Modding Medieval's Terrain

[Patrick Ward]

P.S. One thing which baffles me though, is the elimination of 2d art for the unit cards in the UI. I understand it's a matter of budget, but still, @jomni was able to make it for Sengoku Jidai, and this through all its expansions as well...

What makes the most sense when you've limited time and budget .. creating hundreds and hundreds of unique 2D paintings, or creating one tool that displays the animated 3D model and textures you've already invested time in creating? It's more efficient. Simple as that.
We're not making Total War. We're not making AAA titles. We're a niche within a niche within a niche so efficiency and pragmatism are essential.

Jomni came to us with those drawings (mostly) already done as part of his design document .. it's what the unit textures were based on. It made sense to use them in the UI since 3D was not an option in that early engine, they worked visually and it saved me from drawing anything new. Added to that, SJ is, in some cases, a 16x smaller project than Medieval with almost the same size team and time frame.

P

[Paul59]

P.S. One thing which baffles me though, is the elimination of 2d art for the unit cards in the UI. I understand it's a matter of budget, but still, @jomni was able to make it for Sengoku Jidai, and this through all its expansions as well...

What makes the most sense when you've limited time and budget .. creating hundreds and hundreds of unique 2D paintings, or creating one tool that displays the animated 3D model and textures you've already invested time in creating? It's more efficient. Simple as that.
We're not making Total War. We're not making AAA titles. We're a niche within a niche within a niche so efficiency and pragmatism are essential.

Jomni came to us with those drawings (mostly) already done as part of his design document .. it's what the unit textures were based on. It made sense to use them in the UI since 3D was not an option in that early engine, they worked visually and it saved me from drawing anything new. Added to that, SJ is, in some cases, a 16x smaller project than Medieval with almost the same size team and time frame.

P

It's also a fantastic tool for modders who don't have to worry about creating dozens (or hundreds) of 2d pictures for their new units. In my opinion they look far better than 2d pictures too.

[Mord]

Are they Custom Battle maps? If so did you create the challenge or did your opponent?

Standard MP games started before installing the mod.
I can't remember who created them.

I'll PM you and we can try some tests.

Mord.

[Mord]

Pinwolf prompted an idea out of me on Steam, so I screwed around to see what a mix of the the crops from both games would look like. This is what I came up with.






Looks kinda cool.


Mord.

[Adebar]

Mord, thanks for all the hard work, but I'm not that convinced. I just don't like the FOG2M fields at all, and the combination of both styles do look unnatural IMO (at least in your first pic).

The original FOG2 textures combined with the TexMod result in a natural and nice looking landscape - so no further work would be necessary.



ATM I'm experimenting on the snow textures in order to "de-Disneyfy" them ... But the results are rather unspectacular, I need more time to work on this.

[Paul59]

Mord, thanks for all the hard work, but I'm not that convinced. I just don't like the FOG2M fields at all, and the combination of both styles do look unnatural IMO (at least in your first pic).

The original FOG2 textures combined with the TexMod result in a natural and nice looking landscape - so no further work would be necessary.



ATM I'm experimenting on the snow textures in order to "de-Disneyfy" them ... But the results are rather unspectacular, I need more time to work on this.

Yes, I completely agree with you Adebar.

[Mord]

I'll leave the main mod as close to FoG II as possible (which is basically what is available at the moment). Anything else is/will be a separate DLed. I only tested that because Pinwolf said he liked the other crops better, so I posted those pics for for him on Steam. He actually liked them. I am ambivalent. I think they look cool but the original FoG II crops are fine with me as well.

Right now the main bugs are the Epic Battles Marsh (which we've pretty much figured out how to fix) and a possible Multiplayer problem. Tyronec hasn't gotta to my PM yet so that hasn't been investigated further. Has anybody else tried MP with this mod installed yet?

The things I'd like to try to work on are adding a better grass texture to the Steppes and Marsh and getting the Marsh and it's grasses to blend better with the FoG II terrain. Ultimately I'd like to see the Marsh grasses thinned out a bit so they don't completely cover up the Marsh. I like the cattails and such, they just seem very cartoony compared to the crops.

NOTE: In relation to FoG II crops, the only way the Epic Battles maps will display correctly (after the Marsh fix) is if the Fog II "BushesEdgeDense to BushesTileOutsideCorner S4F files" are left out. Which means the fields will not have that raised border around them. Medieval displays those borders as little plants and whatnot. If those FoG II files are left in they place lines across some of the Epic Battle maps.

Mord.

[Adebar]

Experiments with combinating FOG2M winter tiles and recoloured FOG2 objects. Still WIP. Some some work to to with marhes and fields.

[Mord]

Experiments with combinating FOG2M winter tiles and recoloured FOG2 objects. Still WIP. Some some work to to with marhes and fields.

