Speculative Graphics Showcase

[Gothmog]

Here are some of my favorites from a very eclectic collection of scenarios I've made.

[techumseh]

Here's a sample of some of my units from unreleased ToT scenarios:

[Mr. Oobir]

Here are some unfinished units I have made so far for my Resident Evil scenario. I'm not the greatest unit artist if you can't tell.

[BeBro]

So much great units! :)

To keep it alive, here is the spy I use in normal civ games.

You can say it is Mrs.Bond ;):D

[DarthVeda]

Wing Commander... the step up to conversions

Do note that I had a similar project involving MechWarrior after this scenario that nobody ever had the chance to see outside myself and a small circle.

[DarthVeda]

Then we step up to Gang Wars, where I broke into full fledged scavanging for parts to create new units from old units.

[William Keenan]

Lots of nice 20th century units here. How about some Fantasy units to balance things out a bit.
http://coc.apolyton.net/images/temp/wkorcs.bmp

[William Keenan]

Another interjection from the Fantasy minority; Underdark denizens.

http://hobby.org/temp/wkundark.bmp

[WarVoid]

Here's the Quake conversion units I made. These, IMHO, actually came out awesome.

[klesh]

Like so:

[WarVoid]

This is a SeaDoo unit I made for the Waterworld scenario i'm working on.

It's the only sneak peak you're getting at it for now. ;)

[ravagon]

Bah humbug. Stuffed it up again. Used the image instead of attachment. D'oh. Thanks Case.

[WarVoid]

Ok, I was bored, so here's Case's ex-girlfriend... errr... I mean Mr. Oobir's unit... ;)

I made it and I don't even know what it is! :D

[WarVoid]

I dunno what Oobir's plague unit looked like, but here's a conversion of DV's Rumbler pic. Touch up the edges and it won't look half bad.

[frunobulax]

... and here's the 'Zontar' unit (sort of a prototype version, which needs tweaking/refining etc etc)...

[Mr. Oobir]

Two units of which I am semi-proud!

Left: "Hypnotist"
Right: "Mirror"

[Mr. Oobir]

here it is:

[Mr. Oobir]

Originally posted by Paul Hanson
Goa'uld death glider


I've never watched Stargate, so I am not sure if these colors are accurate, but they were the best I could make out from the pictures I've found.

[WarVoid]

Here's some units I made for a scenario i've been working on for a little while. It's based on that old B horror movie series, <i>Critters</i> and is a sci-fi space epic with planetary invasions and man (or alien) hunts as quests and stuff. Should be cool when it's done. :)

Top row, L to R; Med Krite, Small Krite, Unarmed Bounty Hunter, Unarmed Shock Control, Unarmed Storm Trooper, Corporate Exec
Second row, L to R; Large Krite, Krite Cluster, Armed Bountry Hunter, Armed Shock Control, Armed Storm Troopers, Local Sheriff

[Mr. Oobir]

Five more units here, and names are below each. The first two have been reduced in quality to be in compliance with the Civ2 palette. For the fifth one, the human - could somebody tell me what's wrong about it? That's the first (and only) person I've ever drawn, and it looks funny.

[Mr. Oobir]

Here are two images. One is a correction of the woman unit, and the other is a toaster. I don't know.

[Mr. Oobir]

Here are all the units I have edited from another unit. Admittedly, the original graphics were probably better than these altered ones, but hey.

[WarVoid]

Here are a green and grey Drakh unit. I could'nt decide on which color to use because from the pictures i've seen of the Drakh, they are a shade in-between the two... They're gonna be for a Babylon 5 scenario i've been working on for a while. B5 RULEZ! ;)

[WarVoid]

<i>Crusade</i> was awesome, especially if you had watched every B5 episode and movie beforehand. I thought the entire cast of <i>Crusade</i> was great, except Gary Cole. For some reason I think JMS could have found someone better for the part. :)

You're right about the Drakh now that I think about it. I found some more pics and I have two different Drakh styles; one with a cloak and mask, probably an elite, and one without the cloak and mask, probably a soldier. Here's an olive green Drakh. I think this looks better.

[Panda]

B5 fans should look at for the forthcoming "Legend of the Rangers" spin-off (the pilot is available).

On this subject, does anyone know what happened to Coug's B5 project. It was last mentioned on that Sci-fi page he set up under SidGames. I did send an e-mail to his old address, but I doubt he received it. Does anybody have his Norwegian address?

Juts so this isn't completely pointless, here are the units posted way back then:

[curtsibling]

Here is some crazy units from an ancient scenario I am considering re-making!

[curtsibling]

Here is some units from the same series of 1960's scenarios!

Where you get to control mad cults, including the Manson Family!

Scary! :eek:

[Mr. Oobir]

Does anyone know of some nice "cave wall" graphics that were made to occupy the mountain slots?

And here's a graphic to show that I've been working (edit: oops, next time I should check to see if it a .bmp):

[Mr. Oobir]

Here are two more units. On the left is a disaster survivor, and on the right is an irate nanny (she 's underappreciated, underpaid, and under pressure. She packs a mean broomstick!)

[William Keenan]

A public offering for anyone interested in doing an Underdark scenario for ToT:

http://www.cociv.net/images/temp/wkundark2.bmp

[tanelorn]

These are some of my early warlord-ish units for warhammer that someone had asked for. One day I woke up, and the thing seemed so childish! I have grown a dislike to them, but you never know. I have a much better ToT collection in progress.

[tanelorn]

These are some of my ToT Warhammer Fantasy units, Favoured Flight style. The Imperials are BeBro in origin. I modded them sufficiently for the "T" I think.:scared:
I want to avoid getting credit for other people's work.

Someone had requested them on the very first page of this thread, I think. A couple of guys are looking for them at Civ Fanatics as well.

I have done many more, but I have trouble locating regimental banners for each unit, especially the Scaven ratmen. Any ideas?

I have completed a 2- layer ToT map of the Warhammer old world, with the Scaven (that is the infinitive of dig in Greek btw) under-empire and all, but I desperately need ideas for the tech tree. Now that my Greek revolution thing is on hold, I might divert some effort to this project. Would anyone be interested on yet another fantasy scenario though? Should I start a thread or drop it? It feels a bit geeky, anyway.

(I had to reduce colours to have it show as a .gif, mind you- there is a way to avoid that, but I really don't remember the drill)

[The ANZAC]

Warvoid, Curt: anything happening with those scenarios?

[klesh]

Mr. Oobir,

Seriously man, you draw some of the funkiest units out there. Love them. :b:

-FMK.

[Xyvyr]

Anybody have/know of any good wizard or dragon units collections? I'm doing a spells-not-guns type scenerio and I've been twisting normal units' graphics into my own evil creations and I fear I'm going.. pixel.. MAAAAAAD!

Savage anyone? :evilgrin:

[St Leo]

<a href="http://sleague.apolyton.net/db/singlefile.php?urlfileid=34">Age of Wonders Units</a> by Triumph Studios
<a href="http://sleague.apolyton.net/db/singlefile.php?urlfileid=50">Age of Wonders Cities</a> by Triumph Studios
<a href="http://sleague.apolyton.net/db/singlefile.php?urlfileid=39">HoMM3 Units</a> by New World Computing

[Xyvyr]

Wow! Great links - awesome sight! I think I spotted a Gorgon.. haven't seen one of those since the original AD&D Monster Manual! Thx St Leo

[EZRhino]

Dianogas, from SW: Dark Forces. They didnt turn out quit right. Im thinking of making a RPG style Star Wars scenario. Mabe a trash compactor scene? Could be interesting...

http://apolyton.net/upload/files/EZRhino/dianogas.bmp

[EZRhino]

This has an Imperial Storm Trooper, a naval commando, and the mercenaries Bossk and Boba Fett. The boot of the commando looks kinda funny :( , I will try to improve him by and by.

http://apolyton.net/upload/files/EZRhino/impsmercs.bmp

[EZRhino]

A few more SW characters; an Ewok, a ReeYees, a Gamorrean Guard, and an Imperial Officer. Ill try to do some droids next.

http://apolyton.net/upload/files/EZRhino/variousothers.bmp

[EZRhino]

Duplicate Post.

[Bob_Smurf42]

Here are some units Iv'e made by combining the old ones.
http://apolyton.net/upload/files/Bob_Smurf42/bob/

Edit: Apparently the upload service didn't like the ' in the filename. Was originally Bob'sunits.bmp.

[The ANZAC]

try uploading them instead of linking to your computer: it won't work that way :o

[Bob_Smurf42]

Here are some units I've made by combining old ones.
http://apolyton.net/upload/files/Bob_Smurf42/BobUnits.bmp

[EZRhino]

Good work. I like the Jetpack Rifleman:b:

[Elok]

Sorry the attached image is so tacky-looking. When I UL'd it it turned all the purple shades green, probably because it's a bmp. Anyway, it's the unfinished units pic from my Final Fantasy scenario in progress. Any tips for how I can improve them? Some of them, like the tonberry, turned out awesome, but others, like that horrible chocobo you probably can't even recognize as such, are just plain ugh.

http://apolyton.net/upload/files/Elok/UNITS.bmp

[Bob_Smurf42]

A Final Fantasy scenario? Is there a thread about it? could you bump it for me? or a link?

[Mr. Oobir]

Here are some more units I've created for my scenario. I'm a bit rusty at drawing graphics (had little time to use the computer) but they've turned out well enough for my needs.

I painstakingly drew all the gradients in the graphics using the CivII palette, only to realize that these are ToT units. Go figure :rolleyes:

[EZRhino]

Looks good:b:. Hows that scenario coming?

