[MOD] MagisterModmod

[MagisterCultuum]

I could scale down the texture in seconds to see how it looks at a lower resolution, but only if you actually include the texture file. It is hard to see how it would look when you only share the nif.
Edit: Nevermind I just realized that you'd shared the textures in a previous upload. I find that in Nifscope at least this texture looks a lot worse if I go any smaller than 512x512, and that if I undo changes after rescaling in GIMP it seems to save the file as only being a single pixel. I've never had that issue before. Fortunately I still kept a copy of the original if I have to start over.

There is definitely a difference in the helmets that I can see in Nifscope. The top edge of the part that protects the cheeks is not connected properly. This may be invisible in the game though. I have not tested yet.


I'm thinking that the Oblivion Lich does not look nearly as skeletal or undead as the normal Lich, but could work quite well for the secondary Calabim hero, Churel the Graveleech. The clothing already matches the colors of the Calabim arcane units. The bright green of the necklaces (phylacteries?) seems out of place, but it was easy to change it to gold. I may want to see how it would look if we swap the helmet out for a crown (probably the Azer crown) to show Churel once reigned as king, but unless the back of the head looks as good as he front it it is probably not worth the effort.

(Recall that Churel is Alexis's estranged husband, who ruled as the king of the Calabim in the Age of Magic before be publicly disagreed with his queen and struck her. She then cursed him that he could never again feed on the living. He found that feeding on the undead was enough to sustain his life, but not to restore his youth, beauty, or vitality. Over the centuries he became an abomination almost indistinguishable from the undead on which he feeds, although technically he is still among the living despite me giving him the undead race in my modmod.)

Spoiler :

Churel Alexis
Calabim, Age of Magic, Death/Spirit 2

Head of the Churel Clan of the Calabim. King of the Calabim.

Churel was an ambitious and charismatic man and lover of Alexis. He considered himself the King of the Calabim and for a period he and Alexis ruled the Calabim together. Alexis was open to sharing power with him, though it caused some strife with Flauros, and even allowed Churel to have his way when they disagreed.

This lasted until Tristessa of Ashgate declared that Ashgate was an independent city. Churel declared that Ashgate would be allowed to go free, Alexis disagreed, and Churel struck her in front of the royal court, leaving long bleeding cuts across her face.

Alexis became a feral, raging monster. She attacked Churel and killed everyone who didn’t immediately flee from the throne room. For Churel, she cursed him that he would never be able to feed on the living again, that he would hunger but never feed. Then she dumped him at the edge of the Calabim empire and went off to kill everyone in his clan (and after that to deal with Tristessa). Churel lay beaten, spent and broken by the battle.

Churel was maddeningly hungry, but unable to feed on the living. Desperate, he found that the undead had enough soul to feed on, without violating Alexis’s curse. So he fed on ash bearers, broken men and worse. This has restored his power, but he is a corrupt dark creature, hideous in form with bending bones and a long grey body that bears little resemblance to the man he once was. What the Calabim now call a graveleech.

He is a powerful creature, just a scratch from his claws is enough to kill and he radiates an aura of terror that few can resist. Since his curse Churel has raised some that sought him out or that he has found close to death. They share his curse and are members of his clan.

Most believe that Clan Churel is no more. Among the Calabim they remember him as the legend of what happens when Alexis is defied. But Alexis knows the catacombs that Churel haunts and when she needs him she will go command his clan's service. And he is always eager to serve.

--
Could you make a mask out of he face of the Ayleid.Boss.nif?

I'm thinking that the shape of his face would work well for the Mask of Asmoday. I just decided to test my theory and on my first try was surprised to see that the demon mask image fit the contours almost perfectly.

This mask would look awesome on Asmoday or Sarabride, if you just got rid of the neck and the back of the head (keeping the horns as well as the face) and made it so that I could attach it to the proper node so that it moves with the units' heads.


I'm also thinking that the Ayeleid.Boss.nif could make an awesome Seraph if you added the 3 pairs of wings and a fiery sword. I've never been a big fan of the body of the current Seraphim.

Alternately, if I gave him demonic wings as a darker cast, Ayeleid.Boss.nif could make a better Belphegor than the LotR Sauron art I was using for the son of Bhall and Agares.


