Latest Screenshots

[saundersag]

I agree with shifty and i think that the body guards should be heavy cavs, as this would allow you to make them luxiourious, as they would be made of nobles which would be very wealthy also i reckon that they seem slightly strange compared to the rest of the chinese units as they wear black while all the others are bright colourful. I reckon they woul make a good unit however not as a bodyguards.

Also the firelances look very good but there seems to be too much smoke, theere needs to be more fire compared to smoke. Well that is my opinion.

However this mod is truly awesome and one of the rtw mods that i am really looking forward to.

[DragoonXXIV]

I think the Chinese bodyguards are excellent especially if they're good at shooting and close combat, like the russian boyars in M:TW. Remember the chinese liked archery and many of their famous heros started battles with a few quick arrows then charged into the foray. The one suggestion i have is that they have a strong shot but a very limited number of arrows.

[Khan48]

Old gunpowder made lots of smoke. Anyways it would be cool to set them all of and when the smoke clears nothing left. Horse archer general is good. People ususally keep them behind the lines anyways and i'm sure he'll make them good in melee

[hoggy]

yep, bodyguards will be good archers and as close combat.

Here are the chinese standard bearers:

[Burns]

Neeto.

[hoggy]

..and been going through doing bits and bobs of polish, here are updated chariots with proper colours and umbrella:

[The Panda Centurion]

Woah! That standard almost made me wet my pants! Great job, hoggy.

[Goth]

The one suggestion i have is that they have a strong shot but a very limited number of arrows.

i agree with Dragoon but wouldnt the bows be long bows?

[Khan48]

I like how these models look but i was wondering w/ all the extra umbrellas and banners on the back of japanese soldiers does the game slow down? Otherwise looks great!

[DragoonXXIV]

i agree with Dragoon but wouldnt the bows be long bows?

not necessarily, remember the chinese (and mongols) had composite bows, or if you perfer in Chinese myth, sheer massive arm strength.

[Revolting Friendship]

There's no with-holding the excellence of your work Hoggy, that standard is unbelievable, and the chariots simply made me happy. Seeing them going through a pack of kappa like that, well, it's truly poetic.

I tried to wait to comment here until I would have something constructive to write besides just pure praise, but it seems, that won't be happening anytime soon... Obviously I think your samurai are excellent, given the focus of this mod. With that said, you should know that I had some complaints about the units in S:TW, I just think yours are both better looking and more accurate.

The swords are perfectly well curved too I might add, given that the avarage sori(curvature) of a 65-70cm(standard lenght cutting edge) blade had only a 2-2,5cm dip at the deepest point... That's an approximation tought, but anything more than 3cm is a rarity and found mostly on o-gatana and no-dashi-blades.

Keep up the excellent work, you and Blindfaithnogod, who is also making a tremendous effort.

I would have to say thought, that I'm not exactly exited about the demon-pictures, I would have rather seen the same kind of line-work as Blindfaithnogod is using, as it feels more asian. Secondly, I'm all with the bizarre path here, just look at japanese mythological creatures and the word will gain a few dimensions, but I think it should again be asian bizarre, not what I enterpret as medieval europe bizarre. Those pictures reminds me more of the scare-pictures of hell and pergutory commissioned by the catholic church, rather than what you would expect from asian horror/myth.

Sykotyp, could you please consider to revise your art, adding a more asian flavor to it? Wether it's japanese, chinese or indian I do not care, but that's what I'd rather see.

But if you guys feel like what you have is what you want, then just ignore me. Sykotyp's work does have energy to it, so I'm not saying it's shit, on the contrary, but I just feel it doesn't suit.

[Sykotyk Rampage]

Hi

Well first, please reference my post #176 for a broad explaination for the pictures.

Please try to expand your view of the fantasy mod Blue Lotus; it actually encompasses a very wide geographic and cultural area. It reaches from the shores of the Indian Ocean to the cold tundra of Siberia. It stretches from the Caucuses and Himalayan Mountains to the volcanic islands of the Pacific Ocean. The time period is well fantasy.

So the culture of the “Demons” is not restricted to just “Asian”. China, Japan or Korea as different as each of those cultures believes are the rest from factions encompass a much larger cultural and geographic game area - Mongolia, Russia, Tibet, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Pacific Islands, Sri Lanka…Islam, Buddhism, Theravada, Hinduism, Daoism, Shinto, Sikhism, Confucianism, Qi Gong, Animism, Jainism and yes even a dash of Christianity 1498 India style etc… so as you can see the list we referenced is very extensive.

