Ryben UNIT mod under development, take a look!

[Ryben]

There comes a time in the wargamer´s life when you hear a distant call: "why don´t you create your own mooooood..."

So here i am, trying to develop a new set of unit icons that match with my point of view. I think they look quite good and offers the best of both worlds: counters and pictures. I have developed a small set (French and German) for testing.

Your comments and opinions are welcome!

[IainMcNeil]

These are great

[Peter Stauffenberg]

Hi. These units look very nice, but is it possible to show the entire graphics inside each counter? Now only the left half of the graphics is shown inside the counter.

I also wonder if changing the garrison symbol a little could be a good idea. Now it's a downsized version of the corps symbol. That means it's possible to confuse it with a corps symbol when you don't have real corps units nearby the garrison. One way to do this is to introduce a country symbol on the helmet for the country, but not the garrison. The Russians can have a red star. The Germans can use the following symbol:

http://www.german-helmets.com/HEER%20M1 ... elmets.htm

I think using the right side symbol is the best one because it's easy to see and doesn't contain the swastika. The tricolored insignia is used as a German infantry corps symbol in many wargames.

Here is an example of the Russian helmet with the red start insigna in the front:
http://www.sharecg.com/v/19867/3d-model/Russian-Helmet

If it's too much work to add insignias for the corps symbol helmets then it might be a good idea let the center bar on the counter with lighter color could be of a different color (like white) and keep the smaller version of the helmet. This way you know immediately that this is a garrison because the center bar is colored differently.

All in all it's look great and I hope you finish the work for all countries and unit types.

[Ryben]

Thanks for the comments,

The reason of the "half picture" is because i feel that the whole image of the tank in the counters is too small and i would like to put as much detail as i could. There´s also the problem of late war tanks with their long barrels. Placing the whole graphic would force either to reduce it more (making it tiny and blurry) or shorten the barrel, like the original CEAW counters (i don´t like that, they look irreal). Same problem for the planes.

Another reason is that there are other graphic counter mod which already shows the whole picture of vehicles and i don´t want to repeat the graphic solution. The author has put a lot on effort on it and i don´t want to compete. I want a different and distinctive look. Well, and simply i like it that way

You are right about the corps, it may be a bit confusing. The lighter colour bar is there for both esthetical reasons and to place some text or symbols for further information if needed (like an icon for garrison). I would like to put "garrison" there but, since counters are reversed on the game, it may look strange. I could try your idea, it´s not so hard.

What kind of symbols could i use for UK, US and Italy?

I have developed more counters for US and UK army, which i´ll post later. I´m planning to make everything...

Further suggestions for garrison counters are welcome!

[Peter Stauffenberg]

Look here for links about decals to put on the helmets for each country:
http://www.military-steel-helmets-and-d ... decals.htm

Is it possible to show the whole armor symbol and rather cut the barrel for the very long barrels. We will see only part of the barrel and can imagine the rest of it is outside the counter. It's better to lose just part of a barrel than the entire rear end of an armor unit. It's similar with the air units.

Can you maybe try to post a version for one armor and one air counter with the entire symbol so we can look at the difference? Then we can see what we lose in graphics detail to choose the entire symbol.

[Ryben]

Can you maybe try to post a version for one armor and one air counter with the entire symbol so we can look at the difference? Then we can see what we lose in graphics detail to choose the entire symbol.

I could try...damn...if i only didn´t cut in half all the pics...had to search for them again...

EDIT: here´s a test with full image. Not sure what to think about it...charB had to be reduced to fit in the image and it looks a bit small. Not too bad...i think i´ll need more opinions before going into final design.

[borsook79]

This looks very promising Ryben, will definitely use them once they're ready (and if I may voice an opinion, the full image version looks better.

[Magpius]

They look excellent.
Your efforts here are not to be underrated, the one problem I find with modding units in this game, is that they are not on a single graphics sheet, making the process VERY off putting- tedious.

1. Question, what are your plans for the units as they decrease in size, how will the scale change effect icon/ detail/ design?

[Ryben]

They look excellent.
Your efforts here are not to be underrated, the one problem I find with modding units in this game, is that they are not on a single graphics sheet, making the process VERY off putting- tedious.

1. Question, what are your plans for the units as they decrease in size, how will the scale change effect icon/ detail/ design?

I know, the different size of units its a pain in the ass...loads of work.

I´m planing a reduced version of this icons for the next level of zoom out (they still looking good). One more level and you´ll go for the generic default symbols. For the purchase and unit description screens i won´t use this icons (i can´t enlarge them any more without losing a lot of quality) but instead i´ll use b/w pictures of the vehicles , troops and ships.

Full picture with that french tanks looks good. A Tiger tank definitely won´t. I´ll show you later...had lots of counters done.

