Eldar Shining spears, Aspect warriors

[Zany Reaper]

Nifty elite melee unit for the Eldar:





These will be replacing the currently useless (but cool-looking) Jetbikes that Eldar got from webway gates, for these guys are more versatile.

Equipped with laser lances, they fly into combat, shooting their opponent pre-emptively & then delivering more intense blasts when in melee to finish off their opponents. They are easily able to kill a guardsman, & even an ork in a single shot - shooting or melee.

The exarch is an upgradable leader that when first purchased allows the squad to actually jump (giving him a reason to be purchased, other than adding a bit more power). He is also more combat-experienced & deadly.

Furthurmore, as seen in the 3rd screenshot - his existing weapons can be upgraded (via a certain research). The somewhat unhelpful shuriken catapults are replaced with a far more useful shuriken cannon, which not only almost always hits its target, but also deals good damage too.
His laser lance is also replaced with a star lance, which gives him a slight boost in melee (& shooting) against commanders & armoured targets.

They'll be hard-capped at one, whilst harlequins will have their hard-cap removed (as of version 1.36) seeing as they'll be more powerful. Unsurprisingly they'll also be damned expensive to get, and will be squad-taxed to an extent.

Hope you like!

[WackyModder]

oh HELL YEAH!!!! awesome work, zany!!! but wait, arent their spears supposed to be bigger?

[Zany Reaper]

Hmmm... Evidently you can only see one laser lance in any of the screenshots (the second one, in which the Exarch is holding a lance).

The tabletop pictures confused me TBH, so I wasn't sure what length to make them. Ideally they would have been longer, but I ran out of texture space
Also, if I did lengthen them, they would look wierd model-wise.

Model-wise, they're not quite finished. They need to have a different pole out of the jetbike, & I should probably make another random head too, one with a mask...

[WackyModder]

and plus, isnt their texture a bit off too?

i mean look:



youre texture is solid blue, these ones have white and blue striped. and plus, the texture on the spears/lances is more of a darker grey color and seems to be bigger then the bike itself. they also kinda look fatter towards the handle of the spear/lance, but slightly thin out towards the tips. why not try something like that?

EDIT: and what happened to that thing sticking up outta the back of the bikes? that should be there as well.

[Zany Reaper]

I've added the extra bits to the rear rod, along with a little plate that sometimes appears on the face now (random feature).

Screenshots come later, though they're not something to be amazed at.

[thudo]

Yep its coming along.. the GSW screenshot has always been what I thought was a Shining Spear jetbike. Good work Zany as always.. Eldar REALLY need this!!!!!!!!

[Zany Reaper]

Shining spears won't REALLY be needed for Eldar in Dark Crusade, as they just get danced half of the time (even though they are fast, and exceptionally good at sniping targets the first chance they get in melee).

However, in Soulstorm, with the help of a coding padawan I have temporarily doing some jobs for me, I've got a system working where melee units actually lock opponents into close combat. If Shining spears do this once TTRU is put into Soulstorm, then They'll quite literally be almost unkillable with ranged weaponry, as they'll be quickly fragging things (almost any opponent) in melee, whilst dancing off after victory to the next nearest opponent with supreme speed.

Oh, & here's a screenshot of some 'codex' adjustments I've made:



Notice the 'mask' and the adjusted banner pole, which no longer can hold a banner.

[thudo]

- What about the characteristic stripe the fuselage has? Currently its all blue
- The Spears themselves seem real short for "Jousters" - should they not be 20% long

[Zany Reaper]

There used to be Stripes on Maestro's original jetbike texture, but I removed them as they were in the wrong place. Where should the 'stripes' be, bearing in mind that I want the majority of the bike to be blue, not white as they are painted (paint schemes are not important).

Furthurmore, they are not jousters, they are shooting lances that are often used in melee. They're short because of a model defect.

[thudo]

I think if you are gonna go the route of having artistic license then the Shining Spears can look as you please. I've always seen those Jetbikes as the ones WackyModder posted with the characteristic stripes, long spear, and the high left-rear pole. However, you have generously donated your time to building these masterpieces so its your call.

[Zany Reaper]

Well, I've now lengthened the lances a bit, but I have not checked to see if the animations look any different. I'll be uploading a new DC beta as well, which I will give to you & a few others for general purposes.

Obviously, I'll need the AI for this. It'd also be helpful if such settings could be conferred to the Soulstorm AI stuff too, if that's alright?

[thudo]

I'd rather it all be for Soulstorm as all mods work with SS just fine.. even balance mods.

[WackyModder]

again, AWESOME improvement! however, i still think you could change the texture from solid blue to white w/ blue stripes. and i love what you did the the laser lance model. however, i still think that you could make it a little bit bigger than the jetbike itself, tho.

[Zany Reaper]

WackyModder - Again, I'm leaving the stripes out for the moment. I might go back to them (unlikely though).

Anyhow, I need to take a look at Xamon's IG guardsmen doctrine models & see if I can UV map them.

thudo - Oh yeah, I'm gonna put it into SS, but I haven't modded the lua files yet.

BTW, don't suppose you could briefly find me a texture artist (preferably one that'd be good at texturing Imperial guard stuff) for a task that I'm undertaking with these doctrines? Components include carapace armour, light infantry, sniper rifles & a few other minor gubbinz.

[WackyModder]

oh thats no problem at all, zany! i do however LOVE the new laser lances, but once again they seem too small. the ones in the tabletop piece picture look slightly bigger than the jetbike itself. would that be possible to accomplish here?

[Zany Reaper]

Since these screenshots, I've lengthened the lances by about 20% (still a tad short, but oh well). I haven't tested the animations though, I can't be bothered.

BTW, have you got my download link to the 'final version' for dark crusade? It has these guys in it. I guess you haven't seeing as you haven't been following the Relic forums thread.

[WackyModder]

are you talking about version 1.35?

[thudo]

Is this the new version that Gorbs cleaned up all your code I asked about mid last year? Looking forward to that as TTRU will be nicely code-cleaned and adding more new amazing content since mid-last year's build. Looking quite forward to updating the AI with our v3.00 Advanced AI.

[Zany Reaper]

WackyModder - No, it's another internal 'beta.'

thudo - the amount of 'cleaning' is questionable, but there're definately some new features & a complete re-calculation of HP, damage, armour etc. It IS for Dark Crusade however.

[WackyModder]

in that case, i dont think i ever got the link. can you point me to it?