Unit of the Month: October 2006

[DJ Bonebraker]

Well, I guess I could consider entering in future competitions.... Probably not next month's though... I need to get some LHs done (starting with Princess Ashelia B'Nargin Dalmasca (a.k.a. Ashe) of Dalmasca, and also including the Emperor Paramekia and some others that need done or Re-Done) for now though. Even though the LHs are fairly quick and easy to do (for me, anyways), All my recent units (with the exception of the ELvaan marine) have been plagued with animation bugs, texture bugs, giant man-eating bugs (well, maybe not those bugs), and all sorts of other bugs that forced me to re-render a whole animation (15 frames per-direction, 8 directsions), causing me to waste at least 2 or 3 weeks of rendering time. I suspect that my next project (Either the Al Bhed robot pack or the Dalmascan Pirate Airship (Baltheier's airship from FF XII)) will be no different.....

 

[Bjornlo]

I should also point out that one of the other greats, Wyrmshadow has only really contended once (and won that one).
His units are also brilliant. His units were the ones I used to measure my own against when I was getting started. Not because I thought I could do better (I still can't) but because they are so good. I have seen his units get up to 1000 DLs (one of his is the top file still at civ3files.com). So you know people like his units. But it is a bit of mystery to me why, but his very conventional units would seem to be shoe-in to either win or contend every time.
This is not a vote for best dude, best creator, most techically complete unit. It is just a popularity contest for that months units. And, because only 1 vote per person the result is often a bit skewed. Everyone seems to DL Wyrm's units. But it seems that most months there is another unit from a random unit maker which gathers more "oooh" points. If you factored downloads into it, or allowed 3 points for 1st, 2pts for 2nd, 1pt for 3rd voting the results here would be very different.

 

[CamJH]

*sighs*
Not what I meant at all. It's a great swordsman, one I might use....

I know, I was referring to CrazyboB and The Thud's earlier comments. And even then I was only kidding. They, like everyone else on these boards, are entitled to their own opinions, so if they think my units boring or uninteresting they're free to express that. I enjoyed making it, and if anyone else enjoys using it in-game then that's just an added bonus for me. Plus, I've got thick enough skin to handle criticism.

 

[The Thud]

you got skillz, just wish youd make something there wasn't already so many of.
I like the arab best. Not cus he was better than u. But because I don't already have 50 arab gunmen in my game.

 

[aaglo]

The race thickens, both troll and empire swordsman are neck-to-neck

 

[Bjornlo]

The race thickens, both troll and empire swordsman are neck-to-neck

Holy cow, how did I miss that! Can it be possible to finally break the curse of the greenskins (would a tie even count for this)? Or more likely we will end up tied for 2nd place as the excellent Bedouin passes us both?
There are two more days of voting, so we'll see how things stackup then.

 

[TopGun]

"It's not easy being green." If your troll loses to the Bedouin by one vote, blame me!

 

[Bjornlo]

"It's not easy being green." If your troll loses to the Bedouin by one vote, blame me!

Deal

Hmm, maybe I should steal "It's not easy being green" as a new tagline

 

[Bjornlo]

something is screwy here.

How is it that 2 of the top 3 vote getters are the least downloaded.
The top downloaded unit is the Orc shaman with 111 downloads.
The least downloaded unit is the empire swordsman, with nearly three times as many votes as downloads.
Next is the Bedouin a little more DL but still with nearly twice the votes as downloads.
Compare this to the last place unit which all have 3.5 times as much as these two combined (or more).

The Orc Shaman has 111 downloads and 4 votes.
The Elven Marine has 51 downloads and 2 votes.
The Empire swordsman has 7 downloads and 19 votes.
The Bedouin has 8 downloads and 15 votes.

huh? What is going on?

 

[Plotinus]

Two reasons, I'd say. First, units that were uploaded more recently will obviously have fewer downloads. So CamJH uploaded the Empire Swordsman only just before the poll began, which is why it has so few downloads compared to those that have been up for a couple of weeks longer.

Second, people vote for the unit they think is the best but they download the ones they actually want to use, and these aren't necessarily the same thing. So someone might think the Troll is the best unit there but have no use for a Troll in their game, so they don't download it. Of course, in an ideal world anyone voting in this competition should download all the units and install them, so they can appreciate all the animations and the sounds too, but in reality most people will vote solely on the basis of the preview animations posted here.

 

[aaglo]

Or could it be, that there have been some problems with the downloads... I don't know... Altough, there are a loads of downloads on the troll (which doesn't support that theory).

 

[Bjornlo]

But The troll was uploaded at around the same time as the Empire Swordsman, and it has nearly as many downloads as the Orc Shaman. The thing that really jumped out at me was that these the swordsman and bedouin units combined at 15 downloads and 34 votes. It just seemed very strange to me that something could seem so popular (votes) and yet be so seldom downloaded.

 

[aaglo]

Bjornlo, that's exactly what I said. (or atleast, meant).

 

[Yorgos]

Whaaat? The troll has a two votes lead!! The greenskins curse will be broken at last? Yes? Maybe? Honestly, I'm surprised. Though I voted for it, I never expected it stood a chance to win, for reasons mentioned by Bjornlo and others.

 

[NavyDawg]

I added the Bedouin to the DB just a few days ago to free up space on my 30 meg allotment. It was posted to my easy upload file for a few weeks, and I have no idea how many d/l's it got in that time, but I'm sure more than 8 people have downloaded it.

 

[TopGun]

I added the Bedouin to the DB just a few days ago to free up space on my 30 meg allotment. It was posted to my easy upload file for a few weeks, and I have no idea how many d/l's it got in that time, but I'm sure more than 8 people have downloaded it.

I did! I did! I did!

 

[Bjornlo]

I did! I did! I did!

Me too.
Ok that makes a little sense. I did not check the date on your unit. The swordsman however is in the same sub-group and so are to I noted that it and th troll were uploaded to the database close to the same time.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

It's been an interesting competition, this one; at first it looked like the Empire Swordsman was going to walk it, then there was a neck-and-neck competition; now the troll's in the lead. With only a few hours left to vote, it's still undecided who will win.

What is great is that 78 people have voted - and the number of people voting in all these competitions is increasing.

 

[mrtn]

I have a theory regarding the comparatively few downloads of the empire swordsman and the orc shaman. They will both be featured in (and is specifically made for) the soon to be released new version of the Warhammer mod. And, especially the shaman, is quite specific to that universe.

So, my theory about the brontosaurus goes like this:
Are you ready?
The brontosaurus is thin in one end, much much thicker in the middle, and then thin again.
This is my theory, it is mine, and I own it.

So it may be that people look forward to use the units in the mod, but don't see a reason to download them separately.

 

[Virote_Considon]

But the Shaman has been downloaded MANY times... 111 according to Bjornlo, earlier today.