[very out of date] Preview 2: The Mauryan Empire

[Caligula Caesar]

Rest assured, I changed it:

[Boom S]

they look funny !

the spice trade (along with other luxury items, muslin, incense etc) was considerable but mostly with west asia and north africa from whereon the traders took wares into europe. in fact there was an Indian trading post in Alexandria. most maritime trade between India and west asia was controlled by the carthaginians and west africans, if memory serves right.(don't quote me on this) it was during Roman times that maritime trade really became big, Pliny laments once that Rome was getting poorer while paying in gold for luxury goods and fine muslin from India (those decadents, I tell you ! )

[Boom S]

I'll send you the units in a PM. I might be able to get a modeller to fix the beards and helmets (I inspected them, and you can't fix that just via skins), but the modeller I have in mind is busy atm I think. But if you can fix them, I won't complain

do you have any idea how to skin if the shape is not same as the original ? say, if I change the helmet, how do I make sure the skin is going to match its contours ? as it is, I don't have much problem with the modelling part but I need to be sure it can be skinned as well !

[Caligula Caesar]

I haven't a clue. I haven't done anything like that before.

[Boom S]

CC, did you get my PM ?

[Caligula Caesar]

Yep, I'll try it once I've finished sorting the navies (75% done). I'm currently coding in the Mauryan navies, and also adding Quadririmes for the other civilised factions, as well as Hexaremes and Septiremes (only for the Greeks). I don't have anyone to do the gfx for them, though Maybe I can find some pics.

[Boom S]

CC, I've got the final form of the antarvamsik sainya so don't bother with the older one. other than a few minor adjustments to colour of attire to reflect what was actually used in those days, the main change is the weapon, I've used a more realistic sword. even the texture is that of wootz steel !

use these files in stead.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=T0Y9D0QW
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=RVXMJI7X

Antarvamsika Sainya (Mauryan Elite Swordsmen)
screenshots




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[Boom S]

btw, would it be possible for you to send the elephant, horse, chariot etc CAS files as well ?
as yet another favour, do you know any tutorial that shows how to add the dirty look using GIMP ? (edited later, never mind, figured it out)

thanks.

[Caligula Caesar]

Wow, nice That looks great. What is that think aong his front, though? I like the clothes and the sword, though I think it would look better if I can make the sword shiny

If you intend to sort out all the Mauryans to fit your educated vision, maybe it would be best to give you access to the Beta?

If you sort out the models and the placement of things on them, and give base textures, I can improve them so they aren't as bright or whatever. It takes some practice, and I don't know how to do things with GIMP. Though taking down the saturation is a good start.

[Boom S]

that thing is a part of the lower garment, it's from the original model you gave me. if you know how a dhoti is worn, a part of the cloth is taken from the front, passed between the legs and tucked in at the back. http://www.exoticindiaart.com/kurtap...order_yp10.jpg
whoever did that model originally(prometheus ?) tried to do a good job depicting a dhoti without getting into too complex a model. do you think it is looking odd ? if so it takes only a second to delete it.

I would love to have access to beta but let me warn you that I've no prior experience in this type of thing.

which image modification software do you use ? photoshop ?
GIMP is pretty easy, if you can use one you can use another.

on another topic altogether, did you get around to figuring out how to add four horses to a chariot ?
p.s. you are free to do any improvement on whatever I create. how do you add shine btw ? gloss file ?

p.p.s do you have the elephant and other rides' files ?

[Caligula Caesar]

Oh, that thing. It just looks a bit weird on your image. But it should be fine, because it looked fine on the original

I use Paint Shop Pro, a cheaper alternative of Photoshop (with fewer functions, though). I tried to use Gimp once, but couldn't get my head round the controls. And Photoshop is quite complicated. There are copies on the computers at school, and I did some Photoshopping for a project, but it took me double as long as it would with PSP

You can add shine via gloss, and also with some Photoshopping effects. Embossing would probably work well on that sword.

I do indeed have the chariots (and the 4-horse one ingame) and elephants, however, I think I'll just give you access to the beta so I don't have to gather them I use a system called SVN, thanks to the RTR Team letting me, which basically allows multiple Devs to make changes and then commit them to a central copy, which will then send it to the other devs... or something like that. Anyway, it's useful as hell and lets you revert back changes to track down the cause of CTDs etc. I'll get the RTR Technical Guy to give you access (but you need to PM me your email address so you can recieve the password etc).

Btw, feel free to make other improvements to the models, such as adding vertices or whatever so that things don't look so spiky in places (eg on the shoulders especially)

[Boom S]

I think it looks spiky because it's in the 3ds max window. everything looks bad there. I haven't changed the shoulders from prom's model so if those were ok this would be same. I will change other models though. btw, those are shoulder pads and the shape is a little spiky by choice I think.

[Caligula Caesar]

I have noticed it on a lot of units, that just where the shoulderguard splits in 2 (half going down the back, half down the front). It happens to be especially bad on some Greek units I was changing for VII, though it was 10x as bad on RTR6. Models can always be improved, with new creases, less jerkiness, etc

[Tarusinas]

Impressing job, CC! Great preview so far Go on!

I used this pic and converted it to the FoE style, as that is easiest. It would be perfect I think, it I could only get the embossing right...

Good idea for a symbol, but the result...doesn't look like a symbol with lyonheads. So if you need some grafics I could help you

[Caligula Caesar]

Yeah, my symbols really need some work... they aren't my GFX strong point.

[Tarusinas]

Could you gimme a hint..should it be a symbol as a round shield? Any finished examples?

[Caligula Caesar]

I'll send you some files next time I see you on MSN I made a full set, but I really don't like them, because they aren't as good as the FoE ones. Basically, what I want it FoE/VII style ones, with new ones needed for several factions (Mauryans, Parthia, Seleucids, Ptolemies, Pontus, Armenia, Belgae iirc) (the rest have VII ones which I deemed appropriate).

[Tarusinas]

Hi CC
here are my suggestions for Mauryan The next days I won't have time to do more, but after the next week everything is possible.
I'm not sure about that tie of the lion in the middle, but that could be changed..

[Boom S]

they look nice tarusinas, esp the two lions on the sides. but the one in the middle looks kind of bald doesn't he ? probably a lion with a crew-cut you reckon ?

anyway, here's the gada warrior (war-mace berserker infantry)



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please don't mind me posting the pics in a haphazard fashion, I would rather have suggestions and criticisms as I go along rather than later all at the same time.

CC, you might remember the gada pic I posted sometime back, I tried to make this similar to it but didn't go the full distance. it takes too much memory to do that (many times that of the human figure itself) and will probably slow the game down.
what do you think of the gada ? is it evil enough ?
btw, I hope there is some two-handed unit whose in-game movements can be given to this unit, else it would look odd if he moves around this mace with one hand. there was a two-handed swordsman in BI wasn't there ?

there's a spot of bad news though, someone has messed up the UVW image of the basic spearman, which I used as the base of this. I had to go through quite some gymnastics to get this right.

[Boom S]

heavy chariot archer, with the proper recurve bow.


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the bow


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