Fire Mage (04/03/06)

[Ploeperpengel]

Hehe, glad you enjoyed it. And as for the meshes, I'm still not satisfied with the hood - it looks like on of those detachable ones on modern coats or jackets (sans the fiery red texture), but maybe it's just me

Hm, maybe pull the egdes above the nose down just slightly and the vertex in the middle up a bit to give it a more triangular shape, that'll be perfect then. And scale the head down a little. The rest is perfect as it is. I think we just skin a few WH specs on it and put it in the Mod.

Oh and thx for making the poleflags. Can't wait to have more bits. Also your weaponpack some of my units here definitly need better fitting weapons.

 

[Chalid]

Actually we can have our Mages throw all the spells we like. This is of course a more complicated thing.

First of all you have to open the grenadier_md_rangedstrike.kf file in your mages folder with an hex editor. Right to the bottom you find a string:

Effect:Grenade_Throw_Effect:EFFECT_GRENADE_THROW

The EFFECT_GRENADE_THROW can be replaced with a string of your liking.

Now go to the xml file /assets/xml/misc/CIV4EffectInfos.xml and search for EFFECT_GRENADE_THROW, copy the entry, replace the Type with your Choosen Effect name and point the Path to your edited grenade.
If you want to change the explosion on impact you have to do the same with your grenadiergrenade_md_grenade_explode.kf.

I had some issues with changing the description of the Effect in the EffectInfos.xml so i left them as they were.

I think this works for all ranged units but i have only testet catapult, longbowman and the grenadier so far.

 

[Rabbit, White]

This is awesome Chalid, a great, great find!
I'm gonna update my units with this in mind so they won't "conflict" with the existing stuff.

 

[woodelf]

Wow, that's quite an effect. Now we could have flamethrowers, firebreathing dragons, ect...

 

[Rabbit, White]

Following Chalid's advice I created versions of the fire mage and the fire catapult that don't conflict with existing units, i.e. you can now have both regular and fire catapults in game and each will use the appropriate effects, same for fire mage and grenadier. Both are in the attached zip.

In order to make them work you will need to first of all add the following two entries to the CIV4EffectInfos.xml file:

<EffectInfo>
	<Type>EFFECT_MAGE_FIREBALL</Type>
	<Description>Firemage Fireball</Description>
	<fScale>1.0</fScale>
	<fUpdateRate>1.0</fUpdateRate>
	<Path>Art/Units/Firemage/GrenadierGrenade.kfm</Path>
	<bIsProjectile>1</bIsProjectile>
	<fSpeed>350.0</fSpeed>
	<fArcValue>4.0</fArcValue>
</EffectInfo>
<EffectInfo>
	<Type>EFFECT_CATAPULT_FIRE</Type>
	<Description>Catapult Fire Rock</Description>
	<fScale>1.0</fScale>
	<fUpdateRate>1.0</fUpdateRate>
	<Path>Art/Units/FireCatapult/CatapultRock.kfm</Path>
	<bIsProjectile>1</bIsProjectile>
	<fSpeed>500.0</fSpeed>
	<fArcValue>4.0</fArcValue>
</EffectInfo>

You cannot change the type of the effect (i.e. EFFECT_MAGE_FIREBALL and EFFECT_CATAPULT_FIRE), but if you put the units in a different folder then you can change the path.

You will also notice that this time, these units come with the animation files. That means the the art definition of these units will also need to modify the KFM tag to reference to the correct animation file. Something like this:

<UnitArtInfo>
	<Type>ART_DEF_UNIT_FIRE_MAGE</Type>
	<fScale>0.44</fScale>
	<fInterfaceScale>1.0</fInterfaceScale>
	[b]<NIF>Art/Units/Firemage/Firemage.nif</NIF>
	[color=#aa0000]<KFM>Art/Units/Firemage/Grenadier.kfm</KFM>[/color]
	<SHADERNIF>Art/Units/Firemage/Firemage_fx.nif</SHADERNIF>[/b]
	<ShadowDef>
		<ShadowNIF>Art/Units/01_UnitShadows/UnitShadow.nif</ShadowNIF>
		<ShadowAttachNode>BIP Pelvis</ShadowAttachNode>
		<fShadowScale>0.95</fShadowScale>
	</ShadowDef>
	<fBattleDistance>0.35</fBattleDistance>
	<fRangedDeathTime>0.31</fRangedDeathTime>
	<bActAsRanged>1</bActAsRanged>
	<TrainSound>AS2D_UNIT_BUILD_UNIT</TrainSound>
	<AudioRunSounds>
		<AudioRunTypeLoop/>
		<AudioRunTypeEnd/>
	</AudioRunSounds>
</UnitArtInfo>

However, there is a problem with the mage that I was unable to resolve and I hope someone might be able to help me out with it. First of all the mage's pedia entry is screwed up, the only thing visible is the icon. On top of that when stacking several mages and selecting one of them the unit list doesn't show up, and if you previously had another stack of units selected then that list will show up when selecting the stack of mages. I suspect the two problems are related.

The screwed up pedia entry problem I encountered before when I tried to use separate animations for new/modified units, i.e. let's say I gave the swordsman a new sword, but on top of that copied all the animations from the original folder to a new one and referenced them in the art definition. On the other hand if I referenced the original swordsman animations everything would work fine.