[Ryben]

Well,this was quicker than i expected. The order of the counters is: corps, garrison, mech, tank level 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5.

German counters


US counters


Italy counters


United Kingdom counters

[Magpius]

Where are you sourcing the unit graphics from?
If you don't mind telling?
Excellent clarity btw

[Ryben]

Various sources...some are scanned from books or model kit boxes but mostly are taken from internet. A couple of them are classic pictures that have been around in several books from years.

I clean them, improve the colors, contrast & brightness and (important) outline with a black line, which prevent them to merge with the background color. Some of the original pics were awful but, once you reduce its size they look quite good.

Now i plan to make the air units but i think i need a bit of help from you, people. I´m not familar with ww2 fighters and bombers so i am asking for suggestions for filling all tech levels.

PD: In the images folder i could see a "neutral" icon but only the symbol ones. I know that for a higher zoom level the source is the UK one. Is there a way i could make a generic set of icons for all neutral countries? Men, i hate those polish spitfires

[Peter Stauffenberg]

Hi. The counters look very nice, but could you try to show the Tiger symbol counter side by side with the leftmost part of the tank and another one with the entire tank. This way we can see the difference in detail and what looks best.

My preference is not to have very very detailed symbols, but easy to distinguish symbols. I feel it's a bit harder to distinguish the different armor types when you only the the barrel and part of the front. You need to look at the entire shape of the tank to be able to distinguish it easily. E. g. the rear part of the Panther tank is very different from other tanks.

I also think it would be an interesting discussion to talk about which symbols to use for the different tech levels.
The tanks have 6 different symbols (tank0 to tank5). For German tanks I would consider the following:
Tank0 = Panzer II
Tank1 = Panzer III
Tank2 = Panzer IV
Tank3 = Panzer V (Panther)
Tank4 = Panzer VI (Tiger)
Tank5 = KingTiger II

Fighters have 5 different symbols, tac bombers have 4 and strat bombers have 3.

German fighters should include Bf109, FW190 and ME262.

Russian tanks could be like this:
Tank0 = T-26
Tank1 = KV-1
Tank2 = T-34
Tank3 = T-34/85
Tank4 = ISU-122 or IS-1
Tank5 = IS-2

US tanks could be like this:
Tank0 = M2A2
Tank1 = M3 Stuart
Tank2 = M3 Lee/grant
Tank3 = M4A1 Sherman (75mm gun)
Tank4 = M4A3 Sherman (76mm gun)
Tank5 = M26 Pershing

British tanks could be like this:
Tank0 = Matilda
Tank1 = Crusader
Tank2 = Cromwell
Tank3 = M4 Firefly
Tank4 = Churchill
Tank5 = Centurion

Look here for info about the Centurion: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread206596/pg1

[damstabongo]

Hello,

Very nice job...
That will be a real pleasure to play with this counters.

Bongo

[Ryben]

I´ve nearly finished the URSS counters, hope you like them:


Now i had to make the air counters for other nations and the navy units.

The last ones are quite difficult as they doesn´t fit well at all with the rest of the set. It´s hard to reduce a ship picture and still be recognizable...maybe i leave the original ones. Not sure, had to make some tests and try a different approach. Suggestions welcome!

[Magpius]

Very good, I like the way you have 'lowered' the graphic of the counter to incorporate the unit strength variable and turn emblem.
Once these are posted, I'll be in line for download.
I'm working on a mod using a variant of old SC1 graphics, but for mid level zoom only. As I find that the closet zoom does not display enough map, and the furthest zoom does not show unit strengths.
I know I've asked this before, but could you show an example of what you are proposing for the smaller scale units?
again great work

[Ryben]

Thank for your comments Agent Smith. The icon for smaller scale would like like this:



I think they are still quite recognizable. For the higher zoom level i think i´ll leave as it is now, i had no problem with those (but i´ll change the background colour to match the counters).

[Magpius]

excellent clarity
-have you increased the resolution of your units over the original ones?
- how far from completion are you

[Ryben]

excellent clarity
-have you increased the resolution of your units over the original ones?

No, as far as i know. They are the same size and resolution. But more crisp detail...

- how far from completion are you

I need to make the plane units for the rest of the nations. I would appreciate a list of fighters, tac-bombers and bombers , i´m not a great fan of ww2 planes and i´not sure of how to fill certain spots. Once located it would be an easy task.

Still figuring out how to solve the sea units...that´s the hardest part.

As for the purchase screen i´ll be using ww2 pictures instead of an even bigger counters (which i can´t resize without losing quality)

[Ryben]

I think i found a solution for the navy counters. It´s clear that i can´t use the same approach as the land units as the ships usually have long prows and they doesn´t fix well in a counter as you may see in this sample:





Better idea show the whole ship, isn´t?