Unit requests thread

[The Capo]

For the top one, Mechaerik made a serbian unit with a fez; you could probably do something with that.

I saw that, the chetnik, but it would require way more editing than I am capable of doing, plus I'd like for the units to be made by the same person so they "match" if that makes sense.

I'd try to learn this stuff myself, but I'm pretty busy - working on a mod and a bunch of leaderheads right now, not to mention my actual life which is getting pretty busy lately. So I'm content just waiting to see if anyone makese these for me at this point. I figure they'd be useful for mods, especially flavored-unit ones.

 

[Flying Pig]

What have people like Diversica and Varietas Delectat got for similar civs?

 

[Le Sage]

This is going to sound a bit off.

I need a drunkard unit. Preferably he will be holding his mug, but fight with a rusty knife. He should be medieval-serf-looking and in a bad shape.

If anyone's up for making a really weird unit, go right ahead. I have a place for him, believe it or not. Or if anyone know of something that could match, please report.

Here's a picture of a medieval drunk that could serve as inspiration. I mean, the bloke to the left.

 

[The Capo]

What have people like Diversica and Varietas Delectat got for similar civs?

They use, what amounts to, a Hoplite carrying a musket or a cuirassier with a Hoplite's head on it. Kinda unrealistic.

 

[The Capo]

Hey, I'm trying to come up with some Asian great people and I'm having a bit of trouble with the great artist. What I was planning on doing was just taking Chuggi's geisha unit and putting it on the Great Artist animations, then replacing the skull with the jar from the Confucianism cutscene.

If anyone can help me do this that'd be awesome, I just can't seem to figure it out with my limited abilities.

 

[SaibotLieh]

Hey, I'm trying to come up with some Asian great people and I'm having a bit of trouble with the great artist. What I was planning on doing was just taking Chuggi's geisha unit and putting it on the Great Artist animations, then replacing the skull with the jar from the Confucianism cutscene.

If anyone can help me do this that'd be awesome, I just can't seem to figure it out with my limited abilities.

That one is in fact not very easy, but it is possible and one can learn a lot here. I don't really know how much experience you have with NifSkope, so I'll stay as simple as possible. Don't feel offended because of it.

To exchange two models, I normally switch the NiTriShapeData and (if existing) the NiSkinInstance. First says how the object is formed, second how the parts of the object are linked to the bone structur. After these files are switched, the NiTexturingProperty node has to be changed accordingly to put the right skin on the unit. This node can also be switched, but I prefer to adjust it manually.
First thing to do is therefore to copy the NiSkinInstance (63) of the Geisha unit via 'Block - Copy Branch' and paste it to the bottom of the Great Artist block list via 'Block - Paste Branch'. However, if you do this here, an error will appear:

failed to map parent link "NiNode|Bones Left Drapes"

This means that the Geisha NiSkinInstance has different bone references than the Great Artist skeleton offers. This can be a huge problem, but here it can be fixed relatively simple. The bone references are mostly the same, the Geisha skeleton just has only two more bones: 'Bones Left Drapes' and 'Bones Right Drapes'. These are connected to the according Forearms. These must copied to the Great Artist skeleton first. For this, unfold the BIP node (10) of the Geisha and unfold further through the skeleton until you reach the Drape nodes. Copy Branch them and Paste Branch them directly onto the Forearm nodes of the Great Artist skeleton. After both Drape nodes are copied, the Geisha NiSkinInstance node should be copyable with no further problems.
When the node is copied, click on the Great_Artist_Body NiTriShape. Renumber the Skin Instance in the Block Details part to the newly added NiSkinInstance. Now the artist model should look like it's just exploding, but don't worry about that. Copy the NiTriShapeData of the Geisha (62) and exchange the great artist NiTriShapeData with it by directly clicking on it and choosing 'Block - Paste over'. Now the unit should look like the Geisha, just laying on the ground. Rotation the unit 90° around the y-axis should do the trick. With this, the main model is exchanged, last thing left is to put the right .dds file name into the NiTexturingProperty node.

