Venexia, the most serene republic

[Swan]

Basic info
THIS NATION DELETEs MA C'TIS
this nation modifies unit 1353(blood guard)
-Middle age
-swamp dominion
-all your troops are sailor
-all your tropps have swamp survival
-you start without an army
-good elemental battlecaster forger; very low astral; no death/blood
-either heavy armor or light armor, no medium choice
-good ranged soldier

[LDiCesare]

With no astral, death or blood, what options will they have in the late game? Unless you find some national spell (summon?) to replace tartarians, wishes and such, they're going to seriously hurt.

[Swan]

they will have maybe some astral with a summon, but you'll be pretty much forced to put that magic on the pretender.

[Squirrelloid]

With no astral, death or blood, what options will they have in the late game? Unless you find some national spell (summon?) to replace tartarians, wishes and such, they're going to seriously hurt.

They can't possibly be worse off than EA Atlantis. Or EA Oceania. Or MA Oceania. Or MA Man. Or... well, this list is actually rather large.

Getting into death via pretender with what is likely to be a large water income is actually pretty doable, since Streams from Hades gives you a respectable W3D3 caster, and only requires W4D1 to cast. (The pretender can use other options to break into death, of course, but there's nothing like using water gems to do it).

Anyone who really cares can break into blood the hard way. Alternately, Lamia Queens. (Who also get you into death).

Astral is... harder. But once you're in Death there's Summon Spectre which often gets S1-S2.

I mean, its not pretty, but you can get endgame magic by the time endgame rolls around if you plan ahead for it.

[Swan]

I made this image, but i'm not too proud of it.
look at the jpgs and tell me: Do them look like a holy, winged lion?
If yes, which one do you prefer?

[Sombre]

No. The second one.

[Swan]

No. The second one.

Damn.
The problem is the wing or the holy part?

[Calchet]

I'm afraid they both look a bit tossed together, especially the first one - I mean, there's a wing stapled onto the front leg of the poor lion!

The second can sort of work, but I'd suggest scaling up the wings and recolouring them to match the lion, which should make it passable enough.

[Stavis_L]

Might want to have a look at the sprite for unit 637, the draco lion. It's a lion with dragon's wings and tail (so you'd have to replace the hindquarters) but it's another model to work with.

[Burnsaber]

Recoloring the fur into white should also work to make the lion more "holy". You could use GIMP recolor tools as a start and polish it up a bit after the recolor.

[Sombre]

With a slight recolouring of the wings to make them more recognisable the only problem with the second one would be that it doesn't look holy. If you're trying to draw a halo, keep it either a really clear and simple floating gold/white hoop with some shading, or do a brilliant 'awe' style aura around the head using extremely bright white/yellow (keep in mind that if you try to make this fade to black to look good on a black background, it will look rubbish ingame).

You could also give him glowing eyes. Colour the eyes a very bright colour then take a round brush shape with the same colour and drop a series of 10 opacity circles, each smaller than the last, centred on the eye. You can see this effect with one of my slann graphics in the Lizardmen thread.

At your level I would suggest just doing a simple halo and recolouring the wings of #2.

[Burnsaber]

or do a brilliant 'awe' style aura around the head using extremely bright white/yellow (keep in mind that if you try to make this fade to black to look good on a black background, it will look rubbish ingame).


For a example of this type of effect, see the preview pic for my Holy War mod (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=42638). There is a guy in a white robe at bottom middle with this type of "glowing halo". The trick is to put the whitest pixels in the centre, moving to more yellowish shades at the outer circles of the halo.

[Swan]

Recoloring the fur into white should also work to make the lion more "holy". You could use GIMP recolor tools as a start and polish it up a bit after the recolor.

I know that white fur would make him look holy but in all the rapresentation it's a brown lion with an "aureola".

I recolored the wings, but i think i'll finish it as last unit

[Sombre]

Isn't an aureola supposed to surround the entire body?

[Swan]

In italian sacred art the aureola is only on the head
http://www.webalice.it/buldrini/Iagi/Sanmarco.jpg

[Calchet]

The common English term for that would be a halo.

[Swan]

The common English term for that would be a halo.

Seems like i just learned something new

[Stavis_L]

In italian sacred art the aureola is only on the head
http://www.webalice.it/buldrini/Iagi/Sanmarco.jpg

Not to be confused with an areola, which is confined to another part of the body entirely.

