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

[Hagekura]

I'm sorry, The vid was inappropriate indeed. The scene was one of my favorite scenes from the film by Kitano Takeshi. I'll be more careful in the future. 

Kiko, The music track in the faction is from the site: http://soundarbour.sakura.ne.jp/
All of the voice files named hage_xxxxxx.wav are my own voices. others from: http://www.s-t-t.com/wwl/

Here is the list what they actually say in english:
Worker, Peasant:

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"HAI" = Yes
"HEI" = Yes (Old peasant like accented speaking).
"YARIMASU" = I'll do that (formal).
"HAJIMEMASUDA" = Get started (Old peasant like accented speaking).
"ICCHO YARUKA" = Let's Get started (Frank).
"YARUBEI" =  Get started (Old peasant like accented speaking).
"TORIKAKARUBEI" = Get started (Old peasant like accented speaking).
"DEKIMASUTADA" = It's done (Old peasant like accented speaking).
"SUGU IKUDA" = Go there soon (Old peasant like accented speaking).

Ashigarus:

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"A A O" = battle cry.
"HAYAGAKE" = Run faster （archaic speaking).
"KAKEASHI MAI E" = Run Forward!
"HAYAASHI MAI E" = Walk Faster.
"KAKARE" = Attack!
"SEMEYOSEI" = Attack （archaic speaking).
"SONAEI" = Prepare!
"HA TONO" = Yes sir!
"YUMISHU KORENI" = Archers at your service!
"YUMISHU MAI E" = Archers Forward!
"IKUZO" = Go!
"ASHIGARU YARIGUMI" = Ashigaru Spear Squad!
"NAGAEGUMI SONAIYO" = Spearmen Prepare!
"TEPPOSHU KORENI" = Musketeers Ready!
"TEPPOSHU SONAIYO" = Musketeers Prepare!
"TEPPOSHU MAI E" = Musketeers Forward!

Medical Priest:

(click to show/hide)

"I NO MICHI WA JIN" = The way of the Medical is a JIN(a virtue of Confucianism:REN).
"ISO NI GOZARIMASU" = Medical priest.
"NAMU NENNPI KANNONRIKI" = (Nianfo)
"NAMU MYO HOREN GEKYO~" = Buddhist Chant
"NANNARITO" = As you wish.（archaic speaking)
"SESSO NI GOYO DESHOUKA" = What can I do for you?
"SHOUTI ITASIMASITA" = All right (Formal).
"HA TADACHINI" = Sure Immediately(Formal).

SAMURAI:

(click to show/hide)

"IZA YUKAN" = Go!（archaic speaking)
"KACHIMUSHA NI GOZARU" = Foot Samurai!(archaic speaking)
"KACHISHU KORENI" = Foot samurais at your service!(archaic speaking)

SHINOBI:

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"NIN NIN" = Nin Nin (Actually means nothing ).
"RAPPA NI GOZARU" = Ninja(Rappa)! (archaic speaking)
"SHOUTI" = Affirmative.
"YARIMASU" = I'll do that (Formal).
"Kashikomarimasita" Sure (Formal).

SWORDSMAN:

(click to show/hide)

"IKKAI NO HYOHOMONO NI GOZARU" = I'm just a lone swordsman (archaic speaking).
"WAGA MICHI WA KEN" = Sword is the my way!

[Kiko]

I'm sorry, The vid was inappropriate indeed. The scene was one of my favorite scenes from the film by Kitano Takeshi. I'll be more careful in the future. 

Heh; censored by Omega! Fair enough.

Hage, you did a really great job with the voice-overs. Well spoken, and expertly recorded with no 'faults' I can see. The sound link sites – thanks for those – are all in Japanese. Do any of the page links/controls offer English options? (I can't tell from the Kanji).

Thanks also for the language translations here. A fiend who plays online in the XBox 360 community recently said to me that a superbly programmed game with poor sound seems rubbish, while any game with great sound is hugely improved. I agree, and the sound quality in your mod is outstanding. (Sound in other mods is great too, of course, but I'm a bit biased here as I love the Samurai history and stories).

