Human castle WIP
Moderator: Forum Moderators
Forum rules
Before posting critique in this forum, you must read the following thread:
Before posting critique in this forum, you must read the following thread:
Human castle WIP
Okay guys, I started to work on the human castle, and I'm really excited about this 
I'm gonna do it two ways. First as an multihex object that's taking up multiple seven hexes (keep in the middle, and six hexes surrounding it) and will do the castle as separate hex too, in case map designers need it.
But also I have a question to ask (as usual;)), or maybe two
1. Can something be done with the unit placement in the castle/keep? What I mean is, can the unit that's, stepping onto castle hexagon, be placed few pixels (4) higher to give sense of height when entering the castle. Also can the commander be automaticaly placed several pixels higher (8) when standing on the keep? If possible that would be great, because of the forementioned, as well as providing me better freedom in the work on the keep, and as end result the castle will look much more believable. I know that this may sound a little bit confusing, and if that's the case I hope I can clear up the question by showing you tommorow (I hope) the first, at least half finished, lineart design of the castle.
2. Does the engine supports idle animations? I mean, can I put animated flags that wave on the castle and stuff like that? Also that would mean that if animations of objects are supported, I can do animated water tiles, right?
Okay, that's it for now from me. Tommorow I will show you what I have so far, no matter the completeness of it, so we can discuss it, so I can improve upon it.
P.S. And I love more and more this game after each playing It's really fun and addictive. I hope that playing Wesnoth doesen't stand in the way of pixeling Wesnoth 
I'm gonna do it two ways. First as an multihex object that's taking up multiple seven hexes (keep in the middle, and six hexes surrounding it) and will do the castle as separate hex too, in case map designers need it. But also I have a question to ask (as usual;)), or maybe two
1. Can something be done with the unit placement in the castle/keep? What I mean is, can the unit that's, stepping onto castle hexagon, be placed few pixels (4) higher to give sense of height when entering the castle. Also can the commander be automaticaly placed several pixels higher (8) when standing on the keep? If possible that would be great, because of the forementioned, as well as providing me better freedom in the work on the keep, and as end result the castle will look much more believable. I know that this may sound a little bit confusing, and if that's the case I hope I can clear up the question by showing you tommorow (I hope) the first, at least half finished, lineart design of the castle.
2. Does the engine supports idle animations? I mean, can I put animated flags that wave on the castle and stuff like that? Also that would mean that if animations of objects are supported, I can do animated water tiles, right?
Okay, that's it for now from me. Tommorow I will show you what I have so far, no matter the completeness of it, so we can discuss it, so I can improve upon it.
P.S. And I love more and more this game after each playing
It's really fun and addictive. I hope that playing Wesnoth doesen't stand in the way of pixeling Wesnoth Re: Human castle WIP
Yes, this would be fairly easy to add, although of course, if the unit has pixels in the top part of its image, it won't be able to be pushed up that much (i.e. it won't be able to overlap the above hex).Svetac wrote: 1. Can something be done with the unit placement in the castle/keep? What I mean is, can the unit that's, stepping onto castle hexagon, be placed few pixels (4) higher to give sense of height when entering the castle. Also can the commander be automaticaly placed several pixels higher (8) when standing on the keep?
They are not currently supported, but if you do the graphics, I'll do the codeSvetac wrote: 2. Does the engine supports idle animations? I mean, can I put animated flags that wave on the castle and stuff like that? Also that would mean that if animations of objects are supported, I can do animated water tiles, right?
David
Yay!!! Great Okay, I checked on the units, and the only unit that may be problematic is the Gryphin since it's uses all the height up to the 1st pixel of height. All the others have aproximately 10 pixels free above their heads. So it would be great if the castle standpoints can be raised for 3 pixels, and the keep 6, 7 or 8. I'm waiting for an aswer on the pixel size, so that I can adjust the height levels of the caslte and the keep accordingly.
And about point 2, YAY Great I would love to make the locations animated. But let's first finish the castle and we'll speak of it later.
One more question that I forgot to ask - are the sourrounding castle tiles needed? You know the: castle - n, ne, s, sw ones? I mean they really separate the castle from the land tiles, and that IMHO looks bad. I would avoid using it if possible. I mean can the map objects be applyed to the land as the units? The black color that surrounds the castle will be the alpha channel, so that when the castle is placed on the land, it's more believable, since if it's put on a grass, there's grass all around it. Sorry for my bad explanations, but I hope you get my point.
