Bronze Age

[Latro]

YES!!

Please make a digital release for Swifter than Eagles.

(and please stop calling the period 'biblical')

Was it just me or did I see the cover appear briefly in the DAG builder, in one of the beta test releases?

[Old_Warrior]

A lot will depend on whether the COMBAT routine is changed AND if some new TERRAIN is added such as villages and so on. I also would like to hear that new battle maps for the DAG are included and that more than FOUR for each situation are provided (i.e. the 20th Century SCROLL ARROW CAN still be used - give us more map choices PLEASE!).

I love the game, have owned all of the different books for the miniature rules (had to sell them to pay the rent unfortunately) and would LOVE to see the Far Eastern armies book get added in in TWO installments like you are doing for the Oath of Fealty book. Given that this is one of the TOP sellers for Slith I REALLY would have a hard time understanding why ALL of the books cannot be done but hey, I am not privvy to the sales data so am not sure ...

I love this game - please do something with the combat/impact procedure and you will have me buying EVERY module you put out for it, even the one for the ancient/REN period for the Western Hemisphere.

[claymore58]

"The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold"

+1 for me

[stockwellpete]

I think a major stumbling block for the release of these other books at the moment is the question of the artwork. HexWar did the artwork for the figures in "Wolves" and "Oath", which will be the next books we get on the PC. But there is no artwork prepared for anything else. So the question is, can Slitherine solve this problem?

[claymore58]

Outsource the artwork via Freelancer or similar ?

[stockwellpete]

Outsource the artwork via Freelancer or similar ?

Well yes, there are a lot of very talented wargamers out there who could possibly help. They would probably see it as a "labour of love".

[maximvs]

Peter Dennis is the artist concerned. I used to wargame with him many years ago.

[batesmotel]

The art work for the original game and releases was done photographically using painted miniatures. Hexwars, the creator of the original game, had an arrangement with a local university to take photos in 3D of painted miniaturess from which the troop images in the game were generated. I believe that the figures for Oath of Fealty and Wolves from the Sea were also done this way before Hexwars dropped out from continuing support for FoG. so I'm not sure how compatible in style it would be to have an artist do the artwork for figures for future supplements compared with the existing images. Alternatively, I have no idea how easy or hard it would be to have someone esle to duplicate the photographic method used for the original game.

Chris

[claymore58]

I expect that a licence would be required from the company that owns the figures .... more complications. A solution would be if the company that produces the models is engaged to perform the 3D photography.

Paid for by in game advertising - lots of pop-ups while playing ......

Or make FOG free but you must buy your troops via in game purchases?


Joking

[Old_Warrior]

Sorry to hear about the artwork format being so complex but surely there is some way to duplicate it? And since the modules cost money why are finances the problem? It is not like the games are for free?

I, for one, would pay extra to have the Far Eastern armies. Even if it means 25 USD per module (with the book being split in two). That is, if the combat system is improved.

[Cunningcairn]

Count me in for Swifter than Eagles and Empires of the Sun!

[Latro]

I thought the artwork were just JPEGS, no?
So someone with a camera could shoot pictures from anyone who has figurines.
Then they need to be edited into the right size jpegs.

I wouldn't care if the figurines were somewhat off, compared to other eras.

Still would be a lot of work but not too complicated.

[Old_Warrior]

No, the artwork is MUCH more than just JPEG. It is in a 3D format that works in a way that scaling of the model is accomplished easily when you zoom in or out.

The old days of JPEG for 3D are pretty much over. Most programmers/developers now using images that UNITY and other 3D languages can work with. Allows you to rotate the object (as in Battle Academy) and zoom in and out without having to refer to another graphic file.

[Latro]

Then what is it I see in the images/units folder?
Those are not 3D images, they are PNG (okay not JPEG) files consisting of 12 shots of a figurine in 12 directions. Cropinfo.xml gives the info where to crop the picture file, to get a single unit facing in a certain direction.
This can all be edited in photoshop. People have already edited units this way, making little mods.

[Canavan]

I'm hoping Swifter Than Eagles gets an expansion too. FOG would be greatly enhanced by this addition... heck, I'd buy 2 copies to encourage this release!!

[TheGrayMouser]

Then what is it I see in the images/units folder?
Those are not 3D images, they are PNG (okay not JPEG) files consisting of 12 shots of a figurine in 12 directions. Cropinfo.xml gives the info where to crop the picture file, to get a single unit facing in a certain direction.
This can all be edited in photoshop. People have already edited units this way, making little mods.

Well sure, you could easily edit existing images, change the colour of a tunic or shield by hand but I dont anyone has the skill to create all the grapics for all the Asian armies by "hand" ie draw them
The images were photos of actual lead/plastic minatures painted by Hexwar ( and I beleive his immediate family)

Also there are MORE than 12 images of facings ( i believe 16 as the game does have some "animation" when units are moved thru various hexes ) Also the crop xml isnt for facing changes, but I beleive as it gives x y and z coordinates, it is actualling just the area each individual figure, for each of the 12-16 facings, position in a hex....
It would be a titanic undertaking for any individual to pull it off and have the results look like what we have for the existing armies unfortunately.

[Sabratha]

I wuld certainly buy the swifter than eagles addon, even if not all unit images would look entirely the same sort as before. However I still think quite a bit can be done by a talented graphics artist by editing existing images.
As long as you have a 3D image (say a sword) that you can rotate and tilt in a 3d program (3DS Max design or even sketchup), you can then copy it into the 16 faces rotating image. I myself probably could edit a few models if the game allowed the use of "modded" files.

I'm not sure if you guys want to stick with the 3D models photography, but I'm sure that most wargamers here come for the challenge and the gaming system and less so for the graphics.

[pgroff]

I would just like to add my vote for a digital release of Swifter Than Eagles. Us fans of the Bronze Age have been waiting a long time!

[Old_Warrior]

The chariots would have to be changed to make it work correctly. Lots of comments on chariots abound so will not elaborate here.

I would prefer the Asian module: Empires of the Dragon.

But as the Swifter than Eagle module would be the logical next choice (after Oath of Fealty I & II go for it!

The issue will be whether the new team can get new graphics produced. Their discussion on this shows that the older models required certain software and that it was not easy to build for FoG.

All I can say is that over the next four years if you can finish off the series modules it would be nice....

[MatteoPasi]

Can we have a single expansion with Swifter than Eagle and Lost Scroll armies ?