(Download Now Available - v3.0) Yet another counter/weather mod

[MOS96B2P]

The armor corps looks better every time I see it. The three Xs of the corps symbol seem a little blurry now when on top. Or maybe that's an intentional shadow or background effect? Still, improving all the time.

[PanzerMike]

It is quite frustrating; too many limitations. It would be so much nicer if one was able to choose font, color, position, etc of all the stuff that goes on the counter. The triple X, the priority +, the strength numbers, they all limit what you can do.
Also the green priority + is just plain ugly IMHO. How I wish that I could alter that one!


This is not bad I suppose. It is however on the lowest zoom level. Higher up the triple X is less convincing...

@Alvaro: I do not know if you also take peeks in this here modding section, but if you are reading: please give us more control over the appearance of the units. I would be so grateful [&o]

[Taxman66]

I think the problem is that it is effectively Black on Black. All you are seeing is the white outline.

[mroyer]

ORIGINAL: PanzerMike
@Mroyer: if you want the changed unit.xcf let me know. It will always be your mod of course...

I'm all for team work - chances are we'll end up with a better product in the end. And if not, hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I don't want the .xcf right now, but perhaps later when you've settled.

One question, did you remove the FTMS air unit letters on purpose or did you forget to turn that layer back on?

ORIGINAL: PanzerMike
some pics are a few pixels off for example and some other minor things

Yeah, some of that was certainly my fault, but I sent hours trying to figure out why certain units were just skewed relative to the game-engine added text and symbols. Turns out some of the originals from the game were a couple pixels off too and that unwittingly threw mine off. That's why you see that magenta master grid layer I put in the .xcf file - that gave me a solid reference to work against for each counter.

-Mark R.

[Magpius]

Nice work here Zovs, but the highlight on the counters, makes them look a little thick for me.
The drop shadow offset makes them feel a bit floaty.
I was never a fan of people who nail clipped their cardboard counters to remove the 'tag'. So the square look is a definite improvement.
Not being critical.
Damn fine work on the colour and details.

[PanzerMike]

ORIGINAL: mroyer

One question, did you remove the FTMS air unit letters on purpose or did you forget to turn that layer back on?

Well, here is your answer:


These icons are SC3 style. I like them better [:)]

[mroyer]

Sweet. I'm on board with that - perhaps a smidgen bigger. I was just trying to stay consistent with Hairog's work for player sanity.

PanzerMike, if you're messing with with the form, color and other elements of the counters themselves, would you like to have my MS Power Point files where I create those originally? I make the counters in power point at almost 800 pixels on a side, then paste them into GIMP and down-scale (to 50x50 for ground units and 65 radius for air units).

It may be sharper/cleaner/easier to make symbol and counter changes there. You can easily change the beveling, shape, line thicknesses, silhouettes, colors and so on.

(Although, frankly, your changes in GIMP are pretty darn good. I can't really tell that you did them directly in GIMP.)

-Mark R.

P.S. I put a link to the power point files on the opening post anyhow.

[PanzerMike]

Thanks for those! Pretty impressive. And yes, I am doing it all in GIMP. Winging it as I go [:D]

[Beatrix Kiddo]

Wow! Just blown away! This is amazing and greatly appreciated. [&o][&o][&o]

First impressions that really are exceptional:
The HQ's. The flags are striking.
The images of various aircraft! Superb and immersive. Don't know if I like the thin horizontal black stripe going through the tails of most planes, but huge improvement over the white silhouettes. I'd like to see what it would look like without the black stripe and just continue the blue down further until hitting red. The tail section will be more pronounced vs light blue than it is against black.
Absolutely loved the SC3 style FTMS display PanzerMike posted just a few above here.
The choice of orange for the Dutch. LOL! Of course!
I preferred the panzer corps "XXX" to be vertically oriented down the left side.
Is the color scheme to make the German panzer corps black? Will every country have a different color for armor?
I liked the red left lower corner in one example. Would that indicate heavy armor?

Is there anyway to have the NATO AT symbol displayed if the infantry has that specialization?

With Great Respect!

[Beatrix Kiddo]

I think the flag for Belgium should be less of a square and more of a rectangle.

[mroyer]

I think the flag for Belgium should be less of a square and more of a rectangle.

