BullGod Unit Icons project

BullGod Unit Icons project (v.0.21) автор BullGod. (31.10.2013) Патч №5

Описание: Мод заменяет ванильные иконки юнитов.

Установка: распаковать и копировать в папку "data" и активировать To view the link Register-ом.

Скачать: To view the link Register или To view the link Register.

Источник: To view the link Register.

Примечание: Мод работает с патчем №5. Последнее обновление мода - 31.10.2013.

Подробное описание, требует превода. (Reveal)

First of all let me say that I really like vanilla Rome 2 unit cards. There seems to be a lot of hatered towards those. I actually hate screenshot unit cards (seriously, I despise them) and those stylized unit cards are step in right direction in my opinion, although this simplistic style has it's drawbacks and sometimes its hard to quickly distinguish those units.
Anyway, I got little bored with them and decided to give it a go and try to make my own. I enjoyed making them for Shogun 2, so I thought it would be fun. And it is, although making all unit cards might prove to be quite fatiguing task, considering how many there are.

Those icons are hand drawn by me (at first I thought it's obvious, but maybe it's not that obvious).

What follows is short description how it's done (some people ask, so here it is) (Reveal)

I use graphic tablet (Pentagram, if it matters... it doesn't), Photoshop, PC mouse and Paint.Net if I work on my netbook, as it's sufficient to work on png files "pixelart style".
I usually draw them 2X the scale of orginal when I begin. Free hand drawing in vanilla scale is difficult, because those icons are too small, and bigger ones would not make too much sense either, as most of the work put in them would be wasted after resizing anyway. I draw them in layers and try to keep the drawing as much modular as possible, to use it on the next unit.

I resize them later and usually work on the details then, as it serves as something like underpainting. Faces, hands, all kinds of small things, (outlines also) need to be reworked, as it usually is a blurry mess after resizing. Because there's not many pixels to work on, any line that's not ideally diagonal, horizontal, or vertical starts to look distorted. It can be worked around by using all kinds of shades to trick the eye, but it's harder to achieve.

Sometimes I draw them in vanilla scale. Like the savage dog icon (the one at the bottom of this post) I've made as a test to see if I can do it that way.
Here's a picture of some early version of skirmisher made like that:

I'm not sure why I post this "drawing", but maybe someone will find it interesting.
I of course use some of the picture parts later, as it doesn't make sense to draw a helmet (f.ex) again, if I have one that works perfectly.

I've started this mod, because I simply like doing things like that, and sometimes it's more fun than game itself.
I'm sharing this, cause I hope someone might like it and it seems like a waste of effort to let them rot on my HD.

I hope to be able to update this mod once in a while.
Now, the mod itself...

MediaFire To view the link Register link with latest version

Installation instructions:
Because of some issue with how game reads modified icon files, you need to use both pack file and loose files to avoid crashes. So, you need to simply unpack contents of zip file into your Rome2 game folder.
This way you should have file MOD_bullgod_icons_Rome.pack inside Rome2/Data folder and there should be Rome2/data/UI/Units/icons folder created with all my icons inside and Rome2/data/UI/Units/mask folder with the same number of files.
Pack file is of Movie type, so it doesn't need activating.

You can also try unzipping only the pack file without loose files. For some people it works. After launching game, try to select Custom Battles. If you'll not get CTD, then you're one of those lucky few.

F.A.Q.
Because there are questions that seem to repeat themselves in comments or PMs, I wanted to answer them upfront:

1. I'm planning to make icons for all units in game. That's the plan. We'll see what life thinks about it.
2. It should be compatible with any other mod that doesn't change unit cards, because it only replaces vanilla pictures.
3. I don't plan to make unit cards for any mod until I finish modding vanilla.
4. If you like my mod and wish to use it in your project I don't see why not. Just credit me, link my mod as a source and if you'll modify those icons - state that you did. I don't want to take credit for what you did with them, especially if you'll ruin my work Also, would be nice to let me know via PM, or in this thread that you're using them.
5. This is solo project. I don't think I would know how to cooperate with someone else on this. If someone would made great icon as a part of this project I would hate him for that. If someone would make crappy one, I would hate myself (Or the other way around - I'm not sure).
6. It's not going to Steam Workshop. I'm not uploading it there and don't you do it too, please. Why? Many reasons. I was babbling about that somewhere further down the thread, so search if you're curious. If you value your mental health, you should forget it though, because reading those parts is like reading a manuscript from R'lyeh. Many people have lost their minds.

Скриншоты. (Reveal)

Some of unit icons made so far (v.0.21):

Germans (Reveal)