Zulu Mod!!!

[Sundjata Keita]

Ok have some solid info now I think

Zulu regiments (they are important because these will be where the names of the zulu units come from) :

uMbonambi
uNokhenke
inGobamakhosi
uThulwana - kings royal regiment (dress is all white)
uMcijo - special forces (dress is all black)
izinsizwa
iNdluyengwe - unmarried
iNloko
iNdakawombe
imiVa - reserves
uFasimba
uThalwana
iziNyozi
unDloko
inDwali
uBheuwula
uHtwayi
uFalza
uDududu
imVuemnyama
uKhandempenvu
iShlangu
iMgombamakhosi
uPoke
inKonya Ebenmvu
uGibabanye
iziPeze
iNdlondlo
umKhuze
uNomgamulana
umZwangwenya
umSikala
isiBabule
iNkonkoni
uShisizwe
imiDwaimba
iNdlu-yengwe

And here are pictures of most regiment's sheilds






If anyone has info on what the other regiments are then please say.

[QwertyMIDX]

Are the Boers going to a faction as well? The 'Great Trek' happened in the 1830's and 1840's and subsequent founding of the Transvaal and Orange Free State are MAJOR events in South African history.

[Sundjata Keita]

Yes the Boers will be a faction but the the mod will not cover the Anglo-Boer wars in the 1890's.

[Myrddraal]

The images aren't appearing. I just get
"Images hosted by Tripod"

[Sundjata Keita]

Has that fixed the problem?

[Epistolary Richard]

Yep.

[stichmaster1]

those are amazing!, post them in our forums

[Sundjata Keita]

It's as good as done.

Just a little update on the plan for what I am going to do next. The next unit I am modelling is the Gordon highlanders which Dclare has kindly done the texture for. After I have done that I am going to start churning Zulu units out, providing some kind of unit list has been made by this point. After that I am going to tackle some of the issues we are going to encounter, one of which I have been discussing at twcenter, which is low sandbag/biscuit tin walls. Anyone got any ideas on how to do that? So far I have got the idea of modding the battering ram to be like a stationary wall that then certain units can go onto. The only problem with this is that the Zulu's should be able to fight and jump over these walls.

Also some research needs to be done that I don't have time to do at the moment. Basically all someone needs to do is go through the list of Zulu regiments and type them into a search engine and try to find out what each of them did. (like what I have done for the uThulwana and uMcijo). There is no rush but it does need doing at some point.

[Sundjata Keita]

Here are some pics of the Gordon Highlanders, they are still not finished as they need to have their boots done, the vertex weights redone and a uv map made for the martini-henri

[Myrddraal]

They are looking seriously good. You realise how good you could make Rawks Drift using scripting.

You could literally make the Zulu's walk up to the barricades and start chanting, just like in the film
Then you would have to conserve your amunition as the brits, without letting too many zulus escape to later join the attack.

About the models, you should make the pouch stick out, it wouldn't be too many extra polys and it would make it look much better.

[Sundjata Keita]

Thnx Myrddraal. The historical battles I think will be one of the highlights of this mod especially with scripting. The pouch will look better once the chest has been flattened and I am not too worried about polys to be honest so if it makes the model look better and I have some time I will do it.

[stichmaster1]

i can get started on changing the shields to the ones above if you send me the zulu skin.

i like the highlanders, but they seem to have a little yellow stripe in their arm pit, dont know if that is supposed to be there... but they look great!

[Sundjata Keita]

No it's not supposed to be there and it is because the skin is stretched out over the chest. Just have to edit the uv map slightly.

Right what format do you want the skin in?

[dclare4]

Hi Sundjata and all friends here,

First off, I'm quite flattered, coming from you Sundjata, compliments as above are like winning the Nobel prize. I'm an utter novice in most aspects actually and thats why I focus more on the African factions/info cuz comparatively the European side will be easy to do (I think) though there are a few 'tricks' I want to try with them ;-)

I actually didn't include the individual regiments for fear of using up the available units and for fear of repeating myself but if you're so inclined, it would be great! I actually planned on representing the veterans like uThulwana but having generic troops for the others but it would be nice to command the actual troops, differentiated by age and skill :-D

The Boers I think (and some colonial type militia) will use the Greek Archer model (the guy with the round hat). Since most wore homespun I'm a bit at a loss as to how to make them less 'uniform' ;-P

The Gordons are lovely! It looks though like this particular Gordon is armed with a musket? Thats okay but later we should have Martini-Henrys for the line troops.

http://www.martinihenry.com/

Like the idea of the 'war-dogs' as cattle herders - I wish there were some way that we could make 'rear-line troops' somehow necessary with each army. The Zulu and African troops would have cattle herders, the British would have ammunition mules and other blue coated pork-pie hatted fellows, the Boers probably would have younger boys to run ammo belts for them or something...

