Vorpal Tide faction

[Urs]

They look really nice - especially the attack icons.

[thespaceinvader]

Thanks =)

Which reminds me, i need to do more of those...

EDIT: There we go:

[Noyga]

I really like your crystal attack icons.
Btw if you have to make an icon for a magical attack for this faction, it could probably be useful for the Windsong too (those Sky crystals in particular).

[Caeb]

let's see...

Silver: I suggested the pendulum blade arms for White instead of Silver, although you could keep Silver's blade and just modify it to befit a higher level (maybe give it two blades joined perpendicularly to form an umbrella of death)... I also think the thick chest covering overshadows the underlying "robe" to the point that it kind of looks like it's standing on two scrawny legs (the left and right edges of the robe)... to add to the mage emulation, how about shaping its entire body with the vestiges of a robe...? I'm not saying to just put a robe on Silver, but at least have its head covered with a metallic hood and some of its outer body textured with wrinkles to give a better impression that Slicer adapt to their environment... the armored chest can be kept but perhaps enveloped on the sides by the robe... instead of the feet being underneath the robe, having the edges of the robe extend into multiple feet tendrils might be nice, and can help explain the unit's continued scouting role...

Platinum: dunno why but I kind of liked it with the sharp "beak" in your concept drawing, but it seems as though Bronze and Gold also have those, so the head is fine as is... wonder if the wings shouldn't also be metallic, but something thin so as not to clash with even higher levels... spikes on the body might be a good way of indicating first strike, although I don't know about the difficulty of shading those... are those little blunt arms for piercing, because the unit doesn't have impact damage and HI maces are significantly larger and spiked... otherwise, this is my favorite Slicer sprite so far...

Gold: those two giant scythes look like wings, which may not be too bad, but may lead to confusion... perhaps face them forward or even curved around the shoulders and inward to maintain their menacing nature... is there a reason for making the body so small other than to fit the giant scythes in...? to add to a possible Fencer adaptation, you could have thin, long blades sticking out of each of the bulbous hands, and maybe even a blade coming out of the chest or blades around the wrists if the "strike-master" concept hasn't been emphasized enough...

Bronze: dunno why but this guy would look good with a cape (who am I kidding...? everything looks good in a cape )... anyway, disregarding that, the gun arm doesn't look like it can shoot, so I'd add either a longer muzzle sticking out or a hole or indentation at the front of it (heck, I don't even know how thunderers can make fire out of ordinary-looking sticks )... since you already used the mage concept for Silver, Bronze is... hmm... need some extra thought on this one...

skirmishing+high hp+ranged+impact+blade... unlike anything we've ever seen... therefore, as you did, it would be good to draw inspiration from multiple units... brainstorming: body/attack of a Troll, mobility of a Fencer/Skirmisher, shot of a Thunderer/Burner/Archer... I think the skirmisher ability is throwing me off the most... perhaps skirmisher would be better suited for Gold and leadership for Bronze... then some sort of Troll Marshal concept could be used... or would that make Gold too powerful...?

that's all I've got for now... should give you plenty to chew on...

[thespaceinvader]

I will go back and add the pendulum blades to white (and fix up orange, too) once i've got a base frame done for each of the dynamic line sprites.

Silver: I'll give it a bit of a tweak, maybe lighten the shading on the upper part, but i'm pretty happy with it atm. And it may not be clear, i can lengthen them, but the body does split up into little insect-feet at the bottom.

Platinum: I can try to get the beaked look back, fiddle with the shading a bit. But it may look better kept to the lighter-looking lines. I'd forgotten the firststrike thing >.< i'll revise the arms (again once i've sorted out the level 2 and 3 sprites.). The mace bits were meant to be for buffed-on impact damage, to avoid having to do too much weirdness with the animations.

Gold is only so small because that was how the sketch came out. I reason that the small size is kind of based on a dwarf, but that can change, of course. I'll see what i can do to make it somewhat bigger.

Bronze: the gun part is pointed to the floor at the moment. When it attacks it would be brought up in front, and you'd be able to see the hole at the front.

I'll come back to these later after work.

[Caeb]

I didn't realize there was buffed impact from somewhere... and the head thing isn't important, since we don't want all the level 1s to look alike...

for animations, I'm not sure how this would be aesthetically, but what if each attack was implemented not through the initial sprite, but instead as some sort of pseudopod mass that extended from the main body...? that way we wouldn't have to worry about the units doing the wrong type of damage with the armaments they have, since we can make the right weapon appear from their bodies and strike...

actually, this would probably be more useful for the ranged attack buffs than anything, but for any other type of damage changing buff, I think it would work... however, we may need to change the positioning of the set attack animation for each unit so that it's actually coming out of the body and not from thin air... I do understand that there's little point in having a big gun or giant scythes and not seeing them used, though, so perhaps this should be limited to level 0s or just buffed attacks...

I'll wait on Ques for further input on Brown...

[thespaceinvader]

I was thinking that the weapons would kinda moprh out when they were used. The level 2s strike me as kinda like the T1000 fromn terminator 2 - malleable, and able to extend, move their mass etc to wherever they want.

