[UNIT] Mighty Ships Et Al

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

Yeah the Scythian female warriors appear to be the genuine Amazons, far cry from the greek inspired pop cultural depictions of them.

 

[BossDaddy]

Bah, you say you're taking a small break and you come back with these?? Amazing work MT. What you're able to accomplish with rigging, textures, meshes, etc. is really remarkable. The variations on the skirts and their hems is a nice touch. There are so many distinguishing features. Except for the nipples. I can't unsee those. They need Battle Pasties.

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

Toad is an artist. So what you see is...artistic license

 

[MightyToad]

It may be difficult for you mortals. Thankfully, I. Am. Mighty.

Actually, I've been waiting for an excuse to post the "Throg" picture ever since I learned about him from the Loki Series.
Speaking of the MCU... I was reminded of the Heli-Carriers. That would be a more suitable flying ship for this game I think.

On a more boring note. The scout workers as I initially set it up was simply the scout with worker "Build rate" and "Builds" added in the "UnitInfos". However, you are not able to use the "Route to" mission automation. That is exclusively for the worker unit.

From what I have learned from the forum, and trial and error; The DLL makes a check for "UNITAI_WORKER". That is easy enough to fix in "UnitInfos". That alone doesn't work. There is something else. Apparently, you have to make a new unitclass for it to work. So, the workaround is to have two scouts. The default, and the new "worker/scout" with the "UNITAI_WORKER". As for WHY this is the case? The scout must be a crucial unitclass, or the vanilla unitclasses must all be present, and cannot be altered in this way.

I would be cool if someone could figure something out with the DLL. Praetorians that build roads would be sweet. However, as it is I don't think you can simply add it to the vanilla unit. Also, if the "UNITAI_WORKER" is the dominant AI the computer players would probably no longer use them to attack cities.

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

I remember the scenario in Civ3 conquests where the Legionaries could build roads. FYI a Helicarrier would be an amazing unit.

FYI speaking of that scenerio the celts were present in it, awile ago Tantanmen requested a pretty cool celtic/germanic unit, even put most of it together:

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/unit-requests-thread.157708/page-282#post-15905532

Don't know if that isn't something you'd be interested in.

 

[<Nexus>]

It may be difficult for you mortals. Thankfully, I. Am. Mighty.
View attachment 602866

Actually, I've been waiting for an excuse to post the "Throg" picture ever since I learned about him from the Loki Series.
Speaking of the MCU... I was reminded of the Heli-Carriers. That would be a more suitable flying ship for this game I think.

Spoiler :

Helicarriers would be awesome

 

[BossDaddy]

O' Mightiest of Toads,

When I import a unit like an archer into blender and then export it, I always end up with floating meshes that I can't correct. I have this issue with some units that have fidget animations like the vanilla swordsman. I'm using 2.49b and have experimented with various import options. With default import options, I'll sometimes get this error: AttributeError: 'Bone' object has no attribute 'constraints'. If I disable Import Extra Nodes, I can get it to import, but I still have the floating meshes. I've checked the google and haven't found anything yet.

Here's are a couple of screenies of what happens. Also, do you know why on exporting I have transparency issues? It seems to be teamcolour.bmp generally, but I've had it on a few other textures as well. You can see it on the archer's shoulder strap in the pics.

 

[MightyToad]

I remember the scenario in Civ3 conquests where the Legionaries could build roads. FYI a Helicarrier would be an amazing unit.

FYI speaking of that scenerio the celts were present in it, awile ago Tantanmen requested a pretty cool celtic/germanic unit, even put most of it together:

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/unit-requests-thread.157708/page-282#post-15905532

Don't know if that isn't something you'd be interested in.

I don't know about a new unit. A new shield is super easy. I actually d/led a bunch of reference pics of off google, but then noped out and went back to playing a game I started yesterday.

O' Mightiest of Toads,

When I import a unit like an archer into blender and then export it, I always end up with floating meshes that I can't correct. I have this issue with some units that have fidget animations like the vanilla swordsman. I'm using 2.49b and have experimented with various import options. With default import options, I'll sometimes get this error: AttributeError: 'Bone' object has no attribute 'constraints'. If I disable Import Extra Nodes, I can get it to import, but I still have the floating meshes. I've checked the google and haven't found anything yet.

