Sun and Moon

[Fluffy203]

Not here to criticize or hate or make fun of your work , but do you need someone to create for you orginal models for you mod just asking i would help out with this give me a unit it i'll do it defiantly if you are going to have something transperent i can do that easily , but if you need help i'll assist you with a unit or two while i'm not working on my own mod 

[John.d.h]

Not here to criticize or hate or make fun of your work , but do you need someone to create for you orginal models for you mod just asking i would help out with this give me a unit it i'll do it defiantly if you are going to have something transperent i can do that easily , but if you need help i'll assist you with a unit or two while i'm not working on my own mod 

Yes, absolutely!  Just give me some time to do some good concept art.

Here are a few buildings that I've modeled that still need to be textured.  Feel free to modify them if you'd like, lower the polygon count or just make them look a little better if they need it.  Mostly they just need textures, though.

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http://www.mediafire.com/file/zw5mimm2txm/altar.blend
http://www.mediafire.com/file/eenj5mmiezn/broch.blend
http://www.mediafire.com/file/m1jwynn5zlw/sunglass.blend
The Altar and the Sunglass are for the Sun faction, so I'm going for a sort of Byzantine feeling with them and they shouldn't have any wood anywhere on them.  The Broch is for the Moon faction, so it should have a more Celtic feeling.  Here's the Stone Circle that Gameboy textured for me to give you some idea.

http://www.mediafire.com/?ngmzmgymnny

[wciow]

Downloaded the files. I'll try to texture the sunglass and altar (leave the broch for Gameboy).

BTW you exported the Stone Circle with 250 frames for a static model!! the resulting file size is over 10mb!!
I re-exported it with a single frame and its now 67kb 

[ZaggyDad]

Wow. But that is the default for Blender.

[Fluffy203]

Ok well you give me some concept art and the details of what you want it to look like and i'll create it, but i'm not so hot at the textures so you might need someone else 

[John.d.h]

Downloaded the files. I'll try to texture the sunglass and altar (leave the broch for Gameboy).

Thanks!

BTW you exported the Stone Circle with 250 frames for a static model!! the resulting file size is over 10mb!!
I re-exported it with a single frame and its now 67kb 

I'd been wondering why *.blend files are so much bigger than *.dwg.  I guess that's probably why.  Is this something I should worry about for the rest of my models that I haven't exported yet, or is it fine the way it is?  I don't really know how to do much in Blender.  I make everything in AutoCAD because it's the only modeling program I know how to use.

Here are my models for the Solar Circle and Sun Well.  Sorry about the absurdly high polygon count.  I still have no idea how to reduce it.  It just sorta happens that way somewhere along the process of changing formats. Feel free to remodel it if you want, just so long as it looks good.  Keep in mind that the Sun Well is supposed to capture and store sunlight, so feel free to add any sort of accessories that might go along with that theme.  Maybe a giant focusing crystal on the top or something?  Just a thought.

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http://www.mediafire.com/file/mn4wvtfmjmn/solar_circle.blend
http://www.mediafire.com/file/32tx2jdm2mw/sun_well.blend

Ok well you give me some concept art and the details of what you want it to look like and i'll create it, but i'm not so hot at the textures so you might need someone else 

Okay.  I'll try to do it in a timely fashion, but I'm just about to go on spring break, so it might be a while.

[Fluffy203]

ok thats fine , but your links are broken i was going to put a crystal on teh sun well and add some sunlight animation just let me know when you get it fixed

[John.d.h]

ok thats fine , but your links are broken i was going to put a crystal on teh sun well and add some sunlight animation just let me know when you get it fixed

Try these.  I saved them in a different format, so maybe that will work out better for you.  I look forward to seeing what you can do.

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http://www.mediafire.com/file/tmctmmwybnn/sun_well.obj
http://www.mediafire.com/file/jyydoynm41n/solar_circle.obj

[gameboy]

A suggestion, how about an emblem for the two factions? We could put it on all the buildings or maybe make flags on them.
For Sun a flaming ball fire
And for Moon a crescent moon inside a circle surrounded by a few stars, how many stars? 2 because of the two sects of Moon people, 4 or 5?

[MadElf]

What about that:

Moon:

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http://www.xennifer.com/userfiles/150x150_MoonSymbol.png
Sun:

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http://www.godsmackfanclub.com/artfiles/gs-logo-blk-blk.gif
I don't know about the sun... But I like that moon.

[gameboy]

I like them but i was thinking of making it myself, you could also use them as icon backgrounds

[John.d.h]

A suggestion, how about an emblem for the two factions? We could put it on all the buildings or maybe make flags on them.
For Sun a flaming ball fire
And for Moon a crescent moon inside a circle surrounded by a few stars, how many stars? 2 because of the two sects of Moon people, 4 or 5?

I was just thinking of that today, actually.  I was thinking for Moon, a crescent would represent the High-born and either a tree or a wolf would represent the Wild Ones, since those are the two prominent figures in their creation myth.  The Ancestral Warrior can have a tree tattooed on his back and a wolf's head painted on his shield.  The Gallowglass could wear a cape with a crescent moon logo on it.

I think the phoenix would be a good symbol for Sun, since it is fiery like the sun and also because it's reborn from ruin, which represents what the Lanto are trying to do with rebuilding their empire.  A lion would also be good because it's aggressive and territorial.  Of course the sun itself would be good too.

[madmanntis]

This looks like a very intense, in-depth and inventive mod johndh (in, in, in..)!!!

