Art for the Éa fantasy mod (with overlap I'm sure with other fantasy mods...)

[Nomad or What]

Sounds good. They are sort of a hodgepodge of ugly humanoids, so almost anything will work. Could throw in one hobgoblin (that's what I call S3rgus's ogre). Or not.

Hobgoblin is a good idea; there are some in the source art for the Goblin line I am converting. They may even make up the "elite" line for the goblin race (mithril/plate wearers, siege units, and heavy "cavalry"). There is a decent collection of source art for them.

 

[Pazyryk]

Let me give you the overview of the Heldeofol just so you can follow the logic of these guys (rather than just seeing a list of our unit needs):

Goblins and Orcs form the core of the Heldeofol playable "race" (though it is not really one race). They are usually led by an Orc or Goblin warrior but (rarely) an individual from one of the larger (stupider) subraces. Goblins are the smartest and form the bureaucracy. Unit-wise they are the archers, mounted archers, recon units, and mechanical ranged (crossbowmen, arquebusmen). They would be the units running siege equipment too, though some others might be around for lifting stuff. The Orcs are tougher and not quite as bright and primarily form the infantry line.

So Orcs and Goblins make up all of the units that can be trained in cities. The other races (Hobgoblins, Ogres, Trolls, Hill Giants, and so on) exist out in their own encampments. In general, the bigger they are the stupider. They are hostile to everyone (including Heldeofol civs), but Heldeofol civs can capture them on defeat. Heldeofol don't remove encampments. They just keep coming back to "harvest" these big dumb humanoids for their armies. These units can be very tough but don't upgrade.

Heldeofol don't use horses except to eat. They can't even trade horses. Heldeofol players will actually see a different line of techs on the top of our tree: instead of Horseback Riding ->->War Horses, they will see Wolf Riding ->-> War Wargs.

 

[Nomad or What]

Let me give you the overview of the Heldeofol just so you can follow the logic of these guys (rather than just seeing a list of our unit needs):

Goblins and Orcs form the core of the Heldeofol playable "race" (though it is not really one race). They are usually led by an Orc or Goblin warrior but (rarely) an individual from one of the larger (stupider) subraces. Goblins are the smartest and form the bureaucracy. Unit-wise they are the archers, mounted archers, recon units, and mechanical ranged (crossbowmen, arquebusmen). They would be the units running siege equipment too, though some others might be around for lifting stuff. The Orcs are tougher and not quite as bright and primarily form the infantry line.

So Orcs and Goblins make up all of the units that can be trained in cities. The other races (Hobgoblins, Ogres, Trolls, Hill Giants, and so on) exist out in their own encampments. In general, the bigger they are the stupider. They are hostile to everyone (including Heldeofol civs), but Heldeofol civs can capture them on defeat. Heldeofol don't remove encampments. They just keep coming back to "harvest" these big dumb humanoids for their armies. These units can be very tough but don't upgrade.

Heldeofol don't use horses except to eat. They can't even trade horses. Heldeofol players will actually see a different line of techs on the top of our tree: instead of Horseback Riding ->->War Horses, they will see Wolf Riding ->-> War Wargs.

Noted; I will also be developing a mod and it will typically follow the D&D model for creatures. Hobgoblins, according to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual:

"...hobgoblins are a larger, stronger, smarter and more menacing form of goblins. They are smaller and weaker than bugbears, but better organized. Hobgoblins are humanoids that stand nearly 6'6" tall on average, a little taller than orcs. Smarter than other goblinoid races, they are renowned for their brutality and military skill."

Of course, you can use any of the units I create for whatever purpose so I am sure they will be easily adaptable for your needs as appropriate. I will be happy to contribute necessary art for your mod as it is not difficult to re-skin a base unit.

