - I'll see if I can find an internet cafe tomorrow. Be warned though, I've not drawn anything for about a decade, so my sketching skills seem to have degenerated to a frightening degree!