I also wonder, does 'kiko' have other meanings? I'm interested in how different languages came to be, and read that 'spiritual energy' is called by many words which have various meanings, eg;

spiritus (Latin) = breath, energy, soul, etc
pneuma (Greek) = similar (hence 'pneumatic', meaning 'powered by air')
ruach (Hebrew) = similar meanings
chi (Chinese) = similar
ki (Japanese) = similar
etc...

The meaning changes – as you'll know – depending upon the context in which it's used, though in modern English we often don't have quite the same nuances any more. I think that's partly to do with the churches destroying awareness of subtle energy work over the past 1,500 years or so. Things like chigung/kiko existed all over the world once, but that type of energy exercise and healing empowers people, and the churches didn't want people to be self-empowered in olden days. Things are different now perhaps, as a vicar friend of mine says (she trained in Eastern style energy healing work). See what a game can bring up..?

And on that note (I know, mods – rather off topic!) 'higher spirit' or 'god spirit' is said to be rei-ki in Japanese, but can you provide a better translation to English Hage?

Edit: I've just loaded the animations into the 3D Viewer – great attention to detail Hage. Including an

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[url=http://www.kjartan.org/swordfaq/section02.html]Iai[/url] is very cool. I've seen Iaido in the UK a few times, and their focus pulls the audience into the stillness. Wonderful stuff, and strangely (being that it involves swords) not at all violent.

[Hagekura]

To be honest, kiko, when I saw your name at first time, It occured to me some girl's name, I didn't think of that Qigong = 気功(Kiko). because "kiko" is the name which several seen in japanese girl's names, like Princess Kiko.

Literal translation of the 霊気(Rei-ki) in English is "Ghost Spirit". "霊(Rei)" = "Ghost".

I totally agree with your friend. Sound is very important factor in the computer games. Plainly speaking, most of the computer games today have only two-outputs, the visual and the sound. Sound is not just an accessory, but the vital part of computer games. So we have to give a lot of attention to sounds when creating computer games.
I choose all of the sound effects in JPfaction very carefully and made a lot of adjustments about the sound files such as removing noises, and if necessary, adjusted the sound volumes of them.

I'm glad you noticed the Iai animation. Yeah when I made JPunit's attacking animations, I refer to the demonstrations of the martial artists.
It's great you've seen the actual performance of Iaido. Your impression about it is so right. Practicing of the Iaido uses real swords, so unlike Kendo or other martial arts, Practicing of the Iaido was done by individually. They depend on practicing Katas, and suppose they are fighting with imaginary enemy. So Iaido training is the fighting with own self.
Iaido is the killing technique which developed through the actual battles, but it's ultimate goal is to win without fight. Legendary Sword-saint Tsukahara Bokuden also said winning without fight is the best.

[Kiko]

To be honest, kiko, when I saw your name at first time, It occured to me some girl's name, I didn't think of that Qigong = 気功(Kiko). because "kiko" is the name which several seen in japanese girl's names, like Princess Kiko.

I also used one of the default avatars which looked like someone's face hidden by a large hat, but then when I saw it animated it was a girl. Changed it to Mr. Butch Eye-patch!

Literal translation of the 霊気(Rei-ki) in English is "Ghost Spirit". "霊(Rei)" = "Ghost".

Thanks. That's useful because most people I've known in the UK make a terrible mess of Chinese and Japanese. I even heard someone say that Rei-ki translated to Chinese is Lei-ki, because they can't pronounce the 'R'! Unbelievable. I lost touch with my teacher some years ago after moving a long way, but I'm fairly sure that reik-ki would be wu-chi, or something like that. Mind you, if rei-ki means ghost spirit, then Chinese may be gwai-chi..? I don't know.

I choose all of the sound effects in JPfaction very carefully and made a lot of adjustments about the sound files such as removing noises, and if necessary, adjusted the sound volumes of them.

Well you did a great job. I notice that some other mods have superb sound, but one or two are let down by uneven volumes and background noise.

I'm glad you noticed the Iai animation. Yeah when I made JPunit's attacking animations, I refer to the demonstrations of the martial artists.

Yeah, it shows. I notice the Tsubute even lets go of one sling strap properly when throwing. Lots of attention to detail.