[Mr. Oobir]

Thank you. I stopped working on it in early September, and I hadn't gotten very far with it then. I've started working on it again. I have 65% of the graphics done, so it'll be a while yet.

So this post isn't a waste, here's another paletted ToT unit. Again, I've done better.

[Alex Woehr]

I have a few unit requests if someone knows where I can find these or draw them for me in FavFlight's style:

Human:
A "hero" unit with a bow
A light infantry
A human armed with a sling
a crow

Goblin:
A Goblin "hero"
A Warg rider

Eagles:
just 2 different variations of an eagle

Elves:
An Elf "hero"
An Elf armed with a spear

Dwarves:
The 11 dwarves in Tolkien's The Hobbit (if you can't find these just a generic one and Thorin will do)
another "hero" unit

I would draw these myself, but I don't have the artistic ability, nor a good paint program, nor enough money to get either.
:(

[Arthedain]

Originally posted by Alex Woehr
I have a few unit requests if someone knows where I can find these or draw them for me in FavFlight's style:

Human:
A "hero" unit with a bow
A light infantry
A human armed with a sling
a crow

Goblin:
A Goblin "hero"
A Warg rider

Eagles:
just 2 different variations of an eagle

Elves:
An Elf "hero"
An Elf armed with a spear

Dwarves:
The 11 dwarves in Tolkien's The Hobbit (if you can't find these just a generic one and Thorin will do)
another "hero" unit

I would draw these myself, but I don't have the artistic ability, nor a good paint program, nor enough money to get either.
:(

So we can expect ourself a The Hobbit scenario? :) Awesome! Just hope you will be able to finnish it. I'm not at home right now. But if you want me to, I can send you detailed maps from the book. Well actually the maps are from Karen Wynn Fonstad's book Atlas of Middle Earth, but I think you can find them usefull. Also, you should download Harlan Thompson's Lord of the Rings scenario cause there's eagles in that one :)

Btw, I can post some of the units you wanted when I get home.

[The ANZAC]

Some of those units should already be in FavFlight's scenarios: check his website here http://www.favfly.fsworld.co.uk/index.html

As for some of the others, a guy named GukGuk made some LOTR units, but they are in a more nemo-esque style: do you still want me to post them?

[Arthedain]

gah, I couldn't get the units.bmp into units.gif.. so I can't post units here..

Don't hesitate to ask me for the maps Alex :D

[Alex Woehr]

I didn't mean to get your hopes up, but I don't think I will try a full scale scenario on The Hobbit just yet. I am actually just making a tactical Battle of Five Armies Scenario for ToT. :evilgrin:

Anyway, I have already looked through FavFlight's units and gleamed or edited what I needed. I would like to see Gukguk's compilation (I have seen it once but I don't know how to find it again) if you don't mind posting it. I already have units for the requests I mentioned above, but they are pretty grainy. By the way, I ment a thrush, not a crow.

[Arthedain]

still this map could be useful.

[Cyrion]

I'm working on a Discworld scenario, and the graphics are mostly done! :) (actually "found" would be truer than "done"! ;))

I still lack a few units though and would need some help on them (as I'm definitely no artist!).

The first 3 would be "multi units" as on the example I joined (which will represent the Ankh-Morpork City Watch)



1. Ogg Family

with Jason, Sean and at least 1 other: 1 blacksmith, 1 guard, others

2. Nac Mac Feegle

Small humanoids, like "mad,weird, agressive Smurf: "Far below, unheeded and unheeding, something else was entering this little handful of valleys. It was hard to see exactly what it was; furze rippled, heather rustled, as if a very large army made of very small creatures was moving with one purpose.
The shadow reached a flat rock that offered a magnificent view of the fields and wood below, and there the army came out from among the roots. It was made up of very small blue men, some wearing pointy blue caps but most of them with their red hair uncovered. They carried swords. None of them was more than six inches high.
They lined up and looked down into the new place and then, weapons waving, raised a battle cry. It would have been more impressive if they'd all agreed on one before, but as it was it sounded as though every single small warrior had a battle cry of his very own and would fight anyone who tried to take it away from him.

3. Horsemen of Apocralypse

Only 3 of them: the 4th (Death) will try to stop them

So they are: War, Famine and Pestilence. If necessary, I can find a description of them!


And the other units represent places:

4. Temple of Bel-Shamaroth

I would like an octogonal building with a graving of a kind of cthuluh octopus on the roof, if you know what I mean... :D

4. Holy Wood

Not many idea how it should look like!

4. Dunmanifestin

Home of the gods! It's a high mountain, looking like a rock needle with a palace on the top of it!


Many requests, I know! :)

But still... the Turtle moves... ;)

[Dr. Nick]

Don't forget Greebo!

[Cyrion]

Thought you would come in, El! :D

I'm afraid Greebo won't make it in this one! but if all goes well, he might in the SP one I hope to do (but let's finish this one first! ;) )

El, do you feel like helping with one of the units I mentionned above?? :D

[tanelorn]

Originally posted by Alex Woehr

A Warg rider

:(
How about this on (its for warhammer, but still...)?
I have it in different combinations of fur, shields etc. Will that one do?

[Bob_Smurf42]

Two volcanos and a waterfall again, this time as a resource. The exploding volcano could use a little work, I think.
http://apolyton.net/upload/files/Bob_Smurf42/Volcano-Waterfall.bmp

[Alex Woehr]

Thanks, Tanelorn, that looks great! If you have one without a shield it might go better with my other units, though.

To Arthedain: I actually used that very map when I designed the map and placed the units, but thanks anyway!

[Mr. Oobir]

Here's some guy with a gun. Hooray!

[Cyrion]

Ok, here is my first contribution to the Poly graphic community!

Of course, the inspiration source for the unit is quite easy to find :D

As it is my first unit, and as I've as much artistic talent as a brick, I'd like some honest opinion on it :)

And I still need help on the units I described in my previous post! Anybody?? :D

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce... THE LUGGAGE! :D

[Dr. Nick]

It's got too many feet if you ask me.

[fairline]

Thats nice, Cyrion. You need to get rid of the speckles in the transparent part of the cell, though, as they'll show up in civ.

BTW, do you and the splendid Mr Oobir come from the same planet? :D

Luggage as a unit ?? :lol:

[Cyrion]

Originally posted by fairline
Thats nice, Cyrion. You need to get rid of the speckles in the transparent part of the cell, though, as they'll show up in civ.

BTW, do you and the splendid Mr Oobir come from the same planet? :D

Luggage as a unit ?? :lol:

Thanks Fairline! :)

No prob with the speckles: they don't appear in the .bmp original!

Now about the planet... who knows!! :lol:

And El Awrence: I'll see what it would look like with a few less feet! :b:

[St Leo]

Surely El Lawrence was making a reference, n'est pas?:)

[Dr. Nick]

Not at all. I really honestly believe it has too many feet. No pune intended. :p :D

[Bob_Smurf42]

Another Mr. Oobir?:eek::rolleyes::lol:

[Mr. Oobir]

Originally posted by Bob_Smurf42
Another Mr. Oobir?:eek::rolleyes::lol:

Hey now, there's only one Oobir:p And yes, fewer feet would help this unit quite a bit.

[Cyrion]

St Leo: at first, I thought it was a reference too!

But as Mr Oobir (the 1 and only ;)) agrees with El Awrence on the number of feet, I'll see what i can do! :b:

But I'll keep many of them: the many small feet are part of the Luggage... :)

[techumseh]

Don't do it! It's very appealing as it is. The "Millipede" by American Tourister. :D

[Cyrion]

So, I just don't know what to think about this unit...

For those you don't recognize (or know) it, it's supposed to be the Moving Turtle, with and steam exhaust tube (which can, incidentally, be used to project steam on people! but nobody in his right mind would do something like that... ;) ).

So, how could I improve the unit??

[Dr. Nick]

THE TURTLE MOVES!

[Cyrion]

Originally posted by El Awrence
THE TURTLE MOVES!

Does it mean you think the unit would be usable as I made it??

[Mr. Oobir]

Here's another unit I made a while back but forgot to upload. I call it "Flokken" (if someone could tell me if that means anything in another language, that'd be nice).


http://www.chronobreak.info/images/flokken.gif

[Cyrion]

Can someone explain me why my gif and jpeg aren't displayed any longer??

[fairline]

Yeah - it's happened to a lot of people's graphics, although some are still displayed :confused:

@ Mr Oobir: 'Flokken' just has to mean something pretty rude in Dutch ;)

[Jimmywax]

I would like to know why the GIFs aren't displayed?:confused:

[Mr. Oobir]

@ Mr Oobir: 'Flokken' just has to mean something pretty rude in Dutch

Erm, well, if that's the case, the name's gonna have to be changed :o

I would like to know why the GIFs aren't displayed?

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=85351

[Cyrion]

I made a slight modification to the Turtle, what do you think?? Ready for use??

[Cyrion]

Can you recognize this one?

And how should I improve it?

[Bob_Smurf42]

The turtle still looks like it's floating a little(should it be?:o) and the chunk of land should have the shadow underneath it. Just my two bits, though I'm no expert.

[Cyrion]

Thanks Bob, I'll do something about it! :)

[Michael Daumen]

Cyrion, your avatar is the luggage, no? Can I pinch it?

[Cyrion]

Yes Michael, it's the Luggage!! Feel free to take it! :)

Discworld fan too??