Shadows: Currently most of the objects don't have shadows, and that;s making them look flat, being non-distinctive against the map. Can there be done something about the shadows? Can they be programmed somhow, or can they be drawn? If yes, can the shadows overlap with neighborhood (did I spelled that right?) hexes. If something like that can be implemented, I can do the objects with shadows added to them, because the shadows need to change accordingly to the time of the day. If something like that is not possible, than I guess some sort of simple shadows as the ones on the units, should be applied on the objects too. I'm asking this, because I want to apply the shadows on the objects I'm working on, also if needed I will apply shadows on rest of the objects done by others.
Okay, enough typing by me. I'm off to pixel.
Okay, I checked on the units, and the only unit that may be problematic is the Gryphin since it's uses all the height up to the 1st pixel of height. All the others have aproximately 10 pixels free above their heads. So it would be great if the castle standpoints can be raised for 3 pixels, and the keep 6, 7 or 8. I'm waiting for an aswer on the pixel size, so that I can adjust the height levels of the caslte and the keep accordingly. And about point 2, YAY
Great I would love to make the locations animated. But let's first finish the castle and we'll speak of it later. One more question that I forgot to ask - are the sourrounding castle tiles needed? You know the: castle - n, ne, s, sw ones? I mean they really separate the castle from the land tiles, and that IMHO looks bad. I would avoid using it if possible. I mean can the map objects be applyed to the land as the units? The black color that surrounds the castle will be the alpha channel, so that when the castle is placed on the land, it's more believable, since if it's put on a grass, there's grass all around it. Sorry for my bad explanations, but I hope you get my point.
Shadows: Currently most of the objects don't have shadows, and that;s making them look flat, being non-distinctive against the map. Can there be done something about the shadows? Can they be programmed somhow, or can they be drawn? If yes, can the shadows overlap with neighborhood (did I spelled that right?) hexes. If something like that can be implemented, I can do the objects with shadows added to them, because the shadows need to change accordingly to the time of the day. If something like that is not possible, than I guess some sort of simple shadows as the ones on the units, should be applied on the objects too. I'm asking this, because I want to apply the shadows on the objects I'm working on, also if needed I will apply shadows on rest of the objects done by others.
Okay, enough typing by me. I'm off to pixel.
An answer on the pixel size of what?Svetac wrote: I'm waiting for an aswer on the pixel size, so that I can adjust the height levels of the caslte and the keep accordingly.
Currently we don't support the concept of castles being "on top of" another type of terrain. We may consider this, although it would be rather complex.Svetac wrote: One more question that I forgot to ask - are the sourrounding castle tiles needed? You know the: castle - n, ne, s, sw ones? I mean they really separate the castle from the land tiles, and that IMHO looks bad. I would avoid using it if possible. I mean can the map objects be applyed to the land as the units? The black color that surrounds the castle will be the alpha channel, so that when the castle is placed on the land, it's more believable, since if it's put on a grass, there's grass all around it. Sorry for my bad explanations, but I hope you get my point.
Hmm...I will think about whether it's possible to automatically program shadows.Svetac wrote: Shadows: Currently most of the objects don't have shadows, and that;s making them look flat, being non-distinctive against the map. Can there be done something about the shadows? Can they be programmed somhow, or can they be drawn?
David
Kamahawk, you're right
Dave, I was thinking of the pixel size of the units being able to be pushed up when standing on the castle and the keep. So if it's possible to push the units 3 pixels up when they're standing on the castle, and push the leader 6-8 pixels up, when stainding on the keep (there is pixels space on the sprites, and they'll support this, I checked) I could than draw the keep and castle platforms 4 and 6-8 pixels higher, this will result in more realistic look.
If there's a way to program shadows, that will be really cool. If not, I'm the man to shade th shadows
The first castle WIP pic will be here in several hours.
P.S. One more thing. The castle picture I found in the pictures directory is 128x128 size, but this is not coresponding with the size of the castle hex in the game - it's much smaller. On the other hand, the human village pictures are the exact size in game, and as pictures in the image folder. So, I decided to create the castle, not in 128x128, but in the pixel number that corresponds to the pixels used for the castle in the game. What I did is, I took a in-game screenshot of the castle from the game, and started to paint over it. I hope this is okay? Dave?
