Civ 3 Unit FLCs to be converted Part 2

[Maquiladora]

Caranorn, is that picture of the Bowman taken directly from the frames youre using? It looks a little high up.

Ill look at civfanatics, i take it theres more of a civ3 modding community over there. I can post the flc files too if needed.

[Caranorn]

That pic was essentially the 160x120 tga for the great library. So it's scaled up quite a bit compared to the files for the sprite.

I just got Civ3 (had to get groceries and decided to pick it up at the supermarket's electronics place) and took a look at all the flics. I will henceforth work from those files directly (I'll set colours to what I find best, or will ask here what others think, in some cases I might make multiple sprites). Not having seen all the flics before, I have to say quality really varies, but overall they are definitelly interesting to make into CTP2 sprites.

I should continue work on the sprites tonight. Until I can get a useable script I will create all pictures scaled 120%, I expect I will continue from Civ3 units alphabetically (in German, could not get any other version).

Some of the units at the civfanantics site might also be worth converting (some in Apolyton's Civ3 section as well). But I think we should first concentrate on the original Civ3 material (enough work there), and once that's done fetch other material.

Marc aka Caran...

P.S.: Before I start work tonight I will post exactly which units I will get at next so we don't do teh same sprite multiple times.

[Caranorn]

The Aegis Cruiser should be first on my list. The attachment bellow shows the colour I find best. Used in a mod I would rename this a Fast Patrol Boat (similar to some German types, a bit gun heavy, but definitelly wrong proportions for a cruiser).

Marc aka Caran...

[Caranorn]

Second would be the artillery piece in the colours as shown bellow. In a mod this would make a fine Anti Tank gun (resembles the British WWII 6pdr a bit).

Marc aka Caran...

[Caranorn]

Third, the Nuclear Submarine, the colours seem good this way (except in death animation, the hull and conning tower should be the same colour at that point). Fine boat otherwise.

Marc aka Caran...

[Caranorn]

The worker might find some use in CTP2, maybe as a miner for siege craft. I made his colour earthen as in that line of work he'd never stay clean.

Marc aka Caran...

P.S.: This unit might merit several or no sprite.

[Caranorn]

Fifth the privateer. I wish the skull could have been eitehr made all black, or a black outline on the sails. This is closest i could do with the Civ3 pallete.

Marc aka Caran...

[Immortal Wombat]

IMO, we have enough submarine sprites. CtP has one, CtP2 has 2, and Harlan's unit pack has at least one (2, 3?) more.

[Immortal Wombat]

Originally posted by Maquiladora
Immortal Wombat made some sprites from AOE2. I think one was the battering ram(?).

Yup, that was the one I did properly. And the other was the Crossbowman. A few more I made unanimated versions.

They can be extracted directly from the AoK files, you need the ModPack Studio, which can be downloaded from somewhere like AOK Heaven but I personally hate the program, and find it not at all useful for getting the pics out - they contain both white and black, the shadow's all over the place, they;re a mess. The battering ram I constructed from screenshots (little animation, because of the wheels, and the square shape made it easy to cut out.), and the Crossbowman I made from a Civ3 FLIC which had been made from the AoK original

FLICS are much easier to work with, and most of the AoK units are already converted (thanks jimmytrick )

[Martin Gühmann]

So Ben when we see these units in the Great Directory. Or did I miss something.

-Martin

[Locutus]

This thread certainly has taken a turn for the better

When you're making a priority list anyway, we could use few extra Medieval units and cavalry units (of all ages). Also, Warrior, Jaguar Warrior, Camalry and other distinctly different (fanmade?) units. And with distinctly different I mean unique weaponry (axe, crossbow, halberd(sp?)), equipment (trebuchet, biplane, balloon, etc) or appearance (Arab, black, Asian, Native American). Of course, those are just suggestions, you guys are doing all the hard work, so it's your call

[Maquiladora]

I do like the look of the Privateer. I havent looked through the Air units yet, they seem somewhat redundant in Civ3 and CtP2 anyway.

Thats the thing about converting sprites that might be under-used, like the naval units, not very motivating Although i dont mind slogging away on some. Theyll all get done anyway... eventually.

[Iroquois]

The Aegis Cruiser should be first on my list. The attachment bellow shows the colour I find best. Used in a mod I would rename this a Fast Patrol Boat (similar to some German types, a bit gun heavy, but definitelly wrong proportions for a cruiser).

Certainly this is rather Missile Boat than AEGIS Cruiser.
I think Destroyer in Civ3 alike to real Ticonderoga class AEGIS Cruiser.

[mapfi]

I guess it's no secret that I'm looking forward to the privateer. A pity that the skull can't be totally black. The regular pirate flag was black with a white skull but would it look ok if you color the one sail instead of the skull? Somehow, I doubt it but might be worth a shot.

[Maquiladora]

This is by no means a serious attempt but i tried Also this would have to be done for each and every frame that made the front on the sail visible so its more than a little work, too much.

