Broken Sword for SS6.4 - Broken Crescent models and textures for SS6.4 Islamic units

[Phosphoricus]

This is an adaptation of the Broken Sword mod made for SS6.3 and the RRRC compilation. This mod gives the Islamic units, captains, and generals the appearance of appropriate Broken Crescent units on the battlemap.

REQUIRES Broken Crescent 2.02 (or, at least, the contents of the broken_crescent\data\unit_models\ folder)
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1. First, copy the contents of C:\...\broken_crescent\data\unit_models\_units\
into C:\...\mods\SS6.3\data\unit_models\_units\

2. Then, extract the zip file into your C:\...\mods\SS6.3\data\ . This will overwrite descr_character.txt and battle_models.modeldb ; please remember to backup these files before extraction.

3. Most of the SS6.4 Islamic units should now have Broken Crescent models and textures.
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The changes were made based upon the default SS6.4 files. If you have made any changes to battle_models.modeldb or descr_character.txt, you will need to manually ensure that your changes are not lost.

Please let me know whether or not this works for you.

[Dooz]

This is wonderful news. By default SS6.4, does it include any combination of submods from the installer we might have chosen?

[vpmedia]

a few before/after screenshots could help to sell this mod

[karaislam]

thank you phos bro.

[Forever Knight]

is this save game compatible??? i'm in turn 120 and dont wanna start over again..

[Avalanche]

is this save game compatible??? i'm in turn 120 and dont wanna start over again..

If you are unsure about that you can always make backup of whole SS6.3 folder and then mode it. In fact I myself have 2-3 installations of 6.4 with different / excluding submods applied and all are executable without any problems (just make sure you put all of them in submod folder like: SS6.3, SS6.3ver2 etc.)

[guyverlance]

i think it means NO

[Forever Knight]

lol...it takes up a lot of space if i make a backup...i just need to make a backup of modeldb since thats the only file i edited before starting my campaign...

[Avalanche]

True, but if you want two separate / working installations that the way to do it. Besides hard drive space is so cheap these days

[Point Blank]

If its just models, it should be save-compatible.

Phosphoricus: any chance of a download that includes the relevent BC models without needing to have BC installed? I'm very keen to include this in the next RR/RC update.

[karaislam]

in my turkish project submod there are all the broken crescent units files.with release of dear phosphoricus turkish project works smootly.

[Ratskeller]

Just reporting a bug, playing as Khwarezm in 6.4 with this installed. I migrated to Tunis as i felt Khwarezm's position was too isolated. Anyway, the unit "Saracen Archers" has a captain with no texture, just the silver model. Excellent work by the way, Muslim factions are no longer an eyesore.

[Phosphoricus]

Just reporting a bug, playing as Khwarezm in 6.4 with this installed. I migrated to Tunis as i felt Khwarezm's position was too isolated. Anyway, the unit "Saracen Archers" has a captain with no texture, just the silver model. Excellent work by the way, Muslim factions are no longer an eyesore.

Tunis and all that has nothing to do with it, but I now see that this is a general problem for Saracen Archers. The problem exists because the underlying model/texture for Saracen Archers is Abid_Al_Shira , which is associated with faction merc in battle_models.modeldb . The Khwarezmian captain model under Broken Sword is muslim_captain_1, which is associated with factions kwarezm, moors, and slave, but not to merc. The program does not know which texture to choose, so we end up with a "silver surfer" version of muslim_captain_1 .

I have updated the attachment to fix this problem. For each of the added captains, I have included texture specifications for faction merc if none existed. Thanks for the feedback. Please let me know if you notice any other anomalies.

Phosphoricus: any chance of a download that includes the relevent BC models without needing to have BC installed? I'm very keen to include this in the next RR/RC update.

If I simply uploaded all of the BC textures to some host, the need for prior BC installation would be eliminated, although the download would be quite large. I don't want to upload only files currently used for Broken Sword because I like the flexibility of the current setup (I could change model/texture assignments without anyone needing to transfer additional BC material because it is all already there). I've been thinking that I'd use Megaupload for this, but do you advise that I use a different service? I vaguely recall something about folks having problems in Hong Kong with this service.

