Graphical Quibbles...

[Panopticon]

I have to say that I REALLY like the ambience of that cityset.

 

[Maniac]

Thanks!

 

[Lord Tirian]

Since the sea colony pods are still untextured and are among the big models with lots of useless polys, I remade them - and because I was working on colony pods already, I also replaced the current land colony pod with a version that looks closer to the SMAC unit.

Both pods share a texture, so they should stay in the same folder, if possible (otherwise, put the colonypod.dds into the shared folder). Both units have no animations, because they're just big things that don't really fight. The colony pod has 326 polys, but the sea colony pod is a bit heavier with 615 poly, because of the foil shape and the fission reactor on it (one day, I need to redo the reactors...).

In the attachment are screenshots as well, in case you want to create matching buttons instead of using the SMAC shots. I also included the artdefines-file, since I also set the shadows to the right size (for the aquaformer as well, it always had a huge shadow), so you can either just put the file into the right folder or get the artdefines out of it.

Cheers, LT.

 

[GeoModder]

Top notch, LT.

 

[Maniac]

Thanks!

(one day, I need to redo the reactors...)

For the record, since Planetfall has no unit workshop, there's no need to have reactors on models unless that makes them look better.

 

[GeoModder]

asio³ made a nice unit here.

 

[Maniac]

IIRC all infantry units have unique art at this point. So I don't know, any suggestions what unit to use it for? Or what special ability - as promotions can change unit art!

As asio says, it has many different dds files. I guess that reduces performance. So it would be better to use in the early game when there are fewer objects around affecting performance. Plus the unit wears a heavy gasmask, which indicates an early tech level. I was thinking it could perhaps replace the Infantry unit graphic? That model dates from Planetfall's very early days, and I think these days the model (specifically the backpack, gun and texture) looks poorer than the other cool unit graphics now in the game.

 

[Lord Tirian]

So it would be better to use in the early game when there are fewer objects around affecting performance. Plus the unit wears a heavy gasmask, which indicates an early tech level.

Personally, I feel the art would fit perfectly as Scout Infantry. The heavy gas mask, the dirty armour, the kevlar vest (opposed to a more military body armour), the very contemporary machine gun and the haphazard assortment of equipment... I think that looks a lot like the very first military unit you can get after a crash with your landing pod.

Plus, the unit looks fantastic and starting with that makes a nicer impression than seeing NextWar artwork re-used and since Scout Patrols become obsolete very quickly, the high polycount isn't bad.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Keeper_GFA]

LT said everything I was gonna say. Except for the "Cheers, LT." part.

 

[GeoModder]

@ Keeper.

Yeah, I agree with all the reasoning of the 3 posts before this one.
Let it be the latest reïncarnation of the scout patrol.
Barring that, you could always use it as a start for unique looking unit art for each faction.

 

[Maniac]

Sounds good. Any ideas where to move the NextWar unit then, or how to reassign the other infantry graphics? I just grabbed models from any available source, so it's not like there was any grand plan when assigning the current infantry graphics.

 

[GeoModder]

Sounds good. Any ideas where to move the NextWar unit then, or how to reassign the other infantry graphics? I just grabbed models from any available source, so it's not like there was any grand plan when assigning the current infantry graphics.

Well, the NextWar cyborg graphic always reminded me of a masked Hivelike security person.
In any case, a quick check of the Infantry units in the Datalinks learned me that the Cyborg unit and the InVitro unit are the same except a different texturing. Perhaps there's a spot to replace it with? Otherwise, you could drop the AfterWorld graphic and replace it with the current Infantry graphic? This unit doesn't use breathing equipment so assumedly wanders Planet when the atmosphere is more human-friendly.

 

[Pfeffersack]

IIRC all infantry units have unique art at this point. So I don't know, any suggestions what unit to use it for? Or what special ability - as promotions can change unit art!

Probably too late, but the gas mask would also fit for any special ability involving the use of gas, if we should ever have the desire to add such an ability back (SMAX had VX and the soporific one)

 

[Lord Tirian]

Probably too late, but the gas mask would also fit for any special ability involving the use of gas, if we should ever have the desire to add such an ability back (SMAX had VX and the soporific one)

I think nerve gas troops would be a good fit for the NextWar cyborg as well... and feel very Hive-ish. I'd almost say the NextWar gas mask cyborg as nerve gas unit (extra plus against infantry? causing little amount of collateral damage?) would make a good UU for the Hive, sounds just like what they'd use (perhaps instead of the straight infantry unit).