I'm leaning towards using Ayleid.Minion.nif as the basis for the Mithril Golem,
---
I just realized today that I did not have the Warlords expansion art in my unpacked art folder, perhaps because it never compressed things into an fpk. Looking through that I found a pretty nice set of scales in the Omen Third Horseman unit, which I decided to put on the end of the staff of the Grey Council cleric and use as part of their building.

----

I'm fleshing out the new religions more and am thinking I may let most of them be adopted as state religions.


Right now I have it so that the Chancel of the Guardians requires The Brotherhood of Wardens and the Reliquary requires he Eternal Cabal. They can both be built by almost any civ (I blocked them for the Calabim and Infernal) rather than only the Elohim, but I let the Devout (an Elohim UU) force their construction rather than simply build them when the prerequisites are met. Since the buildings also spread their respective religions, this means that the Elohim have an easy way to found either of those faiths.

I have "Forgive" as a Brotherhood of Wardens State religion Divine spell. If not resisted, it can transform hostile demons into Merry Dancers under your control. Merry Dancers are defensive-only angels that abandon you unless you have the Brotherhood of Wardens State Religion and Pacifism civic. They have Divine, so they can cast Forgive and redeem even more demons. It is possible to turn a whole Infernal army into force for Good. Sanctuary is a Brohterhood of Wardens state religion world spell.


For the Foxmen I am thinking of eliminating the Whim of the Winds promotion. It was getting annoying how the event that grants it often recurs to give it back to the same unit. I am thinking that I will make the Adventurer's Guild a Foxmen building that requires the Guilds technology. I'd let Wanderers build the Adventurer's guild and be trained there. I have not decided yet if the Slyph Search should generate Adventurers or Wanderers. Wanderers with the Foxmen state religion can cast a spell to make other units Fly.

I added an Unblemished building: The Perennial Garden. Each one adds health in all of your cities. It can remove Plagued from units in the city.

I added an Anointed Building: The Abattoir. I saves food like a Smokehouse/Granary/Breeding Pit, removes he Weak promotion, causes unhappiness, and reduces war weariness.

I added a Ringgivers building: The Artificery. It gives siege and naval xp, free specialists for Workshops/Majen's Workshop/The Clockwork City, some culture, research, and great engineer points.

I added a Laeran Cord building: The Archives. It is a lot like an Academy but gives free specialists from nearby mana nodes or unique features, free adept and disciple xp, and extra happiness from libraries and academies.

I added a Grey Council building: The Courts of Arbitration: It acts like a Courthouse but also makes you eligible for diplomatic votes (I have not tested this yet, but think it might let you vote in both Overcouncil and Undercouncil) and starts the Grey council votes. It generates the Arbiter, a Grey Council disciple that cannot be trained but has he power to end wars between other players. I might also give it a weaker version of Sanctuary.

I pushed the Museum of Maponos back to Economics instead of Education, and made it a bit better. I have not yet given it much else. I am considering making the Houses of Plenty into a late game religious building for anyone instead of a Kuriotate replacement for the City of a Thousand Slums. It seems odd too have a building and religion with the same name, and the canonical name seems like it fits the temple better than the faith. Just based on the icon I chose I could call it the Horn of Plenty/Cornucopia, but I'm not sold on that yet.


I made it so that the Aspect of War promotion makes it so that a unit cannot die in an Arena battle, so such units can get unlimited xp from the Sons of Discord building. Sons of Discord units with the Sons of Discord state religion, Feral Bond tech, and level 7+ can purchase the Werewolf promotion. I decided that forcing anyone with the Sanguine Fountain to run the Discord civic and be unable to make peace was too annoying. Instead, having the Sons of Discord state religion forces the Discord civic, and completing the Sanguine Fountain forces you to adopt that state religion (without any anarchy from converting) but you can leave that faith to convert to something else if you wish.


I decided to give the Grigori an Agora as a UB for their Market. While a normal Market gives -1 research, this gives +1 research, +2 culture, +50% GPP.