THAT is MOST excellent Adebar! I conducted the same experiment the other night, with not even close to those killer results! The trees and mountains look amazing! MFing oustanding! makes me want to cry with how long I messed with them.

What would be the ultimate is if we could get the deciduous trees to display without leaves (or at least some of them). There's a model for it.


Mord.

[Paul59]

Right now the main bugs are the Epic Battles Marsh (which we've pretty much figured out how to fix) and a possible Multiplayer problem. Tyronec hasn't gotta to my PM yet so that hasn't been investigated further. Has anybody else tried MP with this mod installed yet?

Hi Mord,

Send me a pm with your email address, I can then send you my modded Tex2 files which solve the Epic Battle marsh problems.

I think that Tyronec's problem is possibly due to him starting the MP match with the vanilla terrain, and installing the mod later.

NOTE: In relation to FoG II crops, the only way the Epic Battles maps will display correctly (after the Marsh fix) is if the Fog II "BushesEdgeDense to BushesTileOutsideCorner S4F files" are left out. Which means the fields will not have that raised border around them. Medieval displays those borders as little plants and whatnot. If those FoG II files are left in they place lines across some of the Epic Battle maps.

Mord.

There isn't really a problem with the Epic battle maps and the BushesEdgeDense files. I am almost certain that the only one that might look odd is Tinchebrai, with Tinchebrai I designed the battlefield with the Ancients terrain using Google Earth, which showed mostly green fields. I therefore decided to have field edges around open terrain tiles. There shouldn't be a huge number, certainly not like the effect you originally had on the Steppes maps. However, I don't mind the Medieval field edge objects at all, so I would leave them in.

[Adebar]

Thank you very much, Mord!

Will continue to work on this during the next days. Excellent idea with the bald tree, perhaps the model could be used to replace the deciduous one.

[Mord]

Hi Mord,

Send me a pm with your email address, I can then send you my modded Tex2 files which solve the Epic Battle marsh problems.

Will do.

I think that Tyronec's problem is possibly due to him starting the MP match with the vanilla terrain, and installing the mod later.

I hope that's all it is.

There shouldn't be a huge number, certainly not like the effect you originally had on the Steppes maps. However, I don't mind the Medieval field edge objects at all, so I would leave them in.

Yeah, I'll leave them in.



Mord.

[Mord]

Thank you very much, Mord!

Will continue to work on this during the next days. Excellent idea with the bald tree, perhaps the model could be used to replace the deciduous one.

You're welcome. I am thinking it could with some code editing, maybe? It Would look more realistic, anyhow.

I am really impressed.


Mord.

[Adebar]

All grass and crops deleted, only shrubs remain, shortened and recoloured. I'll keep the FOG2M ground and rough tiles, I think they are looking quite pretty with the FOG2 objects.

Replaced trees A1, C1 and C2 with the bald tree A2. That doesn't effect the forrest and other elements though, and I don't know how to change that. But IMO it looks fine nontheless.

[Adebar]

Cliffs: Recoloured and contrast decreased. Some strange dark spots like shadows can be seen on the front side of the castel hill. Perhaps the result of overlapping textures or a shader problem?

[Mord]

I got the Steppes looking how I wanted. Or better anyhow. The grass blades aren't a single color anymore.









That's looking awesome Adebar! Really good work. Paul might know how to switch the trees (if it's possible). If not, looks killer regardless, way better.

I REALLY like the bits of dead, snowy grass!

PM me your email and I'll send you what we have updated. You may want to try winterizing the rocky ledge that we have.

The "shadows" are probably because they are from the TEX2_N and TEX2_S files, for the vanilla texture which you changed.

I should have went to sleep about three hours ago!

Mord.

[Adebar]

The "shadows" are probably because the are probably from the TEX2_N and TEX2_S files are for the vanilla texture which you changed.

Already done, and problem solved!

I should have went to sleep about three hours ago!
Mord.

Good night, and beware of HPLesque Dreams in the Witch House!

[Paul59]

You can't easily replace the forest 3d objects with the single leafless tree model unfortunately. The forest object contains multiple trees, there is obviously only one tree in the single leafless tree model.

The 3d models are encrypted, so can't be modified even if you knew how. So you would need some serious 3D modding skills to create a new bare forest object from scratch.

[Mord]

Paul, we still have one bug on the Bornhoved map. It's a snow texture in open terrain and woods. Can't figure out why it's showing.





Mord.

[Mord]

The 3d models are encrypted, so can't be modified even if you knew how. So you would need some serious 3D modding skills to create a new bare forest object from scratch.

Well, that answers that. And not that big a deal as the new look he came up with is pretty damn cool as is.

Ok. SLEEP time.

Mord.