Kaiser's reskin mod - First Release - England alpha (For any DLV version)

[kaiser1993]

Kaiser's reskin mod


This works for any DLV submod, or just DLV on its own.

Many unit skins for DLV suffer from problems, old skins, vanilla skins, poor Normal files and alpha channels. Mainly the European factions, with TaronQuinn and Taiji updating DLV with many units from Broken Crescent and Baltic Total War. Europe gets a bit left behind. So I have made it my intention to attempt to create better skins for vanilla units, skins of greater resolution. And better Normal alpha files, I will explain.

Here's a good skin in DLV for the feudal knight:

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There is one thing above that has bugged me for ages, the reflections. Why does fabric reflect light?
Armour should reflect not cloth.

So I aim to create more solid, slightly more colourful skins for Europe, also replace the majority of vanilla skins.
And with slightly more accuracy.

England Alpha

The first version consist of only two sets of new skins, yet covers a large area of the English faction.

It will effect these units:
.National Levies
.Town militia
.Spear Militia
.Levy Spearmen
.Guisarme Militia
.Holibars
.Archer Militia
.Peasant Archers
.Longbowmen

The skins consist of more organic colours and since these units are all poor no emblems or symbols, these types of soldiers weren't uniformed. This will work in a way so that for example french militia will looks fairly similar to english ones. Knights and Professionals will be uniformed though.

Here are some early screens:

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The shields are of course still ugly, and some parts of the unit. But torsos and arms are new.

Instructions

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Download: The download is in the attachment.
Installation: The main novelty of this mod is that it works on any DLV version submod out there, no matter what submod. Just extract, drag, drop and overwrite.

These are not representations of the final product, they will be improved. And of course more skins will be replaced. Weapons, shields and more factions.

Feedback, ideas, concepts and images are most welcome

[Overlord.ru]

First!...Hm, so this is only a cosmetic change, or are you going to create new models?

[kaiser1993]

I don't have the ability to create new models, I don't see the point of it aswell. If someone created a new spear militia it would result in the same model of vanilla.
But I have plans on adding better equipment for units from mods such as Broken Crescent, e.g.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/album...ictureid=57517

[TaronQuinn]

Brilliant, kaiser! I have thoroughly enjoyed watching you develop your skills, and am even jealous of how good you have become at this aspect of graphics and texture editing. I think this type of change is long overdue, and look forward to see what you accomplish.

Oh, and an amazing job on the Goedendag unit as well; I saw the new weapon you created and am blown away at how real it looks. Cannot wait to see everything incorporated into DLV!

TQ

[_Tartaros_]

exellent work kaiser!!!
the reflecting clothes are something that was allways in bad sight.
kaiser the unitdoc is on the way

[Seraph07]

Looks great +1 rep. Btw for install instructions please include 'right click on the zip file, and select unblock'. Maybe it just happens on win 7 sp1 but unless you do that the files are blocked, which causes a CTD for me. Could just be me but it couldn't hurt.

[Tokus*Maximus]

Keep up the great work - as always!

-- Tok

[kaiser1993]

Small WIP preview of Flanders and France, along with better kite shields for England. And a preview of the spear that is to replace most vanilla ones. (courtesy of the Broken Crescent Team)

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New Kite shields and England textures
Light Mail

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Heavy Mail

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Closer view of the new shields

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WIP French mail

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Flanders WIP torsos and shields
No armour

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Padded

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Light Mail

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Heavy Mail

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[TaronQuinn]

Excellent progress; if nothing else, these textures look more...authentic and lived-in, as they say. Rather than just clean and basic, they have detail and variety. Loooking forward to more of your work.

TQ

[Overlord.ru]

Very promising! Keep it up!

[fishdish]

Like it very much!

One suggestion:
Maybe the heavy mail could have a chain armor.

Like this(if its possible)




Cheers

[kaiser1993]

Well the heavy mail unit already has that, so does the light mail unit. It just has a surcoat over it, In the heavy mail units they have chain mail in the surcoat itself. But the picture has given me an idea for plate gauntlets for upgraded mail units, such as armoured sergeants. It would probably cover the late medieval era with an upgrade such as that.

[kaiser1993]

Any opinion on these shields for the spear militia, I'm unsure .
I think it is the colour green, I just can't put my tongue on it. Looks weird.

[Taiji]

The shields all look the same, just different colours. That in itself looks wrong to me, as if they were made by a machine, a machine that doesn't paint shields very well... They seem to have discolouration in the same places.

I'd say give them flat colours, with no discolouration, because I've not seen shields that aren't one colour when they're supposed to be.

Aside from that maybe stick in some variations. Like have some with a boss, some unpainted wood, some just leather, and maybe some with a bit of HRE pageantry, or generally popular designs (like with england, even the same designs possibly)

Anyway, great work here, Kaiser! Definitely a positive improvement.

Here's some nice work you might want to check out: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=302786

[kaiser1993]

That guy certainly puts my shields to shame.
Created two more shield skins anyway, wood shield, flat colours and the HRE coat of arms and a red pointy stripe. The red colour will change.
Better or worse?

[Taiji]

Those 2 look much better so far. The left one looks like it should have a little bit of shine maybe, a bit like gloss paint or varnish. The right one seems to have a pattern in the brown texture that doesn't look quite right. And I think maybe they need some scratch damage, it's as if there isn't enough going on yet.

I wonder if you can find a wooden planks texture and make one with no pattern, just vertical wooden planks and a leather rim. That might provide a nice basis for militia shields. Can just paint patterns onto the wood from there using some kind of transparent layer magic.

Also it might be an idea to steal a boss from one of the vanilla shields and then just blur and sharpen it to help raise it's res. Not that it's needed for these militia guys, just thinking it might be nice to have a leather reinforced shield with a metal boss for the better equipped. ...Maybe better to steal a boss from some photos of shields.

[kaiser1993]

progress report:

Done some work on shields for sergeants, 6 designs for HRE not all of them are faction specific, 3 bosses, brand new leather rim from real life image. Still needs some work.

Also cooked up 3 early wooden shields for militias, don't really know what to do with them. Any ideas? I know I need to add a metal rim to make it look structural, and I have an idea that would make small invisible gaps between the planks.

[Taiji]

The patterned shields are looking really nice. Could maybe have some of the patterns with bordered colors. Maybe some variation in the width of the leather rim. The bosses look good, not sure what the dark shadow at the top is from though... Also they could be more iron looking, they look a bit too much like stainless steel to me..

The wooden shields, I was thinking the planks would run the length of the shield. Perhaps a smaller leather rim than the patterned shields. And maybe some could be wood coloured but I figure they could be painted wood, maybe a rougher pattern, hastily painted on.

[kaiser1993]

The boss was from Broken Crescent, but I replaced it with a real life image. Very high detail.

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In game shots

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I'm a bit unsure about the planked wood for a kite shield, just seems out of place. The shield is also curved which makes it seem strange, I think it only suits for round shields. But something needs to show the unit is a militia. Just plain wood seems boring, but I like the idea of having roughly painted things on them.

Maybe something like this, a wooden shield with just a line pattern or something. Keep the shield the same colour as the wood.

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[Taiji]

Looking good, that new boss is... (sorry) boss!! Good anyway

The varying colour of the leather rim, also nice.

As for the wooden shield, I suppose if the model is bowed then the textures have to match. But kites were sometimes flat, at least during norman times. The pic you show seems nice, the grain is vertical. I'd remove the boss and pattern, and replace metal with leather on the rim - Just thinking about the poor quality of shield these militia guys would probably have.