IDEA: Units to look damaged when on low hp.

Dragon Master · Post by **Dragon Master** » May 7th, 2006, 3:10 pm

Ignoring the fact that art is not made for this, is it possible to make units that look weaker the less health they have? I wouldn't expect a spearman with 1-7 hp to stand tall like he's fine. This could be quite interesting as you could make units show wounds and exhaustion when they loose health.

CuddleFish · Post by **CuddleFish** » May 7th, 2006, 4:52 pm

nah... cramming graphics into wesnoth won't improve gameplay....
plus the file size would end up like 300MB..
plus.. artists dont work very fast when they're not paid

Dragon Master · Post by **Dragon Master** » May 7th, 2006, 6:39 pm

1. Your first statement is wrong, it CAN improve gameplay as you can now see which units are weak/about to die with a quick glance.
2. What does file size have to do with this?
3. What does an artist's speed have to do with making pictures? I would be willing to wait a few months if this could be implemented.

And lastly, you didn't even answer my question at all cuddlefish. I never even saw a definite "yes" or "no". "nah" is not an appropriate answer. makes it sound like you put no thought into your arguement.

Stilgar · Post by **Stilgar** » May 7th, 2006, 6:47 pm

Dragon Master wrote:1. Your first statement is wrong, it CAN improve gameplay as you can now see which units are weak/about to die with a quick glance.

What about seeing that their health bar is red? Do you just think that having a different graphic is easier to see than the health bar?

With that out of the way, I don't think this is a bad idea, but as you said, it's something you would have to wait for. As it is, not all the units even have graphics for everything that's supported now, like team color and death animations, let alone any new feature. It might be nice to have at a later time, but finishing what's already started comes first.

Of course there is also the issue of how to show a unit as "wounded" without violating the policies on violent graphics, but I don't think this would be much of a problem, you could show the unit with a slumped and "tired" posture.

kiet · Post by **kiet** » May 7th, 2006, 6:55 pm

I like DMs idea,it would be great to see when the unit is really wounded and exausted.And actually,I donÃ‚Â´t care about if it take 300 MBs or 3 GBs.Although cuddlefish was right about one thing.It would take a very long time for the artist to make the pictures for over 200 units.

Flametrooper · Post by **Flametrooper** » May 7th, 2006, 7:01 pm

You could even have wounded units fight worse...it's odd isn't it how a spearman with 1 HP left can still do his full damage potential, you'd expect him to be so badly hurt he could barely lift his spear. (Of course this would never happen in mainline, but if someone wanted to do this in a user-made scenario/campaign/faction it would own.)

Stilgar · Post by **Stilgar** » May 7th, 2006, 8:01 pm

Flametrooper wrote:You could even have wounded units fight worse...it's odd isn't it how a spearman with 1 HP left can still do his full damage potential, you'd expect him to be so badly hurt he could barely lift his spear. (Of course this would never happen in mainline, but if someone wanted to do this in a user-made scenario/campaign/faction it would own.)

Actually, the Cuttlefish in mainline has something like this in the development version, as it becomes more wounded it gets lets strikes.

Post by **Boucman** » May 7th, 2006, 8:36 pm

I intend to add this to the engine quite soon...
the code side, that is.

since that's a whole lot of art, I don't expect it to be used that much...

Post by **Zhukov** » May 7th, 2006, 9:27 pm

Well DM, that's a whole crapload of work you are talking about. Looks like you better get drawing.

I *hate* it when people propose things without realising how much work is involved.

Post by **irrevenant** » May 7th, 2006, 9:43 pm

CuddleFish wrote:nah... cramming graphics into wesnoth won't improve gameplay...

Hmm, good point. I'll let them know to stop work on the animations immediately.

Like Dave once said (paraphrasing); It's not up to us to say that an idea is too much work; the Devs can decide for themselves whether they want to invest the required time and effort to implement a suggestion.

JW · Post by JW » May 7th, 2006, 11:51 pm

I like the idea. Too bad it will take forever to get graphics for it. Props to Boucman for working on the code side of the idea.

Dragon Master · Post by **Dragon Master** » May 8th, 2006, 12:40 am

All of this really makes me wish I had a graphics tablet. I'm not that good at spriting with a mouse.

Disto · Post by **Disto** » May 8th, 2006, 8:51 am

Dragon Master wrote: 3. What does an artist's speed have to do with making pictures? I would be willing to wait a few months if this could be implemented.

I was thinking years, do you have any idea how much art Wesnoth is lacking already, plus the new Tcolour which is happening.

Dragon Master wrote:All of this really makes me wish I had a graphics tablet. I'm not that good at spriting with a mouse.

Have you tried spriting with a graphics tablet? It probably won't make much difference except perhaps make it slightly longer. The ONLY thing Jetryl uses his mouse for IS spriting

, does that tell you something.

Post by **irrevenant** » May 8th, 2006, 9:44 am

Disto wrote:
Dragon Master wrote: 3. What does an artist's speed have to do with making pictures? I would be willing to wait a few months if this could be implemented.
I was thinking years, do you have any idea how much art Wesnoth is lacking already, plus the new Tcolour which is happening.

Maybe it'll take years. That's cool: Wesnoth has been around for years, and I expect it to be around for years to come.

OTOH, Wesnoth seems to be gaining momentum on the artist front, so who knows?

It should be noted that, while those links showcase the work of some of Wesnoth's new artists, the skills of some long-time forum members have also improved significantly over time.

Disto · Post by **Disto** » May 8th, 2006, 10:20 am

irrevenant wrote:
Disto wrote: I was thinking years, do you have any idea how much art Wesnoth is lacking already, plus the new Tcolour which is happening.
Maybe it'll take years. That's cool: Wesnoth has been around for years, and I expect it to be around for years to come.

OTOH, Wesnoth seems to be gaining momentum on the artist front, so who knows?

It should be noted that, while those links showcase the work of some of Wesnoth's new artists, the skills of some long-time forum members have also improved significantly over time.

But on the other hand, new artists seem to come and and go, Johann did 5?? story images, Jorgumandr did like 8 portraits, but neither of them seem to still be around. Jetryl is the only real person here who sees it all through. What we need is more people who'll stay attached to the project rather then leaving. I don't blame them for leaving though.