Descent Into Darkness Campaign: Ghast Revision

[Stern]

Encouraged by my success with the Giant Rat project, I am now going to try and revise the "Ghast" unit one step at a time. The first step is to identify existing issues with the current Ghast and brainstorm possible animation/base frame improvements. Once we figured out different ideas for improving the Ghast, I can model the movements of the animation through blocking. Once blocking for the animation is complete, I can polish the Ghast until it reaches mainline standard.

I believe that the Ghast needs a revision for the following reasons:

Holes in the baseframe
Solid Black Outline
Shadow does not meet Mainline standards
As a level 3, the Ghast should look scarier or more powerful than the level 2 Necrophage

ghoulNecrophageGhastComparison.png (7.04 KiB) Viewed 6511 times

The animation is pretty short and does not do the character description justice.

Ghast Character Description:

"The ghast is a creature taken from humankind's most primal nightmares. Unlike their lesser cousins, ghouls and necrophages, ghasts are not patient enough to wait for their victim to die from poison before consuming the body. They attack directly with their enormous mouths, trying to rip the flesh straight from their foes. Once their enemy is defeated, they eat the rest of the body, gaining strength in the process."

ghast-animation.gif (5.23 KiB) Viewed 6511 times

I'd like to revise the Ghast so that it more closely matched the Necrophage while making it more powerful in appearance. My idea for an attack animation would be a lunge forward with a biting and twisting/shaking action. But before I animate, I'd like to hear some people's ideas for improving the current Ghast base frame.

[thespaceinvader]

It's been tried before, without much success. If you can work something out, that would be cool, but it would probably stay in DiD rather than going into core, I think.

http://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=22398 might interest you.

[Speedbrain]

First, I thought the Necrophage capped at level 2. What campaign uses this "ghast"?

Secondly, it doesn't look remotely close, in my opinion, to being the advancement of the Necrophage.
If you want to improve it, I would suggest making it fatter than the level 2. And taller. And scarier. It doesn't make sense to me that the level 2 is bigger than the level 1, then it shrinks.
Hmmm.

EDIT: TSI ninja'ed my first comment, so ignore that. Actually, his thread link nullifies my other comment, too. So forget I said anything.

[Telaron]

Hmm, in the animation it looks as if he is doing a dancing step while singing or eating something. Try to make it a little more aggressive looking. (The left foot moves not a pixel)

[artisticdude]

Stern is going to revise the Ghast, he's not looking for crit on the animation for it. I don't even think he created the animation...

I wholeheartedly endorse this project, BTW. That guy looks really out of place next to all the newer sprites.

[A-Red]

I know the Ghast's tags are included in DiD, but is it ever actually used? I recall AMLA-ing one of my necrophages about 5 times...

Not that it wouldn't be a cool unit to have for UMCs and whatnot.

[Darker_Dreams]

I know the Ghast's tags are included in DiD, but is it ever actually used? I recall AMLA-ing one of my necrophages about 5 times...

Not that it wouldn't be a cool unit to have for UMCs and whatnot.

It used to be, long ago. after a while of the lower level units having modern art and the ghast being... old art, it got pulled out. the current maintainer's said that they'd love to put it back in, but won't do so til it has new, quality, art.

[Stern]

I have read the thread posted by thespaceinvader. Darker_Dreams originally wanted to revise the Ghast. I respect this, and the hardwork that was done. If Darker_Dreams wants to begin working on the Ghast again, I would be happy to help out.

I have taken some of the ideas posted in Darker_Dreams' thread and built upon it using the developer's advice for designing the body around the mouth so that the transition from level 2 (small mouth) to level 3 (substantially toothier mouth) is smoother. I have tried to mimic the shape of the original Ghast's head somewhat to create a wide craggy grin for the rough draft of the Ghast.

The purpose of this rough draft is to simply define the form of the creature, and not the coloring. The shading/coloring is a work in progess and will be heavily refined later. Attached to this post is my rough draft, and the inspiration that I drew upon to create it. Tell me what you think.

[YaymeQ]

What if it walked on all fours? Like an ape does, because of it's big belly?
The attack could be a leaping bite with ravenously flailing(scratching/clawing/whatever) poisoned claws (It does have poison too right?) on long arms ...
Just a thought.

[Zerovirus]

I feel almost guilty semi-jacking this thread. But I might as well give you guys this, it's a finished version of Thrawn's really really really old design.

[thespaceinvader]

I think Zero's version is probably a goer, unless stern's one comes out looking significantly better.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

The purpose of this rough draft is to simply define the form of the creature, and not the coloring. The shading/coloring is a work in progess and will be heavily refined later.

I'm pretty sure we shouldn't be making such judgements based on what stern himself says is a very, very rough initial draft.

[Thrawn]

For what it's worth, that is *exactly* what I had in mind when I tried making it myself, zero

[Stern]

Very nice work Zero! I believe that it would be unwise for me to try and reinvent the wheel by finishing my rough draft of the Ghast. I think that we should take your base frame and move straight to animation.
I like your version of the Ghast because it sticks closely to the style of the original necrophage. The multiple heads/mouths erupting from its body and the Ghast's dynamic pose display how twisted the creature really is. It looks like it would be a lot of fun to animate. If people are interested, we can work together to block out and animate the Ghast. Because so many members of the Wesnoth Community have contributed in part to the Ghast, we could split up the tasks of creating the attack, defend, die and even an idle animation for the Ghast. Let me know how this sounds to you as I begin blocking out the attack animation.

[Speedbrain]

The funny thing is Zero, this might give you your blue name before your fish do.

I think the base frame looks great. Can't wait to see the animations from Stern and Zero.

*sits down with the rest of the gallery and grabs his bag of peanuts*