NEW: Gondor Unit Overhaul V2.0 for TATW 3.2

[Pipoka]

I was thinking about it too. But for the hell of it, decided to try. Otherwise, if there is not much changes with each upgrades... it would not feel that they get upgraded. The main reason i started reworking initial design was because of the old ug0 and ug1 (v1.0), they seemed quite bad to me when i started playing campaign. After i edited those, i decided to extend the work onto ug2 and ug3. The ug1's pauldrons still look bad, i know. I am not good at drawing leather and such. Tried different things, could not get it right. I never really saw leather pauldrons implemented in M2TW and how they are supposed to look

-Yeah I love the new tier0(no upgrades) and tier1(ug1) (apart from the pauldron issue) armor textures, but feel like I prefer the old (the ones in the current version, v1.1) tier2(ug2) and tier3(ug3) ones. So that:
tier0-> new armor textures (as previewed). *already done*
tier1-> new armor textures (with reworked/removes leather pauldrons). *need slight rework*
tier2-> old armor textures. *keep the old (v1.1) ones*
tier3-> old armor textures. *keep the old (v1.1) ones*

-About the shields yeah I basically meant remove the wood looking stripes on tier4 so that:
tier0-> small round shields. *already done*
tier1-> large oval shields. *already done*
tier2-> wooded (striped) gondorian shields. *already done*
tier3-> metal (unstriped) gondorian shields. *as suggested*

-Also the helmets could also be made so:
tier0->all basic non-gondorian helmets. *already done*
tier1->all basic gondorian helmets. *already done*
tier2->mix of basic and advanced (with the feather texture) gondorian helmets. *already done*
tier3->all advanced gondorian helmets. *the latest screenshot still shows a mix of basic and advanced gondorian helmets*

-That would reflect the evolving nature of the unit, along with helmets, shields and armor.




This is of course only my opinion. Feel free to disagree (it's your mod after all ^^).
Cheers

[G|I|Sandy]

Long post with replies:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Its in UT and mentioned by JRRT as how the stewards sigil appears in print.
http://www.lotrplaza.com/archive5/di...PagePosition=2
I have a suggestion for an icon: the seal of the Stewards, which is the tengwar R•ND•R with three stars above it.

Its Arandur 'king's servant'., and a quick net search gives http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/File:Flag..._of_Gondor.png

RoTK means all the colours are reversed on flags etc from that of they Stewards who use white flags, so most symbols are already using RoTK colours, ( like they are in the 3rd film which shows a mix) and pretty much outside of worrying to much about as all settlemnets would be using the wrong flags to start with!.

Interesting, i will post screenshots if i implement it, most likely will try those symbols at least.

-Yeah I love the new tier0(no upgrades) and tier1(ug1) (apart from the pauldron issue) armor textures, but feel like I prefer the old (the ones in the current version, v1.1) tier2(ug2) and tier3(ug3) ones. So that:
tier0-> new armor textures (as previewed). *already done*
tier1-> new armor textures (with reworked/removes leather pauldrons). *need slight rework*
tier2-> old armor textures. *keep the old (v1.1) ones*
tier3-> old armor textures. *keep the old (v1.1) ones*

Agreed on tier0 and tier1, new tier2 and tier3 to me seems much better than in v1.1. Not going to be changed at least in this coming release. I just realized yesterday, i forgot scabbards...

-About the shields yeah I basically meant remove the wood looking stripes on tier4 so that:
tier0-> small round shields. *already done*
tier1-> large oval shields. *already done*
tier2-> wooded (striped) gondorian shields. *already done*
tier3-> metal (unstriped) gondorian shields. *as suggested*

Like the idea about round shields on tier0. Tier3, i will see if it looks good without stripes and probably will post screenshots here.

-Also the helmets could also be made so:
tier0->all basic non-gondorian helmets. *already done*
tier1->all basic gondorian helmets. *already done*
tier2->mix of basic and advanced (with the feather texture) gondorian helmets. *already done*
tier3->all advanced gondorian helmets. *the latest screenshot still shows a mix of basic and advanced gondorian helmets*

-That would reflect the evolving nature of the unit, along with helmets, shields and armor.