Here's the thing though, I modified the catapult and I modified it's animations, yet it works perfectly fine. The only difference I see between it and the fire mage is that I added some items to the fire mage that don't have a proper FX version. I did a quick test by removing them all but it didn't work. Btw, the current FX version of the firemage is proper in that I used the FX versions of christian missionary and grenadier to create it.

If the catapult would also have a problem I would just chuck it up to combination of modified NIFs and animations and learn to live with it, but it does work. That means that something in the way I created the mage caused the problem. It could be the fact that the hood and the cape don't have proper FX versions (I'm still having trouble exporting FX models, but I'm sure I'll figure it out soon), it could be a simple XML mistake, maybe there is another XML reference somewhere that needs to be changed. Anyway, so I'm posting these two units and maybe someone can figure out what the heck is going on.

 

[Chalid]

Try pointing the shader to the Firemage.nif instead of the Firemage_fx.nif. That works fine for me.

Oh and whoever uses the Mage: Give him one first strike. then you'll see the fancy fireball at least once per fight.

 

[Rabbit, White]

Try pointing the shader to the Firemage.nif instead of the Firemage_fx.nif. That works fine for me.

Oh and whoever uses the Mage: Give him one first strike. then you'll see the fancy fireball at least once per fight.

Didn't work did you use the new version of the firemage or the old one?

 

[Trimaj]

question about the not being able to have more than one. couldn't you copy the file that connects them to the grandier file, create a new one and recode it in the necessary places? if so then you could have however many you want of that type of unit without replacing any.

i've not done anything like this so i may just making a complete fool of myself in even suggesting it.

EDIT:

n/m got answered.

great unit. it looks amazing.

 

[Chalid]

Didn't work did you use the new version of the firemage or the old one?

Ok the error apperead now several times by me as well, but i could aways solve it by renaming my modified unit to the name of the unit whose animation i used, and by placing the animation files in the same folder. Its kind of strange, but as long as it works nobody asks.

 

[Patricius]

Hey Rabbit, Those units look awesome.
My Question is, could animations like that be added to the units by introducing a new promotion, fire, that helps attacking cities or something?
Would changing the animation in-game be possible?

Sincerely,
Patricius

 

[Rabbit, White]

Hey Rabbit, Those units look awesome.
My Question is, could animations like that be added to the units by introducing a new promotion, fire, that helps attacking cities or something?
Would changing the animation in-game be possible?

Sincerely,
Patricius

Thanks Patricius

As far as I know you can't just change/add animations that units use in-game. However, what you might be able to do is use python to set up a system where certain promotions upgrade a unit automatically, just like when you upgrade when you have access to more advanced unit, only here it'll be done through a promotion and you'll have an improved version of the previous unit. Now, I haven't played FFH and not sure if they have something like that, but if anyone on these forums might have tried to do that (or maybe even did that) it would be Kael so you should PM him with this question.

Cheers

 

[RogerBacon]

I just installed the firemage. Love the unit but I noticedthe problems you mentioned. In addition to the stack issues you pointed out there is also the lack of information about who you are attaching when you alt-mouseover i.e. no combat odds calculation. Have you made any breakthroughs in fixing these issues?

Roger Bacon

 

[Chalid]

@Roger: copy the standard grenadier.nif and grenadier_fx.nifs into the same folder with the firemage animations. That might solve some of the problems as it seems the *.kfm only work correctly if a *.nif with the same name is available.

 

[Rabbit, White]

@Roger: copy the standard grenadier.nif and grenadier_fx.nifs into the same folder with the firemage animations. That might solve some of the problems as it seems the *.kfm only work correctly if a *.nif with the same name is available.

Yeah, I actually had a similar issue with another unit and copying original NIFs (that the KFM referenced) solved the pedia entry issues. However, I haven't checked if it'll work with the mage, also I don't think it'll solve the stack problems. In any case I haven't looked at the mage since then but maybe I should do that, maybe starting from scratch will help.

 

[RogerBacon]

@Roger: copy the standard grenadier.nif and grenadier_fx.nifs into the same folder with the firemage animations. That might solve some of the problems as it seems the *.kfm only work correctly if a *.nif with the same name is available.

Thanks. That fixed the problem of not showing the comat odds. Stange that adding those files would make a difference like that. <sigh> The world of graphics mods is totally alien to me. It still takes me an hour to add an aplha layer in Photoshop.

Roger Bacon

 

[RogerBacon]

Hey Rabbit, White,

Have you considered attaching the fire effect to other weapons? Do you think it would look good to have a flaming sword or spear?

Also, is there a way to make a stand-alone version of the flame effect so it could be used without a unit? I'm thinking of something like the emp blast that comes with Civ4. A fire blast would look cooler than the emp blast.

Roger Bacon

 

[C.Roland]

Hey Rabbit, White,

Have you considered attaching the fire effect to other weapons? Do you think it would look good to have a flaming sword or spear?

Also, is there a way to make a stand-alone version of the flame effect so it could be used without a unit? I'm thinking of something like the emp blast that comes with Civ4. A fire blast would look cooler than the emp blast.

Roger Bacon

Orthus in FFH II have a flaming axe, and the pyre zombie a flaming body

 

[The Navy Seal]

This would be cool if there was a way that you could set it so that when you give an archer promotion fire arrow it gives it a new animation. These look great.