Buildings and Wonder Design

Wait, so the tree leaves still don't have proper alpha even when using the vanilla texture?
 
Hmm, the alpha is obviously still not working. Not sure what's happening there.

As for the colouring, I do agree that it's too light. You can probably darken it (and add more detail if possible) without blending into the background too much. The roof of the hut, for example, looks a bit too bright and yellow to me. You could do quite a lot with it (get a more thatched look, 'weather' it with moss, even put some leaves on it) without losing its distinctiveness.
 
I think your problem is with the back-faces.
In Wings3D they show as having 'hole' texture, which translates as see-through.

That is as far as my civ4-alphalayer knowledge goes for now.


I suggest importing a few 'wildtype' trees into the houselots, they somehow look better.
They can be exported from a trees*.lif to obj, imported into your city obj, seperated into seperate objects and then moved around.
Only need a trees/WE-buildings fused dds.

Enchanted forest ideas: jungle with the palms replaced by decidious/evergreen trees.
change hue of trees.dds to show more golden, then add animation of fireflies or blue glow.
added mist is a good idea too.

----
addit:
alphalayers
OK. It is not the backfaces.
While playing with some trees and adding vines to the mix of textures, I find that the unused parts of the texturemap (trees1024) have 100% opague alpha. Not nice.
Anyone has any hints on how the alphalayers work and where it is kept?
 
Here are my suggestions for wonders and again it is only suggestions, don't want to minor the wonderful job already done:

_Empire:
The 8 Colleges of Magic
Leon Brachwurster Mechanic Menagery
The Automorial
The Thaumadivinator
Emperor Boris Fluvial Mausoleum
Strichenfloch Enrolment Post
(the former 5 are from the latest WH rule book)
The Suiddock
The Jade Griffon Altar
The Moot
Alde Weirde's Incunabulum

_Bretonnia:
Great Cathedral of the Holy Grail

_Tilea:
Mercenary Guilds Charter
Merchant's guilds Charter

_Araby:
The Great Bazaar
The Djiins Palace

_Cathay:
The great Bastion (great wall, easy the model and effects are already in :) )
Fireworks

_Nippon:
Tower of the Rising Sun
Thieves Guilds charter

_Ind:
Floating Garden

_Chaos:
_The March Fortress
_The Monsters Dale
_The Hill of Bones
_Great Monolith of the Horrid Beast

_Khemri:
The Spring of Eternal Life
The Black Pyramid
Pillar of Skulls
The Pyramid of Eternity

_Dwarves:
Great anvil of Doom
Bugman's Brewery
Engineer's Guilds Charter
The Hall of Kings
The Great Book of Grudges
The Gates of Karaz a Karak
Great Forges of the Thunder Mount

_Chaos dwarves:
The hammer of hashut ( ICBM with a chance to explose on the city launching it)
Obsidian Zigurrat of Hashut

_Ulthuan:
White Tower of Hoeth
Unicorn Gate
Eagle Gate
Griffin Gate
Phoenix Gate
Dragon Gate (perhaps these 5 gates could be simply forts land improvment i don't know)
Isle of the Dead
Tower of Stars
Vaul's Anvil
Glittering Tower Lighthouse
Sacred Shrine of Asuryan (Or phoenix flame's Shrine)
The Moving Isles

_Naggaroth
Blood Cauldron of Khaine
Altar of Ultimate Darkness
Watch Keeps Edification

_Athel Loren
Oak of Ages
Waterfall Palace
Tower of the Eternal Wood
Sentinels Stones
Beast Council

_Greenskins:
Da Idol of Gork and Mork
Gork and Mork Avatars (2 Huge armed siege towers)

_Ogres kingdom
Skytitan palace

_Beastmen:
The Tree of hangeds

_Lizardmen:
Stellar Pyramids of sky
Constellation Temple
Pyramid of Dawn
Obsidian Column

Other wonder possible:
The Black Library
Crater of Resurection
 
I've long since figured out a lot of my texturing ills if there's ever a need for any of my older crap buildings.
 
solwen said:
Here are my suggestions for wonders and again it is only suggestions, don't want to minor the wonderful job already done:
Click to expand...