All tier3 will have the "advanced gondorian helmets".

This is of course only my opinion. Feel free to disagree (it's your mod after all ^^).
Cheers

Exactly! But i always like to listen to people's suggestions and try to make changes accordingly. However some things i just want to be my way, like tier 2 and 3 armours, at least for now. However, you can always make a mix for yourself, you will have all the files at your hands. A couple of copy/paste, rename etc and there you go. You can even post it here later, so people of same opinion could download it for their use.

[Hopit]

There is a file called "export units.txt" in "data/text" folder. It is responsible for unit descriptions and such. However the name is indicated in the "export_descr_unit.txt" file. If you cant see the name properly, means you did not install it correctly. Try redownloading and copying data into your TATW folder. Overwrite everything. Backups are there with "_backup" added to them (for vanilla TATW3.1).

I checked the data/text txt file and saw the gondor_levies there, went to EDU and it was the same
already overwritten 3 times

[David93]

Hows this progressing mate?

[G|I|Sandy]

Hows this progressing mate?

Nice to see someone's keeping track on this. I've been trying to mod this almost every day changing models/textures here and there. Almost finished new looks for levies. They got almost completely reworked as the previous models/textures did not blend in with the rest. They will look similar to the militia, but still less equipped/cheaper looking.

Unfortunately I was not able to translate militia body models into archers models completely properly. There were difficulties with animations. Finally with the help of some modders, praise to Moon and AnthoniusII, the model worked properly. However the textures appear too bright for some unknown to me reason. I have not looked at it since last week. The models can be tweaked manually to look similar with other militia, but hell it is quite some work and will delay the process. I will try to leave it as the last choice.

Progress list:

Shields: round shield (done), ug3 shield (to be reworked).
This has been changed due to some suggestions regarding continuous changes of shields on each upgrade. And i can promise, you guys won't be dissapointed. Ug1 and ug2 metal parts of weapons and shields have rusty textures to make low tier units more distinct from professional troops.

Cloth, colors, ornaments: Levies look much differently now, colors are less saturated.

Leather pauldrons: removed

Reducing heaviness of ug3: under consideration

Archers: need to fix the problem

Preview will come up later this week. If everything goes smoothly may be even v1.2 release altogether.

[Pipoka]

Sounds great!

[milosh]

Hello, friends.

The visual difference between armored units makes a big deal for me! Simply it's not the same game without it.
May I recommend to add this skin distinctions between other gondor units? I would like to see palagir marins armored example, or gondor infantry with better plates

Anyway, I appreciate your effort very much I and want you to know that

[G|I|Sandy]

Hello, friends.

The visual difference between armored units makes a big deal for me! Simply it's not the same game without it.
May I recommend to add this skin distinctions between other gondor units? I would like to see palagir marins armored example, or gondor infantry with better plates

Anyway, I appreciate your effort very much I and want you to know that

Hello friend.

Pelargir marines and axemen of lossarnach are under consideration. I love Gondor as a faction, so would like to continue working with it. However there are other factions as well, which people like to play. Also, originally this was intended to be upgrades for militia only. I am not sure yet if i will move on to other factions or keep working on Gondor units.

Anyways. Back to v1.2. Good news, solved the issues with militia archers models. Release will come in a couple of days.

[gorock]

this is a really great work~ thank you for perfecting TATW
i hope this would be included in the next TATW update ))))

[David93]

You closer to your next release? Im loving the first version

[G|I|Sandy]

I would say V1.2 is 99% complete. It is still only a preview as i discovered some glitches, texture misplacements and such, while making screenshots . Once i fix those, i will update thread opener post and provide download links. As for now V1.2 Final Preview.

