MegaGlest Forum
Modding and game content creation => Mods => Topic started by: jammyjamjamman on 28 April 2013, 21:04:24
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I've been working on creating better models for the tech faction. So far I have only finished (at least almost finished) the castle, but there are 4 other models on the go Here's a preview:
Low quality texture: (http://oi40.tinypic.com/35kihi8.jpg)
High quality texture: (http://oi40.tinypic.com/34sl0u0.jpg)
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Looks interesting. I can't help but think the contrast seems a bit high, though. Would also go well with normal mapping if MegaGlest ever implements it.
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I can't help but think the contrast seems a bit high, though.
My sentiments exactly. I applaud the effort, though. I hope you stick with it.
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I hope you stick with it.
Oh, that reminds me, could you consider uploading your WIP regularly? So many mods are started and never completed, but the work is never uploaded, so can't be used in other projects.
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Really nice work, looks fantastic.:thumbup: Do not be discouraged by others. A new faction takes time. Just do more and more. I'm curious, on the other stuff from you. :)
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Thanks for all the feedback and support :) . Criticism is fine (as long as it's constructive and not abusive) and can be very useful. I see what you mean by the overly-high contrast. It doesn't match the rest of the Megaglest art style so well, so I'll see how it looks with a lower contrast + post the results. Also I was thinking of adding more ivy to the building as it's very hard to see the plant-life growing round the building.
Oh, that reminds me, could you consider uploading your WIP regularly? So many mods are started and never completed, but the work is never uploaded, so can't be used in other projects.
Thanks for the confidence you have in me completing this project :O . (Joking) But yes, I can't guarantee for whatever reason that I complete my project work so maybe I could put my WIP into dropbox or something like that if you like.
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I don't think that looks even vaguely like the Tech castle, you should make your own new mod instead of a "High Quality" Tech.
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You added a lot of stuff to the castle that is more like fantasy victorian or harry-potter ish that Magitech. For instance the random wooden box window sticking our and the wooden towers and such. I'd hesitate to call it high quality as it is more like alternative art style. High quality Tech would be more like adding extra detail to the tech castle and a better texture rather than radically changing the design. The thing about graphic art is that so much of it is based on style preference rather than technical detail.
If you really want to redo the Tech models maybe call it Alternative Style Tech instead of High Quality Tech.
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Hmm... yes. I wouldn't say making a "fantasy" castle isn't following the magitech style, since it's already a fantasy techtree (eg. big wooden robots of death are certainly not from the real world). What does seem to be a problem.... is that you found the title to this project very misleading..... you were expecting the faction to have the same models except with more detailed textures rather than a complete change in art style, which I never really thought about. I was focusing on models that suited the name "tech" rather than copying the entire style of the original tech faction (except I did copy the fantasy-ish bit). If not keeping to the style and calling the faction "tech high quality" is too misleading or even considered incorrect by too many people, then continuing with this project under this name might not be possible.
If I was to continue the project under a new name, I probably turn it into another fantasy faction though, because I share the opinion that megaglest is supposed to have a variety of supernatural factions rather than sub-categories of tech.
You added a lot of stuff to the castle that is more like fantasy victorian or harry-potter ish
^^not quite sure that I agree with that comment since the main feature of this type of castle is conical towers.
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Some Advices:
I wouldn't say contrast is your issue. It's that your textures have been sharpened too overly. Sharp textures are a good thing, but not so much so that its unnatural.
The wooden roof bits should be made of different meshes. Same amount of polys, easier to UV and model, and it will look a lot more more natural because your grain won't all be going the same direction and the beams will look separate.
I notice you have some pretty large texture seams. A fun way to fix this is in Blender. Select your model(Often it's best to separate the mesh you're fixing) and go into Texture Paint ( In the same way you switch from object to edit mode) and use brushes like smear and soften to fix them up.
Fix these and I might have some more... But good work! you're on your way to greatness!
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I wouldn't say contrast is your issue. It's that your textures have been sharpened too overly. Sharp textures are a good thing, but not so much so that its unnatural.
I tried lowering the contrast and the results didn't look good. I hadn't thought about sharpness being a problem because I haven't directly increased the sharpness of the images (the sharpness was caused by heavy use of the bump-map tool). But thanks for this comment! This problem has been bugging me for a while.