For now, I want to ensure that I get the Orc lineup finished to your tastes. I don't intend for you to necessarily use the Orc Warrior that I have completed, but I need to create a base skin and I always start with a warrior because it is single-mesh and forms the base mesh and .dds files for unit progressions. Let me give you an idea of what I had in mind so you can advise me on how to modify it to your needs:

a. Light Infantry (light bronze armor/weapons) - Deliverator's Orc Spearman (loincloth, spear, and shield)
b. Medium Infantry (medium iron armor/weapons) - Orc Axeman, leather with axe and shield
c. Heavy Infantry (heavy iron armor/weapons) - Orc Swordsman, chainmail with sword and shield
d. Immortals (mithril armor/weapons) - Orc Longswordsman, plate armor with greatsword; alternately a one-hand weapon with a tower shield (but that doesn't seem very "orcish" to me)

Your thoughts?

 

[Pazyryk]

a. Light Infantry (light bronze armor/weapons) - Deliverator's Orc Spearman (loincloth, spear, and shield)
b. Medium Infantry (medium iron armor/weapons) - Orc Axeman, leather with axe and shield
c. Heavy Infantry (heavy iron armor/weapons) - Orc Swordsman, chainmail with sword and shield
d. Immortals (mithril armor/weapons) - Orc Longswordsman, plate armor with greatsword; alternately a one-hand weapon with a tower shield (but that doesn't seem very "orcish" to me)

Just shift everything up one. Warrior is the most primitive unit in my "infantry line":

a. Warrior - Either your existing warrior or Deliverator's Orc Spearman (loincloth, spear, and shield) (or both together)
b. Light Infantry (light bronze armor/weapons) - Orc Axeman, leather with axe and shield
c. Medium Infantry (medium iron armor/weapons) - Orc Swordsman, chainmail with sword and shield
d. Heavy Infantry (heavy iron armor/weapons) - Orc Longswordsman, plate armor with greatsword; alternately a one-hand weapon with a tower shield (but that doesn't seem very "orcish" to me)
e. Immortals (mithril armor/weapons) - unit above with with a shiny/silvery reskin

I can do the reskin for (e) unless it's something you want to make anyway (this unit will rarely appear in a game, but it's kind of necessary due to tech tree logic).

Sword and shield is OK. I think I have a slight preference for no shield. Some other weapons like mace or that hooked sword (not sure what that is called) in LoTRs movies. Actually a mix is really the best. Having multiple members with different weapons gives a really nice disorganized look.

Everything sounds great though, and I'm happy to assemble units from whatever you and Civtar make.

 

[Nomad or What]

Just shift everything up one. Warrior is the most primitive unit in my "infantry line":

Spoiler :

a. Warrior - Either your existing warrior or Deliverator's Orc Spearman (loincloth, spear, and shield) (or both together)
b. Light Infantry (light bronze armor/weapons) - Orc Axeman, leather with axe and shield
c. Medium Infantry (medium iron armor/weapons) - Orc Swordsman, chainmail with sword and shield
d. Heavy Infantry (heavy iron armor/weapons) - Orc Longswordsman, plate armor with greatsword; alternately a one-hand weapon with a tower shield (but that doesn't seem very "orcish" to me)
e. Immortals (mithril armor/weapons) - unit above with with a shiny/silvery reskin

I can do the reskin for (e) unless it's something you want to make anyway (this unit will rarely appear in a game, but it's kind of necessary due to tech tree logic).

Ok, got it. Shiny is no problem for me; I intend to have Elite mithril units that use very ornate and elaborate weapons and armor. Mithril is rare in most games so these units should be very elite to almost hero quality.

Sword and shield is OK. I think I have a slight preference for no shield. Some other weapons like mace or that hooked sword (not sure what that is called) in LoTRs movies. Actually a mix is really the best. Having multiple members with different weapons gives a really nice disorganized look.

I also prefer uncommon weapons with no shield; unfortunately when using existing Civ V animations this somewhat limits the templates available. For example, creating an axeman limits you to a Jaguar animation (axe w/shield), Hand Axe barbarian (throwing axes) or Berserker (dual axes). Otherwise, the unit will attack using a sword or spear animation which is inconsistent with an axe-wielder. This rule also applies to other unusual weapons such as a flail, mace, etc. Fortunately, with the expansions some of these more unusual animations are available; unfortunately, it requires the purchase of BNW and/or DLC's.

