Japanese Faction mod [WIP] V0.89a released! (9 December 2011)

[Omega]

You must have raised it last time. I remember talking about lowering it during the earlier versions, and I'm pretty sure we did. Even though bombs are powerful, I think we need to find another way and etc...or else it'll be no fun sometimes.  

GAE: Effects. Bam.

[ultifd]

Hmm... Explain more? 
But we need something that would temporarily solve it in MG too.

[Psychedelic_hands]

I think we need to find another way and etc...or else it'll be no fun sometimes. 

Just make a counter for it.
Sorry I don't know my Japanese history all that well, but wasn't it modern weapons such as guns that lead to ninjas (or Shinobis) being phased out?
I suggest making Ashigarus good counters for them.

[Mr War]

Ith Japanese classical archery they only look at the very last moment if at all I thought

[Hagekura]

Well that amount of work is very similar to other strategies too. It's also not really bad because it's only ideal to bomb your opponent's (probably CPU, not human because they will eventually see through this tactic) base after they start attacking your base again. That should be enough to produce 10 ninjas with several barracks and for their regen to be full. I'll try to test this the next time.

You can prepare a good amount of infantry by same costs and times that you spend to prepare 10 ninjas, so it's depends on actually what playing style the players prefer. Seems you are good at micromanagement for using ninjas. I rather prefer direct attack of infantry though.

I think we need to find another way and etc...or else it'll be no fun sometimes. 

Just make a counter for it.
Sorry I don't know my Japanese history all that well, but wasn't it modern weapons such as guns that lead to ninjas (or Shinobis) being phased out?
I suggest making Ashigarus good counters for them.

Ninjas were not battlefield fighting forces but secret agents who engaged sabotage missions behind the scene. so the introduce of the guns in battlefield doesn't let ninjas phase out. actually the ninjas were mastery of those new technologies and used gunpowder weapons very well.  e.g. 火遁の術(Katon no jutsu).
besides it's fairly easy to beat the ninjas in my mod if you don't use gun ashigarus, but using some spear ashigarus can do the job.

Ith Japanese classical archery they only look at the very last moment if at all I thought

This is a 日置流(HEKI-RYU) archery shooting style.
http://www.geocities.jp/qdo_x/syatai.html
http://qdou.exblog.jp/i3/9/

but actually in battlefield the archers shoot more lower posture and usually hide behind the shields while loading.(and It's hard to reenact in glest).
You can see a bit how the archers shoot in the actual battle in this video.


 

[ultifd]

Well that amount of work is very similar to other strategies too. It's also not really bad because it's only ideal to bomb your opponent's (probably CPU, not human because they will eventually see through this tactic) base after they start attacking your base again. That should be enough to produce 10 ninjas with several barracks and for their regen to be full. I'll try to test this the next time.

You can prepare a good amount of infantry by same costs and times that you spend to prepare 10 ninjas, so it's depends on actually what playing style the players prefer. Seems you are good at micromanagement for using ninjas. I rather prefer direct attack of infantry though.

I do both. Yes most people will do that, including me, but since it's such a good exploit I think people will surely use it. I would prepare my regular army and my Shinobis as the other team. It's not that hard, all you have to do is have a specific barrack for them, even one barrack is good enough. 

[Hagekura]

I've made a normal textures for the mod. (=ﾟωﾟ)ﾉ

Screenshot with normal textures.


Without normal textures.


I've zipped the textures(for test).
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/28217581/jpfaction_glest_normalmaps.zip

I'm still struggling how to get best results with making normal textures by nvidia's photoshop plugin.

I don't clearly understand how to adjust the filter properties for best result.
for the time being I'm using filtertype=4sample  and scale=10 settings for making all textures but
If anyone have better ideas for these settings, please tell me!

[John.d.h]

You know you can bake normals in Blender, right?

[Hagekura]

You know you can bake normals in Blender, right?

No, how to?

[wciow]

No, how to?

http://www.katsbits.com/tutorials/blender/baking-normal-maps-from-models.php

This a rather old tutorial but should be useful. Blender 2.5x might have newer/better methods but I haven't made the jump from 2.49 yet 

[Ishmaru]

Looking good! Does normal maps cause any noticeable drops in frame rate?

[Omega]

Looking good! Does normal maps cause any noticeable drops in frame rate?

Not that I noticed. Normal maps are pretty simple and easy on system resources.

[Hagekura]

No, how to?

http://www.katsbits.com/tutorials/blender/baking-normal-maps-from-models.php

This a rather old tutorial but should be useful. Blender 2.5x might have newer/better methods but I haven't made the jump from 2.49 yet 

Thx for the tutorial link! so to bake a normal in blender requires making high-poly model for it, right?
hmn it sounds pain for me making high-poly model just for making normal textures. 
At this moment, I use photoshop filter for making normal textures for already existing models.