The wooden roof bits should be made of different meshes. Same amount of polys, easier to UV and model, and it will look a lot more more natural because your grain won't all be going the same direction and the beams will look separate.
I have slightly randomized the shapes of the roofs + re-textured the fames so they look like separate planks, and the results look much more natural.
I notice you have some pretty large texture seams. A fun way to fix this is in Blender. Select your model(Often it's best to separate the mesh you're fixing) and go into Texture Paint ( In the same way you switch from object to edit mode) and use brushes like smear and soften to fix them up.
I've already fixed this problem, but nevertheless thanks for the advice.
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Just a quick update I think the castle is now complete but feel free to share any other improvements :)
(http://i41.tinypic.com/9fxqno.jpg)
Other models are on the way!
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I like the castle. Is the door on the right side of the image walkable? Presumably the large door on the left is, at least.
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The worker fits through 2 doors (front and left), and not through 2 (back and right). When I first made the castle, the workers fitted through all the doors, but the castle was far too big. So now it looks like 2 will have to be blocked off. :/
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Or make the doors bigger.
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The worker fits through 2 doors (front and left), and not through 2 (back and right). When I first made the castle, the workers fitted through all the doors, but the castle was far too big. So now it looks like 2 will have to be blocked off. :/
That sounds good. The different doors look good in the image. Was just checking if they were walkable or not.
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Or make the doors bigger.
Unfortunately, not that simple. If I do that then the model would then require lots of re-texturing and there are other parts which would need entirely re-modeling, Although I have been thinking about doing this. the left-hand door was simple enough to re-size so workers can fit through it.
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Is this still in development? I'm thinking of starting development on an HD texture upgrade for Magitech.
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Yah! For MG "Refit".
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Yah! For MG "Refit".
Yea, a texture upgrade for Magic and Tech was in my plans somewhere, now I'm doing it! :)
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Yep, I'm still working on it, but I've just been on holidays. Also I like like the textures you've made for tech Archmage! gj :). I'm also unsure about whether I'm going to keep it as a tech faction.
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Yep, I'm still working on it, but I've just been on holidays. Also I like like the textures you've made for tech Archmage! gj :). I'm also unsure about whether I'm going to keep it as a tech faction.
Well have you added any units? And thank you. :)
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So far only the castle, the barracks, the worker and the soldier is complete(ish). but next week I'll need to gather all my models together since I'm very disorganised. :P
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So far only the castle, the barracks, the worker and the soldier is complete(ish). but next week I'll need to gather all my models together since I'm very disorganised. :P
I meant 'added' not re-modeled. :)
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Sorry I misread. The technodrome is to be replaced with a steam workshop where all the advanced stuff is made. Possibly also looking at making a trebuchet (stationary object). the worker is going to have a promote to technician option rather than having a produce technician option (the technicican will be used for researching and building the steam workshop and the aerodrome). I want the archers to have a promote to crossbowmen option (only handheld crossbows so not quite like with norse) and a promote to anti-air ballista (stationary object) option. I was thinking of separating builders, miners and woodcutters but I think this would over-complicate the game and make it drag on for longer which would not be so good for online play. I also want to add a steam jet propelled flying unit.
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Possibly also looking at making a trebuchet (stationary object).
Why stationary? Real life trebuchets had to be transported long distances, but then setup to be fired. The civilization series makes that work by requiring the trebuchet to be set into stationary "firing mode", which uses a movement point. However, this wouldn't work so well in MegaGlest because we lack the means to tell the AI how to use it. In the future, if, say, Lua AI is implemented, it may be possible to implement a reasonable trebuchet, but at the time being, it doesn't seem very feasible (the trebuchet isn't really a defensive unit).
the worker is going to have a promote to technician option rather than having a produce technician option (the technicican will be used for researching and building the steam workshop and the aerodrome). I want the archers to have a promote to crossbowmen option (only handheld crossbows so not quite like with norse) and a promote to anti-air ballista (stationary object) option.
The problem I see with these upgrades is that the AI doesn't really understand where to stop upgrading. You definitely wouldn't want to upgrade all workers, since the technicians lose part of their harvesting and building skills. The crossbowmen is great, but anti-air ballista are defensive units that are only needed in limited numbers (and aren't needed at all early game).