I am considering getting rid of the Druid unit, or rather changing the Druids to be the priests of the Unblemished as they canonically do serve Sucellus. If so, Hospitallers may go back to being a champion like a Crusader with immunity to all diseases and the ability to target Mary Morbus and Diseased Corpses.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

Am I the only one who has to seriously question the sanity of striking the beautiful immortal queen of all vampires raised and trained in magic by the immortal first woman her self who also has a magical blood bond over you? I mean, it's just one of those plans that really should not have gone past the initial idea stage. Maybe it's just me.

 

[BossDaddy]

Would this be almost a literal biting the hand that feeds you? I'll make some of these edits. The boss face as a mask looks great so I'll ptobably start with that first. There is some touching up that can be done on these meshes btw. This was an exercise to show that these units can be reduced with almost no visual loss in game. I'll make these modifications and post. It will be faster for me to provide a foundation for theory crafting. From these discussion it seems that we've been able to add more unique units that aren't reskins of another FFH model. I had really only been interested in the crown and pauldron from the lich. I was going to take only the crown and pauldron off and attach those to the death knight. I liked the idea of that helmet floating in space or attaching a different head with the crown. It's good to see that another hero might come from this. Please attach or tell me what models you are thinking of as a basis for these new buildings. There are tons possibilities for that. One mod I found has a crucified corpse that I thought would look very nice added to the Grave of Asmoday or necrototem.

Edit: I'm taking a break from animating the Jyggylag. I have everything except the arms correctly using the swordsman animation. I've come to the conclusion that even getting the arms to animate that the unit isn't good enough as is. The legs and arms just don't look good enough while moving. I will probably go back later and try arms or legs from another unit on this units torso, pelvis, and pauldrons. It might even look better once its face count has been reduced. I've begun to wonder if it's simply that there are too many faces and the animations just don't look good no matter how i change the vertex groups. The torso, pelvis, head look fine. The arms and legs look ridiculous to me.

 

[BossDaddy]

Quick and dirty to get your feed back. I made this double sided for now. What edits should be made?

Edit: Added a nif that has this attached to the model and moves correctly. Your mesh has a lot of transparencies. There is a fairly large gap on the back of his head that's noticeable. I'm going to see about removing these.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

The Asmoday model I already had on my end had a tiny gap at the back of the head that I have to zoom in very close in NifSkope to even notice. The version you included in your Asmoday.Mask.zip has a huge and very noticeable gap.

This mask is another example of a piece that does not appear possible to scale or reposition in NifSkope, so it is very hard to get it in the right position for Sarabride.

It also seems like the mask ought to sit a little bit more snug with less of a gap between it and Asmoday's face.



For the new buildings I am currently using the Babylonian Gardens for the Perennial Garden, the Workshop improvement for the Artificery, the Warning Post (an impaled man for the Lord of the Balor's Scenario) for the Abattoir, Plato's Academy for the Archives, and the Apostolic Palace (but with the red and blue colors desaturated, leaving grey and gold tones only, and a set of scales balanced on the obelisk) for the Courts of Arbitration. I had used the Apostolic Palace for the Museum of Maponos (and the Temple of Atonement unique feature) but just changed it to the Kremlin (actually Saint Basil's Cathedral) art as such bright colors fit Amathaon better.

 

[BossDaddy]

The Asmoday model I already had on my end had a tiny gap at the back of the head that I have to zoom in very close in NifSkope to even notice. The version you included in your Asmoday.Mask.zip has a huge and very noticeable gap.

This mask is another example of a piece that does not appear possible to scale or reposition in NifSkope, so it is very hard to get it in the right position for Sarabride.

It also seems like the mask ought to sit a little bit more snug with less of a gap between it and Asmoday's face.



For the new buildings I am currently using the Babylonian Gardens for the Perennial Garden, the Workshop improvement for the Artificery, the Warning Post (an impaled man for the Lord of the Balor's Scenario) for the Abattoir, Plato's Academy for the Archives, and the Apostolic Palace (but with the red and blue colors desaturated, leaving grey and gold tones only, and a set of scales balanced on the obelisk) for the Courts of Arbitration. I had used the Apostolic Palace for the Museum of Maponos (and the Temple of Atonement unique feature) but just changed it to the Kremlin (actually Saint Basil's Cathedral) art as such bright colors fit Amathaon better.

