"Easy" Modified Civ3 Unit Request

I've been thinking about this for a while, and I think it would look absolutely great.

Would it be possible for someone to take the Civ3 Cavalry unit and replace the rifle with a sword --a nice long saber. But instead of the straight down chopping we see the knight do, it would be as if the cav unit was charging and sweep his arm back behind him and then down and forward as if to slice through someone as he charges.

That would be cool, and it should be done with the run animation rather than the standing still attack animation.

Well, I'm still thinking that I'd want the attack to be done with a sword instead of a gun, OR you could have a handgun first attack then subsequent (as if shooting on closing during the charge) then subsequent sweeps with the saber.

The only reason I'd like this unit would be to differentiate it as a Napoleonic era cavalry versus the mobile rifleman cavalry of the Civil War.

Have you checked out Smoking mirors Sword armed calvary? It might be what your looking for Here it is.

....and by simply changing the helmet of Smoking Mirror's excellent sword armed cavalry....OR....by simply cutting-'n-pasting Smoking Mirror's sword arm onto the existing Civ3 Cavalryman, and THEN changing the helmet, you could end up with 3 new 18th/19th century units!
Imagine these with swords instead of carbines/muskets......

Oh, cool as heck! I have checked out Smoking Mirror's sword armed cavalry. No offense, but to be honest, it's a little . . . well, um . . . not quite what I was looking for. I'll leave it at that.

Everything about the Civ3 Cavalry unit is perfect. I'd just like to see the weapon change, but I do like what you did Kryten.

What I've done in my mod is used the German fussiliers (?) that someone made from the cavalry unit as the industrial age cavalry that comes with rifleman. I use the Civ3 cavalry as the Military Tradition cavalry unit. Unfortunately, both have everything exactly the same except the head.

What I'd like to see, at the least, is a change in the horse colors and saddle so they're more easily distinguishable. This would be sufficient. Of course, the ultimate would be what I've requested here: change the armament of the civ3 cav to sword and change the horse colors. That would be cool!

Thanks all. I appreciate your input.

Colonel

IMHO, since the Civ3 cavalry unit is a french one from the Napoleonic era, judging from the helmet, it SHOULD be armed with a sabre.
He also should be charging forward wielding his sabre in the air, clash with the enemy cutting down everything he sees (got a little carried away, sorry ).
Actually the swedes were the first to re-implement this old style tactic on the battlefield, during the 17th century. Other nation's cavalry were equipped with rifles back then.

Originally posted by Colonel Kraken
I have checked out Smoking Mirror's sword armed cavalry. No offense, but to be honest, it's a little . . . well, um . . . not quite what I was looking for. I'll leave it at that.

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No offence taken, I didnt make the unit just suggesting

Originally posted by Vdog


No offence taken, I didnt make the unit just suggesting

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Actually, I meant no offense to Smoking Mirror.

Kryten these look very cool, why not post them as an alternative to the standard Cavalry.

To Yoda Power,

I think that Colonel Kraken's idea to change the carbine/rifle to a sword, changing the helmet, AND changing the horse colour would be better, in order to make them truly 'new units'.

However, I will be flayed alive if I start any new units before I've finished the last half a dozen Alex the Great ones that I've promised!

Of course, should anyone else like to take up this very easy project, and reap all the glory, as well as the undying love and respect from the whole civ community, then please do so!

(If nobody takes up the challange, then once all the Alex units are completed, I'll have to do them. But it won't be for at least a couple of months.....)

Originally posted by Kryten
To Yoda Power,

. . . . this very easy project . . .

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Yeah, right! I wish it was easy; I'd do it myself. My graphics experience only extends to shrinking Harlan's new resources. Whoop-dy-do. I looked into using flicster once to view all the frames of a unit and start modifying it. I quickly came to the conclusion that this would take a VERY looooonnnnggg time! so I quit.

Believe me, I'd love to gain the love of the entire civ community, but I don't think I have it in me. . . . . unless you have some trick up your sleeve you could tell me about that would make this a "very easy project".

Hey, trust me....I'm an Englishman!

Ok....so it's not that easy....but changing the hat is.
All you have to do is make a new hat in North/South/East/NE/SE directions, 'mirror' the East/NE/SE directions to get the West/NW/SW directions, then paste the bugger onto the exsisting Cavalrymans head in each frame....er....that's all 5 or 6 hundred frames.
So you only have to make 5 hats, and 'mirror' 3 of them....

....and while your at it, you might as well change the sash....and the carbine....and re-colour the horse....

Well, just changing the hat would be enough to make an 18th century "Mounted Trooper", or a 19th century "Heavy Cavalryman".

Have a read of this thread.....

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?threadid=29026

....it may inspire you (go on, you know you want to ).

Yeah...trust Kryten...unit creation is like drug...once you try it you will never stop.

Perhaps they should have a surgeant general's warning on that thread.

I see you've been called the master of cut-and-paste, Kryten. No wonder you're telling me how easy it is.

But . . .

5 or 6 HUNDRED frames?!! You've got to be kidding me! I understand it would be a simple matter to change a hat or something (however tedious), but I was referring to changing the entire attack to swinging a sword. The dynamics of that would be difficult, I think.

