Mouse Army

[shadoemonkee]

So, I made a mouse army, my scripter is hard at work with the WML at the moment.

What do people think?

[artisticdude]

Hmm, these are pretty good. I'm sure someone more experienced can give you better advice, but my only comment is that some of the sprites have pretty thick tails, which doesn't work on a mouse.

[StDrake]

they're quite nonuniform, each one a different head and everything, not all looking mousey, but all looking neat
wondering how they're going to behave ingame
any fluff for them as well?

[Cloud]

Very nice for scratch built sprites. Personally I'd avoid 90 degree angles, they never look good in these sorts of sprites. The mallets don't look cylindrical, but I feel your pain on those, that sort of fine detail at such a small scale is an absolute b**** to get right.

That's all I can spot myself, others with a better eye for detail might spot other issues. But those aside, shaping up nicely

[Frogger5]

The only think I noticed was that the blue cape's ripples are straight while the rest of the cape is curved.

[someone]

These guys just make me smile

[shadoemonkee]

Yeah, seems some of the mice's tails are a bit thick, I think it's because I was trying to outline them to make them more Wesnothy. Will try and emulate the way I did the thinner ones. I can try drawing perfect cylinders at the correct angle on a blown up sprite at some point, but yeah, fancy angles and limited pixels to work with lead to something that needs a few revisions to get right.

Which sprites in particular was it that were suffering from 90° angles the most?
Oh to tell me that you need something to refer to... and I didn't give them any names -

Provisionally, top to bottom through the levels (ie. the various columns).

Spoiler:

0)Mouse (assume everything from here down is prefixed with Mouse)

1)Combatant
1)Scholar

2)Fighter
2)Dandy
2)Mage
2)Monk

3)Warrior
3)Abbot

I'll post up some fixed up ones in a bit, but am trying to get through 1st draft standing frames for all my planned units before I go back and revise - am working on the badger line at the moment.

Oh, by fluff I assume you mean some sort of background culture/story for this merry band of mice? It's in the works, but the general idea is they're the 50th generation or so ancestors of abandoned wizard's familiars, who started an (until recently) undiscovered civilization in the middle of a forest.

Will post up next pics when I'm done

[revenant]

I don't think that any of them look to much like mice. Just try to make them more realistic.

[artisticdude]

I don't think that any of them look to much like mice. Just try to make them more realistic.

Why? How? Posts that say 'this-doesn't-look-nice-(please)-change-it' don't help anyone. Give some meaningful advice.

[styles1005]

When I read the title, I immediately thought, "Redwall." This was further reinforced by the fluff and having a Mouse Abbot as a level 3 unit, and even further when you talked about a badger line. I can even identify some of them by name . Anyway, on topic, good art. Not mainline quality, but not much to complain about.

[em3]

There were already some mouse units for the Lunar Alliance.

http://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php ... 84#p318984

They look even more Redwall-ish.

EDIT: On the other hand, the creator (Melon) apparently vanished..-

[StDrake]

you could probably use the heads from lunar then, they look very mousey and would let you concentrate on poses instead of "why the heck two mice don't look even a tiny bit similar"

[styles1005]

You're right, those other ones look even more Redwall-like. But I think the main reason for that is higher general quality.

[shadoemonkee]

Sorry, i got busy with a lot of research recently and forgot about my mice for a bit, I'd made some squirrels and badgers over christmas break too, and forgot to post :

Yes, redwall is obviously an influence (they're in a folder called rednoth on my computer ), I think any mention of a talking mouse that fights and you can't avoid it, however there is other literature about familes of talking mice that live in churches as well, I'm not sure I can remember the names, but I remember them from when I was younger, so it's not hard to find multiple sources of inspiration for my "work" (I use the term loosely). I'm not sure how the fluff helps towards the redwall impression, besides the fact that it's a forest... but then I don't remember the exact creationism story of redwall. Point is, if developed, there's a lot of room for moving away from these influences into new and interesting realms of expression.

Reason for difference in heads can be considered as an exercise in brainstorming, I tried to draw each head fresh without looking at the others, and later on in the process if I like one in particular I can use it as a stronger influence - I thought of these more of a first revision, and just wanted to get everything made and playable. The current version of them is reasonably fun to play, the abbots are killing machines with a light heal, and pretty much the flavour of the faction as it stands, but the "inspiring, slow and sturdy" badgers with the "stealthy, quick and killed in one hit" squirrels adds some variety, albeit riddled with cliché ...

The lunar alliance mouse heads are okay, but I think they'd look strange if I copy pasted them onto mine (feel free to prove my wrong). I'm happier to stick with my own for my own purposes, but of course anyone is free to slice up and reassemble the sprites I've posted here in their own particular vision.

My ideas for names of the squirrels and badgers are:
Squirrel - Squirrel Operative - Squirrel Spook
Badger - Badger Lord - Badger King - Badger Emperor

The reason for the badgers names is more a clever way the mice thought of to keep them in line, they basically use them as a meatshield to hide behind and effective labour force, but they noticed if they dressed them in fancy armour and gave them nice sounding titles, they were a lot less prone towards argument.

Enjoy, I'll check back in in a few months maybe, if I get a chance to take a break for Summer...

[Speedbrain]

I really like the Badger line. They are truly fearsome looking, especially the emporer.

The squirrels don't look quite right. I am not an artist, by any means, but I think perhaps making the tail...fluffier?... might make it look better.

Sorry if that is not helpful. I like your rednoth faction so far.