[Swan]

finished a hero: Catherine Horner, based on Caterina Corner
[female, seducer, asssin]
expanded the first post with new and detailed info, removed the jpg

[Swan]

The first shape of the winged holy lion is done.

[Sombre]

Halo definitely looks better.

[Swan]

tweaked the attack sprite of the master alchemist and finished the 2nd shape of the leon.

[Swan]

When i starta game with my modded nation, i got this phrase "sprnbr too high for this file", what does that mean?
this happens right before the first turn.
Any sugestion?

[Stavis_L]

Not sure, but if some number is too high, I'd guess it's this one:

#maxage 1000000000

[Swan]

no, it wasn't that.
i think that spr stand fo sprite and nbr means number, but i don't get what is that supposed to mean.
sprites do not use numbers, it's a link with letters, not numbers.
I haven't modded new spells or missile weapons, so it can't be that

[Globu]

I'm not sure if this'll be helpful, but I got that error once when I forgot to put # in front of the spr1 and spr2 for a unit.

Is it okay to have comments in there without -- in front of them? I haven't noticed any other mod I've looked at doing that.

[DaveCG]

#newmonster 2294
#name "Mistro del viero"

has a #spr 2 but no #spr 1, that might be it, I know fiddling round in the .dm file can warp your brain sometimes, happens to me! :D

I mean I know you've copied sprite, but maybe it's messing with it or something?

[Swan]

I'm not sure if this'll be helpful, but I got that error once when I forgot to put # in front of the spr1 and spr2 for a unit.

Is it okay to have comments in there without -- in front of them? I haven't noticed any other mod I've looked at doing that.

i have checked the file, i wrote every # i needed to

#newmonster 2294
#name "Mistro del viero"

has a #spr 2 but no #spr 1, that might be it, I know fiddling round in the .dm file can warp your brain sometimes, happens to me!


The "mistro" has a copyspr right before, so it shouldn't be that the problem.

I can't play now, i'll try this solutions anyway

[Stavis_L]

#newmonster 2294
#name "Mistro del viero"

has a #spr 2 but no #spr 1, that might be it, I know fiddling round in the .dm file can warp your brain sometimes, happens to me!


The "mistro" has a copyspr right before, so it shouldn't be that the problem.

I can't play now, i'll try this solutions anyway

Per the mod manual, it's invalid to use both #copyspr and #spr1/#spr2 commands for the same unit. If you need the base sprite for one of the poses, perhaps you could just take it from the sprite dumps.

Also - with regards to comments - the parser doesn't really respect line beginnings, so something like:

--#modcommand

...will NOT be commented out. It may not function correctly, however, since the parser expects the # to begin the line. Any line not containing a # is ignored by the parser (in my experience.)

[Swan]

#sp2+copyspr was not the problem,i really can't understand the issue

[kennydicke]

Swan

#newmonster 2297 doesn't have an associated sprite. #copystats doesn't copy the sprite.

[Swan]

Thank you kenny, now my nation can be finished

[elmokki]

I've been thinking about a hero like this for a while, and it definately suits your nation. I don't really care if you use it or not or if you wish to add it as something different than what it is. I've already had my fun while creating it :)

He's a flamboyant gentleman scoundrel with unsurprassed skills in close combat. His rapiers are armor piercing to simulate his skill and their thinness allowing him to hit the gaps in armor. His rapiers' strange stats are explained by the description: The long one is primarily used for offence while the short one is primarily used for defence. In retrospect the attack/defence bonus could be just 2 or the weapons could be named something more magical, like "Angelo's Long/Short Rapier"

Not my best sprite, but oh well.

[Swan]

Believe it or not, the scoundrel was on my to do list, as a hero inspired by "Giacomo Casanova"
do you mind if i modify your sprite?

[Swan]

do you think this sword (http://www.deltin.net/5173.jpg) is drawn in the right way in my sprite?
general opinion on the sprite are appreciated too.

[elmokki]

Believe it or not, the scoundrel was on my to do list, as a hero inspired by "Giacomo Casanova"
do you mind if i modify your sprite?

Yeah, do whatever you wish with it.

do you think this sword (http://www.deltin.net/5173.jpg) is drawn in the right way in my sprite?
general opinion on the sprite are appreciated too.

I'd make the blade part a bit longer. Now it looks really short compared to how long the non-blade part looks. Alternatively you could move the blade one pixel right to make the non-blade part look a bit shorter.