I just sent that as an example. I would like to know if that was what you intended with leaving the horns on and removing the back of the head and neck. I threw it on a model to see what if I could parent it to the head well enough and to provide a template. I don't know how you have a different nif for Asmoday. That is the same model unpacked. I didn't touch it. Attached is a version of the mask that I can manipulate in nifskope. Was this mesh what you had in mind?

Edit: The gap must be something that happened when moving the file between two blender versions. Something is happening in that section that is the unit's hair that was made transparent and seems to have been exacerbated.

What were the other pieces that couldn't be moved or scaled? I'll go back through. I believe this is from importing the nodes and animation and not importing only the geometry.

 

[BossDaddy]

Let me know if you can manipulate that piece now. What are the other models that I posted that could not be manipulated? Also, how did Averax turn out? I think I can find something that would be nice for unique features. The Remnants of Patria have always been immersion breaking to me.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I can scale and reposition it now, but repositioning it is really hard.

I can paste it right into the model and it seems to be in the right spot (although it requires scaling down), but it will not move with the unit's head unless I attach it to the existing Head node.

When I paste it onto the BIP Head node them the mask appears sideways, backwards, and way off to the unit's left(See screenshot 113.)

When I try repositioning things NifSkope treats its X axis like the Z axis and vice versa.

I can get the mask to tilt to the right/left but not forward/backwards or up/down. I have not yet managed to make the mask lay flat against the unit's face. If I get it to just touch a chin at the bottom there is a big gap at the top (see screenshot 111)


I like the mask having horns although I don't know if they need to be quite as long or straight as the two biggest horns. Also, the center horn at the top looks long of awkward.


I don't have a complete list of the unit pieces where I cannot see how I'm manipulating them in NifSkope, but it is most of them. I think all of the contents of your first few uploaded archives.

 

[BossDaddy]

I can scale and reposition it now, but repositioning it is really hard.

I can paste it right into the model and it seems to be in the right spot (although it requires scaling down), but it will not move with the unit's head unless I attach it to the existing Head node.

When I paste it onto the BIP Head node them the mask appears sideways, backwards, and way off to the unit's left(See screenshot 113.)

When I try repositioning things NifSkope treats its X axis like the Z axis and vice versa.

I can get the mask to tilt to the right/left but not forward/backwards or up/down. I have not yet managed to make the mask lay flat against the unit's face. If I get it to just touch a chin at the bottom there is a big gap at the top (see screenshot 111)


I like the mask having horns although I don't know if they need to be quite as long or straight as the two biggest horns. Also, the center horn at the top looks long of awkward.


I don't have a complete list of the unit pieces where I cannot see how I'm manipulating them in NifSkope, but it is most of them. I think all of the contents of your first few uploaded archives.

The first archive of units and pieces? I imported and exported those with the bones so I will go back and redo those files. I've learned a little more since then so I think I can provide these for you in a way that's much easier now. The main thing that slows me down somewhat is that to reduce the faces on these I have to use another version of blender and do some import/export tinkering. The version I use brings assets over scaled much larger than civ 4. It works, but it's awkward. I'll export different versions to see what works best for you. I mainly need to know if the model itself is fine. I would like to scale down the biggest horns myself. After I know if the model is ok, I can alter some of the vertices to fine tune it to the Asmoday and Sarabride models. There are obvious alterations that need to be made as this was the head of something and will now be a mask. I'll upload the mask itself with no bones again and maybe it will be easier for you to manipulate. I was able to attach it pretty easily. I had the model moving with Asmoday's head properly on the first try.


Oh yeah, how does Averax look? The images you had before were very promising. Were you able to try the other bodies?

There are a lot of promising statics too. I came across this and thought the bird might be nice on a staff.

 

[El Bogus]

Small bug report: I had a unit that had both the "Lead by Warlord" and the Hero promotion. Once I upgraded the unit I was able to resurrect it via Mass Resurrection. This cycle can be continued until the game ends. I'll supply a safegame.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I had not worked on Averax since the last time I posted a screenshot. I played around a bit with the other options yesterday, but still think I like the Donal bodied one best. I just changed the brown leather parts of its legs Sheaim-purple, but otherwise left it he same.

