[UNIT] Mighty Ships Et Al

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

Well done I'm impressed by both your hard work on these and your ability to figure things out.

 

[tantanmen]

Another challenge overcome, congrats MT! Love the sleek modern style, this is a perfect what-if unit. And those are some serious BFG on the UFB, awesome job Matsuda & MightyToad

 

[raystuttgart]

@MightyToad

I am currently creating nation specific UnitArtStyles to integrate some of your ships in our mod.
(In our mod, each nation has its own colours, uniforms, ornaments and flags for a Unit.)

To understand, our mod does not really use "TeamColours", it uses "UnitArtStyles" instead.
(Because that concept allows to add much more elaborate details to Units than TeamColours do.)

While doing so, I thought that maybe you might be interested in some of the historic flags we use for our ship flags.
Well, no idea if that is useful to you guys, but here they are.

 

[MightyToad]

To understand, our mod does not really use "TeamColours", it uses "UnitArtStyles" instead.

I was wondering if CivCol used team color, and if the team flag could be used like in BTS (like the flags for ships). Which is why I included several national flags with the last ships I uploaded. But, I only use the pirate flag one in practice. You have to have multiple nifs and XML entries to use multiple flags like you are saying. I'm too lazy to set that up. I hate setting up XML crap.

 

[raystuttgart]

I was wondering if CivCol used team color ...

It could but our mod does not use it much.

 

[raystuttgart]

@MightyToad

Your Naval Cutter from this package is crashing Civ4Col.
(Tried to use both NIFs. The _FX and the one without.)

I have no idea why, but I can not get it to work.
Since the first ship I tried already crashes the game, I have not tried the others.

 

[MightyToad]

Your Naval Cutter from this package is crashing Civ4Col.

It must be the flag. It doesn't use a shader. I added the regular "TCiv4Skinning" shader, and switched the texture to your red ensign. If this doesn't work I am out of ideas. This is disappointing because I specifically redid the ships to be compatible with CivCol.

 

[raystuttgart]

It works now.
And it looks wonderful.

Edit:
Just the flag is not displayed correctly ingame.
(It seems to show "team colours", although in NifScop it does show it correctly.)

Spoiler :

 

[MightyToad]

Just the flag is not displayed correctly ingame.

Pink means missing texture. Probably "frigate_damage_128.dds". I didn't include it with the upload since should already have it, but the nif requires it.
I didn't test in game, and noticed I screwed up the flag. All you have to do is go to the "textureingpropery", and change the "Has Decal 0 texture" to "NO" (alternatively just leave it if you want it to be team colored).



Adding a shader only takes two steps. Since this is a recurring theme with CivCol you should learn to do this.

1: Make a skin partition.
Right click the mesh. Navigate to Mesh. Then select "Make Skin partition"

Change "number of bones per partition" from "18" to "4". Click "OK"


2:Set shader under "Material Data"
With the "Trishape" (Mesh) selected in "Block List". Go to "Material Data" in the "Block Details" window.
Change "Has Shader" to "Yes"
Shader name to "TCiv4Skinning".
And "Shader extra data" to "-1" from "0".

Other shaders that are used are "TCiv4SkinningGloss" for units with gloss (knight).
"TCiv4MechShader" for units with damage states (frigate_damage_128.dds).
"TCiv4MechShaderGloss" for units with both gloss and damage states (destroyer, tank, battleship, ect)
"TCiv4SkinningNoTeamColor" for units that have a skin partition, but without team color (CivCol).

 

[raystuttgart]

Thanks.
I will try it.

Edit:
It worked.
Talking about the flag only, have not tried the rest yet with one of your other graphics.
Each day I learn a bit more about graphics. One day I might even be able to create something myself.

Spoiler :

 

[raystuttgart]

I got those 5 displayed correctly now.
(It was a hard fight to learn all the details, but now I think I understand.)

• Frigate_Civ5_FX
• Schooner_America_FX
• Barque_FX_w_Shroud
• Naval_Brig_FX
• Frigate_Constitution_FX

Comment:
I just used the "Pirate Cutter" to test new ArtDefs and graphics.
Those ship graphics will of course not be used as "Pirate Cutters".

Spoiler :

Important to know considering Civ4Col:
(Otherwise graphics will crash the game or look pretty strange.)

