EU4 - Development Diary - 15th of November 2016

[Romaoplays]

This must be very hard, congrats for your great work!!... This is the best I can draw ( both IRL and in the PC )

 

[Mcwynne]

Any chance of us getting the rest of the world updated?

Great job regardless!

 

[Blobhemian]

Great job, the change was much needed. Now i see why the more recent unit packs used to have the low resolution weapons, it felt so strange. Now that the unit packs have a little bit of attention as well, i'd like to ask if it was possible to fix some minor unit pack issues that are often brought up at different places but always somehow get lost.

1. Tier 1 Italian DLC units use wrong one-handed animation, it's easy to change it in the dlc files, but I'd rather have it fixed officially since i don't know how to make a mod for it and have to rewrite it directly in the game files, which seems wrong ^^
2. Mamluk special cavalry models are overridden by the new infantry models. Easy to fix it by changing version number in the dlc files and some people might actually like the infantry models more, but since people paid for the original, it would be fair to let them use it.
3. Please release the old italian "T3" unit models for modding purposes, while the change was much needed due to immersion reasons, people paid for the original and it would be nice to put them to some use so that none of your work is wasted
4. Bukhara should totally use the Uzbek models, Prussia the T2 Brandenburg model and the new Golden Horde tag should use the (now) Great Horde models, just to keep things consistent and avoid some small disappointment when forming logical successor countries
5. The new 16/17th century rifle floats in the hand of the vanilla eastern T2 units, I don't even know how i managed to notice that one, let's hope it will be fixed by replacing the old models altogether

Anyway thanks for your work, you finally made playing tags without unit packs somewhat more satisfying again!

 

[fred.erick]

Incredible work, and the new models are a joy to look at. I'm sure you've made many veterans of the game happy.
In fact, you've made the tier 4 European model look better than the France tier 4 from the Evangelical majors pack, which now begets the questions - how does one use this better model only for France?

 

[grommile]

Instead of making these useless features

I quite like the fact that Paradox hire artists to do their art and a composer to do their background music instead of expecting their coders to also be artists and composers.

 

[puddingkip]

That tier 4 French guy is amazing. Not to discount any of the other models but damn, he looks good.

 

[Vito492]

So forming Germany or Italy won't give us those ugly old units anymore? Great change!

 

[Nifelfang]

Hi again.

Thank you all for the positive feedback, I'm glad you like the changes.

I'm only able to answer some of you, due to time, and the fact that I don't know some of the answers.

Is this going to be everyone's vanilla sprites, or is it just focused on (parts of?)Europe/Western Tech?

It's only the vanilla sprites for western Europe, so Poland and more eastern countrys don't use this sprites.

Great job, the change was much needed. Now i see why the more recent unit packs used to have the low resolution weapons, it felt so strange. Now that the unit packs have a little bit of attention as well, i'd like to ask if it was possible to fix some minor unit pack issues that are often brought up at different places but always somehow get lost.

1. Tier 1 Italian DLC units use wrong one-handed animation, it's easy to change it in the dlc files, but I'd rather have it fixed officially since i don't know how to make a mod for it and have to rewrite it directly in the game files, which seems wrong ^^
2. Mamluk special cavalry models are overridden by the new infantry models. Easy to fix it by changing version number in the dlc files and some people might actually like the infantry models more, but since people paid for the original, it would be fair to let them use it.
3. Please release the old italian "T3" unit models for modding purposes, while the change was much needed due to immersion reasons, people paid for the original and it would be nice to put them to some use so that none of your work is wasted
4. Bukhara should totally use the Uzbek models, Prussia the T2 Brandenburg model and the new Golden Horde tag should use the (now) Great Horde models, just to keep things consistent and avoid some small disappointment when forming logical successor countries
5. The new 16/17th century rifle floats in the hand of the vanilla eastern T2 units, I don't even know how i managed to notice that one, let's hope it will be fixed by replacing the old models altogether

Anyway thanks for your work, you finally made playing tags without unit packs somewhat more satisfying again!

Thank you for this feedback.
I don't really visit the forums that often, so I've missed some of this problems.
I will totally look in to 1, 2 and 5, but no promises.

those are really massive ends on the halberds. Were the pointy ends of those used at the time really that big?