Every picture is actually referenced from those believes. The demon generals, civilians and buildings have a mixture of all those cultures. Fire chasms and gaping holes to the netherworld – fiery demons red and “devilish looking” -dragons and sea monsters –snakes, spiders, turtles and frogs- decaying “zombie” two headed skeletons –birds, bees and bats are mention throughout these cultures history. We just by-passed the pictures you are accustomed to seeing, the pretty “WATER COLOUR” drawings that give the demons a rosy outlook on life… LOL ..we made the numerous pictures "asian bizarre" and directly referenced from the art and litature of the vast cultures of the area.

Like post #176 these are only a small fraction of the pictures, and in a complete view and context they separate the demons out from the "worldly" factions.

Here is my reference for the first picture... of course it is twisted to demonic.
Azi Dahaka ('fiendish snake') is conceived of as partly demonic and partly human. He was probably originally the 'snake' of the storm-cloud who was a counterpart of the Vedic Ahi or Vrita. In the Yasht, he is described as struggling for the Hvareno, or Kingly Glory, against Atar (Fire).

Well take care and keep the posts coming…

Sykotyk

[Revolting Friendship]

Well first, please reference my post #176 for a broad explaination for the pictures.

Been there, done that.

Please try to expand your view of the fantasy mod Blue Lotus; it actually encompasses a very wide geographic and cultural area. It reaches from the shores of the Indian Ocean to the cold tundra of Siberia. It stretches from the Caucuses and Himalayan Mountains to the volcanic islands of the Pacific Ocean. The time period is well fantasy.

So the culture of the “Demons” is not restricted to just “Asian”. China, Japan or Korea as different as each of those cultures believes are the rest from factions encompass a much larger cultural and geographic game area - Mongolia, Russia, Tibet, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Pacific Islands, Sri Lanka…Islam, Buddhism, Theravada, Hinduism, Daoism, Shinto, Sikhism, Confucianism, Qi Gong, Animism, Jainism and yes even a dash of Christianity 1498 India style etc… so as you can see the list we referenced is very extensive.

I can't help but look to the cultures represented by factions in the mod instead. I really feel like they matter more to the choice of graphics than the topographic features and historic cultural and religious distribution of asia.

And here you also hint to my actual point, the fact that the demon faction should draw character from the cultures it's derived from, which is already appearant in the factions unit rooster.

....We just by-passed the pictures you are accustomed to seeing, the pretty “WATER COLOUR” drawings that give the demons a rosy outlook on life… LOL ..we made the numerous pictures "asian bizarre" and directly referenced from the art and litature of the vast cultures of the area.

No you didn't, you made the pictures "sykotyp enterpretation of demonical energy bizarre", and referenced only textual accounts of the demons attributes. You just said yourself that you found asian depictions of demons to rosy, so you ditched them. There's no hint of indian, no hint of persian, no hint of chinese, no hint of japanese flavour in your pictures. Still, the demon unit list and the demon models gives an overwhelming asian flavour, mostly japanese/chinese/korean. The "rosy" kappa in the above screenshot for example. From where do you suggest that their appearance has been lent?

Like post #176 these are only a small fraction of the pictures, and in a complete view and context they separate the demons out from the "worldly" factions.

That they surely do, and so we arrive at my argument, they seperate the demons to much, so much it's not good. The demonic energy of your art has lost it's asian origin in everything but theory.

This is how I feel, and really, your reasons to feel exited about your art are my reasons for not doing so, so there was never any point of bringing them all up, I didn't make the first post out of ignorance you know. Sure this is pointless unless you are affected by it, I'm just hoping you will be.

I'll also point out that I am trying to help here, I don't want you gone, I would rather see how you would handle a rework of your graphics. I've already reworked all my stuff from scratch on someone elses suggestions(and I hope you are still satisfied Crusher of Eval).

[Intranetusa]

i agree with Dragoon but wouldnt the bows be long bows?

They (Chinese and Mongols) used the "composite recurve" bow.
The Japanese used the Japanese long bow.

I believe hoggy's stated that he just uses what he thinks looks cool.

Here are the Chinese stone walls (ignore japanese buildings in background):

depends, much of Japanese architecture is heavily influenced by Tang Dynasty architechture. The city of Kyoto, for example, was built as a model of the Tang capital of Xi'an.
Btw, why does all the Chinese buildings look like they have roofs layered with gold? The golden roof and the orange wall hue looks funky... :(

So in terms of siege equipment is there going to be anything else to look forward too ?
i.e. The Romans had a ' Scorpion ' and Ballistea etc...

They could have seige crossbows (triple pulley crossbow), trebuchets (traction seige and anti-personel) etc :D