Project announcement: Building graphics - 5/6 eras - 13 civs - 35 buildings

Dear all,

My name is Ninna and I've been ghosting this forum for over 2 years now, this however is my first post. While working on a medieval mod that hasn't yet seen the light of day, I realised that I could do with better building graphics - so the mod has been 'temporarily' abandoned since then and I tried my hand at graphic conversion and customisation. Big thanks to PCHighway and Steph for their original help, but most of all to Alu, who taught me most of what I now know of graphic making, as well as countless other computer-related stuff. Additionally, he did a wonderful job with the roof recolouring in Euro collections (eras 3 & 4) and in the Far East II (era 4) - though I eventually decided to keep the original green roofs.

Project

Civs/civ groups:
- North America I, North America II
- South America
- Europe: Central, Eastern, England, Northern, Southern, Western
- Far East I, Far East II
- India
- Middle East I, Middle East II

Previews:


Eras:
- (1) Antiquity/Early Middle Ages
- (2) Central Middle Ages
- (3) High/Late Middle Ages
- (4) Early Modern Times
- (5) the 19th century (?)
- (6) current

Buildings (4 eras):
- Barracks x x x x
- Blacksmith x x x x
- Brewery - x x x
- Courthouse - - - x
- Craftshop - x x x
- Dock - x x x
- Fishery x x x x
- Fortress - x x x
- Government Centre x x x x
- Guild - - x x
- Inn x x x x
- Keep x x x x
- Lumber Mill - - x x
- Farmhouse / Manor house x x x x
- Military Camp x x x x
- Mill - - x x
- Monastery - x x x
- Palisade x x x -
- Port - - x x
- Sentry Tower x x x x
- Siege Workshop - - x x
- Stable - x x x
- Storage x x x x
- Town Centre x x x x
- Town Walls - x x x
- Trade Workshop x x x x
- Trading Centre - x x x
- University - - x x
- Worship-0 x x - -
- Worship-1 x x x x
- Worship-2 - x x x
- Worship-3 - - x x
- Wonder x x x x
The uses and properties of these buildings are naturally up to you and your imagination entirely .

Most of the buildings from the 4th era will have their 6th era versions, while some will be replaced by the more appropriate counterparts, e.g. stable by garage. Also, some new building types will be added, e.g. airbase, financial centre, stock exchange etc.

*Note* Some of the buildings are unhistorical, due to limitations within Civ3 and because I wanted to retain some uniformity. Also, the Americas posed a problem of a culture clash, so they'll be part-native and part-European.

Sources - can't say for sure just yet, but I've converted graphics from the following games (whether I'm going to use them or not is to be decided):
- Against Rome
- Age of Empires
- Age of Kings
- Age of Mythology
- Alexander
- American Conquest
- Anno 1503
- Anno 1602
- Ceasar
- Cossacks
- Cossacks 2
- Emperor
- Rise of Nations
- Rome Total War
- Stronghold
- Stronghold (Crusader)
More detailed credits will be included with individual packages.

It's more than likely that I'll be left with a largish number of single-era buildings, so as a supplement I'm considering creating single-era packages for individual European countries, as well as for other parts of the world.

Please let me know what you think of this idea. Any comments on building types, civs, eras etc. are most welcome. As far as the quality of graphics is concerned, I hope to give you sth presentable (the previews really are just rough drafts). Suggestions regarding background? 1 version/more versions? Wonders?

Possible release: if there's need of course, I'd like to release a few packages in the coming 6 months, but I'm currently involved in a large (and on-deadline) project at work, so I can't devote as much time to this as I'd like to . Come summer however, I hope to be *free* and work on finishing this day and night. If there's no interest in this project, I hope you'll let me know as well, so that I might work in a different direction.

Regards,
Ninna

PS Could develop corresponding city sets to accompany the building packages (?)

Looks ambitious Ninna, but this should be on the main forum while it's still in development.

You can ask a moderator like Plotinus to move it for you

Thanks, will try to do that.
I don't know about ambitious - it's simply grown gradually over the last 2 years; like it was almost ready a couple of times, then I had a different idea, added some more civs and buildings - so I thought if I don't announce and therefore commit myself, it'll be a never-ending story But 95% of Europe, as well as the Far East and India are ready - in a large format at the mo - to be rendered and saved in Civ format.

Hi! Welcome to the posting part of the community

Those previews look really great, I`m looking forward to seeing more schtuff from you

That has to be the finest cut-and-paste work I've ever seen. No offense to the previous cut-and-pasters of course.

Please work on this. We as a community have several mods in development that include Indian/Asian civs. Personally I would use some of the "Euro" ones as Indian, so I'd vote for you to develop & post them all.

Thanks for the positive feedback
In reply to Ogedei_the_Mad and Blue Monkey: there's little pride to be had in the straightforward conversion of already existing buildings, as the original idea is somebody else's, but I really enjoyed the making of the missing buildings, e.g. the Indian 'monastery' and temple, modelled after the Gangotri Temple and the Mangueshi Temple of Goa or the Manguesh Devasthan, respectively.
Ok, will develop and post Euro and India first of all - these are almost ready, but I've been holding back in case I yet again decide to change some major concepts.

This is going to be extremely useful...thanks in advance for all your work!

Thank you Ninna, these graphics will be greatly appreciated. The previews look great. I'm glad you decided to come out of lurking!

Holy crap, I can use a lot of these! Good work.

I had a beautiful, funny, effusively complimentary post all written out until Hiro the cat jumped onto my keyboard. sigh. Keep up the magnificent work, and post some of this stuff as soon as possible.

There are only 5 possible culture groups and 4 possible eras thanks to hardcoding on Firaxis' behalf

Quinzy said:

There are only 5 possible culture groups and 4 possible eras thanks to hardcoding on Firaxis' behalf

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Yeah, but the more he makes the wider the buffet for mod-makers to choose from.

Blue Monkey said:

Yeah, but the more he makes the wider the buffet for mod-makers to choose from.

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My thoughts precisely - that's why I stopped working on my mod and switched to graphics . And it's a she

Once again thank you all for a very warm reception - I'll post stuff as soon as it's developed in the final version. Within the next couple of days you should see previews of all the buildings/plans up to date.

Ninna, I have been working on adapting building graphics from another games, especially non military builidings from Trade Empires, and in, some cases building them from scratch. I would like to help you on this project, as I have some material that could make things easier to you

Ninna said:

And it's a she

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Sorry. I wish English had a pronoun for people of unspecified gender.

Blue Monkey said:

Sorry. I wish English had a pronoun for people of unspecified gender.

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Oops, my fault. As for pronouns, yeah, but in some contexts 'they, them' is acceptable or, like above, s/he will do - hyhy talk pronouns to a linguist, sweet temptation. Ok, will try to fix the unspecified.

Rollinga said:

Ninna, I have been working on adapting building graphics from another games, especially non military builidings from Trade Empires, and in, some cases building them from scratch. I would like to help you on this project, as I have some material that could make things easier to you

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One I don't have! Grand! Can you post some previews?

They look great!! Can't wait to see the finished result.

Ninna said:

Oops, my fault. As for pronouns, yeah, but in some contexts 'they, them' is acceptable or, like above, s/he will do - hyhy talk pronouns to a linguist, sweet temptation. Ok, will try to fix the unspecified.

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That's a bit off-topic, but since you're a linguist I have to ask D) - is the text in your sig Old English? Just wondering.

The buildings look great! There are a lot I could use!

@Mirc: I think it is could be. The last word means "hindered". However, I'm not sure if it may be an Archaic form of English or another Germanic language