This morning, after a lot of trial and error, I finally managed to get the Ayleid.Boss.Head masks to rotate along an axis that let them lay flat against Sarabride's and Asmoday's faces. It may not be a perfect fit, but it is a big improvement. Here is the result.

You may also notice in this screenshot that I've been playing around with giving Sarabride a new shield. Instead of just using the Matronae triquetra emblem on her old round shield, I took the great commander shield and changed the player's color/emblem out for the Matronae religious icon with the background field changed to colors that fit with the contents of the triquetra leaf opposite each.

I've also been playing around with changing Brigit's sword. I think the shape of the Valkerie sword seems more appropriate for a fiery angel than that used by the Seraphim. However, I have not been able to attach any flame effects to it.


This evening I've been toying with custom art for each of the other Masks of the Coven of the Black Candle, based some of the many masks you uploaded in one archive that I think you'd taken from some other game. I got some that look pretty good in NifSkope, but when I actually tried to check them in the game I just get a red blob.

 

[BossDaddy]

Here is what you asked for. Both masks ready for you to manipulate however you want. I went ahead and positioned these on the units as well. They are animated properly. Sarabride and Asmoday meshes have been modified to remove clipping through the masks. The masks have been modified so that they conform to each unit and fit snugly like you wanted. I remade the horns and removed and contoured the central portion also like you wanted.

Those masks I uploaded are a mod for a game and not from a game itself. I have not converted any of them to Civ 4 which is why as asked if you liked any of them. Now that it seems you do like some, upload what you have modified and I'll convert them to Civ 4. It will only take me a about a minute per mask to have the model show up in game.

 

[BossDaddy]

I got the wings from Hyborem animated on the seraph model. What do you want these put on?

 

[BossDaddy]

Here is the Belphegor template. It's rigged using Brigit's moveset.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I think I have lfgr's new update merged with my modmod successfully, but suspect I'll require more than a day of playtesting to make sure everything it working right and probably will not meet my goal of releasing my new version on my birthday tomorrow. I may push things back to Valentines to give me time to get more art and world spells sorted out.

Here is what you asked for. Both masks ready for you to manipulate however you want. I went ahead and positioned these on the units as well. They are animated properly. Sarabride and Asmoday meshes have been modified to remove clipping through the masks. The masks have been modified so that they conform to each unit and fit snugly like you wanted. I remade the horns and removed and contoured the central portion also like you wanted.

Those unit are back into a format where NifSkope won't show any rescaling or repositioning of the masks, and it is still really awkward to position them when I copy from the nifs with masks without unit into a unit, but since they fit so well and I had no plan to use them for a 3rd unit I guess it doesn't matter much. I may still need to apply the effects and swap out Sarabride's shield and sword for the new versions I was using, but that should be easy enough for me.


The existing image I was using as the basis for the Asmoday mask seems perfect for this model from the brows down, but where it transitions into horns it looks kind of awkward no matter how I have tried to adjust the texture. I'm starting to think I should just stick with the original Ayleid.Boss texture, perhaps made a little darker, higher contrast, and with the eye color adjusted. The only canon description is that it "appears as a devil mask," with no indication that it is red or scaly. I suppose the Ayleid.Boss looks devilish enough regardless of color. In western culture we tend to associate red and black with demons, but Agares' color scheme is always described as Gold and Black. Sarabride (like Bhall before her fall) is also always associated with "golden fire," and the red of the mask does seem to blend in with her hair too much, so I guess a golden mask would really be more suited for both units.

Those masks I uploaded are a mod for a game and not from a game itself. I have not converted any of them to Civ 4 which is why as asked if you liked any of them. Now that it seems you do like some, upload what you have modified and I'll convert them to Civ 4. It will only take me a about a minute per mask to have the model show up in game.

The version I am happiest with is probably Gabella's amber mask, which is a fairly simple re-coloration of BloodStainedMask7.dds with LadyMask.nif, although I almost went with just using ladyface1r.dds instead.

It would probably be fine to just to halfmask15.nif with jkmask.dds as is for Faeryl's mask, although a more feminine silver carnival half mask might be better.