I'm still thinking of doing a 'mini-mod' from it, with just villagers, swordsmen, etc. Even that's not as simple as I thought at first, as it needs planning for balanced battles and such. It'll keep me busy on cold nights though. 

[Hagekura]

Literal translation of the 霊気(Rei-ki) in English is "Ghost Spirit". "霊(Rei)" = "Ghost".

Thanks. That's useful because most people I've known in the UK make a terrible mess of Chinese and Japanese. I even heard someone say that Rei-ki translated to Chinese is Lei-ki, because they can't pronounce the 'R'! Unbelievable. I lost touch with my teacher some years ago after moving a long way, but I'm fairly sure that reik-ki would be wu-chi, or something like that. Mind you, if rei-ki means ghost spirit, then Chinese may be gwai-chi..? I don't know.

I can't blame them, since most of us can't distinct English and Irish and Scottish.

霊気(Rei-ki) is generally used for express something spiritual, supernatural auras and atomospheres.
I also don't know what will it be in Chinese. Even though we share many Chinese Characters, pronounce of them are often totally different between Japanese and Chinese.

I'm still thinking of doing a 'mini-mod' from it, with just villagers, swordsmen, etc. Even that's not as simple as I thought at first, as it needs planning for balanced battles and such. It'll keep me busy on cold nights though. 

I've added a link for the minimod in the first post of this thread.
I have a high expectation of your minimod project. Give it your all!

[SnEptUne]

Is there any plan to add Japanese to the megaglest pack?

[Omega]

Is there any plan to add Japanese to the megaglest pack?

I don't know of any plans to do so, but am not sure how well the more historically accurate and gun-powder based Japanese faction would fit into the melee-dominated fantasy of the MegaPack, which is awfully bloated, as it is. I always imagined the Japanese becoming its own techtree, with the Ming faction, etc.

[victorj]

Japanese is a faction that makes really cool megaglest more serious a historical game, this faction resembles the Shogun - Total War I still dream about techtrees historical, as in the epoch of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire, with factions like the Persians, Spartans... (Rome Total War) someone willing to bring a project like this to megaglest?
It could have techtrees historicante based the MG package again bring a lot of work.
I quoted the total war game because the game here and he really like his style of play, mainly I quoted the above because I like the history of Rome.

[Hagekura]

From the beginning, I made this faction compatible with magitech/megapack techtrees. This faction doesn't use unique resources,attack and armor types that don't included in magitech/megapack.

So my plan is that I will complete this faction to some extent first, then I hope merge this faction with megapack. To accommodate the faction with megapack, I may add some degree of fantasic units like air units.
then I will recreate whole new historical factions techtree with unique features.

[victorj]

From the beginning, I made this faction compatible with magitech/megapack techtrees. This faction doesn't use unique resources,attack and armor types that don't included in magitech/megapack.

So my plan is that I will complete this faction to some extent first, then I hope merge this faction with megapack. To accommodate the faction with megapack, I may add some degree of fantasic units like air units.
then I will recreate whole new historical factions techtree with unique features.

Hagekura I do not think it's a good idea to do this. Keep it historically please! consider creating new factions to hand in to change because otherwise it will not cease to be a historical faction, even if I have plans for you to make a techtree between the time of the Sengoku Jidai, "Warring States" period of mid-fifteenth century and the beginning the seventeenth century. would be very cool! my wish and that thou mayest more factions to historical megaglest;) read my post in vbros pack and you'll understand.

[Pizza90]

I think that the fact that japanese doesnt have an air unit is not so bad, i mean if it's well balanced i dont see the problem of not having air units (tech have weak air units and almost never used), maybe a good antiair would be enough to balanced the lack of air units. If there is  mod that deserve to stay in the megapack it's the Japanese in my opinion!

[ElimiNator]

I think that the fact that japanese doesnt have an air unit is not so bad, i mean if it's well balanced i dont see the problem of not having air units (tech have weak air units and almost never used), maybe a good antiair would be enough to balanced the lack of air units. If there is  mod that deserve to stay in the megapack it's the Japanese in my opinion!