I used it to create a unit that'll appear in the Discworld scen I'm (slowly) working on and hope to release this Summer...

[Michael Daumen]

Yes, if I could reproduce Homer Simpson's drool sound in text it would be here while I waited for it.


mmm...sapient pearwood...

[St Leo]

Does anyone have any good mob graphics lying around? Something with a 19th century feel would be best.;)

[EZRhino]

This one is from the Secret Masters scenario. I do not know the name of the author.

http://apolyton.net/upload/files/EZRhino/Mob.bmp

[St Leo]

Strangely enough, that's the one I was already using.:P

[Arthedain]

Hey! Can someone rearrange the colors for this dragon? I want it to go in green :D Any help is appreciated.

[tanelorn]

These are some goblins and related monsters modified from Age of Wonders 2. Now I'm working on the drows (yes Drizzt too):cool:

[Mr. Oobir]

Originally posted by Arthedain
Hey! Can someone rearrange the colors for this dragon? I want it to go in green :D Any help is appreciated.
You mean like this?

[Arthedain]

Originally posted by Mr. Oobir

You mean like this?

exactly. Thank you so much Mr. Oobir :D

[tanelorn]

The drows I was talking about. The robed figure is a priestess of Loth. Double scimitars...;)
Nice colour for the dragon, hey:b:

[Arthedain]

I was wondering, if anyone want to, or have the time, could you help me to create two units? The units are one Saruman unit and one Sauron unit. Any help is very appreciated. :D:b:

[Arthedain]

okay, anyone willing to create an eye like the eye that represents Sauron in the movie?
and of course I still need the Saruman unit. I could really need them for my Lotr-scenario which I have planned for a long time. I really think I will start the project now since school is over on friday and I will have a lot of sparetime in the summer :)

wish me luck! this is my first real scenario project. just made a few before but they weren't so advanced.

[GePap]

Does anyone have Babylon 5 units? I know and have one basic set that came out about 1997. I though i saw that someone was trying to make much more complex graphics than those, and ownder if they were ever actually made?

[The ANZAC]

Yeah I saw that in the ToT forum, but nothing seems to have come of it :(

[St Leo]

Sauron's hard to steal.:)

[tanelorn]

Stills from the movie? Great! Nice idea, Your Sainthood! :b:

[Arthedain]

Very nice indeed S:t Leo :b:

[Arthedain]

Originally posted by tanelorn

How about this on (its for warhammer, but still...)?
I have it in different combinations of fur, shields etc. Will that one do?

can you post one without a shiled or a very neutral shield?

[tanelorn]

Yup, comming up!

[Arthedain]

Originally posted by tanelorn
Yup, comming up!

Thank you tanelorn!

[tanelorn]

Is a wooden shield with a metal boss ok? Any other requests? I am out of ideas, you name it, I'll (try to) make it.

[:) Smiley]

Those 60s'sish units rock! Gonna put some in UrbCiv.

[Arthedain]

Originally posted by tanelorn
Is a wooden shield with a metal boss ok? Any other requests? I am out of ideas, you name it, I'll (try to) make it.

That shield will do it. Thank you!

[Arthedain]

I think it looks nice in gameplay. Here is a little screenshot of the Witch-Kings hordes assaulting Weather Hills and North Downs in order to capture Fornost.

[Cimbri]

Germania-Mania :p

Hope someone finds them useful. Requests anyone? ;)

[EZRhino]

Looking good:b: :)

[tanelorn]

Great, it seems that DBA online is THE place to get inspiration. Shouldn't these fabulus units be posted in the pre-steam units thread too?
Minoans & Myceneans maybe?

[fairline]

I've seen your stuff at CivFan Cimbri; very nice. DBA online is great source material

[curtsibling]

Hi there, Cimbri!

[Cimbri]

Good evening Herr Curtsibling :)

@ Tanelorn and Fairline
Yep DBAOL is great. I’ve made many units using their resources.

Oh, and Tanelorn, you requested Minoans, would you like some Sea People to go with that? :p

[tanelorn]

Thanks Cimbri! These are great!
Considering recent archeological finds like those in Ascelon, Israel, readings of the Oddysey and biblical sources it may well be the case that the civilisations above are one and the same, roughly...
Some early Hebrews around the time of the Judges (1200bc) would be greatly appreciated!
-Is it that obvious where I am getting at?-

[Cimbri]

Originally posted by tanelorn
-Is it that obvious where I am getting at?-
An ancient Near East scenario perchance? ;) Biblical?

Here are some Hebrews from 1200 B.C. :)

[curtsibling]

A skeleton pikeman, from a secret project I am making graphics for! :)

[Arthedain]

oooh, keep em' coming curtsibling ;)

[curtsibling]

That is the tip of the fantasy iceberg! ;)

[William Keenan]

Nice Curt. Very well done. So what's this secret project?

[EZRhino]

The rumored Bad Trip scenario of old?:hopefull: :hippie: ;)

[Cyrion]

Curt, as I see that you do fantasy units as well, may I ask you (not ask, beg! ;) ) for a unit I need for a Discworld scen I hope to finish this autumn?

What I would need is a multi-unit representing 3 of the 4 riders of Apocalypse (the 4th, Death, is missing...:D ):

- War: a big, fat man in red with a battleaxe astride a heavy warhorse
- Famine: a really thin man on a really thin horse
- Pestilence: a sick looking man on a "greenish" looking horse

That is, if your numerous projects leave you time for this, of course! :D

[curtsibling]

Gimme a day or two and I'll get something together for you, Cyrion...:)

:)

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by William Keenan
Nice Curt. Very well done. So what's this secret project?

If I told youse, it wouldn't be a secret! :D

I can say it involves empire building, magic hunting and an invasion by a massive skeleton army! :evilgrin:

[curtsibling]

Cyrion, I might have to do these fellows individually, as it is nigh on impossible to fit three horses and riders into the small civ2 unit square...

:)

[William Keenan]

Originally posted by curtsibling


If I told youse, it wouldn't be a secret! :D

I can say it involves empire building, magic hunting and an invasion by a massive skeleton army! :evilgrin:

Sounds like fun! Need any help?

[Arthedain]

Ok here is a start of my Fantasy Compilation which you all can use :D It's not even closed to finished ;)

[William Keenan]

Originally posted by Arthedain
Ok here is a start of my Fantasy Compilation which you all can use :D It's not even closed to finished ;)

Errr ... I see my orc units dont have my initial on them.

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by William Keenan
Sounds like fun! Need any help?

Your orcs are superb.

If you have the time, I could use some harpies (like the ones in Daggerfall) and a beastman (goat-headed warrior with a axe or hunting bow)

A dark elf done in your style would be nice too...

I need all three of these creatures, and will give you full credit...:b:

[curtsibling]

Hail to the king! (The lich king that is!)

A lord of vile necromancy, from my new scenario...:)

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by EZRhino
The rumored Bad Trip scenario of old?:hopefull: :hippie: ;)

LOL!
That will happen one day! :D

[Arthedain]

Originally posted by William Keenan
Errr ... I see my orc units dont have my initial on them.

they were originally for tot so i had to arrange so they would be in civ2 format and somehow I lost the initials but please post them with your initials on them so I can correct it ;)

[Palaiologos]

Excellent units Curt and Cimbri!

[curtsibling]

Cheers! :)

[Cyrion]

Originally posted by curtsibling
Cyrion, I might have to do these fellows individually, as it is nigh on impossible to fit three horses and riders into the small civ2 unit square...

:)

Thanks for helping, Curt! :D

I was afraid it might be difficult to get the 3 horsemen in the same unit, but my problem is that I'll need them together (you know the problem with the limited unit slots... ;) )

What I had in mind was something along the lines of the unit I enclose below; of course, the riders might be a bit small then... What do you think??

[curtsibling]

Cool! Can you email me a bmp or gif of that? :)

[Cyrion]

Originally posted by curtsibling
Cool! Can you email me a bmp or gif of that? :)

Done :D

[curtsibling]

I'll get on it ASAP. :D

[Palaiologos]

That Gandalf unit by FavFly is SUPERB!

It is the best civ2 unit i have ever seen.

Simply exquisite.
Undescribable by mere words!!

P.S sorry Curt, fairline etc...

[Catfish]

On the off chance that anyone around here is making a ToT fantasy scenario, I have a few 24-bit graphics which I've had sitting on my HD for a couple of years. Most of the units have been made from photos or ripped from games such as AoK. The people graphics are converted from Dark Omen and Baldur's Gate.

The images are png format. The bmp versions are in zip format, below.
http://apolyton.net/upload/files/Catfish/FantasyUnits.png

http://apolyton.net/upload/files/Catfish/People.png

Fantasy units bmp (http://apolyton.net/upload/files/Catfish/FantasyUnits.zip)
People bmp (http://apolyton.net/upload/files/Catfish/People.zip)

[curtsibling]

Mind-blowing stuff!!! :D

[Palaiologos]

I'd say!

[Arthedain]

Awesome! Too bad they're for ToT..

[William Keenan]

Nice stuff Catfish. Its a good example of the high quality one can get working in 24 bit mode.

The JPG version is a little fuzzy. Would you mind posting a link to a zip file with the BMPs or emailing to me?

[Palaiologos]

He already has posted bmp links.

