Middle Earth Unit Conversions

[Nomad or What]

CiV unit conversions using source art from The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II by Electronic Arts. Most conversions will be rigged to existing CiV units unless otherwise noted; new units will be added as they are made available.

Completed:

Dwarf Warrior, uses CiV Pictish warrior animations and effects.

Spoiler :

Dwarf Hero, uses CiV Pictish warrior animations and effects. Same unit as the Dwarf Warrior but uses a different skin and art defines.

Spoiler :

Note: Skins between the Dwarf Warrior and Dwarf Hero are interchangeable.

Dwarf Flame Cannon, uses CiV Cannon animations with custom effects for the cannon tip and Byzantine Dromon fire attacks.
EDIT 04/02/16: Team color added; minor modifications made to the cannon.

Spoiler :

Nazgûl, uses CiV Spanish Conquistador animations and effects.

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Various Buildings, which can be found on the CiV Fantasy Improvement Graphic Conversions thread

Anticipated:

Heroes (all races)
Elves
Fell Beasts
Uruk
Trolls
Wargs
Goblins
Hobbits
Siege Weapons

...in no particular order. Requests for specific units will take precedence.

A decent link to some of the content from this game can be found in the BFMEII Wiki here.

 

[Nomad or What]

Reserved for future use.

 

[DoctorMcGann]

Awesome idea and work!

 

[Civitar]

Nomad, I cannot express how delighted I am to see you back!

Good thing you finally uploaded that dwarf, I just kept putting it off and off...

Don't start on Gondor yet though please... I'm working on those and will start uploading when I return.

 

[Belzhorash]

Nomad, are you okay with me building up a shrine and sacrificing chickens to you?

The units look greatband I can't wait to use them for SplitterCiV.

Also, I do have a request: Are there mounted dwarfs you can convert? On horses, elephants, eagles... I don't care, as long as they are mounted...

 

[Nomad or What]

Nomad, I cannot express how delighted I am to see you back!

Good thing you finally uploaded that dwarf, I just kept putting it off and off...

Don't start on Gondor yet though please... I'm working on those and will start uploading when I return.

LOL, it was the only thing I had that was ready to go; I seem to be having issues with the latest NexusBuddy or Blender scripts (not sure which) because everything I am exporting is coming out deformed at the moment. Gotta tackle that issue first....

I have no desire to start on Gondor since my immediate plan is to work on angels, demons, and specialized custom mounted animations (that was where I left off back in July). However, the BFMEII artwork is spectacular; if you want me to send you the base meshes and skins I would be happy to let you run with it. I have added a resource link to the OP that can give you an idea of the content in the game. The content was a pain in the arse to convert so it would probably be easier to have me send it to you than to duplicate efforts, provided that you are interested.

Nomad, are you okay with me building up a shrine and sacrificing chickens to you?

The units look greatband I can't wait to use them for SplitterCiV.

Also, I do have a request: Are there mounted dwarfs you can convert? On horses, elephants, eagles... I don't care, as long as they are mounted...

No sacrificing necessary - my intent is mostly selfish since I am planning a fantasy mod myself....

As for mounted units it's just a matter of overlaying the mesh onto an existing unit in CiV. Horses and elephants would be easy (there are existing CiV units on these mounts already) but eagles may be more difficult because they will require custom animations. Civitar is equally talented (probably more so) than I am at doing this; if I can't get to it and it is something he can use for his Warhammer mod, maybe he would be interested.

I was actually thinking of importing some of the mounts from BFMEII into CiV as well - some really good artwork is in that game. The conversion process is the tricky part and took me a while to learn how to convert them. But now that I know how, it's full steam ahead

 

[Civitar]

There are some new Blender scripts, but they are for Blender 2.7 aren't they? If you're using them with 2.49 like me that could be an issue...

If you haven't already, you might like to talk to Hangman about custom meshes - he's pretty good at them (he's working on a 5-headed hydra for Warhammer - which I will animate). He could probably whip up some good angel/demon wings for you to put on orcs or whatever to make the right things... I can make custom meshes/UV layouts as well but am firmly off of modding for now... painting physical models is much more fun atm.