[mapfi]

Hmm, I like it more than the other one. Compared to the rest of the picture contrast is too high though. White should probably be a little grey and black maybe a very dark grey - if those are actually in the palette. Then it'd fit more with the rest - a worn out sail...
If it is however so much work, it's not worth it, even though I like it better. Thanks for trying!

[Maquiladora]

I just had a little time to kill. Makes me wonder why they didnt make it like that in the first place... except abit better quality.

[mapfi]

I just had a little time to kill.

Makes me wonder why they didnt make it like that in the first place...

If that's the only thing you wonder about concerning civ3...

IMO, we have enough submarine sprites.

I can't see much of difference to the nuclear sub in ctp2 anyway.

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by mapfi
I guess it's no secret that I'm looking forward to the privateer. A pity that the skull can't be totally black. The regular pirate flag was black with a white skull but would it look ok if you color the one sail instead of the skull? Somehow, I doubt it but might be worth a shot.

Why you don't make it totally black, just add the non black alpha channel by hand.

-Martin

[Maquiladora]

I have a question about Attack facing for Naval units. Because they fire from the side of the ship.

For example, should i make the NE facing, make the cannons on the ship point to the NE OR make the front the of the ship point NE. All the Naval units in CtP2 dont attack side on, it looks slightly weird to see a 'Ship of the line' firing sideways at its own ships, rather than turned side on firing at the enemy. Or am i just missing something and being generally dumb?

[Maquiladora]

Okay, no matter i got that facing thing figured out now, im gonna make the ship turn sideways to fire, as it would.

Heres a quick screenshot of the Man-O-War for its proportions, does it look too big? I still need to do the victory and attack animations

[centrifuge]

That looks Awesome!!! Great Job. The size is probably fine, but compared to the battleship it should be smaller IMHO. However, this is a game afterall, so I don't think it's worth it to resize.

[Immortal Wombat]

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann
So Ben when we see these units in the Great Directory. Or did I miss something.

Urm... I'll submit them when I get around to making Crossbowman targas.

[Iroquois]

Heres a quick screenshot of the Man-O-War for its proportions, does it look too big? I still need to do the victory and attack animations

Good job, but looks like you forgot to clean something blue between jib brattices.

[Caranorn]

Maquiladora could you send me that sprite script, mine always gets stuck at the Victory Animation (whether I activate that or not). And I need to take a look at some of my sprites before I can continue. I was also thinking of turning ships broadside on for the attack animations, if they fit I fully agree (I wonder, why do they require 5 facings for attack when only 2 (2 and 4) seem to be used).

I desperately need a working script or for someone to debug mine, I simply can't continue otehrwise.

Marc aka Caran...

[Maquiladora]

Can you post your script?

I just changed the SPRITE_NUM_FRAMES to 20 for the man-o-war and left all the others(attack etc) at '0', i used the one that came with makespr.exe

If they do apparently only need 2 facings (NE, SW) for attack/victory then you could just skip alot of work on facings 1, 3, 4, and 5. Youd still have to make copies from another facing but it would save alot of time. I havent tested it yet though.

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by Iroquois

Good job, but looks like you forgot to clean something blue between jib brattices.

Do you mean the flags catching the wind at the front?

[Caranorn]

Edited to avoid being called stupid

I tweaked the script a bit to try and get it past makespr. This worked to a certain degree as I will explain now.

Obviously, makespr has trouble finding some of the lines included in my original script. To determine what was causing the problem, I started by deleting all the comments (especially commented lines). This on it's own obviously did not solve the problem, but made counting the lines easier (I have no software able to do that automatically it seems). I determined that the error must be starting be within the iddle animation. After some testing, I found out I could delete the entire Sprite_Hot_Points entry and the script would run through makespr (guess why I mentionned the call me stupid, it actually took me 5 minutes to figure why the iddle sprite showed roughly 1 tile from where it was supposed to). Anyhow, with this modified script (cutting the Sprite_Hot_points entry for teh Victory Animation as well) makespr created my first fully animated sprite. As you can imagine, it's very little use with the iddle animation appearing in a ratehr akward position. I have found no way to get this to work correctly yet, obviously at least 1 entry for the hotpoints is required, but something else must be superflous (a single line it seems) and cause makespr not to recognise the following lines correctly.

The file attached is the script that makespr will accept but that is not actually useable (move and attack appear to be fine, so is work I expect).

Marc aka Caran... thourougly embarassed

[Immortal Wombat]

As you can imagine, it's very little use with the iddle animation appearing in a ratehr akward position. I have found no way to get this to work correctly yet, obviously at least 1 entry for the hotpoints is required, but something else must be superflous (a single line it seems) and cause makespr not to recognise the following lines correctly.

This is a problem I had as well, and I haven't really looked into fixing it yet. I don't really think the sprite needs an idle animation, it defaults to a movement frame, and doesn't cause any problems - might as well keep the file size small, IMO.

[Immortal Wombat]

Can you post the script file that gave you the errors above, please?