The ghosts of flame wars past

[Jetrel]

no really. Work continues - I redid the body of my previous shadow (which is included for reference). The colors are actually similar to the spectre/nightgaunt now, though we shouldn't have any serious unit differentiation issues seeing as how they have these big glowing swords in their images, and the shadows/nightgaunts don't.


Hopefully, if dave irons the bugs out of the defend animation code (or shows us how to use it right), we can have some really cool, and previously unseen tricks in the defend animations.

That can wait, though - I have a number of things left to do, in making the normal animations.

For one thing, the scream attack will have projectiles which look much more like sound waves, rather than the same old lich-ball they currently toss around.

[Circon]

Boo. I liked the old blue shadow with claws. This graphic looks sorta dirty. The Nightgaunt really did/does need a remake, I'll give you that.

[turin]

Looks good, but i'm not sure if it would work for the shadow, seeing how close it is to the wraith. my concern is people will think it is a downgrade of the wraith, since they look very similar except one has a sword.

[Shadow]

I have originally made this one for other purposes but perhaps it can be used for a Shadow.

[Elvish_Pillager]

I have originally made this one for other purposes but perhaps it can be used for a Shadow.

The last time we discussed Shadow images, the entire thread was bogged down by loads of different suggestions, and everybody was either ignoring or speaking badly of everybody else's suggestions. Please try to keep this from happening again.

If you *really* want to suggest that image, please start your own thread instead of sticking it in this one.

[Shadow]

The last time we discussed Shadow images, the entire thread was bogged down by loads of different suggestions, and everybody was either ignoring or speaking badly of everybody else's suggestions. Please try to keep this from happening again.

If you *really* want to suggest that image, please start your own thread instead of sticking it in this one.

OK no problem I won´t add here any pictures, it was only a suggestion to the discussion.

[Circon]

I'm not sure if it would work for the shadow, seeing how close it is to the wraith.

Like I said, keep the blue shading. Not all spirits must be half-transparent grey. That gets boo-ring, even if the undead are meant to be spooky rather than flashy. Those soulless eye slits on the current Shadow kinda caught my attention the first time I saw them in-game.

[sanna]

No, I am sorry. I don't really like any of these suggested Shadow replacements.

While I can see what you are getting at by making it more 'whispy', and you are right that the glowing swords do make it quite easy to tell them apart from the spectre/nightgaunt, they do have the exact same character as those units.

The current Shadow has a unique character, which makes it interesting. That uniqueness is totally lost in these proposals.

I would much rather keep the current graphic, than have it replaced by any of these.

[Jetrel]

I'm not sure if it would work for the shadow, seeing how close it is to the wraith.

Like I said, keep the blue shading. Not all spirits must be half-transparent grey. That gets boo-ring, even if the undead are meant to be spooky rather than flashy. Those soulless eye slits on the current Shadow kinda caught my attention the first time I saw them in-game.

"First get your facts straight, then you can manipulate them all you want." - Mark Twain

None of the ghosts are transparent grey. The spectre and nighgaunt are almost half translucent GREEN.

Given the comments of you and sanna, I think I am going to downplay the skull face, and vastly enhance the eyes of this fellow. Also, I will take a swing at shifting what coloration he has to blue.

Subtlety is lost on you people. Keep in mind that, despite my considerable skill at coding, I don't run around telling you how to do your jobs on this project.

[scott]

Subtlety is lost on you people.

Pearls before swine. I still get nightmares from the glowing eye claw attack of the old version.

Keep in mind that, despite my considerable skill at coding, I don't run around telling you how to do your jobs on this project.

This begs the question as to why the thread exists.

[Ayin]

Subtlety is lost on you people. Keep in mind that, despite my considerable skill at coding, I don't run around telling you how to do your jobs on this project.

... your point being?

[Jetrel]

Pearls before swine. I still get nightmares from the glowing eye claw attack of the old version.

oh, it's still there

This begs the question as to why the thread exists.

Simply, I do want to hear any concerns of theirs, and at least attempt to rectify what they do not want. This will never be done in such a way that I think compromises the artistic integrity of the work in question, but that still leaves quite a swath of changes I can still make.

Dave trusts my judgement on artistic matters and has given me a good bit of leeway in decision-making, but I am quite hesitant to exercise this. This has benefits on both sides of the issue - for those who don't agree with my style, I try to craft what I do to their liking, for those in my camp, the often multiple revisions of something controversial allow me to refine it several times over.

Despite how I [censored], I really do put a damn lot of work into trying to make people happy - who else in their right mind would NOT commit the second try at revision of the elven graphics after they had spent 13 hours of a sleepless night and skipped homework to make them?

Good heavens - that's insane. I'm not getting paid for this. Yet somehow, I am willing to do it, mop up all the insults, hate, and ill will, and try again.


The bright side is, though that this hideous process results in my doing a much better job on the graphics than I would if I were doing them based purely on my own judgment. Not only that, in getting a taste of how your wild minds work, it improves my own judgment. This shadow's new body is the result of that. I kept all that was good, and tossed all I had made mistakes on (mostly construction of the body, and shading).

-------------------------------

SO, here is a new, and hopefully final version. I have a in-game screenshot, which should help you better visualize what the unit looks like in-game. It may look way different than you expected.

The above png may have confused you, because no one else uses alpha channels quite like I do. Heck - sometimes I anti-alias bits of units by hand (mermaids, for one).

The nice, and curious, thing is that this new shadow almost seems to conjure up the shape of the old. You can almost see him in there. (It does help that his coloration is now blue, like the old one.)

[freim]

This last one is very good imo. It's differentiated enough from the others, but still has the same style as it should.

[Circon]

Ooh... blue, tentacle bottom, claws... Looks great. Now I have a minor pet peeve, that the claws seem to be on very short arms, but no doubt they'll be extended further from the body during the attack animation.

EDIT: At second look, I saw the sleeve on the left arm. A bit indistinct, but good.

[turin]

looks good enough to commit, IMHO, unless someone has a serious objection...

ghost needs work now.