_Empire:
The 8 Colleges of Magic(will be single "wonders with the opportunity to train the according mages)
Leon Brachwurster Mechanic Menagery(sounds fun-need fluff)
The Automorial (dito)
The Thaumadivinator (dito)
Emperor Boris Fluvial Mausoleum (dito)
Strichenfloch Enrolment Post (dito)
(the former 5 are from the latest WH rule book)
The Suiddock (definitly going in)
The Jade Griffon Altar (need fluff)
The Moot (maybe a feature that allows building of halfling units whoever has his cultural borders on it)
Alde Weirde's Incunabulum (need fluff)

_Bretonnia:
Great Cathedral of the Holy Grail (Greater Tempel already in)

_Tilea:
Mercenary Guilds Charter (yep)
Merchant's guilds Charter (yep)

_Araby:
The Great Bazaar (already in)
The Djiins Palace (already in as Palace of the Wizard Caliph - should enable building Djinns of course)

_Cathay:
The great Bastion (already in)
Fireworks (yes is planned)

_Nippon:
Tower of the Rising Sun (isn't that Highelven? - already in)
Thieves Guilds charter (yes planned)

_Ind:
Floating Garden (already in)

_Chaos:
_The March Fortress (need fluff)
_The Monsters Dale (dito)
_The Hill of Bones (dito)
_Great Monolith of the Horrid Beast (dito)

_Khemri:
The Spring of Eternal Life (planned)
The Black Pyramid (already in)
Pillar of Skulls (planned)
The Pyramid of Eternity (already in)

_Dwarves:
Great anvil of Doom (planned)
Bugman's Brewery (already in)
Engineer's Guilds Charter (planned)
The Hall of Kings (already in)
The Great Book of Grudges (Greater Temple of Ancestor Gods)
The Gates of Karaz a Karak (need fluff)
Great Forges of the Thunder Mount (dito)

_Chaos dwarves:
The hammer of hashut ( ICBM with a chance to explose on the city launching it)
Obsidian Zigurrat of Hashut

(need fluff for those 2)

_Ulthuan:
White Tower of Hoeth (already in)
Unicorn Gate
Eagle Gate
Griffin Gate
Phoenix Gate
Dragon Gate (perhaps these 5 gates could be simply forts land improvment i don't know)

->The gates will probably be features on my map graphically-giving defence bonus

Isle of the Dead (no it's a landmark-on my map)
Tower of Stars (yep)
Vaul's Anvil (planned)
Glittering Tower Lighthouse (already in)
Sacred Shrine of Asuryan (Greater Temple of Asuryan)
The Moving Isles (no these are landmarks)

_Naggaroth
Blood Cauldron of Khaine (Greater Temple of Khaine)
Altar of Ultimate Darkness (Should be a Greater Temple as well)
Watch Keeps Edification

_Athel Loren
Oak of Ages(Greater Temple of Kurnous and Isha)
Waterfall Palace (need fluff)
Tower of the Eternal Wood (dito)
Sentinels Stones (dito =Waystones?)
Beast Council (need fluff)

_Greenskins:
Da Idol of Gork and Mork (is this made up or fluff?)
Gork and Mork Avatars (2 Huge armed siege towers) (interesting)

_Ogres kingdom
Skytitan palace (need fluff)

_Beastmen:
The Tree of hangeds (not planned as civ just as barbs)

_Lizardmen:
Stellar Pyramids of sky (need fluff)
Constellation Temple (dito)
Pyramid of Dawn (dito)
Obsidian Column (dito)

Other wonder possible:
The Black Library(already in)
Crater of Resurection (need fluff)

A problem we have with all this civunique wonders still is we dont have many wonders civs can race for if we keep them all unique - on the other hand I couldn't imagine the orcs building the black Library - we definitly need an elegant solution for this or make up generic wonders.
 
