New Units: Saurus' 3/6/04

[Dann]

These are the Lizardmen I've done so far:

Wow! Am almost tempted to add Lizardman civ to the "normal" epic game.

All we need now is:
1) Chameleon skink ("Invisible" scout unit)
2) Kroxigor (even larger and heavier version of Saurus)
3) Cold one and skink rider (cavalry)
4) Terradon and skink riders (mounted flying unit)
5) Salamander and skink handlers (biological artillery)
and maybe a Slaan leaderhead.
(greedy bugger ain't I?)

Say if I do add them where should they go? Amazon jungle? heart of Africa? where?

 

[mrtn]

Originally posted by Dann

...Say if I do add them where should they go? Amazon jungle? heart of Africa? where?

Sewers of New York?

 

[embryodead]

Originally posted by Dann
All we need now is:
1) Chameleon skink ("Invisible" scout unit)
2) Kroxigor (even larger and heavier version of Saurus)
3) Cold one and skink rider (cavalry)
4) Terradon and skink riders (mounted flying unit)
5) Salamander and skink handlers (biological artillery)
and maybe a Slaan leaderhead.
(greedy bugger ain't I?)

as for the 1) I used Dark Skink as Chameleon. That fits perfectly except for the tail which isn't a big issue.
I also added Carnosaur (using red-coloured Allosaur) as the most advanced Lizardman unit.

 

[tjedge1]

Originally posted by Dann

Say if I do add them where should they go? Amazon jungle? heart of Africa? where?

Aside form the sewers

I would think of South America myself. Amazon jungle area. Home of some of the biggest snakes in the world right?

 

[Kinboat]

South America does fit in with the placement in the Warhammer game. The Warhammer map is pretty much a modified earth map and the Lizardmen jungles are in the continent that would be South America.

I had thoughts of making a Chameleon Skink but couldn't work out some issues... And a leaderhead of my Slann unit has been provided to the Warhammer Mod

 

[Mr. Do]

Slann also exist in the African continent in Warhammer, although their main region is certainly Lustria.

Maybe you could do a Kroxigor model by simply taking the regular lizardman unit, changing its skin colour to blue, losing the shield part and making it quite a bit larger? It wouldn't be entirely faithful to the proper WH unit, but then, neither are the Stegadon or Slann units (Despite how good they are). Cold One riders would be good but they seem pretty unfeasible, certainly not do-able like a Kroxigor if you weren't already planning on 'em...

 

[aaglo]

Is the stegadon a hybrid of mastodon and stegosaur?

 

[Dann]

had thoughts of making a Chameleon Skink but couldn't work out some issues...

How about basing him on your old skink model but make him fade in/out and becoming invisible?

 

[Kinboat]

Well The fading was what was giving me trouble. Although if I could ask the uncomparable Aaglo a question about his phase ship I might be able to work something out.
Basicly the fading part is no problem... The issue is with the palette. If I keep the unit colored throughout the fade away I get some pretty nasty colors towards the end. How did you get a nice transisition in the fade. Should I gradually reduce the saturation of the colors until I get a grey color that will give me better pink colors for the shadow/smoke palette? If you can't make heads or tails of my rambling don't worry about it.


I already just enlarged the model from Skink to Saurus so if I was going to make a Kroxigor I would almost insist on making a new model (I'm tough on myself )

 

[Mr. Do]

Well you masked it very well, I hadn't noticed!

 

[Steph]

In SSS, I can modify the alpha of a frame, one by one. Should I include a fading option in the animation editor? Then I suppose it should affect only the unit color, and not the shadows or the smoke?
How should I make it customizable in the editor? Something like fade out/in to/from frame n?, and then a linear interpolation of the transparency between these two grames?

So if you have 15 frames and ask for a fade out , frame 5, then then the animation will start losing 10% transparency every frame from frame 5 to 15. If you ask to start from 10, then it will be -20% every frame, starting frame 10, etc.

Is it a feature that could interest you, animation creator?

It could be used to make "stealth" units (in the fortify?).

Warning : I can guarantee this feature works only with SSS. I can also save the result into a true color storyboard, but then it will mean some manual palette work to make it CivIII compatible

 

[aaglo]

I think the colour distortion is not a problem, when unit is fading. After all, it propably bends light in some way - and colours are nothing but light in different wavelengths (that's the way I explain the bright oranges in the phaseship... like a redshift - moving away,away,away...)

I did the fading animation by using a fog - a nice feature in pov-ray.
When the unit was completely visible, fog colour was rgbt<1,0,1,1>, where r=red, g=green,b=blue,t=transmit. So basically it was a completely transparent magenta fog (i.e. invisible magenta )
When the fading starts, the t-value just goes closer to zero.

I don't know, if this is helpful at all - i don't know how the program you use works...

 

[Kinboat]

That sounds like it would work for me in Poser... I can place a plane in front of the unit and then slowly decrease it's transparency until you barely see the unit... Hadn't thought of that before, thanks

 

[Thunderfall]

Those are really nice units, kinboat. Keep up the impressive work!

Mobilize: I too think they are perfect as Argonians in a Morrowind scenario.

 

[Pantsofpower]

The units are great and all, but I'd like to see some sounds for them. It's a little hard finding sounds from the game that go with them... Nice work tho'!

 

[Fanatica]

Superb! I missed these before.
When do you creative masters ever find time to play the game?
Can't wait to see what's next.

 

[Kinboat]

Play... the... Game... You mean they made a game out of this stuff?!?!

It's been quite a while since I got around to actually playing a game and even longer since I finished one.

 

[Fanatica]

@Kinboat
I just found and downloaded your Slann wizard priest unit.
Can't wait to give it a try.
Too bad to hear you don't get time for the game, but we sure appreciate the work you're doing. I've read most of the info on producing units, but still can't figure out what the best software might be. I've fooled with flicster and blender, but must need something else. Glad to see you've pulled it all together.
Once again.. nice work.

 

[tjedge1]

Originally posted by Kinboat
Play... the... Game... You mean they made a game out of this stuff?!?!

It's been quite a while since I got around to actually playing a game and even longer since I finished one.

I haven't finished a game since November myself. I've only started 3 games since. I know what you mean. Not enough hours in the day.