Aura's Sprite Realm - New 23/1/10, Amazon Spearwoman

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StDrake
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm - New 12/9/09, Pirates

Post by StDrake »

there's a stray spike of black pixels on the harpooners shoulder pad, doesn't look intended. Is the ship monkey supposed to look infested? those single black pixels look like..iunno flies? fleas? looks more like intended :)
aside for that those are pretty flawless to my eye, lets see what experts say
well ok one thing - most of them don't look very piratey
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Aura
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm - New 12/9/09, Pirates

Post by Aura »

Yeah, the ship ape came like that from the graphics section (I added the team color bands though) and it helps it look more like an upgrade. I'm going to add some stuff to it and I've made it a new color (the gold looked a bit silly). I fixed the shoulder pad on the harpooner.

Why don't they look like pirates ? They have pirate hats and stuff (apart from the border line).

I've also made a swordsman line with leadership.

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solsword
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm - New 12/9/09, Pirates

Post by solsword »

Some random comments (I haven't read this whole thread, so I apologize if I miss something...):

1. Border -> Boarder. (the edge between two things -> one who boards, e.g. a ship). Also, you'd expect a boarder to wield a sword, not a bow, as they'd presumably be on the front lines of the fight. Perhaps another name entirely for this unit, such as Bowman or Archer? (Admittedly those are too generic. I can't seem to think of anything good at the moment).

2. I think the pirate hats should have a more distinct brim. Right now they look almost like wild hair, and even if you're seeing them as hats, they just look like one big dome. Maybe put a darker line at the edge of the brim (where it's in front of the rest of the hat) and clean up the pixels at the right a tiny bit? References:

http://images.google.com/images?q=three-cornered%20hat

3. The stuff on the ship ape makes him look mangy, but in a weakened or sick sort of way. The color change is good, but I might reverse it (brown for the presumably younger unit, silver for the older one). For differentiation, I might try to make the head and back of the younger monkey a few pixels smaller, although I'm not sure that it would look good. But if the younger one were skinnier, the skinny->buff transition would make a good distinction, I think.

4. The metal balls on the Harpooner and Impaler's weapons are way too big. They're also not something you'd use on an actual harpoon, which needs to travel smoothly through water. If you're up for it, the characteristic hook or barb for the harpoon tips might also be nice, as those harpoons are pretty spear-like at the moment. You could also give the Crewman a sword, to make the Harpooner's weapon relatively more unique. Finally, I think that the L2->L3 differences for the captain and the impaler are a *tiny* bit too subtle. One easy solution would be to add feathers (probably TC'd) to their hats.

Sorry for the load of criticisms... I'd also like to offer some encouragement: these sprites look really pretty good. Also, don't worry about them not looking piratey: they have a modicum of piratey looks, and so if they're used aboard a ship, they'll be obviously piratanical. Plus, pirates from the middle ages really didn't look very piratey in the modern sense.
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kyi_the_bard
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm - New 12/9/09, Pirates

Post by kyi_the_bard »

solsword wrote: 1. Border -> Boarder. (the edge between two things -> one who boards, e.g. a ship). Also, you'd expect a boarder to wield a sword, not a bow, as they'd presumably be on the front lines of the fight. Perhaps another name entirely for this unit, such as Bowman or Archer? (Admittedly those are too generic. I can't seem to think of anything good at the moment).
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solsword
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm - New 12/9/09, Pirates

Post by solsword »

Yeah, that's a good idea. Spotter (or even just Lookout) works well for the L1 archer.
The Knights of the Silver Spire campaign.

http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~pmawhorter - my website.