The Belgium national flag has an aspect ratio of 13:15 so I think the one shown on the counters is correct. Perhaps you're thinking of the civil ensign, which looks identical except that it has a proportion of 2:3 and is more elongated.

Glad you like the counters though. Thanks.
I agree, there are a pile of great mods in here. When I tire of mine, I will probably cycle through some of the other great ones just for aesthetic change [:)]

-Mark R.

[Beatrix Kiddo]

Oh! That's interesting! I just got educated about their crazy aspect ratio! 8 )

How can I get PanzerMike's Unit.pnf? Things I love about his are:
White center instead of yellow
SC3 style FTMS
Same color panzers, but with red corners

I really love the red corners because even under air, you can rapidly locate them.

So basically, if I could get the black stripe removed from the planes, then his last set of his counters are my dream! I'm a fan, PanzerMike!

[Beatrix Kiddo]

How did people decide about the top/bottom for plane units?

I totally get sky blue top because it allows the gorgeous plane images to pop. But why a red bottom? Some nations have the same color top for planes as their national colors, with an alternate color on the bottom.

Wouldn't a more consistent color scheme be sky blue top 2/3rd's for all nations, but the same national color for the bottom 1/3rd? Since the bottom 1/3rd has the stats, that should work, esp. if you eliminated the black stripe. For a nation like Germany, some of the planes (M/S) might be slightly bigger and the tail might be a bit hidden in the gray-green of their counters, but I'd be interested to see it. It would provide a cohesive counter color scheme.

Of course, I'm completely ignorant of what is going on in these image files. Perhaps you have to have that stripe.

[mroyer]

ORIGINAL: Beatrix Kiddo

How did people decide about the top/bottom for plane units?

I totally get sky blue top because it allows the gorgeous plane images to pop. But why a red bottom? Some nations have the same color top for planes as their national colors, with an alternate color on the bottom.

Wouldn't a more consistent color scheme be sky blue top 2/3rd's for all nations, but the same national color for the bottom 1/3rd? Since the bottom 1/3rd has the stats, that should work, esp. if you eliminated the black stripe. For a nation like Germany, some of the planes (M/S) might be slightly bigger and the tail might be a bit hidden in the gray-green of their counters, but I'd be interested to see it. It would provide a cohesive counter color scheme.

Of course, I'm completely ignorant of what is going on in these image files. Perhaps you have to have that stripe.

Well coupla' things...
First I kind of like your idea of sky blue over national-matching bottom colors. Not sure how it would look but it might work.

What really happened is, for consistency in the mods, I copied Hairog's "round air unit mod" and kept his color scheme (at least for the major powers' air units).

Regarding the black line, that is driven by a technical issue with how I create the beveled edges of the counters. There is actually a bevel that runs right through the counter where the colors meet, but I hid it with the black line. Maybe by being a bit more creative we could figure out how to get rid of that bevel and then the black line could go away.

-Mark R.

[PanzerMike]

ORIGINAL: mroyer

Sweet. I'm on board with that - perhaps a smidgen bigger. I was just trying to stay consistent with Hairog's work for player sanity.

Your wish is my command. How about this:

[abulbulian]

Great mod. Just one thought. The German colors are a bit strong and IMO unusual for Germans in most board and computer games I've played. I think it would be perfect to make them the color of the Hungary units. To me that seems the more natural color for their units. Let me know if you are able to make a version with switching colors between the Hungary and Germany. Also, maybe to have some black around German armor (and mech?) units would be amazing too.

thanks for the hard work

[mroyer]

Doing some great work PanzerMike! Unless you want to post these under your own thread, when you've settled send me the .png files and I'll post them here as a v4 PanzerMike version. It might make more sense to players to just keep them all in this thread because they have a similar look and feel and the same origin.

-Mark R.

[PanzerMike]

-Black stripe gone
-Larger airplane image (unavoidable to have some clashes with the hard coded symbols)
-German counters more greyish

Lot of work I can tell you...

[mroyer]

PanzerMike gone wild!

How'd you get rid of the bevel that cut across the counters between the colors???
-Mark R.

[PanzerMike]

ORIGINAL: mroyer

PanzerMike gone wild!

How'd you get rid of the bevel???
-Mark R.

That is my dirty little secret, hehehehe [:D]