The Capo's Units Thread

[The Capo]

So many of you are probably assuming I have once again disappeared. I have been less active on the forums because I have so many projects I have decided to do that I am not sure where to begin and end. I have quite a few leaderheads I am working on (Arpad, Merkurios, Lorenzo d'Medici, Shah Abbas) etc. Plus modular civs for my mod, the mod itself, and units for the mod. And that's just a quick synopsis, there is a lot more there. What I have noticed is my blender skills are lacking right now, so I have been working on units. I haven't been doing a great job but the trial and error will pay off once I get it down to a science. I wanted to announce that the units I am making are Hittite, Babylonian, and Assyrian units. I might add Minoans and Scythians to the mix as well. I do need help, so if any skilled unit makers want to tutor me (like ekmek did) I would appreciate it.

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

Just wanted to thank you Capo for your continued presence and contributions to the Civ4 modding community. Zerver has returned, maybe ask him for alittle help?

Also Coffiejunkie is back. Just some ideas.

 

[The Capo]

Since I am trying to basically learn how to create units I figured I would be doing a service to the community by going over the process here in front of everyone. This will help me learn, help others learn, and also get properly made units that look great for civs that are lacking them. I have already made a model for a Hittite Archer that doesn't work (the intention was just to start getting things in order for myself, so when I started working on it I knew that it would not work in-game). What I plan on doing now is showing the steps I took and learning what I did incorrectly. Here is what the model looks like:

For comparison sake, this is the image I believe I used to base the unit on:

Now I understand that in the image the Hittite isn't an archer, but the reason I used this as the archer model is because I already have a good model for an axeman, and the only other archer images I could find I am going to use for the longbowman. That isn't important though, what is important is getting the unit to look like a proper Hittite. Which I believe it does. There are some obvious things I should add (trim around the cap/hat for instance) but I think it is a good model so far. What I am going to do in the next few days is go step by step and show everyone the creation process. The next few posts I make to this thread will show the steps I took, and I hope to get help along the way. I will do this for a few units until I get the hang of it and then start releasing sets to the database just like Bakuel did.

Essentially, my plan will ultimately have at least one model for each unit. For those are you that are familiar with my mod I usually include two to three models for some units (Swordsmen, Axemen, Spearmen, Knights etc.) to add to the flavor. This will be done when I have more than one image to base a model on and decide that creating a few different Swordsmen or Knights for example might be the way to go. So in general each set will include at least 11 new units. Most of them will feature around 16 units.

EDIT: I am already aware that the shoes are different and there is a beard on my model, so there is no reason to point this out.

 

[The Capo]

Before I get on with the Hittite project thing I have planned I need help with another unit. As mentioned before I am working on some ancient middle-eastern units, among them is Babylon. This is a civ that has not had many recent additions to its unit portfolio, so I wanted to change that. I have plans to create a few different models for the Babylonian Bowman UU (in the end I will have three different models that I will use for the unit in my mod, and of course I will post them to the database). Right now I have units to replace the Spearman, Swordsman, and Axeman. I will eventually finish the rest of the set too (including the medieval, and possibly renaissance era), but I have run into a strange problem with the Swordsman unit.

This is the unit I have created. I call it "Babylonian Noble Swordsman," it will serve as the "officer" model in the Swordsman unit for my mod. The problem is that, for whatever reason, the head shows up as white in-game. In NifSkope it looks fine, the skin files are all there and linked properly. I am not sure why this is happening, has anybody experienced this before and if so what can I do to fix it?

 

[SaibotLieh]

This is the unit I have created. I call it "Babylonian Noble Swordsman," it will serve as the "officer" model in the Swordsman unit for my mod. The problem is that, for whatever reason, the head shows up as white in-game. In NifSkope it looks fine, the skin files are all there and linked properly. I am not sure why this is happening, has anybody experienced this before and if so what can I do to fix it?

I had something similar before were the unit appears white the first time viewed in the Civilopedia. Once a different unit is viewed it looks fine if reviewed. I think it had something to do with the gloss texture.

Could you upload your unit so I can have a look at it?

 

[The Capo]

Yeah, I will upload it soon.

 

[The Capo]

Okay, I tried opening the game and looking in the Civlopedia, it still didn't show up correctly. So here is the file. Let me know what I did incorrectly or what needed to be done and also let me know what you think of the unit and what I can do to improve it. Thanks.

 

[The Capo]

Oh yeah, feel free to make any changes you deem appropriate or helpful. I trust your judgement. For example: if you add a metalic effect to the wristbands I won't complain...

 

[The Capo]

As any of you who are familiar with me know, I like to post progress/preview images. These are not all my units, but this is the current state of the Babylonian unit set I am working on for my mod:

Obviously the top row of units are not mine, Bakuel made the Warrior and the Scout unit, Ambrox made the worker. The next row has the new Babylonian UU model I created (there are still a few loose ends to tie up), I am not sure whether or not I am going to create two more different units to make three different models comprise the unit. The reason I am not sure is because I don't know what I should do for the Longbowman, so once I figure that out I will let everyone know. For now though that is the new Babylonian Bowman. It is hard to tell from the quality of the image, but it has a golden chest-plate on it. To the left of the bowman is the Axeman unit, the model in the middle is the Babylonian Axeman that has been floating around the forums, you have probably seen it in many mods. I intend on reskinning it and possibly changing the head. Next is the spearman. I am pretty happy with this one, particularly the "skirt" (for lack of a better word), although I am going to tone down the vibrancy of it just a bit. In the last row we have the Babylonian horseman unit I made, which is my favorite for some reason, next to him is the swordsman, including the model with the white head. And the last unit there is actually an Anunaki missionary (Babylon's religion in my mod) that I made about a year ago, the purple area is where the teamcolor is.

The thought behind these is to create a colorful set of units. I always thought of Babylon as being vibrant and colorful, to symbolize the Hanging Gardens. So I wanted the military units the exemplify this. I wanted the player to have a "lush/fertile" feel when playing as Babylon. In my mod each civilization has nearly completely flavored units (with the exception of some shared civilian units like workers, Great People, and naval units) as well as city-styles, which is done to immerse the player in the civ of their choosing. There is still a lot of work to be done on this set, there are going to be some changes to the texturing, and I plan on changing some of the weapons and shields the models are using.

Thoughts?

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

I really love Mesopotamian art, feels like you have given a glimpse of the ancient world with your units here.

I really think the new Bowmen is a huge improvement over the original Firaxis unit. The contrast of the blue with the golden vest really does remind me of the Gates of Ishtar or the Hanging Gardens, which means for me at least, this unit has been successful in capturing the look and feel that you were going for Capo.

Next we have the spearman. I like the red coloration, fairly simple unit, but that's not a bad thing.

The Horseman unit looks very good as well. To be honest though I wonder if there is something you could do with the saddle, I've seen that particular saddle on a lot of horse units, again its not important though.

The Swordsmen is looking very promising btw.

Babylon looks to be a solid contrast with Assyria or Sumeria.

Hope this is helpful.

 

[Keinpferd]

My favorite is the second row right spearman! But I like the horsman and the missionary, too. It's good that the team color is clearly, distinctly emphasized, because you can get lost in the plentitude of Assyrian, Sumerian and Babylonian unit art in mods. I think it's always nice to intuitively know your guys, not needing to look at the team flag.

 

[SaibotLieh]

Okay, I tried opening the game and looking in the Civlopedia, it still didn't show up correctly. So here is the file. Let me know what I did incorrectly or what needed to be done and also let me know what you think of the unit and what I can do to improve it. Thanks.

Okay, so the head was missing an effect for the gloss (the NiTextureEffect). I have added that now, but the head is still white. However, I think there is a problem with the unique_babylon_bowman_128.dds, since I cannot open that file with my graphic program.

I have further added team colour and some gloss effect to the body, hope you get the problem fixed with a new dds file.

 

[LunarMongoose]

Wow, I'm not really sure how I managed to not notice this thread for the last 5 years lol. I just added some of these units as part of the next update to my mod I'm working on, so, thanks and great job. My favorites are the Celt and American sets (fantastic idea to put a black dude in the Rifleman!), with the Korean and Indian sets being close seconds hehe.

I did want to ask though... In the Swedish set, are the man's hair and moustache supposed to be green? It's driving me nuts, which is a shame since I love his uniform...

(Also, Piri Reis' beard gets chopped in half by the big white collar around his neck from most camera angles, which I guess is nitpicking, but forked beards bother me lol.)

Anyway, thanks again for all your work!

 

[The Capo]

Their hair/mustache is not meant to be green, I didn't think it was green. But I'll have to look at it later.

Thanks for all of your other comments.

And as always Sai, thank you for helping me with my screw-ups.

EDIT: @ SoG - I plan on ultimately doing away with the saddle as they didn't appear to use saddles in those days.

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

I don't think they did either. From what I understand though a Babylonian Horseman is somewhat what-if anyway, I don't think horses were actually big enough to ride back then during most of ancient Babylon's history. (The earliest chariots didn't even use horses from what I read)

So the ball really is in your court on this, be as artistic as you want.

 

[The Capo]

I'm pretty sure there is babylonian artwork depicting people/soldiers an horses. This may be from the later, neo-babylonian, empire but still.

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

I'm pretty sure there is babylonian artwork depicting people/soldiers an horses. This may be from the later, neo-babylonian, empire but still.

Well then I stand corrected. Actually it would make sense, since Assyria used cavalry quite a bit if I remember correctly, they were contemporizes of the Neo-Babylonians right?

Anyway, great work on the Babylonian units.

 

[The Capo]

Anyone who has known me for a while is well aware of my "methods," which is to say that I have modding-ADD. I am very scatter-brained and usually give myself more projects than I seem to be able to handle. Well I have done it again.

The reason for this is that I am working on quite an ambitious mod, and I always get a new project going that piques my interest at a different time. I am still working on the Babylonians and Hittites, but ultimately the set of units I intend on creating for that pack will include the Babylonians, Hittites, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Scythians, Assyrians, and possibly the Minoans. I know, quite a lot of units. This will also help me become a better unit-maker, and with the absence of Bakuel we don't really have anybody doing full sets of units anymore. I would like to attempt to fill that void.

Anyway, I was playtesting my mod and decided that ancient England needed new units. So I started searching for images online to create a nice set for ancient England and noticed a lot of naked Celtic warriors. So I decided to start making one. There were no nude models so I created one of my own. Here he is so far:

So basically all I gotta do is get the texture down, find a nice image of a penis to put over the white parts and then he is done. I'll probably add some woad to him, give him an accurate sword and shield (if anyone can hep me with that part that would be awesome) and then he will be one of the swordsman models for ancient England. Thoughts? Comments?

EDIT: obviously I need to fix the texturing, particularly on his hind quarters.

 

[Keinpferd]

[…]and with the absence of Bakuel we don't really have anybody doing full sets of units anymore. I would like to attempt to fill that void.

You're absolutely right, that a naked Gaul was missing. And good job so far on your model. Two comments: Anatomically, the back of the thighs should be a bit skinnier; the belt should go more down from the waist to above the hips.

In Total War Rome II they didn't dare introduce a penis and gave them a loincloth, which kind of nullifies the naked in the naked warrior.

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

When unit making is taking long, in doubt just add a slong....

Sorry Capo I could not resist.

Good work btw.