Pimp your icon!

[guille1434]

Hello Asuser!
I just sent a detailed e-mail with some feedback for the Italian Parachutisti! Thanks for your outstanding work!!!

[asuser]

After finalized Italian paratroopers there was the idea from Guille to make a new Italian HW infantry unit. The Italian used also different elite toops for special tasks. In some older books i found uniforms for the famous Battaglioni "M" with a blue/grey color. Because it's difficult to see/identify at the battle map i choose a more brown/grey look and added the standard infantry helmet. Here is the result:




Does somebody has special/additional wishes? Feedback welcome.


Greetings!

[rezaf]

Since you're great at adding little touches to units, maybe you're interested in making special icons for the hero units you get in the DLC campaigns?
I was thinking of making a mod with just different camo schemes or something, but if you could make actual distinct icons, I think that'd be pretty cool.
No pressure, though, if you would rather pursue different projects, that's fine.
Just in case you're interested - there's a list of the hero units in this post (I'm not sure whether it's complete, though).
_____
rezaf

[asuser]

Thanks for your request rezaf. Member wishes are the best motivation to make something new for PC. But the main problem is still the time...after a long working day...

Besides the gaming fun and my own "to do list" i want to try to fullfill specific wishes. Currently my list shows the following topics:

-Italian Paratrooper for Nikivdd (99% finished, Feedback from Guille needed)
-Italian HW Infantry
-Startscreen for Roma Victor Mod (Btw. Your screen for Italian Mod is great, very colorful - I want to make it for RV with the same base layout)
-Bridge Engineer
-PzIV variants
-Do 24

-Here we could make a break for a specific hero unit!

-Paratrooper Engineer
-Fw Ta 183
-Horten Ho XVIII
-Kingtiger
-Panther
-Bunker variants
-...

Please give me an example for a most wanted unit and i will see what i can do. If it's successful than i could make more.

Greetings!

[asuser]

Hello,

the last new Italian unit i want to make are the Brückenpioniere. With the whole infantry stuff which exist in PC it's difficult to create a something new interesting unit with a different look. Other members made also new versions like VPaulus with the rubber boat version (1). I don't know if that icon is useable in another mod? Another version is the multiswitch icon from Guille (2). Here you can use three! icons for different battle conditions. Please check the Guille thread (page 25) for your interest.

BridgeEngIta.png (91.01 KiB) Viewed 8888 times

Well, for the Italian version i use some of the new Italian soldiers with different camo and weapons and put them on a bridge. If that is the right version for all members we can also change the flag (and the helmet, the camo and weapons) for other nations. For the transport mode you can also use the new bridgelayer trucks from the Guille thread or the new one which is included in the next postreply. Here is the result:

BridgeEngIta02.png (84.51 KiB) Viewed 8888 times

Any new ideas welcome.

Nikivdd: Do you satisfied with the current picture?


Greetings!

[asuser]

Transport truck for the Italian troops

For the new Italian HW infantry and Brückenpioniere units you could also use a new (or forgotten) truck vehicle as a transport unit. In my DCS baseicon file i found a very sharp but unlucky pixeled and false downscaled icon from the Fiat 626. This truck was in heavy use all of the time from the Italian forces. I don't know how made this icon first but i found it worth to clean and pimp it up as a troop transport, Fla platform and bridgelayer/support boat truck. So for nikivdd and for everyone who look for a new transport vehicle here are the versions:

Fiat_626_var.png (61.92 KiB) Viewed 8888 times

The base icons and the mask I will publish next time in the Guille thread.


Greetings!

[guille1434]

Nice work, idea and concepts here! Keep up, friend!
The Fiat truck, was a very wanted unit, indeed, as there was no native Italian truck icon present in the game!

[nikivdd]

Trucks look very nice
The bridge engineer also except for the flag. If possible remove the flag please
Thanks alot

[Uhu]

Asuser,

I'm really happy that another gifted icon-maker has been born for the PC community!

UPDATE: in the meantime I found Guille's nice work with the same conception.

About bridge engineers: I would be happy to see icons for the Germans, Hungarians (there is a Hungarian bridge engineer already in McGuba's Hun Campaign but I can send you also just this one unit).
You asked the concept and a new idea come to me: how about a switchable unit?
1., Common fighting mode: the bridge engineers are in the foreground as before with the same figures. But behind them there is a vehicle which is not as big as the actual version. "Behind them" I mean more 2D not 3D as now.
2., As the second mode would be the bridge mode which would be used on the rivers. In that mode a pontoon bridge would be seen mainly - which fit on the river graphic - and only in the background or in the two ends of the bridge are one or two figure. Which can be also smaller than the figures in the 1st mode - here is the bridge as the main graphical focus.
What do you mean? Was I understandable? English is still not my mother language...