Yes, at least the reference I used looked similar to the halberd I did.
Then there's also the balance between making it realistic vs looking good in the game. Som stuff just looks BAD if made totally realistic, so some exaggeration will occur.

Look great!

What I would really love in the sprite department is for the sprites to be de-synced so you don't have 10 armies standing around in the HRE all doing synchronised hip waggling.

Yeah, tell me about it!
I don't think that's something we will redo in the near future.
BUT, I made several textures, using different dynamic coloring sections in the texture, to make some diversity on the tier 1 models.
My feeling was that it broke up the syncing a bit, not having all the sprites look the same texture wise, but maybe that's just me.

This must be very hard, congrats for your great work!!... This is the best I can draw ( both IRL and in the PC )

Hehe, I too drew like that once in a time, just practice .

Nice looking sprites. Looking forward to them.

What about all the unit packs? What role do the play now? Is there any point in getting them now?

Yes of course!
They give you some flavor!
This is just vanilla stuff, and there's lots of cool sprites in the other unit packs IMO.

@Nifelfang did countries like Denmark, Castille, and England really have their flag/Coat of Arms on the front of their uniforms? Or is that just done to make them stand out from each other?

I would say in general, no, they didn't.
Some of my references did had the coats of arms on their tunics though.
I made it like this because I had the opportunity to make unique textures to some of the tags, and I took some artistic freedom, but not totally unattached from reality.

These new models were a really nice surprise! Thank you for making them, they look great. I hope that the Eastern unit graphics can get a overhaul some time in the future, from tier 2 onward they really show their age.

I woudl love that too!

@Nifelfang will you ever rework the byzantine units?

IF I'll do it, it would be on my free time, and that's something I don't have much of, so probably it will not happen .

Nice work! So they recently hired you? well done paradox.

I've worked here for a couple of years actually.
Before starting working on PDS, I worked at Paradox North, making Wizard Wars. Many of the robes you see in that game is my stuff.
Also I did some "guest appearance" in Magicka 2, were I did the map you see behind all the menus.

In your first photo (I think I have it attached here) - is the guy on the right a zombie? Cool!

Haha, noooo! He's just a little bit pale .

Nice! Love the tier 2 model. Also will this override current models for nations that already have a content pack for them or is this starting fresh? Finally, totally agree Eastern models need to be fixed.

Sweet! Tier 2 is my favorite too I think .
This is when you start fresh, so if you have no Unit Packs, this vanilla units will be the ones showing.

How does the newly-made French model differ from the tier four, aside from colour? Or is the French one not unique to France, and only shown with the French colours?

That's the only difference, the colors.
Most of the sprites will use dynamic coloring, but for some I did some actual unique textures, because I found good references for them.

Muy bien Carlos sigue así.

Muchas gracias!


Thank you again!
Now, back to work!

 

[Blobhemian]

In fact, you've made the tier 4 European model look better than the France tier 4 from the Evangelical majors pack, which now begets the questions - how does one use this better model only for France?

1. Create an .asset file that will contain following lines: (let's name it say "france.asset")

entity = {
   name = "FRA_INFANTRY_4"
   pdxmesh = "FRA_INFANTRY_4_mesh"
   version = 2
 
   state = { name = "idle"        animation = "idle" }
   state = { name = "walk"        animation = "walk" }
   state = { name = "attack"       animation = "attack" }

   attach = {
       Left_hand_node = "western_musket_2"
   }
}

2. Create create a new folder in your Documents\Paradox Interactive\Europa Universalis IV\mod folder and name it say France. In this folder, create a chain of two more folders that will look like this:

Documents\Paradox Interactive\Europa Universalis IV\mod\France\gfx\entities

3. Put the new asset file in the "entities" folder.
4. Create a .mod file and name it the same way as your mod folder (thus France.mod) in the "mod" folder. It should contain at least these lines:

name="France"
path="mod/France"
supported_version="1.19.*.*"

5. Enable your new mod in the launcher

You can name the files and the mod however you want of course, unless you are using tons of mods and need to adjust your load order.

Sorry for shitty formatting, shitty advice skills and shitty modding skills.

This will not work for 1.18 and older patches of course.

 

[b_raven]

Nice! Thank you!