[Catfish]

Originally posted by Arthedain
Too bad they're for ToT..
Conversely, it's too bad that most graphics are/were made for vanilla Civ2, FW and MGE. What would Nemo, Erwan, BeBro and now Fairline do if they weren't restricted to the 8-bit Civ2 palette? Harlan Thompson introduced me to ToT a few years ago and I haven't gone back since. These days (although I don't play much any more), I convert Civ2 scenarios over to ToT using Angelo Scotto's CivConverter. There are, however, a few complaints I have with ToT:

1. The very visible health bar.
2. The aggressive diplomacy model.
3. The removal of the objective city multiplier.
4. The dog ugly out-of-the-box graphics - IMHO actually worse than the original 8-bit Civ2.

There are also many advantages, which I won't go into in this thread.

I've replaced nearly all of the ToT original game terrain graphics and will post my Terrain1.bmp and Terrain2.bmp, along with some spare terrains, in the non-unit graphics thread, if anyone's interested.

I might also explain what the above units are.
1st row: 2 giant eagles, 2 wargs/wolves, 3 wizards, swordsman/hero, dwarf.
2nd row: Celtic warrior type, firbolg, pikeman, archer, elven archer, barrow-wight, ent/treant, orc, dwarf.
3rd row: Nazgul (Khamûl), Celtic warrior (actually done in 8-bit), vampire, ghoul, vampiress, zombie, ghost, giant bats, thief/rogue.
4th row: All Warhammer knights.
5th row: 2 knights, werewolf, marquee, various keeps, churches and cathedrals.

[typhoon]

Is there a Cthulhu graphic out there?

[curtsibling]

@Catfish:

Please reveal your terrain!

I am most impressed by your work!

[fairline]

Wow Catfish, those are stunning :eek: :b:

[Palaiologos]

I don't get what is the problem if they are in TOT format.His people gfx(They are from Warhammer: The Dark omen,yes?) worked OK in MGE.

[Catfish]

Originally posted by Catfish
What would Nemo, Erwan, BeBro and now Fairline do if they weren't restricted to the 8-bit Civ2 palette?
I should've added Favoured Flight to this list - the 5 best Civ2 artists of all time IMHO.

Originally posted by curtsibling
Please reveal your terrain!
Will do. I found that the terrain released with ToT to be plain ugly - a big disappointment considering the potential available to the artists. The standard game terrains I now use are a combination of ones I've made and ones I've downloaded (why make it again if you don't have to). I suspect that the mountains I used are a slightly lighter version of the ones from your ToT Dictator2 scenario - they are easily the best I've seen.

Originally posted by fairline
Wow Catfish, those are stunning :eek: :b:
I might be OK at working on photos and ripped units, but I'm not too hot at making units from scratch. I blame you and your superb units for getting me interested in this stuff again ;). Anyway, this has been sitting on my HD for too long; it's about time I shared the wealth.

Originally posted by Palaiologos
I don't get what is the problem if they are in TOT format.His people gfx(They are from Warhammer: The Dark omen,yes?) worked OK in MGE.
I don't own MGE so I can't comment on whether or not they work, although I always assumed it used the old 8-bit palette. Yes, they are reduced versions of the character portraits from Warhammer: Dark Omen.

[curtsibling]

ToT should have been the greatest last gift to the CIV2 community from Microprose.

In a way it was.

But if the had made all those additions, and added them to MGE (I am thinking the graphics here) we would have had an amazing legacy.

As it is, I think ToT is still worthy, but I find MGE to be more accessible.

[Arthedain]

Originally posted by Palaiologos
I don't get what is the problem if they are in TOT format.His people gfx(They are from Warhammer: The Dark omen,yes?) worked OK in MGE.

well they work in MGE but you have to resize them and so on. It's a lot of work :)

ToT is too dark for my taste.. gives me a bad feeling or something hehe ;) and don't like that the menu is in the upper row cause I'm used to that it's to the right in MGE. Anyways, I wasn't meaning that ToT is bad.. I just like MGE better myself :)

[tanelorn]

I think that the single most important flaw of ToT is the lack of an editor. The day such a utility would come out, it'd be bye bye MGE for me.

[Catfish]

Originally posted by curtsibling
As it is, I think ToT is still worthy, but I find MGE to be more accessible.
In what way? I don't have MGE.

Originally posted by Arthedain
ToT is too dark for my taste.. gives me a bad feeling or something hehe ;) and don't like that the menu is in the upper row cause I'm used to that it's to the right in MGE. Anyways, I wasn't meaning that ToT is bad.. I just like MGE better myself :)
That's why I changed the graphics. My terrains are now posted in the non-unit graphics thread. You can easily switch the position of the menu to the right-hand-side by toggling the Map layout option in the View menu.

Originally posted by tanelorn
I think that the single most important flaw of ToT is the lack of an editor. The day such a utility would come out, it'd be bye bye MGE for me.
I find it amazing in these forums as to the number of "veteran" scenario designers that still use the scenario editor. Years ago when I first dabbled in scenario design, I took a look at the editor and moved straight on to Notepad - it was quicker, easier and I knew exactly what changes had been made to my files.

Even more astounding is that many people still use it to edit graphics - which is probably why, despite the possibilities created by 24-bit colour, very little has eventuated from the Civ2 community in this area.

[Henrik]

The ones who uses the editors to edit graphics are most likely extremely few.

The editors actually are more simple for some stuff, at most things they are a disaster though...

[fairline]

Thanks for the compliment catfish, although I'm not sure it's deserved :) Standing on the shoulders of giants springs to mind. For my two-pennorth, I'd put Curt Sibling way up the all-time list of best Civ graphics artists.

You were referring to the health bars in ToT. Check out Mercator's efforts to remove them:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=88815

This should be useful for 'units' that represent terrain features and suchlike.

It's entirely possible to make ToT graphically superior to MGE, as your units and terrain show, and it has far greater events capability and the multi-map feature. Come on designers, move over to ToT, you know it makes sense :D

[Catfish]

Originally posted by fairline
Thanks for the compliment catfish, although I'm not sure it's deserved :) Standing on the shoulders of giants springs to mind. For my two-pennorth, I'd put Curt Sibling way up the all-time list of best Civ graphics artists.
You're probably right about Curt. He has done a lot of miscellaneous graphics (icons, cities, people, etc) as well as many unit mods in the Nemo style.

Originally posted by fairline
You were referring to the health bars in ToT. Check out Mercator's efforts to remove them:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=88815

This should be useful for 'units' that represent terrain features and suchlike.
Health bars can get ugly in ToT, especially when you want terrain units. It's a really dumb design decision by Microprose.

I've seen the Mercator thread before. It applies to sprites, though. I guess terrain could be converted more easily because they don't need to be animated. I've never tried to create ToT sprites - always turn them off anyway.

[curtsibling]

Thanks guys.

I think we all rule.
They fact that we have such a good community for CIV2 on the net is a testament to the greatness of the game,
and the superb dedication of the talented creators and posters right here!

On topic:

My dream would be to merge MGE and ToT into a game with those big graphics,
expanded rules, events and features of both games, and add them into one CIV2 program...

That would be excellent. :D

[Palaiologos]

Actually my dream is to become Priminister of Greece, but i think a MGE-ToT merging will suffice.:D

[tanelorn]

That's the kind of stuff that end up in people's sigs and haunt you forever.... :D

[fairline]

Originally posted by Palaiologos
Actually my dream is to become Priminister of Greece, but i think a MGE-ToT merging will suffice.:D

! My dream involves a Ferrari 250GTO, Kylie Minogue and a large bag of coke, but if you want to dream of being Prime Minister, you go right ahead :D

This is probably a very sad British thing, but I just love top 5 lists. My all-time top 5 civ2 artists, in no particular order:

BeBro - ancient and medieval units/cities
Nemo - tanks/planes/cities/terrain
Alex - WW2 units, although he could have used more detail
Curt - terrain/cities/shields
Favoured Flight - units/terrain

Then there's my top 5 scenario designers..... I should open a thread :D

[Palaiologos]

Well if i was Prime minister i would have that Ferrari,Kylie Minogue(or a Greek equivelant), the bag of coke PLUS power.:D

I second you on the Top5 list.Although i consider your units far better than Alex's he was a sort of pioneer in that area.And anyway i think that modesty too is a British thing.:)

[curtsibling]

My dream involves myself as a dashing Luftwaffe ace pilot, tons of red bull, and Jenny Aniston in a tight leather catsuit!

But let us not go into that! :D

[curtsibling]

And since we are on the subject, I think Fairline, Tanelorn Jim and Harry Tuttle are the leaders of an fine CIV2 unit renaissance!

One not seen since the heady days of kobayashi's ZWK or Nemo's 2194 days of war.

But all our creators/posters here do a great duty, keeping this madness alive and making a legacy of CIV2!

Long may it remain so!

[Catfish]

Originally posted by fairline
My all-time top 5 civ2 artists, in no particular order:
Similar to mine ;). You sell yourself short BTW. Have you seen Erwan's units? His website is dead these days, but I believe his units are superior to Alex's.

Originally posted by Palaiologos
Well if i was Prime minister i would have that Ferrari,Kylie Minogue(or a Greek equivelant), the bag of coke PLUS power.
What's the fascination with Kylie Minogue? Ordinary looks and even worse music.

BTW nobody has answered my question about MGE? It has an editor, but what else does it have over ToT? Everyone seems to want a ToT/MGE hybrid.

[tanelorn]

Well, one thing is for sure, MGE achieved far better sales, whereas ToT lacks the audience...
I really do not think it is superior to ToT in any way. You cant even edit most of the Civpedia descriptions in MGE, and you have to accept limitations in unit number, event space, event choices, quality of graphics (the list goes on...)
The sad truth is that ToT never caught up with MGE, because of dumb marketing policies, not because it wasn't as good.