Here's are a couple of screenies of what happens. Also, do you know why on exporting I have transparency issues? It seems to be teamcolour.bmp generally, but I've had it on a few other textures as well. You can see it on the archer's shoulder strap in the pics.

The floating mesh thing. Hard to say without the nif to diagnose. But, if this is a raw blender export. Without swapping into a working vanilla nif the skeleton is probably just screwed up.
It could also be that the object center/origin isn't located where it is on the vanilla mesh. So, the mesh itself wouldn't be located or oriented where it is supposed to be.

Yeah, the "Bone object has no attribute" error. In this case is is because blender doesn't like "Billboard" nodes (the arrows). So, before you import you have to delete them from the nif.

If you need to re-UV you will have to do it in nifskope on the vanilla arrows after you swap in your new archer and/or bow.

I actually have switched to the Eurasian archer. That one is nearly identical to the vanilla, but it uses actual models of arrows instead of "billboards". The draw back with that one is the arrows have teamcolor. Which doesn't work for an effect animation since the game doesn't know who the owner of the arrow is.

Teamcolor. Unless you make a skin partition, and use the "TCiv4Skinning" shader. You will need the teamcolor.bmp along with the texture. Otherwise, the areas with alpha will just be transparent.

I just copy the vanilla units texturing property, and change the name of the source texture to the new one.

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

Yeah I think Tant wanted a reskin of the shield. That is something I could do.

Hows that game goingm I need to start one of my myself with the Mycenaens(couldn't have finished them without your work fyi..thankyou!)

 

[BossDaddy]

Thanks MT. Imma try these out. I can upload a nif later if you want. It will do this even when I only import and then immediately export the nif. Hmmm, I wonder if loading a kf with the nif during import could fix this. I've noticed before that sometimes moving a mesh (X, Y, or Z) in blender won't have the same result in the nif. I could move a sword so that it was placed in a unit's hand, but after exporting the sword would still show up somewhere else. I can usually get around that by moving the mesh in edit mode instead. I had thought that it was something where blender moved the node and nifskope said nuh uh, seat's taken. A couple of other times, when loading something like an idle.kf with the nif, the edits I made were kept. I've not tried that with archer's or other units with floaties. Crossing all fingers that maybe your suggestions / loading a kf will help.

Also, if you're wanting anything Sci Fi, Fallout 3 and New Vegas have some nice models that would look good. I'll get a better image of the ED-E replacer that I have when I get home. It's a hunter-killer from the Terminator franchise. This might make a good heli carrier base.

 

[MightyToad]

I made a Celtic shield. I used one of the Civ 5 barbarian swordsmen for the rest. The celtic shields are similar to roman shields. I wonder if the romans copied the celts, or the other way around. Knowing the romans they probably adopted the design from an earlier culture.

Yeah I think Tant wanted a reskin of the shield. That is something I could do.

Hows that game goingm I need to start one of my myself with the Mycenaens(couldn't have finished them without your work fyi..thankyou!)

I merged all the units and crap with advanced civ. The game is much different now. The vassals routinely abandon me. The civs also refuse to capitulate until they are on the brink of annihilation. There is no point keeping them alive at that point. So, a conquest victory is going take a lot longer. Also have to use offensive units to garrison conquered cities since they will revolt if you just leave one or two. Slows down an advance a lot.

It will do this even when I only import and then immediately export the nif.

Yeah, blender will almost always trash the nif. Most of the time it is unusable in game. You have to swap the trishape into the original nif.
Where things are located aren't necessarily where they will be once you load a kf. The animations will move things where they go.
Upload a nif if you are still having problems.

 

[BossDaddy]

Here's the HK. I converted it so it will work in game. I haven't done anything else to the mesh or the textures. I did remove the vertex weights, but that shouldn't matter since we can't use the animation for it.

 

[BossDaddy]

Here's the archer. All I did was import with Import Extra Nodes disabled. If I leave that on I get the Constrain error.

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

Thankyou for that work with the Celtic guy Toad.

