Buffalo Warrior (3 May 2006)

[Plotinus]

This is my first unit, so please be gentle with him.

Virtually all of the credit for this should go to Kinboat and Utahjazz. I basically followed Utahjazz's unit-making tutorial fairly slavishly, but rather than remake the Spanish Spearman I decided to use a model that Kinboat made but apparently never turned into a unit. Stormrage requested that someone make it as a spearman, so since Utahjazz's animations were for a spearman, I thought it might work. I replaced the model's original loincloth with trousers and shoes and gave him a spear. I also did my own Fidget and Victory animations, since Utahjazz didn't cover those in his tutorial.

The unit is a fictional North American warrior. Perhaps he could replace the Pikeman.

The download is here.

All comments welcomed. The unit's not perfect - his civ-coloured belt isn't as prominent as I anticipated, and something went slightly off with the Death anim - but I'm learning!

[EDIT - 20/10/06] - I've done new Civilopedia icons for this unit. Check out the downloads page to get them.

 

[Mithadan]

Wow, that's great! Not bad for a theologian... I'm not sure what makes him look Amerindian, though, he could pass for a Norman with a rectangular shield methinks. At any rate, it's an immediate download as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Storm Grunt]

Congratulations on your first unit. It looks very good.

 

[Rambuchan]

Well done Plotinus! Well done.

I agree with Mithadan about the look but that's not important right now. The fact you've done it is!

I don't know how much further you can take things but a buffalo skin hat would work wonders and something to make his clothing seem less like European armour. Also a rounder shield, perhaps covered in fur is something I could picture this guy wielding.

 

[Plotinus]

Thanks guys - glad he meets with your approval. Actually I agree that he doesn't look enormously North American at civ scale (if you look at Kinboat's thread, you'll see that he's got studs on his hat which could be - er, actually, I'm not sure), but I just kept the original name. Although yes indeed, he could actually be quite versatile as he is should anyone need a generic sort of warrior chap.

 

[utahjazz7]

Hey, another unit maker! Great work, Plotinus. I'm sure that we can expect some wonderful work from you in the near future.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by saying something went slightly off in the death animation. The feet seem to slide a bit near the end of the animation, but other than that it looks fine to me.

 

[El Justo]

splendid work for a first unit. it's better than a host of others that are not first units. good job matey.

 

[Samez]

Great unit!
Well you wanted to know what could be better: hmm i like the way he drops the spear during his death, perhaps he could also drop his shield? (well about this iam not sure how the he holds the shield or if it is tied to his arm...)
Well and it doesn't look very buffalo like hmm perhaps some feathers at the back of his head/cap?

 

[T-mun]

I was secretly working on it, trying to figure out how to animate it with only free softwares. It's more "unit-assembly" than "unit-making", since Kinboat gave all the parts of it, but it's nice. I apreciate it more than other people do, because I've seen, as a beginner, the difficulties you've encounterred and the patience that's needed to gather this. Good work

 

[woodelf]

Very nice first unit.

Very nice unit in any case.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

Man, that is awsome; and it's your FIRST unit !!!

Enter it in the unit contest thingy.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Well done !!

I have a request : the Touareg warrior .

 

[Plotinus]

[R8XFT] Ha! You can bet he's on my list, but it'll be a while before I can tackle him, because I need (a) to get hold of props etc, and (b) to work out how to animate flowing cloths and the like. You'll probably get me bugging you about this sort of thing, so you've been warned.

[themanuneed] Sorry for beating you to it, but I'm sure there could be more variations on that model. You're right about the patience needed for this, though - largely due to my inexperience, of course, so I'm sure it gets easier as one goes on. If aaglo took this long to make every unit, he'd never sleep.

[utahjazz7] Well as I said, it wouldn't be here without your tutorial and props. With the Death animation, when I did it first I didn't move the feet (I must have missed out some part of your coordinates for the death pose), which meant that he ended up with his knees in the air as if he were about to start doing stomach crunches. So I just slid his feet out, and it seemed OK, but after rendering I thought it didn't look quite right. Still decent enough not to want to re-do it all, though...

 

[mrtn]

Everyone else has mentioned the "not quite Merkin but good anyway" stuff, so I'll just agree with them.

Could very well fit as an evilish spearman.

 

[Stormrage]

....... This...is...unbelivable...

An amazing unit, Plotinus! It turned out nothing like I expected, tho... nevermind, it turned out better!
It doesn`t look the slightest bit chaotic, but it looks like a very sweet fantasy mercenary or something, and is definately going in my mod. Maybe in more than one
Here is an idea, rename the unit into "mercenary spearman" or something, and ask a admin to change the thread`s title, I really have no idea what Kinboat was thinking when he was naming his model

You have my biggest gratitude for making this unit

 

[Mithadan]

Could very well fit as an evilish spearman.

For a second there I thought you said "elvish." Either way, frankly, it would fit very nicely in the Lord of the Mods. If only we knew where PCH was!

 

[Grandraem]

Great first unit. I didn't even know you were working on it. A pleasant surprise.

 

[Stormrage]

The taskmaster has many minions under his boot!

J/K

 

[odintheking]

Wow! I love when new unitmakers follow utah's tutorial to make spearmen; they always come out great, . This will be in Lord of Ragnarok.

 

[CartesianFart]

Damn,i thought this was the famous Buffalo Soldier,the dreadlock rasta.To come to think of it,we should ask a unit maker to make that too as well.