The closest thing to an acceptable Alexis mask that I've made was based on the SlipknotMick.nif, but I'd want to work on that some more anyway and could probably base it on an other mask just as easily. I don't like any of the masks having straps around the back.

I'm not too particular about the Esus mask, which is pure white and featureless, or the Barbatos mask that just seems to be darkness. They could just be white and black reskins of any other mask.

I've put the most time into Kylorin mask. A mask with many gemstones of different colors looks terrible at a low resolution where all the gems blend together. (I doubt there is any need for nearly as high a resolution or the number of polygon as these masks have though.) I found and adapted an image of a rainbow gem mask I found online, although some of the gems (especially around the nose) are large enough that it seems awkward around some contours. I cannot tell how it look in game yet, of course. If NifSkope I think it looks a bit better with MetalGemmick.nif than LadyMask.nif if only becuase the stretching around where the mask joins the strap (which I'd want eliminated) is less noticeable than the stretching n Ladymask between the cheekbones and edge.

I got the wings from Hyborem animated on the seraph model. What do you want these put on?

It would be nice for the wings I added to the Balor, Mardero, and Manticore to be animated, but not really necessary.

Here is the Belphegor template. It's rigged using Brigit's moveset.

It looked alright at first glance (after reskinning to make the wings and body color's closer) but the longer I look at it the more awkward it seems. I can't quite put my finger on why.

I was thinking that the animation might seen less out of place for a unit that is mean to be mechanical, so I tried removing the wings, swapping the head form the Ayleid boss to the minion, adding back the shoulder decorations, and desaturating/brightening the unit to make it a Mithril Golem. For some reason removing the wings (whether I make the other changes or not) makes the unit stand at a really awkward angle when on hills. The stance and the way it holds its hands doesn't seem quite right either. I'd still want to do some more work on the texture even if it did stand and move right though.




You probably had no way to know this, but canonically Belphegor fights with a Flail (called the Razor Glass Flail) that leaves wounds that can never fully heal (even if inflicted on a true immortal like Gabella who would almost instantly heal from anything else, even completely disintegration).

I'd prefer whatever model I used for the Belphegor unit also fight with a flail. When I tried seeing how your Ayleid.Boss with Brigit animations could work with the Repentant Angel's weapon it failed miserably, but I was surprised at how easy it was to make it work with the ball and chain flail from the vanilla Civ IV Maceman to this unit. The main issue there was that you looked closely at the hands it was clear that the fingers were spread to wide to grip the flail's handle.


I'm thinking that I prefer the Sauron-based Belphegor that I already made, but I have failed miserably in my attempt to swap its weapon out. That unit seems to be rigged really strangely, including the bones for a horse that does not exist and with the cape/helmet/mace (and wings which I had managed to add before) no where near the body which which they fit together in the game.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

Could you upload the nif in question? I want to see its insides laid bare. And maybe I can even do something about putting it on a maceman.

 

[BossDaddy]

That's very odd that you can't reposition the mask. I use nifskope 2.0 dev 7 and I have no problem at all. Unless you are trying to move the masks on the modified Asmoday and Sarabride. Those are meshes that I modified and the mask was contoured to each face. The masks on those units are not meant to be moved. I was showing my version of the mask fitting snugly on each unit. The nif of the mask itself can be easily scaled and rotated, at least on the version of nifskope I am using. I tested that again before this post. I resized the top two horn like you asked and removed the horn in the middle like you asked. It's unfortunate that doing that now has the texture not looking right on it.

I don't recall seeing nifs for the balor, Mardero, or manticore uploaded so I'm not sure what I could do for those wings. It might not matter regardless as, from what I could tell, the models with wings that could be animated are on the seraphim or angel of death. From what I could tell, any bodies that are added to that armature will have legs that don't animate and it looks strange.

Again, that's a shame that the Bephegor model is no good. The only changes I made were to remove the shoulders. I didn't know what sort of weapon Belphegor used so yes, I didn't include one. You wanted the demon wings on the ayleid.boss body. It looked fine in game to me besides the texture differences. I changed it to use the maceman animation and it the left arm looked off when attacking. I thought it looked much better that the current version of Belphegor though. That version is simply a resized Sauron with a flame effect and a mottled texture. I tested the Sauron Belphegor and it's very disappointing and immersion breaking. I played Orbis until your mod so Belphegor looks like either A) Sauron or B) a scaled up and mottled Risen Emperor. It definitely doesn't look like a leader for the Infernals. It strikes me as odd that one could look that closely at the units fingers when the current model doesn't have any. The fingers could probably be fixed, but if you're looking that closely for something that can't be seen in game, I don't think it is worth the effort.