The only thing I wondered about was the names of the two newer factions (Sky and Earth). The moon and the sun are very much in the sky, while the earth is kind of by itself... but then again, perhaps this was intentional. Also, I honestly wouldn't have the slightest idea what you could change Sky to (Gale? Storm? ah.. I dunno).

Besides that, if you need a hand, lemme know. It looks like you've got a lot of good help here already, but if there's a random animating or modelling task you could use a hand for, let me know.

So all in all... great ideas and great job!

[John.d.h]

Cool, thanks a lot Madmanntis, and welcome to the Glest forum.   Regarding Earth and Sky, they're on hold right now since I'm really taking an interest in Sun and Moon and they'll require plenty enough work on their own.  Looking at the horizon, Earth and Sky touch but stay totally separate, as related but opposing things, similar to how Sun and Moon follow roughly the same path but are totally different or how Technology and Magic are both ways of understanding and controlling the universe but are still very much in conflict with each other.  I see Glest as being all about that sort of relationship, so that's where I got the idea for Sun and Moon and then Earth and Sky.  They also loosely correspond to the four elements, but that wasn't really intentional.

It does look like I'll have a lot of good help already, but since about twenty units and a few buildings still need to be modeled, textured, and animated, there should be plenty of work to go around, and that's just to get a regular Magitech-sized tech tree, which is a lot smaller than what I have planned for "some day".

I'm on spring break right now and I'm planning on putting up some concept art and more detailed descriptions of the units when I get back, as well as a to-do list of what all needs to be done.  That's going to be a long list, I think.  I might also go ahead and record some of the unit speech while I'm away, since that should be pretty easy and it might give a little insight into the units' personalities.

[gameboy]

Here I made the icons for sun and a nice little banner.


I did another one with supernova but I'll leave you to choose which one to use.

Here's the source image of the Sun emblem, for the other texturers to use on the buildings.

I also made the Sun Palace.
http://www.mediafire.com/?omzguidmlmz
Hope you like it.

[John.d.h]

Looks good!  I don't really know if it will make much difference, but I think I prefer the one without the nova.  I can't open the model since I'm not on my own computer right now, but when I get back home in a couple days I'll take a look.

[Valetdepik]

Good luck, it's like really good, i wait for the graphic and i wanna test this mod!
                      +END_CONNEXION+

[John.d.h]

Okay, I just got back to Orlando and I got my sounds uploaded.  They're just my first attempt and I fully intend on doing much better in the future, but here they are in *.ogg format (that's the right one, right?) for you to check out.  Let me know what y'all think.

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http://www.mediafire.com/file/hnjfmlzzyoa/sounds_first_try.zip
http://www.easy-share.com/1904046713/sounds_first_try.zip
Both links are the same file, but I know some people have trouble with Mediafire, so I provided an alternate link for them.

[John.d.h]

Okay, so I tried out the Stone Circle in-game and it looks good but it's way too small.  Do I have to alter the model and then re-export it or is there something I have to modify in the XML?

[gameboy]

you have to re-export it.

[John.d.h]

Okay, so I've spent the past week or so doing XMLs and exporting models and whatnot.  The result is that Sun and Moon are now playable!  However, many of the units still need to have their stats altered to make them more like they're supposed to be.  Also, none of the people or creatures have models yet (!), most don't have any sounds (and the few that do, need to be redone) and although most of the buildings have been modeled, there are a few that still need to be made and all but two still need to be textured (and probably have their poly count reduced).  So basically what I'm saying here is that although you could play a game in Glest using Sun and Moon, it just wouldn't be any good.  If any of you would like to have a try at texturing any of these buildings, feel free!  I would greatly appreciate it (and credit you, of course).  I'll put together some descriptions of the unfinished units so that people can start modeling/texturing/animating them as well, and I hope to have a few of those posted for you this weekend.

Here is a screenshot of the Sun faction's base in Glest.

Edit: I moved the screenshot to the first post of this thread. /Edit

Also, check the first post in this thread for a list of what has and hasn't been finished.  I plan on updating this every time something gets done.

[modman]

This looks very good!  I like your building designs very much!

One thing I realized is that it is (exponentially) harder for a player to play a faction that has confusing names.  This is your call, but maybe you might want to make your unit names a little more obvious.  No more Nihirillian naming!

I think that all of the buildings in your tech tree should have either a sun or a moon emblem visible from the top.  This will give each building a character of its own!

[wciow]

Nice to see this mod is making some progress.

I'll still texture the altar and sunglass for you 

[John.d.h]

Nice to see this mod is making some progress.

I'll still texture the altar and sunglass for you 

Great!  Here are the most current versions of each:

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http://www.mediafire.com/file/ktvv2ahjzym/altar.blend
http://www.mediafire.com/file/nzlnukitjqz/altar.obj

http://www.mediafire.com/file/m3czdwzdihm/sunglass.blend
http://www.mediafire.com/file/wy5yejny4m5/sunglass.obj
You can decimate the hell out of both of these models and still have them look good, but I'll leave that up to you to decide how much.  The Altar looks almost exactly the same at .5x or even .4x the number of faces, but anything below that and it starts to lose shape.

[John.d.h]

I just updated the OP again, adding screenshots of everything that's been finished so far.  It would take up way too much space to actually embed them, so I just put links to the images.  The chart should be somewhat self-explanatory, but just in case, anything marked as "done" has been successfully completed, anything marked as "assigned" hasn't been completed yet but has somebody working on it, and anything marked as "needed" hasn't been completed and doesn't have anyone working on it.