EDIT: Wasn't sure what colours you guys had in mind for the omega slicer, buyt here's a preliminary set of lines/flats. The colours are totally open to change - they're just there at the moment to show the distinction between the outlined areas. I envision this as having an aura around the feet on which it floats when it lands, and attacking not physically, but with pure magic - beams of light would extend from its hands to do any sort of attack that is necessary. And its defence frame/animation would be a shield made of light =D

Also updated tree =)

EDIT again: Updated Platinum and tree.

[thespaceinvader]

DP to add preliminary basics for Diamond, Ruby, and a completed tree (though the level 2 and 3 sprites remain unshaded, and there's quite a bit of editing and tweaking to be done) which i jigged around a little to make the advancements correct - i'd put Gold and Silver in the wrong places >.< Plus the static line, of course. And the rest of the attack icons. And the portraits, though those are very much low priority.

*Head a'splode*

The diamond is aiming to be a protection oriented sprite. I'm not sure if it's a flyer or not, could this be confirmed by Qes or Caeb please? If it is, i'll give it some wings, but what sort, i don't know yet. The spikes on the shiled are its pierce attack, and the healer-blade gives a blade attack.

The Ruby is aimed to capitalise on leadership, and look quite skinny and quick to give the impression that it could skirmish, unlike, say, the heavy-looking diamond or platinum. Obviously the flag is what it's hitched onto as a leadershipping necessity, and the cape, too.

[Caeb]

I'll try to keep this relatively short...

yes, since Diamond is an evolution of Black, it should have flying...

having two units with shields in different branches could be confusing and reduces each unit's uniqueness...

even taking lack of shading into account, Platinum looks like a better level 2 than the other two... it may take something more special than a Silver/Bronze mix to outdo Platinum... something keeps pushing me towards a Horseman/Centaur of the Apocalypse look...

Omega's size should be increased and wings perhaps folded, then extended when it's in flight...

maybe it's the small size or just simplicity of it, but Gold looks like it could be a level 0...

Ruby seems to have lost its multitude of strikes somewhere... I'm thinking Spider-Man symbiote with its skin flailing everywhere should take care of that and skirmisher (and it would make for an interesting backstory on how it became that way)... flag-hand is... not the coolest weapon...? and it still comes off as looking a bit bulky in relation to its smaller size...

there's probably more, but as placeholders, you did good... real good...

[thespaceinvader]

I'll see what i can do when i get back. buty i think out of all of them i prefer Diamond having the (obvious) shield than Bronzel So i'll give that a fiddle. Shame, bronze's shield looks cool. Maybe i could just make it less obvious... And i thought Ruby might want some work. It was a less than inspired sketch. I might move the flag to the back and give it another weapon.

EDIT: Diamond (preliminarily) done, with updated tree. I thought this one might look good with a very slight transparency applied to the whole unit, to make it seem kinda see-through, like...well, diamond... The colours are probably off for real diamond, but...meh. Pierce attack with the shield spike, blade attack with the guillotine/pendulum blade thingy. I added the wings straight from the Platinum slicer, with a slight colour shift. I could change them, but i think buzzy wings look better, and maybe 'feathery' type ones would be better left to the omega.

EDIT again: Revision of bronze. Added a bladed arm-buckler-y thing with a fist at the bottom for impact attacks. And took off the shield, obv. Made the feet a little more pointy and slim, to add to the skirmisher image.

EDIT AGAIN...: Updated white with blades instead of fingers, and updated tree.

[Qes]

HOLY CRAP YOU ROCK!

I've just now gotten a glimpse at what you've been up to. You've surpassed even my imagination on these babies.

Yes, yes and more yes!


On the icons - that's truly awesome: One issue.

I dont necessarily as of yet know how to code animations or attack icons.

I shall endeavor in the near future to learn, however, they're definately on the periphery of needs to finish this sucker.

Be well, and thanks again!
-Qes

[thespaceinvader]

OK. I'll keep doing the attack icons when i get round to it, but focus on sprites for now. It oughtn't to be too hard to figure out the code, though.

[Qes]

when you finalize the dynamic sprites could you put them in a file for me to download? Cutting and pasting is relatively difficult. To do, even in gimp for accuracy. Just zip em and I'll unzip em.


-Qes

[thespaceinvader]

Of course, i was fully intending to =D

I'll post a zip of the finished base frames when i've got them all finalised. proably all in .ong format, ready for inclusion in the faction. The names should be in the format: slicer_savage.png, right (no spaces)? I'm assuming you want the descriptive names rather than the colour-based ones. if so, were there descriptive ones for the L1&2 slicers, or will the metal/jewel names be ok?

EDIT: Possible names for l1&2s

Bronze - Slicer Marksman
Gold - Slicer Bladeswinger/Bladedancer?
Silver - Slicer Healer?
Platinum - Slicer Defender
Diamond - Slicer Protector
Ruby - Slicer General?

[irrevenant]

EDIT: Wasn't sure what colours you guys had in mind for the omega slicer, buyt here's a preliminary set of lines/flats. The colours are totally open to change - they're just there at the moment to show the distinction between the outlined areas.

Perhaps the Omega Slicer could be the only Slicer to be composed of multiple colours? That would gel with it being the only slicer not to have a colour-based name...

[EDIT] Which I've just read that you intend to get rid of. Pity, IMO...