Sounds like Advanced Civ is much more aggressive than BBAI is. I notice in my games that if a civ has a lot of units, they will generally attack you unless you have really good relations with them. Depending on the leader, some will attempt to out tech you, so that when they attack they have an advantage. If there are civs disappearing and later I run into one with a huge score, I know that its because they outteched and conquered weaker neighbors, or vessalized them. The unevennesss of it was enough that I moved tech trading to a tech called Hieroglyphics, in the early Bronze age(Ancient Era). Now I have the Oathsworn unit for the Gauls thanks to you.

 

[MightyToad]

Here's the archer. All I did was import with Import Extra Nodes disabled. If I leave that on I get the Constrain error.

Yeah, it is the "import extra nodes" thing. The knives, and bow are no longer rigged to their bones. So they are just static objects. The import script is probably leaving out some crucial thing without the extra nodes checked.
I spent several days trial and error/searching forum a few months ago on this. The only work around I came up with is to just delete the arrows from the nif.

The HK model is flawless. I would rig it to the gunship.

Thankyou for that work with the Celtic guy Toad.

Sounds like Advanced Civ is much more aggressive than BBAI is.

I don't know. I left the "aggressive AI" unchecked. I've never played BBAI so can't say. I wouldn't say they are more aggressive. More stubborn perhaps.

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

It really depends on the leader's priorities I think. Some favor a conquest path, others cultural, etc.

So what are you doing regarding American flavor units, there are a lot on the board already. Capo(who hasn't been here in a long time) once said he used natives with a red, white and blue color scheme for ancient, which is sort of how I treated Brazil and Haiti in my mod(new version, not out yet). I assume your using the Pioneer wagon from Colonization as a Unique settler?

 

[MightyToad]

Not as much as you would think. For america I mostly use Dumanios native set. Except for a few things I don't care about like chariots, elephants, and settlers .
I've seen the wagon one you mentioned in RI. I haven't bothered to unpack the fpk to get anything. Mostly I've just added many more ship units so far. I mostly just use the BTS flavor units for the unitartstyletypes. I don't know why they aren't used by default. They were already in the artdefines. Just not used.

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

Firaxis only partly completed the flavor part of BTS, unfortunately. Early on some people here who helped firaxis with bts completed the african part seperately. Then avain created keymod(what became the VD mod) and Mamba, Diversica, others all had flavor in their mods as well, some since warlords(Total Realism).

Capo made an American flavor pack, if your interested.

 

[ramzay1945]

I'm attempting to use the actual Civ 5 animations for the pistol cavalry. I've had some success in converting them to kfs. I selected the equivalent ones. Mostly have a full deck except for the diefade animation. They have way too many key frames. The only thing I have changed so far is the frame rate (30fps). They work in nifskope, but in the game it throws python errors, and this assert:

Assert Failed

File:  ..\.\CvPythonCaller.cpp
Line:  290
Func:  CvPythonCaller::call
Expression:  !bAssertSuccess || m_bLastCallSuccessful
Message:

----------------------------------------------------------

View attachment 604470 View attachment 604471

Super vague, but I thought one of the code bois might have a clue. I'm out of ideas for tonight.

I've got the normal carbine cavalry rigged to the vanilla civ4 units like usual. Also did all the riflemen yesterday.

I can't know for sure, because I haven't worked with it much.
Perhaps this problem is related to the names of the bones. They should all be checked and correctly named.
One more point. The .kf files contain not only animations, but also links to effects. Maybe there is an incorrect link in some of the .kf files?

Spoiler :

Also, the problem may not be related to animation at all. For example, that cavalry model does not contain such a controller at all, as in the screenshot. I do not know how much it is necessary for the game. But it seems that all the animated models in the game contain it.

Spoiler :

I will try to repeat both ways and tell you what happened

 

[MightyToad]

Also, the problem may not be related to animation at all.

Thanks, Comrade. I think these errors are more likely due to the nif as well. Like you said, the lack of a multitransformcontroller is a big deal. The unit is also scaled to dwarf godzilla. When in the game it towers half way to the moon. I set the scale to "0.1" which had no effect. I've seen this happen before, but I don't remember what caused it.