Now for the Skull. Basically it's just the same, only easier because there is no NiSkinInstance node this time. However, there is another problem, the Skull is a NiTriStrips node, the jar is a NiTriShape one. This can be fixed by choosing 'Mesh - Triangulate' on the NiTriStrips node. This should turn it into a NiTriShape node. Now exchange the NiTriShapeDate node like before and change the entry in the NiTexturingProperty. This time it might be favorable to copy the NiTexturingProperty instead of just renaming the entry, especially because you'll have to create a new NiSourceTexture anyway. The unit's model and the Skull link to the same NiSourceTexture node, thus renaming it in one of the both renames it in the other at the same time.
You might want to twist the jar around a bit because a brush is also part of this model. I don't really now if this works, but it might be possible to hide the brush in the arm of the model.
To check if everything works fine, load an animation of the unit via 'Spells - Animation - Attached.KF'. Now you can see how the animation will look like. However, don't save the unit after this, because then the animation information will be saved into the .nif file and make it larger with no benefit.

I hope this helps. I know it looks like a lot at first, but with a little training this can be done in a very short time.

 

[The Capo]

Thanks a lot SL.

I'll try this out when I get home, I am assuming I could use the same methods for similar situations?

 

[SaibotLieh]

Thanks a lot SL.

I'll try this out when I get home, I am assuming I could use the same methods for similar situations?

You are welcome. This way I always swap models, so yes, it can be used for many units.

 

[ambrox62]

Hi SL,
I think that the swap procedure you described above, should be moved/copied somewhere into the tutorial section, because it is really accurate and very useful for new modders

As further contribution I would add some tips coming from my nifswap experiences, although nothing below is really needed:
1) whenever possible, do the nifswap using a clean/original/firaxis nif as target
2) before swapping, do a copy/paste of the target Shape under the same node (i.e. duplicate the target mesh), then swap the mesh into the the first/original shape as described by SL; this way you may edit the position of your fresh copied mesh in order to exactly match the original one using the duplicated shape as visual reference; when finished, remove from the father node the second duplicated child, then definetively remove the duplicated shape from the nif
3) before swapping, sometimes you need to rename the node names in the starting skinistance nif when they don't match the target node names (tipically when they are BIP xxxx in a nif and Bip01 xxxx in the other)
4) absolutely preserve the target NiMaterialProperty if you want fading animations work properly

Hope this could help

 

[The_Coyote]

i have added for the beginning a link to the post in the OP of the nifskope tutorial - at least the informations will not vanish in the deeps of this thread

Edit: i still prefer to copy the entire NiTriShape / Strips and exchange the properties (and because it´s one of the rare situations with this, there can´t be an empty property slot - if there is one the game will crash) with the ones of the original mesh (what of course forces me to change the name and the flag of the mesh). Similar to the fading (alpha value modification of the NiMaterialProperty throu the animation) of human like units there are some important bits of information in the NiTextureProperty for the damage texture in mechanical units (zoom and UV position change) in the decal texture slot.

btw has someone tried to apply a mechanical unit shader to an human like unit and used the damage texture to apply some wounds to the guy / girl when hurt?

 

[speedy5044]

Here is a bizarre request. How about some classic side scrolling game units:
Mario
Luigi
etc.

 

[Le Sage]

Not a Mario, perhaps, but SaibotLieh made Lara Croft about a week ago. A real stunner of a unit too!

 

[SaibotLieh]

Hi SL,
I think that the swap procedure you described above, should be moved/copied somewhere into the tutorial section, because it is really accurate and very useful for new modders

I thought this all was already written somewhere.
Well, I think The_Coyote steps to preserve it should do.
Your additions are also very helpful. I guess I was a bit lazy there...

i have added for the beginning a link to the post in the OP of the nifskope tutorial - at least the informations will not vanish in the deeps of this thread

Edit: i still prefer to copy the entire NiTriShape / Strips and exchange the properties (and because it´s one of the rare situations with this, there can´t be an empty property slot - if there is one the game will crash) with the ones of the original mesh (what of course forces me to change the name and the flag of the mesh). Similar to the fading (alpha value modification of the NiMaterialProperty throu the animation) of human like units there are some important bits of information in the NiTextureProperty for the damage texture in mechanical units (zoom and UV position change) in the decal texture slot.

Thanks.
Personally I try to change as few as possible when swapping meshs, exactly because of all the flags and names and other stuff that is also important and I don't know about.

btw has someone tried to apply a mechanical unit shader to an human like unit and used the damage texture to apply some wounds to the guy / girl when hurt?