Hello,

the last new Italian unit i want to make are the Brückenpioniere. With the whole infantry stuff which exist in PC it's difficult to create a something new interesting unit with a different look. Other members made also new versions like VPaulus with the rubber boat version (1). I don't know if that icon is useable in another mod? Another version is the multiswitch icon from Guille (2). Here you can use three! icons for different battle conditions. Please check the Guille thread (page 25) for your interest.

BridgeEngIta.png

Well, for the Italian version i use some of the new Italian soldiers with different camo and weapons and put them on a bridge. If that is the right version for all members we can also change the flag (and the helmet, the camo and weapons) for other nations. For the transport mode you can also use the new bridgelayer trucks from the Guille thread or the new one which is included in the next postreply. Here is the result:

BridgeEngIta02.png

Any new ideas welcome.

Nikivdd: Do you satisfied with the current picture?


Greetings!

[Uhu]

Nice work on this too! Why not contacted me about your work? Not about permissions - but to see that our icon has been upgraded!
My only concerns are the side skirts: as the Jagdpanther don't needed any so the Tas needs neither any.
Maybe you meant the Zrínyi I assault gun with the long barrel? It had skirts (although only one was produced) as had the late Zrínyi II's too. But their side skirts are really hard to make because they were not full ones as the German versions but with many small holes in them.

I like the new Tas44 tank hunter from the Guille thread and so i wanted to make a small pimp up action (permission to make it?) with the following updates:

-Add the rear engine flaps
-Antenna
-Tool saw at the left icon side
-Side skirts
-Kill marks

Hun_Tas44_Rohamloveg_ud.png

Greetings!

[asuser]

Hello Uhu,

nice to see you here in my thread.

For the Bridge theme I understand what you mean. I want to make first finish the Italian icon with the comments from Nikivdd and Guille. Then i will see what comes next. Your (and Guilles) concept for a multiswitch unit is a great idea for more gaming fun with that important unit type. For Hungarian Bridge Eng. please send me the basic icon, so I can get a suggestion what I have to do further with new German, Russian, US and British units.

Your Hungarian mod is also a very interesting thing, I saw the screenshots at your mod page. Sad but true there isn't enough time to play it all. The idea for the updated icon for the Tas tank hunter i get from a web picture where you can see that beast with side skirts. So i made it quick (and a little dirty). I really like it still! But if you have a new suggestion for another skirt type, please make a call or put a drawing together with the Hung. Eng. into my private mail account.

If you like it (or not) please give me also a short call to the look of the smoked/flamed cities from the overlay/tiles thread. Is it worth to improve these things?


Greetings from Germany!

[Uhu]

nice to see you here in my thread.

I like to be in good places.

For the Bridge theme I understand what you mean. [...]

Again I was so impatience/excited about the project that I made myself a version. Look at it at Guille - I don't wanted it to post the same in two thread.

Your Hungarian mod is also a very interesting thing, I saw the screenshots at your mod page. Sad but true there isn't enough time to play it all.

Thank you! You have time until I finish it. But you can start first with the Italian Campaign 2.0.
By the way you Italian para's look great! (Although the DMP guys made also a very nice version.) The only thing is that as sharp the bigger picture is the icon versions are somehow blur, unsharp. What could be the cause?

The idea for the updated icon for the Tas tank hunter i get from a web picture where you can see that beast with side skirts.

Can you send the link? I saw many Tas photos and specifications but nowhere was side skirts mentioned. For me it would be also not logical because the side of the Tas armor is thick enough. The tank version either has side skirts while the two vehicle shared almost the same hull. Although it was newer built so our discussion is anyway a theoretical one.

please make a call or put a drawing together with the Hung. Eng. into my private mail account.

OK, I will send you a PM.

If you like it (or not) please give me also a short call to the look of the smoked/flamed cities from the overlay/tiles thread. Is it worth to improve these things?

Sorry, I forgot about it! I wanted to answer but the heavy fights and the barely escape of my troops from Stalingrad made my focus on the survival. The smokes looks very nice! I would suggest such a concept that they will be put in rail overlay category: therefore the smoke could be put on the maps freely - wouldn't bound to the ruined towns - and anyway if there is smoke you don't see railways. I still want to make more development on the destroyed towns because the green colour smiling between the black-brown ruins is not so ideal (with frozen conditions the white is not so disturbing).