This is wonderful news. By default SS6.4, does it include any combination of submods from the installer we might have chosen?

This should work for any installer-based setup because none of the installer's submods change the two files that this mod changes (descr_character.txt and battle_models.modeldb).

[Massive_attack]

Please make an MSC compatable version ! *drool*

[Phosphoricus]

Please make an MSC compatable version ! *drool*

If you post the descr_character.txt and battle_models.modeldb from MSC, and the differences are not too complex, I just might release a version for MSC.

[Point Blank]

I notice that there are a number of animation changes in your new models.db, do these reflect the BC models and shouldn't they result in an updated EDU?

[Phosphoricus]

I notice that there are a number of animation changes in your new models.db, do these reflect the BC models and shouldn't they result in an updated EDU?

Yes, they reflect the BC models. I originally wanted to preserve the SS weapons and animations, but realized that very few appropriate Broken Crescent units perfectly matched SS units (because, IIRC, Broken Crescent tends to use variant animations, makes greater use of axes and maces than SS, and features more archers with bucklers/shields), so I decided to stick with BC animations to guarantee that the model matches its animation as well as it did in BC.

Most replacements used the same weapon combination, but sometimes a different version of the animation for that weapon type; my tests found that there is generally little difference in the appearance of the animation (for example, I saw little difference when using the sword animation versus the mace animation for whatever cavalry unit uses the Askari Cavalry BC model). I am not sure how extensive the resulting gameplay change is. I am relatively unfamiliar with the EDU (aside from some elephant-related tinkering I did with BC), and also remain unaware of substantial changes to gameplay, so I haven't tried to change EDU values to reflect the possible non-aesthetic impact of the changes.

Ignoring the aesthetic (i.e. sound and text-related) differences, would you rate it as especially important to either preserve the original SS animation or to change the EDU to balance under the new animation? If so, I could probably update to preserve the SS version of animations for units with the same weapon combination, and also start tinkering with EDU values for cases that involved a change in weapon type and animation that has a strong effect on gameplay (I imagine axe versus sword may call for EDU value changes, but I am not sure about archers w/ shields with shield defensive value 0 versus archers without shields).

[Dooz]

Ah, so it's a little more involved than just model swaps if you consider Real Combat mechanics working behind it. It'd be perfect to have this integrated with the next compilation for 6.4.

[Dooz]

Ok, so I just made the relevant backups and applied this submod to my current campaign in which a Crusade was just called. Gonna first do some custom battle tests just to see how everything is, then continue my campaign and hopefully without any hiccups. I'll report back if there are any, and if I don't, you can assume I'm fully enthralled and enjoying the beautiful new units and SS.

[Ulakanakulot]

Hello Phosphoricus,

thanks for this submod, now the islamic factions look much more beautiful!

I was wondering, since I have returned to SS6.1 (6.4 is too heavy for my poor notebook...), if it could be possible a broken sword 6.1.

I have some guessing on how to do it, but I have no experience in the graphical modding issues: basically, could one use the same procedure as per Broken Sword 6.4, but using the ss6.1 battle_models file?

for example, I copy the BC textures in the Stainless Steel folder like is written in the first post, then I substitute the graphic files references in the original battle_models.modeldb with the BC ones that I have just imported in the _units folder of ss6.1. Might it work this way?

or what if I just copy the islamic units parts of your modified battle_models.modeldb (the attachment in the first post of the thread) into the default SS6.1 battle_models.modeldb, substituting the old ones? I'm not sure this ''quicker'' way may work, because I'm not sure if the islamic roosters of 6.1 and 6.4 coincide.

by the way, I have the basileia ton romaion sub mod installed on my 6.1, but I think it doesn't cause problems, provided that I retain the BTR lines in the ''definitive'' battle_models file.

sorry for my contorted english...
regards
Ulakanakulot


sorry, I forgot one thing: I don't have RRRC installed; does this make any difference?