I think one way we could get around that problem is to make civs of a similar Race can fight over wonders from their civ specific lists

ie Empire, Estalia, Tilea, Bretonnia and all human civs can fight for each others wonders, Elven civs can race for theirs, Dwarven civs likewise, Barbaric cives (ie Orcs, Gobbos, Ogres Chaos etc) can race for theirs, New World Civs, (Ie Lizardmen, Amazon etc) can race, Undead can race, Orental can race. and so on

and then , to give more competition, we could make civs of simalar idealistic standings race for specific wonder of that idealistic standing (im saying 'idealistic standing' rather than 'alignment' because i dont think alignment fits here, Dark elves arnt necessarily evil, just severly mislead. they certaintly dont like Chaos all that much, neither do Orcs etc. (plus Idealistic standing is broader :p)

So this means that civs like High Elves, Empire, Woodelves, Darkelves, Khemri, Lizardmen could race for wonders that are highly magic based.

whereas civs like Dwarves, Chaos Dwarves, Empire, Cathay, Tilea, Estalia, could race for wonders that are technology based.

Civs that are bent on World domination could race for wonders that assist this ideal ie Chaos, Orcs, Darkelves, Vampire Counts, Khemri, Skaven etc

Civs which are paranoid about defending their land could all gain access to defensive wonders, ie Cathay, Woodelves, Khemri, High Elves, Lizardmen etc

and so on and so forth
 
Welcome back P_L!

I can't wait to see you crank out some more models.

Here's a thread where I'm creating buildings for a Dragonia II mod. Some might work here.
 
Thanks woodelf :)

@ woodelf: did you notice you got a mention in the CIV 4 BTS manual? page 34 :p

anyway Because i got a new computer all my old 3dsMax files are scattered around the world (literally, i had to download half of them again:crazyeye: ) but i still cant find my old textures :mad: i must have forgotten to back the buggers up before i reformatted my comp.
SO, i know i Emailed them to a few people here before i reformatted, i think i sent them to Ploe and possibly woodelf but i cant remember exactly.

If anyone does still have my textures can you PLEASE email them back to me, or upload them here or i will have to go through all the modles and make NEW textures and i really dont want to have to do that :p.
 
Just had a second look but as pmd no textures for HE buildings and the woodelfbuildings I have have strange textures as niffiles. I have no idea how to get a dds or bitmap out of these(I don't even know how it was possible to create this type of format for a texture). Would it be of any help to send you the niftextures - I mean can you import them somehow?
 
_Leon Brachwurster Mechanic Menagery: This is (as the name say) a great menagery of monsters, exotic and common animals but all clockwork (with skulls and some bones of the represented creatures in the assemblage). mechanical flying vultures, steam powered manticores and a clockwork stegadon with an organ on it can be seen but other than that there is little fluff on it .But the picture of this menagery (WH 7th ed rulebook) shows it clearly deserve to be a wonder (perhaps empire only national wonder). Apparently it is like an itininerant carnaval so perhaps give happyness to the 6 biggest city of the player on the continent and give access to the mechanical steed (the new steel horse available to empire commanders in the 7th ed empire army book)

_The Automorial: A huge gothic empire style (so heavy on skulls and death with scyte statues and incenser) cathedral tower on wheels (looks like the spiral minaret wonder). The automorial seems to be something like 50meter high and a huge clockwork assemblage representing a chaos warrior fighting sigmar (maybe 20 meters high) is on the front of it. The automorial is something like 100 meters long and his sides are filled with canons shouting smoke and incense. It is tracted by countless flagellants. (perhaps a huge mobile unique unit that spreads sigmarism and spawn flagellants)

_The Thaumadivinator : Again a clockwork assemblage. Looks like a big sphere full of magical, mystical and symbolic appendices. Apparently it gives augurs to the persons using it. THe thaumadivinator is a college of magic invention and it caused several riots in the city where it was used. (maybe unhappyness in the city where it is created and bonus research)