Cheers, LT.

 

[Maniac]

Well, the NextWar cyborg graphic always reminded me of a masked Hivelike security person.

Unique unit graphics for a faction are bad interface design. They require me to remember extra graphics while providing no additional information. If there are extra graphics, I'd rather assign them to special abilities.

I'm neither a fan of faction benefits which only last a short period of time, eg a Hive UU. If a unit benefit should be given, I'd rather give it as a promotion to a whole unit line.

 

[Lord Tirian]

I've redone the flag graphic - they're no longer distorted or pixellated, since the new flag model (just replace the old one) doesn't stretch the graphic any longer.

Since all old faction logos were stretched, I had to redo them, but I think they look pretty neat now (not only on the map, but the flag on the interface as well). The screenshot doesn't show very well how it looks like, because it's a bit on the small side and the compression messes it up a bit - since the install is rather straightforward , it should be easy to take a look yourself (well, you do need to change the XML for the barbarians).

Also, I've found that the colours, while true to the SMAC colours, don't work *that* well, especially the secondary colours. I think setting the Hive secondary to "COLOR_PLAYER_LIGHT_BLUE" and the Gaians secondary to "COLOR_PLAYER_DARK_RED" (both in the CIV4PlayerColor.xml) makes it easier to see the logo (especially the black for the hive was *hard* to see) - I think these two changes help a lot with visibility of the logo, making it easier to see on the map.

On the screenshot, I also tried to change the Gaian main colour to <fRed>0.13</fRed>, <fGreen>0.80</fGreen> - that way it's still an intense green, but less overpowering (especially since the green looks a lot like the green the game sometimes uses to highlight plots, like in the world builder for example) - I think that's a bit better, but it might be matter of taste.

If you're happy with how the faction flags look, I'll make flags for the SMAX factions (sans Fungboy...).

Cheers, LT.

 

[Quibblesome]

Played a new game last night, I always random and got Miriam. I gotta say the new city tilesets are freaking awesome. They make the cities look soooo much cooler.

 

[Maniac]

If you're happy with how the faction flags look, I'll make flags for the SMAX factions (sans Fungboy...).

Thanks that would be great!

Some questions/remarks:

space grid_background.jpg - is that file necessary?

Please save the flag files without mipmaps! Like buttons I don't think the incredibly little reduced graphical resources required by using mipmaps here validate the reduction in graphical quality.

The native life flag doesn't work because it doesn't make sense for hidden nationality units and partisans. Therefore could you please make a skull which works with the new flag nif?

 

[Lord Tirian]

space grid_background.jpg - is that file necessary?

As far as I can tell... no. I just left it there, because it was in the folder already.

Please save the flag files without mipmaps! Like buttons I don't think the incredibly little reduced graphical resources required by using mipmaps here validate the reduction in graphical quality.

I've noticed that without mip maps, the flags can display some Moiré-like effects which I find irritating (I also sharpened the mip maps a bit to make them look better), but I forgot that esp. lower-spec PCs sometimes display the mip maps as main graphic. I've removed the mip maps from the logos, but also attached an extra file where are all the icons *with* mip maps (perhaps you can link to it in the FAQ or something like that in case somebody else is irritated by the effect ).

The native life flag doesn't work because it doesn't make sense for hidden nationality units and partisans. Therefore could you please make a skull which works with the new flag nif?

Done and attached (plus the other SMAX factions - do you want one for the Cybernetics as well?), I've also included the files for the faction colours. They're pretty much the SMAX colours, but I've changed them a little bit to make them work better (Caretakers less green to differentiate from Gaians, Drones a little darker to differentiate from native life, Pirates a bit darker to work better with their secondary colour on the flag). If you want a different skull, not the SMAC skull, I try to find another one.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Maniac]

Thanks!
Yeah, the Consciousness flag would be useful as well. I'll add that faction after all.