Once more I don't know how the guns/cannons would look along side old age stuff.

[Pizza90]

Well we are talking about guns/cannons that use gunpowder..tech could use gunpowder too! I mean i could understand if there were futuristic things, but there aren't!

[Hagekura]

I agree to Pizza. Tech faction has Airship with rocket launcher, besides mech and ornithopter. All those machines are far more advanced than guns and cannons.

[Ishmaru]

What if there were two versions of japaneese faction, one is the current historical accurate version, and a fantasy based version for megapack?

After all japaneese faction is much more complex then the me megapack factions anyways.

[Hagekura]

What if there were two versions of japaneese faction, one is the current historical accurate version, and a fantasy based version for megapack?

After all japaneese faction is much more complex then the me megapack factions anyways.

Yeah that plan is close to what I have in mind.

I will work on current version some more, like add some more units - It may includes air units - and do polishing and finish current japanese version, then I hope titi and mg team accept to merge JP faction into megapack. As I said before, current japanese faction has been built based on magitech/megapack. So I wish when current version is finished, go to merge with megapack.

After that, I will start rework with completely new japanese version. it will include own unique resources, attack and armor types, and it's own gameplay balance freed from restriction of magitech/megapack.

[Ishmaru]

I'm just curious, what kind of air units would you make?

[Pizza90]

Hagekura i noticed (since time ago but just recently i noticed even more and decided to mention it) that the Japanese faction is more resource needing than the other factions (especially comparated to the megapack factions). Now i ask you, have you ever thought about (if there is a way) finding  way to make the faction less resource requiring? I am using a "normal" laptop to play (ubuntu 10.04 32 bit,3gb of ram with an ati raedon HD 3200) and especially with many players (more than 4) the game becomes a little slow , sometimes it's not a problem, sometime it become really a problem, (with 8 players it just crashed to me). I pointed out this thing because if in the future the japanaese version will be included in the megapack it may happen one of these two things:

1) The whole minimum requirements for the whole game would increase (which is not good imo)
2) The japanese faction will be more resource requiring than the rest of megapack so players might avoid playing it because of lags (especilly player with a lower hardware).

Now i am not saying that you should remove effects etc. dont do that! They are good! But i think it would be good to have an option (but this will be decided later when the faction will go in the megapack) to remove nice (but resource needing) effects.

So if someone has ideas about this thing i pointed out well just write it!

[Hagekura]

I'm just curious, what kind of air units would you make?

Well I'm thinking Tengu as a candidate for the air unit.

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[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/705/tenguw.png/][IMG]http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/4277/tenguw.th.png[/img][/URL]大天狗(Daitengu, Otengu)

Hagekura i noticed (since time ago but just recently i noticed even more and decided to mention it) that the Japanese faction is more resource needing than the other factions (especially comparated to the megapack factions).

Indeed. In the next update I'll reform the folder structure of the faction, so that many duplicated files (Like image files and some particles xml files) can be combed out. Currently image files are scattered in the each units folder, so by doing this loading speed of the faction could be reduced a bit.

But to solve the fundamental problem, maybe I must remove some animations and simplify some too heavy models(like cannon, samurai). Arrivederci!
Btw recently I bought a scanner, so I want to show you some rough concept drawings I made alongside of making the mod.

(click to show/hide)

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[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/440/tsubute.png/][IMG]http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/1496/tsubute.th.png[/img][/URL]
[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/861/shinobi.png/][IMG]http://img861.imageshack.us/img861/5512/shinobi.th.png[/img][/URL]
[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/560/nomin.png/][IMG]http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/3408/nomin.th.png[/img][/URL]
[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/842/nobuseri.png/][IMG]http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/7697/nobuseri.th.png[/img][/URL]
[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/201/kengou.png/][IMG]http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/5991/kengou.th.png[/img][/URL]
[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/137/kaji.png/][IMG]http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/7825/kaji.th.png[/img][/URL]
[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/198/yarikachi.png/][IMG]http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/8703/yarikachi.th.png[/img][/URL]
[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/337/akuso.png/][IMG]http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/8312/akuso.th.png[/img][/URL]
[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/14/ashigarus01.png/][IMG]http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/3105/ashigarus01.th.png[/img][/URL]
[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/717/ashigarus02.png/][IMG]http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/4708/ashigarus02.th.png[/img][/URL]
[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/407/gozeichi.png/][IMG]http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/2008/gozeichi.th.png[/img][/URL]
[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/259/bagu.png/][IMG]http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/83/bagu.th.png[/img][/URL]