_Emperor Boris Fluvial Mausoleum: Imperials seems to really love clockwork as this big boat is "manned" by giant size armoured mechanical skelettons (with clokwork skelletons playing music and reading holy texts). As the name states, this boat is the mausoleum of the emperor boris. (act as a temple for all cities linked by river to the city having the mausoleum perhaps)

_Strichenfloch Enrolment Post: You guessed it, again a huge clockwork thing. THis "enrolment post" (around 40 meters high) is a mechanical assemblage showing skelletons horsemen clad as imperial knights with mechanical animal playing flute and such. bronze angel playing trompets fly near this assemblage. THe fluff about it states it serves as an... enrolment post by attracting men to the the automatons and then inducting them into the army.
(+10%/25% to military unit production i'd say)

_The War altar: This is the war altar of the grand theogonist. A big griffon statue is on it and it is accounted for countless miracles. It is pulled by horses (unique unit i say)

_Alde Weirde's Incunabulum: Like a big encyclopedia about the od world and the foreign lands. (give map of the continent and perhaps gold).

_The March fortress: one of the house if Slaanesh, raised to celebrate hedonism, perversity and all deviances. The walls of this fortress are made of black stones with pink palpitating veins. A toxic fluid drops from this fortress and white and pink clouds englob it. The stones of this fortress are tied with the bones and bloods of slaanesh followers and of those who died during orgy. This fortress is also an insult to Khorn. The main use of this fortress is it's mill. In this mill, demons of Slaanesh throw carcass of others demons and mortals killed in battle. These corpse are then grind into a mixture used to reinforce castles and walls.
(act as a greater temple of Slaanesh and give defense bonus to other citiesor give 5 Bone mortar ressources that gives defense bonus to the player having it but spreading corruption on his lands)

_The Monsters Dale : Basically a very fertile jungle in the chaos waste. Dedicated to Nurgle, this corrupted jungle spawn countless monstruosities who spend their time killing and . .. .. .. .ing each others (to spawn more monsters)
(spread corruption and spawn chaos spawn or minor daemons)

_The hill of bones: A big Imperial crusade was slain in the chaos waste by the kurgans. Trapped, the imperials were slaughtered in a never seen magnitude. The bones of the imperials were left where they died and they formed a huge hill (30 meters high). This hill, haunted by the spirits of those who falled is now a sacred land (and even a temple in itself) to Khorn and chaos pilgrims comes from all around the wastes to see it.
(Greater temple of Khorn and give bonus xp or the frenzy promotion)


__Great Monolith of the Horrid Beast : Monolith to the glory of the primordial chaos (In the "tome of corruption" book, it is stated that followers of Chaos make monolith to their gods instead of temples so maybe it is a good idea)
 
_The Gates of Karaz a Karak : The armoured gates and castles protecting the entrance of the fortress who never falled. (with forts hidden in the moutains etc...)
(Perhaps a dwarf only national wonder who gives a lot of defense bonus)

_Great Forges of the Thunder Mount : The biggest forges in all the dwarf kingdoms using the heat and lava of the thunder mount volcanoe. This is where the dwarves made all the anvils of doom.
(perhaps act as the ironworks national wonder)

_The hammer of hashut : The chaos dwarves made a massive rocket using their advanced technology in this field. This rocket the size of a nuclear missile was nammed the "hammer of Hashut. It flew off course and nearly wiped out the city, but only a few goblin tribes were killed.
(easy, standard ICBM with a % chance exploding on the city launching it)


_Obsidian Zigurrat of Hashut: The great temple of Hashut with lava spewing from it and where slaves are daily sacrified into.