I have some pretty cool-looking weapons in my repertoire; I will add them as variations and you can take what you like. Also, I plan on making "stock" skins for each armor type - so that you can swap out armor just by modifying the .gr2 file to match the desired .dds image.

 

[Nomad or What]

The Heldeofol art is nearing completion. The source files are located at the following threads:

Goblin Series

Orc Series

Only a couple of gaps in the Heldeofol race are remaining. I will be completing the Goblin Arquebus and Orc Berserker next, followed by the worker units for both and an Orc Settler unit.

You said you wanted a mix of races for your settler unit; the goblins are done but the Orcs are not. Hopefully you can use the Goblin settlers until I can customize a settler unit for the Heldeofol.

Please let me know if I am missing something or you need a unit completed urgently.

 

[Civitar]

@Pazyryk: I've uploaded my version of the Orc Warrior for Éa (but will probably not do more for a while because they don't match WH Orcs), it's the same as Nomad's but uses a barbarian club.
Ingame screenshots:

Spoiler :

Also, here's an idea from Warhammer for you (Orcs and Skaven do this): If you don't have skins for the more advanced units, use darker-skinned or -furred versions of the early ones, like WH Black Orcs or Gutter Runners as compared to Orc Boyz or Clanrats.

 

[Pazyryk]

Holy moly! I just looked at this today and the goblin and orc lineups look really great!

OK, for the full planned set, I'm only missing a few upgrades. These could be reskins of existing units. Maybe I'll ask Nutty to do these for me :

Goblin Wolf Rider -> Worg Rider
Goblin Archer -> Bowmen -> Marksmen
Orc Heavy Infantry (NoW's Maceman) -> Immortal (mithril equipped)

Goblin settlers works for now. I'll wait until there is an Orc settler and then just mix unit members.

 

[Nomad or What]

Holy moly! I just looked at this today and the goblin and orc lineups look really great!

OK, for the full planned set, I'm only missing a few upgrades. These could be reskins of existing units. Maybe I'll ask Nutty to do these for me :

Goblin Wolf Rider -> Worg Rider
Goblin Archer -> Bowmen -> Marksmen
Orc Heavy Infantry (NoW's Maceman) -> Immortal (mithril equipped)

Goblin settlers works for now. I'll wait until there is an Orc settler and then just mix unit members.

Awesome! I am glad to assist with Éa (or any fantasy mod for that matter ) - can't wait to see the next release!

Ok, let me bounce a couple of thoughts around here and see how well they stick. Your feedback is appreciated:

Goblin Worg Rider - How does this differ from a Wolf Rider? Obviously it is a larger wolf (Hellhound, magical, or other) but apart from this what is the distinction? At scale you may not be able to tell the difference. Better armor for the goblin obviously, but how do you want me to make this as a completely distinct animal from a wolf? I was actually thinking about making an armored boar rider as the intermediate between the wolf rider and spider rider, but that idea is for my mod and likely not what you have in mind for yours. Please clarify the look you are after for the Worg and I will try to satisfy it.

Goblin Bowman/Marksman - I am thinking about armor reskins for these upgrades which will only take about five minutes each (all of the .dds goblin armor skins are interchangeable except for adding the skullcap mesh). Alternately, I can take it a step further and use the composite bowman animations for the goblin bowman (leather armor) and the English longbowman animations for the goblin marksman (chain armor).

Orc Immortal - I am already developing this unit; it is the equivalent of my Orc Champion. It will use the Uruk-hai cuirass, shield, and sword. Alternately, I will be developing an Orc Longswordsman with plate armor and a two-pronged longsword. The Orc Berserker will wield plate/chain and dual Uruk-hai swords. So, I think I got you fully covered with options on this one .

Orc Settlers - will be ready soon!

One thing briefly glossed over but not fully discussed are slaves. I am thinking of just developing a bunch of onesies of various races (dwarves, humans, elves) in chains with a couple of slaver units (goblins and orcs). Then, you can just mix and match to your hearts content. Any other races you would like to see in the lineup?