[Swan]

which sprite is better for a 1handed sword?
93.2 cm × 3.4 cm × 0.45 cm; 1.1 kg

[Swan]

Let's say there is a duel and one of the fighters teared and rolled up one of his sleeve around his hand(th one who is not wielding the sword) and arm to create a kind of cloth "shield"/arm protection, like the roman manica, just shorter.
That rolled sleeve has a particular name?

[Sombre]

which sprite is better for a 1handed sword?

Both look like two handers to me. Also the only difference I see is that the one on the right is darker,.. right?

[Swan]

which sprite is better for a 1handed sword?

Both look like two handers to me. Also the only difference I see is that the one on the right is darker,.. right?

Wrong, the right one is 2 pixel longer, but i changed model so it's no longer needed

[Swan]

i have another problem:
a knight of avalon(full helmet+full chan mail+kite shield+lance+alicorn+broad sword)=37 resources
homemade knight(full helmet+full chan mail+kite shield+lance+hoof+broad sword)=47 resources

they have the same gear, just a hoof for an alicorn, then why my knight cost 10 more resources?

[Stavis_L]

i have another problem:
a knight of avalon(full helmet+full chan mail+kite shield+lance+alicorn+broad sword)=37 resources
homemade knight(full helmet+full chan mail+kite shield+lance+hoof+broad sword)=47 resources

they have the same gear, just a hoof for an alicorn, then why my knight cost 10 more resources?

I haven't added up KoA's resource cost to make sure there's nothing strange going on there, but check out the #ressize command and make sure you're specifying 2 (standard human size.) Unless you want the resource cost to represent e.g. barding for the animal as well.

[Sombre]

Yep, simple size issue.

[aaminoff]

This is a very neat mod nation, thanks for doing this.

My knowledge of italian is limited. The names appear to be spelled unusually. Are they in the dialect of the Veneto?

[Swan]

My knowledge of italian is limited. The names appear to be spelled unusually. Are they in the dialect of the Veneto?

Yes, i used traditional names, except for "catherine horner" which is a rough translation of "caterina cornér".

Now, talking about this mod, i think it's gonna to be freezed for a month or so, as i'm working on something else, something that turned out a lot quicker than this so i will finish it first.
But do not worry! i'm not going to kill these.

[Swan]

newmonster 2306
#spr1 "./venexia/rifleman1(supporto).tga"
#spr2 "./venexia/rifleman2(supporto).tga"
#name "Arquebuser(with support)"
#descr "Light armored soldier, they use a never seen before weapon: the arquebus, which ignor armor and scary foes, inspite of a low precision"
#swampsurvival
#nametype 127
#gcost 15
#hp 10
#size 2
#ressize 2
#mor 11
#ap 14
#mapmove 2
#mr 10
#enc 5
#def 10
#att 10
#prec 12
#str 11
#weapon 606
#weapon 6
#armor "leather cap"
#armor "leather cuirass"
#startage 25
#maxage 50
#end

With this code i got the funny looking 10g 1 res guy, where is the problem?

[rdonj]

I don't see a # in front of newmonster....

[Swan]

:doh:

[rdonj]

Don't worry, I make mistakes like that all the time when modding. It's so easy to leave out one tiny but extremely important detail and mess everything up :)

[Digress]

#descr "Light armored soldier, they use a never seen before weapon: the arquebus, which ignor armor and scary foes, inspite of a low precision"

is it alright to point out a typo without downloading the mod.

How about
#descr "Lightly armored soldiers, they use a never seen before weapon: the arquebus, which ignores armor and scares foes. Which makes it effective in the armies of the republic inspite of its low accuracy"

[Swan]

I made this sprite, does it look like a hat with a feather?
plus there is a way to reduce upkeep of an unit?

[Swan]

uploaded new sprites, it's almost finished

[Globu]

Don't know about upkeep, but looking at the picchiere, the feather looks too far back. At small scale, it doesn't come off as a feather in a hat. Maybe move it forward a bit?

[Swan]

I tried moving the "feather", it doesn't work very well...
Think i'll keep it this way and you have to use your immagination

[Globu]

Very well then. :)

EDIT: How about this?

[Swan]

Hmm, nicely done, i'll took it, maybe i'll change the feather position, but i like the style of it

[Swan]

released the mod

[Swan]

i have another problem: i created a new unit but, even if i give to it 2 weapons, it says it has also fist as weapon.
how can i solve it?