1) Every single part a Unit graphic for Civ4Col needs a Shader (incl. Shrouds and Flags).
2) Shader TCiv4MechShader seems to works very nicely on ships.
3) Once that is taken care of as described here, everything seems to work nicely.

 

[Matsuda123]

I decided to rename the turret bones to distinguish them more from the new ones for the starboard side (even though there was no need). Everything seemed to be going fine. It worked in nifskope. But, in game the attachables and alpha fade weren't working.
View attachment 614069
I finally discovered that when I renamed the turret bones in the string palette in nifskope it added "DUMMY_Battleship_Hull" to every "empty" value for all of the control blocks. That meant I had to go through every single one and delete every single one. It was a long, tedious, painful lesson. Don't rename bones if you don't have to. If this had been a complex unit like the chariot I would have considered starting over. Adding new bones to the string palette is no problem. Before anyone says it; I know Sabotleihs method of using a separate string palette would have avoided all this. Adding new bones to the existing string palette is less work.
View attachment 614068
I made a alternative kfm that omits the damage geometry kfs because they are a bit obnoxious IMHO.

This is very exciting Toad. You did a great job again, thank you very much. Once I get the texture all prettied up, it'll be ready to go. It's so cool to finally have a battleship unit be culturally distinct from others, and will be a great addition to anyone's Asian fleet...

 

[Walter Hawkwood]

Surprisingly, I have a request. A fun couple of units for Basotho, related closely enough to Zulus they'd be fair game for Zulu civ IMO.

Spoiler Basotho units :

And unlike their Zulu brethren, Basotho actually managed to repel European colonialists - one of the very few Africans who did. Everyone knows of Ethiopians and Adwa, but the Basotho Gun War is lesser-known. In particular, the cavalryman depicted here would be a welcome sight, as Basotho actually specialized at cavalry tactics, and this is a unit as close to modern cavalry as Zulu civ can realistically get.

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

Definitely interesting Walter, I second that request.

 

[Walter Hawkwood]

Another idea, Maasai Warrior. They have been said to be some of the fiercest warriors in sub saharan africa. The boys actually go threw training similiar to what was depicted of spartans in the movie 300.

Here you go, one Maasai warrior.



Uses Zulu impi animations. Doesn't have civcolor, but if you want I'll throw one with civcolor together for you easily. Thought both the red tunic and the black feathers were too distinctive to make them civ-colored.

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

oh wow amazing and thankyou I really wasnt expecting that Walter. Thankyou for converting that. Again..thanks man

 

[MightyToad]

Here you go, one Maasai warrior.

I've been working on the african stuff, and this was the next unit I was going to do. So, good thing you posted this now. This unit looks better than what I could have done.

Spoiler Basotho :

 

[Walter Hawkwood]

oh wow amazing and thankyou I really wasnt expecting that Walter. Thankyou for converting that. Again..thanks man

No problem! I wanted a Maasai warrior for RI anyway, and your visual guide was very helpful in identifying one of the EU4 units in the recent dlc as appropriate.

I've been working on the african stuff, and this was the next unit I was going to do. So, good thing you posted this now. This unit looks better than what I could have done.

As usual, I was limited to what was available to convert - it's just a stroke of luck that Sub-Saharan units were a part of the EU4 dlc released this month: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...vember-2021-the-art-of-africa-theory.1495954/

Cool Basotho warriors! Will definitely use them. Is a gun cavalry also in the plans?

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

One thing I never tire of is MightyToad doing artwork for unusual and obscure cultures. Especially since Africa is really lacking compared to elsewhere, we have Ethiopia, Mali/West African, Zulu, Nubia etc, but there is alot more to the continent then them, as I've been reading, I've gotten more interested. FYI interesting looking units from the Benin would be cool in civ for example.

You see anything else worthy of conversion in that DLC(I did see that when I was looking in steam the other day).

 

[Walter Hawkwood]

I've been working on the african stuff, and this was the next unit I was going to do.

One additional thought on the warriors you've already made - the triangular gorget thing is made of brass, so I think it would be fairly glossy IRL.

You see anything else worthy of conversion in that DLC(I did see that when I was looking in steam the other day).

I converted several Zulu-inspired units. Might do a couple of Kongolese/Great Lakes ones too. There is no playable civ for them in RI, but African minors can use some eye candy.