Dave, I was thinking of the pixel size of the units being able to be pushed up when standing on the castle and the keep. So if it's possible to push the units 3 pixels up when they're standing on the castle, and push the leader 6-8 pixels up, when stainding on the keep (there is pixels space on the sprites, and they'll support this, I checked) I could than draw the keep and castle platforms 4 and 6-8 pixels higher, this will result in more realistic look.
If there's a way to program shadows, that will be really cool. If not, I'm the man to shade th shadows
The first castle WIP pic will be here in several hours.
P.S. One more thing. The castle picture I found in the pictures directory is 128x128 size, but this is not coresponding with the size of the castle hex in the game - it's much smaller. On the other hand, the human village pictures are the exact size in game, and as pictures in the image folder. So, I decided to create the castle, not in 128x128, but in the pixel number that corresponds to the pixels used for the castle in the game. What I did is, I took a in-game screenshot of the castle from the game, and started to paint over it. I hope this is okay? Dave?
Here I am, with the WIP. I was unable to post this yesterday, since my telephone line was shut down due some technical problems. Now it's everything up and running, so I'm able to post the very early lineart of the castle. Please don't get dissapointed by this one, because the end result will look really great. Here's the pic, and I'll explain some of the points later(I've put two frames here, so you can track the progress):
First I need to explain the size of the tiles. They're shorter than the ones currently used, but you can be sure that I measured them well, and this platforms correspond with the standing position of the units, so when they're placed on them it looks more natural and they're not standing on the walls as is now the case. I've raised the Keep slightly and added stairs to them, and altough they look more like a bridge now, when shaded they will get the height dimesnion. About the empty spaces in the hexes above the tiles - they will be populated with towers and flags.
About the point markers, here's the legend:
1. This empty space sure looks ugly now, but will not look that way in the next WIP This is the keep right, and it's the most important place in the castle where the leader stands, so this will be filled with some kind of building here, with door in front of it, and the tile where the leader is standing will look like some kind of balcony. You can expect the roof of the building to cover small part of the castle hex that's right above it. This will make the castle loke less hexagonazied and tile IMO.
3. Here I plan to pixel some kind og gate, but I'll see if the pixel size allows me for such thing. At the end the gate may overlap a little bit with the standing position of the soldier standing on that tile, but we'll see. When I do it, you'll voice your opinions, and we'll decide wich way to go.
2 and 4. Here I plan to add as much mini houses on different levels as I can. They will also hang around the keep tower, being part of it, and making the castle look populated.
Also I will add detail wherever I can. I plan to add some small statues at the beggining and end of the stairs. Also some kind of watch towers at the two bridges at the E and W side of the castle.
That's it for now, please comment. I'll post updates on regular basis.
First I need to explain the size of the tiles. They're shorter than the ones currently used, but you can be sure that I measured them well, and this platforms correspond with the standing position of the units, so when they're placed on them it looks more natural and they're not standing on the walls as is now the case. I've raised the Keep slightly and added stairs to them, and altough they look more like a bridge now, when shaded they will get the height dimesnion. About the empty spaces in the hexes above the tiles - they will be populated with towers and flags.
About the point markers, here's the legend:
1. This empty space sure looks ugly now, but will not look that way in the next WIP
This is the keep right, and it's the most important place in the castle where the leader stands, so this will be filled with some kind of building here, with door in front of it, and the tile where the leader is standing will look like some kind of balcony. You can expect the roof of the building to cover small part of the castle hex that's right above it. This will make the castle loke less hexagonazied and tile IMO.3. Here I plan to pixel some kind og gate, but I'll see if the pixel size allows me for such thing. At the end the gate may overlap a little bit with the standing position of the soldier standing on that tile, but we'll see. When I do it, you'll voice your opinions, and we'll decide wich way to go.
2 and 4. Here I plan to add as much mini houses on different levels as I can. They will also hang around the keep tower, being part of it, and making the castle look populated.
Also I will add detail wherever I can. I plan to add some small statues at the beggining and end of the stairs. Also some kind of watch towers at the two bridges at the E and W side of the castle.
That's it for now, please comment. I'll post updates on regular basis.
It's looking good
This castle might require a few code changes, but that's fine...I'll make whatever code changes are necessary!
I'm currently in the middle of implementing the thing so that units on certain tiles are placed higher.
David
This castle might require a few code changes, but that's fine...I'll make whatever code changes are necessary!