Kylie is sort of good looking for a dwarf. I'd say her sister is much nicer, if only she kept her mouth shut.
(That would be a huge improvement for the entire gender but hey,...)
Actually a woman that knows what to say and when to say it beats an army of good looking "babes". It's brains over looks, definitely.

I'd be surprised if this didn't draw the moderators attention :)

[curtsibling]

I never use the MGE editor.

I prefer hands on scen creation any day, I think ToT has some good points, but suffers from an ugly vanilla graphics range, and various small drawbacks.

MGE is the player's choice, due to it merely being a multiplayer incarnation of CIV2.

I really get steamed at it's lack of unit and events choices but cannot really complain at the graphics.

I think it would have been wonderful to have MGE scens to be importable into ToT, it wouldn't have meant too much work.

Instead of the shady animated sprites no-one uses, they (microprose) should have made ToT a big base case for all CIV2 scenario scenarios.

A ToT editor (or lack of) is not a big deal...
But one that took care of multi-maps would have been a winner...

Just my 2p.

[Catfish]

Thanks guys for the heads up on MGE. My preconceived viewpoint of its capabilities was pretty much on the mark then. I was just curious as to why it had such strong support here.

Originally posted by tanelorn
Kylie is sort of good looking for a dwarf. I'd say her sister is much nicer, if only she kept her mouth shut.
LOL. I'm not one for gossip rags and women's mags, so I can't comment on your second statement. I think the Minogue sisters get more media attention overseas than in their home country these days.

Originally posted by curtsibling
I prefer hands on ceation any day, I think ToT has some good points, but suffers from an ugly vanilla graphics range, and various small drawbacks.
You're not wrong there - they are total arse IMHO. However, the graphics can be substituted with ones that are superior to vanilla ToT and its predecessors.

Oh yeah, what was the topic again? "Speculative" graphics. Hmm...

[tanelorn]

I meant her auful singing, I am somewhat offended by that comment (though I'm not into pop and it all sounds like crap to me, anyway).

[curtsibling]

Now guys, let's not fight over her.

Jenny Aniston is far nicer anyway! :D

[fairline]

Originally posted by Catfish

...Have you seen Erwan's units? His website is dead these days, but I believe his units are superior to Alex's.


I thing Erwan's use of colour and shading was excellent, but I prefer Alex Mor's unit poses and proportions, so I guess it's 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. They were both great artists.

Alex's WW2 infantry were superior to his other stuff IMHO. I think my favourite Erwan units would have to be his chariots;his female units are second to none, as well.

BTW, I lost my Erwan unit collection when my PC died some time ago. Anyone know where I can get 'em?


What's the fascination with Kylie Minogue? Ordinary looks and even worse music.


Her 'music' is truly appalling :D

[EZRhino]

Here they are.

[fairline]

Thanks EZ :b:

I'd forgotten how good his 'king' and diplomat units were.

[Catfish]

Originally posted by tanelorn
I am somewhat offended by that comment
Apologies man, didn't mean to offend. I misinterpreted your comment and then made an unfair assumption. Certainly I was having a dig at this kind of mentality. It's likely that both our Minogue comments may offend some people.

Originally posted by curtsibling
Now guys, let's not fight over her.
I thought we already gave them away to you Brits. :)

There are a few missing from Erwan's collection, notably his settler/engineer units and a couple of his Atlantis thingies...
http://apolyton.net/upload/files/Catfish/ErwanOthers.gif

And then of course there are his cities. The isometric ones are especially good.
http://apolyton.net/upload/files/Catfish/ErwanCities.gif

[curtsibling]

It's all amazing stuff! :D

[Catfish]

More ToT fantasy units, some dating back a few years. Once again the source material for most is photographs; some are game rips and others are combinations of both. There’s a mixed bag of general fantasy units and Lord of the Rings stuff.

http://apolyton.net/upload/files/Catfish/FantasyUnits2.png

1st row: Nazgûl, cave troll, orc, orc archer, orc, Rider of Rohan, Haradrim cavalry, Easterling cavalry, poncy-looking elf/Celeborn.
2nd row: storm golem, 3 dwarves, king with sword, assassin/spy, wizard, spell-caster type, sorceress.
3rd row: villager, hero, spearman, axeman, swordsman, king, knight, beholder, siege tower.
Download bmp (http://apolyton.net/upload/files/Catfish/FantasyUnits2.zip)

A few notes: The shorter humans are generally of an older vintage – my Civ2 FW bias back then. The Rider of Rohan is a combination of a photo (rider) and a rip from AoK (horse). Similarly, the Easterling unit is a modified Erwan Mongol on an AoK horse. The Haradrim is a modified AoK camel rider on a heavy cavalry archer horse. These 3 mounted units were made before the LOTR movies came out. The beholder and siege towers are rips from Baldur’s Gate and AoM, respectively.

What do some of these units look like in game for those without ToT?
http://apolyton.net/upload/files/Catfish/UnitsInTheField.png

[St Leo]

Please you PNG or, if you are <b>really</b> unable, BMP for posting high colour graphics. JPG is a lossy compression and always results in blurring.;)

[Catfish]

Well it's not a big deal, really. The bmps are in the zip files. I guess it's force of habit, but just for you I'll go through and change some of the jpgs to pngs in my units posts.

[Catfish]

It's done now. Some of the pngs are now up to 50% larger than the previous jpgs.

[fairline]

Excellent again, Catfish :eek: :unworthy:

You have produced the best unit conversions I have ever seen, IMHO. In fact, I was kind of dismissive of photo-reductions and conversions before seeing your stuff, as there are some really tragic efforts out there, but these are a revelation. Clearly you put a huge amount of effort into tidying up / redrawing after reduction. They put my drawn-from-scratch efforts to shame; I might have to have a go at this myself. Any pointers you want to share? :D

If you've got any spare time, there are some Warhammer 40 000 pics at this site that would be putty in your hands.... :cute:

http://www.games-workshop.com/40kuniverse/warhammer40k/warhammer40k.htm

Edit: piss-poor spelling

[Catfish]

Originally posted by fairline
You have produced the best unit conversions I have ever seen, IMHO. In fact, I was kind of dismissive of photo-reductions and conversions before seeing your stuff, as there are some really tragic efforts out there, but these are a revelation.
Edit: Edited Fairline's piss-poor spelling ;)

You embarrass me, man. :o I too was dismissive of many photo-reduced graphics. I think I remember seeing a "realistic" pixellated blobs vs Nemo's isometric units war either here or in the CivFanatics forum, and although I didn't contribute, I was firmly in the Nemo camp - and still am.

The big problem with many of these conversions is firstly, the 8-bit colour limitation (actually substantially less than 256 colours in the Civ2 palette). After loading the Civ2 palette to the graphic you almost always end up with speckling when your graphics program applies a nearest neighbour type calculation to the pixels. Most unit-creators don't clean this up afterwards. Many don't use filters available in programs like PSP and Photoshop either.

Secondly, many of the raw graphics were obviously completely unsuitable - without virtually redrawing the unit - something I try to avoid. I've seen a lot of units that were way too dark, had poor perspective and had inappropriate lighting (inherited from the original). I mean, if you use a Star Wars ship from a 2D picture containing explosions and lasers which light up its surface, it may look great in the scene, but ends up looking like crud after you've reduced it.

Thirdly, collections of photo-reduced units tend to lack consistency of style. I hate this. Even my conversions suffer from this to some extent. Some of my older man-sized units are smaller than my more recent ones, a legacy from the FW mindset. Now I stick to around 41-43 pixels high (head to toe) for such units.

I reckon the Nemo-style (isometric) units look great. If we had these units rendered with 24-bit "skins", they'd look even better. I prefer all mechanised military units and aircraft to be drawn in this style. I'll give you a quick and dirty example of what can be done to some of the existing isometric units by using PSP filters in 24-bit colour. Below, I've got Nemo's original Panther and Jagdpanther units, together with your superb Leopard 2. Each has been re-coloured and then had a texture applied to create different camo effects. The third Panther was re-coloured green and then had a brown mottled texture applied over the top.

http://apolyton.net/upload/files/Catfish/Recolours.bmp

Edit: Changed from png to bmp - too dark for what I want to demonstrate.

Originally posted by fairline
They put my drawn-from-scratch efforts to shame.
Bollocks!! To achieve the types of graphics you do within the Civ2 palette is a skill very few can master. In a previous post I listed my top Civ2 artists and made a comment to the effect of, "what could these guys do with 24-bit colour?" The thing is that none of these guys ever attempted ToT graphics. I'm one of the few who has had a crack at 15-bit ToT graphics, so there's not really much for comparison. I'm sure, given the chance, you guys would put me to shame.

Originally posted by fairline
Clearly you put a huge amount of effort into tidying up / redrawing after reduction.
It varies, depending on the quality of the graphic following resizing. Sometimes they're almost ready to go following reduction. Sometimes I'll apply various filters in PSP prior to rescaling, but mostly afterwards. Of course, you will always need to clean up the anti-aliasing around the edge of the unit.

Originally posted by fairline
; I might have to have a go at this myself. Any pointers you want to share?