Looking good! Does normal maps cause any noticeable drops in frame rate?

Not that I noticed. Normal maps are pretty simple and easy on system resources.

Yeah I saw no problem with framerate when using normalmaps.

[Omega]

http://www.katsbits.com/tutorials/blender/baking-normal-maps-from-models.php

Eh, while interesting, not sure if I can say it's helpful myself, since most people wouldn't have a high detail model, and even with a high detail model, bump maps can add texture that even the highest detail model won't have.

I prefer to use the GIMP's built in normalmap filter, which converts the image to a normal map. Play around with the settings, particularly the filter and I think you will find the quality very good! Filters > Map > Normalmap

[John.d.h]

bump maps can add texture that even the highest detail model won't have.

You think so?  You can have as much detail as you like if you've got a few million polygons to work with.
http://blog.wolfire.com/2009/09/normal-map-vs-mesh/

It's not like we need detailed fur or hair in Glest, but things like those lines in the roof could be done pretty easily and details on jagged stone can be made to look really good.  Sculpting does increase the workflow a significant amount, though, so I'm not sure if it's worth if for Glest.  Plus, it's yet another skill to learn, and modding is already hard enough.  I'm not even using normal maps at all for my human-sized units.

[will]

Some people take the polys approach - imagine how much faster it'd draw with a 100 polys and a bump map!

http://www.wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?s=6d9079086a8d6bc37101af300b8951b5&showtopic=14570&view=findpost&p=217769 <-- because its gorgeous, in a gorgeous thread

[titi]

After playing the latest version of the japanese mod several times in different maps now, I think especially the AI has problems playing it! It is very easy to beat the AI (MegaGlest) even on mega settings! Older versions did not had these problems and it was always very hard to win.
(Only the too strong samurai and the bombing man were imbalanced before in my opinion)

Its hard to tell what is the reason for this, but one very iomportant thing I noticed is that the "Nagae Ashigaru" is much too strong now. Everyone only builds/upgrades these guys now, so I cannot really say anything about other units  .

[Hagekura]

That's right. because of the recent change of the discount units prices made it play more easier for human players. also the AI tends to inactive developing buildings and their selection of buildings is ineffective, like building many temples and farms rather than building barracks or dojos. so after deal with some early AI rushes, players can overwhelm AI. I wish I could somewhat bias AI's selection of building and force them build certain buildings.
About Spear Ashigarus, yes, I admit they become a bit overpowered once they adopted all upgrades. perhaps I should remove spear wall upgrade.

[Mr War]

I saw this model of a villager tending a field in a display at a Japanese castle and it soooo reminded me of the worker in this mod! They must have been playing Glest!


Another display showed what the scaffolding would have looked like when they built castles


And a castle...

[Hagekura]

Lovely pictures! thanks!
I want to redone buildings construction models when this mod is almost done, the second picture showing scaffolding scene is very informative.

And a castle...

Wow the keep from this angle looks nice. perhaps It's Kochi castle.

[Hagekura]

I've uploaded new version of the Japanese faction.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/28217581/japaneseV085a_20110810.zip

Changes:
-New unit:Warrior_monk (Medium-infantry unit with fearsome Naginata. Produced from Buddhist_temple) .


-Added new japanese blacksmith model.


-Added multiple attack/death animations for some units. (Active only in latest version of Megaglest) .
-Added normalmap textures. (Active only in GAE) .
-Now in GAE, attack-strength upgrades uses Multipliers instead of static-modifiers.
-Removed swordsman's special attack skill.
-Removed spear_wall upgrade.
-A bit fixed Castle's building model height.
-A bit fixed Teppo Ashigaru's unit model.
-Shinobi's primary attack has been changed to shuriken.
-Added and replaced some sounds.
-and many untis,buildings,updates cost and stats change.

[Omega]

Nice. I updated the link on the wiki. You should finish that page soon, there's still some blank unit spots. Looks good!

[Hagekura]

Thank you! 
I'll update the wiki page ASAP but the english is my problem. if someone find any spelling and grammar mistakes or unnatural descriptions in the JP faction's wiki page, please fix them.

[titi]

Nice! finally somethig new to test/play after my vacation . And a real blacksmith model  :-D
( One hint, maybe use Megaglests validation next time. Currently it reports a lot of unused files ( beside the normal maps for gae of course ).)

I will try to report some more feedback tomorrow.

[Hagekura]

Danke herr! I'm really fond of MG's new multiple animations per skill feature. It's really exciting. I have tried having some of my units multiple attack/death models in this version of the JPfaction, so please take a look into them!
but other than normal textures, the Megaglests validation will delete some of the files needed for playing  in GAE(like alarm notice sounds), so for a while I hold back to use it. though I'll try to remove unnecessary files by manual.