I'd been considering BFME2 stuff for a while, since regalman has the game. But now that you're back I'll happily let you deal with it.

If I ever do a Kings of War mod - which is looking more and more likely now - I'll be making dwarf berserkers riding brocks. Would that fit your need, Belzhorash?

And Nomad, you already converted an eagle rider! Though one of my early-stage-projects is an eagle-riding archer.

 

[Nomad or What]

There are some new Blender scripts, but they are for Blender 2.7 aren't they? If you're using them with 2.49 like me that could be an issue...

If you haven't already, you might like to talk to Hangman about custom meshes - he's pretty good at them (he's working on a 5-headed hydra for Warhammer - which I will animate). He could probably whip up some good angel/demon wings for you to put on orcs or whatever to make the right things... I can make custom meshes/UV layouts as well but am firmly off of modding for now... painting physical models is much more fun atm.

I'd been considering BFME2 stuff for a while, since regalman has the game. But now that you're back I'll happily let you deal with it.

If I ever do a Kings of War mod - which is looking more and more likely now - I'll be making dwarf berserkers riding brocks. Would that fit your need, Belzhorash?

And Nomad, you already converted an eagle rider! Though one of my early-stage-projects is an eagle-riding archer.

I am certain I don't have the 2.7 scripts; I want to test another unit first to ensure that it is the scripts and not the unit I was using (which was simply a variation of these Dwarves; for some reason whenever I exported from Blender they deformed, but the existing .gr2's could be edited in NB with no problem). Just a matter of trial and error - I just re-installed everything on a new OS after months of not doing anything at all so I am probably overlooking something simple.

The eagle rider is pretty horrible to be honest; what is needed is a custom animation template for all variations of this type. That is why I did the eagle knight template - the customs can be used for other units as well (like an angel). That is, in my opinion, where we should be progressing: developing (or even better - importing) custom animations particular to the fantasy genre and incorporating all the missing pieces into them (i.e., sounds, effects, team color, etc.). Just my thoughts - but of course nothing beats a down-and-dirty rig conversion to push out a lot of content in little time.

There is a hydra in Atlantica Online that could be used for custom animations - you may want to look into that instead of building them from scratch. I was delving into custom animations before - they can be painfully time-consuming. AO has a lot of premades that can be crossed over. Again, my two cents but if you enjoy creating customs from scratch then be my guest!

 

[Civitar]

Hmm. Well, good luck with the scripts anyway.

(Right next to the eagle-riding archer in my list is a better eagle-riding knight.)

I don't think there's any question that Civ4 animations are insufficient for a Civ5 model - for one thing a Civ5 model uses 3 times as many animations! For another thing, who am I trying to argue with here???

I have a fixation on flying units, I fear... I also want to do a pegasus, a pegasus rider, a vampire flying with his cloak, a flying griffin, a flying dragon, a dragon rider, and a wyvern... then again I want to do centaurs and werewolves and horses and golems (I'm actually about half done with the golems).

That reminds me, there seems to be a problem with your Werewolf and Minotaur models when I view them in Granny - they are rotated forward and the head is twisted around...

 

[Nomad or What]

Hmm. Well, good luck with the scripts anyway.

(Right next to the eagle-riding archer in my list is a better eagle-riding knight.)

I don't think there's any question that Civ4 animations are insufficient for a Civ5 model - for one thing a Civ5 model uses 3 times as many animations! For another thing, who am I trying to argue with here???

I have a fixation on flying units, I fear... I also want to do a pegasus, a pegasus rider, a vampire flying with his cloak, a flying griffin, a flying dragon, a dragon rider, and a wyvern... then again I want to do centaurs and werewolves and horses and golems (I'm actually about half done with the golems).

That reminds me, there seems to be a problem with your Werewolf and Minotaur models when I view them in Granny - they are rotated forward and the head is twisted around...

Yep, I knew about the Werewolf - it was one of my earliest (i.e., noob) works and uses Pictish warrior animations. They never did look quite right, but you couldn't really tell at scale. That, coincidentally, is the problem with the Dwarves when I export them - they deform in Nexus and in-game (but look fine in Granny). They are also Pictish warrior animations. I wonder if something has changed in CiV with that particular animation that is affecting existing models using them (although the existing dwarf seems to be fine for the most part)? No worries about the werewolf, though - I have a better model in the pipeline!