Teamcolors for everyone! PM me for a teamcolored version of your sprite, or you can do it yourself. If you just happen to like magenta, no hard feelings?
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Antonius
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm - New 12/9/09, Pirates

Post by Antonius »

I would love to code these factions! I've been coding for Wesnoth(personally) since I started playing, and would love to tackle a real challenge. If it is alright, I shall begin immeaditly.
P.S. Sorry for the bad spelling :oops: ...
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StDrake
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm - New 12/9/09, Pirates

Post by StDrake »

to antonius above - if you want a challenge see if you can solve the problems i have with abilities to my felinians (posted in the wml workshop)

comming back to pirates and why they don't look piratey
1)armor..heavy armor on the sea? bit of a deathwish. I can understand that maybe some troopers intended for unloading might be well armored, but navals would be wiser to wear light things that don't obstruct movement and don't pull you way down to the bottom of the sea if you trip overboard
2)hats - the crewman is ok, not all the crew has to wear something, i see a band over his hair there, that's ok, but the usual image of a pirate rather wears a headkerchief/bandana covering all hair and the higher class - tricorn hats like solsword mentionned
3) spears? ok for harpoons but i gotta agree with sol again that those don't look very harpoony, they're still spears. I don't see the big balls on the ends as a big problem, yeah maybe not very realistic, but a fun design idea.

The captain deserves a very distinctive hat indeed, though i can't agree that the difference between him and the impaler is delicate, the weapon and cloak make a big difference for me.
Like cats? I've made a whole faction of them to kick ass with!
Don't like cats? I've made a whole faction of them to kick their asses! So everyone's happy :)
Felinian faction is part of the Beyond Southern Hells era
kitties need sprites! art topic here
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Aura
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm - New 12/9/09, Pirates

Post by Aura »

If you want to code some of the factions, sure, go ahead :)

I've made some edits based on the comments (changed the Lv 1 Monkey, fixed the hats, gave the crewman a bandana, barbed the harpoons, renamed the Border). I'll probably add feathers to the sword guys next update. I'll leave the monkey mangey for now, unless anyone else thinks it should be edited out.

Next up will be a female pirate spellcaster tree or maybe a ghost pirate line.

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StDrake
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm - New 12/9/09, Pirates

Post by StDrake »

keep the mangy ape, very climatic :)
Like cats? I've made a whole faction of them to kick ass with!
Don't like cats? I've made a whole faction of them to kick their asses! So everyone's happy :)
Felinian faction is part of the Beyond Southern Hells era
kitties need sprites! art topic here
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm - New 12/9/09, Pirates

Post by kyi_the_bard »

Aura wrote: female pirate spellcaster
I don't know about a spellcaster for pirates... now if she had a kiss of death (poison on her lips), and was called a Siren, because of the way she can get people to kiss her, then I'd be okay with that.

Or as a branch...
Aura wrote: ghost pirate line.
That would be awesomazing.
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Aura
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm - New 12/9/09, Pirates

Post by Aura »

Yeah, I was intending a kind of Siren (maybe with a charm ability, or as you suggested a kiss attack).

Anyway, two new units, the Enchantress (a quick edit) and the Drowned Spirit.

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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm - New 13/9/09, More Pirates

Post by Gambit »

I love the harpooner and impaler :shock:
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Aura
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm - New 13/9/09, More Pirates

Post by Aura »

I think Neo made them originally, those are probably the two least edited ones (although I do have some more to do to them). I agree, they look awesome :)
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wesfreak
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm - New 13/9/09, More Pirates

Post by wesfreak »

there is a skeletal pirate hoard, u know.

all of the pirate pics look fine to me. a few suggestions:

give the lvl monkey a dagger or something. partly because there aren't enough differences between them, partly because a monkey would be smart enough to weild one.

I don't think pirates actually had monkeys on board, but they did actually have cats to keep away the mice and rats (well, sailors did, anyways). possibility for a lvl 0 skirmisher there?
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Antonius
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm - New 13/9/09, More Pirates

Post by Antonius »

For coding, it would be helpful for me to finish the desert faction cfg if you took the sprites from the evolution sheet to the regular 72x72 Format and zipped it. Thanks!
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