 

[Pazyryk]

On Worg Rider, the main thing is just a bigger mount. I haven't looked closely at the existing Wolf Rider, but I'm assuming their mount is the same size as the Wolf unit. Worg is just bigger and maybe deformed a little - big shoulders I guess. Weapon could be same or different but must be melee. Anything to make the rider look a little tougher is optional, but it is still just a goblin.

Sounds good for the Goblin Archer upgrades.

On Slaves: Just to make sure we are on the same page, these are worker units. But anything to make them more slave-like is good. They can be captured from cities and military units, so the more races I have the better. Humans, elves, orcs and goblins are the most important ones. In theory they could be captured from various humanoid units too, which include ogres (the Stone Ogre unit) and hobgoblins (S3rgis' Ogre unit) right now. Nagas, Lizardmen and Centaurs are also possibilities, but lower priority. It's a bit complicated when you add a "Slaver" unit member. Would these be the same race as the slaves? It's complicated otherwise, because any race could own slaves of any other race.

 

[Nomad or What]

On Worg Rider, the main thing is just a bigger mount. I haven't looked closely at the existing Wolf Rider, but I'm assuming their mount is the same size as the Wolf unit. Worg is just bigger and maybe deformed a little - big shoulders I guess. Weapon could be same or different but must be melee. Anything to make the rider look a little tougher is optional, but it is still just a goblin.

Ok, I can use a Hellhound mount (bigger, badder, nastier, and deformed wolf) which will give you the distinction you need. Leather or Chain for the Goblin? Weapon choice (polearm, spear, sword, axe)?

Sounds good for the Goblin Archer upgrades.

Ok, comin' right up!

On Slaves: Just to make sure we are on the same page, these are worker units. But anything to make them more slave-like is good. They can be captured from cities and military units, so the more races I have the better. Humans, elves, orcs and goblins are the most important ones. In theory they could be captured from various humanoid units too, which include ogres (the Stone Ogre unit) and hobgoblins (S3rgis' Ogre unit) right now. Nagas, Lizardmen and Centaurs are also possibilities, but lower priority. It's a bit complicated when you add a "Slaver" unit member. Would these be the same race as the slaves? It's complicated otherwise, because any race could own slaves of any other race.

My sentiments exactly about slaves, except in my mod:

-only quasi-barbarian civs (which cannot produce workers) or evil civs can use slaves
-they will be 1/2 as effective as worker units
-they are maintenance-free
-they are acquired by capturing workers or military units and cannot be built
-they can be expended in cities to boost production or growth (Soylent green slaves, yum yum!)

Slavers would be armored thugs with flails/whips in the mix with the slaves. The slave unit would have to be unique for each civ (for example, goblins might have a goblin slaver and a couple of humans, dwarves, and elves each for the slave unit). That is why I was thinking of just making "onesies" so that you could compile a slave unit from the mix for each civ as you see fit (kinda like how settlers are depicted).

I will look at your race recommendations and we can fine-tune it from there...

 

[Pazyryk]

That is why I was thinking of just making "onesies" so that you could compile a slave unit from the mix for each civ as you see fit (kinda like how settlers are depicted).

Onesies are great in general. I'm probably going to make my Orc Heavy Infantry a mix of your longswordsmen and macemen.

Edit: And the warrior will be a mix of yours and Civtar's (linked above) Orc Warrior. The axman and swordsmen line up nicely for my Light and Medium Infantry, but I may mix members there too for a somewhat disorganized look (appropriate for Heldeofol).

Edit2: And the champion is so good I hate to reserve him for Immortal (which is late game and too high tech to see in most Heldeofol games). Well, it's something special to work for.

 

[Nomad or What]

Onesies are great in general. I'm probably going to make my Orc Heavy Infantry a mix of your longswordsmen and macemen.

Edit: And the warrior will be a mix of yours and Civtar's (linked above) Orc Warrior. The axman and swordsmen line up nicely for my Light and Medium Infantry, but I may mix members there too for a somewhat disorganized look (appropriate for Heldeofol).

The mix-and match approach is a good look; this is how most vanilla units appear in Civ V. A mix of my and Civitar's warrior will look sweet in-game for a first unit, and the Maceman and Longswordsman deliberately use the same animations for that very reason. Can't wait for the release!