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Jammy, we may want to collaborate, I've already added a spearman, palace guard, resource store and expanded on the defense towers(all new or modified models with original animations). I have a knight WIP, and a longbowman planned. I'm also looking at adding new steampunk units and stuff. And... I have plans and some progress on a Magic Refit as well.
I feel we would have different visions for these things, but I think we should consider collaboration. :)
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Why stationary? Real life trebuchets had to be transported long distances, but then setup to be fired. The civilization series makes that work by requiring the trebuchet to be set into stationary "firing mode", which uses a movement point. However, this wouldn't work so well in MegaGlest because we lack the means to tell the AI how to use it. In the future, if, say, Lua AI is implemented, it may be possible to implement a reasonable trebuchet, but at the time being, it doesn't seem very feasible (the trebuchet isn't really a defensive unit).
The maps in megaglest are so small that I think making a transportable trebuchet would have little benefit. Also trebuchets are big and megaglest is buggy when it comes to big moving objects. It could be done by upgrading and degrading the trebuchet. They are also just a stationary object in other strategies (eg. the settlers 6). Since it is a long range attack unit, it will be an offensive unit, not defensive.
The problem I see with these upgrades is that the AI doesn't really understand where to stop upgrading. You definitely wouldn't want to upgrade all workers, since the technicians lose part of their harvesting and building skills. The crossbowmen is great, but anti-air ballista are defensive units that are only needed in limited numbers (and aren't needed at all early game).
I would probably limit the number of technicians allowed, so only around 4 or 5 can be made. Lots of my plans involve not sending technicians to war, as I find this unlikely to actually happen. This means archers are in charge of ballistas, soldiers are in charge of catapults etc. The technicians will have to do some research before the archers can upgrade to an air ballista unit.
Jammy, we may want to collaborate, I've already added a spearman, palace guard, resource store and expanded on the defense towers(all new or modified models with original animations). I have a knight WIP, and a longbowman planned. I'm also looking at adding new steampunk units and stuff. And... I have plans and some progress on a Magic Refit as well.
I feel we would have different visions for these things, but I think we should consider collaboration.
I would be very interested in doing so Archmage :) .
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I would be very interested in doing so Archmage :) .
Ok, I'll upload my magitech-refit shortly. :)
The gameplay in my mod is very different from most Glest mods, it's designed for long epic games with much larger assaults required to topple players. I'm sure you're not changing the fundamental gameplay at all, just the techtree and graphics, which I believe is where we can share.
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Here it is: Magitech - Refit (https://www.dropbox.com/s/yfd5l1zh40qro0m/magitech-refit.7z)
You can take any of the art and modify or use it however you wish, I left all the blender files in there, I did everything except the store model which was made by Atze I believe. (he gave it to the glest community in the free assets pool) I also left an experimental godtech faction in there. ;) Some of the art is very old(the walls), I started doing this a couple years ago and have just picked it up again a few months ago.
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The gameplay in my mod is very different from most Glest mods, it's designed for long epic games with much larger assaults required to topple players. I'm sure you're not changing the fundamental gameplay at all, just the techtree and graphics, which I believe is where we can share.
I find shorter games are useful for online gameplay because it means more people have time to play online. Another difficulty with games with larger assaults is that this causes problems for people with slow computers which cannot handle large numbers of units. But, I also think that long epic games with larger assults are far more fun. This leaves me very torn over whether the gameplay should be changed or not.
Thanks for the artwork also. I'll try and upload what I have when I have it all gathered. :)
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I find shorter games are useful for online gameplay because it means more people have time to play online. Another difficulty with games with larger assaults is that this causes problems for people with slow computers which cannot handle large numbers of units. But, I also think that long epic games with larger assults are far more fun. This leaves me very torn over whether the gameplay should be changed or not.
We have the Megapack and original Magitech(redundant of Megapack now..) for short games, if we're going to refit magitech we should bring something new and epic. People with slow computers can either wait for the game to be optimized or turn down the graphics a bit, or simply get a better computer. Next-gen is almost upon us it's kinda ridiculous that people are still sporting really weak computers when a pretty hefty computer can be had for like 400 dollars. I think I've got the large epic gameplay almost right in my mod, we just need bigger maps and more unit types and balance.
If we can align our visions of this we should start working together on it.