Request for artwork and I need advice on unit member scaling

[LeeS]

One of my steam friends came up with a really nice icon for me, so I won't need any help on that. But I could still use some advice on the unit member fidget issue, especially as to my question in post #4 (I think)

I've been working on a World Wonder mod that adds a special custom unit to the game. Currently everything is functional. I have been borrowing icons from those that already exist in-game. I'm using the icon from the Cover II promotion for my unit flag, but since promo icons are square the icon doesn't really look all that good on the eyes.

My Artwork Request:

Is anyone willing to create a unit flag icon for me that would be an adaptation of the the Cover II promotion? Or at least, something similar? The Cover II promotion icon is the one with a shield-within-a-shield.

Unit member scaling issue:

I used Jaythekiller's Knight Templar download from here on the forum for my Crusader unit. Jaythekiller's download is pretty nearly perfect for what I wanted my Crusader unit to look like. Near as I can tell it was originally done before G&K was issued, so he had older version of artwork xml commands which I had to adapt to BNW. Everything works OK except that the unit members are a little bit smaller than I'd like. I have this in my artwork code

	<ArtDefine_UnitMemberInfos>
		<Row>
			<Type>ART_DEF_UNIT_MEMBER_KNIGHT_TEMPLAR</Type>
			<Scale>1,4</Scale>
			<Model>Knight_templar.fxsxml</Model>
			<MaterialTypeTag>CLOTH</MaterialTypeTag>
			<MaterialTypeSoundOverrideTag>FLESH</MaterialTypeSoundOverrideTag>
		</Row>
	</ArtDefine_UnitMemberInfos>

I tried to use this instead in my SQL, but it just made my unit essentially invisible on the main map so I commented it back out and went back to the XML table. I borrowed the Chimu Maceman SQL and adapted it to my needs. That mod's author was using the Iroquoian Mohawk Warrior to "fill-in" his tabledata, so it seemed like a reasonable place to start to me.

-- INSERT INTO ArtDefine_UnitMemberInfos (Type,	Scale,		ZOffset,		Domain,		Model,						MaterialTypeTag,	 MaterialTypeSoundOverrideTag)
-- SELECT	('ART_DEF_UNIT_MEMBER_KNIGHT_TEMPLAR'),	Scale,		ZOffset,		Domain,		('Knight_templar.fxsxml'),	MaterialTypeTag,	 MaterialTypeSoundOverrideTag
-- FROM ArtDefine_UnitMemberInfos			WHERE Type = 'ART_DEF_UNIT_MEMBER_U_IROQUOIAN_MOHAWKWARRIOR';

Any thought or suggestions on how I can enlarge my unit members a little?

I also noticed that my unit members seem to fidget an awful lot. It's not really a problem for me perse but should I be concerned with too many copies of the Crusader unit all fidgetting all the time tending to bog down the processing of the game?

edited to remove the attachment: it's outdated and my questions have been answered

 

[whoward69]

<Scale>1[COLOR="Red"][B],[/B][/COLOR]4</Scale>

comma is the European decimal point, try a full-stop "1.4"

 

[LeeS]

oh. OK. duh on me!

yeah, that seems to make just enough of a difference that the unit member size is reasonable enough for me.
I popped a roman legion next to my Crusader unit and then just did a visual look and compare. Seemed pretty good.

 

[LeeS]

Can I eliminate the fidgetting of the custom unit by eliminating one of the files? If I do so will that make the rest of the unit models crash ? I think it would be Knight_TemplarFidget.gr2. By eliminate I mean reset VFS=false for that file ?

 

[Nutty]

What you want to do is edit the .fxsxml, add the fidget event codes (ec="") to another animation, e.g., the idle animation, then delete the line referencing that animation. Then you can delete the fidget .gr2 from the mod.

This is the fidget line that you will delete:

<Animation file="Knight_TemplarFidget.gr2" ec="1620, 1040, 2040, 1540, 1560, 1440" />

Edit another animation, and add the appropriate events.

<Animation file="Knight_TemplarIdle.gr2" ec="1640, 1520, 1580, 1000, 1020, 2000, 2020, 2440, [COLOR="RED"]1620, 1040, 2040, 1540, 1560, 1440[/COLOR]" />

Note that I reskinned one of bernie14's longswordsman, and applied the templar skin (so you have the templar with the Civ5 longswordsman animations). However, that means he no longer has a shield. You can find it by following the "Misc. Units" link in my signature.

Also, danrell has a beautiful Crusader Templar longswordsman (with a shield).

 

[LeeS]

How's this for a unit !

Obviously <scale> is way off. Got a chuckle out of it anyway. Is a beautiful unit model, I think I'll go with danrell's longswordsman templar. I wasn't sure what I would need for scale, so I started with "1".

So, is <scale> linear, or is it more exponential so that small value changes have huge resultant effects? Some of the GlobalDefines.xml is that way (exponential, I mean) and was wondering if <scale> was as well.

By trial and error I ended up scaling down to ".15"

If anybody wants in on the small chuckle, here's a mediafire file sharing link to Giant Death Crusader. I removed the original attachment because it uses up so much of my allowed usage on the forum.

 

[DarkScythe]

Looks good enough to ship for me, what's next?

 

[LeeS]

I'm pretty much finished with Knights Templar except that I would like to get some feedback on balance issues, etc., before I post to the download database or the completed mods sub-forum (and post the mod on Steam). Is there a better forum than Creation & Customization to make a new thread when looking for feedback and/or people to give it a try while looking for errors/bugs ? On one hand I want to open to as wide a beta tester audience as reasonably possible but on the other hand there're advantages to having the tester audience be people who actually mod themselves.

Thoughts?