Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

[zookeeper]

Just a question: when are they going to be included into the game?

Probably as soon as all the necessary base frames are done. The old character portraits will work just fine until the new ones are finished so we don't need to wait for the portraits to be done first, but not all of the new units can even temporarily use old sprites and my current placeholders aren't good enough for a release version.

I'm hoping we'll get them in the next development release, or at least no later than the following one, so we can have the rest of the development cycle for re-balancing and ironing out whatever issues remain.

[Wussel]

That would be awesome!

Giving it some thought I actually like the butt ugly face of Eloh. Since she is actually not a goddess but a kind of monster hungry for power. So an ugly face would be an early hint. Real gods and goddesses have to be beautiful for sure (at least in Hollywood).

[Celtic_Minstrel]

Real gods and goddesses have to be beautiful for sure

Eh, that really depends what they're a god or goddess of, you know. A trickster deity wouldn't have to be beautiful (though it's fairly likely that it would be anyway), and it wouldn't be at all surprising for a war deity to be ugly.

I don't know the storyline of UtBS, but based on what you said just now it does sound like some level of "ugliness" might be appropriate for Eloh. Something along the lines of angels as implied by scripture (as opposed to popular representations of them) – they may or may not be "beautiful", but there is also something frightening, unsettling, otherworldly about their presence/appearance, enough so that the first thing they say when appearing to humans is "don't be afraid". I feel that the portrait in the second post already does this to some extent (mainly in the eyes, or perhaps the face as a whole), but it could perhaps be emphasized more, if that's the feeling you want to evoke.

[Flameslash]

I had a go at a sprite for Kaleh based on the portrait. I'm not sure if it's any good, but maybe it might be good enough, even if just for a placeholder?

[vultraz]

I had a go at a sprite for Kaleh based on the portrait. I'm not sure if it's any good, but maybe it might be good enough, even if just for a placeholder?

Thanks, but Jetrel is already working on new sprites based on the portraits.

[Flameslash]

I had a go at a sprite for Kaleh based on the portrait. I'm not sure if it's any good, but maybe it might be good enough, even if just for a placeholder?

Thanks, but Jetrel is already working on new sprites based on the portraits.

Okay, I didn't know that.

[Gyra_Solune]

I must ask, is this faction a proposed one to be added to the default MP eras? I can see why adding two desert factions in a row might be seen as weird, but these guys are all really cool and I can see them working in that environment.

Though I mostly say this as a primary proponent of multiplayer and the mainline factions thereof being increased.

[zookeeper]

I must ask, is this faction a proposed one to be added to the default MP eras? I can see why adding two desert factions in a row might be seen as weird, but these guys are all really cool and I can see them working in that environment.

No, considering they're firstly possibly thousands of years apart timeline-wise, and secondly not designed with multiplayer in mind at all. There's only 4 recruitables, no swimmers or flyers, etc. It wouldn't work against any existing multiplayer factions at all.

To get these to mainline multiplayer in some form, the best bet would probably be if someone created a specific (story-oriented?) multiplayer scenario where they could be played against those default factions (or subsets of them) which would best fit the setting (orcs, drakes, knalgans, khalifate, undead... so most of them I guess).

[Gyra_Solune]

I hadn't really considered the MP eras needing to deal with timeline things, considering that's the 'this is a video game' mode of it, but I guess it is all sort of meant to be a bit semi-coherent. And well, the regular elves only have four actual elvish recruits too, but are rounded off with some extras, and it is not actually all that often that a faction in a scenario exactly matches that of an MP one: so far the only such one I've encountered is Descent into Darkness. Maybe desert elves are where the mermaids should go? It'd also be sort of fitting if they had the scorpions too, though I'd imagine preferably there be some leveling to that scorpion. It's not like they need flyers though, usually a fast cavalry type suffices for numerous factions, I imagine in this case the mounted guy would serve the same role.

[zookeeper]

Default era balance is very delicate and it's basically out of the question to have these in there. An alternate era is possible, but there are no such plans at the moment.

[Wussel]

You could just make a standard + desert elves MP and load it onto the server. Maybe somebody will use it. Should be a nice exercise to get started.

Is the Lord being paid enough? Never seen commissioned work with such a lead time.

[Scaramush]

Hello. I have a question: are theese new sprites will swarthy and with non-blond hair or u will leave it with old features? Thx for the answer.

[Wussel]

I would assume the new colors would be in the sprites too. Maybe that is why we got the drafts in the first place. Hopefully this exciting project gets finished this year.

[LordBob]

Is the Lord being paid enough? Never seen commissioned work with such a lead time.

Rest assured, I am.

The lead time is entirely my fault: because Wesnoth does not stress itself over commercial deadlines, I have a tendency to delay its commissions in favor of other projects. Yet work has been plentiful lately so this sort of thinking led to a vicious circle where I kept picking up task after task - including another game of our very own Dave - which resulted in several months of inactivity here. My deepest apologies

This cycle is ending, though, so starting next week I should be able to return to the desert elves. At which point I am hoping to get the bulk of their portraits done in a little over a month, two at most.

There will probably be some disruptions to this planning, however : I will soon become a father (birth is expected within the next 3 weeks) so I am anticipating a mandatory period of chaotic adjustment to this new lifestyle.

[JakeCWolf]

I must say this radical shift in the appearance of the Desert Elves is both unexpected and... not unpleasant in the least, the darker skin tones make complete sense, but I will miss the sandy complexions more then a little bit.