New Unit: Ironclad Ram

[joebasstard]

Usually converted from a Steam Frigate, the most well-known of these was known as the "Merrimac" or, "C.S.S. Virginia", the Confederate ironclad in the famous battle with the Union's "Monitor". The Confederate navy built more than a dozen similar to this.
ACTUALLY this type of ship was also used in the Navies of France, Austria-Hungary, and Italy among others. An Austrian one rammed and sank the Italian Flagship "Italia" at the Battle of Lissa. Like the Monitor-style ironclad portrayed in Civ III, in reality it was slow and not very seaworthy, only suited for use along the coast and in inland seas.
Anyway, here's the default .flc file; I'll make ones for attack, death etc. if anybody wants it. I'll also attach some suggested snumbers for this and other naval units in another posting, plus a screenshot.

 

[joebasstard]

Here's the Screenshot:

 

[joebasstard]

The attached HTML file has a chart with suggested numbers for the Ironclad Ram and other naval units, pluse some notes.

 

[Joe R. Golowka]

I downloaded your unit but it only has the default.flc?!? Where's the other flcs?

 

[joebasstard]

As I wrote in the first post, I haven't made the other .flc's yet; First, I don't have lots of spare time to do this, and the Attack file alone has 160 frames....plus I didn't know if there would be much interest. I don't have animation software, so I've been making 3-d models in Solidworks, Rendering Jpeg images of each position, then editing individual frames in Photoshop. OK, I'll stop whining now. The other files are on the way. If anybody has any GOOD software suggestions to make this less time-consuming, please point me in the right direction.

 

[joebasstard]

The Ironclad Ram is very nearly complete! I haven't had much time between things to work on it, so progress has been slow.
The Death animation is almost done, and that's it. Anyway I'll post it within a week.
A good use for this unit could be that civ's without iron resouces can still build it. It would be slower than the ironclad by a little. Countries without iron often still had some iron, just not enough to create a big ironworking industry. The armor on these was often scrap metal, drilled and riveted or bolted on.
If anyone can easily tell me how to convert a single-direction FLC file to a gif, I'll post a preview of the ATTACK and DEATH animations.

 

[Stormfather]

I really like the way your Ironclad is looking, I can't wait till it's done. Keep up the good work!


Stormfather

 

[Polaris]

Your unit looks great! I have been hoping that someone would create a casemated ironclad unit to replace the default ironclad (Monitor)unit.

Can't wait to try it out.