Civ2 Custom Sprites in other games.

[Darthrafael]

So, first off. I said I was going to make this thread yesterday, but a combination of life happening and me not being entirely sure what all to say delayed it a bit. Secondly, I'm still not entirely sure if this is the right place to post it, but since it's about sprite stuff and a lot of sprite artists seem to post their stuff in this subforum, I figured this place would be the best place to put it. And finally, sorry if the thread title is a bit vague, but I also want to know if artists are fine with their sprites being used in just the one thing I'll be talking about or if they're also okay with their work being used elsewhere (with credit).

Anyway, onto the stuff I was recommended to make this thread for. Asking for permissions and talking about what I want permissions for, basically.

I've been working on mods for a open-source turn-based strategy game for a while, but I cannot really draw custom sprites at all. This has meant that I've had to use placeholder sprites for sometime, but I've recently fallen in love with some of the spritework made for Civ2, and was hoping to know which artists are okay with me using their sprites (with credit given, of course) in my projects.

The game in question for my current project is called Commander Wars, and it's an open-source fangame based on Advance Wars - but with very versatile mod support. At this time, I'm planning/designing a mod with a WW2-style tech level, hence why my initial question was in the WW2 sprite thread, but I might want to do more modern-era stuff in the future, too, so if anyone who draws more modern stuff is okay with me using their stuff then that'd be greatly appreciated, too.

My goal for what I'm working on now is to include a relatively large roster of unit types that existed in WW2, but not specific units. So not Tigers, Shermans, StuGs and Spitfires, but instead Heavy Tanks, Medium Tanks, Assault Guns and Fighters. However, I would like the actual sprites to represent real-life tanks, but ideally without real-life camo patterns or symbols on the vehicles. This goes for future projects, too, so if anyone is willing to share generic symbol-less versions of their sprites it would be quite nice.

Beyond artists giving permission for their sprites to be used, however, I'm also happy to receive suggestions for what sorts of units to include and what they should be good at doing. I'm by no means an expert in history or even really all that great at strategy, so if people have any unit types they think could be interesting to see used or mechanics that might be interesting to implement, do let me know.

That's all I have to say for now, I think. Sorry for the thread being a bit chaotic, I found it rather difficult to summarize my ideas and such when they're still very much a work-in-progress.

 

[Civinator]

The game in question for my current project is called Commander Wars, and it's an open-source fangame based on Advance Wars - but with very versatile mod support.

Darthrafael, thank you very much for the explanation. When searching Commander Wars and Advance Wars in the internet, I am directed to Nintendo and some very simply animated units with an own simple split battle screen for combat. If this is correct, how do you manage to add the simple animations to the static Civ 2 units? Is there a special tool for the animation of the static units and if yes, where can I find it?

For Civ 2 ToT there exists a tool for unit animations, too, but these animated units have a problem with their defense animations.

 

[Darthrafael]

Darthrafael, thank you very much for the explanation. When searching Commander Wars and Advance Wars in the internet, I am directed to Nintendo and some very simply animated units with an own simple split battle screen for combat. If this is correct, how do you manage to add the simple animations to the static Civ 2 units? Is there a special tool for the animation of the static units and if yes, where can I find it?

This is indeed the correct game, however I currently do not intend to make use of sprites that are particularly animated, purely due to a lack of spriting ability or a way to make isometric static sprites look nicely animated for the battle screens the game uses.

Commander Wars itself allows for relatively easy implementation of certain basic animations during battle scenes that I do intend to include - moving clouds/water for planes and ships, explosions when stuff dies, etc.

 

[Civinator]

Here you can find the tool for animating Civ 2 units (especially when importing other animated sprites, p.e. from Civ 3). But as posted, Civ 2ToT has a problem in its program with the combat of animated units. Movement and death animations for animated Civ 2 units with Civ 2 ToT are working well.

Darthrafael, I wish you good luck for your project.

 

[Darthrafael]

Here you can find the tool for animating Civ 2 units (especially when importing other animated sprites, p.e. from Civ 3). But as posted, Civ 2ToT has a problem in its program with the combat of animated units. Movement and death animations for animated Civ 2 units with Civ 2 ToT are working well.

Darthrafael, I wish you good luck for your project.

Thanks! Unfortunately, the download on the link you gave doesn't work for me. Is there somewhere else I can find it to test it?

 

[Civinator]

Unfortunately, the download on the link you gave doesn't work

Unfortunately it seems, that this is true. At least Mercator´s site with the predecessor tool "Civ Sprite" still can be reached by the link in Mercator´s post. I have a download of the no longer available newer Mercator tool, but as I don´t know, why the download link is not working any longer, at present I don´t want to do a re-upload of it.

p.s.: gwendoline did a lot of well animated post-WW2 generic units in the Civ 3 unit forum and tons of animated not well-known WW II tank prototypes, that could be used as generic WW 2 tanks:

Generic modern tanks and vehicles: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/my-generic-army.425099/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/authors/gwendoline.200197/

The tool for separating the single images out of these Civ 3 animations is Flicster: https://forums.civfanatics.com/thre...r-version-1-0-1-build-18-now-available.10208/ (or you can use JASC Animation Shop).