Edit2: And the champion is so good I hate to reserve him for Immortal (which is late game and too high tech to see in most Heldeofol games). Well, it's something special to work for.

If you use heroes then you could just lighten/darken the armor and make the Champion a hero unit for the Heldeofol. Just a thought.

Also, Goblin Bowman/Marksman are done. I wish I could find a good Warg model for the Warg Rider, but there is not much out there and the Civ IV units are pretty lame. I will figure something out...

 

[Civitar]

Another idea for even more random-looking stuff is to use the same model at different scales in the same unit. Bigger-sized orcs or goblins, like WHFB Bosses.
Also, I have fixed an issue with the Elf Pack, I had uploaded an empty zip for the horseman. YOu can download it normally now.
Finally, on Slavers. If you make each Slave a unique unit for each civilization, you can use the same mix of slaves and depending on the civ vary the slaver models. Once you have slaver models, that is.

 

[Pazyryk]

Re-listing what we need for Great People/Heroes (since someone asked ):


These are all single unit graphics. Some I can pull out from existing units, but I'm listing all for now. I need both male and female version of each below.

Human: Warrior, Berserker, Sea Warrior, Paladin, Eidolon, Engineer, Merchant, Sage, Alchemist, Artist, Priest, Druid, Wizard, Witch/Warlock, Sorcerer, Illusionist, Necromancer

Sídhe: All of the above except Paladin

Heldeofol: We need an Orc and Goblin Warrior, Engineer, Arcane spellcaster (could pass as Wizard/Witch/Sorcerer/Necromancer), and "Shaman"-type unit. We can leave sex as ambiguous for these in the 3D unit art (the majority of my 2D portraits are male with only 1 or 2 females). The other GP classes will be extraordinary rare for this race. I just need maybe one other Orc and Goblin unit that could reasonably pass as any of the other classes (Sage/Alchemist/Merchant/Artist/whatever - waist of time to do these individually).

Also need single unit Lich (race/sex can be indeterminate) and Vampire (male & female; Murphy613's Vampire Swordsman w/out shield is great for male).


For some of these, pulling from existing unit member art works great. E.g., I'm using base Civ5 Swordman (enlarged) as GP Warrior and base Civ5 Longswordsman as GP Paladin. Likely I can do the same for Sídhe and Heldeofol (from Civtar's and Nomad or What's elf and orc/goblin units). But that doesn't get me the needed female units for Human and Sidhe.

 

[Nomad or What]

On Worg Rider, the main thing is just a bigger mount. I haven't looked closely at the existing Wolf Rider, but I'm assuming their mount is the same size as the Wolf unit. Worg is just bigger and maybe deformed a little - big shoulders I guess. Weapon could be same or different but must be melee. Anything to make the rider look a little tougher is optional, but it is still just a goblin.

Warg Rider is done (click on image in spoiler for download page):

Spoiler :

I hope you like it

 

[Pazyryk]

Yes I do!

Can we have the Warg too (without goblin)? Not urgent, but we could use some tougher animals running around.

 

[Nomad or What]

Yes I do!

Can we have the Warg too (without goblin)? Not urgent, but we could use some tougher animals running around.

Absolutely, that was the plan. I just wanted to get this out first so that you could add it into Éa. I will have a few skins for the Warg that will be interchangeable. I will also do an Orc Warg Rider (which you may not need, but could be used for a great person).

EDIT: Wargs are done, they are here...

 

[Nomad or What]

Also need single unit Lich (race/sex can be indeterminate) and Vampire (male & female; Murphy613's Vampire Swordsman w/out shield is great for male).

I have 2 potential candidates for a Lich:

Spoiler :

One is from Warcraft III (very low-poly as you can tell) and the other from Defense of the Ancients 2 (DOTA 2). There are other models as well that aren't specifically identified as a Lich but could easily be used; let me know if you want me to keep looking.

 

[Civitar]

Hey Pazyryk, here are some Wizards for the next Media Pack (hopefully). I'll look at Warriors next.