[asuser]

Hi Uhu,

thanks for your feedback:

Bridge: See my comments in the Guille thread.

Tas skirts: Picture is on the way.

Gaming: Currently Roma Victor, also not enough time...

Paras: Yes, you are right! But as I said to Guille, inf units are the most difficullt to make for me! I think, within the downscaling and sharpening process there is some 'cover color' lost? Eventually some multicopying over the whole icon helps? It's my first inf unit...

Smoke city: I try to develop some smoke overlay/tiles...

Greetings!

[asuser]

Hello,

after making the Fiat 626 (see Guille thread) I try to finish the basic layout for two new Italian infantry units, the Bridge engineers and the Battaglioni M. With the suggestions from Guille, Uhu and Nikivdd I think I'm ready to make the first versions of a playable icon. To the Battaglioni M I saw color plates where these troops had more dark green uniforms with various back packs and other bags. I updated also the ammo crates to a more angled style. Ready to go?

ItaElite.png (98.43 KiB) Viewed 8684 times

Greetings!

[rezaf]

Please give me an example for a most wanted unit and i will see what i can do. If it's successful than i could make more.

Sorry I didn't reply to this one - I realized that nothing is stopping a user from upgrading his special hero units to another unit type, and making special icons for all eventualities would be a pretty huge request, so I'll just drop the idea for now.

Another thing, though - did you ever make "complete" icons for the tanks you posted early in this thread? You always only supplied the right-side views...

Thanks.
_____
rezaf

[asuser]

Hello rezaf,

there is the following situation: "My" thread was thought as an idea box, publishing of new (playable) icons I want to see only in the Guille thread (Big Support base, you know).

In detail:

-Shermans: no, there was not a special request from a member
-StuG: updated versions published in the Guille thread, special versions with flag/combat sight...: no, see shermans
-Elefant/Ferdinand: Guille want to make the new basic Icons
-Jagdpanther: see Elefant

Do you have special wishes/needs for an icon, then I could make it for you, happy about

Greetings!

[rezaf]

I understand asuser - I wasn't trying to impose additional workload on you, but I thought you had invested a lot of time in those tanks so finishing them would have been relatively trivial.
All the little touches you apply really show and it makes the complete icon so much better and greater than the sum of it's parts. Since it's all based on the vanilla icons, yours blend in perfectly but at the same time stand out for going that extra mile from very good towards perfection - at least that's my point of view.
So, it's ok if you don't want to finish either of those icons until someone requests that particular unit from you - I just thought asking might not hurt.

If you have all the little thingies you used (like shovels, armor plates, foilage or logs etc) as seperate objects with transparent background, maybe we could cook something up to improve on DCS by making it possible to place such "decorations" on people's finished icons? Right now, though, I'm busy with TGA anywhow...

Thanks for your response, and keep up the excellent work!
_____
rezaf

[rezaf]

To everyone interested, I cooked up complete versions of all icons asuser presented in this thread where at least one side-view was finished (i.e., excluding the infantry).

@asuser: I hope you don't mind this and me including all your icons in the grand armory thread eventually. Otherwise, I'll delete the archive.

For now, here it is.

Oh, the archive also includes two units made by guille1434, namely the Tiger I with foilage camouflage and the M4 Sherman with a mine-roller, plus the M4 Sherman with track armor, which was also already finished.
_____
rezaf

[guille1434]

Hello rezaf and all user who stop here:
Indeed the idea is to release a playable icon out of every unit/idea we post... But there is the time factor... For example: I intend to make the complete unit packs for ALL versions of Asuser's excellent Jagdpanther and Elefant/Ferdinand, but I could not find the time to do it yet, because of other obligations and some other game related requests (see PzCorps Support base thread).

Your finishing work is very good, and surely you have shortened the times by a great margin!

But, not to worry, you will see all units in playable form sometime... Our idea is to release quality work, and not so a "quantity" stuff...

Thanks to all for the support and nice encouraging words!

[asuser]

Hello rezaf,

thank you for your help!

Indeed, the day has only 24 hours, it's not enough to make all of the great work finish. So the idea was, like Guille said, to make all of the whole stuff playable, but...

If you use the icons think about this: Camo foliage is not mirrored, same thing you have with the recognition flag. The Fiat 626 stuff is already finished and without some failures (ugly pixels and false flatbed hight) to find in the Guille thread. Nevertheless it might good enough for you and if you want to try it better, ok...let's make it please.


Nice to have such friendly help and co- working members!

Greetings!