Khalifate facelift: Redux

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thespaceinvader
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Re: Khalifate facelift: final tweaks in progress

Post by thespaceinvader »

At Fog's suggestion, a minor tweak to the Monawish, and then a first pass base frame for the Mighwar - and an up-to-date unit tree, featuring also the three options for the level 4 Khalid. Finally, added the shoulder pad back in for the Ghazi, and re-shaded the shield - I think given the pose differentiation, returning the shoulder pad is justified.
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ghazi.png
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Khalifate Tree.png
mighwar.png
mighwar.png (5.07 KiB) Viewed 3737 times
monawish.png
monawish.png (5.09 KiB) Viewed 3737 times
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A-Red
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Re: Khalifate facelift: final tweaks in progress

Post by A-Red »

Problem is, the pose change without size increase makes the Mighwar look smaller than the Monawish, even though logically the details you've added all make sense for a level increase.
Last edited by A-Red on June 6th, 2010, 4:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Khalifate facelift: final tweaks in progress

Post by thespaceinvader »

Mighwar is like 2 pixels taller. Maybe he could stand to come up in-frame a bit though.
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Re: Khalifate facelift: final tweaks in progress

Post by A-Red »

The height increase isn't really apparent here, but mostly I meant he looks significantly narrower. Broader shoulders, a more billowing cape, and less tucked-in elbows could help.
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Re: Khalifate facelift: final tweaks in progress

Post by thespaceinvader »

You put your finger on something that had been niggling me subconsciously - the narrowness. Here's a tweak.
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Re: Khalifate facelift: final tweaks in progress

Post by Sleepwalker »

Whoa nice! :D You've made some solid progress on these.

I'd be lying if i said that I entirely didn't mind you working on this. Mostly because before i stopped i had some nice ideas about the look of some units armor and equipment and i was thinking about giving some units more interesting poses. Nevertheless its flattering that you wanted to continue using my sprites as a base :D . I mostly like what you have done with the Ghazi - Khalid units, though i would have thought they should be more armoured, but the apparently reinstated spearman units seems to have taken that role. Actually the tech tree looks very different to what i remember it. Do you have a unit plan or documentation one can look at somewhere?

... I don't want to just hop in after more than a years absence and expect to have some control over the kalifa development again, though I'd like to help out. :)

I have some Sprites i didn't come around to posting, one a upgraded version of the unit formerly known as Ahadath and one lvl 2 of Amir (Arif) in early drafts. Shading not complete etc. I'll see what you say about it. Maybe they could be frankenscavenged if not used?
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KalifaDrafts1.png
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Re: Khalifate facelift: final tweaks in progress

Post by thespaceinvader »

Your sprites, and I'm really not kidding about this, are fantastic. I've learned a great deal from looking at your work up close. There are some places I might be able to use a couple of bits of those, but I've more or less finished tweaking the majority of the units, and am going to be animating after I get back from Oz.

The real place I'd value some continued assistance is in the design of the four horse archer units - the Aaree i'm reasonably happy with, and the Jawal given some pose-tweaking, but the Qanas and Hadaf need to be changed to emphasise the bow over the mace - but it's quite a challenge to do, I've found. Any help you could provide would be brilliant.

You made the job so much easier with your work, though - the faction has a really consistent look and feel thanks to your producing so many high quality components.

There's no actual documentation on the tech tree changes - it's all been organised with Noy over IRC. Suffice it to say that this is a pretty final layout for them - I think some play testing might be in progress, I've not managed to catch Noy about it as yet.

Thank you.
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Re: Khalifate facelift: final tweaks in progress

Post by Sleepwalker »

Thanks for the compliment :). Conversely I have learned a lot by looking at wesnoth sprites.

Fair enough. I'm looking at the horse archers right now... zoomed in you notice more clearly the additions you've made. :)

Well, having it hanging on his back wouldn't be so great as logically you would only see the haft sticking up. He would have to hold it with the hand holding the reins perhaps. Or have it slung next to the quiver. Hmm I'll experiment.

I finished the other sprites anyway.
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KalifaDrafts2.png
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Re: Khalifate facelift: final tweaks in progress

Post by Vendanna »

Well, even if they two units sleepwalker has finished aren't used on the main faction, it allows the possibility of using those as "hero units" or leaders (same stats as the ones they would represent but easier to discern over the others, Since they look differently)

The faction looks incredible now, specially compared to how they used to look previously as far as I can remember.
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Re: Khalifate facelift: final tweaks in progress

Post by thespaceinvader »

Vendanna, that is a possibility. For campaigns, we may well want a hero-unit to use for a leader. In that case, we'll come back either to one of those sprites or more likely, directly to sleepwalker with some specifications.

EDIT: tweaks to the Jundi and Arif lines, to fix up the feet, and relieve a little of the stubbiness in the Jundi line's arms.
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Khalifate Tree.png
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Re: Khalifate facelift: final tweaks in progress

Post by woodmouse »

I know it's just my opinion, but I think the Qanas and Madaf need more differentication...
So, as you said you don't mind tweaks to these...
I tweaked Madaf just a little. I added golden rims (which aren't even noticeable though) to the shoulder plates, and a spike to another one of them, as well as I made spikes to the mace. (though, now it looks like a cross...) and a bandana.
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Sorry to bother again, I just thought I'd tweak it a bit. :oops:
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Re: Khalifate facelift: final tweaks in progress

Post by thespaceinvader »

Not awful, but I've asked for sleepwalker's help to add to the horse archer nature of the units - making the bace ludicrously large doesn't fo that.
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Re: Khalifate facelift: final tweaks in progress

Post by Max »

maybe it's just me, but it took me some time to recognize that Qanas and Hadaf are armed with a maze rather than a gun. i had something like that in mind: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... rzelby.jpg
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Re: Khalifate facelift: final tweaks in progress

Post by woodmouse »

thespaceinvader wrote:Not awful, but I've asked for sleepwalker's help to add to the horse archer nature of the units - making the bace ludicrously large doesn't fo that.
Ohh, ok. I didn't know they're archers. :oops:
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Re: Khalifate facelift: final tweaks in progress

Post by thespaceinvader »

I don't see what you're seeing, at all, but we're going to change those two units quite a bit anyway, so don't worry.

Woodmouse: clearly we need to do more to them then ;)
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