Paint

[McMonkey]

And my attempts at a Serb Foot Night and Magyar/Early Hungarian Spearman. The Serb is based on one of Bernd Brosing's units while the Magyar is a cross between one of Fairline's Russ and a shrunk down image from DBA online.

[Harry Tuttle]

Be careful with certain colors. The palette also contains transparent colors. Check your Venetian in game to make sure that purple is OK.

[McMonkey]

Thanks HT. I think the three purples used are the ones in the palette that are not invisible but I will double check.

This experiment, as well as finishing the Komnenai units, has brought me back to my plan for the Units section of the Scenario League. What I have in mind is a series of compilations based on the DBA online system of units categories.

What I am going to do is use a number of templates like the one below to help me organize the Medieval section. I can then add all the units by Fairline, Be Bro and all the other artists/moders as I find them as well as filling in the gaps with my own mods.

This will be an ongoing project. I cannot hope to cover every unit, but at least it will be able to organized them and it will allow lots of room to add new units in a logical order as they appear.

[Harry Tuttle]

Might I make a suggestion? For those using the scenario editor that came with FW the only way the editor will recognize new units for import is if they are in the usual unit grid. Maybe that would allow for better "ease of use" for new people.

[Eivind IV]

That is a good idea, mcmonkey!

[McMonkey]

Another good tip Harry. As I am just starting I will make sure they are put against the diamond background

Cheers, Eivind. I have been trying to work out a system for compiling units for a while now and this seems like the easiest method. I know it will be useful for me when creating scenarios so I hope others will find it helpful too. I also have a bit of an obsession for collecting and organizing things so I will enjoy this project

BTW the Grid I attached was just an example. I will try and make all the names and dates fit by widening the first (left hand) text box.

If anyone was wondering what DBA online is then heres the link:

DBA Online

Not sure what the game is like but the units resource is very good!

[Harry Tuttle]

Originally posted by McMonkey
Another good tip Harry. As I am just starting I will make sure they are put against the diamond background

No, the diamond background won't matter. I'm talking about the actual unit grid that the vanilla unit graphics are located in. The editor will only read within the green grid lines from a file that mirrors the original vanilla layout. If the grid is any other size the editor will not recognize the file and the import will have to be done by hand.

If the units have to be moved through cut and paste the chance of people messing up the colors or entire graphic will be high.

[McMonkey]

I'm sorry, I don't understand. I am making compilations for people to download and cut/paste units to their own units grid for scenarios or mods they are making. It is not intended for people to download and put into a game!

Or am I missing your point?

[Harry Tuttle]

Alright. There is a scenario editor that comes with Civ2 Fantastic Worlds. People new to scenario editing use this editor because it's easy to use. Most people find the scenario editor helpful as they have never worked with the Civ2 files before.

In the scenario editor it is possible to edit the unit file for a scenario. The scenario editor allows a person to import units into a scenario unit file. The only way the scenario editor will recognize unit graphics for import is if the file that the units to import are located on is in the same format as the original Civ2 units file (ie. 63 units in a grid, top left of the picture, two shields in the top right).

Since the "63 units in a grid format" is recognized by the Civ2 scenario editor and it's easy to use for beginners, my suggestion was to use this same format to group the units. That way people without access to a paint program can simply drop in the units and make their own scenario lickety split, allowing for more first timers to jump right into the scenario making process.

Just my two cents.

[MacGalleo]

@Mac Monkey
Good work with these units...
I agree with Harry, it would be usesull to compile units on files with the same format as the original Civ2 units file.

On the other hand I would like to congratulate all the work you (and others ) performed on the site "Scenario league." This site could become a database must for civ2.

[McMonkey]

Ah, I understand what you mean now. The FW editor only reads units files in the original layout!

I think I will stick with the method I have devised as I am aiming these compilation more at the experienced designers (and to a large extent for me ).

There are plenty of units files out there that new designers (surely few and far between nowadays!) can make use of.

If they specifically want to use some of the units in my compilations they can cut/paste using Paint. I'm sure someone would explain the method if they have problems.

I started out using Fantastic Worlds to edit scenarios years ago, before I found Apolyton, but soon found it very hard to work with so I taught myself to edit the graphics and text files directly as it was a lot quicker and easier. FW kept jumbling techs and units and adding Units took ages. I only found it useful for awaking my interest in scenario making but found it quite useless for actually working with!

My decision is possibly a little selfish but this is the best method I have found of organizing all the units I have collected over the past few years

[McMonkey]

What format would be best to use, GIF, 256 Colour Bitmap, other?

I can add any type to the Scenario League but I know changing they type can cause loss of colour etc...

[fairline]

Gif (or bmp if you like large files!) for MGE/FW (using to mge palette) and 16-bit bmp for ToT.

[b etor]

GIF is ugly. PNG is the way to go.

[fairline]

....but can't be read by MGE/FW

256-colour mge-palette gif or bmp only....