New Shyde.

[Kamahawk]

Yeah, much more insectoid now, but it could still look a little feathered if you didn't know exactly what the Shyde was supposed to look like.

[Quensul]

Hmmmm. While the pattern could possibly be made more insectile, the illusion of angel feathers has been next-to eliminated. I'm satisfied.

Hrm. I think any remaining angel-impression is a result of the spine running along the upper edge of the wing; making the wing more uniformly insectile (as the bottom two thirds is in the right-hand image) would probably eliminate any remaining featheriness. However, I don't think this is strictly necessary, and I have the artistic sensibilities of a drunken gnat, so this should perhaps be taken with a bucket of salt.

[Jetrel]

Ok, given the comments, I think that's about it for revisions to the base frame. I'll slowly start in on the animations.

I'll remake* the existing ones, commit, and then I think I'll add some new ones for the ranged attacks. What would be really cool, would be to make multiple, different animations for the thorns attack, which would be used randomly.

Hell, I could even add some directional animations - why not?

In the interim between finishing the old and adding the new, I'll kill the existing ranged frame, and tell the cfg file to use the standing frame.
When I do-over the druid, which will not nearly be so invasive, I will add new ranged frames for her, too.


Now that the new base graphic has been established, though, I think I'm going to step aside for a moment and have a look at some of the stuff shadow/disto made for the spearmen and such - the unit height corrections.

Then, I think I'll make the long-awaited directional frames for these guys. It's about time, really.

Given the tests I have this week, I probably won't get to that till the weekend.

( *remake meaning NOT make them over from scratch, so I should be able to do that in one night. )

[Jetrel]

All the old frames, except for the ranged frame (for reasons aforementioned), have been remade.

I will disable the ranged frame, and commit them.
I don't have time to commit now, though - later today.

[Jetrel]

New shyde is Committed - the unit uses one of the faerie-touch frames for the ranged frames, which works fine.

The druid and shaman could use the face reworking these ladies recieved, as well as some recoloration, and hair rearrangement for the druid.


Sometime soon, I should split the sylph line ... possibly before next release, but I would not do so without talking to dave, first.

The sorceress will get some severe changes to her appearance, but, besides changes to the hair and wings, the enchantress and sylph will get few changes.

Most notably, what will really change about these units is their purpose. Rather than being a split of the current (wood) elves' healer unit for magical damage, they will be the equivalent of the shyde/shaman line for the high elves.

Each will be bumped down a level, each will gain the parallel healing capabilities (heals at L1, cures at L2 & L3). They will all lose the entangle attack, and will instead be damage-focused.

The high elves are something I've really been *wanting* to do, as compared with a lot of the work I've been doing now, which I feel obligated to do. I would enjoy working on them much more.

[Breeblebox]

Just a question out of interest. Are the Elves as we know them to be split into two new factions, or is the idea simply to expand the possibilities for campaign storylines. What would be the split (unitwise) if this is the case?

[Jetrel]

Just a question out of interest. Are the Elves as we know them to be split into two new factions, or is the idea simply to expand the possibilities for campaign storylines. What would be the split (unitwise) if this is the case?

The only ones that are leaving the current faction are the Sorceress line.

The rest of the high-elven faction will be made up by a slew of new units.
It would probably be silly not to put them in multi as a faction.

These elves would have an obvious use in HttT, as the northern elves.
We would switch to using high-elven units, rather than the current elven units.

In fact, I personally want to make a campaign detailing the elven side of the battle in the events surrounding HttT.

Their unit list goes something like this:
They have some of the best cavalry in the game, outpacing even the loyalists, though they are all neutral, and thus don't get the bonus for lawful which loyalist cavalry can well exploit.
They have fairly good archers, and their footmen are composed of spearmen.
Notably, though their spearmen have several branches, their archer have only one line, though it is a good one. However, they have good horse archers, which no one else does (the wood elves should, but some of the other developers have been a bit slow to give the level-3 outrider some decent hitting power).

As a faction, they are characterized by the following:
Their units are all expensive, and hard to level, but are, relatively speaking, very powerful. High elves do ok in forest - better than loyalists, but not quite as good as wood elves. High elves do very well in plains and open ground - places where wood elves feel rather vulnerable. High elves also suck in caves - elves in general just don't like being away from the open sky.

[scott]

Elvish drakes?

[Jetrel]

Elvish drakes?

Uhm... more like Elvish Loyalists, really, except more expensive/powerful per-unit, all neutral, and healing at level-1.


The huge difference between them and drakes would be that they get at least 40% defense on most terrains, sometimes up to 70%.

But yeah, the whole "expensive & powerful" thing makes them kinda like Drakes and Dwarves..

[romnajin]

Distos horse archer

[Jetrel]

Distos horse archer

Actually, almost all the units are done, they're just not animated.
And they look way-the-hell different than our current elves.

Disto's horse archer will never be used (in the official distro, at least) because it is just an elvish rider with the blade moved around (and a bow tossed behind it). That wouldn't have cut it even back in the old days, when most of our elves were just clones of the same basic fighter sprite.

In fact, it is to his discredit, in my eyes, that he uses that as his avatar.

Disto has been doing better work since then - his separate suggestion for a high-elven horse ... unit (probably cavalry) might have a use in the regular elven faction as a branch for the rider line.

I wish he would use that as his avatar, since that's actually a legitimate piece of original work.

[quartex]

Good luck with the high elves, they look like a really cool faction. I can't wait to see them in action.

[Disto]

Well if it actually got used it the game i probably would, so far out of what i have managed to get in, i have made no units so if one image i had made got used then i would change it, but i did do quite alot to change the horse archer.

[Monkey]

The idea of an elvish rider, that has better attacks, but less scouting skill, that will act like a fighter on horse for the elves, and is a second level up to the elvish scout, is a good idea.