What do you think of my 'ghost and the darkness' idea though. I guess it's not historical at all but I thought it might be an interesting thing to try. I was watching Ghost and the Darkness and Brotherhood of the Wolf when I thought of that (if that explains things). Actually I want the wildlife to have a part in things as part of the 'rebel' faction or maybe even have a 'wildlife' faction of sorts, I don't know.

I rely on you to double-check my work so to speak ;-)

Cheers,
Clare

[Sundjata Keita]

Ammunition mules! What a great idea. We can have lots of different types of non fighting units that are just there for ammo etc. Instead of making them necessary though maybee we could just give an army a big bonus if they have them. Like better stamina or something. Is this possible?

For the Martini-Henrys I was thiking of keeping the same basic model and scaling it so it looks like a Martini-Henry rifle. The musket was just to make the picture look better

Anyway I have some more info on the Zulu regiments thanks to Baiae who has done some research for us

The names in italics are those that weren't on the original list. The ones in brackets after the name are variations in names and the name in brackets after the info is the name of the authour who wrote the book the info was got from.

1. uMbonambi

The uMbonambi regiment carried shields of white pattern on black. Their headdress was composed of an ostrich feather and also red feathers of the crested lourie bird.
Fought as left ‘horn’ of army at Isandlwana (also reported in ‘chest’)
Fought at Ulundi
Shields black and white (circumstantial)

2. uNokhenke

Fought as right ‘horn’ of army at Isandlwana
Fought as left ‘horn’ of army at Ulundi
Fought as ‘chest’ at Isandlwana

3. inGobamakhosi

The inGobamakhosi regiment's headdress was composed of leopard and monkey skin, cow tails and bunches of widow bird feathers, whilst their chest, back, and legs were adorned with cow tails. They numbered about six thousand men at the Battle of Isandhlwana (circumstantial)
Fought as left ‘horn’ of army at Isandlwana
Fought at Ulundi

4. uThulwana - kings royal regiment (dress is all white)

Reserve at Isandhlwana
Made up of older, married men
White shields and ostrich plumes (Lloyd)
Very high status regiment, King Cetewayo was a former member

5. uMcijo - special forces (dress is all black)

Fought as ‘chest’ at Isandlwana

6. izinsizwa

Appears to be a generic name for unmarried men

7. iNdluyengwe – unmarried

Unmarried
Reserve at Isandhlwana

8. iNloko

9. iNdakawombe

10. imiVa – reserves

Appears to be generic name for reserves
Singular (reserve) = umuVa

11. uFasimba

12. uThalwana

repeat of uThulwana?

13. iziNyozi


14. unDloko (uDloko)

Fought at Rorke’s Drift
Reserve at Isandlwana
Fought at Ulundi
Red shields with white spots (Lloyd)

15. inDwali

16. uBheuwula

Black and white shields

17. uHtwayi

18. uFalza

19. uDududu

Right horn at Isandlwana

20. imVuemnyama

Brown and black shields

21. uKhandempenvu

22. iShlangu (iSangqu)

White and brown shields
Right ‘horn’ at Isandlwana (also reported in ‘chest’)
Fought at Ulundi

23. iMgombamakhosi

24. uPoke

25. inKonya Ebenmvu

26. uGibabanye

27. iziPeze

28. iNdlondlo

Reserve at Isandlwana
Fought at Ulundi
Unmarried
Red and white shields
Fought at Rorke’s Drift
Wore ostrich feathers and cow tails

29. umKhuze

30. uNomgamulana

31. umZwangwenya

32. umSikala

33. isiBabule

34. iNkonkoni

Name means blue wildebeest

35. uShisizwe

White and red/brown shield
Raised in 1867?

36. imiDwaimba

37. iNdlu-yengwe (iNdluyengwe)

Reserve at Isandhlwana
Fought at Ulundi
Unmarried
Brown and white shields (also reported as black and white by Lloyd)
Fought at Rorke’s Drift
Cowtail necklaces

38. iMbube

Name means ‘Lion’
Fought at Ulundi
Fought in right ‘horn’ at Isandlwana

39. uMxhapho

Fought at Ulundi
Fought in ‘chest’ at Isandlwana

40. uVe

Young regiment at time of Anglo-Zulu wars (Lloyd)
Fought at Ulundi
Fought in left ‘horn’ at Isandlwana

41. iNsukamngeni,

Fought at Ulundi

42. iQwa

Fought at Ulundi

43. uYengandlovu

Pre-Shakan regiment – Mtetwa tribe (Bryant)

44. imQula

Pre-Shakan regiment – Qwabe tribe (Bryant)

45. amaPela

Pre-Shakan regiment – Ndwandwe tribe (Bryant)

[Sundjata Keita]

How about this as a sheild for the iNdlondlo?



The odd shading is beacuse of lighting in 3dsmax so ignore that. I have made the weapon a bit more like an assegai but I am still not wholly happy with it.