If you've got any spare time, there are some Warhammer 40 000 pics at this site that would be putty in your hands.... .
Sure, I'll see what I can scramble together about my methodology, if in fact there is a method to the madness ;). I'll post it later (this post's long enough). Just briefly about the Games Workshop/Citadel miniatures; they tend to suffer from problems of proportional exaggeration. This isn't to say they can't be used, but it is often difficult to find decent source material. The sculptors of this series also tend to favour ornate clothing and weaponry, and this doesn't always translate well to small game graphics. Their heads and hands are often disproportionately large - this can often be fixed, though, by simply deleting the heads and hands, and then adding them again from a further reduced graphic. Generally I just shave a few pixels off the hands. There are other manufacturers, like The Foundry (http://www.wargamesfoundry.com), for example, which produce lines of exceedingly stocky figures, some resembling the Michelin Man. Stretching the unit sometimes works here.

Anyway, I'll get together a list of guidelines and post them at a later date. Now all you have to do is convince some of these scenario designers to use ToT. ;) Hell, I might even go back to work on mine - but don't hold your breath.

Edit: Corrected comments about colour depth - I hate spreading bullsh1t information.

[fairline]

Curt, Tech, anyone else producing ToT units - have you seen these textured tanks by Catfish :eek: This could change the way ToT units look!

Catfish - you have to tell me how you did that. I'm firmly fixed in an 8-bit mentality; even the ToT units I've made have used the civ2 pallette. I would really appreciate that step-by-step guide to how you achieved those remarkable textures. I have psp but I never read the manual and I haven't played with many of it's features.

Better still, you could make this an article for the SLeague magazine.

Just out of interest, they still look good when you load up the civ2 pallette - not much of the detail is lost. Excellent work!

[curtsibling]

Very impressive indeed!

These units do transform into standard civ pallete types almost unscathed!

Mind-blowing potential!

It would be great if we could put to together a requests workshop in these forums, so we could gather all the best units and art.
Then have a team of artists to creat stuff as needed!

I am imagining the kind of units Catfish and Fairline would make as a creation duo!

*faints*

[curtsibling]

Amazingly, this is how the same Catfish Panzer looks with the standard civ2 MGE pallete!

[fairline]

That's the one that really caught my eye as well, Curt, together with the JagdPanther. That's the closest thing I've ever seen to the actual camo used for late war German tanks. There's a job for life doing that with all of Nemo's tanks, Catfish :D

[curtsibling]

I would love to see some of the others done in that style.

I think we have the seeds of a great Civ2 revolution here!

[techumseh]

Another example of ToT superiority! :D

Here's the conundrum: ToT is a superior scenario making tool, but it's not widely played. MGE is popular, but most of it's potential has long since been exhausted. What to do?

Well, ToT COULD get more popular, but MGE WON'T get any more sophisticated. Since ToT can now be downloaded online for about 10 bucks US, there's a possiblity that it could catch on, at least in the scenario community.

For that to happen, bright new scenario designers are gonna have to stick with ToT and show what it - and they - can do! (Hint for CS ;) )

[Mr. Oobir]

Whoa, hey! 64x64-pixel graphics shouldn't be able to look like that! :eek:

PSP filters...how come I've never thought to use those? I use them with any other graphics I make. *Smacks head.*

Do give some pointers on making these types of graphics. I just tried some quick experiments using filters on preexisting units (not from photos) and the results are poor to fair, as can be seen here.

[Catfish]

Originally posted by fairline
There's a job for life doing that with all of Nemo's tanks, Catfish :D
That's why I'm showing you guys how to do it. ;) The post is here (http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=97280) .

Originally posted by curtsibling
I am imagining the kind of units Catfish and Fairline would make as a creation duo!

*faints*

Now, now, don't get carried away here. :)

Like I said earlier, I'll put something together later about making units from photos, et al. The most time-consuming part is actually finding decent source material, so I'll have to throw in some info about some of the types of websites to look for.

[lajzar]

Here is the complete humans collection from Warcraft III. The graphics could do with a little cleaning, and i haven't included those dots to mark where the shields should go yet.

They are in a 24-bit bmp format. I'd love to include a sample graphic to save you downloading the zip, but I haven't yet figured out how.

[Catfish]

Originally posted by lajzar
Here is the complete humans collection from Warcraft III. The graphics could do with a little cleaning, and i haven't included those dots to mark where the shields should go yet.

They are in a 24-bit bmp format. I'd love to include a sample graphic to save you downloading the zip, but I haven't yet figured out how.
OK, I downloaded the file and I've got a few comments. Firstly, although the units are saved in 24-bit colour, they certainly weren't created at this colour depth - believe me, I can tell. ;) They are standard Civ2 size, which means you should be using the 8-bit palette for this purpose. If you intend to use them for the 24-bit ToT, the unit boxes should be 64x64 and you don't have to worry about the shield markers.

Seeing these units made me fire up WC3 and take a screenshot of the dwarven mortar team. I converted it to a ToT graphic for comparison - to give you an idea of what you can achieve when you create in 24-bit.

http://apolyton.net/upload/files/Catfish/MortarTeam.bmp

If you want to show an image and add an attachment, you will have to use Apolyton's upload feature. Upload the graphic and insert it into your post as an image and then add the .zip file as an attachment.

[lajzar]

Hmm, had a hard time recognising that as the same graphic. Then I realised that it must have had a different original team colour.

Anyhow, my reasoning on the size of the graphics. I am well aware that they are somewhat smaller than many other graphics, although, I hope, not so small that the units lose their distinctiveness. I just dislike the idea of infantry units occupying huge amounts of space inside the grid. I realise there has to be some level of disproportionality to get infantry and aircraft carriers, but I still like my carriers to be visually bigger, which means I have to make my infantry relatively smaller.

In the example you chose, those guys are meant to be dwarfs; stunties. They fill the entire width of the grid, and most of the height. That'd make a great mortar unit with a crew of ogres. But those guys look too big to think of them as dwarfs. Put it this way; you couldn't also have a cavalry unit that wouldn't make the guy on the horse look like a midget in comparison to these two dwarfs.

One other little thing that bugs me about ToT graphics is that most of the graphics (in the original game) have been shifted vertically to fill the approximate centre of the grid, resulting in ships and other units that look as if they are floating. Most of the extra vertical space possible in ToT is, imho, not useful. It means you can have your aircraft fly a big higher, but ships just look silly if you use it, and land units will usually look too tall/big relative to the carriers if you use it. This scaling thing is one thing that bugs me about many tank graphis too. Sure, they're noice and big, beautiful with plenty of detail, but they cover the tile below so exactly that you can't see the terrain :(

all imho of course. I realise the scaling of graphics is very much a personal taste issue.

About the 24 bit thing. I only use that as an intermediate step while modifying the graphics. I basically wanted to get something out quickly for opinions. Beyond cleaning these up and resaving them as a single 8-bit bmp, I wasn't planning to do much more work on each image.

ok, rant over. Wanna build the graphics for me (bearing in mind how fussy I am) so I can do the more interesting bit of making a rulese file that approximates warcraft?

[Mercator]

Originally posted by Catfish
Health bars can get ugly in ToT, especially when you want terrain units. It's a really dumb design decision by Microprose.

I've seen the Mercator thread before. It applies to sprites, though. I guess terrain could be converted more easily because they don't need to be animated. I've never tried to create ToT sprites - always turn them off anyway.

Ahem... I think you should have a look at that thread again then. (http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=88815)

My technique does use sprites, but they aren't animated. And in fact, I created a very easy to use converter that converts your ToT units bitmap to a sprite file in a flash. Simply select which units you want to hide the health bar for and you're done.
And I also posted how you can make sure this new sprite file is used (and not the bitmap, nor any of the animated sprites). (http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?postid=2343009#post2343009)

Secondly, I have to remind you that ToT units are NOT 24-bit. They're 15-bit, but of course that still means 32768 colors.

[William Keenan]

I vote for less text and more graphics :D

http://apolyton.net/upload/files/William%20Keenan/MageChick321-MGE.gif

Test of Time Version here:

[curtsibling]

I second that!

I am looking for a brave warrior to create a unit based on this here character...

She does not have to be in this pose...Just standing will be fine, but the purple skin is essential.

Any takers?

Perhaps our resident fantasy master, William? :cool:

*Edit. Darn image is not working*

[curtsibling]

Here is the image that goes with the previous post...:)

[William Keenan]

I'm afraid I couldn't manage to convert it to 8 bit, perhaps someone else can. The 24-bit version is linked below.

http://apolyton.net/upload/files/William%20Keenan/PurpleVampire.gif

[curtsibling]

Awesome stuff!

That is a great likeness!
It will provide me with a good basis to work on.

Cheers, Will! :D

[Catfish]

Originally posted by William Keenan
I vote for less text and more graphics
Well, here come some more words :p

Originally posted by lajzar
Hmm, had a hard time recognising that as the same graphic. Then I realised that it must have had a different original team colour.
I also juggled them around a bit to fit them in the square.

Originally posted by lajzar
Anyhow, my reasoning on the size of the graphics. I am well aware that they are somewhat smaller than many other graphics, although, I hope, not so small that the units lose their distinctiveness. I just dislike the idea of infantry units occupying huge amounts of space inside the grid. I realise there has to be some level of disproportionality to get infantry and aircraft carriers, but I still like my carriers to be visually bigger, which means I have to make my infantry relatively smaller.
It's a matter of personal taste, but I do like to be able to recognise the unit. To be truthful, I'd have a hard time with many of those WC3 units of yours. I also wasn't sure what you were trying to achieve - ToT or Civ2 - based on the mixed format you presented. My guess, obviously incorrect, was that you were having a crack at 24-bit graphics, following all the discussions in the last few pages of this thread. Clearly ToT units are potentially larger than standard Civ2; the dwarves here accommodate this potential.

