Horn of Africa Spear Dudes (26 September 2006)

[Plotinus]

MORE African spearmen? Yes, but I wanted some specifically for the Ethiopia region. These are based on some of these images.

There was going to be another pikeman, but (a) I found I probably didn't need it, and (b) I was sick of making these. I actually had a lot of problems with these units and made a lot of mistakes, especially with the palettes. I have tried to iron out all the glitches - they seem more or less passable in-game...

Ethiopian Spearman





The hippo-hide shield makes another appearance. Get him here.

Abyssinian Spearman





His shield is made of elephant hide. Get him here.

Ethiopian Pikeman





Special thanks to CamJH for advice with the animation on this one. It was still incredibly difficult! Get him here.

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

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

I really like them all and will be using them in the Anno Domini remake!

Unusual to hear you call your units "dudes" - that's not a word the Plotinus I know would normally use .

 

[TopGun]

Nice feeling to see some of the "dearest-to-my-heart" unit requests materialize!
Thank you, sir... They will be put to good use immediately.
BTW, judging from the previews: Great work!

 

[mrtn]

I agree on that vocabularical annotation, Rob...

@Plotinus: They seem good, but those pedia images could use more work (Assuming that the previews are what you get in the game). The first one has no shadow, the last has too much, and they all have weird non-white background patches.
For example, I think that the Abbyssinian looks better like this:


Edit: I also prefer if I don't have to open three new windows to get the units, you can post the direct download url instead. Just right-click the download link, chose properties, and copy the url you see there.

 

[Plotinus]

I am basically rubbish at pedia icons. Only now do I see the pink miasma behind the Abyssinian! I'll add a cleaned-up version to the download page.

I have great difficulty rendering shadows in Poser. For some reason, I can't change the background colour from purple to grey. Every time I do it, it reverts back within a couple of seconds. As a result, all shadows in pedia renders come out purple and I have to try to recolour them, with dodgy results.

Thanks for the comments on the units themselves. As I said, I had a lot of problems with them and I'm worried they may still feature hideous glitches that got past me - if there's anything too horrible in there then do say and I shall try to address the problem.

Oh, and I couldn't call them "Spearmen" because one of them is a Pikeman. "Spear Dudes" was clearly the way forward!

 

[ShiroKobbure]

wow they are all very cool!

 

[Steph]

These little guys look very good!

Perhaps you should turn your creative inspiration to India the next time, we are still missing units from there

 

[DragonBird]

Nice Units, very crisp and clean

 

[Ozymandias]

Excellent! Any chance you might do that fascinating mounted warrior at the very bottom of the linked page?

All The Best,

Oz

 

[Virote_Considon]

I like the Abyssinian Spearman the best, with that piece of cloth draped across his left shoulder!

 

[Bjornlo]

I like the one "I" p ) made the best.

It has the most distintive attack, victory and especially the death. The drop the weapon and stagger was a most excellent variation.

 

[WildWeazel]

Very nice units, Bjorn... er, Plot. I especially like the animations on the Pikeman.
"Spear Dudes"? How about "Polearm Units"?

 

[Stormrage]

Oh... very.. veeeery nice You are tempting me to add another african civ to SFM!

And I love the thread`s title!

 

[Grandraem]

Nice work on these, Plotinus. They look great.

 

[Orthanc]

Ah another 3-pack of again well done human units. Once the pedia issues are worked out it'll be even better!

Now all you gotta do is mix all of the guys from these packs into a single super-human unit!

 

[NavyDawg]

I love it when a great unit maker releases these multiple unit packs. Love the anims and the "flavor" that these guys bring.

 

[Antiochus VII]

They look great to me! These were some I'd been hoping for for a LONG time!

 

[odintheking]

Wow. These animations rock. Especially the Ethiopian's death...

 

[LMR]

i had NO idea what to expect when i saw the title of the thread... but then i saw plotinus started it, so i didnt have to worry!

great work mate, as always. love the ethiopian pikeman

 

[Plotinus]

Thanks for the comments, all. And special thanks to mrtn for improving the still images - I've added links for these to the download pages.