I haven't made a mechanical units so far, but I thought for a short time about adding a damage texture to my Lara unit. I dropped that idea in the end. To be true I never bothered with the shader stuff.

 

[The Capo]

That one is in fact not very easy, but it is possible and one can learn a lot here. I don't really know how much experience you have with NifSkope, so I'll stay as simple as possible. Don't feel offended because of it.

To exchange two models, I normally switch the NiTriShapeData and (if existing) the NiSkinInstance. First says how the object is formed, second how the parts of the object are linked to the bone structur. After these files are switched, the NiTexturingProperty node has to be changed accordingly to put the right skin on the unit. This node can also be switched, but I prefer to adjust it manually.
First thing to do is therefore to copy the NiSkinInstance (63) of the Geisha unit via 'Block - Copy Branch' and paste it to the bottom of the Great Artist block list via 'Block - Paste Branch'. However, if you do this here, an error will appear:

failed to map parent link "NiNode|Bones Left Drapes"

This means that the Geisha NiSkinInstance has different bone references than the Great Artist skeleton offers. This can be a huge problem, but here it can be fixed relatively simple. The bone references are mostly the same, the Geisha skeleton just has only two more bones: 'Bones Left Drapes' and 'Bones Right Drapes'. These are connected to the according Forearms. These must copied to the Great Artist skeleton first. For this, unfold the BIP node (10) of the Geisha and unfold further through the skeleton until you reach the Drape nodes. Copy Branch them and Paste Branch them directly onto the Forearm nodes of the Great Artist skeleton. After both Drape nodes are copied, the Geisha NiSkinInstance node should be copyable with no further problems.
When the node is copied, click on the Great_Artist_Body NiTriShape. Renumber the Skin Instance in the Block Details part to the newly added NiSkinInstance. Now the artist model should look like it's just exploding, but don't worry about that. Copy the NiTriShapeData of the Geisha (62) and exchange the great artist NiTriShapeData with it by directly clicking on it and choosing 'Block - Paste over'. Now the unit should look like the Geisha, just laying on the ground. Rotation the unit 90° around the y-axis should do the trick. With this, the main model is exchanged, last thing left is to put the right .dds file name into the NiTexturingProperty node.

Now for the Skull. Basically it's just the same, only easier because there is no NiSkinInstance node this time. However, there is another problem, the Skull is a NiTriStrips node, the jar is a NiTriShape one. This can be fixed by choosing 'Mesh - Triangulate' on the NiTriStrips node. This should turn it into a NiTriShape node. Now exchange the NiTriShapeDate node like before and change the entry in the NiTexturingProperty. This time it might be favorable to copy the NiTexturingProperty instead of just renaming the entry, especially because you'll have to create a new NiSourceTexture anyway. The unit's model and the Skull link to the same NiSourceTexture node, thus renaming it in one of the both renames it in the other at the same time.
You might want to twist the jar around a bit because a brush is also part of this model. I don't really now if this works, but it might be possible to hide the brush in the arm of the model.
To check if everything works fine, load an animation of the unit via 'Spells - Animation - Attached.KF'. Now you can see how the animation will look like. However, don't save the unit after this, because then the animation information will be saved into the .nif file and make it larger with no benefit.

I hope this helps. I know it looks like a lot at first, but with a little training this can be done in a very short time.

Hi SL,
I think that the swap procedure you described above, should be moved/copied somewhere into the tutorial section, because it is really accurate and very useful for new modders

As further contribution I would add some tips coming from my nifswap experiences, although nothing below is really needed:
1) whenever possible, do the nifswap using a clean/original/firaxis nif as target
2) before swapping, do a copy/paste of the target Shape under the same node (i.e. duplicate the target mesh), then swap the mesh into the the first/original shape as described by SL; this way you may edit the position of your fresh copied mesh in order to exactly match the original one using the duplicated shape as visual reference; when finished, remove from the father node the second duplicated child, then definetively remove the duplicated shape from the nif
3) before swapping, sometimes you need to rename the node names in the starting skinistance nif when they don't match the target node names (tipically when they are BIP xxxx in a nif and Bip01 xxxx in the other)
4) absolutely preserve the target NiMaterialProperty if you want fading animations work properly

Hope this could help

i have added for the beginning a link to the post in the OP of the nifskope tutorial - at least the informations will not vanish in the deeps of this thread

Edit: i still prefer to copy the entire NiTriShape / Strips and exchange the properties (and because it´s one of the rare situations with this, there can´t be an empty property slot - if there is one the game will crash) with the ones of the original mesh (what of course forces me to change the name and the flag of the mesh). Similar to the fading (alpha value modification of the NiMaterialProperty throu the animation) of human like units there are some important bits of information in the NiTextureProperty for the damage texture in mechanical units (zoom and UV position change) in the decal texture slot.

btw has someone tried to apply a mechanical unit shader to an human like unit and used the damage texture to apply some wounds to the guy / girl when hurt?