Originally posted by lajzar
In the example you chose, those guys are meant to be dwarfs; stunties. They fill the entire width of the grid, and most of the height. That'd make a great mortar unit with a crew of ogres. But those guys look too big to think of them as dwarfs. Put it this way; you couldn't also have a cavalry unit that wouldn't make the guy on the horse look like a midget in comparison to these two dwarfs.
By comparison with other ToT units I've released, the red-bearded dwarf is man-sized and the white-bearded dwarf is as small as my other dwarves. You'll also notice that they're placed higher in the tile to accommodate their width - this makes them look taller than they are. My ogres and trolls are even bigger - as an example, there's a cave troll in one of my earlier posts.

Originally posted by lajzar
One other little thing that bugs me about ToT graphics is that most of the graphics (in the original game) have been shifted vertically to fill the approximate centre of the grid, resulting in ships and other units that look as if they are floating.
This is easily remedied - change them. There are better collections on the Internet. If this is too time-consuming, use the original Civ2 ones instead. The original ToT unit graphics are rubbish.

Originally posted by lajzar
Most of the extra vertical space possible in ToT is, imho, not useful. It means you can have your aircraft fly a big higher, but ships just look silly if you use it, and land units will usually look too tall/big relative to the carriers if you use it. This scaling thing is one thing that bugs me about many tank graphis too. Sure, they're noice and big, beautiful with plenty of detail, but they cover the tile below so exactly that you can't see the terrain

all imho of course. I realise the scaling of graphics is very much a personal taste issue.
You cannot have your planes too high, either - it can make it difficult to determine tile position in game unless you have the grid turned on. The cave troll I mentioned earlier is about as large as you want to get. The health bar gets in the way as well.

Re: tanks. I assume you're referring to the Nemo-type, in which case, you are in the minority. I guess this is unfortunate for you as there is less likelihood of someone creating units which fit your criteria. You argue that big units make the terrain indistinct. Conversely, I argue that very small units can be themselves indistinct.

You make some good points, but I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on some of them - as you said, it's just personal taste. :)

Originally posted by lajzar
ok, rant over. Wanna build the graphics for me (bearing in mind how fussy I am) so I can do the more interesting bit of making a rulese file that approximates warcraft?
I think I've got enough on my plate at the moment. Your units are for Civ2 - I don't have this installed anymore and I'm certainly not going back to making 8-bit colour units. That's ancient history. BTW, I've got my own scenarios to take care of, too.

Originally posted by Mercator
Ahem... I think you should have a look at that thread again then.
Yeah, well, I guess I didn't read it thoroughly enough - saw sprites and ran away. :hmmm: Only 4 people have downloaded the attachment to date! I'm sorry to say, I'm not one of them - I'll add to that count. That's pretty piss-poor, but I think it gives you an indication of the mindset around here. Many who have purchased ToT don't even have it installed.

Originally posted by Mercator
Secondly, I have to remind you that ToT units are NOT 24-bit. They're 15-bit, but of course that still means 32768 colors.
Yeah, OK. I responded to that in the other thread (http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=97280).

Originally posted by curtsibling
I am looking for a brave warrior to create a unit based on this here character...
That looks extremely dodgy, Curt. :) Follows the same fashion statement as William's unit, above. The only thing better are chainmail bikinis on female barbarians - very useful.

[tanelorn]

Guess that's for Biterfrost? (She looks like a 6th ver. warhammer slaanesh daemonette, doesn't she?)

[curtsibling]

Well I haven't been following the warhammer since it turned crap, got rid of Nagash and all the good undead characters.

The purple chick is from a fantasy story of my of devising, a graphic novel I am working on...:)

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by Catfish
That looks extremely dodgy, Curt. :) Follows the same fashion statement as William's unit, above. The only thing better are chainmail bikinis on female barbarians - very useful.

LOL!

I guess her race has a short life expectancy in battle! :lol:

I just realised, the CIV2 gifs only support about 4 shades of purple...Another aspect where ToT has the edge!

[William Keenan]

Originally posted by Catfish

That looks extremely dodgy, Curt. Follows the same fashion statement as William's unit, above. The only thing better are chainmail bikinis on female barbarians - very useful.

and

Originally posted by curtsibling
I guess her race has a short life expectancy in battle! :lol:

I'm by no means an advocate of mixing reality and computer games, but I beg to differ on you conclusion that skimpy armor makes a poor defense. Ask yourself this question: if you had a chainmail bikini clad babe in front of you, would you really want to kill her? :naughty:


Originally posted by curtsibling
Awesome stuff!

That is a great likeness!
It will provide me with a good basis to work on.

Cheers, Will!


Your welcome Curt. It was a pleasure to make that unit - and not just because I prefer chainmail panties to panzers - GIFs like that make a good base to work from. They have clean edges (unlike 3D rendered stuff) and good contrast so they reduce quite well. The general lack of detail makes for easy masking and yields good results in the sharping phase.

[Catfish]

Originally posted by William Keenan
I'm by no means an advocate of mixing reality and computer games, but I beg to differ on you conclusion that skimpy armor makes a poor defense. Ask yourself this question: if you had a chainmail bikini clad babe in front of you, would you really want to kill her? :naughty:
I dunno. Depends how much gold was on offer. What if she was a 120 kg sasquatch with a beard? :D I'd be up for that.

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by Catfish
What if she was a 120 kg sasquatch with a beard? :D I'd be up for that.

Are we talking about killing or dating here?

[Catfish]

Originally posted by curtsibling
Are we talking about killing or dating here?
LOL. I think this says more about you than me.;)

[curtsibling]

Worry not, In Scotland most women are 'sasquatches!'

*joke*

[Catfish]

Originally posted by curtsibling
Worry not, In Scotland most women are 'sasquatches!'
This must explain those sheep rumours. :D

Speaking of sasquatches - a quick conversion, courtesy of WC3:

[William Keenan]

"And now for something completely different:" Graphics

Should the Purple Vamp prove unworkable in MGE, Curt, I offer this leggy Succubus as a substitute.
http://apolyton.net/upload/files/William%20Keenan/SuccubusMGE.gif

Nice convert Catfish but where is the chainmail bikini?

[curtsibling]

Nice one, Will!

Here is one of the evil baddies from the ancient race in Bitterfrost.

Think of the most nasty Elric-type chap, then double it!

I also need to create some sort of dire magical-techno flying craft for these guys to jet around in.

Their numbers will be few in the scen, but they are rock hard!

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by Catfish
This must explain those sheep rumours. :D


Only highlanders are accused of such hideous rumours.
A bit like Canberra in Australia! ;)

PS
Damn fine units, keep the good work going!

[Catfish]

Originally posted by curtsibling
A bit like Canberra in Australia! ;)
I don't think you'll find many sheep in Canberra, it's mostly urban sprawl. You're quite clearly confusing Australians with New Zealanders. Whilst we have more sheep scattered across our continent, New Zealand has more per capita - which means they don't have to share. ;)

And just to convince the moderators we're still on topic:

[curtsibling]

I got that info from a buddy from Adelaide, so perhaps he was trying to defame the Canberrians!

Anyway, back on topic:

Here is a tribal cavalry from the Bitterfrost scenario, which I am working on...:bounce:

[St Leo]

Sheep are sexy.;)

[Palaiologos]

Question:The man-sheep relationship is always on a strict male shepherd-female herd animal basis, or open minded and progressive highlanders feeling comfortable with their manhood have no problem mating with members of the same sex?

I always wondered about that.......

[curtsibling]

This is all becoming a little too 'Speculative' for my tastes...

*backs out to the the door and runs*

[fairline]

ROTFL!

I'm extremely worried about you lads. I hadn't realised sheep-worrying occurred outside Wales.

[curtsibling]

Seems a widespread problem.

In my nation, we chased all such deviants into the desolate North! (Aberdeen, etc)

[Palaiologos]

Well from a point of view sheeps are better than women:You don't have to buy them dinner, hear their nagging, marry them or run the risk of leaving them pregnant. And they fullfill the same basic functions-provide food and relaxation........

[curtsibling]

Guards! Arrest this man! :lol:

[Dr. Nick]

But the sheep can't cook. And it can't do the dishes.

But the sheep don't give you a mother in law either.

[curtsibling]

My god, someone post some units! :eek: :D

[St Leo]

Shame on you males who don't share doing dishes and cooking.;)

[Dr. Nick]

I can cook, but I'm lazy. :D

Dishes... I wish I could buy a dishwasher. :(

[Palaiologos]

Sheeps also ACTUALLY generate an income to the holder.

Women on the other hand specialise in amasing debts.



And anyway why would even someone bother choosing between sheeps and women?

You can buy a Russian girl on the market for only 4.000$, and she will do your dishes, housework, keep you company at nights and thank god she knowing only Russian will keep her bloody mouth shut.

[Catfish]

Originally posted by Palaiologos
Question:The man-sheep relationship is always on a strict male shepherd-female herd animal basis, or open minded and progressive highlanders feeling comfortable with their manhood have no problem mating with members of the same sex?
WTF?!! :scared:

Originally posted by William Keenan
Nice convert Catfish but where is the chainmail bikini?
Thanks, mate. This must've slipped under the radar (clears wool from eyes). The bikini? Can't you see it? It's obscured by the full-body beard, but if you look hard enough...

BTW, what filters did you use to shade that purple vampire? It's a nice effort. I'm on a steep learning curve, myself. With guys like Fairline and Mr Oobir, asking for tips, I feel I've got to put something together about making units.

I'll probably start a new graphic-making thread where everyone can throw in tips, tutorials and links to resources for making graphics. This way I can just add stuff as I stumble on new methods.