 

[Basterbane]

Would any of you like to see more details on unit sprites? I'm not thinking about their armour details. What I'm thinking is units displaying information. If they are sitting or kneeling on one leg then the maintenance of owner must be low. Soldiers after won battle would rise their weapons in cheer (better visible on post battle screens) and when shattered they would have visible damage on them. Something like reinforcing units and recovering morale could also be its own sprite progression.

Armies with better generals would have some extra bonus on them too.

Some idle animation would cover things like cleaning weapon, feeding horse or taking care of cannon etc.
Would more things like that affect performance? One could also limit (or disable) visible state of soldier sprites to those outside of fog of war.

 

[kreepinglizard]

Good to see the dull old sprites getting a fresh coat of paint. Nice work, Mr. Lundhall.

 

[omega20056]

Byzantium ought to use Theodoro's models, the Turkish models don't really fit. Either that, or the Greeks need new models. If you look at Medieval II: Total War, Byzantine gunners (The equivalent of T2 infantry) are equipped with platemail, which isn't too farfetched.

 

[Zakuno2]

God I want new Byzantium sprites. They are so terrible.

 

[PyroTech11]

Please Please Please do eastern units next

 

[Rashie]

I quite like the fact that Paradox hire artists to do their art and a composer to do their background music instead of expecting their coders to also be artists and composers.

Programmer art also tends to be exceedingly low quality, having dedicated art folks is indeed a good thing.

 

[Israel Hands]

Look great!

What I would really love in the sprite department is for the sprites to be de-synced so you don't have 10 armies standing around in the HRE all doing synchronised hip waggling.

 

[marmot01]

@Nifelfang did countries like Denmark, Castille, and England really have their flag/Coat of Arms on the front of their uniforms? Or is that just done to make them stand out from each other?

This was something that struck me as well.

Uniforms only began to appear in the 17th century, and it was a result of it being the cheaper option - it was less costly to outfit a large number of people in the same garment when you have a territorial army of people who are not full-time professional soldiers. Before that, people wore their own clothes and as a result armies looked very colorful. There would be regulations where members of a certain army would be made to wear a band of the same color, so they could tell friend from enemy on the battlefield - language wasn't an option because armies were very varied on language and ethnicity. Look at the "last tercio" painting in the wikipedia page for the battle of Rocroi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Rocroi Notice the pieces of red cloth tied around soldiers' arms.

The Landsknechts are reported to have loved wearing very colorful clothing, the more colors the better. Much of it consisted of pieces of loot which they would simply wear, in addition to what they had stowed away in the baggage train.

 

[Dakka]

Great job, the change was much needed. Now i see why the more recent unit packs used to have the low resolution weapons, it felt so strange. Now that the unit packs have a little bit of attention as well, i'd like to ask if it was possible to fix some minor unit pack issues that are often brought up at different places but always somehow get lost.

1. Tier 1 Italian DLC units use wrong one-handed animation, it's easy to change it in the dlc files, but I'd rather have it fixed officially since i don't know how to make a mod for it and have to rewrite it directly in the game files, which seems wrong ^^
2. Mamluk special cavalry models are overridden by the new infantry models. Easy to fix it by changing version number in the dlc files and some people might actually like the infantry models more, but since people paid for the original, it would be fair to let them use it.
3. Please release the old italian "T3" unit models for modding purposes, while the change was much needed due to immersion reasons, people paid for the original and it would be nice to put them to some use so that none of your work is wasted
4. Bukhara should totally use the Uzbek models, Prussia the T2 Brandenburg model and the new Golden Horde tag should use the (now) Great Horde models, just to keep things consistent and avoid some small disappointment when forming logical successor countries
5. The new 16/17th century rifle floats in the hand of the vanilla eastern T2 units, I don't even know how i managed to notice that one, let's hope it will be fixed by replacing the old models altogether

Anyway thanks for your work, you finally made playing tags without unit packs somewhat more satisfying again!

Very much so this. I have posted a similar suggestion/request quite a few times since the beta was released and I really hope it gets noticed. Also, the new Nubian tags need to use the Nubian skins.
(@DDRJake notice me, senpai!)

On the OP, these look very nice and will certainly improve the aesthetic of the game! Can't wait to see the other tech groups get updated!