[stichmaster1]

i can take it in anything but .cas form, i dont have 3dsmax yet on my new computer. so preferably a 16 color .bmp or a .tga file either will work

[Sundjata Keita]

Great! I will need your email adress. You can pm it to me if you want

[stichmaster1]

sent^

is the shield in a "half" uv or is the full uv map for the shield on the skin you will be sending me, if i have a choice, the full one would be best.

[Sundjata Keita]

Full uv map. This is because I knew it would be easier to make cowhide sheilds. I'm so clever
Sent it to you now

[dclare4]

Hi there Everyone,

Pardon my long silences, I'm starting a new job and I don't get to get online much (at work at least). Yeah Sundjata, that sounds like a great idea for the musket/Martinis. Yeah it makes it clearer that he's carrying a firearm. Go for it!

Thanks Baiae for the research. We'll need lots of help like that to really get those lovely little details into the mod.

What would Isandhlwana be without those apocryphal ammo boxes ;-D I wish that we could make them really function like ammo carriers but I think the best we can do is use them to 'encourage the others' like, I think, Generals and Screaming Women in the vanila RTW game. I don't know why almost NO modern game takes supply and logistics seriously!! Even the simple presence of 'ammunition wagons' like in the old board games - heck, the so-called Real Time Strategy games like Red Alert or Command and Conquer have basic supply and gather rules!

You know what the rear line troops for the Brits look like, right? The guys in blue coats with sun helmet (officers only maybe) and those pillbox caps that make them look like bellboys at a hotel?

Some links:

http://wmhocker.com/zulu.htm

Some bad news too - I've been trying to do a Gatling gun but I fear that the game still has a prohibition on repeating weapons (ie weapons with very quick loading time) - anyone have any ideas to go around this (short bursts as a single shot perhaps but darned if I know how to do that...)

Cheers,
Clare

[Sundjata Keita]

I think I have come up with a way to do an illusion of a rapid fire weapon. You could make the model for one bullet several bullets and put the damage of the bullets to a higher amount to make it seem as if more were hitting. Don't know how random that would appear though. Are we going to be able to see the bullets?

I think I know what the rear line troops looked like. Of course I will always need a picture to do an accurate model so thanks for the link.

[stichmaster1]

have downloaded the skin and will start work tomorrow. if im not here for a while im slaving over the new skin or out with the gf.

[dclare4]

Hi Sundjata,

I think the models are needed for the projectiles to work - they need to be physically there. But I think there might be something to that idea - a single shot that looks like many shots. Maybe you could make it like naval 'chain shot' - model a number of bullets in maybe a DNA helix pattern (to represent MG fire spread) attach together by invisible stalks and fire the entire pattern as a single bullet while linking their firing sound with a continuous MG burst firing sound (are new sounds possible?).

I tried using the repeating scorpion as the basis but the thing kept firing too darn slowly still. Would want to have a 'crewed' weapon really, particularly for the Naval Brigade heavy Gatlings on cannon wheels, two to three man Maxims (is this right for the time period or were these available only later?) or Hotchkiss guns for the Boers and maybe Portuguese, plus the usual artillery guns (is it possible to have different loading styles for breach/muzzle loaders?)

Cheers chaps,
Clare

[Sundjata Keita]

I will use my initiative to work out which takes priority.

But once you have finsihed one of the skins can you email it me back so I can add some more stuff. I am going to create a list of extra bits that some zulu regiments need, headbands, feathers etc.

[Sundjata Keita]

Only just noticed your post Dclare. Guns aren't really my forte so I'm not sure about whether those fit into the time period. About implementing them, what's the quickest you can get it to fire? It would need to be fairly fast for the model idea to work.

Here is the list of extras I can think that could be put on Zulu units

Ankle feathers
Elbow feathers
Neck feathers
Head feathers
Wrist bands
Neck bands
Head bands
Knee bands
Animal skin sash
Animal skin waistdress
Skin paints

Are there any other? I don't think there are but I might have forgotten one. These can be put onto some of the units to show their importance ie. the more important the more stuff. Got to be carefull with the paints though because they did not put vast amounts on.

[Sundjata Keita]

Here are the Zulu iShlangu regiment. They started off as iNdlondlo warriors but ended up as the iShlangu regiment.




Looks like I forgot to save the fix I did of the assegai so they will be stuck with a sword for now.

[Sundjata Keita]

I have done some different textures that can go on different regiments once the sheilds are done. If I am correct stitchmaster is doing the sheild textures?

I have done this one




and I have done this one with a smaller shield. Can't remember what the shield is called now but it does have a name if anyone knows it.




I have now fixed the assegai and saved it this time. Just waiting for the sheild textures now.

[Myrddraal]

Looking great!

[Sundjata Keita]

Thanks Myrrdraal. Ok some good news, I have fixed some of the uv map problems I was having and so now I can get some more in-game screens. Also Dark_Shadow89 is going to start doing unit descriptions. Right now I am going to begin trying to implement the mealie bag walls. Wish me luck