These responses were very disappointing to read. I had finished rigging the new flesh golem and had found quite a good number of nifs for statics. Several buildings and towers. One was a tower that was very close to the tower you use for the Soul Gates. It's a little more detailed and looks nice in game. I don't think I'm going to bother with these unfortunately. I was hoping to help with what I think is a very good mod. However, it seems to me from your responses the past month that whatever I upload or edit are not good. I haven't played Ashes of Erebus yet or Master of Mana. I downloaded this your mod as I remembered you from the FFH forums years ago. Your mod is top tier and that's exciting news that there will be a new version soon. Thank you again for such a good mod. I hope all is well and you have a nice birthday.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

Adding bones to animate wings is not a big deal. I did it to the succubus model in RIFE experimentally (not published). The issue is just bothering to make all the animations for those wings later as you have to manually edit the entire animation set one at a time to add movement. And that's a chore.

So I could add the skeletons for you or just upload the modified succubus skeleton so you can see what I did. And than someone else could animate it. Assuming I can find where I put it...

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Do you think it would be worth trying to implement the new religions as state religions with both priests and high priests?

If I do so for the Brotherhood of Wardens then I'm thinking the Warden of the Meek would upgrade to a Redeemer, a high priest whose spell lets evil units repent and find forgiveness, changing to your control, being purges of evil religions/promotions, and changing from demons to Merry Dancers.

I'm thinking the Stewards of Inequity Rentiers could upgrade to Cronies, and that the Avarice spell of their Arian Kothrax (which turns rival units into Mercenaries) would probably be their spell.

In earlier sources Kael refers to disciples of the Laeran Cord as Saperes, before changing to it Heirophants, so I could make the Sapere upgrade to a Hierophant. I don't really have good spells for them though.

Tinkers could upgrade to Artisans or Craftsmen, but I don't really have spells thought out for them. Maybe something that creates various types of equipment?


I don't have a lot of good ideas for the Sons of Discord priests of high priests, and don't know that having such ranks makes sense for a chaos religion. I like the idea of having always-hostile clerics called "Agonists," but I frankly think that would be an even better name for the Aspects of War.


I now have it so that the Eternal Cabal can be spread/founded by a Sidar Shrine of Arawn, the Tower or Mortality, or a Reliquary. Elohim Devouts can force the contruction of a Reliquary or Chancel of the Guardians, so the Elohim have a way to found/spread those religions regardless.


I might make it so that any civ can build a Tophet, but the Bhall-Orcs (who might instead require a Clan of Ember's palace?) can force their construction.



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How do these Masks of the Coven of the Black Candle look?

With the exception of the Mask of Asmoday, these are all based on the Gibbon mask BossDaddy uploaded quite a while back, but I realized that I could use Edit UV to make it work with a higher resolution dds.


I sill don't love the Kylorin/Cliodna mask, but it is a lot better than attempts with a lower resolution texture.

I'm still trying to find the best effect shroud Barbatos's mask in darkness, both on its own and on Morriogan.


I finally managed to switch Brigit/Sarabride to use the Valkerie sword with a candle effect. I'm not sure it was worth the effort, but I think I do like them with sword slightly better. I may use this for the Salamanders and Seraphim too.

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It still would be nice to have animations for Churel (the Oblivion Lich) and maybe the Stygian Guard (Oblivion.Murkdweller, or LandDreugh or Grummite if either of those are easier to animate) and Mithril Golem (which would have to be made of several parts that I could split apart and disorganize for the pieces of the mithril golem equipment.)


I did manage to swap the mace out for a flail on the Sauron with flames and Hyborem's wings version of Belphegor. I think it is good enough for the next release, especially since I have not actually added any way for the unit to enter the game without worldbuilder yet. We could work on something better later, maybe even something based on the Xivilai. I would not make it a high priority right now though.