I'm currently in the middle of implementing the thing so that units on certain tiles are placed higher.
David
“At Gambling, the deadly sin is to mistake bad play for bad luck.” -- Ian Fleming
-
Woodwizzle
- Posts: 719
- Joined: December 9th, 2003, 9:31 pm
- Contact:
Looks promising!!! I can't wait to see your further progress too, I'll be keeping an eye on this thread 
One thing that kinda throws me is that it looks a lot like 3 parallel castles instead of one. There are walkways on the 2 sides that connect tiles. Could the bottom most tile have a 2 walkways to the tiles NE and NW of it, and the same for the top tile (except the walkways would go SE and SW? I think this would make the castle look more like one unified structure.
One thing that kinda throws me is that it looks a lot like 3 parallel castles instead of one. There are walkways on the 2 sides that connect tiles. Could the bottom most tile have a 2 walkways to the tiles NE and NW of it, and the same for the top tile (except the walkways would go SE and SW? I think this would make the castle look more like one unified structure.
I see what you mean Svetac. I believe it will look great
It is very promising as for now. One hint (note: I do not say that it is not in your mind now, just to make sure it is) - remember castles will be diferent sizes/shapes, so designing this as a particular set try to make it rearrangable. I believe it will be so, just mentioning ;P
Keep up good work.
It is very promising as for now. One hint (note: I do not say that it is not in your mind now, just to make sure it is) - remember castles will be diferent sizes/shapes, so designing this as a particular set try to make it rearrangable. I believe it will be so, just mentioning ;P
Keep up good work.
Guys I'm glad you like it
Dave the things you said sound just great I hope I'm not causing too much trouble for you with this new things for coding Does this code change means that I can make similar multihexed mountains and hills?
Woodwizzle, don't worry, I'm planing to connect all tiles together, so that the castle looks really unified. I'm thinking of two solutions right now. The first one is as it is now, with all the towers connected as in your example. The second idea is to lose all the inner walls and make more room for tiny houses/buildings inside. We'll see.
Methinks, I know your concerns, and when I finish the castle, I'll make separate keep hex and castle hex so that they can be used separately for making small castles or add them to this castle to make more room for troops. Also I'm thinking of making outposts for each race. But let's finish this piece first, after that all other castles will be produced much quicker because I'll have clear vision of what I'm about to do.
Dave the things you said sound just great
I hope I'm not causing too much trouble for you with this new things for coding Does this code change means that I can make similar multihexed mountains and hills?Woodwizzle, don't worry, I'm planing to connect all tiles together, so that the castle looks really unified. I'm thinking of two solutions right now. The first one is as it is now, with all the towers connected as in your example. The second idea is to lose all the inner walls and make more room for tiny houses/buildings inside. We'll see.
Methinks, I know your concerns, and when I finish the castle, I'll make separate keep hex and castle hex so that they can be used separately for making small castles or add them to this castle to make more room for troops. Also I'm thinking of making outposts for each race. But let's finish this piece first, after that all other castles will be produced much quicker because I'll have clear vision of what I'm about to do.
Yes I have thought of a change that will allow this kind of thing easily and elegantlySvetac wrote: Dave the things you said sound just great
David
“At Gambling, the deadly sin is to mistake bad play for bad luck.” -- Ian Fleming
Update of the castle:
I noticed that many units stand on different positions in the 70x70 box. So when placed in the game they overlap with the castle walls, or stand more to left or more to right. Today I spent few hours and adjusted the standing positions of all of them. Now they're centered, and raised a little bit than preiously. This way they will fit even better the map and especially the castles. Dave if it's okay I can send them in a .zip file, so you can take a look at them in the game, and possibly include them in the next build. The eyecandy of the game can benefit from this, as I will have more freedom in making the objects.
I noticed that many units stand on different positions in the 70x70 box. So when placed in the game they overlap with the castle walls, or stand more to left or more to right. Today I spent few hours and adjusted the standing positions of all of them. Now they're centered, and raised a little bit than preiously. This way they will fit even better the map and especially the castles. Dave if it's okay I can send them in a .zip file, so you can take a look at them in the game, and possibly include them in the next build. The eyecandy of the game can benefit from this, as I will have more freedom in making the objects.
Last edited by Svetac on December 26th, 2003, 1:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
-
Woodwizzle
- Posts: 719
- Joined: December 9th, 2003, 9:31 pm
- Contact: