Tom's Unit Factory

[Gojira54]

Historically accurate or not, I prefer the LongTail.

 

[Blue Monkey]

I'm glad you're doing a couple of versions of the smilodon. The long-tailed version will be usable as a modern tiger. Granted one with very long fangs.

 

[Moosezilla]

What can I say? Can't wait for Smilodon vs. Mammoth!

 

[Balthasar]

Amazing what you can learn with Google. The Smilodon is the animal most closely associated with the term Saber-Toothed Tiger, and it had a bobbed tail. I agree with Blue Monkey: the long tailed cat still has a definite use as a very large tiger. Now, if you're going to be absolutely historically accurate, the tail on that unit should be a bit shorter, and the fur dappled, or at least significantly lighter than that of the Bengal tiger, who hunts in contrasty jungles with lots of vertical things around, like trees and tall grasses. Natural selection and genetic predisposition tend to make big cats blend their fur patterns with their environment; it's likely that a cat in the colder, drier Pleistocene era would have duller, browner patterns. It's not unlikely that white Sabre Tooth Tigers existed. Another thing: apparently Smilodons hunted in packs and lived in prides, like lions. So an M-unit of this is appropriate.

Biggest surprise? That among the creatures that originated in North America were camels, who migrated west to asia before becoming extinct here. If you're wondering, as I did, what other critters inhabit the Ice Age, check out this site and this site.

 

[tom2050]

I could just remove the fangs for a Tiger. Everything with it is already setup, so making different versions only takes about 20-30 min. Changing the texture skin would take a bit longer, but nothing excessive. I can shorten the tail a bit for future versions. Actually, I can place the texture here, and it can be modified to one's whims if they wish so.

BTW, finally got all the special effects figured out, smoke, aura's, other types of unit lighting, etc. So I will do one of the steam units after I test it out on a fish (has lights, bubbles, etc).

EDIT: I'll do fish later.. @Balthasar... Here is approx how Universal Mining Robot looks.

The model didn't include steam from the 2 pipes on the top.. so the game must add that in some other way... I'll have to check into adding it myself.

-----------------

Sea Dragon/Sea Horse will be next:

 

[Balthasar]

If there was only some way to change the look of the operator......

Here's a suggestion: change the hue of the operator's skin, and put a bowler on him, like so -

possible?

 

[Blue Monkey]

If you do another version of the smilodon / tiger a version that looks like a snow leopard would be great.

The ones I've seen in a zoo have much whiter fur. Maybe this one hasn't got the winter coat yet?

Spoiler :

On the gripping hand you're providing the community so many interesting & unusual units that I hate to even ask you to slow down long enough to recolor something. It's more fun to see what you will produce next.

 

[tom2050]

@Balthasar: Yes, that can be done... These models use 'skins' which means that the skin simply wraps around the bones. I am not sure yet how the textures are applied in how to make certain parts of the textures extend to certain distance from the single bone. So adding a hat would require me to figure that out, but on the + side; it would be beneficial for me to understand that anyways, so I will look into it.

@Blue Monkey: Snow Leopard is beautiful indeed. When I remove the fangs and make a normal tiger from the model, I can do a Snow Leopard at that time as well.

 

[tom2050]

Sea Horse / Sea Dragon (unit conversion)

The Sea Horse can be used as a fantasy sea transport as well as a sea naval unit.

Civ color has been added.

Download here... SeaHorseF1.rar

Unit32, Large/Small pcx, and Sound Files included. Is an Atlantica Online unit.

 

[Plotinus]

Beautiful!

 

[Grandraem]

Great work, Tom!

 

[bigdog5994]

Cool!!

 

[Gojira54]

I can't quite use it, but that does not stop me from loving it!

 

[tom2050]

Next up, Succubus; may get finished tonight...

 

[nick0515]

That is going to be one awesome unit Tom! Me thinks a perfect candidate for a charm attack.

Cheers

Nick

 

[The Guardian]

haven't stopped by in awhile. great stuff as always TOM. Your tempting me to start doing some fantasy modding.

 

[Ozymandias]

Although were sabretooth tigers really striped?

Unknown. Most modern reconstructions deduce hunting tactics and biosystem and generally use a corresponding big cat for coloring.

Best,

Oz

PS. Makes me think of a scenario/mod: H. sapiens sapiens first staggered out of Africa some 100,000 ybp ("Years Before the Present") Even though the "Great Leap" in which Hss evidently acquired "modern" mental traits and capacities was some 40,000 ybp, had this corresponded with an interglacial (which have actually occured in "recent" cycles of some 10,000 yrs every 90,000 yrs) OR occured during the last interglacial, mods could be made with war mammoths, smilodons, et.al., UTTERLY freed from the confines of of "real" history ... let yer minds run wild ...

-O.

PPS - Good timeline of Hss HERE.

 

[Blue Monkey]

PS. Makes me think of a scenario/mod: H. sapiens sapiens first staggered out of Africa some 100,000 ybp ("Years Before the Present") Even though the "Great Leap" in which Hss evidently acquired "modern" mental traits and capacities was some 40,000 ybp, had this corresponded with an interglacial (which have actually occured in "recent" cycles of some 10,000 yrs every 90,000 yrs) OR occured during the last interglacial, mods could be made with war mammoths, smilodons, et.al., UTTERLY freed from the confines of of "real" history ... let yer minds run wild ...

I hear ya. A scenario that would fall somewhere between Madeira's Atlantean Chronicles & CivArmy .s 1994's Last March of the Neanderthals. During an earlier period, but similar in plausible AH spirit. Add Sandris' many tribal units and the "Mother Nature's army" Rhodie & others including Tom2050 have made. Pleistocene => Paleolithic with only minor glacials. An extended "green Sahara" + the equivalent pluvials elsewhere. A world map where Africa has the lakes enlarged to inland seas, looking something like this:

Spoiler :

Plenty of forest & savannah where now there's desert:

This one is by someone who made a series of "what if" globes. You might find some ideas for other parts of such a world map by browsing his site.

 

[Ozymandias]

Dang it. I assumed that the Great Leap could, for play purposes, be pushed back to the last interglacial. Then I found THIS TIMELINE which shows our ancestors dwindling to some 5,000 world wide due to the eruption of a super-volcano in Sumatra some 71,000 years ago ...

... Aye, we're a hearty lot, but I don't think civilizations (as we understand the term) could have arisen during periods of mass glaciation Starting the game in 8,000 BCE might be a fair call - if a stretch - but plenty of compromises (like mammoths) could nevertheless come into play --

-- Anybody figure out where Atlantis was?

-Oz

 

[Blue Monkey]

For play purposes say the eruption didn't happen. Or had a smaller impact.

Oops! We're thread-jacking.