You're right: making units is probably quite addicting . . . if you have the time. If I were single, believe me, I'd delve right in. I'd love to be able to do something like that. I'm sure I could "make" the time, but at the expense of my wife getting upset with me, ignoring my kids, and letting my "chores" go by the wayside.

Originally posted by Kryten
(go on, you know you want to ).

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Yeah, you're right, but:

Even you, yourself said:

Originally posted by Kryten

So you've decided to give up all your friends, family and social life to become a unit animator. Good for you!

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But alas . . . .

Hey Kryten/Dark Sheer,

I've got a quick question. Well, first, I have Lview Pro. It's no where near as versitile as PS Pro, but it is useful. My question is, does PS have some "smart" selection tools that allow you to easily select specific items such as the hat of the Cavalryman? Or do you have to meticulously zoom in and trace it pixel by pixel to make sure you're getting exactly what you want?

Also, does PS have a "smart" cut feature that still leaves the background color when you cut something like the head of a unit? In Lview Pro, if I cut something out of a unit picture, it leaves black instead of the pink background. I usually just resort to Copy and Paste so that I maintain the pink. Sometimes I have to use the dropper tool to select the pink and then use the one pixel brush to touch up goof ups or unwanted elements of the picture.

I guess my main question is, how easy and nice is it to use PS? And, what kind of "cool" features does PS have that would really help me out? I certainly can't afford to buy PS, but perhaps there's a trial version of some software you'd recommend.

Thanks guys,

Colonel

PSP has lots of neat feature like magic wand which allows you to select and area to copy. Say you the erased the bottom half of the body, all you need to do is use the wand to click on the background then invert the selection to copy the upper part of the selection.

Of course, another fact is PSP comes with animation shop and export a frame into PSP from AS, edit and save it back to the flc file is very easy as well. PSP & AS both allow you to load palette or save the file using another palette, replace color for the whole flc or pcx file etc.

Hope that helps.

First, you are quite right, it's not "cut-'n-paste", but "copy-'n-paste".

And I'm afraid that PaintShop Pro is the only software that I have ever used (apart from MS-Paint that is), so I can't judge between all the various ones available, because I've nothing to compare them with.
But all you really need is something that can save in .pcx format. And I assume that "Lview Pro" CAN save images as .pcx, because you said that you managed to resize Harlan's reasources....so we are over that hurdle.

"Does PS have an easy 'selection tool'?":....well....sort of.
Dark Sheer likes the PS 'magic wand' tool, but I don't.
Like yourself, I prefer to use the 'dropper' tool to select the pink background, then the 'draw freehand' tool (to create what PS calls a 'floating image') to roughly draw around the area I want, and simply press Ctrl+T to use the PS 'Remove Selected Colour' tool. This shrinks the 'floating image' so that it includes every colour EXCEPT the background colour. Lastly, Ctrl+C copies it, and Ctrl+E pastes it, as many time as I want.
(Not knowing what Lview is capable of, may I suggest reading that link that I posted. Anything you don't recognise must be PaintShop only)

But you can do the same thing by drawing around the new hat, then pasting it on to the first frame of the Cavalryman, pink-out the bits you don't want, re-drawing around the new head (INCLUDING some pink background that used to have some Cavlarymans 'bits' in them that you don't want), then copy it and paste, paste, paste it onto all the other fames.

So the procedure is to get the first frame right, copy the head and shoulders with a bit of pink outline, and paste, paste, paste away. Job done.
And the same head-'n-shoulders can be used in ALL .flcs (with the exception of the death .flc, which is slighty more tricky).
Total time to do 500 frames with a new head.....1 or 2 days, thats all.

Once the hats are done, then just ask and Dark Sheer or I will tell you ways of changing the horse colour, should you wish to do so.

(But PaintShop Pro does have a lot of other quick features.
As Christmas is coming, may I suggest some subtle hints posted on the refrigerator? )

Originally posted by Kryten

(But PaintShop Pro does have a lot of other quick features.
As Christmas is coming, may I suggest some subtle hints posted on the refrigerator? )

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Yeah, right. I wish! (Isn't it a several hundred dollar piece of software?)

Thanks, guys, you've both been extremely kind and helpful, and I appreciate that.

Once the hats are done, then just ask and Dark Sheer or I will tell you ways of changing the horse colour, should you wish to do so.

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I guess, maybe, that would be one of the first things I'd like to try to do. Dark Sheer, I use your Bandit for the Rifleman cavalry and use the Civ3 cav for the Napoleonic cavalry. So, my first thing I'd like to do is give one of the horses a different color scheme, then go from there (maybe different pants, different saddle, etc.).

Oh, one other thing, (as you can tell I'm not real experienced with paint programs, I'm going to ask a silly question), can you tell a program to "fill" an area with one color that was previously another color so that it replaces the color with a new one but "knows" to stop at the outline of the object --I suppose once it hits another color (like an outline is typically made up of black or some other color). This would be especially helpful in changing the pant color, gloves, etc.

Thanks for all your help. I hope I'm not bugging you. You've both been great. Thanks.

Colonel

If you guys keep encouraging me like this, I very well may take on the project myself! Then I can join the great ranks of unit rip-off artists . . . um . . . I mean, er, "creators."