[UNIT] Mighty Ships Et Al

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

That is a good addition. Perhaps an upgrade to the Privateer and then to the Torpedo Boat, the early forerunner of the Submarine?

 

[MightyToad]

I plan on setting it up more like a siege weapon on the water in my mod. Although i dont know if the ai will know what to do with it.
Im not sure how you would do a torpedo boat. Perhaps you would only need to change the gun effects to torpedoes.

That would be a good upgrade path though. Catapult ship, gunboat, torpedo boat.

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

Yeah it would.

I think assigning siege AI to a ship like that would allow the AI to use it correctly.

 

[Schmiddie]

I will post new units here if and when I make them.
Starting with this one:


This model was 12mb off of one of the free 3d model sites. The guy did an amazing job. I removed as much as possible and remapped the textures. It still weighs in at a hefty 500k or so.

I almost forgot to mention. It uses the privateer KFM. Which is the role I imagine it would be used for. Piracy/anti-piracy. A cheaper and faster alternative to a frigate.

https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/sailing-ship-pack.28134/

Nice models, good job! However, the model does not fit with the animation. Please check how the sails move when its animated.

 

[MightyToad]

Yeah, I'm not happy with the sails in general. At the time i couldn't find a good sail texture. So, they look relatively undetailed. The forward sails jump forward because thats what they do on the privateer.
If I update that ship those will be the two things that I would change. Probably use the sail texture from the cutter, and just unrig the sails so they don't move at all.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

My advice is to look at the models from the vanilla game. They have some really good textures both for sails and rigging that I always use in my own models.

 

[MightyToad]

Run for your lives. Death has arrived. Try save your souls, run from the sound of rowing oars.
Out of the mist, breaks a dragon ship. Even more feared than the nail ship Naglafar.



https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/viking-longship-drakkar.28168/

 

[MightyToad]

My advice is to look at the models from the vanilla game. They have some really good textures both for sails and rigging that I always use in my own models.

Looks like all of the vanilla ships recycle the same texture for the sails for the most part. Although, there are differences. I've found it difficult to use them because they are made for square sails. And the ones I'm using are more rectangular in shape. So, they are too small. I have succeeded in tiling the texture for the SOTL and blending the seams. I've made a comparison between two textures to humor you.



The first one is the Tiled SOTL texture. Neither one is awesome IMO. Perhaps I could try google image searching shower curtains.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

As someone who has made tens of ship models by now and basically probably twice as many other models I only have one piece of advice for you. Don't look at your models at that scale. Ever. Everything looks bad at that scale.

CIV4 is simply a game designed for textures that are preferably 128x128 and at worst 256x256 if you really have to. And you just won't get a perfect look with those zoomed in. Instead look at your models in game at minimum zoom because that's what the average player is going to do. And at that scale all that matters is that it's a piece of cloth with an obvious bulge in the middle (the gradient) and some lines to make it not look too plain.

Like, here are some samples of my models.
https://forums.civfanatics.com/attachments/photoshop-1-png.540005/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/attachments/darktrireme-jpg.513677/
https://forums.civfanatics.com/attachments/civ4screenshot0005-jpg.503162/

 

[Schmiddie]

You could try to use graphics from Civ 5. I exported some ships from Civ 5 some years ago and they have some better looking graphics.

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/new-units-for-colonization.524860/

 

[MightyToad]

You could try to use graphics from Civ 5. I exported some ships from Civ 5 some years ago and they have some better looking graphics.

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/new-units-for-colonization.524860/

I updated the schooner. The sails don't move anymore and went with option 3 with the sails. I don't even remember where I got the texture, but it looks decent. Also, fixed a minor screw up with the war canoe and included Matsuda123's new texture.
BTW the 74 will make a fine addition to my collection.

As someone who has made tens of ship models by now ...

Do you know if there is a fire effect in the vanilla effects. I see you have done some extensive effect mods and you would probably know. I think a trireme that shoots greek fire would be a cool idea.
Colorful ships.

 

[Schmiddie]

Do you know if there is a fire effect in the vanilla effects.

