The new Wesnoth logo and the Loyalist sigil

[Turuk]

Left middle personally, nothing else particularly strikes me as a gemstone upon first glance, except perhaps the one above it but then the color pattern still makes it seem a bit odd.

[thespaceinvader]

Top and middle left personally, though middle is probably better than top. I have to say that i prefer the current look over any of them though...

And yeah the wood thing - i don't see much issue with the grain being raised over the rest - it would be harder and wear less compared to the softer less dense bits. But it would all be at the same level. The current texture seems to go down in a bowl shape:

\____/\____/\_____/ normal grain

\_____.............................................._______/ your version.
..........\_______..................________/
.......................\_________/

See what I mean?

[kitty]

hmm, i find the gems hard to judge without their context. that's what i meant in my last post about keeping the whole pictue/sign in mind not only the singular detail.

[Sgt. Groovy]

You're right, of course, so brace yourself, here they come:

[Cuyo Quiz]

I'd go with lower left. The white fields deliver better the idea of brightness and the shapes make it look bigger.

"...playing with a ruby the size of a tangerine"

EDIT: For that matter, number 3 is also good.

[JW]

I say the 7th or 9th out of the 10. The top row reminds me too much of Bejewled.

...actually #4 is okay too.

[TL]

The sun imagery evoked by the bottom row is a nice effect but the 2-color rendering doesn't make it look very gemlike. My vote's for #4.

[thespaceinvader]

I honestly still prefer the original version with the hexagonal ruby - in these the ruby doesn't look like it's really attached to the sceptre.

Redesigning the fire so that it doesn't have the circularness would, IMO, be preferable to redesigning the ruby.

If you forced me to pick I'd take the first one I think, or the fourth one.

[Turuk]

I have to agree with TSI, I thought the idea of having the ruby seen from a side view was still available as a line of thought, such as you did in this image?

[Sgt. Groovy]

I haven't trashed the original, I'm just surveying alternatives. Sometimes the only way to know if some way is a dead end is to walk it to the end.

Few more:

[tsr]

Do you mind posting the svg (pref for the version Turuk posted, but any with that circular fire is fine), I have an idea for the fire that I'd like to try out...

/tsr

[Simons Mith]

[Late gem preference] From the set of 10 octagonal versions, I strongly prefer #2 or #3 becuase 1) they're the two that look most like cut gems to me (to my eye, the other facet patterns don't look convincing as actual facet patterns) and 2) they're the only two octagonal patterns that I find convincing as side views. At best, the others all look like top-down views on a gem, so it seems odd to me to see them from a side-on position.

[Sgt. Groovy]

The SVG:

[tsr]

Thanks, here is my shot at a less circular fire. More as an idea than anything else...

I intended the fire to 'lick' the ruby

sceptry.png (8.43 KiB) Viewed 3965 times

/tsr

[Sgt. Groovy]

I appreciate your effort, but I'm afraid the added complexity is starting to add Rorschach inkblot-like qualities to the fire. I see a bat-like figure in there and it makes it look "diabolical." Also, I fail to see what the stud on top of the ruby is supposed to a achieve.