Anno Domini for Civ IV

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Gosh, Plotinus, you're right again !! To say it's meant to be the most modable version, it's hard doing things I'd taken for granted before, e.g. leaderheads.

Hope you're enjoying the updates. I've actually made Hector 85% the width of Augustus without it messing up any animations/eyes etc. Now he does look completely different, so that's good.

Using the same method I used for Hector, I've slimmed Victoria (she's going to be Zenobia of Palmyra), but now want to give her long hair. So, to cut a long story short, I got some hair in Poser and saved it in .obj format. I then loaded this into 3dsmax and saved it as a CivIV nif file. Moving onto the nifviewer, I loaded in the new slimmer Victoria and added the hair, ensuring it fit correctly. Then (and this is the part I need to check on) I joint saved them as Victoria.nif; however, the game crashes when I try to view Zenobia - so I've got something wrong! Should I be saving both files jointly or not?

 

[Roops]

R8XFT - I'm so pleased your adapting Anno Domni to Civ 4. It has so much depth and atmosphere - and the new leaderheads REALLY humanise the gameplay. This new incarnation will blow us away!
Will you want any support with the text for the historical aspects of the Civolpedia? I'm a history graduate from University of East Anglia and specilalised in 8th - 11th Century Europe... And I'd be glad to help if can.
Best wishes
Roo

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

R8XFT - I'm so pleased your adapting Anno Domni to Civ 4. It has so much depth and atmosphere - and the new leaderheads REALLY humanise the gameplay. This new incarnation will blow us away!
Will you want any support with the text for the historical aspects of the Civolpedia? I'm a history graduate from University of East Anglia and specilalised in 8th - 11th Century Europe... And I'd be glad to help if can.
Best wishes
Roo

I'd really welcome any help with the Civilopedia. Let me get the first version out (it's going to be about 10 days - a fortnight I think) and then you can tinker.

Here's some more views of the leaderheads. Here we have Nausharo II of the Harappans, William the Conqueror of the Normans, Zenobia of Palmyra (she could do with longer hair) and the slimmer Hector of Troy.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Here's the latest update on my progress. I had an issue last night when I accidently overwrote some of my XML files for Anno Domini. Actually, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I was able to restart these with the knowledge and experience I've gained, thus doing it a lot "tidier." One thing I've learned from the Civ III version is to complete the Civilopedia entries as I go along, which I've been doing. I am, however, having problems with buildings at the moment, but hope to have that resolved soon.

I've done another reskinned leader, Agis of Sparta. He's actually a reskinned Shaka, with some modifications and I managed to load in Ragnar's clothes - from Kodzi's leaderheads. I reskinned the cloak also to give it a Spartan feel. Whilst it might not be the best leaderhead in the world, at least it's original and much better than nothing at all!

 

[woodelf]

Whenever I was modding I always made a new copy of my mod daily just to avoid that from happening. But, I'm glad it was a blessing.

The LHs look good as always.

 

[GRM7584]

Here's some more views of the leaderheads. Here we have Nausharo II of the Harappans, William the Conqueror of the Normans, Zenobia of Palmyra (she could do with longer hair) and the slimmer Hector of Troy.

If you're expecting any unwarranted recommendations from someone with no knowledge of reskinning and little knowledge of your plans for the LHs, Zenobia would probably look better with a different colored sash (as the current one blends with the background...I'd say Tyrian Purple, but her clothing already looks that way.) and Amber-colored jewelry (unless there's a specific reason for the current color...can't say I know much about Palmyra or Zenobia ). William, Hector, and Agis all look fantastic, especially in terms of difference from the originals.

 

[woodelf]

Rob - let me know if this is good enough for a Pottery building.



Bear in mind that this is a really zoomed in shot.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

The pottery shop looks great!!

The Spartan leaderhead would probably suit a European civ better; if I can get the Spartan helmet on Alexander, then I'll use the leaderhead above for (possibly) the Ostrogoths - with the Spartan symbol amended of course !!

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Here's a reworked version of the above leaderhead; perhaps it's Argantonio of the Tartessians?



I think I'd better see if I can get that Spartan helmet working mixed with Alexander or Julius...

 

[woodelf]

I'll add it to the database and throw a link here then Rob.

edit - link added

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

I'll add it to the database and throw a link here then Rob.

edit - link added

Thanks a lot !! I've downloaded it and seeing as pottery is an advance I've already put into the game, I can now put the pottery shop in there too. It's going to have a small trade benefit I think....

 

[woodelf]

Terrific. Making something like this that is definitely going into a mod sure beats randomly making stuff.

 

[woodelf]

A quickie Rob. What do you think of this ancient well?



Again, it's super zoomed so it may have warts.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Design wise it looks great; actually, there is something about the texture (if I might say so) on this model and the pottery shop (which is now in the game). How can I put this? They look like hand drawings - good hand drawings I grant you - but not really like the models in Civ IV. Is it possible for you to get a similar texture to the ancient buildings that come with the game at all? Sorry to sound negative, but just being honest about what would look good in the mod.

Again, thanks for the hard work, design-wise it really does look very good.

Incidentally, the pottery shop causes +10% food yield and +10% gold yield.

 

[woodelf]

I'm not sure how they get that "dirty" texture. I'm using some thatch, stone, and wood textures, but they aren't as dark as Civ4 for some reason. Even when I darken them they don't flow the same way. Maybe I'll be Roland or I'll keep plugging along.

Criticism is good. Let me see what I can do about this issue.

 

[woodelf]

Is this a little closer? It's the storyteller's hut.



It needs something in the texture, but I'm artistically challenged...

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Again, in terms of design, it's excellent (and a lot better than I could do )!! It would be good to get that Civ IV wall texture in there though.

 

[woodelf]

Muddy wall?

I was trying for a thatch wall!

One moment...

 

[woodelf]

Here are 2 more skin tries. I still have no idea how they seem to dull down the building textures.

First one is straw, second is dried mud.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

They look absolutely fine. Actually, I've realised that it's a matter of retexturing, which I can experiment with myself in PaintShop Pro. I might be a little behind in my 3dsMax knowledge, but work like this exactly the type of thing I really can do. So don't worry about my earlier comments about the textures - the buildings themselves look great and I'm able to amend the texture myself if I want to.