The biggest issue with the ayleid and Jyggylag models is how they look when standing on hills. For some reason when the ground is not flat they lean forward at a ridiculous angle.

That's very odd that you can't reposition the mask. I use nifskope 2.0 dev 7 and I have no problem at all. Unless you are trying to move the masks on the modified Asmoday and Sarabride. Those are meshes that I modified and the mask was contoured to each face. The masks on those units are not meant to be moved. I was showing my version of the mask fitting snugly on each unit. The nif of the mask itself can be easily scaled and rotated, at least on the version of nifskope I am using. I tested that again before this post. I resized the top two horn like you asked and removed the horn in the middle like you asked. It's unfortunate that doing that now has the texture not looking right on it..

Yeah, I was trying to copy paste and reposition from the Asmoday and Sarabride models. The seperate mask model let me copy it ok, although trying to copy it onto the node of a unit's face and adjust the angles was still rather awkward. I got it working fine though.

I got the texture looking better. The horn texture is not perfect, but I think it is good enough. I made the red scales just a bit darker do they don't blend in with Sarabride's hair so much.

I don't recall seeing nifs for the balor, Mardero, or manticore uploaded so I'm not sure what I could do for those wings. It might not matter regardless as, from what I could tell, the models with wings that could be animated are on the seraphim or angel of death. From what I could tell, any bodies that are added to that armature will have legs that don't animate and it looks strange..

The Manticore if what you uploaded, adding the scorpion hail and Hyborem wings. The Balor was just a normal FfH2 balor but with Hyborem's wings added. Mardero was just the normal FfH2 Mardero but with the wings swapped for Hyborem's. They both look perfectly fine without the wings flapping. It might be a little nicer if they did flap, but not really worth the effort.


I've never liked he Seraph model, but the Angel of Death model is one of my favorites. An Angel of Death with Hyborem style wings would be much better than an Hyborem-winged Seraph.

I don't know if it is worth doing anything about them for the next release, but it may be worth updating the art I made for the 6 demon lords eventually.Two of those, Duke Sallos and Meresin, are both based on the Angel of Death with their wing textures changed to try to make them look more like bat wings than bird wings, but they are far from perfect as they are among my very first attempts at making any unit art.

I was thinking that a new Seraph based on the ayleid.boss could be great. It wouldn't need to have its legs animated. Perhaps having it hover in the air flapping 3 pairs of wings instead of standing on the ground could avoid the worst part of the model, which is how it stands at such a strange angle whenever on a hill or peak tile. It is not essential though.
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Again, that's a shame that the Bephegor model is no good. The only changes I made were to remove the shoulders. I didn't know what sort of weapon Belphegor used so yes, I didn't include one. You wanted the demon wings on the ayleid.boss body. It looked fine in game to me besides the texture differences. I changed it to use the maceman animation and it the left arm looked off when attacking. I thought it looked much better that the current version of Belphegor though. That version is simply a resized Sauron with a flame effect and a mottled texture. I tested the Sauron Belphegor and it's very disappointing and immersion breaking. I played Orbis until your mod so Belphegor looks like either A) Sauron or B) a scaled up and mottled Risen Emperor. It definitely doesn't look like a leader for the Infernals. It strikes me as odd that one could look that closely at the units fingers when the current model doesn't have any. The fingers could probably be fixed, but if you're looking that closely for something that can't be seen in game, I don't think it is worth the effort.

The issue with the fingers if that if a unit's hands are spread so wide open with the fingers so far apart it is hard to imagine how it could be grasping any weapon, whereas when the hand is formed into a fist the fingers don't really matter.

Apart from that the main issue is how far it leans forward when on hills. The animation does look a bit mechanical, but that could be good if I end up using it for the Mitrhil Golem, if you get the angle issue fixed, swap the head for the minion instead of boss ayleid, and make sire it can grasp some weapon.

 

[FireBlaze]

Am I the only one who has to seriously question the sanity of striking the beautiful immortal queen of all vampires raised and trained in magic by the immortal first woman her self who also has a magical blood bond over you? I mean, it's just one of those plans that really should not have gone past the initial idea stage. Maybe it's just me.

Misogyny is a hell of a drug was my takeaway