New Merman

[GunChleoc]

P.S. New name for the deapseefighter: treasure seeker?

Good idea *thumbsup*

The usual term for Satzsucher in English is treasure hunter though.

[pe_em]

Lvl 1 with shadows is the best one.
Is the ball of the lvl 2 - new weapon flying? It looks strange.

[SFault]

I like the sword more than bash weapon. It's more pirate-like.

The inner outlines look good. I do miss the mustache of the units (and yes, in my example I screwed up them too).

[Elvish_King]

The usual term for Satzsucher in English is treasure hunter though.

I know but the level two is named "Shellhunter" and it wouldn't sound good if the level 3 also is named hunter.

Is the ball of the lvl 2 - new weapon flying? It looks strange.

It is not flying, it is drawn with the same concpt like the morning star from the White Cleric.

I like the sword more than bash weapon. It's more pirate-like.
The inner outlines look good. I do miss the mustache of the units (and yes, in my example I screwed up them too).

Hmm...Maybe your right with the sword...Let's make another merman, a real tank unit.
The level 2 does have a mustache but level 1 hasn't, I'm going to add it.

[Elvish_King]

I tried to make a tank unit something like the Heavy Infantryman or the Wose but it didn't work well. Anyway, I post it because maybe you have some ideas.

The worst merman I ever made...

guardian.png (2.28 KiB) Viewed 5906 times

[Vyncyn]

I think the main problem is the different colour palette. It looks too bright in closeup.
The weapon choice is fitting for a heavy unit, but it's propably useless under water. Using his tail as a weapon might be the better option.

I replaced the colours with the ones of the merman fighter, so you could see it in comparison:

guardian.png (2.28 KiB) Viewed 5894 times

I also made some minor changes at the torso

guardian-new.png (1.67 KiB) Viewed 5894 times

[Varkarrus]

A Merman Berserker. Give it a Lesser Berserk ability that prolongs combat for 3 turns instead of 30.
Merman Mage that has a powerful secondary ranged attack that can only be used while in water.

[franz_mp]

Very nice and interesting graphics.

[Midnight_Carnival]

I got one!

Firstly, I don't see mermen fighters as "stand your ground blocker" types suited to figthing in armor or with heavy shields - just my personal view, but I think they'd rather used their agility and speed in the water to defend (by evading) than make themselves heavy and slow.

Personal preferences and ideas aside, I have a suggestion for your sprite.
Change the fish half!
I was thinking of an armored fish like a sturgeon, if you're cunning, you can make it so you're not sure where the armor ends and the merman starts, but big bony (or bony looking) plates on the tail part make more sense to me than huge shoulder pads (not very hydrodynamic).

As I said, just my feelings on the matter, hope you can get something helpful out of this.

[Elvish_King]

@Midnight_Carnival: ag very good idea but my realization is not good.
First, I tried to make the merman looking like you can see the bones through his skin but that was very very bad and I had not plan to improve it.
So, secondly I tried to make the bones real visible, it was better than my first try but it is far away from being acceptable, not even good. Although I post it because I don't know what do to with this ....

Looks like half skeleton, half strange fish...

thing.png (2.21 KiB) Viewed 5721 times

EDIT: I made an attack animtion for the diver, is it good/bad?

diver-attack.gif (5.12 KiB) Viewed 5680 times

[taptap]

Do yourself a favour and use the (dead water) brawlers for additional impact damage, they are really unique buff L1, resilient and AMLA'd (cheap on them) they can become as sturdy as some high-level units at only L1 cost. They have a special ability that makes all your other units more efficient - being able to break through ZoC with non-skirmishers is extremely powerful, even more so against human players who unlike AI are able to protect important units under normal circumstances.

You can also enrich the faction by "allied" creatures instead of filling all roles with merfolk. All single-player merfolk appearances come with one or more storm tridents, so I would look for a way to integrate them into play.

[Midnight_Carnival]

@Midnight_Carnival: ag very good idea but my realization is not good.
First, I tried to make the merman looking like you can see the bones through his skin but that was very very bad and I had not plan to improve it.
So, secondly I tried to make the bones real visible, it was better than my first try but it is far away from being acceptable, not even good. Although I post it because I don't know what do to with this ....

A 'boxier, carton-shaped' body with more back, thicker waist, more "Sydney opera house" on thet tail, tail itself a different shape, kind of like a shovel. I could draw you a sprite of what I mean, but I should first say that your ability far surpasses my own so it will be a 'sketch'...

Oh yes, and limpet shoulder pads, mermaid girls get all weak in the fins when they see those badass 'church of the new epoch meets sea quest' limpet shoulder pads.

[pe_em]

Diver is cool
But when I look at the last frame, I think it's too bright.

[Elvish_King]

I decided to come back to the merman because I wanted a lvl. 4 unit for each faction of my era. I decided to draw a lvl.4 hoplite because he is the weakest of the lvl.3 units (I think )
Here it is:

I took the shield from WaterEra

hoplit lvl.4.png (2.86 KiB) Viewed 5344 times

What do you think about him?

[Nikita_Sadkov]

What do you think about him?

Out of stupid curiosity I've added a contrast shadow where the shield overlaps body.