Some of the latest suggestions were implemented:

Implemented Suggestions

Shields with 3 stars around the top, belowthat is there room for R:ND:L?, (Sigil of the Stewards, means servent of the King) Is possible to get rid of the tan on the legs because it makes like they aren't wearing pants and that doesn't seem kind of smart especially if your fully armored Excellent progress. My only suggestion for improvement would be the leather spaulder's textures and the leather vest. The leather just doesn't look natural to me. leather pauldrons were simply removed, leather vest remained unchanged, too lazy -I really like the new shields on tier1 and tier2, as it shows the "militia" character of the units. But shouldn't tier3 get the metal ones? I mean if they went all the way into giving them plate armor (yeah partial, but still plated), surely they can afford metal shields too right? -Also the helmets could also be made so: tier0->all basic non-gondorian helmets. *already done* tier1->all basic gondorian helmets. *already done* tier2->mix of basic and advanced (with the feather texture) gondorian helmets. *already done* tier3->all advanced gondorian helmets. *the latest screenshot still shows a mix of basic and advanced gondorian helmets* I might have missed out something. Obviously not all of suggestions posted will be implemented. However, some of them i find really sound.

Screenshots

Gondor levies Spoiler Alert, click show to read:  No upgrades: 1 upgrade: 2 upgrades: Gondor militia Spoiler Alert, click show to read:  No upgrades: 1 upgrade: 2 upgrades: 3 upgrades: Gondor Archers Body models and textures are same as for melee miltia. The shields are different.Ug0 and ug1 have small wooden shield (smaller than vanilla). Ug2 and ug3 have larger (than vanilla) metal shields covered with metal. Spoiler Alert, click show to read:  No upgrades: 1 upgrade: 2 upgrades: 3 upgrades: Gondor Cavalry Militia The models are very similar to swordsmen militia, but have different shields. They are practically the same as on archers. Another feature i wanted to try is that the shields are placed on backs while charging with spears, and used in left hand while fighting in melee with swords. This is to represent difficulty of holding both shields and briddles while riding a horse. Not sure if its right or wrong, it just looks cool, imho. Spoiler Alert, click show to read:  No upgrades: 1 upgrade: 2 upgrades: 3 upgrades:

As you can see there are a couple of new shields. Overall there are 3 shield models. 2 are completely new and the oval shield is from vanilla. The textures are however all new, except the metal button on the oval shield. The round shield i made from a photo. The rest are made either from photos as a reference (gondor shield), or using some basic textures like plate of steel etc, and of course using brushes and such in photoshop.

Body textures have not changed much since last preview. Some of the cloth materials were changed to reddish brown color. Also levies textures and models were completely reworked.

There was also a lot of glitches fixing, the most annoying part and the most time consuming for me. There are still couple of noticeable glitches i need to fix before releasing this. Cheers.

[Beregond]

I definitely love how it's progressing and the current models and textures are amazing!

a great improvement over great matt's designs

[Hanny]

Looks very good, nice touch with the cav shields, i would not have thought of that.

[David93]

I concur, absolutley brilliant

[paradamed]

Looks great for sure!

[G|I|Sandy]

V1.2 is OUT! Check out the first post for the links.

While its downloading have a look at these new unit cards:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Unit info cards:

I will pack BS and RC compatible versions sometime later, may be tomorrow. Its very late now.

Finally! I can once again enjoy this game. Have not really played a campaign since end of december 2011, when i first started browsing through "data" folder contents out of curiosity.

[Hanny]

Congrats on the release, hope you have fun playing the game with your new units.

[David93]

V1.2 is OUT! Check out the first post for the links.

While its downloading have a look at these new unit cards:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Unit info cards:

I will pack BS and RC compatible versions sometime later, may be tomorrow. Its very late now.

Finally! I can once again enjoy this game. Have not really played a campaign since end of december 2011, when i first started browsing through "data" folder contents out of curiosity.

Very impressed, how did you take them?

[colonel bolgin]

right now at this moment the third age total war is taking shape beyond our imagination ,this year will be like no other in the modding comunity .

[Araval]

Awesome unit cards, +rep!