_Da Idol of Gork and Mork : Huge idols representating gork and/or Mork. Made of . .. .. .. ., left overs shinny things, corpse and stone. These idols greatly raise the Waaagh power (this is not made of, Storm of chaos book speak of them)

_Skytitan palace: (Ogre kingdoms army book). This beautiful palace made of marble belonged to the sky titans, a race of intelligent giants. The ogres slaughtered this race and took their palace. It is stated that this palace is big (big in giant concept so it must be really big) and really magnificient.
Near this palace where also the Countless mamoth herd of the giants
(give culture, gold and maybe food and/or ivory/elephant ressource)

_Crater of resurection/ spring of eternal life: People drinking from the water of this spring instantly die and raise as undead.
(bonus research and spawn skelettons)

_Stellar Pyramids of sky
Constellation Temple
Pyramid of Dawn
Obsidian Column : These 4 are temple of the old ones made when the former where still in Lustria. They are made on energy lines and allow the lizardmen to teleport vast army or wathever they want from one temple to the other.
(Act as airport but with only 4 buildable)

_Sentinels stones: Yes it's waystones

About the other wonders (beast council etc...), there are only landmark or building on the maps of the different army books. Apart from being stated as very important, no real fluff is found on them (at least, i have not found).
PL is surely more aware of the asrai wonders as i am.
 
Oak of Ages- the Oak itself is an immence oak tree taller than nay other tree in all of Athel Loren, in its side is a crevece which leads into the centre of the tree, every winter Ariel and Orion, the king and queen of the woods are encased in the sacred tree to re-energise and be reborn for every spring. During their encasement the forect creatures, treemen and dryads are distanced from the Asrai (woodelves) and some say they weaken. Whilst the king and queen were encased the Asrai guards are incresed dramatically to replace the lost dryads and treemen. This should only be buildable in the Woodelf capital city. it should increase happyness, GPP(magic Great person) and provide +2 EXP to units produced in the all woodelf cities (to the return of the king and queen every spring bringing new energy to the forest) and an extra +2 EXP to units produced in the capital (to represent the increase in Asrai guards during winter)

Waterfall Palace - should act as a second palace only for the woodelves. the waterfall palace dosnt have much fluff either but i think it was a palace built for an important noble family in the Asrai society. it is made from stone and living tres and streatches over a waterfall. must be built in a city with a river next to a hill/ mountain.

Tower of the Eternal Wood - was the home of an eccentric, hermit spell weaver. he created the tower from the very bones of the earth and locked himself inside for centuries. one day the tower was discovered open and empty, the hermit has vanished and and a lasting myster surroundes the tower... this could provide extra magic GPP because no one knows who the hermit was or when he reaperaed in society ir if he ever did. it couldalso incres research in the magic tech tree due to his notes and studies that were recovered from the tower.

Sentinels Stones - the sentiend stones are a series of monelits surrounding the boarder of Athel loren. these stones do not mark ley lines, ro crossings of magical energies, but instead mark sacred battle zones and graves of the Asrai and their enemies. these stones serve to warn travelers that they are entering Asrai lands and that they will be in danger if they pose a threat.
the sentinel stones could provide a free monelith (+1 culture and/or 'Military control' as discussed in the brainstorm thread) to each city. or alternately it could build a 'great wall' style wonder, which surrounds the boarders of the Asrai and increses culture/ Military control points in each city. it caouls also preven Barbs from entering boarders.

Beast Council- Beast counsil hasnt got much fluff about it but from what i can recall i think it was a miniature government beween the forest creatures, including dryads, treemen, and wild beasts such as Unicorns and wolves etc. this wonder could cause all animal based barbarians to become friendly with the woodelves and able to enter and leave the woodelf boarders freely. in adition, the city that builds it could be able to build animal units.

Bridge of Birds - there is a great bridge with ornate statues of birst of every description that spans one of the great rivers in Athel Loren. this could allow all Asrai units to carry birds as cargo? or give the bird trainer promotion to units built in the city allowing them to carry birds?


EDIT: i dont actually have my woodelf army book out at the moment, so this is all just from memory so some of it may be incorect :)
 
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