Yes, there are nice effects in the vanilla files. I assume you would need to do a Nifswap in order to use them, i.e. you would need to copy your model into the vanilla file.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

Do you know if there is a fire effect in the vanilla effects. I see you have done some extensive effect mods and you would probably know. I think a trireme that shoots greek fire would be a cool idea.
Colorful ships.

There is indeed a fire effect in the vanilla BTS files. It was used for a flamethrower unit in one of the mods included with that game. Most of my effects are heavy modifications of stuff used in FFH though. Its not easy but with clever KFM modding you can basically make your units shoot all sorts of stuff. Speaking of KFM modding are your units fully animated? I assume yes.

 

[MightyToad]

Speaking of KFM modding are your units fully animated? I assume yes.

Define fully animated. All the ships have animations. They don't make use of all available bones necessarily. The schooner for example has radically different rigging than the privateer. The damage animation bones also do crazy things that are obnoxious sometimes.

So far I've only modified the attack and idle KF files. It would be trivial to change the effect from fire arrows to flamethrower if i knew the name of the effect.

Most of the effect names are obvious, but to manually test them all would take the rest of my life.

The main reason i want vanilla effects is because i want the unit to be as plug and play as possible. I remember being annoyed at having to manually add the axe throwing effect for the tomahawk throwing native unit (one of my favorites). Also, i dont know how at the moment.

 

[Matsuda123]

I'm definitely fond of your forays into animation modding. Makes it so much more unique. Have you seen Avatar the Last Airbender, Mightytoad?

 

[Schmiddie]

So far I've only modified the attack and idle KF files.

Do you use blender? You could reach much better results regarding the animations if you adjust your files in blender to the bone rigging you are using.

 

[MightyToad]

Have you seen Avatar the Last Airbender, Mightytoad?

I've seen sleeping tiger hidden dragon. Looks similar. Kung fu movie with supernatural ability to walk on air somehow.

Do you use blender? You could reach much better results regarding the animations if you adjust your files in blender to the bone rigging you are using.

I use blender and anim8or. Although, anim8or has become obsolete since I've learned blenders interface recently. Blender is a far more powerful program, but bafflingly to use sometimes.

Yeah, you could customize all the KFs and make a entirely custom animation. But Im still in the "good enough" catagory. So far Ive avoided having to modify all the KFs, but it is inevitable at some point.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

Define fully animated. All the ships have animations. They don't make use of all available bones necessarily. The schooner for example has radically different rigging than the privateer. The damage animation bones also do crazy things that are obnoxious sometimes.

I agree. This being said I've found that easiest way to deal with it is to import an existing and my own model into the same file and than just replicate the skin modifier as best I can. That and just use the frigate animations for most everything. And as a bonus I get to reuse the same KFM files (and kf files with magic effects) for all my ships.

So far I've only modified the attack and idle KF files. It would be trivial to change the effect from fire arrows to flamethrower if i knew the name of the effect.

There is actually a fire trireme or some such unit in the downloads database so you can look at that. I can't tell you from memory sadly. Also you don't need to edit the animations in a 3D program. Just editing the strings in the .kf files via the NIFviewer will do.

Most of the effect names are obvious, but to manually test them all would take the rest of my life.

To this all I can say is YES. Double yes once you add the stuff from FFH.

The main reason i want vanilla effects is because i want the unit to be as plug and play as possible. I remember being annoyed at having to manually add the axe throwing effect for the tomahawk throwing native unit (one of my favorites). Also, i dont know how at the moment.

I can understand and concur. Personally I had a bit more freedom in that

 

[Matsuda123]

I've seen sleeping tiger hidden dragon. Looks similar. Kung fu movie with supernatural ability to walk on air somehow.

Ah I see. I mainly ask because I'm thinking of making some units from the show. I've always wanted a real Avatar scenario for CIV IV, so that's would be awesome. And a number of the units are fairly basic and have no powers, so they could be used in regular CIV too.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

On that note if anyone manages to make a half decent air or lightning effect call me immediately. I've been trying and failing at it for the last almost year.