 

[Civitar]

I got a new Werewolf coming too, though I really doubt he's what you have... I want to try and make mine actually transform.

Basically he's an ordinary if shaggy-looking human, then when he fortifies, goes combat ready, or gets bombarded he shifts into wolfman form. Obviously he fights as a wolfman too.

I'm doing it through a scaling transformation. There are two models, and two linked skeletons. Most of the time, the wolf is scaled down veeery small inside the human's torso. When he shifts (I still haven't got this totally right), the wolf comes to just under his skin and then very quickly (so as to avoid an appearance of a balloon popping) the wolf takes full size and the human scales down until it's inside the wolf's torso. ATM it's still really tricky - I either have to have the human grow a snout and a tail before transforming, or tilt the wolf face down and the tail along one leg and have it sort of uncurl when shifting. Either way if it finally works out it should be bloody amazing. The only problem is that the wolfman can't be gigantic, which I kind of prefer, but the transforming aspect should make up for that.

 

[Nomad or What]

I got a new Werewolf coming too, though I really doubt he's what you have... I want to try and make mine actually transform.

Basically he's an ordinary if shaggy-looking human, then when he fortifies, goes combat ready, or gets bombarded he shifts into wolfman form. Obviously he fights as a wolfman too.

I'm doing it through a scaling transformation. There are two models, and two linked skeletons. Most of the time, the wolf is scaled down veeery small inside the human's torso. When he shifts (I still haven't got this totally right), the wolf comes to just under his skin and then very quickly (so as to avoid an appearance of a balloon popping) the wolf takes full size and the human scales down until it's inside the wolf's torso. ATM it's still really tricky - I either have to have the human grow a snout and a tail before transforming, or tilt the wolf face down and the tail along one leg and have it sort of uncurl when shifting. Either way if it finally works out it should be bloody amazing. The only problem is that the wolfman can't be gigantic, which I kind of prefer, but the transforming aspect should make up for that.

Wow, that sounds amazing - and sounds like an even more amazing amount of work involved! I think I lost my ambition for units that detailed - if I can't snatch it from another game and rig it into an existing animation (or pull its custom animations with it) I am starting to pass on them. Even the slaver unit (which is just a whip action) was a lot of work for little benifit - and I need to eventually re-work it. There are a series of AO units with some sweet custom animations and those are about as complicated as I want to get anymore. I wish I had the time to invest in something amazing like that, can't wait to see it!

 

[yenyang]

Do you have access to the rise of the witch king expansion as well?

 

[Nomad or What]

Do you have access to the rise of the witch king expansion as well?

Yep. Need anything in particular? Remember, I tried the Snow Troll with little success because it will require custom animations. If you have a request for a humanoid character or a building I shouldn't have a problem. One of these days I will build a custom animation for knuckle-dragging units but it is too labor intensive for now...

 

[yenyang]

Yep. Need anything in particular?

No I think almost anything that you come up with will be useful one way or another. Good luck.

 

[Civitar]

One of these days I will build a custom animation for knuckle-dragging units but it is too labor intensive for now...

I'm already doing that with the Golem...

 

[ispanets]

Thanks you all, guys, specially nomad. I will be very grateful if you can do the Nazgul, the only unit I miss in my scenario. Thanks in advance and sorry that I can't help, I am awful at designing

 

[Nomad or What]

Thanks you all, guys, specially nomad. I will be very grateful if you can do the Nazgul, the only unit I miss in my scenario. Thanks in advance and sorry that I can't help, I am awful at designing

There is a plan for the Nazgul; it should be relatively easy as well since it can be rigged to horseman animations. Coming soon!

EDIT: Nazgûl is done; download link is in the OP.

 

[nokmirt]

Very good job on these units. You have talent. Is there a good Middle Earth mod btw?

 

[Civitar]

Wow, nice Nazgul Nomad (if there is such a thing).

@Nokmirt there is a full conversion by Khose Galkin (ispanets above) here (I don't know how up-to-date it is though), plus a collection of mods by Yenyang here.