[curtsibling]

Good call, Catfish!

In the interest of veering this thread away from disturbing wool-related talk,
I present a 'Death Striker' flying machine from my Bitterfrost efforts.

[tanelorn]

The last issue of National Geographic has an article on modern slavery. Sadly, this is true in the Balkans and beyond, for the last decade or so, assuming someone is pathetic and immoral enough to choose something like that (meaning it doesn't necessarily carry racist or misogynist connotations, it's rather a fact).
Go see "Birthday Girl" with Nicole Kidman as the "Russian Girl", in the UK.

I mean, what of ones Christian conscience (we are not all Christian, I know- his human conscience if you will) or dignity as a man, if he stoops that low? More importantly, what of the other person?
What the previous posts implied is at least at par, moraly. We are all making jokes, ofcourse.

[Palaiologos]

BTW dudes because my knowledge of English is quite limited when i wrote

"or open minded and progressive highlanders feeling comfortable with their manhood have no problem mating with members of the same sex? "

i meant if shepherds actually discern between male and female sheeps when doing......stuff......




As for what Tanelorn said it is sadly true. Many, many men in Greece usually of old age seek their last companions in the market. In most instances such a "purchase" backfires in that these women are usually the source of more misery than happiness.

But in many cases there is a mutual deal between these Russian women and their to-be husbands. "I'll take care of you, but i'll inherit your money when you die" sort of deals.

[William Keenan]

Originally posted by Catfish

BTW, what filters did you use to shade that purple vampire? It's a nice effort. I'm on a steep learning curve, myself. With guys like Fairline and Mr Oobir, asking for tips, I feel I've got to put something together about making units.

The shading was inherent in the image I just raised the saturation to bring out the color. Then I broke the image into seperate parts, body, head, sword, and hair. This prevented the colors from bleeding into each other during the reduction and allowed me to easily use different sharpening filters on each section.

Before I get into filters, I should say I use Corel Photo-paint 11. I'm not sure that the same filters exist
in PSP, which most people here use.

On the body, hair, and sword I used a sharping filter called adaptive unsharp. I almost exclusively use this sharping filter in reduction work like this because it enhances edge detail without that grainy-pixilated effect that a standard sharping filler tends to create.

For the head/face I used the standard shapen filter because it creates good contrast in the facial features.

If I have any trick to impart it would be in the anti-aliasing process.

After sharping I create a mask from object.

Then I use a mask outline tool called remove holes. This ejects from the mask the pixels at the edge of the object that are mostly transparent. Then crop the oject to the reduced mask.

Duplicate the object eight or ten times then combine the duplicates to eliminate any remaining transparancy.

Then *POOF* the anti-aliasing is gone in under 20 seconds.


Originally posted by Catfish I'll probably start a new graphic-making thread where everyone can throw in tips, tutorials and links to resources for making graphics. This way I can just add stuff as I stumble on new methods.

A new graphic methods thread is a good idea and maybe a sheep thread in Off Topic area for all the flocking shepards.

I hate to risk starting another avalanche of OT discussion but I'm wondering how St. Leo knows the price of Russian chicks!

[curtsibling]

Gah!

I have a problem!

I promised to help Cyrion make the three riders of the apocalypse, from Terry Pratchett's books...but I just cannot get them to look right!

We need a fat guy, and sickly guy and a hungry guy all on horses and with the same unit square.

Individually I could crack them, but I just cannot get them with any panache inside the cramped unit square.

Anyone wanna give this mini-project a try?

Perhaps a fresh outlook may help!

[Catfish]

Originally posted by tanelorn
I mean, what of ones Christian conscience (we are not all Christian, I know- his human conscience if you will)
I find this comment a little bit patronising, despite its good intentions. You should've just used the statement in parentheses. I'm an atheist, for example, but probably share a similar moral viewpoint to you.

A fair number of documentaries have been shown in my country about the slave trade of mainly eastern European women in central and western Europe, and also women and children in south-east Asia. You have people from comfortable lifestyles exploiting desperate people. There is no excuse for this. As for the actions of the poor and desperate, I cannot really judge them, for I have never been there myself.

Originally posted by Palaiologos
i meant if shepherds actually discern between male and female sheeps when doing......stuff......
Too much information, man. Too much information.

Originally posted by William Keenan
The shading was inherent in the image…
Thanks for the info, William. Raising the colour saturation gets good results for me, too. I only use PSP’s Unsharp Mask on a pretty mild setting – standard sharpness filters produce the results you describe. As for removing anti-aliasing, my methods are fairly clumsy at present – I often do a manual clean up - I’m going to investigate PSP’s <B>Selections</B> menu. For PSP users, I generally stick to the Adjust menu – I have little use for Effects.

Originally posted by William Keenan
I hate to risk starting another avalanche of OT discussion but I'm wondering how St. Leo knows the price of Russian chicks!
This reminds me of a comment I saw on another board once:

Post:
A Russian that can afford a computer and an internet connection? I'm impressed. :)

Reply:
He bartered for it... I think the Russian economic scale is:
Computer = 12 cases Vodka = 18 yr old sister = 1 roll of toilet paper.

I know it’s hard, but we really should be staying on topic - before all these great unit showcases become smothered in spam. I’m guilty, too.

[Mr. Oobir]

Originally posted by Catfish
we really should be staying on topic
Indeed.

I got a bit filter-happy and ToT-ised many of the units in my eternally-in-development scenario. Here is a sample.

[curtsibling]

Mr. Oobir, they look excellent! :D

[William Keenan]

A serious graphic infusion is needed!

http://apolyton.net/upload/files/William%20Keenan/wkfan03.gif

Originally posted by Catfish
He bartered for it... I think the Russian economic scale is:
Computer = 12 cases Vodka = 18 yr old sister = 1 roll of toilet paper.

For those of you with 18 yr old sisters for trade, I have toilet paper.

[fairline]

This has become easily the most consistently high standard graphic thread; Curt / William Keenan / Catfish, these units are just beautiful!

As for all this talk of sheep interference and mail-order brides, I think that just confirms my worst fears about fantasy fans :cute: :D . Only kidding, before some deranged Dungeons and Dragons-obsessed 12 year-old decides to mail me a letter bomb / curse me with a level 12 spell..:scared:

Catfish and William: how about that 'how to convert / reduce graphics' advice thread?

[curtsibling]

Bwah!

I'm gonna fire a 'magic missile!'

:lol:

[Palaiologos]

Tough luck Curt....


He wouldn't dare utter such a despicable thing for fantasy fans, unless he had a "globe of invunerability" cast upon him first.

[curtsibling]

Argh! I am undone!

*shakes fist, vows revenge, then falls from castle window*

[Catfish]

Originally posted by fairline
Only kidding, before some deranged Dungeons and Dragons-obsessed 12 year-old decides to mail me a letter bomb / curse me with a level 12 spell..:scared:
You are revealing that you have more knowledge in this area than you should. ;) I certainly don't fit this stereotype - I'm the long-haired, metal T-shirt-wearing type who is sorely in need of a shave. That's a different stereotype.

Originally posted by fairline
Catfish and William: how about that 'how to convert / reduce graphics' advice thread?
Nag, nag, nag. I'm writing one. I want to know more about PSP's masks and selections before I post. Currently, I have some pretty shoddy methods. However, if I don't have time, I'll post one, warts and all.

Originally posted by curtsibling
Bwah!

I'm gonna fire a 'magic missile!' ?
Please cease this embarrassing behaviour, immediately! :nono: :)

[Dr. Nick]

I fire magic missiles... at the darkness!

:D

[St Leo]

Originally posted by William Keenan
I hate to risk starting another avalanche of OT discussion but I'm wondering how St. Leo knows the price of Russian chicks!

That was Palaiologous, doofus. I was the one who was propounding equal rights.;)

[ravagon]

Originally posted by fairline
I think that just confirms my worst fears about fantasy fans :cute: :D . Only kidding, before some deranged Dungeons and Dragons-obsessed 12 year-old decides to mail me a letter bomb / curse me with a level 12 spell..:scared:


I'm not 12 any more but if you'd care to give me an address ... or tell me your magic resistance ... ? ;)

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by Catfish
Please cease this embarrassing behaviour, immediately! :nono: :)

Ha!

I was only mocking the stereotype of a geeky bespectacled kid who plays Warhammer!

I am actually a skin-headed metal T-shirt wearing nerd, who listens to italian symphonic metal bands!

Wait!
That's almost as embarrassing!

...To some people!

[Palaiologos]

Originally posted by St Leo
That was Palaiologous, doofus. I was the one who was propounding equal rights.;)





??????

EQUAL WHAT? ????????????

[Palaiologos]

Originally posted by Catfish

I certainly don't fit this stereotype - I'm the long-haired, metal T-shirt-wearing type who is sorely in need of a shave. That's a different stereotype.




Okay dudes real question: Don't most RPG fans fit this "I'm the long-haired, metal T-shirt-wearing type who is sorely in need of a shave." stereotype?

At least in Greece they do.

[curtsibling]

I guess the fantasy genre does appeal to guys who look like Aragorn. (or think they do)

And with LOTR being popular this trend will extend to all walks of life...

For example:
While visiting my friend's house some weeks ago, a gang of 6 kids ran out of the apartment block all with plastic swords.
One yelled to his buddy "You can be Aragorn, but I wanna be Legolas!"

Totally cool!
LOTR has recaptured these kid's imaginations from the world of PS2 and TV...And that is a good thing!

:D