[BtS] Saxony / Saggsn (modular)

Leaders
August the Strong

traits: creative / industrial (production speed for UB is increased by 10% only)
(leaderhead made by nitram, background by jnsblzs, some minor changes by me)

UB
Baroque opera (replaces theatre)

+10% , +1 wth wine instead of with dye
(Art taken from GeoModders cultural citystyles mod, probably made by Refar.)

UU
Saxonian cuirassier
(No image, current art, made by bernie14, is only temporary. New art already requested.)
+15% against melee and mounted units

Uses most of ambrox germanic units as unique unit art.

Citylist:



Unique unit order / select sounds, so enjoy Germany's most beautiful dialect!

Supports hungarization of civ4. First mod that has been translated by my own program.

DOWNLOAD
click
(See file db description for white flag fix, use only if you got problems with the flag!)

Hmmm... 20 downloads but no feedback. Well, at least I got 5 stars - it seems that there are at least no crucial mistakes or errors.

BTW: This is just a first version. I requested some units from Bakuel: a cuirassier and a rifleman, based on these two pictures:

One of these is meant to be the UU. Also, EU3 mentions Saxonian Infantry as something special. They refer to units that have been recruited by August the Strong in Poland. Considering the era of August, this would be a musketman in civ4 terms. I am completely open for your opinions and pleace make suggestions for further unique unit art. Also, the stats of UU and UB are no dogma. They are just a first approach. For example, I kept a slight increase of production speed for the creative trait which is used by August as I wanted to keep a slight advantage of creative in that point. Basically because it may be, that I'll add another leader. I don't know who this could be nor there are specific plans. But if there will be another leader, I thought it might be good if August still has a positive influence on that building. Also, I could imagine to use a different UB. I had the idea of a baroque palace and the art would be no problem, I'd say. The problem is, that I don't know what it could replace.

Finally, the citylist. I used cities that are actually Sorb in first line. Well, there is no reason to drop Dresden, I'd say. Still, I don't insist on most of the cities of the list. If there are Sorbs that feel insulted by this list, just let me know. We might discuss new cities to replace questionable ones.

EDIT: pictures not working yet, I'm about to change this... FIXED.

First of all, I like the art vey much!
Second, a Cuirassier UU will be perfect for them. But why do they have +15% bonus against mounted?
Also, the UB seems a little weak right now. 10% culture bonus is not enough for an UB.
Vanilla UBs have 25% for example

What did you do with his neck (August II)?
But nice mod.

Second, a Cuirassier UU will be perfect for them. But why do they have +15% bonus against mounted?

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There is actually no special reason for that. I couldn't find anything saying that Saxonian troops were special, besides of EU3 and Frederick the Great who said (in his diary I think) that the Saxonian troops were in an excellent condition when the Saxonian count (I believe it was August the Strong) made some military show for his guests. This ways, I thought I give them a weaker bonus but against several types of units. So, if we find a better advantage for the UU, I have no problem with changing its stats.

Also, the UB seems a little weak right now. 10% culture bonus is not enough for an UB. Vanilla UBs have 25% for example

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I'm aware of that. The reason was, that Augusts creative trait already boosts the production speed (although I reduced the value about how much it boosts it, as said before). So I didn't want to have a too strong UB. Could be that it is now too weak. Also, it should be somewhat different from the other theatre replacing UBs and I think there already is such a building with +25% culture. This weays, we might keep the +10% and add another small bonus. But I don't know what.

What did you do with his neck (August II)?

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Actually, I changed nothing on his neck. I tried to as I've also seen the problem, but I couldn't fix it and this ways I kept using the original mesh. My changes are the following:
- removed the hair part with the alpha; the idea was good, but the alpha channel would need work so that there are more then only a few hairs visible as this way it looked more like a glitch. Because the form was actually good, I reshaped the hair slightly.
- changed the background
- worked on the shader files.
So no changes to the heads and to the armory's geometry. The only reasons that might have led to a different neck would be, that the altered shader made it more obvious or that I used the wrong nif. I used the louis_xiv.nif, not the louis_xiv_nonshader.nif. Hope that was right.

EDIT1: I thought about covering this by an additional part, but couldn't find anything that fits, although I checked The Capos and Ekmeks LHs.

EDIT2:
I forgot to mention that I slightly changed the geometry of the white band.

Head is nice, but I don't like the hair + armor. The neck is strange. Sorry.

Head is nice, but I don't like the hair + armor.

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Where exactly is the problem? If you would be more specific, I might gave it another go.

The neck is strange.

Click to expand...

As said, I didn't do anything that could have caused this. And as far as I remember the problem (I suppose you mean the cropping) was there from the beginning on. So this ways, you either send me an old version or I should have used the nonshader nif. Don't know. But I honestly did no changes to the neck, nor to the head or the armory, besides of the shader of the armory (the heads shader should be the same).

I don't know. It is only strange to me. I can't describe it.

Regarding the armor, I might work on the shader. Initially, I wanted to give it a similar effect as my Árpáds armor has, but while working at it, I accidently got this effect and thought it isn't bad either. Still, I don't insist on it. The mentioned effect would require me to change the env map I think. Currently, the env map causes the whole surface being touched by the reflection. For said effect, we'd need a 'reflective point' with strong specular light, I think. The rest of the armor would then be darker then now. The only problem could be the light. I already had LHs in work, better said their shader setting, where I completely copied the material and shader properties, but still didn't get the same effect. The problem was the light. Don't know if it will be similar here, too... Do you want me to give it a go?

About the neck. Maybe you don't know how to explain what the problem is, maybe you can tell me where it is?

I meant the armor, and yes. I will give a look at it.

Just let me handle this. At least the shader part. Don't think I can do anything against the cropping at the neck which is caused by the armor IMO.

So I've done what I said and it was incredibly easy. All I did was using different env maps. The first picture uses George_Env.dds that came with your LH. The second uses a greyscale version of armor_gold_env.dds from Ekmeks new Attila and the third uses almost the same env as the second, but a little bit darker. My vote goes for either two or three. What do you guys think?

I like him now.
Can I do that to download YOUR August, then upload as two authors + add credit to you?

Sure. Which of the 3 do you prefer, which one should I upload?

The first. The black one.

Well, in my opinion that's the worst one. Anyways, there is actually no need I upload anything. The first one uses george_env.dds instead of ghengis_gold_env.dds. George.dds is already part of your files. You simply have to open louis_xiv.nif from my mod, select the armory and the shoulder parts and then correct the maps that are now ghengis_gold_env.dds. That's all I did.

Okay, thanks.

IIRC, the building was made by Refar.

Okay, thanks, I'll edit the credits.