[titi]

wow nice! I cannot really paint

I once was a bit concerned about the cannons power in the japanese mod and I still think they are too strong.
We played so many games now coop vs cpu and humans and all the games now end in the same way, mass production of cannons .
I have no real suggestion how to change it, but I think there should be changed something.

[Hagekura]

Danke herr. The balance problem about the cannon is worth considering.
I assume that the firing rate of the cannon is the problem.
I will change the cannon's spec and make it requires EP to shot. It could be damp down the effectivity of the cannon.

[Tyrannosaurus]

Wow, this is probably the best faction I've ever seen designed for Glest. It certainly has much more depth and historical accuracy than most Glest mods. Well done!

[Pizza90]

Hagekura i think the animations are ok and also the detailed models are nice ( love the samurai btw ) i think you could try to texture a model with compressed textures, losing like 15 or 20% of the original quality should be acceptable i think (however you can see if the result sucks just dont replace the model with normal textures with the one with compressed ones) it would be a large work i think but i think: compressed textures=lighter faction=less data to be sent and received=less lag (if i a wrong tell me it!).

And again i think tht having the possibility to switch on and off the units effects would be nice so (like we do now with the rain effect) people with good hardware can keep them and those with a not so good hardware can disable them

[Hagekura]

Thank you Tyranno.

Scusi Pizza, Compressed Textures, Like PNG or JPG instead of TGA format?
Certainly it will save a lot of disk spaces and I don't concern about losing some qualities of textures by doing this, but I wonder how actually effective is it for reduce in-game lags, since I'm not expert about game engines. I want to hear the insight about this matter from developers of the folks.
Also as far as I know, particle effects can't be toggled on and off by mod side. It's a function of the application side, I think. Grazie!

[Omega]

Hagekura i think the animations are ok and also the detailed models are nice ( love the samurai btw ) i think you could try to texture a model with compressed textures, losing like 15 or 20% of the original quality should be acceptable i think (however you can see if the result sucks just dont replace the model with normal textures with the one with compressed ones) it would be a large work i think but i think: compressed textures=lighter faction=less data to be sent and received=less lag (if i a wrong tell me it!).

You really won't get any performance boost. Generally, having to load more textures will use a bit more RAM, but won't affect FPS. However, it's noteworthy that PNG does NOT lose quality with its compression. It's to my understanding, however, that once loaded into the game, PNG and TGA images have roughly the same memory impact. It's only outside of the game that there'd be a difference in filesize. However, as mods are generally compressed, and PNG is already compressed, and thus TGA can actually end up being slightly smaller when downloading. With that being said, I'd still recommend the use of PNG over TGA for textures simply because it's better supported by programs and the file could be uploaded online without requiring conversion. Not to mention outside of an archive, as is the case when working on a mod, you'll have a smaller file size. Not worth going through the trouble of converting existing textures, but noteworthy for future models.

On a side note, though, JPG should NEVER be used in a Glest mod, as it cannot store alpha (and consequentially, team colour) as well as has lossy compression. This means that data is lost to reduce the filesize, and EVERY time you save the file, more will be lost. This is generally seen as blurred blocks and colour aberration on the image. It may not be noticeable on the first save, but textures in mods are generally improved many times, so the compression artifacts stockpile on each other. As well, since most Glest mods are distributed under CC-BY-SA (or similar), we can expect others may want to derive from our textures in the future, in which case it's best to have the image available exactly as intended, untarnished by degradation. The minor reduction in filesize isn't worth it.

On another side note, when using PNG, if you want to really squeeze out the minimum filesize, consider running the image through a third-party compression utility such as PNGauntlet, which may take a fair bit of time, but can really squeeze out some serious compression on PNG files without loosing any quality.