Or you guys could just make some of these requests.

Just kidding (sort of), thanks everyone, I'll try these methods a few times and maybe I can get the hang of it.

 

[Doomwyte]

i need a leaderhead that looks like a mouse in a dark green habit and a flag that has a picture of a walled abbey for my mod

 

[Doomwyte]

i need leaderhead art that looks like a mouse in a green habit and a flag with a picture of a walled abbey for my mod HELP

 

[The Capo]

This is so not the right place for this request.

 

[kiwitt]

NATO style Interface buttons for RtW.

I have ***, ****, *****, ***** for infantry and tank corps/divisions/armies and army groups, but need

**, Division
*, Brigade
||| Regiment
|| Battalion
| Company

For infantry and tank units.

 

[Mad Man]

Did anybody else get what he said?

 

[Flying Pig]

Yes. Those are the symbols used on NATO maps for units of various sizes. However he's obviously been brought up (despite being a citizen of the Commonwealth, and therefore cultural heir to the greatest system of military organisation ever ) on the US system - the regiment symbol is correct, but || denotes a battalion (or US regiment), | a company and below that we have ... for a platoon (or armoured troop), .. for a fighting section and . for a fire team or a below-strength section (for example, a recon patrol of four men).

I'll find a diagram if I can.

EDIT: Got some!

Formations by size:

A section (c 10 men commanded by a corporal, sergeant or occasionally a colour/staff sergeant) is made up of 2 fire teams commanded by lance-corporals. A platoon (cavalry troop) is made up of three sections commanded by a lieutenant (pronounced leff-tenant) and contains 32 men (3 sections + OC + 2Lt) or 3-4 tanks in which case it is called a troop. A company (or squadron in the cavalry) is made up of three rifle platoons plus a company HQ (the OC and his people to co-ordinate the unit in battle; think intelligence men and that sort), and a batallion is usually made up of 3 rifle companies plus a HQ company and a manoever support company. A battalion forms the core of a battlegroup, the smallest 'unit' that is deployed into a theatre (generally an infantry battalion, an armoured company, plus assets like REME, Signals and so on). In the cavalry, battalion and regiment are synonymous (regiments are 1 battalion) and a Royal Marine battalion is called a commando.

Multiple battalions form a regiment which has a common identity but is almost never deployed together and rarely share a role - for example, 1 RIFLES is a commando-trained light infantry battalion while 5 RIFLES are armoured infantry. The SAS is known as a regiment, but each constituent part (21, 22 and 23 SAS) are also called regiments. A regiment is often officially commanded by a very senior officer (the parachute regiment CinC is a general), and a battalion by a Lt-Colonel.

Battalions are grouped together along with auxiliary bits to form brigades (for example, 3 Commando Brigade is composed mostly of 3 RM battalions (or commandos), 1 infantry battalion (1 RIFLES), 1 Royal Artillery battery and a Squadron of royal engineers). These group into divisions commanded by major-generals. A division is the largest force that the modern British army will deploy in 'peacetime' and if all ground forces (british army, RAF regiment and RM included) were mustered together they could probably make 8 divisions.

Above that we have a corps which has two meanings, the first being as in 30 Corps which means 'a group of divisions making a bloody massive formation'. The UK used to keep one of these in Germany, designated 1 (BR) Corps, whose role it was to defend West Germany from a Soviet attack; the second being as in 'Royal Corps of Signal' or 'Army Air Corps'. A Field Army is made up of at least one corps with some extra units, probably divisions, added on, and will have responsiblity for the best part of a theatre. Army Groups, Regions and Theatres come above that in that order (a Theatre would have responsibility for all of Europe, a Region for Western Europe, and an Army Group for France).